CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
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Trump says US will be 'very strongly involved' in Venezuela oil industry
The United States is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry after the operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump told Fox News on Saturday.
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US oil giants have so far remained silent on Donald Trump’s claim that they are primed to spend “billions and billions of dollars” rebuilding the Venezuelan oil industry following the ouster of Nicolás Maduro.
Chevron, the only US oil company still operating in Venezuela, committed only to following “relevant laws and regulations” after the US president suggested American energy multinationals would be central to his plans for the country.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/03/us-oil-trump-venezuela
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“I think we should be concerned about systems that can perform all of the functions that humans perform to get things done in the world, but better,” he said. “We will be outcompeted in all of the domains that we need to be dominant in, in order to maintain control of our civilisation, society and planet.”
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Over the weekend, the United States bombed Venezuela, and captured its president Nicolás Maduro. There has been a lot of speculation about the legality, true motive and implications going forward.
Oil has been a central part of the discussion. I wanted to get a quick overview of what the global picture looks like. So here are five(ish) simple charts that give some context on the history of oil in Venezuela, and why the United States — which is, by far, the world’s largest producer itself — would care so much.
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Celtic Connections event - Can Communities take Control of Renewables?
I'm sure I've read something about Scottish Government clearing a certain number of projects to go ahead. Will post when I find.
https://spring.site/blog/power-shift-the-real-energy-question-at-celtic-connections
“We’ve realised that the global problems we’re all facing require local solutions.”
Yes, but don’t need mayors, just decent leadership!
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Badenoch claims (wrongly) she started championing net zero scepticism before Nigel Farage
In her Today programme interview this morning Kemi Badenoch tried to outflank Nigel Farage on net zero scepticism by claiming (wrongly) that she started talking out this before he did.
Asked by the presenter, Nick Robinson, to give an example of a single policy that the Conservatives would implement to boost economic growth, Badenoch said that they would allow more drilling for oil in the North Sea.
When Robinson said it was interesting to note that she was proposing a policy that Farage had been championing for years, Badenoch did not accept that. She said that she had a long history of being sceptical about net zero targets and she claimed that, when the Theresa May government legislated for the 2050 net zero target in 2019, she was the only Tory MP who questioned whether this was affordable. She went on:
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Trump taking ‘drill, baby, drill’ plan to Venezuela ‘terrible’ for climate, experts warn
‘Everybody loses’ if production supercharged in country with largest known oil reserves, critics say
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/06/trump-venezuela-oil-climate-crisis
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The wealth of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Charles Koch, and a handful of others is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of big tech, big oil, and the largest aerospace and defense corporations extends over much of the globe. AI is likely to centralize wealth and power even more. The destructive power of the United States, China and Russia is unmatched in human history.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/06/donald-trump-threat-civilization
I reflect that the palaces and castles of those worshipping themselves are of necessity built on the ground which supports them.
Even the hardest rock is eroded away by water and anything built on that rock will ultimately fall down remember thet you are the water that flows into every crack & crevice
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The United States is the clear standout. It spends a lot more on healthcare than its peers, yet appears to receive little in return in terms of life expectancy. Americans have a lower life expectancy than other rich countries, despite paying far more.
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https://hannahritchie.substack.com/p/life-expectancy-americans?
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Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief and executive secretary of the UNFCCC, described the move as a “colossal own goal”. He said: “While all other nations are stepping forward together, this latest step back from global leadership, climate cooperation and science can only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards, as wildfires, floods, mega-storms and droughts get rapidly worse. It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/07/trump-international-groups-un
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The world’s richest 1% have used up their fair share of carbon emissions just 10 days into 2026, analysis has found.
Meanwhile, the richest 0.1% took just three days to exhaust their annual carbon budget, according to the research by Oxfam.
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But in the even bigger picture, northern Quebec, including the Waswanipi region, has been heavily logged for decades. Logging companies are also often invited after wildfires to salvage wood at a discount.
“You know, there’s about 6ft, 7ft of snow” in the area’s typical winter, said Paul Dixon, a 68-year-old distant cousin to Manoel Dixon.
“When the forests were there, it would take three months to melt” under the shade, he said. “Now, you have the same amount of snow that melts in one month. That’s like putting a block of ice in a microwave oven.”
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Changing landscape in Highlands with recently cleared commercial forestry (and Storm Arwin aftermath) exposing hillsides. Several re-wilding areas happening though much smaller.
Out on xc skis as there was slightly more powdery snow. Saw no-one for hours apart from logging guy in machine. Have seen much more than this in 80s & 90s but now some people refer to this as 'snow of a lifetime'. They are younger of course!
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The Scottish Government’s own assessment shows that Berwick Bank is predicted to kill 2,808 guillemots, 815 kittiwakes, 261 gannets, 154 razorbills and 66 puffins every year. The National Trust points out this will amount to losing more than 40,000 birds in the estuary over two decades.
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https://www.edinburghinquirer.co.uk/p/it-will-kill-40000-sea-birds-to-help?
Now do cats and cars
UK cats kill 160 to 270 million animals annually, a quarter of them birds
That would amount to ~50 million UK birds killed per annum by cats, or 1 billion birds over 2 decades.
But yeah, fossil-fuel propaganda going to hate on windturbines...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/14/cats-kill-birds-wildlife-keep-indoors
In Britain, annual road casualties are estimated to account for 100,000 fox deaths, 50,000 badgers, 50,000 deer, 30 million birds and 29% of hedgehogs.
So that would be 600 million birds killed by cars over 2 decades.
But yeah, let's create misleading large numbers by counting over decades...
https://www.rspca-coventryanddistrict.org.uk/animal-road-accident-awareness-day-2021/
All those that care about birds should maybe be calling for cats and cars to be banned?
In fairness, I suspect the numbers of guillemots, kittiwakes, gannets, razorbills and puffins which are killed by cats and cars are very low.
I'm not disagreeing that this is fossil-fuel propaganda, to be clear.
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The Fingleton Review proposes weakening the Habitat Regulations
The Review proposes amending the Habitats Regulations so that developers don’t have to worry about avoiding harm to nature sites when they build nuclear plants. It also proposes removing a duty on public bodies to further the conservation and public access purpose of National Parks and National Landscapes.
Nature cannot afford this. Evidence continues to show that nature is in decline, and damage to nature is also damage to climate.
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https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/get-involved/campaign-us/fingleton-review
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A new 50 pence coin celebrating 50 years since Concorde's first commercial flight has been launched by the Royal Mint.
Unveiled at the aircraft's current home, the Aerospace Bristol Museum, the reverse or 'tails' side of the coin portrays the aircraft in flight, against a backdrop of a split-flap departure board, with the word Concorde appearing across the centre.
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There is an increasing international focus on the need to control plastic pollution but faulty evidence on the level of microplastics in humans could lead to misguided regulations and policies, which is dangerous, researchers say. It could also help lobbyists for the plastics industry to dismiss real concerns by claiming they are unfounded. While researchers say analytical techniques are improving rapidly, the doubts over recent high-profile studies also raise the questions of what is really known today and how concerned people should be about microplastics in their bodies.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/13/microplastics-human-body-doubt
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2:37pm
Shona Robison promises money to "reduce Scotland's carbon emissions, increase our resilience in the face of climate change, and in many cases, save families hard earned cash."
She says it's an "investment in our landscape and our national and natural environment, assets that are priceless in themselves, but also of vital importance economically."
"I think of food and drink in tourism sectors that are flourishing and vital to our health and our sense of self, to our well being in its fullest sense, and it's an investment in those that we care for our land, in our rural communities and our farmers, including a new package to nurture and develop and development benefit and sustainable skills and food and farming."
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https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25760671.scottish-budget-2026-live-shona-robison-sets-tax-plans/
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A make-or-break auction for the UK government’s goal to create a clean electricity system by 2030 has awarded subsidy contracts to enough offshore windfarms to power a record 12m homes.
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The government is set to miss its target of decarbonising the power sector by 2030 by as much as a decade, experts have warned.
Delays to energy projects, nuclear plant closures and a rising electricity demand mean the UK is expected to generate only 86pc low-carbon power by the end of the decade, falling short of energy secretary Ed Miliband's 95pc goal, Cornwall Insight forecasts.
Experts say somewhere between the mid-2030s and mid-2040s is a more realistic timeframe to meet the ambitious 95pc target.
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https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/25758661.wind-farm-delays-mean-uk-miss-2030-clean-energy-target/
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