Whales and Water

Bad news today that Iceland is to resume commercial whaling. They aim to kill nine fin whales annually (which is an endangered species) and 30 minke whales. Objections have obviously been raised, but Iceland defends this move saying it is in line with sustainable management of marine wildlife. It comes as another hit for whale conservation groups, after a tough summer battling against the eventually passed pro-hunting resolution by the IWC (see links and June post).

The South-east seems set to face compulsory water metres as a means of minimising the effects of drought. The government seems likely to relax current legislation which makes it difficult for water companies to impose water metre usage. Here's the Guardian's coverage of the story, and here's a special dossier they've put together onstories about and issues surrounding water shortages.

That's all for now...

Quite short on time this week, so really quick round-up with links to articles of interest...



Bid for people to make better use of charity retail, as several local authorities encourage charity shopping. Charity retaileres in the south have joined the Choose2reuse campaign, which is administered by Defra (see links). They aim to encourage recycling and save quality items from ending in the ever problematic landfill. Here's BBC coverage.



Guardian reports on new call for capping on air travel. Several scientists have added their voices to the chorus of those demanding controls on flights. They suggest that levels must certainly not rise if the government wants to stand a chance of meeting their targets on greenhouse gas emission levels. Whilst they do not deny the value of development of greener technologies associated with flying, their calculations suggest these will not be available and operational soon enough to make the necessary difference. Can't believe we needed more research to prove what we already knew, but guess it's good news that it's in the news again? On a related note, this site is really good at discussing good ways of travelling which avoid flying. I'll try and add it to the links section later, but for now, here it is.

Warnings for Scotland about the impending effects of Climate Change on the country, BBC report here. This is the link to Sepa (Scottish Environment Protection Agency), who commissioned the report.

And finally, Greenpeace has registered their intent to launch a court action against the government's latest energy review. They claim it is legally flawed and are using this as a means to ground their opposition to the latest support for a new generation of nuclear power.

Sorry it's so brief, but got to get to work. Back soon...

National Centre for Earth Observation

"No one else has pulled these elements together. Using a number of universities and activities such as the Southampton oceanography centre and the Met Office we created a nucleus and a hub to build on" Prof O'Neill

A new centre was set up a few weeks ago, based at Reading University, but combining research and poling resources from all across Britain. Its objective is to monitor Earth's 'health'. It is to focus on climate change, rather predictably, and will collect data from centres and satellites from all over the world, as well as from space. The centre will be headed by Professor Alan O'Neill, who explained their brief as uniting many new research techniques, thus far disparately collected. Here's the BBC's coverage of the story.