22 MAY 2010

Final exams have eaten so much of the last month that I haven't actually checked the news or left the house/garden for so long that I have nothing of environmental interest to comment on! The only thing I'm aware of that's happening outside the exam bubble is Bono's back surgery, which is not only a bit of a nuisance for poor Bono but also puts U2's Glastonbury Festival appearance in jeopardy. However, I'd rather he took the time to get better than rush it and appear at Glasto. Even if it is the light at the end of the tunnel that's seen me through the last few weeks!

Anyway, I came across this photo from a trip to Lok Kawi Zoo in Kota Kinabalu, August 2008, but it sums up how I'm feeling right now (minus the ice-cream).

Revision of Local Conservation Politics

It's exam time; we're all starting to crack.

The following is the product of the last hour's revision session concerning the development of UK conservation legislation:

Local Politics and Conservation

In 1949 was the Nature Conservancy
The 1960s saw eco-popularity,
In ‘65 it joined the NERC
And split again in ‘73.
Research in the NCC
Is now CEH, which was ITE.

In ‘81 we had the W & C Act,
Opposed by NFU: True Fact.
In’ 89 it all went statutory
With the breaking down of the JNCC.
A ’92 summit was quite big in Rio,
BAPS in ’94 were backed by 2000’s CROW.

Natura 2000 and the Habitats Directive,
Ramsar Wetlands, quite effective.
NERC ’06 said each public body
Must be nice to the environment (like Bill Oddie).
NNRS and triple-Sis
Keep our country fairly nice.

Now, if only I can memorise that for the exam tomorrow...

A Green Government? I wish.

If you're reading this in the UK, I apologise for jumping on the bandwagon. If you're far away from the red, yellow and blue campaigns then think yourself lucky, it's given me quite a headache! At 7am tomorrow my alarm clock will go off and the polling stations will open. David Cameron can finally take a break from his slightly over-the-top continuous 36 hours (and counting) final campaign, Nick Clegg can, perhaps, give his face a rest from smiling non-stop for four and a half weeks and Gordon Brown might get a chance to visit an estate agent to suss out his potential new pad.

We don't really know who's going to be having dinner at Number 10 on Friday evening, but with less than 24 hours to go until the close of polls, I thought I'd have one last look at an important area of policy that's been almost completely overlooked under the big black clouds of the recession and volcanic ash...

...The Environment

The Conservatives start by saying that they will "make Britain greener by tackling climate change and protecting and enhancing our environment", which is interesting because the Liberal Democrats are telling me that "The Liberal Democrats are the only party in British politics that can and will put the environment at the heart of government" and Labour state that "the green agenda is fundamentally rooted in Labour values". This will be interesting; I naively thought it would be simple to get to the bottom of who has the best policies, but it looks like I'll need to be a bit more Sherlock Holmes.

As the recycling hasn't been collected in Cathays for the last fortnight I'll take a look at waste management. The Conservatives pledge to work towards a 'zero waste Britain' and promote recycling. Of course, recylcling reduces the amount of junk going to landfill, but in order to recycle, we need energy, but we'll come to that in a moment. Labour's website doesn't seem to mention waste other than in its opening blurb that states "By taking the action we need to tackle climate change and reduce waste we can drive economic growth", but maybe they'll redeem themselves in other ways. The Liberal Democrats are also pushing the 'zero waste Britain' approach and pledge to increase anaerobic digestion technology to generate energy from food and farm waste.

The Liberal Democrats also pledge to meet the EU 15% renewable energy target, no small task, would set a target for 40% of UK electricity to come from 'clean' sources, and would aim to improve energy efficiency in the public and commercial sectors by 30%, by 2020. All new coal-powered station plans would be halted unless they incorporated the best carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. They're not big fans of nuclear energy and would focus on renewables as a cheaper, more sustainable solution to the energy crisis. Conservatives, on the other hand, would create four CCS power plants, set legal limits on power station emissions, deliver a 10% carbon emissions cut from government activities within the first year, create an off-shore energy grid and encourage small-scale energy generation. I assume this means of the renewable variety rather than back-yard coal plants, but it isn't clarified in the literature. I hold Labour under rather more scrutiny in this area, as with 13 years in power we haven't yet seen the leaps and bounds promised to us, but maybe it's worth another shot, so I'll hear them out. They intend to stick to the 2008 Climate Change Act which requires greenhouse gas emissions to drop by 34% by 2020. They support 'clean coal' (*cough*) and nuclear power, and would like 15% of our energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.

In terms of protecting our biodiversity, I feel we're faced with an inadequate set of policies. Our current government mention it once: "Labour believes that the beauty and biodiversity of Britain’s countryside and green spaces enrich the quality of our lives", but then fails to mention how it intends to preserve it. It gets Brownie Points for introducing the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) which gave statutory backing to Biodiversity Action Plans, but it would be nice to know what, if anything, it intends to do next. It proposes to extend green belts and for 60% of development to be on brownfield land, but I wonder where they want to put the other 40%.

In their section regarding biodiversity, the Conservatives state that they want to reduce litter. It seems like this is probably more our responsibility than theirs, but I can't complain about good intentions. Perhaps they can wash my dishes whilst they're at it. They also want to plant one million trees during their potential term in office; as long as they're British natives I'm all for it (don't worry, I'm not going all British National Party, I'm only worried about invasive species). The Liberal Democrats worry me slightly in their use of the word 'could': "We will introduce landscape-scale policies, with measurable objectives which could include things like the promotion of biodiversity", however they do pledge to include gardens as greenfield sites in planning law, so that they aren't so easily built over by 'garden grabbers'. As our gardens support such a large amount of Britain's wildlife, this is particularly important.

I could go on all night, but by the time I'd finish the polls would be closed. For further information, check out the following (in alphabetical order!):
Conservatives
Labour
Liberal Democrats

Of course, there are other important issues to base your voting decision on, but hopefully I've laid out a few of the major 'green' topics of interest.

I'm still undecided...