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Greta thunberg is back in the UK and is leading a protest in Bristol into the destruction of the environment and global warming. She has stated that young people have to be the adults in the room as the leaders of virtually all countries are not doing enough to save the globe.
Objectively it is hard to argue with her analysis.
Continue reading “Greta thunberg leads protest of 30000 environmentalists in in Bristol and calls for young people to be the adults in the room”It is still frustrating that often climate issues are one of the lowest priorities for a government. Sure, we want clean air air and clean water but even Donald Trump talks about this. As such it was fantastic to see that one of the main debates was on the climate.
As such it was fantastic that the majority of political parties in the UK sent their leaders to sell their climate policies to the British public.
What should we make of the fact that 2 of the parties failed to turn up. It is true that the Conservatives sent Michael Gove in Boris Johnson’s place, however what does it say about the most likely candidate for Prime Minister that he did not think it was worth turning up and debating with other leaders on climate change.
We live on an island, if as we are currently heading we hit the temperature rises that are predicted by the end of the century then significant parts of the United Kingdom will be underwater. A collapse of the the ice shelves in the Antarctic that hold the ice in the middle, could mean Rises in sea level above 10 m worldwide.
I have been thoroughly frustrated by the conservative party’s record over the last decade in power. For those who read here regularly you have seen occasional articles on this subject in question. From scrapping the the solar subsidies ( apparently because they were too expensive) to continue to give subsidies to fossil fuel companies, for instance by only charging 5% VAT on gas for heating, amounting to over 10 billion pound a year ( I hope I the people see the contradiction here as well).
In my opinion, Boris Johnson’s cowardice yesterday evening in failing to turn up and have his parties environmental policies debated, simply says that he is not a suitable Prime Minister. It is unfortunate with the current standing of the Labour Party that the Conservative Party are a long way in the lead.
I myself live in one of the safest conservative seats in the country. I have proved to be a bit of a political butterfly, unwilling to Settle on one particular party for the simple reason that no party is satisfactory when it comes to the environment ( the greens may indeed come closest but they have some odd views on other areas such as the monarchy, which relegates them in the majority of the country to protest vote).
Given the incredible importance of making dramatic improvements to to our carbon emissions over the course of the next Parliament or two, Brexit is a distraction we’re dont need- when we should be concentrating on making sure that the environment we leave for our children and grandchildren is hospitable, we’re going to spend the majority of the next decade trying to sort out the mess caused by brexit.
I know some would argue therefore for that we should all vote conservative give them a huge majority and allow them to push through whatever they like like leaving us a clean slate to get to work on the environment. However there are still other problems with their position. They are extremely keen to do a trade deal with America, and while it is certainly important for our future prosperity as a country this should not come at any cost. Trump’s government are demanding extraordinary things when it comes to climate and environmental protections: we run the risk of being on the wrong side of History.
It was good to see those leaders who bothered to turn up having a serious debate about climate change and the environment. I certainly hope that some of their policies are able to be put in place whoever wins. My own feeling is that on this occasion both over the climate and Europe we cannot afford a conservative government. With a Coalition of some sort they will have to work together, as such it is worth looking at voting tactically to deny them the ability to go off on their own.
If you wish to have your say either way, and live in the uk the election is today.
There are 130 members of the House of representatives in America who do not believe that climate change is occurring.
While a similar number is hard to find in the UK, there are a significant number of prominent MPs who also deny climate change is taking place. Well-known MPs include Nigel Lawson, and Graham Stringer elected to the science and technology committee in the House of Commons ( this appointment is odd as there are many scientists among the Labour MPs so to appoint one one who denies one of the most important issues facing the planet seems strange).
Continue reading “Why would you vote for someone to represent you, who denies scientific consensus on climate change?”It is still frustrating that often climate issues are one of the lowest priorities for a government. Sure, we want clean air air and clean water but even Donald Trump talks about this. As such it was fantastic to see that one of the main debates for the upcoming UK election was on the climate, and the majority of political parties in the UK sent their leaders to sell their climate policies to the British public. .
Continue reading “UK political parties leaders climate change debate”Concern about the environment has grown rapidly over the last few years, particularly after the visit of Greta Thunberg who raised concerns that had not been given the attention that they should have done by British politicians.
Continue reading “The climate and global warming is rising in its importance amongst the British public”
During half term I took my two children, aged 4 and 6, up to the Forest of Dean for a couple of days. As with many parts of Europe this forest is quite old and wonderfully wild. However this wilderness is helped by being far more natural than other forests in the UK. One of the many species that we killed off is highly important for forests as their hunting for food turns the soil and allows for regeneration. I am of course talking about wild boar.
Continue reading “On the hunt for wild boar in the Forest of Dean”The UK Prime Minister Theresa May has come out and informed us that part of the reason she pushed for net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 was the fact that when she went on a walking holiday in the Swiss Alps she could see the retreat of ice everywhere.
Continue reading “Theresa May has stated her walking holiday in the Alps pushed her towards zero CO2 emissions by 2050”The British Conservative Party have gone back on a pledge to ban the import of lion trophies taken from hunting. In 2015 and 2017 the British government released statements stating that unless they saw a significant change in the hunting industry that this ban would come into place. According to widespread analysis there has been no change whatsoever, with a significant for the fall in numbers in that time. It should be noted that Zac Goldsmith, a prominent Conservative MP, has made a petition that 150 conservative MPs have signed that calls for this ban to go into effect.
Few British people hunt lions compared to certain other countries in the world and only an average of around six bodies are imported each year. However, the message it would send to the rest of the world would be highly important and would be seen as continuing the British line of supporting conservation worldwide.
The British government did state that this is constantly under review and lion bodies are only given the right to be brought back to the UK if they came from particular parts of the world. While I dislike the concept of hunting wild lions there are a few places, as I have argued in previous articles, where this is the only method to bring in enough money to continue to support the areas conservation. One such area is the Selous.
Cecil the lion was killed a few years ago in a canned hunt (A lion raised in captivity, often allowed to be petted by tourists when young, released into a relatively small area, and usually killed within a few months) in South Africa. This hunting is totally unsportsmanlike and therefore does not seem to fit into the general ‘good sport’ rules of hunting. Lions are bred in captivity are often used financially to pose with tourists when they are young. When old enough they are released into a relatively small area, often without the skills to hunt for themselves, and are generally short by sportsman within a short period of time.
Despite the majority of the British population thinking that Cecil the Lion’s death was disgusting (as he was tempted out of a national park by meat being left out and then shot as soon as he walked across a line that he did not know existed) it would appear that this is not how it went across in hunting circles as it has had a significant impact with far more people going to take part in these sorts of unsportsmanlike hunts. While the number of lions hunted by Brits is significantly lower than the number hunted by Americans, we fall in 12th place in terms of the numbers of lion carcasses imported annually. This is not an area that I wish the UK to rate highly in the world.
Donald Trump has stated in the past that the hunting lobby was disgusting and it should be banned from bringing back trophies. Not long after Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, reversed this position announcing that each one would be reviewed individually.
This is in response to a suit filed by the safari club and the NRA against the blanket ban. It should be noted that none of these people are unbiased observers. Trump’s two sons are avid hunters as is Ryan Zinke.
Both elephants and lions have in the last few decade lost much habitat, and in the case of lions gone through irregular poaching epidemics. They have gone from being relatively numerous: in the case of lions 400,000 in 1950 down to under 20,000 and elephants 3 to 5 million down to around 415,000. This kind of dramatic collapse of numbers show they are highly threatened and given the continual poaching and loss of habitat this threat is only likely to get worse.
For the first time we as a family visited McDonald’s and were given paper straws and cardboard balloon stick holders, instead of the usual plastic versions of both.
Recently the UK Prime Minister Theresa May made it completely clear that Brexit is taking up all of her attention. While it may be more immediate, climate change is clearly of greater threat.