Tag: environment

14 Comments

BBC Scotland inadvertently reveal SNP success in new flood defences by not finding any ‘anger’ or ‘despair’ here

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson OBA BBC 1 today is headlining ‘anger’ and ‘despair’ across England and Wales as flood defences in areas long run by the Conservatives and Labour, fail to protect. Readers will remember how enthusiastically Reporting Scotland teams have visited flood victims in the past to get them to blame the Scottish Government for their problems. That sort of thing has really ebbed in recent years and today, BBC Scotland has nothing. They clearly can’t even one local to complain. SEPA has put flood warnings in place but nobody is reporting any bad news. You can be sure BBC Scotland … Continue reading BBC Scotland inadvertently reveal SNP success in new flood defences by not finding any ‘anger’ or ‘despair’ here

7 Comments

Raw sewage including floating turds found in Scottish Labour communications pipe as official stats prove 90% of England’s water is dirty and 90% of ours is clean

johnrobertson834

Chris Murray, new Labour MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (left – easy next to Ian Murray (?))eager to please, finds this maybe sewage (right) on the Portobello Beach: From the National, yesterday: NEW: A Labour MP has been told to ‘fact check first’ by members of the public after he falsely claimed there was a sewage leak in his constituency. Chris Murray had posted an image of what he believed to be a sewage leak at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh. https://x.com/ScotNational/status/1852341572257640502 Keir is desperate to balance out the raw sewage discharges between England and Scotland but it’s not easy. … Continue reading Raw sewage including floating turds found in Scottish Labour communications pipe as official stats prove 90% of England’s water is dirty and 90% of ours is clean

6 Comments

Will Scottish Labour MPs challenge cuts to nuclear safety which will have ‘devastating consequences’ for their own constituents?

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson OBA From the Guardian today, the above, and: Rachel Reeves has been urged not to carry out mooted funding cuts for nuclear sites including Sellafield amid safety concerns, as it emerged that the number of incidents where workers narrowly avoided harm had increased at the Cumbrian site. The GMB union has written to Reeves, the chancellor, before Wednesday’s budget to raise safety concerns after rumours emerged that the budget for the taxpayer-owned Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) could be reduced, which could result in cuts at nuclear sites including Sellafield and Dounreay in Scotland. In the letter to Reeves, seen … Continue reading Will Scottish Labour MPs challenge cuts to nuclear safety which will have ‘devastating consequences’ for their own constituents?

20 Comments

Question Time lies don’t hold water…..Scotland does not have the same water pollution issues as England factchecked by AI

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson: Not for the first time, BBC Question Time panellists tried to excuse problems in England by pointing, ill-informed, to comparable problems in Scotland. Last night, pressed on the notion of re-nationalising water, both Labour and Conservative panellists suggested things were the same in Scotland. Let’s ask Google’s fancy new AI search facility. Asked ‘Scottish Water sewage fine‘ and the wee lad (I call AI that) says confidently – ‘Scottish Water has been fined a number of times for sewage-related incidents, including‘ before going on to tell us the last time was 2020, £19 000 and the only … Continue reading Question Time lies don’t hold water…..Scotland does not have the same water pollution issues as England factchecked by AI

10 Comments

Not climate change this time – Brechin’s flood misery in 2023 and the next time can be blamed on private landowners burning grouse moors upstream

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson BBC Reporting Scotland this morning and all day today are back on the October 2023 Storm Babet and the flood damage to Brechin, with locals complaining of a ‘ghost town‘ and an implied accusation of the Scottish Government not having done enough to prevent the floods in the first place or to help locals in the subsequent year. There is only a simple acceptance here of climate change and the need for more flood defences, to stay in the same place. There is no mention of research suggesting another, more scientific and forensic explanation and an identifying … Continue reading Not climate change this time – Brechin’s flood misery in 2023 and the next time can be blamed on private landowners burning grouse moors upstream

2 Comments

FT asks ‘What can England learn from Scotland’s community land buyouts?’ Increased by nearly 800% after SNP boost but were stalled in Tory England?

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson Behind a paywall for me but already answered here, I hope, and by the Guardian in January 2024: In the Guardian today: Local communities, often in deprived neighbourhoods, are buying up derelict and unused property for village shops, play parks, community centres and, in one case, a film set for war movies, using buyout powers introduced by the Scottish parliament since its foundation in 1999. The land reform debate is often overshadowed by the buyouts of islands or totemic Highland estates. Yet those sales have ground to halt, partly due to competition from private buyers pursuing speculative investments using woodland … Continue reading FT asks ‘What can England learn from Scotland’s community land buyouts?’ Increased by nearly 800% after SNP boost but were stalled in Tory England?

2 Comments

Texas takes fight against massive federal Sellafield-like nuclear dump proposal to highest level – supreme court

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Texas Tribune, two days ago: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a yearslong dispute over a plan to ship highly radioactive nuclear waste to rural West Texas, a case that could have sweeping implications for how the nation deals with a growing stockpile of waste generated by nuclear power plants. A company called Interim Storage Partners has long pursued the plan to move “high-level” nuclear waste from power plants across the nation to an existing nuclear waste storage facility in Andrews County, on the Texas-New Mexico border. Last year, in a Texas-led lawsuit, a federal … Continue reading Texas takes fight against massive federal Sellafield-like nuclear dump proposal to highest level – supreme court

21 Comments

“If the technologists and scientists involved in disposal [of nuclear waste] are so confident in the safety then they should do it in the cities which are demanding the energy,”

johnrobertson834

When I moved to Ayr in 1984, locals were protesting British Nuclear Fuel’s plans to bury nuclear waste under a hill only 15 miles to the south of the town. The protest worked and the waste is still being dumped at Sellafield in Cumbria. However, Ayr remains on the atmospheric and coastal water flows from it, the most toxic site in Europe, and local shellfish, estuary and beach sediment, bottom feeding fish and animals that feed on them, are more radioactive than EU legislation on consumption would allow. Scottish Labour, doing what they’re told, are in favour of the new … Continue reading “If the technologists and scientists involved in disposal [of nuclear waste] are so confident in the safety then they should do it in the cities which are demanding the energy,”

6 Comments

Latest University of California research with 300 000 nuclear workers reinforces fears of positive link with leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and multiple myeloma as in WHO study and research in Germany and Scotland 

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson Today, from the University of California in Irvine, USA: A major update was made to the International Nuclear Workers Study (INWORKS), an international epidemiological study of workers in the nuclear sector to assess their risks of cancer and non-cancerous diseases.  The researchers assembled a cohort of more than 300,000 radiation-monitored workers from France, the United Kingdom and the United States, employed at nuclear facilities between 1944 and 2016. The study revealed a positive association between prolonged low-dose exposure to ionizing radiation and mortality from these haematological cancers. https://www.newswise.com/articles/new-uc-irvine-study-provides-crucial-insights-into-radiation-exposure-s-impact-on-cancer-risk The University then tries to play down the risk, … Continue reading Latest University of California research with 300 000 nuclear workers reinforces fears of positive link with leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and multiple myeloma as in WHO study and research in Germany and Scotland 

2 Comments

A flood of water complaints in England and Wales but barely a dribble in Scotland

johnrobertson834

In the Guardian today: The number of customer complaints that were unable to be resolved by water companies in England and Wales has risen by almost a third to the highest level in nearly a decade. There was a 29% increase in 2023-24 in cases escalated to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) by households that failed to achieve a resolution from their supplier, the watchdog said. The jump has been fuelled by consumer discontent over sewage spills, billing mistakes and problems with water meters, with customers having exhausted their water supplier’s two-stage complaints process by the time they turned to the CCW. Its annual report … Continue reading A flood of water complaints in England and Wales but barely a dribble in Scotland