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Giving children a taste of the outdoors | Brief letters
Our charity, The Garden Classroom, has responded to London teachers’ concerns about pupils’ mental health by offering urban forest schools in Islington parks (Letters, 11 November). Pupils in schools just north of King’s Cross station spend half a day a week in Caledonian Park exploring the wooded areas. Islington has the least open access green space of anywhere in the country. If we can do it, anyone can!
Rosey Lyall
Founder trustee, The Garden Classroom
• I am doing my best (Insect apocalypse’ poses risk to all life on Earth, conservationists warn, 13 November). On my allotment I provide brassicas for caterpillars and white flies, broad beans for aphids, carrots for carrot flies, and borage for bees. I also have homes for other invertebrates including slugs and snails. What else should I try?
Elizabeth Pearson
New Barnet, London
Bring back the speed limits of the 1970s | Letter
In December 1973, when the Opec countries cut back supplies of oil to the west, the UK and the US introduced a maximum national speed limit of 50mph on all roads in order to reduce petrol consumption (Netherlands lowers speed limit to comply with pollution court ruling, 14 November). This remained in force until March to May 1974. Maximum speed restrictions, aimed at reducing energy consumption, were again introduced from December 1974 through to May 1977.
When the speed of a petrol-engined car is reduced from 70mph to its optimal speed of 55mph to 60mph, its petrol consumption falls by some 17%. Given that demand for road transport fuels is around 44m litres of petrol and a little over 81m litres of diesel per day, that brings petrol consumption down by 7.5m litres and diesel by 13.75m litres per day. The 1970s restrictions were introduced to save energy. But they also brought down pollution and carbon emissions: every litre of petrol consumed produces 2.3kg of carbon dioxide (diesel produces 2.68kg).
Continue reading...USDA, Nature Conservancy launch voluntary Appalachian forest carbon partnership
Nasa probing oxygen mystery on Mars
Environmental Analyst, British Airways – London
The dawn chorus that heralds fresh hope for New Zealand's wildlife
The success of a scheme to reintroduce endangered parrots to the forests of South Island augurs well for wider efforts to restore native wildlife
When the conservation trust Project Janszoon released a dozen kākā in Abel Tasman national park at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, the large, brassy forest parrots settled in quickly, despite never before having lived in the wild. At 3am the next morning they began their customary ear-splitting calls. Hikers sleeping in a hut in Bark Bay declined an offer of earplugs from release team members who stayed overnight; snorers, they said, bothered them more than the birds.
That New Zealanders could once again live alongside these rare native creatures – and that the birds could be multitudinous enough to bother them with their chatty racket – is still something of a novelty. In urban spaces, on the fringes of cities, and even in national parks, the country has been bereft of its native birds for so long that they are beginning to feel like part of history. Half of them have gone extinct since humans arrived on New Zealand’s shores. Predators, chiefly stoats, possums, and rats, kill more than 68,000 native birds every day.
Continue reading...Venice: historic square deluged by floodwater – video
Footage shows Venice's main square, Piazza San Marco, under inches of floodwater as the city weathers its worst flood since the 1960s.
Two people have died as waters reached up to 1.87 metres and caused millions of euros of damage
Continue reading...EU Midday Market Update
Nature photographer of the year 2019 - in pictures
From mystical woodlands to majestic whales, here are the winners and runners-up of this year’s competition. They were recently announced at the Nature Talks photo festival in the Netherlands
New Zealand launches consultation on CO2 auctioning, cost containment reserve
UK flooding: residents of South Yorkshire brace for more rain
Heavy rain warning for already wet areas as ex-Tory minister rejects flood defence criticism
Residents of South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are being warned to remain vigilant as more rain is expected in previously flooded areas.
The Met Office issued several alerts for ice, rain and snow across the country on Thursday, while the Environment Agency warned further flooding could occur.
Continue reading...Green Climate Fund approves its first Chinese project
Utility RWE advances hedging as thermal output declines accelerate
Labor backs calls for an overhaul of bushfire management
Changes to regulation of international trade in wildlife
Changes to regulation of international trade in wildlife
Plastic substitute made of fish waste hauls in UK designer Dyson award
Lucy Hughes, 24, wins £30,000 international prize for compostable MarinaTex
A bioplastic made of organic fish waste that would otherwise end up in landfill – with the potential to replace plastic in food and drink packaging – has landed its UK designer a prestigious international award and £30,000 prize.
Lucy Hughes, 24, a graduate in product design from the University of Sussex, scooped the James Dyson award for her biodegradable and compostable material known as MarinaTex.
Continue reading...Western plastics 'poisoning Indonesian food chain'
Victoria’s renewable energy auction to deliver net benefit of $285 million
Victoria renewable energy auction to deliver net benefits of $285 million, according to state auditor.
The post Victoria’s renewable energy auction to deliver net benefit of $285 million appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia set to lie with some strange bedfellows at Madrid climate talks
Australia may be forced to align itself with former Soviet-era countries to defend plans to carryover surplus Kyoto emissions permits.
The post Australia set to lie with some strange bedfellows at Madrid climate talks appeared first on RenewEconomy.
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