| Radical shake-up for
farming |
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A radical shake-up in the way farmers
receive subsidies is on the cards under plans to reform the
Common Agricultural Policy. Proposals were presented by European
farm commissioner Franz Fischler to the European Parliament
agriculture committee on Wednesday (July 10). Aid cheques, based
on past receipts, would be subject to annual cuts of up to 20%,
with the money saved redirected into rural development schemes.
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More information -
FWi
European
Commission
EUobserver
DEFRA
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| New eco-cement could
absorb CO2 'like a forest' |
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An Australian inventor is trying
to persuade the construction industry to use his new eco-cement
which absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is based
on magnesium carbonate rather than calcium carbonate. John Harrison
says one tonne can absorb around 0.4 tonnes of CO2 as it hardens.
He says tower blocks built from it could become as important
as natural carbon sinks like forests and grasslands. Mr Harrison,
from Hobart in Tasmania, says his cement mixture is made at
much lower temperatures - halving the amount of carbon dioxide
it produces during manufacture. |
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More information - Ananova
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| Ferry charts Bay of
Biscay climate change |
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Portsmouth's most eco-friendly ferry
has signed up for another project to give boffins vital data
about the health of the planet. A box of sensors installed on
the Pride of Bilbao will let scientists know how global warming
is affecting the oceans. The scheme comes on top of a seven-year-old
project which has seen the P&O ship play host experts studying
dolphin behaviour. Data from the latest project will be used
by Southampton Oceanography Centre to look at factors which
cause the growth of algae. |
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More information - Portsmouth
Today
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| Fresh warnings as more
GM-crop trials start |
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More genetically-modified crop trials
are being thrust upon communities in East Yorkshire and the
South Bank of the Humber, after the Government announced fresh
test sites for an area already saturated with biotech crops.
East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire have become the national capital
for GM tests. In total, they have provided 37 different test
sites over the course of the three-year experiment – far more
than anywhere else in the UK. Now the final round of GM farm-scale
evaluations will again be centred largely on the two counties.
Of the 18 new GM oil seed rape sites, six will be in East Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire. |
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More information - Yorkshire
Post
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| E35m Sligo wind farm
under construction |
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Airtricity has begun construction
of its latest E35m wind farm at Kingsmountain in County Sligo.
The scheme will be completed early next year. The wind farm
will create enough energy to supply 25,000 homes with electricity.
In the course of the construction the wind farm will create
55 jobs and when finished the wind farm will provide ongoing
employment for maintenance and operations staff. |
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More information - Business
and Finance Live
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| New wind farm gives
power to 25,000 homes |
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One of the windiest corners of Europe
is now adding to Scotland’s green energy resources after the
opening of a £21 million project. Brian Wilson, the energy minister,
opened a new windfarm in Beinn an Tuirc, in Argyll, said to
be the largest and most efficient in the UK. The 46 wind turbines
tower 40 metres above the highest hill in Kintyre, 454 metres
above sea level. They generate 30 mega-watts of electricity,
enough to supply 25,000 homes. It is the first of what is hoped
will be three developments in Argyll by ScottishPower. |
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More information - Scotsman
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Naturenet
Countryside
management and nature conservation
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here
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/gg /ww /ee /ss /aa /pp /cc /nn /ii
/bb
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| Cull row hogs the limelight
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England could offer a sanctuary for
thousands of hedgehogs threatened with extermination, it has
been suggested. Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Miller of Chilthorne
Domer says the animals currently living in the Western Isles
would be useful for pest control on the mainland. The fate of
the 5,000-strong hedgehog population on North Uist, Benbecula
and South Uist is hanging in the balance. Conservation body
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has been considering a cull
to rid the islands of the animals, which it accuses of harming
an internationally important bird population. |
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More information -
BBC
BBC
Herald
Guardian
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| Fly-by-night birds
confound conservation |
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Not knowing what birds do at night
could be hindering efforts to conserve them, say UK researchers.
Some species feed in different places and in different ways
after dark. Designing bird reserves requires knowledge of how
many birds do what, and where. But birds are usually surveyed
only during the daytime. For some species, this gives an inaccurate
picture, Simon Gillings of the University of East Anglia, Norwich,
UK, told the International Behavioral Ecology Congress in Montreal,
Canada. "You have to think about whether we're missing something
by just conserving where birds are during the day," he says.
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More information - Nature
ScienceUpdate
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| £5 million for capercaillie
conservation |
| |
The European Commission has backed
a large-scale project aimed at urgent conservation management
for the capercaillie, Scotland's largest game bird. The project
has been awarded almost £2.5 million from the EU LIFE-Nature
fund and will draw in an equal amount in support funding from
a range of public and non-public bodies including the Scottish
Executive. The five-year project aims to improve breeding success,
and halt the decline in the capercaillie population, now thought
to number under 1,000 birds. It will establish new management
techniques and undertake habitat restoration works which it
is hoped will lead to an overall population increase – thus
contributing to the UK capercaillie Species Action Plan target
of 5000 birds by 2010. |
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More information - Scottish
Executive
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| Bustard may make comeback |
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The Great Bustard may be about to
stage a comeback. A turkey-sized bird once common across Breckland
200 years ago could return to the skies of southern England
next year. The Great Bustard, which was hunted to extinction
in the 1830s, roamed across the heaths of Norfolk and Suffolk
in large droves of 30 or 40 birds. The last Norfolk resident
bird, which is now in the Castle Museum, Norwich, was found
dead on Beachamwell Warren, near Swaffham, between 1815 and
1818. |
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More information - EDP24
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| Seal of disapproval
over pups |
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Animal welfare experts today issued
a stern warning not to touch or pick up baby seals along the
Firth of Forth. The reminder comes amid continuing problems
with members of the public "rescuing" pups which they wrongly
believe have been abandoned. Many seals come into the Forth
estuary during the summer to give birth and raise their young,
leading to regular sightings of lone pups on the shore. |
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More information - Edinburgh
Evening News
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| Grey invaders threaten
island's red squirrels |
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Grey squirrels have been seen on
the Isle of Wight, one of the last strongholds of the red squirrel,
leading to fears that the native species will come under further
threat. The red squirrel has disappeared from much of mainland
England but survives on the Isle of Wight because there are
no greys. The larger grey, introduced from America in 1876,
successfully competes for food and nesting places and carries
a virus harmful to the red. |
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More information - Telegraph
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| Caerphilly Woodlands
saved from development |
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The Caerphilly woodlands have today
been spectacularly saved from further development thanks to
the work of the newly-established Caerphilly Woodlands Trust
and other local partners. It was confirmed at a public meeting
last night at the Twyn Community Centre in Caerphilly that a
Forestry Commission bid to purchase the woodlands had been successful
and the Commission had entered into an agreement with the Caerphilly
Woodlands Trust that they would manage the woodland along with
other local partners, for the benefit of the community and the
local environment. |
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More information - News
Wales
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