Tag: environment

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Climate change targets in the country with 76% of the UK’s new tree planting – ‘Why don’t they do it as well as the Scots?’

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By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS Severin Carroll in the Guardian today, with a worried John Swinney photo: Scotland is likely to miss its legally binding climate target by up to 20m tonnes, according to official data seen by the Guardian. The Scottish government set itself the world-leading target of reaching net zero – the point where any excess carbon emissions are soaked up by trees, peat or carbon capture – by 2045. Successive first ministers, including Nicola Sturgeon and the current first minister, John Swinney, have described Scotland repeatedly as a world leader on climate and stated their … Continue reading Climate change targets in the country with 76% of the UK’s new tree planting – ‘Why don’t they do it as well as the Scots?’

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Drax the Destroyer of Worlds, Jackie Baillie, £10 exrtra on your bill and the UK’s biggest CO2 emitter

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC North Yorkshire, today: A UK power station that has received billions of pounds in government subsidies has failed more than once to report it burned wood from primary forests, BBC News has found. Drax Power Station, which burns wood pellets, is required to report where it sources its wood and whether it is from natural, previously untouched forests. BBC Panorama and BBC News has previously reported that Drax held logging licences in British Columbia, Canada, and used wood, including whole trees, from primary and old-growth forests for its pellets. These are natural forests that have … Continue reading Drax the Destroyer of Worlds, Jackie Baillie, £10 exrtra on your bill and the UK’s biggest CO2 emitter

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Will Anas Sarwar follow Sir Keir Starmer on this too – radioactive emissions through your windows and now floodwaters on your doorstep?

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dottie, again, for alerting me to this. In the Guardian today: More than 100,000 new homes will be built on the highest-risk flood zones in England in the next five years as part of the government’s push for 1.5m extra properties by the end of this parliament, Guardian analysis suggests. Building on areas with the highest risk of serious flooding is supposed to be discouraged. Experts say development should be avoided unless absolutely necessary because there is a significant chance of regular deluges, which will flood the properties, cause hundreds of millions of pounds of economic … Continue reading Will Anas Sarwar follow Sir Keir Starmer on this too – radioactive emissions through your windows and now floodwaters on your doorstep?

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As BBC Reporting Scotland find someone else to moan about the A9 dualling, what they don’t want you to know – it’s much safer than it was and the dualled bits are no more safe

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland – a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson By Professor John Robertson OBA This is just another story fed directly to Reporting Scotland but not making it onto the BBC Scotland website, to keep an SNP-bad narrative alive. This time it’s about a letter, yes just the one, from one … Continue reading As BBC Reporting Scotland find someone else to moan about the A9 dualling, what they don’t want you to know – it’s much safer than it was and the dualled bits are no more safe

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In its 45 year lifetime how many childhood cancers were caused by refuelling at this Ayrshire nuclear power station?

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By Professor John Robertson, OBA Thanks to JB for researching this. Hunterston B Nuclear power station, in North Ayrshire, Scotland, was in operation for nearly 45 years, from February 1976 until November 2021.1 In that time, there will have been around 30 re-fuelling instances2 and up to 300 inspections.3 During these events, there are spikes of radioactive emissions. Researchers in Germany, published this in 2011: According to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) in Germany, the normal emission concentration during the rest of the year is about 3 kBq/m³, but during inspection/refuelling (in the afternoon and evening … Continue reading In its 45 year lifetime how many childhood cancers were caused by refuelling at this Ayrshire nuclear power station?

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The lure of a negatively framed headline about Scotland’s environment to conceal what the expert actually said

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By stewartb So a highly experienced journalist with the Guardian – its Scotland editor no less – demonstrates how to manufacture a negative frame for a news story.  As you read on, is the editor revealing that it’s OK for journalists supposedly serving the public in Scotland to mis-report – to  manipulate – the content of an interview in order to create a damning headline? As it’s well know that headlines impact readers, is this a blatant example of seeking to influence by deception? Note the headline (from January 19, 2025): ‘We are resting on our laurels’: Scotland faces significant challenge … Continue reading The lure of a negatively framed headline about Scotland’s environment to conceal what the expert actually said

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There is no evidence of ‘regular’ care in extra beds and corridors in Scotland as BBC Scotland make up the numbers from a survey where less than 1% bothered to respond across the UK

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Professor John Robertson OBA In a 457 page report, On the frontline of the UK’s corridor care crisis, from the RCN UK, the word ‘Scotland’ appears only twice in the text and, other than that, as the page header of a section where there are anonymised statements from an unspecified number of respondents. I am not, of course, saying that events do not happen in corridors and that care never takes place there, in Scotland but I am saying that this report does not provide evidence of it happening regularly as BBC Scotland claims today. The report only suggests ‘more than 5 … Continue reading There is no evidence of ‘regular’ care in extra beds and corridors in Scotland as BBC Scotland make up the numbers from a survey where less than 1% bothered to respond across the UK

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FACTCHECK – The MV Glenn Sannox HAS a smaller carbon footprint than the old ferry taking 41% more cars for only 34% more emissions* on the second greenest form of transport in the world

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PA MEDIA By Johann Von Robberstein, TuS International Transport Correspondent, O-Grade Mathematics, Grangemouth High School, 1967. Many thanks to JB for alerting me to this. Only yesterday, BBC Scotland were so delighted to tell us: The carbon footprint of a long-delayed new “green” ferry will be far larger than the 31-year-old diesel ship that usually serves the route between the Scottish mainland and the island of Arran. An emissions analysis by CalMac has calculated MV Glen Sannox will emit 10,391 equivalent tonnes of CO2 a year compared with 7,732 for MV Caledonian Isles. *Even if we accept the above figures, … Continue reading FACTCHECK – The MV Glenn Sannox HAS a smaller carbon footprint than the old ferry taking 41% more cars for only 34% more emissions* on the second greenest form of transport in the world

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After 14 years of Tory rule in England and 17 of SNP rule in Scotland, 22 times as many properties at risk of flooding….in England, of course

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By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Independent and others, today, a warning that 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are at serious risk of flooding. According to Sepa, the figure in Scotland is 284 000: https://www.sepa.org.uk/environment/water/flooding/flood-risk-management-plans/#:~:text=Flood%20risk%20management%20plans%20are,as%20at%20risk%20of%20flooding. Crudely, 22.2 times as many, but with 10 times the population, all things being equal, you might expect there to be around 2.8 million homes and businesses at risk of flooding in England but it’s 6.3, on the way to three times as many. Why might this be? As far back as 2006, researchers at the English College of Estates Management, whose patron was … Continue reading After 14 years of Tory rule in England and 17 of SNP rule in Scotland, 22 times as many properties at risk of flooding….in England, of course

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Sewage dumping – Scotland’s water regulator is clean

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By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above and this shocking statement: The government, its water regulator and the Environment Agency could all be taken to court over their failure to tackle sewage dumping in England after a watchdog found failures to comply with the law. An investigation by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) found Ofwat, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA) all failed to stop water companies from discharging sewage into rivers and seas in England when it was not raining heavily. The OEP was set up in 2020 to replace the role … Continue reading Sewage dumping – Scotland’s water regulator is clean