Green | News & Views

Elephants know when they need a helping trunk

Elephants can work cooperatively if that is the only way to reach food. This kind of coordinated behaviour was once thought to be unique to our nearest primate relatives.

Joshua Plotnik of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his colleagues have previously shown that elephants seem to recognise themselves in a mirror. To test the animals’ understanding of cooperation, Plotnik and his colleagues have developed an elephant version of an experiment originally run with chimps.

In this experiment, a pair of animals can bring a platform bearing food within their grasp if both simultaneously pull on the ends of a rope threaded through it. If only one pulls the rope, it unthreads from the platform, leaving the food out of reach.

The Thai elephants the researchers studied learned to tug in unison with their trunks. In experiments in which one animal was held back by up to 45 seconds, its partner would wait for it to turn up before starting to pull. Most strikingly, in trials in which one end of the rope was curled up and out of reach, both animals backed away from the apparatus, making no attempt to pull on the rope.

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Deloitte survey points to long wait for mass adoption of electric cars

Reposted from The Independent Online

A Europe-wide survey conducted by the consulting firm Deloitte points to widespread interest in electric vehicles (EVs), but also suggests that only a minority think that they may be in the first wave of customers for the technology themselves.

Deloitte asked 4,760 consumers whether they would be prepared to consider EVs as an option, and 31 per cent of respondents said they were not likely to consider such a vehicle, while at the other end of the scale, 16 per cent, were “potential first movers”. The majority, 53 per cent, were open-minded about the subject and said they “might be willing to consider” an EV. Deloitte believes that only one or two per cent, drawn from the latter two groups, will actually take the plunge and buy an electric car; these it classifies as the early adopters.

Deloitte also probed the participants about their attitudes to important factors in the decision to lease or buy an EV such as range and charging time, and found that customers’ expectations were at odds with the capabilities of today’s generation of cars. For example, 74 per cent would expect an EV to have a range of 480km, or about 300 miles, before they would consider switching, but the best of the electric cars coming on to the market, the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i-MiEV are only capable of travelling about a third of that distance before they need charging. The big manufacturers say that the mileages that most motorists cover in a typical day fall well within the capability of current EVs, but range anxiety remains a problem. Peugeot, for example, offers a so-called mobility programme, Mu, which among other services, provides drivers of electric cars with access to other vehicles for long journeys. Some 67 per cent of Deloitte’s respondents also said that they would expect battery charging to take no longer than two hours, whereas most current vehicles need to be plugged in overnight for a full charge – although fast chargers, which at present are too expensive for domestic use for most customers, would meet the requirement.

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Polar ice loss quickens, raising seas

Reposted from The BBC News Online

From satellite data and climate models, scientists calculate that the two polar ice sheets are losing enough ice to raise sea levels by 1.3mm each year.

Overall, sea levels are rising by about 3mm (0.12 inches) per year.

Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, the team says ice loss here is speeding up faster than models predict.

If present trends continue, sea level is likely to be significantly higher than levels projected by the IPCC”

They add their voices to several other studies that have concluded sea levels will rise faster than projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its landmark 2007 assessment.

By 2006, the Greenland and Antarctic sheets were losing a combined mass of 475Gt (gigatonnes – billion tonnes) of ice per year.

On average, loss from the Greenland sheet is increasing by nearly 22Gt per year, while the much larger and colder Antarctic sheet is shedding an additional 14.5Gt each year.

If these increases persist, water from the two polar ice sheets could have added 15cm (5.9 inches) to the average global sea level by 2050.

A rise of similar size is projected to come from a combination of melt water from mountain glaciers and thermal expansion of seawater.

“That ice sheets will dominate future sea level rise is not surprising – they hold a lot more ice mass than mountain glaciers,” said lead author Eric Rignot from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

“What is surprising is this increased contribution by the ice sheets is already happening.”

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Climate change ‘will wreak havoc on Britain’s coastline by 2050′

Reposted from The Guardian

On Benbecula, they know all too well that rising tides threaten the UK’s coastline. For the 1,200 inhabitants of the small, low-lying island in the Outer Hebrides, the sea’s encroachment is becoming a serious problem, especially on its western shores.

Impacts of Climate Change on Disadvantaged UK Coastal Communities, a report to be published tomorrow by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an influential thinktank, records how local people have seen the coastline retreat before their eyes in just a few years.

The threat posed by erosion has been exacerbated by the fact that the sea has taken material from the island’s beaches that is normally used for constructing roads and buildings. But Benbecula is not alone: the report claims that rising sea levels are likely to have a “severe impact” on much of the UK’s coastline by 2080.

The authors note that “the total rise in sea levels off the UK coast may exceed one metre, and could potentially reach two metres”. They warn that “the frequency of intense storm events is expected to increase and, along with the rise in sea level, to lead to more coastal flooding”.

As a result, many of the 30 million people living near the UK’s coastline – which has 291 inhabited islands – will need to anticipate how climate change will affect them. “We haven’t devoted enough time to debating these issues,” said Jeremy Richardson, director of the engineering consultancy URS-Scott Wilson, who co-authored the report.

“Because we’re talking about what happens in 2050 to 2080, people tend not to talk about this, but the coast is going to be at the forefront of these climate change impacts. We’re not just talking about flooding or drought, but also rising sea levels and an increase in storminess; it will affect a lot of towns, many of which are especially vulnerable because they are isolated geographically.”

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Businesses express concerns over Electricity Market Reform

Reposted from Low Carbon Economy

Businesses have expressed concerns that the government’s proposed Electricity Market Reform (EMR) will be both “complex and unwieldy”.

Research conducted by npower found more than half of businesses believe the plans will lead to a rise in energy costs, with the carbon floor price being named as a major concern.

Some 57 percent of those who took part in the study said they were worried about the impact imposing a minimum price on carbon would have on their bills.

There were also concerns raised that the EMR could damage the competitiveness of UK companies as it is too ‘nationally’ focussed.

David Cockshott, director of industrial and commercial markets at npower, said companies have “very real concerns regarding the proposals in the EMR, particularly while the UK economy is still so fragile”.

He added: “At the moment, many of our customers see the proposals as a ’stick, not a carrot’.”

A consultation into the EMR, which the government claims will enable a secure supply of low carbon power, was launched in December and closes today (March 10th). A White Paper on the reforms is due to be published in late spring.

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Government must ‘take solar seriously’

Reposted from Low Carbon Economy

Members of the solar industry have called on the UK government to raise its ambitions for the renewable energy source.

In an advert placed in this week’s New Statesman, the sector has linked with WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to draw attention to the potential solar power offers.

Howard Johns, chairman of the Solar Trade Association, said: “This government isn’t taking solar seriously and that is completely unjustified. Costs of solar are dropping as fast as oil costs are rising, and this technology could easily meet a third of UK electricity needs.”

Entitled Don’t Crush This Solar Revolution, the piece comes in response to the government’s review into Feed-in-Tariffs, which it claims are needed to address the “threat” presented by large solar farms.

The signatories argue schemes larger than 5MW, which the government classes as “super-size”, are common in other countries and the review is also jeopardising the future of medium-sized installations.

Britain was said to have the lowest target for solar power, generating just one percent of its power from the source by 2020.

The government’s target is for 15 percent of all power to come from renewable sources by the end of the decade to contribute to overall CO2 savings of 80 percent by 2050.

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Boeing launches ‘greener’ 747

Taken from: Low Carbon Economy

Boeing has announced the release of a more environmentally-friendly 747 and claims it has already received orders from a number of major airlines.

The 747-8 Intercontinental offers both improved financial and environmental performance, according to the manufacturer, which released its Dreamliner last year.

Boeing claims the Intercontinental has 16 percent better fuel economy and 16 percent less CO2 emissions than its predecessor, the 747-400. It also has a 30 percent smaller noise footprint.

Jim Albaugh, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive officer, said: “The new 747-8 Intercontinental features the latest in innovative technologies – applying many of the breakthroughs also found on the 787 Dreamliner.”

Korean Air and Lufthansa are among those which have already placed orders, with the aircraft due to be delivered in the fourth quarter of the year.

Researchers at the German Aerospace Centre recently created an electric nose wheel, which would mean pilots would not have to use a craft’s main engine to travel around the airport, significantly cutting CO2 emissions.

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Tropical forests ‘re-shaped’ by climate changes

Taken from: The BBC Online

Future climate change could change the profile of tropical forests, with possible consequences for carbon storage and biodiversity, a study says.

It suggests that if current trends continued, the drier conditions would favour deciduous, canopy species at the expense of other trees.

US researchers based their findings on the changes they recorded in a Costa Rican forest over a 20-year period.

The team’s paper has been published in the journal Global Change Biology.

“It is important because – depending on the rate of change, and the type of species that are found in the forests – it will influence a lot of ecosystem services and processes,” explained co-author Brian Enquist from the University of Arizona.

“For example, we need to know how much carbon tropical forests are storing, and will store in the future. We also need to know how much CO2 they are taking out of the air.”

Professor Enquist and his team examined how an area of forest had changed between 1976 and 1996.

“We were fortunate that between the two dates, there was a series of quite impressive droughts – those droughts have been increasing in severity over the longer term,” he told BBC News.

He said that there had been a “tremendous reduction” in the total number of trees in the forest.

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Plastic fantastic! Carrier bags ‘not eco-villains after all’

Taken from: The Independent

Unpublished Government research suggests the plastic carrier may not be an eco villain after all – but, whisper it, an unsung hero. Hated by environmentalists and shunned by shoppers, the disposable plastic bag is piling up in a shame-filled corner of retail history.

But a draft report by the Environment Agency, obtained by the Independent on Sunday, has found that ordinary high density polythene (HDPE) bags used by shops are actually greener than supposedly low impact choices.

HDPE bags are, for each use, almost 200 times less damaging to the climate than cotton hold-alls favoured by environmentalists, and have less than one third of the Co2 emissions than paper bags which are given out by retailers such as Primark.

The findings suggest that, in order to balance out the tiny impact of each lightweight plastic bag, consumers would have to use the same cotton bag every working day for a year, or use paper bags at least thrice rather than sticking them in the bin or recycling.

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Eat more anchovies, herring and sardines to save the ocean’s fish stocks

Taken from: The Guardian

Cut back on tuna and salmon and load your plate instead with herring and sardines if you want to help save the world’s fish. So says the scientist who led the most comprehensive analysis ever carried out of fish stocks in the world’s oceans and how they have changed over the past century.

The study by Villy Christensen of the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre confirmed some previous indications that populations of predator fish at the top of the food chain, such as cod, tuna and groupers, have suffered huge declines, shrinking by around two-thirds in the past 100 years. More than half that decline occurred in the past 40 years.

Christensen found that the total stock of “forage fish”, such as sardines, anchovy and capelin, has more than doubled over the past century. These are fish that are normally eaten by the top predators. “You remove the predator, you get more prey fish,” said Christensen. “That has not been demonstrated before because people don’t measure the number, they don’t go out and count them.”

His call for consumers to shift their attention down the marine food chain from predators like tuna and cod to more unusual fish echoes that by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who suggests we should eat more coley, mackerel, dab, pouting, herring and sardines.

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