Global warming may be affecting the size of sheep in Scotland, scientists have found. Over twenty-five years, they studied the Soay sheep on Hirta, an island in the Outer Hebrides, off Scotland.
They found that the sheep had shrunk by about 2cm (0.8 inches) and 81g (2.9oz) each year. This amounted to five per cent of their body mass.
The sheep were completely unattended and it’s thought that the smallest lambs would usually die in the cold weather of early spring. However, as spring is getting warmer, more of these lambs survive. Their ‘small’ genes then get passed to the next generation of sheep.
The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was enthusiastic about the outcome of the G8 summit for global warming. At the summit he said:
“For the first time the G8 has agreed what I believe are vital decisions that take us on the road to Copenhagen and change the way we look at energy policy in the future.
We have agreed for the first time that average global temperatures must rise by no more than 2C. That is a historic agreement.
“We have agreed as G8 that we want to cut our emissions by 80% by 2050 and we believe that this will allow the world to reduce its emissions by 50%.”
Fine words on global warming and climate change were not in short supply. Detailed agreements were. The G8 developed countries agreed to cut their emissions by 80% by 2050 and said worldwide emissions should fall 50% by the same date.
They also agreed to try to limit global warming to just 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels. Interestingly, in the communique announcing the targets, the application of an “exit strategy” – as sought by Germany – until recovery is assured was put off. But these were only targets with no detailed obligations.
The White House released this statement which makes interesting reading:
Energy & Environment
“So we have a choice to make. We can remain one of the world’s leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make the investments that would allow us to become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy. We can let climate change continue to go unchecked, or we can help stop it. We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad, or we can create those jobs right here in America and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity.”
Humans have always dreamed of harnessing the power of the Sun. Whilst we capture more solar energy, it’s not enough to supply our power-hungry world. What if we could replicate the way the Sun produces its energy?
The Sun’s core is hot: 15 million degrees centigrade to be precise. Whizzing around it at great speeds are hydrogen atoms. They collide, fuse together and provide a burst of energy in the form of light. This never-ending process uses around 600 million tons of hydrogen every second. Without this process, life could not exist on this planet.
We’re always being told that train travel is more environmentally-friendly than air travel. But could more be done to make train travel cheaper in Europe?
Until the rise of the budget airlines in Europe during the Nineties, short-haul air travel was an expensive business. For journeys under about 500 miles, trains were cheaper.
My ‘Top Gear’ magazine dropped through the mailbox yesterday. Trouble is, I’ve realized that I’m not interested in the feature article on the cover. It’s about a test of supercars, including the Bugatti Veyron, in one of the Gulf states.
And why am I not interested? Because I’ve just been watching the eco-movie HOME. It’s beautifully filmed in High Definition and it has an important message.
For millions of years, the Earth has been storing up the carbon that threatens the planet’s survival. Over the last fifty years in particular, human beings have been extremely efficient at releasing it to power their lifestyles. And now the planet can’t cope any more.
The polar opposite to NASCAR and Formula 1 is hypermiling. The term was coined by Wayne Gerdes in 2004. It is used to describe to maximizing gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and driving techniques. Hypermilers aim to exceed the manufacturers’ stated economy figures.
Whilst most hypermiling is practised during everyday driving, it has now turned into a sport. World records were set for economy at the 2008 Maximum Fuel Economy contest held in Elkhart, Indiana. A Honda Insight, Toyota Prius and Ford escape Hybrid achieved record round trip fuel consumptions of 213 mpg, 136 mpg and 76 mpg respectively.
World Environment Day 2009 saw the global release of a movie billed by producers as “the greatest green event ever”.
From New York’s Central Park to the Champs de Mars by Paris’ Eiffel Tower,Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the French photographer known for the “Earth From The Air” books and “Seen From The Air” on TV, is releasing the green-awareness movie “Home” in over 100 countries simultaneously.
Shot from the air in a chopper, the environmental documentary will be available across the globe June 5, mostly free of charge, in open-air spaces as well as theatres, TV, DVD. It will be available on the Internet at www.youtube.com/homeproject until 14th June 2009
The European Union’s Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called for greater urgency and ambition in international negotiations on a new global climate agreement. He warned that it represents the world’s last chance to prevent climate change from reaching dangerous levels.
Commissioner Dimas made the remarks in a statement to mark World Environment Day, which has climate change as its theme.
Commissioner Dimas’s statement reads as follows:
The new global climate agreement that is due to be finalised at the Copenhagen climate conference in December is the world’s last chance to prevent the dangerous, perhaps even catastrophic, levels of climate change that are projected by scientists to occur as early as 2050 – well within the lifetimes of over a billion young people alive today.
