Tag: environment

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Scottish recycling rate reaches all time high

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By Professor John Robertson Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this. From SEPA on 26 March 2024: Scottish recycling rate reaches all time high as Scottish households, businesses and public services recycle 62.3% of all waste in the latest data (2022) from Scotland’s environmental watchdog, SEPA.  The recycling rate increased 5.3% from the 57.0% rate in 2021 – reflecting economic recovery from the pandemic and an increase in the proportion of construction and demolition material recycled.  Scotland continues to reduce its reliance on landfill – with only 23.2% of all wastes ending up in landfill – an all-time low.  … Continue reading Scottish recycling rate reaches all time high

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America’s Sellafield and the near impossibility of proving a cancer is the result of life in a ‘contaminated environment’

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By Professor John Robertson I hadn’t heard of an equivalent nuclear-reprocessing plant to Sellafield – ‘the most toxic site in Europe’ – only a few miles from the Scottish border and with regular leaks of radioactive material into the air and water flows heading north, constantly. According to US writer Shannon Cram, author of the just published Unmaking the Bomb, above, most Americans are unaware that a site, like Sellafield, had produced weapons-grade plutonium and now houses the majority of the nations’ high-level nuclear waste. Hanford Nuclear Reservation is eerily placed, like Sellafield, about as far away from the Capital … Continue reading America’s Sellafield and the near impossibility of proving a cancer is the result of life in a ‘contaminated environment’

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No evidence of deliberate misreporting of overflow data by Scottish Water 

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By Professor John Robertson Typically Anglocentric or should that be Britocentric (?), the Guardian has the above headline and: Exclusive: Whistleblowers point to broader sewage scandal, with wastewater systems manipulated to divert sewage. Whistleblowers say UK water companies are knowingly failing to treat legally required amounts of sewage, and that some treatment works are manipulating wastewater systems to divert raw sewage away from the works and into rivers and seas. It is well known that water companies are dumping large volumes of raw sewage into rivers and seas from storm overflows but an investigation by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations reveals that the … Continue reading No evidence of deliberate misreporting of overflow data by Scottish Water 

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News you won’t hear on climate change – actually doing something?

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You won’t see this on BBC Scotland – Murrell! Murrell! Sturgeon! Murrell, more ferry delays…. Nor on BBC Scotland Business – climate change targets scrapped (lie), bank closures, shouting at fish markets….no Murrell….isn’t embezzlement a kind of business? From the Scottish Government today: The Scottish Government is stepping up action to tackle climate change with a suite of new policies on transport, including increasing the number of electric vehicle chargers, and land use. The increase in charging points comes as part of a wider climate package that also includes an integrated ticketing system which can be used across all public transport. … Continue reading News you won’t hear on climate change – actually doing something?

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Scotland’s cancer incidence level is much higher than the average in every part of world – SNP MP exposes likely cause in pollution from the most dangerous nuclear site in Europe

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Apologies for posting and then quickly deleting this yesterday. I made a mistake with the stats and know from previous errors that one wee slip and all your other work is cast into doubt. I’m 72, on my own, still impulsive after all these years and breengin’ to the end. It’s sorted now. Two recent reports in the National (links below), by Ayr MP Allan Dorans, have exposed levels of radioactivity in seafood, other wildlife and in river estuary sediment, from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria, described recently in the Guardian as ‘Europe’s most toxic nuclear site‘. These … Continue reading Scotland’s cancer incidence level is much higher than the average in every part of world – SNP MP exposes likely cause in pollution from the most dangerous nuclear site in Europe

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After 60 years of nuclear power generation and unknown further decades to make the sites ‘safe’ Ayrshire does not need the new risk and contamination Scottish Labour offers it

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The Labour candidate for Central Ayrshire, Alan Gemmell, is a ‘proud GMB member.’ The GMB union helped found [i] the Labour Party, funds it [ii] and is the union for nuclear industry workers. Gemmell is a certain recipient of that funding. The other two candidates, Irene Campbell for North Ayrshire where the Hunterston power station is located and Elaine Stewart for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, will be obliged to follow the UK Labour line supporting the building of new stations. Hunterston A was commissioned in 1964 and taken out of service in 1990 but full clearance of the site will … Continue reading After 60 years of nuclear power generation and unknown further decades to make the sites ‘safe’ Ayrshire does not need the new risk and contamination Scottish Labour offers it

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Why are radioactivity in food safety standards in Japan up to 100 times more protective of consumers than they are in the UK?

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In the National, today, form the above SNP MP, Allan Dorans and extended and well-researched piece on the presence of radioactivity in seafood and larger mammals on the Ayrshire coast, resulting from leaks in the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plan in Cumbria, just down the coast and subject to tidal flows. Here’s the chunk that most made me think: In 2016, researchers at Glasgow University reported ‘enhanced’ radioactivity levels, in shellfish catches, at a number of coastal locations in Cumbria, near the Sellafield plant, and on the west coast of Scotland, including the village of Maidens, in my Ayrshire constituency.[i] The … Continue reading Why are radioactivity in food safety standards in Japan up to 100 times more protective of consumers than they are in the UK?

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Labour MP claims ‘UK’ has 50% of Europe’s tidal energy – will he be mocked for dodgy statistics

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Readers may remember Andrew Neil in the Express mocking a claim in a National headline which had mistakenly left out the word ‘stream’ from ‘Scotland has more tidal power capacity than the rest of the world combined’ There was a bit of a pile-on, as expected. I clarified the claim here: Yesterday in the House of Commons, Mick Whitely (Lab) claimed: The UK, more than any other country in the world, is uniquely positioned to harness the power of its tides. Ten per cent of the world’s tidal resources, and half of Europe’s, are found in Britain.  Tidal Range Energy Generation … Continue reading Labour MP claims ‘UK’ has 50% of Europe’s tidal energy – will he be mocked for dodgy statistics

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England – 307 flood warnings and 500 flood defences delayed and no Labour promise to help

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Imagine this was in Scotland. According to BBC Politics, but not headlined anywhere else: Rishi Sunak is being urged by opposition parties to do more to help areas in England affected by flooding. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated following heavy rainfall, with flooded roads and railway tracks causing travel disruption. Labour said the PM should set up a “taskforce” to manage the response, and set out what support will be available. He is also coming under pressure to visit flood-hit areas. The Liberal Democrats said he should go to affected areas to “see for himself the devastation caused by … Continue reading England – 307 flood warnings and 500 flood defences delayed and no Labour promise to help

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It’s a no brainer – public assets should be publicly owned

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Leah Gunn Barrett The Horizon-Fujitsu Post Office scandal is rooted in the UK government’s 2015 privatisation of a public service that had been state-owned (in England) for almost 500 years. It’s what happens when essential public services are sold off to private companies because the government is in thrall to an ideology that prizes profit maximisation over people.  The failing UK has zealously pursued this ideology to its natural conclusion – the complete collapse of public services and the immiseration of the people they’re intended to serve.  Essential services – health, water, energy, transport, mail, telecommunications – are more expensive … Continue reading It’s a no brainer – public assets should be publicly owned