Extreme Weather
BritNed power cable boosts hopes for European supergridGuardian Unlimited | 11 Apr 2011Electricity link between UK and the Netherlands seen as key step in connecting renewable energy to a European power gridIt stretches 260km under the North Sea, contains 23,000 tonnes of copper and lead, and may represent the first step towards a renewable energy revolution based on a European...
England Country diary: Langsett, Peak DistrictGuardian Unlimited | 11 Apr 2011A warm, springtime sun lit up the little farmyard pond at Hartcliff, allowing the ducks the indulgence of basking and preening at the water's edge, a pleasure largely missing here this spring. Here we were at almost 1,200 feet and looking west to the Flouch crossroads where the Peak District...
England Country diary: Lake DistrictGuardian Unlimited | 10 Apr 2011The Beaufort wind scale neared eight recently as a gale blew up briefly, without warning, across the Lake District. Umbrellas were blown inside out in Keswick, slates flew off a roof in Rydal and laden clothes-lines snapped in Grasmere. Over Great End, Skiddaw and Blencathra it hurtled, sending cat's-paws racing across the lakes of Bassenthwaite, Derwentwater, Windermere, Coniston Water and fjord-like Ullswater.
England | Local Issues In praise of ... maize | EditorialGuardian Unlimited | 10 Apr 2011One of the world's most successful food crops, maize could also prevent greenhouse emissions from flatulent cowsIt has a ring to it, but that is the only sound the world will hope to hear from the latest use for one of the world's most successful staple foods. Research at Reading University has found that increasing maize silage in the diet of cattle reduces the flatulence which accompanies their gentle rumination of the cud.
England | Agriculture | Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Livestock | Science and Environment Science Weekly podcast: Hard-wired prejudices, and 50 years in spaceGuardian Unlimited | 10 Apr 2011Why doesn't our brain allow us to know what's going on inside it? Neuroscientist David Eagleman attempts to answer that and proposes a new approach to criminal justice. He also cites the example of Mel Gibson to address the question of whether prejudices are hard-wired into our brains. David's...
England Nitrogen footprint warning from European agencyGuardian Unlimited | 10 Apr 2011New study says nitrogen pollution costs every person in Europe £650 a year in damage to water, climate, health and wildlife. Nitrogen pollution is costing every person in Europe up to £650 a year in damage to water, climate, health and wildlife, a study warns. Scientists behind the research said nitrogen was needed as fertiliser to help feed a growing world population - but suggested that eating less meat could reduce the amount of pollution caused by agriculture.
England | Agriculture and Fisheries | Biodiversity | Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Health In Pooh's footstepsGuardian Unlimited | 09 Apr 2011Ashdown Forest, just 40 miles from London, has been enticing visitors for years. But its most famous inhabitant was a bear of very little brain. Literary Britain has many sacred groves. There's Wordsworth's Lake District and the Brontë sisters' Yorkshire. You cannot visit Bath without reminders of...
England | Environmental Awareness What to do with a much-loved - but worn out - bikeGuardian Unlimited | 08 Apr 2011When a bike's lasted you 18 years and thousands of miles you can't just throw it on a skip. Any better ideas? I try not to be sentimental about possessions. It would be tough to lose certain photographs, or one or two items tied particularly closely with certain people or times in my life, but I never really get too misty-eyed about most things. There's one big exception - bicycles. I'm not alone in this.
England | Public Transport | Transport Green bankers can restore City's reputationGuardian Unlimited | 07 Apr 2011Such traders can help Britain earn its way in a competitive global economy while supporting the realisation of a greener and more sustainable future. After the events that led to the credit crunch and our current fiscal situation, the last thing people want is more bankers. But what if they were...
England | United Kingdom | Economy | Policy Is there a scientific consensus?Guardian Unlimited | 07 Apr 2011Read about the project. Despite uncertainty about many of the details of climate change, there is a broad consensus among the world's most prestigious scientific bodies that the world is warming and that humans have played a significant role in creating that warming. Various studies have attempted...
England | Climate Change | Science and Environment Country diary: St Dominic, Tamar ValleyGuardian Unlimited | 05 Apr 2011Rain has darkened the earth of arable fields sown with barley and refreshed pastures occupied by ewes with lambs or suckler cows just turned out of winter quarters with their calves. Primroses deck the sides of lanes towards riverside quays and grow thickly on steep slopes untouched by agricultural...
England | Local Issues Concern over funding loophole in energy billGuardian Unlimited | 04 Apr 2011Obscure clause would make government liable for unexpected costs, despite assurances that the industry will not receive public subsidiesThe coalition government is opening a legal loophole that could allow taxpayer-funded guarantees to nuclear power stations, while publicly insisting that the...
England