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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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