The surge of interest in British shale oil and gas has focused on central Scotland in recent days. A forward look at national planning to 2019 was published by the Scottish government on June 23. It has…
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Environment – Articles, Analysis, Comment
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The electric car trend is still to take off in the UK, with drivers largely put off by up-front costs, according to a survey by the Department for Transport. A measly 5% of respondents were thinking about…
The UK’s economy is highly unbalanced; we have the worst regional disparities in the developed world and London’s property prices are also the world’s most expensive – second only to Monaco. Rebalancing…
The ocean, seen from a beach or from a plane, seems vast, ancient and invulnerable. It’s hard to imagine that 90% of life on earth lives below the waves, across 1.3 billion cubic kilometres of water and…
The list of the natural world’s most extraordinary places, UNESCO’s World Heritage List, gained its 1,000th entry this week with the addition of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. To be chosen for…
Charles Darwin ate one on his trip to Brazil. Apparently it tasted more like pork than chicken. My nine-year-old, football-mad, half-Brazilian son could identify one on his World Cup merchandising and…
Do we have enough onshore windfarms, or do we have too many? And who decides what “too many” looks like? The Conservative Party has announced it would end subsidies for new onshore wind farms if it won…
Dire warnings of imminent human-induced climate disaster are constantly in the news but predictions of the end of the world have been made throughout history and have never yet come true. Even in the brief…
Looking at the countryside now in the middle of summer, it is hard to believe that trees are under threat from an array of diseases and pests. Warm and wet conditions with plenty of sunshine have led to…
The shocking news that Satao, the much-loved African Elephant who lived in Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park, has been killed and butchered for his tusks highlights once again the terrible and unsustainable…
As it had already been cancelled once, due to the US government shut-down last October, the latest developments in Iraq made it seem likely the Our Ocean conference, organised by the US State Department…
After months of deliberation and consultations, the UK government’s long-awaited announcement about a plastic bag charge arrives, only for Defra to shoot it full of holes by opting to exempt retailers…
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it would be better if we built buildings from wood than from concrete, brick, aluminium and steel. We use millions of tonnes of these modern materials every year…
Among the UK government’s pronouncements for the new parliamentary session were measures designed to boost zero-carbon home building in order to reap the benefits of lower emissions, lower household energy…
The record rainfall and persistent storms of winter 2013-14 caused serious flooding throughout the southwest of England, with breached defences, loss and damage to agricultural land, homes and businesses…
When Hurricane Sandy struck New York in 2012, it was a brutal wake up call for the Big Apple. That call should have also been heard by the citizens of every other coastal city and those responsible for…
The climate is warming, and so basic logic would suggest we should expect fewer bouts of cold weather. Yet severe winter weather, such as the cold wave over the US this year, and the chilly winter of 2009/10…
Bumblebees are among the intellectual giants of the insect world. They learn the locations of landmarks relative to their nest, and are able to navigate accurately many miles across the landscape. They…
The Thwaites glacier is one of the most rapidly changing in Antarctica. It’s been the focus of considerable attention in recent weeks, after scientists suggested that this sector of the huge West Antarctic…
The city of Famagusta in Cyprus lies empty, as it has since the 1974 invasion that divided the island into north and south. The city its former inhabitants left behind is now a ghost town, streets overgrown…
The European policies designed to encourage a more biodiverse environment that is better able to support wildlife and plants are failing. In fact, our analysis of the reforms designed to “green” the EU…
While city planners have been encouraged to plant trees and gardens to green the city for the health of its inhabitants, recent research has found that the same trees can damage certain buildings. Our…
We’ve just been through an unusually mild winter for the UK. Despite the excessive rain and storms, the warmer temperatures meant we’ve needed less energy to heat our homes. This has reduced household…
Westminster has failed to control rising electricity and gas prices. Between 1997 and 2013, UK households saw combined electricity and gas prices rise by 54% in real terms. In contrast, family income has…
It may come as a surprise to discover that it is perfectly legal in the UK to keep primates, such as marmosets, loris, capuchins or squirrel monkeys, as pets. Perhaps more surprising still is that there…