Environment

Fossil fools: many scientists ignored the research findings (Photo: Alamy)

His death the other day passed almost unnoticed, but to my mind, Derek Bryce-Smith, an eccentric and obdurate retired professor at Reading University, was one of the greatest public health heroes of them all.

More than half a century ago, Bryce-Smith was the first to draw attention to the dangers of lead in petrol, sparking off the worldwide campaign to eliminate it. Ridiculed and marginalised for decades, he lived to see the toxic metal banned from fuel in almost every country. That puts him in the same rank as John Snow, the… Read More

Don't feed the trolls (Photo: Reuters)

As we all know just because you’re away on holiday doesn’t mean you have to stop thinking about the nasty things in life. That’s why I’m dedicating this post to the menagerie – or, if you will, infestation – of trolls which lurk below this blog and who seem to have grown even more active in my absence.

There’s an argument which goes that we bloggers need our pet trolls almost as much as they need us. I’m not sure I value them that highly myself but I do find them a fascinating case study. What intrigues me is their… Read More

Every holiday flight you take to Tuscany another one of these DIES!!!

This is too good a story not to repeat, not least for the headline it invites: (H/T Ed West; Julian Morris)
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Charles Monnett, an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE,… Read More

Have you seen the latest Greenpeace propaganda campaign? Here it is, above: have a glance and see whether you agree with me that the whole business stinks to high heaven.

The second most objectionable part of it is its noisome premise. Volkswagen makes cars not organic tofu ice cream. It is an entirely reasonable position for VW to campaign against CO2 emissions legislation, not least because – as most of us here know – the threat posed by CO2 exists solely in the realm of theory and carbon legislation will do nothing except damage to Europe’s already fragile markets. Yet here is Greenpeace, launching a campaign of vilification against a company which is doing nothing more harmful than looking after the… Read More

Drosophila? Yes! Climate Change? Er....

Before commenting on the BBC Trust’s report into the BBC’s science coverage, I thought I’d take the trouble of reading the actual document rather than the press previews. I’m very glad I waited because the finished product is an absolute corker. Let me take you through some of my favourite moments.

The report, as you may be aware, was written by my fellow Telegraph columnist Steve Jones. Besides being a fine and engaging writer, Dr Jones is a geneticist of  distinction and I would certainly never dream of questioning his judgement in his fields of expertise (notably Drosophila and snails)…. Read More

Britons love badgers (Photo: Rex)

So, after all that, ministers have still not definitively decided whether to authorise killing badgers to prevent them spreading TB to cattle. And it is far from clear that, even when they do, a full-blown cull will ever take place or that – if it does – it will work.

After months and months of agonising, a full blown “consultation” exercise, more than twenty encounters with every conceivable interest group, a series of scientific meetings and endless discussions between ministers and civil servants, environment secretary Caroline Spelman has merely announced that she is “strongly minded”… Read More

This column isn’t just for the nasty things in life. That’s why, this morning, while we’re still a bit monged from Latitude and constructing our next proper blog post, we should like to pay tribute to the wondrous, divine, gorgeous and clearly enormously perceptive and bright mezzo soprano Christine Rice. Why? Because of what she said the other day on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour in an interview with Jenni Murray. (H/T Fay Kelly-Tuncay; Biased BBC)

Murray asked Rice about her early career as a scientist researching “global warming.” Rice replied:
I was amazed really by the inadequacy of what we had, because we’re talking about climate change which is over ten… Read More

Growing plains: the Sahel, in Niger, where farmers have now greened five million hectares of land by protecting tree seedlings from being eaten by goats (Photo: REX FEATURES)

It is the forgotten environmental crisis – but probably the most important one of all. There’s constant, justifiable concern about climate change, the growing scarcity of fresh water, the loss of wildlife, and pollution of the air and seas. But rarely does such attention come down to earth.

Humanity, like all terrestrial life, depend… Read More

The EU fishing policy is disastrous for everyone (Photo: PA)

Events move on in the Murdoch saga so quickly that is hard to keep up to date. There is also the risk that because of its drama it obscures other important events, such as those in Libya, Tunisia and the Middle East – and those in Europe.

Perhaps following the example set by Rupert Murdoch, Maria Damanaki apologised last week for the damage done by the EU fishing policy, declaring that if it was not radically changed “our children will see fish, not on their plates, but only in pictures”.

The policy has brought once… Read More

Bob Brown, parliamentary leader, Australian Greens - not pictured

Gosh I’m looking forward to visiting Australia later this year. And the reason I’m so excited – apart from the fact that I’ve never been before to the Land of the Taipan, the Sydney Funnel Web, the Box Jellyfish, the Saltwater Crocodile, and the Great White Shark – is that I know I’m going to be given a hero’s welcome.

After all, by the time I arrive in Oz sometime in November to promote the Aussie edition of Watermelons (Connor Court), the Australians will have had a good three months to reflect on the… Read More