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Dealing with Climate Change & Justice
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Posted 2 months ago #
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The environmental damage bill racked up by the highest-consuming 10% of the world’s population has reached up to $5.7tn a year – larger than the economy of every country except the US and China, a study has found.
Mega-consumers in this group are concentrated in the global north, accounting for more than half the population of the US and 40-45% of people in the EU.
The damage tally, which one researcher described as “bonkers”, also exceeds global funding gaps for tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, highlighting how economic priorities remain skewed towards running down the Earth’s life-support systems.
The most destructive forms of consumption were linked to two main areas: food – particularly red meat, a primary driver of deforestation – and energy, including flights and heating and cooling homes, which typically rely on burning of fossil fuels, such as gas, oil and coal.
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SNP infighting has burst into the open following a “seismic” victory for the Scottish Conservatives in the Aberdeen South by-election.
Douglas Lumsden won the seat with almost 50 per cent of the vote and thumping majority of more than 6,000 over the SNP
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Posted 2 months ago # -
I see the oilies are having an "extinction burst"...
Posted 2 months ago # -
The spectre of climate change and rising temperatures has haunted cycling – a sport played out in the great outdoors – in recent years, with races increasingly susceptible to extreme weather conditions.
In February, a new study published by researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health warned that global warming and extreme heatwaves may soon make many July afternoons too hot for racing at the Tour de France.
The researchers looked at the future of European outdoor summer sporting events through the lens of the past half century of the Tour de France, the country-crossing bike race acting as a near-perfect case study for the impact of climate change and extreme heatwaves on summer sport.
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The London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which operates the east coast main line from Edinburgh to London, has advised all passengers travelling on Wednesday or Thursday to avoid travelling into areas included in the Met Office's red weather alert zone, which includes London.
(c) National and other sources too I'm sure!'Luckily ' flights are still running though will be full. Or people will drive?
Posted 2 months ago # -
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Nigel Topping, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: “The U-turns are really damaging to inward investor confidence. If we really want to grow the economy, then investing and getting good at building stuff is essential.”
His intervention comes as the CCC published its latest report to parliament on Wednesday, on progress towards the target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The report found that although the push towards renewable energy has gone well, and more people are switching to electric cars, the take-up of heat pumps has lagged behind severely.
Topping pointed to a recent CBI report finding the net zero economy was worth about £100bn a year to the UK, growing faster than the rest of the economy and producing higher paid jobs. “We’ve got the institutional infrastructure in place since the [2008] Climate Change Act, and real consistency of direction and progress, and we know that consistency is super important for industry in making investment decisions,” he said.
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Posted 2 months ago # -
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Why did obesity become a global problem? Professor of Diet and Population Health Susan Jebb explores a heavy history, our changing relationship with food and reasons for optimism. She believes we live in an 'ultra-processed food system' which drives more of the world's population towards health harming diets and a lifetime of being overweight or obese. But she also believes change is possible, and the conditions are right for a food systems change.
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Posted 2 months ago # -
Mentioned in programme
From poor diets to richer lives
Posted 2 months ago # -
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We feel like the peasants’: women and low-income families bear brunt of heatwave
As temperatures soar across Europe, cities are struggling to adapt, further exacerbating socioeconomic divisions
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Posted 2 months ago # -
From Herald via @chdot upthread...
"This new report shows there is potential for new nuclear in Scotland, which could boost the country's energy security and deliver new jobs.
"We are delivering a golden age of nuclear in England and Wales from Sizewell C to small modular reactors. Sadly Scotland is missing out on the enormous economic and energy security potential".
The UK Government has said it is pursuing a “golden age of nuclear", including backing Sizewell C on the Suffolk coast and small modular reactors in North Wales.
"Sadly Scotland is missing out on the enormous economic and energy security potential" = there is not a democratic desire for it and that means planning consent will not be given.
Andy Burnham will surely have to accept this as the settled will of people in Scotland unless something major happens?
Searching for polls but can see the nuclear industry claims most Scots are pro nuclear energy in top searches (!)
Other opinions exist. https://www.thenational.scot/news/26035122.poll-finds-miserable-support-nuclear-power-scotland/Posted 2 months ago # -
Posted 2 months ago #
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Posted 2 months ago #
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Councils were given millions to tackle the nature crisis. Some spent it on office costs The Scottish Government gave local authorities £20m to tackle a "nature emergency".
But we found that around £4m of that sum was spent on fixing cars and office equipment, among other non-environmental spending
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https://www.theferret.scot/environmental-funding-misspent-councils/
Posted 2 months ago # -
My old 1849 house was built with passive air conditioning, using natural convection air flows that sent warm air out through the roof ventilation and drew cool air in at ground level, or even below this
Outside the presence of grass and trees delivers the cooling properties of water evaporation, a detail you'll recognise when wearing a wet T shirt on a windy day, a the heat removed from your body is carried away by the breeze, and more heat is then taken to evaporate more water
I've data & solutions for natural heating and cooling which of course are zero carbon, & highly sustainable
One of the greatest actions that can be taken in a city is drastically removing all under-used/unnecessary hard pavement, this especially includes those car parks at hospitals & workplaces that lie empty at night, or are only used for a few hours per day when the roads (like A720) are 'gridlocked' mainly by the same people making the same daily journeys at the same times.... if only it was easy & convenient to get say 40-50 people on an express coach from Dunbar to Edinburgh Park (or Livingston/Glasgow?) using say 30m² of tarmac than 40 cars carrying 1-2 ½m² people using 480m² (or more when moving)?
An opportunity to rip off those Driving Blinkers & collate some real examples to highlight this mad folly?
From the data I've worked with over many decades we have the figure that 1 hectare of grass (500 car park spaces) can:
- soak up 5,500 TONS of rainfall per year in our regular climate
- cool down 880 MILLION m³ of air flowing over the land by 10°C per yearMuch more to prod the debate with
Posted 2 months ago # -
All true
But until GDP is removed as THE measure of ‘success’ there’s no chance…
Posted 2 months ago #
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