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Sir Ranulph Fiennes calls urgent action on climate change after witnessing Arctic melting
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on May 30th, 2015
Independent: Sir Ranulph Fiennes has added his voice to calls for urgent action to tackle climate change after seeing the effects of warming on the planet first-hand during trips to the Arctic. Sir Ranulph, the first to cross Antarctica on foot as well as to visit both the North and South Poles by surface, said it would be “suicide” to put commercial interests over global warming. He said he knows from personal experience that the warming climate has significantly changed the landscape of the Arctic, melting...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Sir Ranulph Fiennes calls urgent action on climate change after witnessing Arctic meltingNew fracking fear: Well barrier failure likely to contaminate certain sites’ surroundings
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on March 25th, 2014
Independent: A small percentage of the shale gas sites drilled in the event of a UK fracking boom would probably contaminate the surrounding environment because of problems with wells, a new report has warned, adding that in some cases the damage could be exacerbated because the companies that drilled them will have gone out of business.
A Durham University study into the impact of shale gas production concludes that “it is likely that well barrier failure will occur in a small number of wells and this could...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New fracking fear: Well barrier failure likely to contaminate certain sites’ surroundingsUnited Kingdom: As well as cull, contraceptives lined up for badgers in battle against farm TB
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on July 4th, 2013
Independent: The government is working on a contraceptive for badgers as it looks for new ways to reverse the rapid spread of bovine tuberculosis in cattle. A birth control pill or injection could play a key role in reducing the population of badgers which help spread the disease among cows, a government official said today. TB in cattle has soared over the past decade, resulting in the slaughter of 28,000 infected cows last year, and the government says Britain's growing badger population is largely responsible....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: As well as cull, contraceptives lined up for badgers in battle against farm TBNew diseases threaten Britain’s livestock and crops because of global warming
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on June 19th, 2013
Independent: Britain faces a wave of deadly new animal and plant diseases that threaten to wipe out crops and livestock as a direct result of global warming, the World Bank's top agricultural expert has warned.
The country can expect to import more diseases, such as the deadly Schmallenberg virus that arrived from overseas about 18 months ago and is sweeping through new-born cattle and sheep spread by midge bites, the expert said.
Rachel Kyle, the World Bank's vice president for sustainable development,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New diseases threaten Britain’s livestock and crops because of global warmingFracking ‘unlikely to give UK cheap gas’, report says
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on April 22nd, 2013
Independent: George Osborne's plan to deliver cheap energy by fostering a fracking revolution has been dealt a severe blow after an influential cross-party group of experts said any boom in shale gas production would be "unlikely to give the UK cheap gas". A nine-month inquiry chaired by former energy minister Charles Hendry, concludes that it is far too early to estimate the volume of shale gas contained in UK rocks and harder still to know how much of that it will be commercially viable to extract. Further...
United Kingdom: ‘Misleading and dangerous’: Leading energy expert attacks Chancellor George Osborne’s over dash-to-ga
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on December 11th, 2012
Independent: Professor Paul Stevens, a recent winner of the prestigious OPEC award for outstanding oil and energy research, condemned Mr Osborne’s autumn statement for implying that gas would be cheaper in the future and that the price decline would be the result of tapping Britain’s shale gas resources.
He argued that the gas price could well increase significantly, while any decrease “will certainly not be the result of any shale gas revolution in UK or Europe”.
Furthermore, Professor Stevens slammed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: ‘Misleading and dangerous’: Leading energy expert attacks Chancellor George Osborne’s over dash-to-gaPrice of essentials rises by 10 per cent
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on September 1st, 2012
Independent: The G20 is under growing pressure to call an emergency food summit after the price of essentials jumped by ten per cent on average in July.
New research shows prices are at a record high following "an unprecedented summer of droughts and high temperatures". Cereal prices were particularly hard hit, with maize and wheat rising by a quarter and soybeans by 17 per cent, as poor weather decimated harvests in the US, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, according to the World Bank. The average global food...
Fracking floors energy giants
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on August 19th, 2012
Independent: BHP Billiton is about to become the next victim of the latest asset bubble to burst – US shale gas, the rock-based hydrocarbon that is released via the controversial process of fracking.
A fortnight after writing $2.84bn (£1.84bn) off the value of its Fayetteville shale gas business in Arkansas, BHP is poised to reveal on Wednesday that the charge helped push down its profits by a massive 40 per cent – to $14.2bn – in the year to June 30.
The FTSE 100 mining giant was forced into the writedown...
Fracking go-ahead despite new fears
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on November 8th, 2011
Independent: Plans to extract gas using a controversial method linked to an increase in earthquakes have been given the go-ahead in Scotland for the first time.
The practice of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves pumping water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into shale rock, to release the gas it holds.
An independent geological report recently found that fracking had triggered two minor earthquakes on the Lancashire coast earlier this year.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency has...
Hard-up UK puts climate change on back burner
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on November 7th, 2011
Independent: Britain's carbon emissions grew faster than the economy last year for the first time since 1996, as a cash-strapped population relegated the environment down its league of concerns and spent more money keeping warm, according to a new report.
The rise in Britain's so-called carbon intensity increases the danger that the country will miss legally binding targets on reducing emissions, warns PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the consultancy behind the report.
Furthermore, it found that Britain's...