“Governments working together to regulate the production of greenhouse gases is our planet’s best, perhaps only, only hope. To get there, we need these issues to be in the spotlight. More power to your elbow, Greta.”
Climate emergency
Rewilding the Highlands: Glen Affric and Dundreggan point the way
Kirsty Hughes illustrates in text and images the challenges and hopes associated with rewilding the Highlands: “The rewilding journey is a long and vital one. With places like Dundreggan and Glen Affric showing the way, it can – and must – be a successful one.”
COP26 and Africa’s development needs
“Are we in the developed world prepared to accept that it would be fair for Africa’s C02 emissions to rise even as ours fall? Or are we prepared to fund a transfer of resources to enable solar, tidal, wind and so on, to supply their needs? At the end of COP26, more money was promised – but it fell far short of what African negotiators wanted.”
Garb-Age in the Highlands
“They filled a boat with 15 bags of plastic waste. By weight, 90% of the waste was from the area’s salmon farms, which regularly discard long black snakes of feeding tubes into the sea.”
NHS alert: code red for climate change
Bold declarations of climate emergency and world beating targets came before the pandemic showed just how quickly human behaviour can change. We can do it when we have to. Yet last year’s euphoric thoughts of ‘building back better’ seem to have got lost.
The tipping point
A song for Extinction Rebellion: ‘If enough of us give our voices then the pressure builds on the systems of power to take notice and accelerate change for the better.’
In search of hope for 2020
What message do extravagant fireworks displays send in an age of climate emergency and conflict? Fay Young chooses a poem for peace at New Year instead
Scotland’s climate emergency
‘Perhaps most of all, the importance of setting out a stable long-term environment for investment will be the most effective policy that anyone could set. It will also require international cooperation, both in terms of connectivity, R&D and investment.’
Geese migration in climate change
‘Think of shorebirds, which have been dependent on the same shorelines and inter-tidal areas for thousands of years. For them, the current rate of climate change might be something they have not evolved to deal with.’
Land reform and climate change: a Scottish perspective
‘We need to be clear about what we want from the land, how we find and reward synergies, and how to ensure greater public input to land management and land use decision-making.” Experts from James Hutton Institute on risks (and rewards) from land use in the climate crisis.