March 29, 2006
Climate: a confused debate
Almost everybody is now talking about climate change and it’s a confused debate.
What exactly do we make of the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, telling us we will fail to meet the target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010, and then hopping into her Jaguar? Meanwhile according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, God is sending us a warning and we should take notice.
Chris Huhne got it right when he said, “Even the modest progress made on the Kyoto basket of greenhouse gases is largely an accidental result of the switch from coal to gas-powered electricity generation, and has nothing to do with government policy.” The government has never prioritized climate change except in Tony Blair’s speeches.
Mark Lazarowicz, the excellent Edinburgh North MP, is quoted as saying, “Nuclear power is neither safe, secure, cheap nor renewable. As long as the debate remains focused on the fors and againsts of nuclear power, the full potentiality of renewable energy will not be realised.”
This states the Labour government policy in reverse: the full potentiality of renewable energy will not be realised (because of all the tedious problems involved with planning, bureaucracy etc.) so we will have to build new nuclear power stations.
This is defeatist. If the public were presented with concrete policies (road speed limits, energy saving in homes, clean fuel incentives, air travel taxes etc.) they would be support them. People are not indifferent to the issue of climate change. Many things can be done now, relatively inexpensively, before we tackle the harder, more difficult and more expensive questions.
Meanwhile what about the international context? What does climate change imply for our relationship with the USA? Is the alliance still viable if America refuses to take measures to reduce emissions?
www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1741461,00.html?gusrc=rss
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=484112006e
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:30 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
September 13, 2005
Past climate change studies
As a result of the topicality of global warming, some interesting studies of climate change in the past are being published:
Ancient humans ‘altered’ climate - BBC - Humans were influencing the climate long before the Industrial Revolution.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4219818.stm
Boost to CO2 mass extinction idea - BBC - A computer simulation of the Earth’s climate 250 million years ago suggests that global warming triggered the so-called “great dying”
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4184110.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:15 AM | TrackBack
September 12, 2005
Oliver Letwin gets it right
Are the Tories waking up to the Labour government’s tactic of talking up action on reducing emissions while doing nothing practical about it?
Following John Prescott’s vauely indiscreet remarks about America, Hurricane Katrina and global warming, Oliver Letwin had this to say:
“It’s all very well Mr Prescott criticising the failure of America to sign up to Kyoto, but people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. This government has failed to make any progress at all on reducing carbon emissions in the UK. Indeed, we are going backwards. The irony is that Mr Prescott, who is sponsoring a huge programme of environmentally unfriendly house construction, is one of the main culprits.”
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1922412005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 06:19 AM | TrackBack
September 11, 2005
Climate Change Action blog
Climate Change Action is an important new blog started by Calvin Jones, a St Andrews trained biomolecular scientist based in Ballater, Aberdeenshire.
Unlike this blog, which only deals (intermittently) with the politics of global warming, Climate Change Action, and the related Climate Change Resources publication, contain scientific information in depth on climate-related environmental problems.
climatechangeaction.blogspot.com
climatechangeresources.blogspot.com
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:40 PM | TrackBack
August 31, 2005
Scottish seabirds failing to breed
Some 45 per cent of all European seabirds nest around the coast of Scotland, but large numbers have failed to breed this year, notably guillemot, puffin, kittiwake and razorbill, and especially on the west coast.
It appears likely that the reason is to do with rising sea temperatures and the resulting scarcity of food for the birds.
Perhaps an indicator of the acceleration of global warming?
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4201880.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 13, 2005
Data contradicting global warming is discredited
Data used to cast doubt on global warming has been discredited. According to a report, “Satellite and weather-balloon research released Friday removes a last bastion of scientific doubt about global warming.”
www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,68510,00.html
www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-08-11-global-warming-data_x.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:37 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 04, 2005
Scottish climate change
The BBC have a report about Scotland’s weather. Apparently July was hotter than usual. It is claimed that temperatures have gone up one degree since the 1960s.
Given variations from one year to another, I wonder how useful this kind of report is. Maybe the public will just get confused? Changes in sea temperatures - together with the effects on wildlife - are surely a better indication of global warming.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4745927.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:10 PM | TrackBack
June 16, 2005
Joseph Black, discoverer of CO2
In the course of my CO2 offset tree planting reading, I stumbled on the information that carbon dioxide was first identified by the Scottish chemist Joseph Black.
Born in Bordeaux in 1728, where his father was in the wine trade, he eventually became a professor in both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. His work on ‘fixed air’ (carbon dioxide) dated from 1754. He was buried in Greyfriars in Edinburgh in 1799.
There is a good biography on the Edinburgh University website. The wikipedia entry is just a stub, perhaps indicating how few of us know about Joseph Black.
www.chem.ed.ac.uk/welcome/history_black.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Black
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:38 PM | TrackBack
May 20, 2005
Scottish emissions remain high
Scotland’s performance on reducing greenhouse gas emissions lags behind that of the UK as a whole, according to a report by the Scottish Parliament’s environment committee.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4557989.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 01:06 PM | TrackBack
March 31, 2005
Atmospheric CO2 still increasing
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen again this year, though by less than the previous two years. Tests were carried out by the US government at the Mauna Loa laboratory in Hawaii.
The burning of wood, coal, oil and gas world-wide is thought to release almost 7 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, about half of which is re-absorbed by the earth. The rest stays in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4395817.stm
www.cmdl.noaa.gov/hotitems/storyDetail_org.php?sid=2782
UPDATE 1 April 05
In Britain emissions are also rising again, instead of falling. They are now higher than at any time since 1997. If they continue to rise, the UK will be unable to meet its obligations under the Kyoto treaty.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4399323.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:22 PM | TrackBack
March 27, 2005
Environmental Audit Committee report
The Westminster Environmental Audit Committee have criticized government policy on climate change, demanding more action and less words.
Noting that we need to reduce emissions by 60-80% by 2050, they say the European Emissions Trading Scheme is inadequate, and poor scorn on the government’s shameful attempts to raise Britain’s emissions limits.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4385547.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:50 PM | TrackBack
March 12, 2005
EU forces stricter emissions
The European Commission have forced the Labour government to revert to its original lower limit of 736 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for 2005-07, rather than the increased figure of 756 million tonnes that it had asked for in October.
This is good news. It is ridiculous for Britain to talk up international action, while failing to carry through the same policies domestically.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4340755.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 06:23 PM | TrackBack
February 19, 2005
Sea temperatures
As we might have expected, it is sea temperatures that are vital indicators of global warming, rather than air temperatures. Once again, it’s worse than we thought, according to a Reuters report in Wired News. If the Greenland ice-cap melts, world sea levels could go up 23 feet (7 metres).
www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66651,00.html/wn_ascii
Posted by Simon Holledge at 05:25 PM | TrackBack
February 16, 2005
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol (1997) comes into effect today, thanks to the belated approval of Russia. It is designed to cut emissions of greenhouse gases in developed countries below 1990 levels, by 2012.
Unfortunately coal-fired power stations are in operation everywhere and new ones are still being built, threatening to hasten rather than delay global warming.
In Scotland we have two huge coal-burners, Longannet (Kincardine-on-Firth, capacity 2,400 MW), the second largest of its kind in Great Britain, and Cockenzie (East Lothian, capacity 1,200 MW). Both are owned by Scottish Power.
Longannet is by far the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. According to Friends of the Earth, the power station released 11 million tonnes in 2002, three times as much as any other industrial plant in Scotland. Cockenzie although smaller is even dirtier, in terms of pollution relative to the amount of electricity generated.
Longannet and Cockenzie should be closed down as soon as possible and their generating capacity replaced by clean energy.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4267245.stm
www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1415663,00.html?gusrc=rss
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/pressforchange/carbon_dinosaurs/
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/pressforchange/carbondinosaurs/longannetpower_station.html
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/pressforchange/carbondinosaurs/cockenziepower_station.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:13 PM | TrackBack
November 02, 2004
Labour relax carbon dioxide controls
Back in September, Blair and Howard both emphasized the importance of doing something about climate change. There was the usual talk about ‘British initiatives’ for the benefit of British voters who like to be told about Britain leading the world (normally spuriously) in one progressive field or another.
Unfortunately at the end of last month Environment secretary Margaret Beckett announced relaxation of the curbs on carbon dioxide emissions which are part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, beginning on 1 January 2005. The limit will now be 756 million tonnes (over the next three years) instead of the 736 million tonnes originally announced in May.
Meanwhile there is more news today about ‘irreversible change’ in the Arctic. The region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. In the words of Nicola Saltman of the WWF, “The big melt has begun”.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3651052.stm
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3958557.stm
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3645772.stm
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3975805.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:50 PM | TrackBack
October 02, 2004
Diatoms and greenhouse gases
Science magazine has some new research about the behaviour of diatoms, ocean algae that are capable of eating up more carbon dioxide, emiting more oxygen and creating more organic carbon than all the rain forests in the world combined. Unfortunately their effectiveness in reducing greenhouse gases may be adversely affected by global warming itself. Should we try to fertilize the organisms to make them perform better, or is it dangerous to mess about with such a basic component of the ecosystem?
www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65164,00.html/wn_ascii
www.sciencemag.org/content/current/
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:14 AM
September 09, 2004
Greenhouse gases into fertilizer?
Eprida in Georgia (USA) are working on a new technology that involves taking greenhouse gases produced from the burning of fossil fuels and converting them into fertilizer that is returned to the earth, a simpler, probably cheaper, alternative to ocean sequestration or storage deep underground.
www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,64871,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 01:50 PM
September 07, 2004
EEA report: 'Impacts of Europe's changing climate'
A detailed report about climate change was published by the European Environmental Agency on 18 August, entitled ‘Impacts of Europe’s changing climate’.
From the press release:
“More frequent and more economically costly storms, floods, droughts and other extreme weather. Wetter conditions in northern Europe but drier weather in the south that could threaten agriculture in some areas. More frequent and more intense heatwaves, posing a lethal threat to the elderly and frail. Melting glaciers, with three-quarters of those in the Swiss Alps likely to disappear by 2050. Rising sea levels for centuries to come. These are among the impacts of global climate change that are already being seen in Europe or are projected to happen over the coming decades as global temperatures rise… .
The extent and rate of the climate changes under way most likely exceed all natural variation in climate over the last thousand years and possibly longer. The 1990s were the warmest decade on record and the three hottest years recorded - 1998, 2002 and 2003 - have occurred in the last six years. The global warming rate is now almost 0.2 °C per decade.
Europe is warming faster than the global average. The temperature in Europe has risen by an average of 0.95 °C in the last hundred years and is projected to climb by a further 2.0-6.3 °C this century as emissions of greenhouse gases continue building up.”
There is a lot of important (and rather scary) data in this report - not least about the warming of the North Sea - and I’ll be returning to look at sections of it again later.
org.eea.eu.int/documents/newsreleases/climate_report-en
Posted by Simon Holledge at 05:02 PM