Renewables good, fossil fuels bad... unless, of course, renewables begin to take up more and more land in order to meet our energy needs. Paul Kingsnorth adds fuel to a tricky debate.
… | 1st April 2008 News Renewables Nimby Wind Solar Biofuels Land Use Equity Climate Change Dams Tidal Solar Wind Climate Change Climate Change Natural … yet fully have grasped. The battle is over a wind farm – potentially the world’s biggest – …
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond faces criticism over his decision to allow offshore oil drilling at the same time as pledging Scotland could achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025
… Change Renewables Oil Energy Natural World windturbinesoffshore.jpg Scotland is on target … for electricity by 2050 through offshore wind and tidal power. However, green … READ MORE... NEWS ANALYSIS Offshore wind: can we afford it? High costs of offshore …
Two critical markets are pursuing a stressed planet’s renewable resources, presenting policymakers with complex and difficult choices. The Worldwatch Institute’s latest look at Earth’s “vital signs” sees dangerous times ahead as the “sustainability crisis” unfolds. China Dialogue's Maryann Bird investigates
… use is up (as is, more encouragingly, wind and solar power), while carbon emissions … the encouraging signs was the growing use of wind power, spurred by concerns about climate … energy security. Outside of Europe – where wind capacity rose 19% last year -- Asia …
Stuck for ideas when you're stuck with the kids? Here are five outdoor activities from the Wildlife Trusts' new book '152 Wild Things to do'
… Kite flying is an excuse to get thoroughly windswept and to lose yourself watching clouds … shape-shift across the sky. Wait for the wind to pick up, then walk to the top of the … good gust and then launch your kite into the wind. Feel immense pride as it glides through …
The biggest and most indiscriminate killers of wildlife on the planet, commercial fishing fleets have brought us to the edge of a maritime ecological disaster, with fish stocks facing extinction all around the world.
… is the beauty. Along the peninsula, the road winds through fishing settlements known as … maples and yellow birch glow against the wind-stunted fir and spruce. Seawards, in the … tell you that the Bonavista peninsula is windy all year but never gets particularly hot …
Scientists mapping the effects of deforestation in the Amazon are increasingly concerned that we are reaching a tipping point – when the forest will start to die back of its own accord and rain, currently generated by the Amazon forests, will stop falling, not just in neighbouring countries but as far afield as the United States and South Africa.
… brought in from across the Atlantic. Trade winds that sweep close to the surface of the … process. When passing over the warm ocean the winds pick up massive quantities of water … being drawn across the Atlantic in the trade winds, and so the cycle is complete. Every …
Who are we? We are the people who are ready to fight back, writes Derrick Jensen. The people who no longer live in hope that the Earth will be saved, but in the certainty that we will save her. We are activists, survivors, lovers and fighters. And we say: the destruction will stop.
… the shark. We speak for the soil, for the wind, for the snow, for the ice caps. We speak … voices that are no more and no less than the wind moving in and out of our bodies, over our …
To find out about habitats, species and ecosystems are faring, don't just look, writes Ella Browning. Listen! Many species are hard to see, but have distinct auditory signatures, and advances in electronics suggest a future of landscapes 'wired for sound' feeding data streams for ecological analysis, not to mention detecting criminal activities from 'black' fishing to illegal logging and hunting.
… prey or even just find their way around. Wind whistles, rain hammers and streams … natural but non-biological sounds like rain wind and waves (geophony). Humans often don't …
Thanks to the efforts of local residents, Ennerdale has been restored to its natural glory. Matilda Lee takes up the villagers' inspiring tale
… streetlights makes a night drive through the winding mountainous roads to Cumbria’s Low … own definition of wild from unpredictable wind, to the wandering sheep to the bits of …
Next week the indigenous peoples of the Yukon challenge their Government in the Territory's Supreme Court, writes Jill Pangman. At issue, its plans to open the Peel watershed, a vast unspoilt ecosystem rich in wildlife and cultural meaning, for industrial development.
… in the translucent shallow waters of the Wind River. A great arc of limestone peaks … outfitter in the Bonnet Plume, Snake and Wind River drainages since the 1960's, and has …
An ancient grassland SSSI at Rampisham could be saved following a government decision to put an 'hold' notice on the West Dorset Council's planning consent for a huge solar farm, writes Martin Harper. Now Eric Pickles must 'call in' the case to a public inquiry, or set a truly dreadful precedent for our most precious nature sites.
… from the exposed nature of the site, open to wind, rain and the fierce summer sun. The … that this decision needed challenge. As with wind farms the RSPB is in principle supportive … of renewable energy developments. But as with wind farms our line is simple - they must be …
Want to mix a little conservation with your holiday? Volunteering on Skomer Island, a haven for seabirds and nature lovers, is a rewarding experience says Eifion Rees
… of Jack Sound can be choppy, with northerly winds and bad weather meaning cancelled … against the island's rocky shores and the wind is a constant presence, the towering …
The seabirds of Shetland and Orkney are in ‘deep trouble’, according to the RSPB. Could this be the first real indicator that our lives are about to change quickly and dramatically as a result of climate change?
… quickly and dramatically if we don’t act now. Wind farms are part of the potential solution, … of structures in the sea; structures such as wind or wave farms. And guess which arm of …
Talis Kalnars was a pioneer of 'continuous cover' forestry in Britain, writes Phil Morgan. His woodlands were not only beautiful but profitable, as he nurtured the 'natural capital' of the forest ecosystem, and only harvested the dividend of high value timber.
… structure you can block off cooling winds, increase the effective area of … structure is greater resilience against the wind. I have had one even-aged hectare plot … the woodland system or exposing the trees to windthrow. He pointed to an area across the …
Daniel Crockett guided a 300km walk along ancient horse routes through the Westfjords, a remote, depopulating region of Iceland rich in nature, myth and magic. The wild, non-human environment enters our beings, he writes - and thus infected, the onus is on us to spread the message far and wide.
… travel beneath bird cliffs. Curious, fickle winds stir in the fjords, jerked this way and … up on top, lie underneath it, go up into the wind and sing songs about it. A pair of …
The EU is already paying farmers and landowners for creating and maintaining valuable habitats, write Dominic Hogg & Luke Dale-Harris. But could the UK do better by creating markets in 'ecosystem services' that would put financial value on clean water, key wildlife habitats, endangered species and precious landscapes?
… of artifice as a Constable painting or the Wind in the Willows. And that artifice has …
Ample peer-reviewed science says that the number one threat to condor survival is lead poisoning from eating bullets and pellets in carcasses, reports Dawn Starin. But the powerful NRA is fighting hard against bans on lead ammunition.
… largest land bird in North America. Riding on wind currents to heights of 15,000 feet and …
While other countries apply themselves to environmental challenges from climate change to nature protection, Russia - with its massive wealth of nature and natural resources - is stubbornly refusing to take part, writes Lucy E J Woods. And as the economy declines, the pressure is on: to ignore environmental regulations, and clamp down on environmental defenders.
… Soviet Russia was pro-renewables. The first wind turbine was up and running in the 1940s, …
If we are ever to bring bovine TB under control in Britain's cattle herd, we must begin with the main disease reservoir, writes Tom Langton: the cattle themselves. The insistence on culling badgers has little to do with disease control, and everything to do with the short term economics of the beef and dairy industries, unwilling to sacrifice an iota of production in the interests of a real solution.
… Can it be ten years since the RBCT began winding up its field work and an Independent …
Britain's garden designers just keep getting better as this year's Chelsea Flower Show proved. And as Jeff Holman discovered, there’s plenty more where that came from
… floating garden to Stockton Drilling’s ‘Winds of Change’, this year’s Chelsea Flower …
Recent reports of the death of the oceans are overstated. Our oceans remain very much alive and intensely dynamic ecosystems. All of which can help to ensure their long term health.
… the slow and silent pace of life propelled by wind and waves. The two issues Macfadyen …
In an exclusive extract from her new book, Seedbombs: Going Wild with Flowers, author and gardener, Josie Jeffery, explains the seedbomb phenomenon
… there is risk of them being blown away by the wind, making them unsuitable for launching … over the fences or out of car, train or bus windows. They provide the accuracy needed to … charm. ✱ They can be used in home gardens, window boxes or the veggie patch. ✱ Allotments …
On paper, Romania has a thriving wolf population. But Luke Dale-Harris finds that the official view is based on erroneous figures from hunting associations who are, bizarrely, responsible for wolf conservation. The truth is that the wolves are at serious and growing risk.
… bottles hang from trees, clattering in the wind as warning to large carnivores. Hefty …