News in brief: 2nd November - 8th November 2020

The UK's carbon-free future

It is thought that the UK will need specific rules if it is to meet its carbon reduction targets in the future; suggestions are that households appliances will need to have strict standards in energy efficiency, all new homes should be carbon neutral, and new cars should be electric or hybrid

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Raw sewage dumped onto UK beaches

It has become apparent that water companies in the UK have been dumping raw sewage onto bathing beaches around 3,000 times a year; this occurs as a result of overflows after heavy rainfall and there are concerns about the health implications this may have on beach users and sealife

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Danish mink under threat

The Danish government has announced that all mink must be culled after it was suspected that a strain of covid has mutated and passed between cages minks; this is devastating for the mink industry in Denmark but scientists believe that if this does not happen then it will undermine the efforts to find an effective covid vaccine in the future

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News in brief: 28th September - 4th October 2020

Trees felled due to ash die back
Ash die back is a fungus that affects ash trees and has been spreading throughout the UK for some years; more ash trees than ever will be felled this year as the dry spring conditions and lockdown delays have allowed the fungus to grow and spread

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Plastic straws now officially banned

A ban on single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds has now come into force in England; it is hoped that the ban will save the use of 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton buds every year 

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Air pollution falls in London

The air quality in London has significantly improved since 2016 due to the banning of high-pollution vehicles in central London and the introduction of cleaner vehicles, particularly clean buses on the most polluted routes; thousands of people were thought to have been dying early due to high levels of pollution, and although improvements have been made there is still more progess to be made in the capital 

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News in brief: 9 March - 15 March 2020

Coronavirus pandemic
The global spread of the coronavirus has led to worldwide panic and recent lockdowns of major cities  in Europe; many flights are being cancelled and people are being barred from entering foreign countries

Pressure to plant more trees
The government has promised to plant 30 million trees a year in a bid to become greener and take carbon dioxide out of the environment; however, it is important that tree planting is done responsibly as new saplings need to be cared for and there may be conflict with landowners who want to use the land for a different purpose

Sea ice melting faster than ever
Records show that Greenland and Antarctica are losing mass six times faster than they were in the 1990s, losing 6.4 trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017; this has implications for sea level rise around the world which could cause catastrophic flooding

Allowing the roadsides to grow wild
Modern farming methods have reduced the number of wild flower species what grow alongside the edges of fields or beside roads; new projects that are encouraging the growth of wild flowers are seeing a substantial increase in the number of plant, animal and insect species that are growing in these areas and are raising the general biodiversity level

Could Coronavirus help fight climate change?
It appears that the changes we are making as a result of the coronavirus could be having a positive knock-on effect on carbon emissions; with people self-isolating and not going into work, traffic pollution and emissions from industry have lowered, with significantly decreased air pollution being recorded in Italy and China 

News in brief: 10 February - 16 February 2020

Storm Dennis hits the UK
The UK has suffered further high wind speeds and extremely heavy rainfall especially in some areas asa result of Storm Dennis; people have had to evacuate their homes in parts of south Wales and Herefordshire due to rapidly rising floodwaters

Coronavirus continues to spread
China reported a rapid increase in the number of cases of coronavirus this week, although this seems to have plateaued over the last couple of days; current figures now state that 68,470 are infected with 1,663 dead and 9,326 recovered

Antarctica is warming
Antarctica's temperature has been recorded as above 20 degrees celsius for the first time; scientists have described this as being incredibly abnormal and that it is a worrying indicator of what is happening to climate around the world

Sydney bushfire concert
A large concert has been held in Sydney, Australia to raise money to help communities that have been devastated by the recent bushfires; the concert aimed to raise around A$10 million which will go towards supporting rural fire services and wildlife that have been affected

The UK leads the fight against illegal logging
As part of UN climate talks later this year, the UK will lead the way in addressing the issue of illegal logging and deforestation; cutting timber down is a significant source of carbon emissions and also destroys the habitats of the wildlife that live within it

News in brief - Wednesday 11th September

Student climate strikes
Students around the world are planning to strike on 20th September in protest of the lack of action taken by world leaders to address climate change; the Trades Union Congress and Amnesty International have spoken of their support and are encouraging workers to stop working for a time in the day to mark their protest

The fight against malaria
Experts are suggesting that it may be possible to rid the world of the mosquito-bourns disease malaria by 2050; it would be an ambitious task and cost a lot of money (around $6 bn), but it would mean that half a million people (mainly children) each year who die from malaria will now live healthier and malaria-free lives

Many still missing after Hurricane Dorian 
Around 2,500 people have been registered as missing after Hurricane Dorian swept through the Bahamas last week; 50 people are known to have died, but many more are feared dead or may possibly still be hiding in shelters in remote parts of the island complex