UK population growth needs to be reversed Ecologist 9th June, 2010 Sustainability watchdog argues for an end to larger family tax benefits and a bigger political debate on reducing population growth and its impact Population growth is not just a ‘poor world’ problem and needs to be reversed in the UK too, says sustainability NGO Continue Reading →
The oil industry’s decommissioning costs will dwarf those of nuclear power. The money being made now should be put aside to meet them.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 8th June 2010
Has BP ever made a profit? The question looks daft. The oil company posted profits of $26bn last year(1). There’s no doubt that BP has been pumping money into the pockets of its shareholders. The question is whether this money is what the company says it is. BP calls it profit. I call it the provision the firm should be making against future liabilities.
Despite an angry letter from two US senators(2) and a warning from Barack Obama about spending big money on their shareholders while nickeling and diming coastal people(3), despite the fact that it has no idea what its total liabilities in the Gulf of Mexico will be, BP seems to be planning to pay a dividend this year. It’s likely to amount to more than $10bn. As the two senators noted, by moving money “off the company’s books and into investors’ pockets”, BP “will make it much more difficult to repay the US government and American communities”.
The world’s population is growing, and many scientists and conservationists say that the natural environment is deteriorating as a result, but the relationship between environmental problems and human population growth is complex and not fully understood. WaterspoutsThere seems to be some confusion over whether the Lennox Head event was a Tornado or waterspout. Wikipedia defines today’s event as a Tornadic waterspout. There are also non-tornadic waterspouts. See Wikipedia for full explanation of these events. They are very active around the Florida Keys area,which could cause problems in the Continue Reading → Offshore energy report could dash defeatist arguments against the rocksOffshore energy report could dash defeatist arguments against the rocksA new report on the capacity in the UK for offshore wind, wave and tidal power should be used to put pressure on ministers • Offshore green energy could make UK net exporter by 2050
Wind turbines in the sea near Northumberland. But the best wind resources are usually way out of sight of land. Photograph: Don Mcphee/the Guardian Whenever you suggest that renewables could one day supply a large proportion of our electricity, scores of people jump up to denounce it as a pipedream, a fantasy, a dangerous delusion. They insist that the energy resources don’t exist; that the technologies are inefficient; that they can’t be accommodated on the grid; that the variability of supply will cause constant blackouts. I suspect that no amount of evidence will sway some of these people. There’s a large contingent which seems to hate renewables come what may. However often you point them to papers showing how a European supergrid, which could one day stretch from Iceland to North Africa, allows us to balance renewable resources against each other, ensuring constant supplies; however often you explain the potential of smart appliances, a smart grid and new energy storage technologies, they just clamp their fingers in their ears and shout: “No, no, no!” Overseas student numbers plummetOverseas student numbers plummet Andrew Trounson From: The Australian May 28, 2010 12:00am INTERNATIONAL student enrolments could drop by as much as 20 per cent next year, costing the economy up to $2 billion, as a consequence of the Rudd government’s “abrupt” tightening of immigration requirements and rising competition from North America and Britain for Continue Reading → | ||||||
