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Comprehensive study: carbon taxes won't hamper the economy | Dana Nuccitelli
But global warming will.
Eleven teams participated in a recent Stanford Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) project, examining the economic and environmental impacts of a carbon tax. The studies included “revenue recycling,” in which the funds generated from a carbon tax are returned to taxpayers either through regular household rebate checks (similar to the Citizens’ Climate Lobby [CCL] and Climate Leadership Council [CLC] proposals) or by offsetting income taxes (similar to the approach in British Columbia).
Among the eleven modeling teams the key findings were consistent. First, a carbon tax is effective at reducing carbon pollution, although the structure of the tax (the price and the rate at which it rises) are important. Second, this type of revenue-neutral carbon tax would have a very modest impact on the economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). In all likelihood it would slightly slow economic growth, but by an amount that would be more than offset by the benefits of cutting pollution and slowing global warming.
Continue reading...Two tarantulas may be on loose after babies found in Derbyshire car park
Baby spiders were abandoned in pots and RSPCA says witness saw parents scuttling away
Two tarantulas may be on the loose in a village after three of their babies were found abandoned in a car park.
The RSPCA said it had rescued the baby Brazilian bird-eating spiders after they were found discarded in pots in Derbyshire.
Continue reading...Arundel road scheme 'could harm ancient woodland'
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Waste incineration set to overtake recycling in England, Greens warn
Amount of rubbish burned by local authorities triples while household recycling rates stall
England is on the brink of burning more of its rubbish in incinerators than it recycles for the first time, according to a new analysis.
The amount of waste managed by local authorities and sent to incinerators, or energy-from-waste plants, tripled between 2010-11 and 2016-17. By contrast, household recycling rates have stalled since 2013.
Continue reading...Wonderful cell-building habits of the leafcutter bee: Country diary archive, 19 July 1918
19 July 1918 Clean-edged oblongs and circles cut from leaves are used to build the cells of their nests
On two or three occasions I have referred to the wonderfully neat work of the leaf-cutter bee, and I have just received some Marechal Niel rose leaves from Rock Ferry from which clean-edged oblongs and circles have been nibbled out. The leaf-cutter bees are not unlike our honey bees to look at, but their habits are very different. The pieces cut from the leaves are used to build the cells of their nests, and very wonderful cells they are. The cells lie end to end, and are packed into a tunnel or burrow, in some species in the ground, in others in woodwork or timber, or in a hole in a wall. The long fragments are folded one upon the other to form a thimble-shaped tube with a convex base; the round bits form the door, which is concave. The end of one cell fits into the door of the next. Each cell is half filled with pollen as food for the future grubs, an egg is laid upon this, and then the door is sealed up; the grub hatches and lives upon the food until it pupates and emerges as a perfect bee.
Related: The leafcutter bee: Country diary 100 years ago
Continue reading...Country diary: I looked into the eyes of Britain's most savage killer
Aigas, Highlands: The weasel may be tiny, but this fierce predator can dispatch and drag off a full-grown rabbit 25 times its size – and has a stare that even humans can find unnerving
If I asked you to name Britain’s most savage wildlife killer, you might say fox or peregrine or goshawk, or perhaps even the golden eagle or the Scottish wildcat if you knew about such exciting rarities. But I think you would be wrong. Savage and killers they all are, no question, but in my book none comes close to the smallest UK mustelid, the weasel, Mustela nivalis, so tiny that its skull can pass through a wedding ring.
A few days ago I watched one hunting. It vanished into a rockery and emerged a few seconds later with a vole dangling from its jaws. Voles, rats and mice, as well as small birds, are a weasel’s staple, but a male will take much larger prey such as a full-grown rabbit, up to 25 times its own weight, kill it, and, incredibly, drag it away into cover. No other British predator does that.
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