Environmental wins and losses

Although rewards on my posts for the last week have been wiped out I will keep posting. If nothing else it will soak up some of that troll's voting power.

I have been keeping an eye on the environmental coverage in The Guardian. We have to take heart from any good news we can find. The main news story in the UK today is the horrific case of 39 illegal immigrants dying in a truck. These are desperate people who have been abused by criminals who need to be brought to justice. Environmental issues will drive more people to relocate.

Here are some good news environmental stories I spotted.

How UK's disused mine shafts could be used to store renewable energy. We already have pumped water storage installations around the country to handle peak demand. With increasing renewable energy that can be erratic we need more. We have lots of mines that are no longer active. They can go down hundreds of metres and a heavy weight dropping that far can unleash a lot of energy. This is a solution with relatively low costs and minimal environmental impact using established technologies. I hope to hear more about this soon.

First 100% electric black cab for 120 years launches in London. This is long overdue. I saw an electric taxi on the Fully Charged show a while back. London cabs are a special type of vehicle and maybe it took a while to get into production. It seems cabs only average about 100 miles per day and charging facilities can keep them going longer. The current diesel taxis are responsible for a large proportion of pollution in central London. There are a few hybrid and fully electric buses too, but many thousands to replace. Note this says there were electric taxis in the early days when horse-drawn cabs were being replaced.

And some less good news.

Fossil fuel big five 'spent €251m lobbying EU' since 2010. I wonder if this was more than they invested in green technologies to try and improve their image. The fossil fuel companies are reluctant to adapt to what the world needs now. They have had decades when they shirked any responsibility for the damage they did. We need the brave politicians who will rein them back.

Amazon rainforest 'close to irreversible tipping point'. Expect to hear a lot about tipping points. The timing can be difficult to predict, but we are going to eee many ecosystems collapse due to changing climate and exploitation. The Amazon is vulnerable to both with a Brazilian regime who seem intent on using up their resources in record time. I am sure they are being well rewarded for allowing this. Another tipping point will be the unfreezing of permafrost that could release even more greenhouse gases.

I see a lot of people complain about being inconvenienced by Extinction Rebellion protests, but these are some of the reasons they need to keep up the pressure on governments. They do need to get the balance right so as not to lose public support.