I agree, but isn’t it bleedin’ obvious to supermarkets here that that sort of packaging is not sustainable?
Scotland’s first minister, has this morning announced the winners of the ScotWind offshore wind leasing auction. The Scottish government says the 17 projects selected represent “the world’s first commercial scale opportunity for floating offshore wind”. Floating offshore wind means wind turbines not fixed to the seabed, which can operate in deeper waters. Certainly better than huge amounts of concrete polluting the ground, apart from the effects it can have on people living near land based wind farms. On Thursday I passed a large gravel pit that had filled with water. Since my last journey past it I noticed that the water was now covered with floating solar panels. It was the first time I had seen that system being used, and seemed a good idea. Gravel pits have been used here for solar panels, but with means having to be installed to remove the water. Seems like a double win situation.
Part of an article I found on French news today. Scientists have discovered more than 200 new species in the Greater Mekong region in 2020, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), despite global warming and logging. Among these discoveries are a new primate, a colorless cave fish and an iridescent snake whose scales, astonishingly, do not overlap. A total of 224 new species of plants and vertebrate animals have been identified in the region - which includes Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam - says WWF in its "New Species Discoveries" report. Images of Popa's Langur monkey, which takes its name from the extinct Mount Popa volcano in central Burma, have been taken. This primate is however threatened by hunting, logging and habitat loss. Estimates suggest that only 200-250 individuals remain in total.
"...temperatures over the eastern Antarctic ice sheet soaring 50 to 90 degrees above normal....The historically high temperatures in Antarctica follow a pulse of exceptional warmth on the planet’s opposite end. On Wednesday, temperatures near the North Pole catapulted 50 degrees above normal, close to the melting point." I guess it may be too late to head for the hills? https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/03/18/antarctica-heat-wave-climate-change/?
Water companies say they dumped raw sewage into rivers/coasts 372,533 times last year. For 2,667,452 hours. But this is just the tip of the s°°°berg. Masses of 'spills' unreported, not all outfalls monitored, and a spill that lasts for weeks will be counted as just one. £2 billion a year paid to share holders, who have done very little to improve the infrastructure. Water should not be something to make profit from, unless a decent clean supply is provided into homes first, and there is an obligation to improve the rivers and coastlines.
please log in to view this image In 2014, this French weather presenter announced the forecast for August 18, 2050 as part of a campaign to alert to the reality of climate change. Now her forecast that day is the actual forecast for the coming 4 or 5 days, in mid-June 2022.
The Guardian report on the European heatwave conjured up an image that has made me smile. In France, special measures have been taken in care homes for elderly people, still haunted marked by the memory of a deadly 2003 heatwave. Buildings are being sprayed down with water to cool them and residents are being rotated through air-conditioned rooms.
After the chaos around Kent over the weekend, with thousands of lorries parked on the M20, it is being advocated that huge lorry parks are built to prevent them from blocking the roads. We have already seen acres of wild habitat lost in the county as concrete is laid down to accommodate them, something that has produced a degree of outrage among the residents, some of whom ignored the warnings and voted for it. Once gone the home for much wildlife, which humans rely on, will never return. So how can this disaster be averted? There is an obvious answer, but returning to travel as before does not appeal to some. One can only assume they are happy to see a bit more of the county destroyed in the name of ideology.
Ah, the Garden of England mirroring the average extended house front garden these days: getting a hardstanding make-over for additional parking.
please log in to view this image The mighty river Loire that EDF uses to cool water for three nuclear reactors.
