Scientific Alliance Newsletter
The futility of emissions reduction targets |
17.02.2012 |
Denmark holds this half-year’s rotating EU Council presidency. As you might expect from a Nordic country which is a leader in wind turbine manufacture and deployment, it favours tough emissions controls. Currently, the bloc is committed to a 20% cut in carbon dioxide emissions (from a 1990 baseline) by 2020. On offer is a 30% cut if other countries follow suit. It will have surprised very few people that there have been no takers.
Now, however, it seems that the Danish presidency wants to get member states to agree a firm target of a 40% reduction by 2030 at the...
If biofuels are not the answer, what is? |
09.02.2012 |
Going back a few years, biofuels seemed to offer at least a partial solution to the dilemma which policymakers were faced with: having committed themselves to large-scale reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, how could the targets be achieved? The sensible solution seemed to be – and in principle is – to make savings across all sectors of energy generation and use, including transport. Using agricultural crops as raw material therefore had a number of attractions, as long as it did not have too much impact on food security or prices.
Governments – notably the...
The Limits to Growth |
03.02.2012 |
Most readers will probably remember this title instantly. For those of a more tender age, The Limits to Growth was an influential book published in 1972, on behalf of the Club of Rome, which made pessimistic predictions about the future of humankind, based on a combination of a rapidly growing population and a declining resource base. It was very much of its time, coming out only a few years after Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb. Together, these two books formed the basis of a neo-Malthusian movement, predicting a dark future for humans a decade after Rachel Carson had...
The future of fossil fuels |
26.01.2012 |
Suddenly, the likelihood of increasing supplies of gas has become a hot topic. Shale gas, of which there are certainly large reserves, is now being exploited in the USA to the extent that prices there have dropped to well below the level on the other side of the Atlantic. What effect this will have on the global energy supply in the medium to long term is unclear: enthusiasts see this as a new dawn for energy supplies, while others believe it may be a short-term blip which will do little to alter the fundamental tightening of the supply of oil and gas.
But, whatever the answer...
Another Luddite victory |
20.01.2012 |
This week BASF, German-based and the world’s largest chemical company, announced it was withdrawing from the development of genetically modified crops in Europe (BASF to concentrate plant biotechnology activities on main markets in North and South America). After a relatively late start in the field, it has built up a core competence which has resulted in the approval (after a long struggle) for the Amflora potato (containing high amylopectin starch for industrial use). The company has also been trialling a blight resistant potato which could have led to large reductions in...
High speed rail: new dawn or false hope? |
12.01.2012 |
The UK government has now given the go-ahead for only the second high-speed railway in the country (HS2: High-speed rail network gets go-ahead). Called, rather unimaginatively, HS2, this would provide a link between London Euston and Birmingham at a projected cost of £17bn and reduce journey times from 1 hour 24 minutes to 49 minutes.
This is envisaged as the first phase of the project, which would later connect to both Manchester and Leeds in a ‘Y’ network at a total estimated cost of £33bn. Eventually, high speed rail would be extended to Scotland...
New year, same issues |
06.01.2012 |
After a year largely dominated by economic issues, 2012 looks set to continue the trend rather than start a new one. For those of us lucky enough to be citizens of Europe or any other part of the developed world, our lives may still be privileged and comfortable, but neither the enormous economic growth nor the step changes in quality of life enjoyed over the 20th Century can necessarily be assumed to continue – let alone be exceeded – in the 21st.
In 1989, Francis Fukuyama famously wrote about the ‘end of history’ as the Soviet bloc collapsed and a future...
The limits to renewable energy |
16.12.2011 |
This week, the Scientific Alliance was very pleased to publish a report on renewable energy, jointly with the Adam Smith Institute. Entitled Renewable Energy – Vision or Mirage?, this sets out to review available renewable energy technologies and analyse what contribution they could realistically make to a secure and affordable future energy supply. It focuses on the UK, but the essential messages are relevant anywhere.
Our main conclusion is that wind power (which is the only technology which could be deployed on a large enough scale to have a chance of meeting the UK...
Climate change uncertainties |
09.12.2011 |
As the delegates at the COP17 climate change talks in summit edge towards an agreement of sorts, there has been a flurry of activity among groups wanting to put forward evidence relating to the main drivers of change.
One factor which comes into the headlines from time to time is black carbon, more commonly known as soot. It’s what gets put into the air (or on the inside of chimneys) when fuels are incompletely burnt, and surprising quantities are produced every year.
A recent article in the Guardian (Wood fires fuel climate change – UN) covers a report from the UN...
Environmentalism in a recession |
02.12.2011 |
As Europe at least is in danger of sliding back into recession (or worse), how does this affect the environmental agenda? Indications are that greenery may suffer.
On a global level, the nations which are taking the most positive steps to protect the environment are rich ones. Arguably, they were also in the vanguard of causing damage in the first place – Blake’s ‘dark Satanic mills’ would have been an unpleasant reality for factor workers and their families once the Industrial Revolution got underway – but they also saw the need to clean up the air...
Stay informed on our latest news!
