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Dealing with Climate Change & Justice
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Posted 1 month ago #
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“Trump’s Greenland concept was never absurd – it was strategic,” Lauder wrote in the New York Post. He went on: “Beneath its ice and rock lies a treasure trove of rare-earth elements essential for AI, advanced weaponry and modern technology. As ice recedes, new maritime routes are emerging, reshaping global trade and security.”
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Same with Canada, US running out of water.
Reading headlines of German, Swedish, Dutch, and UK troops heading to Greenland to protect it from the US, has me finaly convinced I'm living in a simulation.
Posted 1 month ago # -
@ B
More evidence…
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A US regulator ruled on Thursday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company had acted illegally by using dozens of methane gas turbines to power massive data centers in Tennessee.
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/15/elon-musk-xai-datacenter-memphis
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In a lengthy Truth Social post, he said “Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown”, adding: “This is a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet.”
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Overall, this year’s Scottish Budget demonstrates progress on aviation and sustainable transport. Yet, increased road-building points in the opposite direction, and this is impossible to reconcile with the First Minister’s stated priority to cut climate emissions.
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https://transform.scot/2026/01/13/jets-buses-and-roads-our-top-3-takeaways-from-the-scottish-budget/
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On the announcement of a UK contract for a massive wind farm in the outer Firth of Forth, Herald columnist Rosemary Goring asks if its green credentials outweigh the environmental harm.
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There's a lot of disquiet on SSEN National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) applications to get infrastructure into the Highlands to get more power south and over the border to meet 'UK as a whole' renewable targets.
Dismiss this as 'nimbyism' if you like but the size of these structures and associated works is the biggest change since hydro works in 1950s.
It seems if councils don't give go ahead then the Scottish Government will overrule and local alterations to plans may be ignored.
Examining groups are bombarded with details from resource rich SSEN so understandably find it hard to work quickly.Following a request for an extension, SSEN’s Matthew Atkins said: “You have more than ample material in order for you to make a decision on the application today.”
Clearly, SSEN would not accept any delay, instead reiterating their desire to advance developments “at pace”.
David Garvie of Kiltarlity Community Council said, “we should do it right, not quickly”, describing the substation design as a “sprawling mess of metal” using outdated technology. He argued there were sufficient legal grounds to reject the plans.
“It’s a balance of competing NPF4 policies. The planning officer has determined the balance in one way, but you are able to take a different view.”
A clear-cut rejection did not materialise. But, with councillors unhappy to be rushed, a motion for a deferral was lodged on the basis that a site visit was necessary.
“Nothing compares to standing on the ground and seeing it for ourselves,” Councillor Fraser said.
Bremner did not intervene this time – he is not a member of SPAC. But a cautionary gambit did spring from planning officer Peter Wheelan: “Before members take this vote, we need to think carefully. We have an agreed timescale.”
Referring to SSEN, he said ”They’re operating as a business, they need certainty about the decision, they need to think about when they are going to get a determination.”
A hand shot up, a point of order raised. “Is it normal for officers to take part in a debate?” The chair agreed it wasn’t, cutting Wheelan short. The motion passed, 12 to two.
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Hundreds of homes are without power in the Highlands.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) confirmed the power cut in Lochaber and said it was aiming to get homes reconnected by 5pm.
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Scientists have warned of a potential “regime shift” in the oceans, as the rapid growth of huge mats of seaweed appears to be driven by global heating and excessive enrichment of waters from farming runoff and other pollutants.
Over the past two decades, seaweed blooms have expanded by a staggering 13.4% a year in the tropical Atlantic and western Pacific, with the most dramatic increases occurring after 2008, according to researchers at the University of South Florida.
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The world has entered an era of “global water bankruptcy” that is harming billions of people, a UN report has declared.
The overuse and pollution of water must be tackled urgently, the report’s lead author said, because no one knew when the whole system could collapse, with implications for peace and social cohesion.
All life depends on water but the report found many societies had long been using water faster than it could be replenished annually in rivers and soils, as well as over-exploiting or destroying long-term stores of water in aquifers and wetlands.
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The global attack on nature is threatening the UK’s national security, government intelligence chiefs have warned, as the increasingly likely collapse of vitally important natural systems would bring mass migration, food shortages and price rises, and global disorder.
Food supplies are particularly at risk since “without significant increases” the UK would be unable to compete with other nations for scarce resources, a report to ministers says.
Some vital ecosystems could face collapse within five years, threatening the UK’s national security and prosperity, according to the 14-page report.
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Spain’s railway operator, Adif, said the containment wall probably collapsed because of heavy rainfall that swept across Catalonia this week.
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In his Wednesday remarks at Davos, Trump once again showcased his bitter dislike of wind energy.
He said:
“One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses, and the worse that country is doing.”
The US president claimed that “China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China.”“China’s very smart: They make them, they sell them for a fortune,” he said. “They sell them to the stupid people that buy them, but they don’t use them themselves.”
The “couple of big wind farms” that China does have are not in use, Trump claimed.
“They just put them up to show people what they could look like, but they don’t spin, they don’t do anything,” he said, adding that for energy, “mostly China goes with the coal, they go with oil and gas, they’re starting to look at nuclear a little bit, and they’re doing just fine.”
He went on to say China is “shocked that people continue to buy those damn things.”
“They killed the birds, they ruined your landscapes,” he said. “Other than that, I think they’re fabulous, by the way. Stupid people buy them.”
China has more wind capacity than any other country in the world and has twice as much capacity under construction than the rest of the world combined.
China’s wind generation in 2024 equaled 40 percent of global wind generation, according to a 2025 report from think tank Ember Energy. It is also building 180 gigawatts of large solar projects and 159 gigawatts of large wind projects, which together amount to nearly two-thirds of the capacity coming online worldwide, an analysis from Global Energy Monitor says.
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Luke Tryl, the UK director of More in Common, told the Guardian: “The right is united in their priority on nature: across both climate-sceptic Reform voters and the pro-climate Conservative voters they may need to win over, majorities say they would be more likely to vote for a political party that prioritised nature protection.” His figures show 57% of Reform voters think the government should prioritise nature, and 66% of Conservative voters do.
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The climate crisis is here and now and this is its face in Britain, scientists told the Guardian. But the devastating impacts are accelerating faster than the work to keep communities protected, they said: torrential winter rains are arriving 20 years earlier than climate models projected. While those forced from homes engulfed by filthy water are suffering today, a darker question is looming: will some settlements have to be abandoned?
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Sadler is right: the science is now crystal clear that winters are getting wetter in the UK due to global heating, hitting damp regions like the south-west hardest. The reason is simple physics: warmer air holds more water vapour, meaning heavier downpours – and it is getting worse.
“There’s been massive changes over the last four or five years,” said Prof Hayley Fowler, an expert on climate change impacts at Newcastle University. “We’ve seen a rapid increase in warming and that has a huge knock-on effect on rainfall. We’re already experiencing changes in UK winter rainfall that the global and regional climate models predict for the 2040s – we’re 20 years ahead.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/31/climate-crisis-flood-risk-britain
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How will they reduce the cost of energy when they are committed to this ruinously expensive nuclear build programme?
The UK Government has no answer to this – and this is why the Scottish Government must keep in place the moratorium on new nuclear in Scotland and continue their support of renewables such as tidal power and also fully commit to its Hydrogen Action Plan.
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Posted 1 month ago # -
I was just going to post that link @chdot. Your link more accessible though.
I know a concerted effort is being made by Labour/Tory/LibDems/RUK politicians to persuade Scots that the 'wicked' SNP/Greens are turning down £millions earmarked for nuclear and driving jobs south.
Here's the Highland Lib Dems view on SMRs. This in area that has already 100% renewable electricity almost all the time.
https://www.highlandlibdems.org.uk/news/article/scot-lib-dems-will-open-the-door-to-small-modular-nuclear-reactorsJohn Proctor sums up this delusion about SMRs well in today's National. Do not expect BBC or any media from south to call out the fantasy of SMRs.
ACH from Lib Dems actually said Scotland's electricity bills would come down with massive renewables when you vote LD. We're already there and nothing has changed.What I find mystifying is the lack of proper scrutiny being applied to the claims made by those members of the Nuclear Energy All-Party Parliamentary Group and its well-funded nuclear lobbyists.
It does not surprise me that they are unable to set out what configuration they favour, as the reactors which they claim will produce 400 MWs do not exist. They have not been manufactured, tested, or installed – anywhere!
As an engineer, I would be keen to ask the politicians if they have thought about some of the basic elements of a power plant.Lastly the BBC actually went to Hinckley this week to show how many Scottish based engineers and construction workers were on that site. Was clearly aimed at saying these jobs would be here if only Holyrood would embrace the nuclear industry.
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Since that 2020 decision, though, a strong campaign to save St Fittick’s has developed; and many across Scotland now see Torry as a test case for whether the transition to renewable energy will be “just”, or will only repeat the old patterns of exploitation and environmental degradation that communities like Torry already know so well.
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A row of homes in a village in south Wales is to be bought by a local authority and demolished as they can no longer be protected from flooding caused by the climate crisis.
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Posted 1 month ago #
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