Holding back the tide
UNISON members working for the Environment Agency at the Thames Barrier represent “the epitome of the public service ethic at its very best”, declared UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis after a visit to meet staff who operate this iconic piece of British engineering.
“By day and through the night, seven days a week, UNISON members are part of a team doing an essential job – monitoring the ever-present danger of flood to London and being there to take action if needed.
“As Thames Barrier staff talk about what they do, it quickly becomes apparent that not only do they enjoy a generally good relationship with man...
Source: UNISON Health care news - November 11, 2015 Category: UK Health Authors: HarrisonDi Tags: Article Magazine environment and transport water Source Type: news
Stinking 10,000 tonne pile of rubbish in Great Heck, Yorkshire investigated by Environment Agency
Villagers in Great Heck say the mountain of waste smells "absolutely vile" and contains old nappies and sanitary towels (Source: Telegraph Health)
Source: Telegraph Health - October 6, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: great heck stink goole pile yorkshire environment agency waste rubbish smell mountain Source Type: news
East African Environmental Activist Wins Major Prize
By Lisa VivesNEW YORK, Apr 22 2015 (IPS)On Earth Day, Apr. 22, Kenyan activist Phyllis Omido takes the stage in Washington DC to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts to defend her community from lead poisoning and force the closure of a lead smelting plant that was emitting fumes and spewing untreated acid wastewater into streams, poisoning the neighbourhood – including her own baby.Courtesy of the Goldman Prize.“At first we thought he had malaria or typhoid, but doctors found he was suffering from lead poisoning,” Omido recalled. The lead was traced to a smelter where Phyllis had recently started ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - April 22, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Lisa Vives Tags: Active Citizens Africa Civil Society Environment Headlines Health Newsbrief TerraViva United Nations Goldman Environmental Prize Phyllis Omido Source Type: news
UK drew wrong conclusion from its neonicotinoids study, scientist says
Reanalysis of a Food and Environment Agency study may provide first conclusive evidence that neonicotinoids pesticides are a key factor in bee decline, despite it originally being used to support the opposite view Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 26, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Karl Mathiesen Tags: Bees Pesticides Environment Farming Insects Wildlife UK news Science Source Type: news
Florida Reportedly Bans Environment Officials From Mentioning Climate Change
Underscoring the divisiveness of climate change in American politics, government officials at Florida’s main environment agency have reportedly been asked to refrain from mentioning it.
Officials from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) were given an unwritten order not to use the words climate change or global warming in any official communication or reports, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) claimed on Sunday.
“We were told not to use the terms climate change, global warming or sustainability,” Christopher Byrd, an attorney in DEP’s Office of General ...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - March 9, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: iyengarrishi Tags: Uncategorized banned Christopher Byrd climate change DEP Environment Florida global warming rick scott Source Type: news
Properties worth a total of £1bn will fall into the sea because of coastal erosion over next century
Nearly 7,000 properties worth over £1bn will fall into the sea because of coastal erosion over the next century, according to an Environment Agency report. (Source: The Independent - Science)
Source: The Independent - Science - December 29, 2014 Category: Science Tags: Science Source Type: news
EU Just Shy Of Meeting 2020 Emissions Goal After New Greenhouse Gas Cuts Announced
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The European Union's environment agency says the bloc's greenhouse gas emissions dropped by nearly 2 percent last year, putting the EU very close to reaching its emissions target for 2020.
That goal is to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases by 20 percent compared to 1990 levels.
The European Environment Agency said Tuesday that emissions already have fallen 19 percent, meaning the 28-nation bloc is likely to exceed its target.
The EEA projected that 2020 emissions will be 21 percent or 24 percent lower than they were in 1990, depending on...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - October 28, 2014 Category: Science Source Type: news
The guillemots of Skomer need YOU!
In 2013, Natural Resources Wales axed funds (around £12,000 per year) for one of the longest running animal studies on record. Tim Birkhead recalls his early research on the guillemots of Skomer and asks for your help to keep the project going Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - October 27, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Tim Birkhead Tags: Zoology Science Birds Evolution Environment Wildlife Oceans Marine life Fishing Conservation Biology Environment Agency Animals Climate change Oil spills Source Type: news
Engaging with climate change after the UK floods
Extreme weather events are critical opportunities for joining the dots between climate impacts and people's lives, but it's easier to mobilise around other targetsThe Cambrian News, a local newspaper covering mid and west Wales, recently reported that Gwynedd Council was seeking to implement a "managed retreat" (ie, an evacuation) from the tiny town of Fairbourne.Four hundred people – about half the population of the picturesque coastal settlement – attended a town hall meeting where the council made the case that Fairbourne could not be saved from rising sea levels (at least, not in an economically feasible way).Sea-l...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 19, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Adam Corner Tags: Comment Guardian Professional Flooding Communication Climate change Sustainability Guardian sustainable business Sustainable living Source Type: news
HS2 rail link: archaeologists and English Heritage clash over the route through a nation's past
Discussion of it is limited to two paragraphs, and the impacts on it limited to three," says English Heritage.Buckinghamshire county council estimates that some 7,000 designated heritage assets will be affected by the London to Birmingham phase of HS2 alone. This includes ancient field boundaries and tracks, historic buildings, hamlets, villages and major archaeological sites. The actual number at risk could be far higher, since that figure excludes historic buildings, sites and remains which have no statutory protection – a large proportion of them.English Heritage has identified a series of listed historic assets of na...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 15, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Robin Stummer Tags: HS2 Culture News Archaeology Heritage Environment Agency The Observer Rail transport Science UK news Source Type: news
HS2 rail link: archaeologists and English Heritage clash over the route through a nation's past
Discussion of it is limited to two paragraphs, and the impacts on it limited to three," says English Heritage.Buckinghamshire county council estimates that some 7,000 designated heritage assets will be affected by the London to Birmingham phase of HS2 alone. This includes ancient field boundaries and tracks, historic buildings, hamlets, villages and major archaeological sites. The actual number at risk could be far higher, since that figure excludes historic buildings, sites and remains which have no statutory protection – a large proportion of them.English Heritage has identified a series of listed historic assets of na...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 15, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Robin Stummer Tags: HS2 Heritage Archaeology Environment Rail transport Culture Science Environment Agency The Observer News UK news Source Type: news
All by myself: is loneliness bad for you?
If you're happily married but want to be alone all the time, is it healthy? Or does solitude start a vicious circle?Perhaps I should feel more concerned about my wife's habit of apologising for me before I meet anyone she knows. The truth is, I'm not even sure what she's apologising for, except that I'm occasionally not that chatty. And I fidget. And my eyes stray about the place when people are talking to me. And I sometimes ask questions that can come off as a bit direct. There was that time, too, at the engagement picnic in Hyde Park, when I excused myself from all the socialising and went and stood by a ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 15, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Will Storr Tags: The Guardian Family Psychology Health & wellbeing Life and style Editorial Relationships Source Type: news
Climate change deniers have grasped that markets can't fix the climate | Seumas Milne
The refusal to accept global warming is driven by corporate interests and the fear of what it will cost to try to stop itIt's an unmistakable taste of things to come. The floods that have deluged Britain may be small beer on a global scale. Compared with the cyclone that killed thousands in the Philippines last autumn, the deadly inundations in Brazil or the destruction of agricultural land and hunger in Africa, the south of England has got off lightly.But the message has started to get through. This is exactly the kind of disaster predicted to become ever more frequent and extreme as greenhouse gas-driven climat...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 20, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Seumas Milne Tags: Comment The Guardian David Cameron Flooding World news Natural disasters and extreme weather Climate change Politics Climate change scepticism Environment Science Comment is free Source Type: news
How we ended up paying farmers to flood our homes | George Monbiot
This government let the farming lobby rip up the rulebook on soil protection – and now we are suffering the consequencesIt has the force of a parable. Along the road from High Ham to Burrowbridge, which skirts Lake Paterson (formerly known as the Somerset Levels), you can see field after field of harvested maize. In some places the crop lines run straight down the hill and into the water. When it rains, the water and soil flash off into the lake. Seldom are cause and effect so visible.That's what I saw on Tuesday. On Friday, I travelled to the source of the Thames. Within 300 metres of the stone that marked it were ploug...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: George Monbiot Tags: Comment The Guardian David Cameron Farming Flooding World news Natural disasters and extreme weather Owen Paterson Politics UK news Environment Agency Conservatives Labour Agriculture Comment is free Source Type: news
