Posted by jamie — 21 October 2009 at 1:01pm
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A large chunk of northern Russia is tundra where the ground is hardened by the arctic conditions into permafrost. Yet even in these harsh climes humans manage to thrive - like the Nenet people, whose nomadic reindeer-herding way of life takes them across north-west Siberia.
But as climate change takes hold, the permafrost is melting, releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide and methane. It's causing problems for the Nenet, altering the availability of their reindeers' food as well as prompting other changes in the local eco-system.
Posted by jamie — 14 October 2009 at 2:40pm
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Ed Miliband receives some light reading material
As if using a large fluorescent pen to
highlight the reason why our volunteers were sitting up on top of the Palace of Westminster,
on Monday the Climate Change Committee (CCC) released its first annual report on
the government's progress in meeting its own emissions targets.
Not everything
in the report chimes with what we think is required (there's no room or need
for nuclear power, for instance) but what comes through loud and clear is the
scale of the challenge and the radical action required to meet it. Our climate
manifesto is exactly the sort of thing needed to deliver it.
Posted by jamie — 15 July 2009 at 6:20pm
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While today is unlikely to go down in the
annals of history as Green Wednesday, it's still a significant day for those of
us concerned about climate change as climate and energy secretary Ed Miliband
unveils his big energy strategy.
The strategy - the Low Carbon Transition Plan,
no less - comes in the form of not one but a whole ream of papers (including an
energy white paper) covering renewable energy, transport, industry and carbon
budgets. Together, they form a blueprint explaining how the government hopes to
achieve the emissions reductions it's legally obliged to deliver, thanks to the
EU renewable energy targets and the UK's own Climate Change Act.
Was it a red letter day for green energy?
Let's see.
Sometimes, you are a bit dumbfounded by stories that make the news. Seriously, you couldn't make some of it up, could you? I couldn't let this one pass (so to speak) without comment.
Today's belter is the new study suggesting that feeding fish to cows will help climate change. Yes, you read that right. The theory is something like this – cows, which we farm for milk, meat and leather, produce methane. Most of this is by burping, not flatulence as the comics would prefer. Methane is a bad, nasty, evil greenhouse gas. And we want to cut those down, don't we?
What is the government doing that is new and additional to stimulate the economy by spending on the environment? This report by the New Economics Foundation shows that new funding for greening the economy amounts to just 0.6 per cent of the UK’s total stimulus package. Gordon Brown recently claimed to the House of Commons liaison committee that around 10 per cent of the UK package was directed towards "environmentally important technologies".
Commenting on provisional
figures suggesting UK greenhouse emissions have fallen
by 2 per cent, Greenpeace head of climate and energy Robin
Oakley said:
Posted by jamie — 12 February 2009 at 12:16pm
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The cooling towers of Ferrybridge power station
The decision on a new coal power station at
E.ON's Kingsnorth facility in Kent
is still expected later this year - the current rumour is around June but as
with all government pronouncements you should take that with a very large pinch
of salt. Whether it gets the go-ahead or not, it will have ramifications for
the other proposed coal developments - including opencast mines - elsewhere in
the country.
One of these is at Ferrybridge in west Yorkshire where half of the power station is due to go
out of service in 2015. A more immediate threat is the opencast mine planned
for the area, which will sit next door to an RSPB nature reserve at Fairburn
Ings, and the group Yorkshire Against
New Coal (Yanc) is standing in opposition to both plans.
