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Dealing with Climate Change & Justice

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  1. LaidBack
    Member

    From today's Edinburgh Minute:
    https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-wednesday-4-february-2025/?ref=the-edinburgh-minute-newsletter

    Councillors are due to vote today on controversial plans for a 'green AI data centre' at South Gyle. The development would be built at the site of the former RBS office at Redheughs Avenue. - There's more context in this report by Ross Chalmers of Deadline News.

    • A protest is planned outside the City Chambers from 9.30am, writes Kevin Williamson in Bella Caledonia.
    • The council's Chief Planning Officer David Givan wrote this report recommending approval of the plan.
    • Developer Shelborn Drummond Ltd said the new centre would be 'vital energy infrastructure that would facilitate and maximise the potential of the Digital Fibre Network.' - Shelborn published its plans here.
    • If plans are approved, it's claimed energy usage would be 'equivalent to building five new Edinburghs', reports Hamish Morrison in The National.
    • 'Greenwashing’ warning ahead of crunch Scottish AI centre decision' - Jamie Calder, The National.
    • Despite environmental concerns, developers were told they didn't need to undergo environmental assessments. - The Edinburgh Inquirer.

    https://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2026/01/27/hearing-for-huge-edinburgh-data-centre-proposals-to-take-place-next-week/?ref=edinburghminute.com

    Posted 2 months ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The final third suggests solutions. And there is nothing small about Pickett’s proposals. We “can’t afford to nibble”, she writes, in characteristically demotic fashion, “at the edges of the climate crisis, or the crisis in care, or the other big problems we’re facing; we need wholesale change”: nothing less than “a new social fabric for a good society”.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/04/i-think-we-feel-stuck-kate-pickett-on-how-to-build-a-better-fairer-less-stressed-society

    Spose have to read book to find how…

    Posted 2 months ago #

  3. LaidBack
    Member

    https://www.edinburghminute.com/green-data-centre-for-edinburgh-rejected-by-councillors/?ref=the-edinburgh-minute-newsletter

    Edinburgh councillors have thrown out plans for a 140MW ‘green’ data centre at South Gyle. There was cross-party agreement in refusing the plan, with concerns about ‘how it affects the climate emergency’ and ‘how emissions could be minimised’.

    After an almost-four hour meeting, including a presentation from the applicant, not a single councillor from any political party voted in favour of the scheme.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    That’s actually quite impressive

    As Planning Committee is quasi legal Cllrs can’t be whipped - so ‘free vote’ by individuals concerned.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    “

    A court has appointed liquidators to a Scottish airline.

    The airline was founded by a "green industrialist" and prominent Labour Party donor.

    Entrepreneur Dale Vince launched EcoJet Airlines in Edinburgh in 2023 when it was hailed as “the world’s first electric airline”.

    “

    https://archive.ph/2026.02.04-181142/https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25826088.airline-ceases-operations-liquidators-appointed-court/

    Posted 2 months ago #

  6. LaidBack
    Member

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/25830171.huge-highland-ssen-substation-rejected-2000-objections/

    SSEN will appeal. Earlier in week Kirsty McNeil (Scottish Labour and Co-operative MP for Midlothian and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland) was bemoaning the 'sclerotic' planning laws in Scotland that blocked big projects and gave too much say to actual residents (!)
    The expanded AI facility in Lanarkshire she was announcing seemed to have got round that. Maybe easier in an already industrialed area?
    She also claimed that the server farm would benefit from cheap power due to surplus wind. Very keen to have Small Nuclear Modular reactors too of course just so Scotland has plenty to share.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    “

    This is the key frustration. Because, ultimately, he is right. Even with all the undeniable scientific evidence at our disposal, it is still impossible to make people take the climate crisis seriously. Had we all possessed the king’s foresight four or five decades ago, there is every likelihood that the world would be in a better state than it is now.

    However, the film carries the thrumming sense that King Charles was out on a limb by himself, which does rather discount the influence of Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson and the founders of Earth Day. This is only exacerbated when the film tries to expand the other threads of the king’s nebulous “harmony” philosophy.

    These include the restoration of Dumfries House, which we’re told has helped to train the local community in traditional pursuits (and neglects to mention that it was at the centre of a cash-for-honours scandal). We’re also shown how the king has paved the way in the field of teaching prisoners to bee-keep, and told how he helped to rebuild Kabul by educating liberated locals about art.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/feb/06/finding-harmony-a-kings-vision-review-charles-jeff-bezos-amazon-prime-video

    Posted 2 months ago #

  8. chdot
    Admin

    “

    In a special edition Dan Saladino talks to the UK's biggest food producers and retailers to hear their visions for the future of food, health, sustainability and resilience.

    “

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002qv72

    Posted 2 months ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/06/calls-postpone-presidential-election-storm-leonardo-portugal-spain

    Posted 2 months ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The UK government is pledging to spend up to £1bn on community-owned green energy schemes in an effort to combat growing scepticism and resistance to renewables and grid upgrade projects.

    Ed Miliband, the UK energy secretary, said the new funding was intended to help democratise the energy system, increase the wealth and financial independence of local communities, and potentially cut some local energy bills.

    “Britain’s drive for clean energy is about answering the call for a different kind of economy that works for the many, not just the wealthy and powerful in our society. Local and community energy is at the heart of our government’s vision,” Miliband said.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/09/miliband-pledges-up-to-1bn-for-community-green-energy-schemes

    Posted 2 months ago #

  11. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/09/the-guardian-view-on-heavy-rain-englands-flood-defences-are-not-strong-enough

    Posted 2 months ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/11/cardinham-cornwall-village-consecutive-days-rain

    Posted 2 months ago #

  13. neddie
    Member

    Trump is wiping out all climate regulation. Big Oil may regret it.

    For decades, oil majors fought climate regulation. Now, they’re afraid Trump’s extreme rollbacks could leave them on the hook to pay for what they’ve done

    https://heated.world/p/trump-is-wiping-out-all-climate-regulation

    Posted 2 months ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said.

    Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would also be very different to the benign conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilisation developed.

    At just 1.3C of global heating in recent years, extreme weather is already taking lives and destroying livelihoods across the globe. At 3-4C, “the economy and society will cease to function as we know it”, scientists said last week, but a hothouse Earth would be even more fiery.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points

    Posted 2 months ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Since taking office in October 2022, Meloni’s ruling coalition has made restoring “law and order” a priority. First came laws against illegal raves, juvenile crime and climate activists. Then the government enacted a draconian security bill in 2025 which, among other things, introduced jail terms for blocking traffic and roads during protests and tough sentences for resisting police officers.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/12/giorgia-meloni-government-cracking-down-protest-italy

    Posted 2 months ago #

  16. chdot
    Admin

    https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/chinas-co2-emissions-flat-or-falling-comment

    Posted 2 months ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/12/economics-climate-crisis-complexity-scientist-plan

    Posted 2 months ago #

  18. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The climate crisis was also unavoidable. “In Vietnam in the monsoon season, it is 45C and humidity is at 95%. And I actually don’t know how people live there. They get up super-early in the morning, but then from noon to 5pm you see people lying on the side of the road under a mango tree, sleeping.”

    Now he dwells on the ethics of one day bringing children into such a world. “If they wanted to take a similar trip, I wonder if that would still be possible in 20, 30 years from now. The temperatures are already very extreme. There are a lot of places that I think will be uninhabitable in the next few decades.”

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/12/i-lived-the-life-ive-always-dreamed-of-the-man-who-cycled-around-the-world-for-four-years

    Posted 2 months ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Merz rebukes US criticism of Europe

    …

    He adds:

    “We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade. We stick to climate agreements and the WHO because we are convinced that global challenges can only be solved together.”

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/13/munich-security-conference-rubio-flies-in-amid-testing-times-for-us-europe-ties-live?page=with%3Ablock-698f24398f0807ca30821ac3#block-698f24398f0807ca30821ac3

    Posted 1 month ago #

  20. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/13/elon-musk-xai-datacenters-air-pollution-mississippi

    It’s fine

    Trump is changing the law

    Posted 1 month ago #

  21. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Rubio continues by criticising green policies “to appease a climate cult,” saying it “impoverished our people, even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas.”

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-69902d308f08a3236d0645ad#block-69902d308f08a3236d0645ad

    Posted 1 month ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/14/uk-bad-weather-rain-flood-warnings-struggling-business

    Posted 1 month ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    https://archive.ph/2026.02.15-081215/https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/edinburgh-airport-to-pump-up-to-ps150m-a-year-on-biggest-ever-expansion-to-cope-with-booming-passenger-numbers-5597095

    Posted 1 month ago #

  24. chdot
    Admin

    “

    The announcement by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that the country is seeking to create a new critical minerals “trading bloc” is a final, exotic, nail in the coffin of the old global trading system. The era of mass abundance, as supplied by unfettered free trade and global markets – “neoliberalism” – is over. We live in a new world of strategic competition between states over scarce but essential resources, with shocks to supplies from human activity and natural disasters an ever-present risk.

    This means recalibrating how we think about our economy: the new economic fundamentals today are resource constraints and climate and nature crises, and these, rather than human activity, will increasingly shape the world we inhabit. Flows of finance and stocks of wealth will matter less than stocks and flows of real material resources.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/16/critical-minerals-shortages-jd-vance-trading-bloc-analysis

    Posted 1 month ago #

  25. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Tech companies are conflating traditional artificial intelligence with generative AI when claiming the energy-hungry technology could help avert climate breakdown, according to a report.

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/17/tech-companies-traditional-ai-generative-climate-breakdown-report

    Posted 1 month ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/18/one-in-nine-new-homes-in-england-built-in-areas-of-flood-risk-study-shows

    Posted 1 month ago #

  27. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Excruciating tropical disease can now be transmitted in most of Europe, study finds

    ‘Shocking’ data shows the climate crisis and invasive mosquitos mean chikungunya could spread in 29 countries

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/feb/18/tropical-disease-chikungunya-transmitted-europe-study

    Posted 1 month ago #

  28. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/19/they-pushed-so-many-lies-about-recycling-the-fight-to-stop-big-oil-pumping-billions-more-into-plastics

    Thought that had already been stopped!

    Posted 1 month ago #

  29. chdot
    Admin

    “

    ‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics

    Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/19/they-pushed-so-many-lies-about-recycling-the-fight-to-stop-big-oil-pumping-billions-more-into-plastics

    Posted 1 month ago #

  30. chdot
    Admin

    “

    This is Europe’s new reality: under water in winter, withered in summer. Yet even as the weather extremes worsen, the voices of denial have grown louder and more influential.

    “We’re moving toward self-destruction of the planet,” said Navarro, adding that at the age of 60 she had witnessed the effects of climate change first-hand. “It’s not something ‘they’ told me, it’s something I’ve seen. How can anybody say this is an invention?”

    “

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/21/under-water-in-denial-is-europe-drowning-out-the-climate-crisis

    Posted 1 month ago #

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