Bearing in mind that many scientists are wary about making long term predictions about climate change, and with a spate of exaggerated headlines trumpeting dangerous climate change science, the need to for accurate scientific evidence into climate change has never been more important. But it now seems that the effect of methane on climate change has been seriously underestimated as scientists have failed to take into account the gas’s reaction with airborne particles called aerosols according to new research from NASA. The ever nearing Copenhagen 15 conference on climate change conference will be looking primarily at carbon dioxide emissions but other greenhouse gases which include methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons are also important in climate change – and some are far more dangerous than CO2 and even more worrying is the fact that they may have more negative impacts than had been previously thought. Drew Shindell, a climatologist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York explained that molecules of methane gas, the second most important greenhouse gas “undergo chemical changes and once they do, looking at them after they’ve mixed and changed in the atmosphere doesn’t give an accurate picture of their effect”. Dr Shindell said “For example, the amount of methane in the atmosphere is affected by pollutants that change methane’s chemistry, and it doesn’t reflect the effects of methane on other greenhouse gases,” said Shindell, “so it’s not directly related to emissions, which are what we set policies for.” Molecule for molecule, methane was thought to be 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, but focus has remained on CO2 as it is s much more abundant than methane and the predicted growth rate is far greater. However the research shows that Methane has 33 times as much effect on climate change compared to CO2, up from 25 times used in standard estimates, although methane breaks down much more quickly than CO2 (which is also largely unreactive). Dr Shindell told the Times newspaper (October 30th 2009) “for long term climate change there is no way round dealing with CO2 – it’s the biggest thing and lasts hundreds of years – but if we were to have a concerted effort to deal with non CO2 we would have a very large impact on the near term”. And whilst Dr Shindell agreed that current efforts should focus on CO2, the new research also casts doubt on current predictions on rises in global temperature. Current IPCC predictions are that the world will warm between 1.1C and 6C by 2100. 2C is seen as the global tipping point after which irreversible damage will be done to the planet. The research also casts doubts on whether carbon trading schemes will be effective if they focus only on CO2. Sources of methane include agriculture, gases escaping from landfill and fossil fuels. According to Professor Mark Maslin of UCL, one source is likely to be the release of the planet’s methane hydrate deposits. These ice-like deposits are found on the seabed and in the permafrost regions of Siberia and the far north. “These permafrost deposits are now melting and releasing their methane,” said Maslin. “You can see the methane bubbling out of lakes in Siberia. And that is a concern, for the impact of methane in the atmosphere is considerable. It is 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.” A build-up of permafrost methane in the atmosphere would produce a further jump in global warming and accelerate the process of climate change. Even more worrying, however, is the impact of rising sea temperatures on the far greater reserves of methane hydrates that are found on the sea floor. It was not just the warming of the sea that was the problem, added Maslin. As the ice around Greenland and Antarctica melted, sediments would pour off land masses and cliffs would crumble, triggering underwater landslides that would break open more hydrate reserves on the sea-bed. Again there would be a jump in global warming. “These are key issues that we will have to investigate over the next few years,” he said. “If we control methane, which the U.S. is already starting to do, then we are likely to mitigate global warming more than one would have thought, so that’s a very positive outcome,” Dr Shindell said. “Control of methane emissions turns out to be a more powerful lever to control global warming than would be anticipated.”
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=27355
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/06/global-warming-natural-disasters-conference
Whilst there are ongoing environmental worries about the Severn Tidal Barrage, plans to build the ten-mile barrage across the River Severn look to be stumbling because of Government cost cutting. The barrage could generate an astonishing 5 per cent of all of Britain’s electricity each year, but at a cost of £23 billion to build, the project is set to be indefinitely postponed early next year when ministers announce whether to commit fresh public funding, according to Westminster insiders. This strikes us here as a bit daft (to say the least). As a nation we rely on imported coal and gas to fire our polluting power stations and we are still hugely reliant on imported oil as a fuel source – so anything the United Kingdom can do to become more self sufficient in energy is surely an economic and political advantage – and that is without the benefit to the environment and the fight against climate change. Now I was just thinking, this will cost £23 billion and will give us 5% of our country’s electricity (from the tide) for the forseeable future – and by coincidence the Treasury is planning £25 billion in ‘quantitative easing’ in the near future – printing kore money really. So could we nominate a good home for the money ……? Anyway, the news will be a blow for advocates of the scheme, including the Sustainable Development Commission. They argue that it would help Britain to meet its ambitious EU targets of generating 30 per cent of UK electricity from renewable sources by 2020 but clearly the scheme will require large amounts of public money within the next two or three years. The Guardian reports Matthew Bell, of Frontier Economics, the author of a report on the costs of the Severn project, saying: “Given that the Government has only a limited amount of money and some very ambitious renewable energy targets, it wants to make sure it gets the best value it can — and the Severn Barrage is simply more expensive than any other form of renewable generation.” A conventional barrage would have a capacity of 8,640 megawatts and an estimated output of 17 terawatt hours a year — about 5 per cent of present UK electricity demand. But such a link would involve moving 18 million tonnes of seabed to create a level surface and require 13 million tonnes of concrete and aggregates and in July, the chairman of the Environment Agency, Lord Smith of Finsbury, delivered a blow to the plans, hinting strongly that the agency would oppose proposals for the barrage if environmental concerns are not addressed.
This story can be found at 
The Lovebox Festival in London and the Isle of Wight’s Bestival are the latest organisations to sign up to the 10:10 climate change campaign which asks members to cut their carbon emissions by 10%. The organisation now has more than 38,000 individual members and 1200 companies and organisations including Tottenham Hotspur football club, Adidas, Microsoft UK and 56 local councils. Both festivals say they are looking to reduce their carbon emissions with Lovebox’s Tom Findlay saying “I was very fired up by the whole notion of the 10:10 campaign” adding “a lot of it is just enormous practical common sense” but cautioning that ”there is no one fundamentally brilliant idea to solve it”. Lovebox are looking at better transport solutions, using sustainable power and providing water fountains to make a change and reduce emissions. At Bestival, organiser and radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank said “we will be looking to make cuts in emissions by creating incentives to use public transport” – the festival will also be using more solar power and local biofuels as well as promoting car sharing. Bestival won an ‘oustanding’ Greener Festival Award in 2009.
A massive oil spill from a ruptured well 125 miles off the North coast of Australia is proving to be a massive threat to wildlife. The Montara rig, operated by PTTEP Australia, ruptured on August 21st and millions of litres of oil are continuing to pour into the Timor Sea at a rate of anything up to 2000 barrels a day in an environmental disaster that threatens birds, mammals, fish stocks and other marine life. The oil slick already covers 5,800 square miles (15,000 square kilometers) and environmental scientists say that even when the rupture is healed, the effects of the spill will take many years to unfold.
In just 42 days time 20,000 delegates from 192 countries will converge on Copenhagen for the “15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”. The Conference, which runs from December 7th to 18th has been described as the ‘last chance’ for world leaders to seal a deal prevent catastrophic climate change - aiming to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and prevent a rise in global temperatures of more than two degrees – which is seen as the ‘tipping point’ above which irreversible damage including rising sea levels, floods, droughts and storms would be the norm. The pre-Conference talks have currently hit an impasse as the world’s biggest emitter, the USA, and the worlds massive new developing nations, in particular India and China. The USA has put climate change on the ‘back burner’ as it deals with the recession and President Obama’s healthcare reforms whilst China and India are pressing for recognition of their need to develop their economies. The USA has not agreed carbon reduction targets for 2020 as yet and India and China do not want to gtart reducing emissions until 202. Meanwhile scientists warn that urgent action and massive reductions are needed now. A successful Cop15 could define the global industrial, commercial and environmental future of the planet. But it is a last chance saloon and a failure to make sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions could result in a very different world to the one we know today.
The Guardian (24.10.09 Love thy neighbourhood, and Grand designs on living in perfect harmony) reports on the growing trend for communal living with a modern twist, where individuals, couples and families live a low carbon, simpler existence with like minded people and neighbourly help always on hand but with their own space. Welcome to the world of co-housing and community living projects which originally dregdges up the vague memory of hippy collectives or religious cults living in (un) blissful (dis) harmony.
When lobsters try to get out of the water and onto the beach and octopuses try and scale fishing lines it does seem to suggest that their home – the sea – might be less than hospitalble. In fact it seems things have gone badly wrong with our oceans and climate change may have created some 400 ’dead zones’ around the world where a lack of oxygen kills of almost all living things. Many of the dead zones are close to the shore where fertilisers and sewage create the problems, but a number of new off-shore dead zones are causing increasing concerns amongst US scientsts who are particulalrly concerned about a new dead zone off the coast of Oregon – with oxygen starved waters have wiped out life with underwater remote camera footage showing ”piles of Dungeness crabs, dead tube worms, none could flee”. Whilst there have always been some dead zones of the west coast of continents where nutrient rish waters combine with sunlight to allow a bloom in microscopic animal life that strips away oxygen, the Oregen dead zone is well out to sea – and there are other dead zones accross the North Pacific – and the same is happening off Nambia and South Africa where ocean dwelling animas are trying to escpape the oxygen starved waters.
Plans to build a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent have been shelved for at least three years. The German owners E.ON has delayed the scheme until 2016 because the recession has caused a drop in demand for electricity. However, a “clean” coal plant at Hatfield Colliery in Yorkshire is in pole position to receive a £165 from the European Commission to build a power plant with carbon capture and storage capabilities.
The UK Government has announced the final details of the Carbon Reduction Commitment due to start next year with Energy and climate change minister, Joan Ruddock setting out final details of the plan after finishing a consultation with business and other organisations affected. The scheme also has a new name (!!!) and is now the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, to reflect the fact its main focus in to cut power use and therefore emissions. The scheme targets all large energy users including big business and government departments where those organisation’s annual half hourly metered (HHM) electricity use is at least 6,000 Megawatt hours (MWh) – typically those that spend £500,000 a year on electricity. The new scheme means that these organisations have to (only) report emissions in the first year (2010/11), then in following years they will have to buy allowances matching their emissions from energy use and then surrender them by the end of the year. In the second year (2011/12) extra weighting will be given to organisations ‘taking action early’ to improve energy efficiency. Organisations which use ‘onsite’ renewable energy like wind turbines or solar panels by publishing the increased carbon savings from such measures will get increased ‘recognition’ under the CRC. Mrs Ruddock said: “The UK is leading the way in tackling climate change and in the move to a low carbon economy” adding “Organisations and the public sector must play a central role including all government departments, regardless of size” saying “Large organisations have huge potential to achieve cost-effective energy efficiency savings, there are clear benefits from positive, immediate action to tackle climate change. Investment that takes place in the next few decades will have a profound effect on the climate in the second half of this century and in the next” adding that ”the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme will help organisations to become more energy efficient, to save significant sums of money on fuel bills, and to show customers, clients and competitors that their organisation is a leader in tackling climate change.” The Environment Agency will publish the qualification and registration guidance for potential CRC participants by November.
The government of the Maldives is holding an official meeting underwater to highlight the threat of climate change. The low-lying country is one of those most at risk from rising sea levels and in attempt to flag up the issue, the cabinet planned to converse using divers’ hand signals while President Mohamed Nasheed, a qualified diver, is to sign a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. The President also plans to hold a press conference underwater following the meeting.
The People of The Forest: 20 years of images from the Rainforest Foundation’
The clearing and burning of rainforests is destroying the world’s ‘lungs’, threatens numerous beautiful species and is responsible for 
A revised version of the invaluable guidance Costing the Earth is now available on the Magistrates’ Association website at 
Economics today -sorry! But it is quite interesting to see that a combination of factors have put fresh wind into the fortunes of companies involved in renewable energy. The Wilder Hill New Global Innovation Index has reported a rise of 39% in a basket of shares spanning global wind, solar, fuel cell and biomass renewable energy sectors – comfortably ahead of the UK FTSE’s 17% gain. This is good news and is on top of an estimated $25.9 billion worth of investments into renewables in the second quarter of 2009 in the clean energy sector.
The first Sustainable Events Management Conference, hosted by Buckinghamshire New University and sponsored by A Greener Festival, Julie’s Bicycle and the European festival’s association Yourope, proved a big hit with delegates at Missenden Abbey on the 23rd September. The one day conference, with delegates from Denmark, Eire, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, featured presentations from Meegan Jones (Festival Republic) on the waste salvage programme at Reading Festival, Thomas Neibuhr (Roskilde Festival) on Roskilde’s climate change campaign and a keynote speach from Alison Tickell (Julies Bicycle) on the impact of audience travel. The afternoon kicked off with a panel chaired by musc lawyer and A Greener Festival co-founder Ben Challis (AGF/BNU) featuring Bob Wilson (Greenpeace), Claire O’Neill (AGF/Association of Independent Festivals) and Joby Russell (Big Green Coach Company) along with Meegan and Alison looking at the topic ‘is green too expensive’ and this was followed by a presentation from Penny Mellor (the event safety and welfare specialist and one of A Greener Festival’s environmental assessors) on new developments and trends in environmentally friendly practices at music festivals. The whole day was chaired by Teresa Moore (Bucks Uni) who summarised a number of key thoughts from the Conference:
Delegates at the 2009 Conference – say ‘cheese’ please
