News wrap
Ruth Harwood, Tue 17 Jun 2008
The big green stories of the week and how they were reported in the press
Cameron's green agenda
David Cameron has vowed that his “green” agenda is still key to the Conservative party. The Tory leader promised that "he will not abandon his commitment to green policies in light of the global economic downturn", writes Andrew Sparrow in the Guardian.
In a speech to environmentalists, Cameron argued that those who believe green policies such as high emissions targets are unaffordable in current economic conditions have got it wrong. In addition, he called for "rules ensuring all new coal-fired power stations include measures to trap CO2 and to encourage the development of greener cars," says BBC News.
Cameron asserted that Britain must wean itself off fossil fuels and claimed that green policies will be at the heart of everything a future Conservative government does. "The truth is it's not that we can't afford to go green - it's that we can't afford not to go green," Rosa Prince for the Telegraph quotes the Tory leader as saying.
WWF-UK welcomed Cameron's announcement on environmental policy, considering it a "big step forward for controlling climate change. Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats now accept that new coal-fired power stations without carbon capture and storage have no place in the UK if we are to fulfil our role as a global leader in the fight against climate change," said Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF-UK.
But Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth was less convinced, as the Telegraph reports: "[Tony Juniper] would not believe in the Conservative leader's commitment to the environment until it stopped following the government's drive towards nuclear fuel and promised more to cut carbon emissions."
Climate protest goes off the rails
Climate Camp protesters stopped a coal train heading to Drax power station on Friday, prompting Bibi Van der Zee in the guardian.co.uk blog to question whether this kind of action is a step too far.
She acknowledges that this kind of protest “demonstrates that the Climate Camp bunch have got nerve and daring, and that their planning is absolutely meticulous. Secondly, it says very loudly We Are Serious.” But Van der Zee goes on to ask whether it is the right tactic: “even though Climate Camp have been extremely careful to make sure that no one got hurt, and that ordinary people are not being delayed … some people will think this is a step too far”.
The protesters claim that: “to tackle the threat of global warming effectively Drax should be shut down immediately [insert link here], as it is the largest single greenhouse gas polluter in the country”, writes Hannah Strange in The Times.
Martin Wainwright reports in the Guardian that the protest was criticised by Charles Hendry, the shadow energy minister, who said: "This disruption won't help save the planet … We must be careful not to jeopardise our current energy security."
Jossc’s Greenpeace blog provides context to the protesters’ actions: “The penny is dropping that the government and the big utilities and energy companies are not serious about tackling climate change”.
Jossc goes on to praise the campaigners: “there are some new kids in town with different ideas … who are not afraid to engage in a little strategic direct action to get their point across. Long may it continue.”
The campaigners promise more protests later this summer.
Green light for small wind farm
Plans for a wind farm with 20 turbines, enough to power a third of the homes in Argyll and Bute, have been approved by the Scottish government. As environment correspondent Jenny Haworth points out in The Scotsman, this means that the “Scottish Government is more than two-thirds of the way towards meeting its target of 31 per cent of renewable energy provided by renewable sources by 2011”.
Green Power Ltd applied for consent to construct and operate a wind farm comprising 24 turbines. It later revised the development layout to “address concerns, about the visual impact of the site and the safety of birds”, reducing the number of turbines to 20, reports BBC News.
The finance secretary, John Swinney, who approved scheme described it as “another step towards making Scotland "the green energy capital of Europe", reports Haworth.
The Scottish government is currently processing 37 renewable project applications: 28 wind farms, eight hydro projects and one wave project.
Shark decline
Conservationists have been examining historical fishing records, which reveal that Mediterranean sharks are in dramatic decline because of overfishing. The study follows a recent warning from researchers that half of the world’s sharks face extinction.
“Sharks are particularly vulnerable to overfishing because they grow slowly, reproduce late and produce few young. In the past they were considered pests,” explains Ian Sample, science correspondent for the Guardian.
This has produced a knock-on effect to the ecosystem, resulting in a “a rise in jellyfish numbers and algae concentrations in the Mediterranean [which] may be partly due to changes in the ecological balance because of falling numbers of predators,” Richard Owen reports in the Times.
The significance of these findings is made clear by the BBC’s environment correspondent Richard Black: “Studies on historical populations are rare … but when they do plot declines, that should lead to listing as a threatened species,”
Conservation groups are concerned that Mediterranean sharks at risk of extinction if catch limits for commercially fished species are not imposed.
Margaret Bowman, director of Lenfest Ocean Program, who produced the report said: “We understand too little about the consequences of losing top predators to take shark declines so lightly,” reported Richard Black.
Ecologists are now campaigning for the EU to enforce catch limits in the Mediterranean.
And finally...
A pair of eager beavers brought to Britain from Europe last year have built the first dam in England for centuries. Even better news is they are believed to be about to breed.
This is encouraging news for otter populations: “In the UK, there are believed to be only 15 pairs in existence. The native population was hunted to extinction over 400 years ago,” explained BBC News.
It is still uncertain whether the beavers are rearing young, but the signs are encouraging. John-Michael Kennaway, who owns the estate where the pair have built their 6ft dam, said:
"the female seems keen to stay close to their home … this might suggest that she has young inside, but we won't know until at least late July when they're ready to come outside," writes Urmee Khan in the Telegraph.
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