When Storm Amy battered the Scottish Highlands in early October, it tore through a salmon farm’s sea pens, releasing around 75,000 fish into open water in Loch Linnhe. The scale of the escape is alarming. It comes at a time when wild Atlantic salmon – already classified as “endangered” in Great Britain – are in decline. For an animal so central to the UK’s ecology, culture and … [Read more...] about Storm Amy and 75K escaped Scottish salmon
Environment
Ferreting out radioactive leaks from Trident
Last month, Scotland’s crowd-funded investigative journalism outfit The Ferret, in partnership with The Guardian, published documents showing that radioactive water from the Royal Navy’s Coulport armaments depot leaked into Loch Long after ageing pipes burst and flooded areas where nuclear warheads are handled. Loch Long is a 20-mile-long seawater loch that flows into the Firth … [Read more...] about Ferreting out radioactive leaks from Trident
Give the next heatwave a name?
Climate change has added an extra month of extreme heat to the calendar according to a recent global review. The report, which spanned Earth's hottest year on record, showed that from May 2024 to May 2025 nearly 4 billion people endured 30 days of temperatures hotter than those experienced 90% of the time between 1991 and 2020. When heatwaves are forecast, it can be difficult … [Read more...] about Give the next heatwave a name?
Are Scotland’s ferries too cheap?
Judged against other countries with inhabited islands, Scotland’s ferry service is among the best in the world, something its critics rarely acknowledge. The fleet is younger, the service more frequent, and customer satisfaction is high at 88%. In one important measure, though, Scotland’s ferries are different: they are exceptionally cheap. Is that a good thing? Should we be … [Read more...] about Are Scotland’s ferries too cheap?
10 reasons why Donald Trump can’t stop global climate action
If you care about saving Earth from catastrophe, you might be feeling a little down about the re-election of Donald Trump as United States president. Undeniably, his return to the White House is a real setback for climate action.Trump is a climate change denier who has promised to increase fossil fuel production and withdraw the US from the … [Read more...] about 10 reasons why Donald Trump can’t stop global climate action