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History > 2006 > UK > Weather, environment
Lingering fog forces airlines
to cancel more flights
December 21, 2006
Times Online
Britain's roads and rail services look set to
carry the burden of millions of Christmas travellers after British Airways said
it was cancelling all domestic flights to and from Heathrow tomorrow.
So far, the airline has cancelled 100 short-haul flights, including all domestic
and some European services, through Heathrow out of a possible 400, due to
severe fog - but gave warning that more cancellations may follow.
Passengers are urged to check before travelling and stay away from the airport
if their flight has been cancelled.
Geoff Want, British Airways' director of ground operations, said: "We would like
to apologise to all customers who have been disrupted as a result of the
continuous dense fog, which is unprecedented in recent times.
"We understand that Christmas is an extremely important time of year for our
customers and their families and we are working around the clock to give every
assistance possible.
A full long-haul schedule of about 140 flights is planned to operate as normal
for the rest of today and tomorrow.
Thousands of travellers have faced misery at airports as more than 350 flights
through Heathrow were cancelled, including all BA domestic flights and some
European ones today.
The decision came after the cancellation yesterday of more than 300 flights
because of thick fog, which led air traffic controllers to restrict the number
of hourly take-offs and landings. About 500 people were forced to spend the
night at the airport.
A record three million Britons were due to travel abroad from tomorrow until
January 2.
Motorists also face long delays. The road information company Trafficmaster has
predicted that today will be the worst of the year for traffic, with heavy
congestion between 2pm and 7pm. Tomorrow is also expected to be jammed, with
congestion starting around 2pm. About 18 million vehicles will take to the road
over the next four days.
The Met Office said that the foggy and frosty weather would continue to disrupt
flights from Heathrow until tomorrow afternoon.
British Airways, whose flights were all struck by severe delays yesterday,
announced the cancellation of 180 flights from Heathrow today. The airline also
cancelled 18 flights from Gatwick.
Lufthansa, Alitalia and bmi also cancelled some flights from Heathrow. Long-haul
flights were operating with severe delays, but there were no cancellations.
BAA, the airport operator, said 47 flights were cancelled from three Scottish
airports; 17 from Glasgow, 20 from Edinburgh and 10 from Aberdeen.
Southampton Airport said today that it had cancelled 16 flights, with delays on
others of up to two hours. Some incoming aircraft have also been diverted to
other airports.
BAA urged all passengers to check to see whether their flight had been
cancelled.
Heathrow is expected to be able to manage about half its normal take-off and
landing rates today. The fog is expected to linger over the South East for the
next 48 hours, which would mean that it would also affect Gatwick flights.
BA said that even if the weather cleared the delays would continue because
aircraft and crew were stuck in the wrong places. The airline added: "This
situation is beyond British Airways’ control and is affecting all airlines
operating at London Heathrow. The cancellations are due to severe fog, which has
led to Air Traffic Control significantly reducing the number of flights which
can land and take off each hour."
BA customers whose flights were cancelled will be able to rebook or reroute
their ticket, subject to availability, or claim full refunds, the airline said.
The most congested areas on the roads will be the eastern and western ends of
the M25, the M1 around Luton and the M6 between junctions 4 and 10.
The Highways Agency has suspended roadworks over the festive period on 26 sites
from today until 1am on January 2, but roadworks will remain in place on a
number of routes.
BAA, which runs Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, estimates that this weekend two
million people will be leaving through its seven UK airports, while 80,000 will
travel from Luton, 250,000 from Manchester and about 100,000 from Birmingham.
East Midlands Airport reports a large increase in traffic on last year with at
least 80,000 passengers leaving the country.
An additional 230,000 people were expected to travel under or over the English
Channel to France, the Netherlands and Spain.
Southern Spain and north Africa top the list of holiday hotspots, according to
the Association of British Travel Agents, while those keen to hit the slopes
this winter are heading to the US and Canada to make the most of favourable
exchange rates and heavy snowfall – something which some European ski slopes are
currently lacking.
For those heading abroad to celebrate the new year, Paris, Amsterdam, New York
and Dublin are the most popular destinations.
Lingering fog forces airlines to cancel more flights, Ts, 21.12.2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2514143,00.html
11.45am
Green light for world's biggest windfarm
Monday December 18, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Gwyn Topham
The government has given the go-ahead for the
world's largest offshore windfarm to be built off the coast of south-east
England.
The London Array windfarm, to be built by a
consortium including Shell, will consist of 341 turbines located 12 miles
offshore.
While the government has approved the construction of the windfarm, in an area
145 square miles stretching between Margate, Kent, and Clacton, Essex, the
scheme currently depends on an onshore power substation being built in Swale,
Kent.
The Department of Trade and Industry today also approved a second major scheme
in the Thames estuary, to be built in Thanet. Together the windfarms could
deliver 1.3 GW of green electricity - enough to meet the needs of a third of
homes in Greater London.
The trade and industry secretary, Alistair Darling, said the decision was "a
significant step forward" in providing a greener and clean source of power,
claiming that Britain was now second only to Denmark in the offshore wind
sector.
He said: "Projects such as the London Array, which will be the biggest in the
world when completed, and Thanet underline the real progress that is being
made."
The government has set a target, in its energy review, of a 500% increase in UK
renewable energy resources by 2020.
The environment secretary, David Miliband, said: "We expect this announcement
will be the first of a number of large-scale offshore wind farms in the UK and
will provide real impetus for the continued developments in the offshore
renewable energy sector that will benefit generations to come."
James Smith, chair of Shell UK, welcomed the decision on behalf of the
developers' consortium: "The London Array offshore wind farm will make a crucial
contribution to the UK's renewable energy targets."
Local concerns over increased traffic and noise meant that Swale council blocked
the consortium's planning application for the onshore substation in July this
year.
An appeal was lodged, but development as planned is still dependent on the
outcome of a hearing in March next year. However, the DTI said that today's
conditional consent was a major step forward and was confident that the windfarm
would be built by 2011.
The Royal Societ for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which is fighting the
construction of Britain's onshore windfarm proposed for the Scottish island of
Lewis, has also given its backing to the London Array project, after plans were
modified to protect an endangered bird, the red-throated diver.
Friends of the Earth, which has campaigned for London Array throughout, welcomed
the decision, but warned that the government "must go further" in cutting carbon
emissions.
The £500m Thanet windfarm will be seven miles from north Foreland on the Kent
coast. With 100 turbines, it is expected to be completed as soon as 2008, and
should provide electricity for around 240,000 homes.
Green
light for world's biggest windfarm, G, 18.12.2006,
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,1974690,00.html
This year will be Britain's warmest since
records began, say scientists
· Surge in temperature astounds weather
experts
· Man - not nature - is to blame, researchers say
Thursday December 14, 2006
Guardian
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Britain is on course for the warmest year
since records began, according to figures from the Met Office and the University
of East Anglia yesterday. Temperatures logged by weather stations across England
reveal 2006 to have been unusually mild, with a mean temperature of 10.84C. The
record beats the previous two joint hottest years of 1999 and 1990 by 0.21C.
Temperatures in central England have been
recorded since 1659, the world's longest climate record, and they indicate the
trend towards warming weather across Britain as a whole.
Experts are convinced that the warming can only be explained by rising
greenhouse gases from human activity and rule out the impact of natural
variations, such as the sun's intensity. "Our climate models show we should be
getting warmer and drier weather in the summer, and warmer and wetter in the
winter, and that's exactly what we're seeing," said Phil Jones, director of the
climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia. "I cannot see how else
this can be explained."
Soaring summer temperatures and an exceptionally warm autumn were the main
forces driving annual temperatures to record levels, with July being the warmest
month ever recorded at 19.7C and September an exceptional 16.8C. The summer
heatwave was caused by a high pressure weather system loitering over the Alps
from July to August. Highs are associated with air currents that spin clockwise,
so on the western side Britain was warmed by air sucked up from north Africa.
The high brought chilly northerlies down to east European countries.
In July, temperatures reached 33C (91F) across an area of central and southern
England from Hereford to Bedfordshire, with 29.5C recorded at Prestwick, near
Glasgow, and 30C in Castlederg, Northern Ireland. The heatwave put the
Department of Health on level three alert - one away from emergency levels - and
elderly and vulnerable people were advised to drink lots, stay out of the sun in
the afternoon and wear loose clothing.
In the autumn, predominantly south-westerly air currents brought warm air to
southern Britain from Spain and Portugal.
The record year has astounded scientists. "What's phenomenal about this year is
that some of these months have broken records by incredible amounts. This year
it was 0.8C warmer in autumn and 0.5C warmer between April and October than the
previous warmest years. Normally these records are broken by around one tenth of
a degree or so," said Prof Jones.
A study this year by Peter Stott at the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate
Change found that warming over the past 50 years could only be explained by
climbing emissions of greenhouse gases. A 1C rise in the past five decades was
only reproduced by climate models when human-induced greenhouse gas emissions
were included.
In 2004 Dr Stott and scientists at Oxford University showed that human emissions
of greenhouse gases had more than doubled the risk of record-breaking heatwaves
such as the one reckoned to have killed 27,000 people across Europe in 2003. The
Met Office figures show that 2006 is set to be 1.37C warmer than the mean
temperature logged over the four decades from 1961. The previous two hottest
years, 1990 and 1999, both recorded mean temperatures of 10.63C.
All of the 10 warmest years in Britain have occurred in the past 18 years,
except the fourth hottest, when in 1949 the year's mean temperature reached
10.62C.
Other figures released by the Met Office yesterday reveal that global
temperatures have risen too, with 2006 on track to become the sixth warmest year
since records began in 1850. The latest figures mean that the 10 warmest years
ever have all occurred in the past 12 years. Some scientists already predict a
warmer year in 2007, in large part because of a natural phenomenon called El
Niño in the eastern Pacific, which is expected to have a profound effect on
climate.
Mild warming is not expected to be overly problematic for the UK, but the trend
towards drier summers has already seen a two-year drought devastate groundwater
supplies in southern England, while sudden downpours have triggered flash
flooding. Though scientists are not able to pin a single year's record
temperatures on global warming, the long-term trend towards a warming climate is
now irrefutable, they claim, and should be taken seriously by policy makers.
"The government is making many of the right noises, but we really should be
doing more," said Prof Jones. "We were the first country to industrialise, why
can't we become the first to really reduce our emissions? I despair when I hear
the government talking about extensions to airports, when air travel is the
fastest growing source of greenhouse gases. It's as if there's a belief in
government that this will sort itself out."
This
year will be Britain's warmest since records began, say scientists, G,
14.12.2006,
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1971637,00.html
Your carbon footprint revealed:
Climate change report finds we each produce 11 tons of carbon a year - and
breaks down how we do it
Published: 09 December 2006
The Independent
By Ian Herbert and Jonathan Brown
The first piece of research to calculate a
carbon footprint for the average British citizen has detailed the precise
environmental damage each of us causes.
A study by the government-funded Carbon Trust puts the annual carbon footprint
of the average Briton at 10.92 tons of CO2 - roughly half of the 19 tons of CO2
produced each year by the average American. The research also demonstrates that
our leisure and recreation pursuits - activities as diverse as watching a
football match or taking a trip to the seaside - account for most of our
emissions, rather than a lack of insulation or a predilection for 4x4 cars.
The figures are published at a time when the Government is under intense
pressure to take firmer action on climate change, with a raft of environmental
measures outlined by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, in his pre-Budget report this
week.
The individual impact we make on the climate has tended to be diluted by carbon
emission figures generated by the Office of National Statistics which detail
emissions at source - electricity production, for example, or primary
manufacturing. But the Carbon Trust's figures takes the overall emission figure
and, using a University of Surrey model, reallocates them to the point of
consumption. The data reveals an annual carbon footprint for each of 11 kinds of
consumer need. That is then divided by the size of the population of Britain.
Nearly a fifth of the average British citizen's 10.92 tons of CO2 - 1.95 tons -
is emitted through recreation and leisure: everything from holiday trips by car
and visiting a gym, which has substantial emissions, a trip to a leisure centre
where the swimming pool is heated, watching television and enjoying live evening
sport under floodlights.
The importance of minimising carbon emissions from our homes is also reinforced
by the figures, which show the average British citizen contributes 1.49 tons of
CO2 a year through the heating of his or her home.
In the third category, 1.39 tons of CO2 are generated by food and catering. That
includes everything from emissions generated directly by cooking and food use -
refrigerating, freezing and cooking - plus the indirect emissions from the
production of food and drink products and services. Production includes raw
material cultivation, packaging production, manufacturing, distribution,
disposal and recycling. Together, the top three categories account for a half of
our individual carbon emissions.
Consideration of food miles, use of efficient fridges and rejecting items with
too much packaging can help but the message from the Carbon Trust is clear: we
are not expected to cut out many or all of these activities, but we can think
more broadly about where we might reduce our carbon footprint. " This piece of
work is about making people aware that everything they do involves carbon
emissions and not just flights and heating their homes," said Euan Murray,
strategy manager at the Carbon Trust.
The trust's research reflects the "I Count" ethos of the Stop Climate Chaos
organisation, whose rally at Trafalgar Square last month was the biggest
environmental protest Britain has seen.
"Cynics are gradually accepting that individual actions can make a different
when it comes to tackling climate change," Ashok Sinha, director of Stop Climate
Chaos, said yesterday. "We just have to look at the split in terms of the impact
of individual actions and those of government."
Though individual actions cannot have the impact that reducing aviation fuel use
and power station emissions, the "I Count" campaign's work has been highly
effective in communicating knowledge of the inividual emission savings we can
make.
For instance, 2kg of carbon can be saved for every journey under three miles for
which we walk and don't use the car, while 30kg can be saved by switching the
power off at nights in your house and 2,300kg by switching the office to
recycled paper.
Fourth in the Carbon Trust's list of personal carbon emissions is " household
activities", on which we each emit 1.37 tons a year. That includes lighting,
household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and DIY equipment, the electricity
used to produce household furnishings and electricity used to create the
building itself (from making bricks, to delivering furniture).
We emit a further ton of emissions each year simply by the clothing and footwear
we consume. The figure includes emissions from the chemical processes used to
manufacture and transport the items, emissions from water heating and wet
appliances used in cleaning, drying and pressing clothes
A further 0.81 tons is created by commuting, another category in the data, and
0.68 through aviation. Education accounts for 0.49 tons, including the
production of books and newspapers.
The new footprint has been launched after research earlier this year by the
Carbon Trust showing that two thirds of consumers are more likely to buy
products and services with a low carbon footprint.
The Carbon Trust is working with Walkers, Trinity Mirror, Boots and Marks &
Spencer to undertake a carbon audit of their supply chains. But individual
actions are only a part of reducing carbon emissions. Inherent in the 'I Count'
philosophy is the idea that if individuals take action then Governments will be
morally bound to follow suit.
Carbon scores
Recreation 1.95 tons
The single largest source of emissions. Researchers analysed CO2 caused by
leisure activities plus the production of goods and services. Examples include
seaside trips, which create 200kg per person each year, and TV, videos and
stereos - another 35kg
Heating 1.49 tons
Second biggest source of CO2 resulting from burning of gas, electricity and oil.
It is one of the easiest sectors to reduce, say campaigners. The easiest way is
to turn down heating: every extra degree on thermostat accounts for 25kg of CO2
each year
Food 1.39 tons
Generated by cooking, eating and drinking, including food miles and production
of raw materials. Includes food transport in UK - equivalent to 300kg per person
a year - and driving to supermarkets - another 40kg. A restaurant meal generates
8kg per diner
Household 1.37 tons
This covers non-heating emissions generated in the home from appliances,
furnishings and from the construction of the building itself. A fridge is
responsible for 140kg of carbon annually, while lighting in a house contributes
a further 100kg
Hygiene 1.34 tons
Includes emissions from the NHS and from individuals bathing and washing.
Typical examples include taking a bath instead of a shower, which adds 50kg of
carbon in energy production, or heating up a house's water, which adds 150kg
Clothing 1.00 tons
Energy and emissions generated in producing, transporting and cleaning clothes
and shoes. In a year, the average person will expend 70kg of energy on new
clothes, 100kg by using washing machines and
36kg by using tumble dryers, for example.
Commuting 0.81 tons
Travelling to and from the workplace on both public and private transport
including aviation. Assuming a journey of three miles undertaken five times a
week, the use of a car represents 500kg of energy for the average commuter in a
year
Aviation 0.68 tons
The fastest growing source of CO2 emissions, thanks in part to the boom in
low-cost air travel. A return flight to Malaga, for example, would represent
400kg of energy per passenger. A short break to Prague would expend 220kg of
energy
Education 0.49 tons
These are emissions relating to schools, educational travel, books and
newspapers. School buildings, for example, made up 172kg of energy; books
accounted for 13.6kg; and the 4x4 school run (1.2 miles five times a week during
terms) was 200kg
Phones 0.1 tons
All sources of CO2 emanating from communications including computing. Mobile
phone chargers, for example, accounted for between 35 and 70kg per person per
year. Sending letters, by contrast, represented only 0.01kg
Your
carbon footprint revealed: Climate change report finds we each produce 11 tons
of carbon a year - and breaks down how we do it, I, 9.12.2006,
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2060002.ece
Tornado families wait to see if they can
return home
December 08, 200
Adam Fresco
Times Online
Hundreds of people who were left homeless
after a tornado tore through their street in north-west London causing millions
of pounds worth of damage were today waiting to see when they could return home.
Surveyors began arriving in Kensal Green at 7.30am to look at around 150 houses
that had had their chimneys pulled down, roofs ripped off and windows smashed by
flying debris.
One house had a side wall missing, exposing the rooms inside.
Brent Council said that 24 homes on the streets were uninhabitable and it was
not clear whether the occupants would be able to get back in before Christmas.
Inspector Neil Anderson, from nearby Wembley police station, said assessing the
damage to the properties would continue today, adding: "The most badly damaged
roads are Crediton Road and Whitmore Gardens.
"There is quite a lot of damage, with roof tiles scattered everywhere, and there
are concerns about chimney stacks. In Whitmore Gardens there are trees uprooted
and tiles everywhere.
"Public safety is the main concern at the moment.
The council allowed residents back inside their homes today, except those whose
properties were the most severely damaged, to collect vital possessions.
A strategy meeting, attended by police, the local authority, residents’ groups
and other interested parties, was held today to plan the next move in the
clean-up operation.
During the meeting Ali MacInnes, 40, said the helpline for residents had not
been updated overnight and she was worried about being kept up to date with
information.
Afterwards, Elaine Photiou, a married mother of three, also criticised the local
authority for not keeping householders up-to-date.
She said: “The council are not communicating with everybody. There are different
degrees of problems, from people who have been made homeless to houses filled
with glass and elderly people who cannot get out to get a pint of milk. They all
need to be told the situation and what’s happening."
Many residents spent the night in emergency shelters, hotels, nearby schools or
with relatives.
Eyewitnesses have described how the sky went dark and there was a noise like a
jet engine when the storm hit and a cloud of debris swept through the streets.
Despite the widespread damage in a number of streets, miraculously those hurt
when the tornado struck only suffered minor injuries.
The worst affected roads remained cordoned off this morning and traffic was
being diverted away from the scene of the devastation.
Residents who want to collect belongings will be escorted to their houses by
police.
One woman whose house was destroyed by the tornado said last night that it was
"surreal" to come home to find the exterior wall completely blown off.
Fiona Mulaisho, a researcher and data consultant, was not at home when the freak
weather hit Chamberlayne Road.
She returned to the street after a phone call from her friend and found herself
standing on the street staring straight into her living room.
"I wasn’t there fortunately, but a friend of mine was in, she managed to escape
just in time when apparently a tornado happened.
"I got home and I just happened to stand on the side of the street where I could
see directly into what was once my living room," she said.
"I guess you think it’s just something you see on TV, it’s surreal thinking
that’s my house."
Tornado families wait to see if they can return home, Ts, 8.12.2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2493961,00.html
5.45pm update
Six hurt as tornado strikes in London
Thursday December 7, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Matt Weaver and agencies
A number of houses were so badly damaged by the tornado that struck north-west
London this morning they may have to be demolished, it has emerged.
At least six people were injured and hundreds left homeless when the tornado
swept through Kensal Rise at around 11am, tearing the roofs and walls off
houses.
Eyewitnesses said it lasted for up to 40 seconds; one man said he heard a sound
"like standing behind a jetliner".
Speaking at an impromptu press conference at the scene this evening, Andy Hardy,
the surveyor for Brent council, said some properties in Chamberlayne Road and
the surrounding streets may be too badly damaged to be repaired.
"We've conducted house-to-house assessments with the fire brigade and there are
a number of properties that won't be habitable this evening," he added.
Firefighters have set up floodlights in the affected area to allow them to
continue working through the night.
The council has set up an emergency shelter at the Church of the
Transfiguration, in Chamberlayne Road, and is attempting to find temporary homes
for displaced residents. It has also set up a helpline for local residents on
020 8937 1234.
Colin Brewer, a resident in nearby Trevelyan Gardens, said people had been hit
by flying debris and trees had been uprooted.
A spokesman for the London ambulance service said one man in his 50s was taken
to Central Middlesex hospital with a head injury, while five other people were
treated at the scene for minor injuries and shock.
The tornado forced the evacuation of Manor primary school, also in Chamberlayne
Road. The school's roof was damaged and the roof of its swimming pool ripped
off, but there were no reports of injuries.
Footage from a helicopter above the street showed part of the side of one house
had collapsed into the road. The video, shown on Sky News, revealed that several
homes had lost their roofs.
Resident Daniel Bidgood told the BBC London 94.9 radio station that he had been
in his living room when he heard a sound that was "like standing behind a
jetliner".
"I could see a huge cloud rolling up the street, making this tremendous sound,"
he said. "I went to try to take a picture of it, but a shower of debris smashed
all the windows of my house."
Tim Klotz, who moved into the road recently, said the tornado struck right in
front of his house. "It was like some sort of cyclone," he added. "I was in an
attic room ... there was heavy rain and sleet, and then the wind just really
changed.
"I looked up through a skylight, and debris was falling through the air. I heard
what seemed like large clay dominoes falling, which I think were roof tiles."
UK hit by dozens of tornadoes each year
The tornado is the latest to hit Britain in
recent months, sparking warning that such weather events are likely to increase
in frequency because of global warming.
In July last year, a tornado in Birmingham damaged 1,000 buildings, causing
millions of pounds of damage, while a tornado was reported just off Brighton, on
the Sussex coast, this October.
A mini tornado swept through the village of Bowstreet in Ceredigion, west Wales,
last Tuesday.
Terence Meaden, the deputy head of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation,
said the UK has the highest number of reported tornadoes for its land area of
any country in the world.
Mr Meaden said around 70 had been reported across the UK in 2004 and 2005, with
40 being logged this year.
He added that the UK was especially susceptible to tornados because of its
position on the Atlantic seaboard, where polar air from the north pole meets
tropical air from the equator.
"This is a region where there is often mixing of air, giving rise to the very
unstable conditions that cause a tornado," he said.
Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for Brent South, said she believed the tornado was an
indication that climate change was having an effect. "This is a sign that we
have to take it seriously and we have to look at how we live our lives," she
said. "It is quite devastating."
Six
hurt as tornado strikes in London, G, 7.12.2006,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,1966688,00.html
3pm
Wildlife warning as autumn temperatures hit
new high
Monday November 27, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Matt Weaver
Environment campaigners today issued new
warnings about the impact of climate change on Britain's wildlife as figures
showed this autumn is almost certain to be the warmest on record.
With only three days left until autumn
officially ends, average UK temperatures for September, October and November
look set to break the 12C mark for the first time.
The previous highest temperature for autumn in central England was 11.8C, set in
1731.
A spokesman for the Met Office said it is "virtually certain" that this autumn
will be the warmest for 300 years, and the forecast for the next few days is for
further mild weather.
The last time a seasonal average temperature was broken was in summer 1976, the
spokesman added. He said it is "possible" that 2006 could be the warmest year on
record, despite the cold spring.
"It needs to be a relatively warm December to make the record, but the
long-range forecast is for the mild weather to continue," he said. "It is touch
and go at this stage."
The current annual record for average temperatures is 10.63C, recorded in 1990
and 1999.
Nick Rau, the Friends of the Earth energy and climate campaigner, said this
year's temperatures were not, on their own, enough to prove global warming was
happening.
"All the figures are pointing in the same direction," he added. "The climate is
become increasingly chaotic, and we're breaking record after record. "It is
causing a worrying impact on the natural world, which is now out of sync with a
climate that it has adapted to over millions of years."
Mr Rau said the warmer temperatures were hampering efforts to conserve certain
kinds of wildlife in special protection areas, because species were migrating to
other parts of the country.
He said more catastrophic changes such as the decline in seabird populations
recorded in 2004 when sandeels, their main source of food, were driven away from
the UK coast by rising water temperatures, could take place.
Wildlife warning as autumn temperatures hit new high, G, 27.11.2006,
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1958286,00.html
Britain to push for global climate deal by
2008
Tuesday October 31, 2006
Guardian
Larry Elliott and Patrick Wintour
The UK is to use the warnings of irreversible
climate change and the biggest economic slump since the 1930s, outlined in
yesterday's Stern review, to press for a new global deal to curb carbon
emissions.
The government is urgently pushing ahead on
the issue because the existing Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012, and there is no
binding agreement to extend it. Downing Street is seeking the outline of a
package with the G8 industrial nations and five leading developing countries by
next year, or 2008 at the latest.
Tony Blair will lobby the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to put the need for
international cooperation on climate change at the heart of Germany's G8
presidency when it begins in January.
In a clear sign that the issue unites No 10 and the Treasury, Gordon Brown will
also be pushing for a radical rethink of the United Nations and the World Bank
which, he believes, are not equipped to oversee a carbon trading scheme,
including the principles on which carbon emission allocations would be handed
out to individual countries.
Downing Street sources said the prime minister wanted a framework that included
a target for stabilising CO2 emissions, a global scheme to cap and trade carbon
emissions, a global investment fund for new green technologies and action to
stop deforestation. The agreement would include three countries that were not
part of Kyoto - the United States, China and India.
Launching the review into the economics of climate change by the Treasury
economist Sir Nicholas Stern, the prime minister said: "Without radical measures
to reduce carbon emissions within the next 10-15 years, there is compelling
evidence to suggest we might lose the chance to control temperature rises."
The review said a "business as usual" model could result in temperatures rising
by 5C above pre-industrial levels, leading to a cut of 5-20% in global living
standards.
Mr Brown, who shared a platform with Mr Blair at yesterday's launch, said it was
no longer enough for economic policy to be based around growth and full
employment. "In the 21st century, our new objectives will be threefold: growth,
full employment and environmental care."
Both prime minister and chancellor accepted that green taxes would have to form
part of the solution to global warming. Treasury sources said tackling the
threat of climate change would form the centrepiece of a Brown premiership and
that the chancellor was preparing to reject recommendations from the imminent
Eddington review on transport if, as expected, it proposes widescale
roadbuilding and aviation growth. The review is due to be published before next
month's pre-budget report and is seen inside government as a test of the
government's green credentials.
The Treasury is also sending Sir Nicholas on a tour of China, India, the US and
Australia to set out British thinking and press home the central thesis of his
review - that it will cost the world far more later if it does not spend money
now to avert climate change.
In an attempt to shore up the government's domestic record on climate change,
the environment secretary, David Miliband, rushed out a Commons statement
promising that the government will legislate in the next parliamentary session
to put into statute a long-term goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.
Interim, but not the annualised targets sought by the opposition and some Labour
backbenchers, will be set.
The bill will also set out an independent body - the carbon committee - to work
with the government to reduce emissions. The committee is expected to be
modelled on the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England. The bill will
also create enabling powers to put in place the new emissions reduction measures
needed to achieve these goals.
But, reflecting the speed with which the government has backed the principle of
the bill, ministerial sources were unable to say what sanctions would be imposed
on the British government or industry if targets were not met.
Britain to push for global climate deal by 2008, G, 31.10.2006,
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1935552,00.html
'Almost too late' to stop a global
catastrophe
Published: 30 October 2006
The Independent
By Andy McSmith
The possibility of avoiding a global
catastrophe is "already almost out of reach", Sir Nicholas Stern's long-awaited
report on climate change will warn today. One terrifying prospect is that
changes in weather patterns could drive down the output of the world's economies
by an amount equivalent to up to £6 trillion a year by 2050, almost the entire
output of the EU.
With world temperatures on course to rise by two to three degrees in 50 years,
rainfall could be catastrophically reduced in some of the world's poorest
countries, while others grapple with floods from melting glaciers. The result
could be the largest migration of refugees in history.
These problems will be "difficult or impossible to reverse" unless the world
acts quickly, Sir Nicholas will warn, in a 700-page report that is expected to
transform world attitudes to climate change. It adds: "Our actions over the
coming few decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social
activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those
associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of
the 20th century."
But the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and Environment Secretary, David Miliband,
will emphasise the positive message accompanying Sir Nicholas's stark warnings,
because the report will also say that the world already has the means to avert
catastrophe on this scale, although it will involve the huge expense of 1 per
cent of global GDP (£0.3trn).
"The second half of his message is that the technology does exist, the
financing, public and private, does exist, and the international mechanisms also
exist to get to grips with this problem - so I don't think it's a catastrophe
that he puts forward. It's a challenging message," Mr Miliband said.
Combating climate change could become one of the world's biggest growth
industries, generating around £250bnof business globally by 2050. Sir Nicholas's
report calls for a rapid increase in research and development of low carbon
technologies, and in "carbon capture", which involves putting carbon emissions
into underground storage rather than pumping them into the atmosphere.
Mr Brown will write to EU finance ministers today urging a major expansion of
the carbon trading scheme which penalises businesses that contribute excessively
to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. One issue he will raise is whether
the scheme should be extended to cover aviation, one of the fastest expanding
sources of carbon.
But the prospect of consumers having to pay higher fuel duty and other "green"
taxes threatened to engulf Mr Miliband in political controversy yesterday, after
a letter he wrote to Mr Brown earlier this month was leaked to The Mail on
Sunday.
Mr Miliband urged that when oil prices drop, the tax on petrol should rise so
that the cost to the motorist remains the same. He also suggested a higher road
tax on vehicles such as 4x4s with high fuel consumption, a switch to road
pricing so that motorists pay tax per mile, and that the tax system be used to
encourage people to switch to energy-saving household goods such as more
efficient light bulbs and washing machines.
Mr Miliband insisted his ideas were not intended to give the Government new ways
to raise extra tax. "We're using mechanisms available to government to help
change behaviour. They're not fundamentally there to raise revenue," he told BBC
Radio 4's The World This Weekend.
Mr Miliband's proposals provoked a storm of protest from businesses, but they
also presented a dilemma for the Conservative leader, David Cameron, who has
frequently called for "green" taxes without giving details of what they ought to
be.
Yesterday he said his policies "may mean taxing air travel", but refused to be
drawn further. Interviewed on BBC 1's The Politics Show, he said: "I think green
taxes as a whole need to go up and I think we need to be very careful that the
green taxes we put up aren't too regressive. I don't want to get more specific
than that."
The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, poured scorn on any
suggestion that there is a painless solution to global warming. "Nothing but
hard choices will do," he said.
'Almost too late' to stop a global catastrophe, I, 30.10.2006,
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1940796.ece
Green protesters gather to close 'Drax the
Destroyer'
Published: 31 August 2006
The Independent
By Paul Vallely
In the east of England the skies seem
unnaturally wide. Lift your eyes from the fields of gently waving wheat and
barley and there is nothing to interrupt the broad skyscape. But not in Drax.
Here the largest coal-fired power station in Europe rises from the floodplains
like a great beast, belching steam and gas into the air in an unending stream.
It is as a terrible beast that the plant is seen by the 600 climate change
activists who have for the past week been living in a squatters' camp near by.
Drax the Destroyer they call it, after a comic-book villain whose humanoid body
was fashioned from the earth's soil and empowered with a malign human spirit.
Today, they say, they hope to bring Drax's destruction to a halt.
Drax, which lies just to the south of the Yorkshire town of Selby, last year
burned 9 million tonnes of coal. It emitted 20.8 million tonnes of carbon
dioxide, making it the largest single polluter in the UK. It produces almost 4
per cent of the nation's CO2, as much as a quarter of all the nation's cars put
together.
Which is why it has been targeted in a "mass day of action" aimed at shutting
the plant down today. The authorities, determined to stop them, have flooded the
area with more police than this part of the world has seen since the
epoch-changing miners' strike of 1984-85.
What is happening today marks a turning point too. For it is the first
large-scale direct action protest aimed at combating climate change. It could
become the template for things to come.
For the past six days the 600 activists at the camp set up on farmland near the
Barlow Common nature reserve have been undergoing disobedience training focusing
on what they call "tools and tactics for blockading". Their plans are thought to
include a mass invasion, trespassing into dangerous areas of the plant in an
attempt to force the management to shut down the generators which supply seven
million of the UK's homes.
Police are responding seriously to the threat to the plant. It produces 7 per
cent of the nation's electricity and a shutdown could lead to power cuts.
The police presence could not be more visible. Uniformed officers in luminous
yellow jackets are patrolling the perimeter fence of the power station, and also
those of the nearby Eggborough and Ferrybridge power plants in an area the
protesters have dubbed Megawatt Valley - a 10-mile stretch of the Humber, Ouse
and Aire floodplains that houses some of the biggest power plants in Britain.
Private security guards with dogs stand sentry at the perimeters. Police
officers on horseback patrol the complex. Police vans with riot visors circle
the roads, as do marked police video vehicles. More are parked prominently
behind hedges in the woodland all around Drax. Officers count and photograph
protesters entering the Climate Action camp and, in Selby town centre, they
monitor the coming and going of the camp shuttle-bus, which runs on bio-fuel.
Requests for police leave have been turned down. Officers have been drafted in
from South Yorkshire, Durham and as far away as Hampshire to enforce the plant's
High Court injunction banning protesters from its land and a nearby footpath.
Copies of the document, with a map showing its extent, are fixed to the Drax
perimeter fence at 50-yard intervals.
Today's action marks a step change in concern over climate change. Scientists
and green lobby groups have been vocal in their concern that there is no bigger
issue. Even measured mainstream commentators like David Attenborough have
described it as the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. But until now
there has been no large-scale direct action.
One of the groups behind the camp, Reclaim Power, has staged some smaller
direct-action stunts. On Tuesday, 20 of its members blockaded the entrances of a
nuclear power station in Hartlepool by locking themselves to welded tubes. In
July, three of its members scaled a tower at Didcot power station and unfurled a
50-foot orange-and-black-protest banner.
But nothing has hitherto been done on the scale of the 600 who have gathered in
the Drax camp, and campaigners claim that extra protesters will arrive today to
take the numbers to 2,000.
The protesters are a wide-ranging coalition. There are smart, new tents among
the travellers' benders in the camp. Many of the protesters have taken time off
work to join the action. They include scientists, engineers, computer
programmers, students and parents whose children are still in the school summer
holidays. There was even a woman in a hijab and full Islamic dress in one of the
marquees erected in the midst of the camp. "The majority have impressed us as
sincere, responsible people," said the local police chief, Deputy Chief
Constable Ian McPherson.
What is concerning the police is the group of anarchists at the core of the
protest. Many of these are veterans of violent May Day protests, the
anti-globalisation riots in Seattle and the British anti-road protests of the
1990s.
For many of these, climate change is just another battleground in the struggle
against capitalism. They are not merely campaigning for low-carbon energy
generation but against all economic growth. They have upped the emotional
temperature with talk of "climate criminals" and comparing those who run power
stations with mass murderers. Police are investigating the chopping down of
poles carrying power lines at Fryston further down "megawatt valley".
None of this is going down well with the locals, for whom Drax provides 625
jobs. The chairman of Barlow Parish Council, Stephen Penn, has branded the
activists, who were leafleting workers as they left the plant on Tuesday, as
"eco-bullies". He has dismissed a letter sent to residents by the campaigners to
explain their actions as "childish" and " insulting".
Workers at the plant are looking on somewhat bemused. Drax, they say, is the
cleanest and most efficient coal-fired power station in the UK, emitting less
CO2 per unit of electricity produced than other coal stations. Why are the less
efficient generators not the target, they wonder?
"We are just as committed to action on climate change, but working from the
inside," says Melanie Wedgbury of Drax. She has plausible responses to many of
the protesters' points on Drax's legal challenge to badly-formulated current EU
carbon emission levels, on how changes in government rules on Renewables
Obligation Certificates have forced reductions in the co-burning of eco-friendly
bio-mass fuels and on why dodgy gas and oil suppliers in Russia and the Middle
East mean coal must stay part of the UK energy mix.
But today's protest, she concludes, is not about debate on detail. It is about a
large symbolic gesture. On that, at any rate, many of the Climate Action
protesters will agree.
Readying for eco-battle
Laura Yates Environmental activist from London
My particular concern is the need for decentralised energy. With coal-fired
plants like Drax, two-thirds of the energy produced is wasted through lost heat.
But because it's a long way from a centre of population that can't be harnessed
because you can't transport heat very far. We need lots of small power stations
near where people live. Alternative systems are well advanced in places like
Denmark and the Netherlands. We're not saying shut all the plants like Drax
tomorrow but we need to phase them out.
Stephen Stretton Cambridge physics graduate
Tony Blair's target on curbing emissions is based on the science of 1990 not
that of 2006. This year we've seen the evidence that the Earth is becoming
effectively ill. We've already reached the tipping point on the permafrost. It
will come in the Amazon in the next three to five years.We need a 90 per cent
reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. That means less air and car
travel, electric cars, banning night flights, congestion charging, changes to
domestic heating and electricity from renewable sources.
Alex Harvey Post-graduate student from London
I helped to set up the site and it's been really exciting to watch it grow into
this village, with us living together sustainably. Climate change is one of the
issues that I'm really concerned about so this was a natural thing for me to get
involved with. It's inspiring to see people use these new technologies, like a
compost toilet, and realise that it's not all bad. There's also the workshops,
which combined with the action, is a chance for people to come here and
hopefully they will leave with a few skills.
Matthew Robbins Post-graduate student from London
I wanted to take part in the camp because over the past few years I've taken
notice of the reports in the media about climate change and you see figures like
150,000 people die each year because of climate change. Some countries are
polluting very heavily and the people who suffer are largely blameless. It's
actually people who have to go out and change the world. I think people are
excited about the day of action against Drax because one of the main aims of the
camp is to shut down the Drax power station.
Almuth Ernsting Environmental activist from Aberdeen
Since 1998 I have had a deepening sense that climate change was something really
bad. I joined Friends of the Earth and did all the conventional campaigning like
writing to MPs, and I still do. I think that's important. But it does not feel
enough. Climate change is not just another environmental issue like GM crops.
It's a life and death issue. This direct action is necessary because we've got
to get the urgency across. What we're doing [against Drax] is symbolic of what
everyone should be doing.
Green
protesters gather to close 'Drax the Destroyer', I, 31.8.2006,
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1222823.ece
Revealed: how nation's countryside is
losing hundreds of its species
Published: 24 June 2006
The Independent
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
The vanishing rate is scarcely believable. Well over 200
British insect species have become extinct in the past 50 years, while some
counties are seeing a species of wildflower disappear nearly every year.
Yet the astonishing scale of decline in Britain's insects and plants, now
becoming clear to specialists, is not yet remotely appreciated by the British
public or the British Government.
It is a decline that is unrelenting. Only yesterday came news that the stunning
and very rare scarlet malachite beetle pictured on our front page - a priority
species for conservation action- has suffered a massive fall in numbers at its
main site in Essex, and may be heading for oblivion. For unknown reasons, in the
past three years its population has shrunk by more than 75 per cent in the
wildflower meadows where it lives - which are themselves gravely threatened.
Today The Independent highlights the massive plunge in numbers of British
insects and plants - two sectors which between them account for more than 95 per
cent of our wildlife, yet which have lagged far behind birds and mammals, the
so-called "charismatic megafauna", in public support.
While creatures such as golden eagles and red squirrels benefit from huge,
instinctive public sympathy and affection, and consequent conservation action on
their behalf, many people still think of insects as pests and wild plants as
weeds, without recognising their importance. In reality, they are the crucial
bases of the ecosystem which allows all life to function, and in Britain, they
are in trouble as never before.
An Independent investigation has pulled together evidence from the scientific
literature to show the true extent of the problems confronting them. And today
we also focus on two young, relatively small wildlife groups - Buglife, the
Invertebrate Conservation Trust, and Plantlife, the Wild Plant Conservation
Charity, which are battling to do something about it.
For every copy of the newspaper sold today, we will donate 20p to be split
equally between them. The money raised would be swallowed up by some of our
larger conservation organisations, but for Buglife and Plantlife it can make a
real difference in their efforts to halt the slide to extinction of so many
species.
It is now clear that much of our less-publicised and less-visible wildlife is in
real crisis. In the past 100 years, three breeding birds have disappeared from
Britain - the Kentish plover, wryneck, and red-backed shrike.
But about 20 plant species have gone extinct, and for insects the figure is
astonishing - at least 200 species have gone in the past half century alone, and
many more are clearly on the way out unless drastic measures are taken.
Roger Key, English Nature's leading insect specialist, said that the British
insect species which have disappeared in the past 50 years include 88 beetles,
56 butterflies and moths, 20 bees, 17 fly species, 14 bugs and hoppers and 12
wasps.
"The true figure is almost certainly higher," Dr Key said. "There may well be
things that have gone extinct that we do not know about." Even more striking is
the decline in abundance of invertebrate species which are not yet extinct.
"Insect decline as a whole has been phenomenal in recent years," Dr Key said.
"Numbers have gone down all around the country. For example, people of my
generation remember that driving through the countryside at night in the summer
you would encounter a 'snowstorm' of moths. But that moth 'snow' is never seen
now."
But when one looks at local rather than national extinctions, the picture is
much more severe. Many British counties have lost 50 species or more.
The naturalist and writer Peter Marren pioneered this "horizontal" look at
wildflower decline by analysing county floras (plant catalogues), and the work
has been taken forward by Kevin Walker of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
His surveys show that since 1900, Northamptonshire has seen 74 plant species go
extinct; Sussex 69; Essex 68; Cambridgeshire 66; Leicestershire 60, and
Bedfordshire and Durham 55 each.
"The list of county extinctions means in some cases one species goes extinct
every year or so on average, while in the less damaged counties the rate is
closer to one species every other year, or every three years," Mr Marren said.
"So 'one species per county per year' is a bit of a catch-phrase, but it's not
far out."
Buglife and Plantlife yesterday welcomed The Independent's initiative - for
drawing attention to the problems facing British insects and flowers as well as
for the much-needed cash injection. "We're absolutely delightedThe Independent
has taken this step," said Matt Shardlow, Buglife's director. "We will use the
money to continue to raise awareness of the problems facing insects and other
invertebrates, and to help conserve them. It's a credit to the newspaper that it
has highlighted this critically important conservation issue."
Victoria Chester, Plantlife's chief executive, said: "The contribution from
Independent readers will be the equivalent of approximately 10 per cent of our
annual budget for direct conservation action in England ... It will fund four
species for a year through Plantlife's Back from the Brink programme, such as
the bright native gilly flower and the Deptford pink. All of these plants are in
desperate need of conservation action."
Revealed: how
nation's countryside is losing hundreds of its species, I, 24.6.2006,
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1096047.ece
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