Author: David Bradley

We all have so-called climate change targets to meet. So, you’d think we would be doing everything we can to cut carbon emissions, conserve energy etc.

It sometimes looks like we’re heading in the “right” direction – wind farms are sprouting up all over the place and forests are being harvested for biomass fuel rather than our digging away at ancient fossil hydrocarbons…but it doesn’t really add up really does it?

How much energy does it take to build one of those turbines and how long do they last? Ditto plant and managing supposedly “sustainable” forests for biomass?

Couple that announcements about new airports and runways that will multiply passenger capacity and one has to wonder…

The BBC today reports that Prince Charless sees climate change as the “greatest challenge to face man”…he’s such an expert, of course. Oh, and he’s worried about bird flu.

Researchers have detected high concentrations of the popular insecticide class known as pyrethroids in suburban stream sediments, raising concerns about its effects on aquatic life. Pyrethroids are the common active ingredient in most domestic insecticides and have been marketed for many years as a more environmentally benign alternative. However, little information has been gathered until now about their effects on wildlife. A study published in Environmental Science & Technology could help clarify their status.

It’s the news that should set the press a tremble, but fellow science journalist Natasha Loder has had to resort to posting an item about the refusal of Pakistan to grant leading Himalayan earthquake expert Roger Bilham an entry visa on her blog. At a time when one would expect intellectual activity in this field to be desperately needed, apparently scientists are not allowed into the country because this is not a time for “intellectual activities”, reports Loder.

Bilham and his colleagues at the University of Colorado have been forewarning of a major Himalayan earthquake for years, but the Kashmir earthquake released only a tenth of the potential energy stored in the region and Bilham further expects geological unrest.

His expertise could provide critical clues to when and where that pent up energy might be released…surely such intellectual activity is not just desirable but essential.

The floodwaters that engulfed New Orleans after Katrina turned out to be less toxic than scientists predicted. But, the same floodwaters pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain nevertheless carried with them high levels of various metals, including copper and zinc. Researchers at Louisiana State University writing in the October 11 issue of ES&T suggest this might pose a long-term risk to the area’s aquatic life.