Other Comments
HS2: Why low speed rail - or closure - is vastly preferable to high speed
B W Edginton
Politicians, 'dynamic' business and the media (even if it denies it) all want high speed rail. But they are missing the point , says B W Edginton. After all, who wants to visit London, Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds?
Matthew Parris recently wrote a piece for The Spectator called No-one regrets a railway once it's built. The title should read, No-one regrets a railway once it's closed. More precisely, No-one should regret a railway once it's closed. A large number of railways do close, sooner or later. Some of them should make pretty good long-distance footpaths, though few of them are given the chance. It's a legal condition of being British: Trespassers will be prosecuted.
There's no unanswerable case for Low speed rail travel - it all steals time and money - but it's certainly vastly preferable to the imposition of High Speed travel by terminally ill politicians. Ultimate closure is the best case for both.
I've had personal experience of closed railway lines - in Worcestershire, Shropshire and Connemara. Neen Savage to Cleobury North, Craven Arms to Bishop's Castle, Clifden to Galway. I walked the...
Read More...
The great badger and bovine TB cover-up: is it really a health risk?
Ed Hamer
With controversial plans to allow farmers to cull badgers later this year, Ed Hamer asks whether Bovine TB is really a health problem for either cows or humans
Last week’s decision by Defra to license the culling of badgers in two pilot areas in an attempt to control the spread of Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) has again raised a collective gasp of dismay from the public. Indeed few people could have missed the media circus that accompanied the coalition’s original consultation on the plans launched in July 2011.
The idea of this, our most cuddly of protected mammals being rounded-up and shot was evidently too much to bear for many commentators; Labour, The Green Party and Sir David Attenborough among them, who have come out fighting to condemn the cull.
And although the campaign to “Can the Cull” has cleverly exploited the public’s appetite for defending a cute, furry animal, it has also spectacularly missed an opportunity to highlight the real reason that TB is crippling the UK’s beef and dairy farmers.
There is little doubt that there is currently a bovine TB epidemic...
Read More...
UK needs scientific research into agroecology not GM
Patrick Mulvany
The greatest challenge facing agricultural scientists is how to work with farmers producing more ecological and healthier food - not GM, argues Patrick Mulvany, chair of the UK Food Group and advisor to Practical Action
At the start of 2012 we should be energised by the news that BASF, the German chemical and seeds giant, has decided to pull out of genetically modified plant development in Europe. This is testament to the effectiveness of public pressure and 'another nail in the coffin for genetically modified foods in Europe,' as Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth said.
But beyond successes in GM skirmishes, we should remind ourselves why we should be optimistic about the defence of the food system which feeds most people in the world, and thus be clearer about the research policies and practices needed to enhance it.
• The dominant food systems in the world are local, small-scale and organic food webs, not giant supermarkets chained to industrial commodity production that is destroying livelihoods, local markets and the environment. 70 per cent of the global population eats local food...
Read More...
Getting a good deal from the Green Deal
Hannah Kyrke-Smith
The Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) have the potential to reduce emissions from the UK’s ageing housing stock, create warmer homes and new jobs, says Hannah Kyrke-Smith. But will there be enough uptake?
The Green Deal and the ECO are the government’s flagship carbon reduction policies, aimed at reducing carbon emissions from homes and small businesses. We are now one step closer to their launch this autumn, with the government’s consultation on the policies now closed.
Greg Barker, the minister for climate change, said in the Guardian earlier this month that the Green Deal will be ‘the biggest home energy improvement programme of modern times’, but we’ve been around the country and found that on the ground there is still a big risk of low uptake unless the needs of local economies and the fuel poor are ignored.
Our travels took us three constituencies where we ran workshops with MPs and local stakeholders: Hexham with Guy Opperman MP, Bristol North West with Charlotte Leslie MP, and Redcar with Ian Swales MP.
These are three distinct constituencies, differing in character and the issues they face. Hexham is a...
Read More...
Risks and uncertainities accompany efforts to reduce Britain's carbon
Matthew Leach
A low carbon Britain rests on the electrification of our energy supply. But new research by the University of Surrey has highlighted the challenges facing government, market and civil society-led pathways to reducing emissions
Plans for a low carbon future in the UK all point one way: an 'electrification' of energy supply, with a new infrastructure fuelled by a more flexible range of low carbon sources. Most tangibly this would involve electrification of space heating for buildings (primarily through the use of heat pumps), an electrification of road transport through the use of electric and plug-in hybrid cars, and a power sector 'decarbonising' rapidly through renewables (largely offshore wind), newbuild nuclear and possibly carbon capture and storage.
An electrified future brings new risks and uncertainties. Efforts at meeting the tough emissions targets in the Government’s Low Carbon Transition Plan will be doubly exposed to all the implementation issues around low carbon electricity generation technologies, questions about the financing of infrastructure investment, as well as uncertainties for the new electricity market reforms and. There will also be new 'demand-side' issues...
Read More...
Latest Entries
- HS2: Why low speed rail - or closure - is vastly preferable to high speed
- The great badger and bovine TB cover-up: is it really a health risk?
- UK needs scientific research into agroecology not GM
- Getting a good deal from the Green Deal
- Risks and uncertainities accompany efforts to reduce Britain's carbon
Previous Articles...
Members
