Environment

A University of the West of England project that generates electricity from urine has been installed at Glastonbury Festival. The ‘Pee Power ‘project, featuring the Dunster House Emergency Pissoire Superstructure, has been set up at the festival to highlight its application in urban or rural locations that do not have easy access to electricity and adequate sanitation, such as refugee camps. Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, Director of the Bristol Bio-Energy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, at UWE Bristol said: “The festival presents us with the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A hugely controversial council decision to allowing fracking in North Yorkshire may be challenged in court, an environmental group has said. Friends of the Earth said the plan to allow shale gas exploration in the village of Kirby Misperton could be taken in front of a judge. The decision last month to allow Third Energy, a fracking company, permission to test drill at the site was met with stiff local opposition. The site in Kirby...

Our MPs have just finished their inquiry into flooding and concluded that a “proactive approach to flooding is needed”. The report published this morning by the Environmental Audit Committee exposed the Government’s knee-jerk reaction to flooding. During the last Parliament funding was cut just before floods, only to be "increased" after the floods. The funding has fluctuated year by year. The Committee has demanded an action plan from the Government. Beavers should be part of that plan. Earlier this year, just one month after...

Countdown’s Rachel Riley modelled a potential car of the future ahead of the Shell Eco-Marathon in London. The vehicles, weighing in at just 30kg, were designed by students competing in the world’s longest running student competition, Shell Eco-marathon, where vehicles are measured on how far they can travel on just a litre of fuel. The current record is 3771km/l - the equivalent of travelling from London to Helsinki and back! This year,the marathon will be showcased at Make the Future London – a...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor I was always told that goldfish have a two second memory, so assumed that fish were not the brightest of animals. It appears I was very very wrong. A team of scientists have shown that one tropical species of fish can recognise peoples' faces.  Archerfish spit jets of water  to catch insects, but the research team also found that they can also tell faces apart. In tests, by the team of US and Australian researchers,...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Saddening footage has emerged from Loro Parque in Spain’s Canary Islands, of Killer whale Morgan lying next to her tank as tourists leave stadium after another show. As it finished the whale beached herself leaving one viewer to write: “Looks to me as if she’s trying to take her own life, I don’t blame her.” Another added: “’Shame on humans who exploit whales.” If a killer whale is beached for too long the weight of their body...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Would the earth survive without us? If every human suddenly vanished, left the planet or were wiped out (cheery thought) what would happen to the planet? A video has been produced that illustrates what they think would happen, and the earth does pretty well without us to be fair. It is a pretty harsh start with domesticated animals passing away but things do improve. Our towns and cities will become covered in foliage and vegetation....

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Investment in green energy was higher for poorer countries rather than wealthy nations for the first ever time. India, China and interestingly Mauritania are leading the record levels of investment. Developed nations are being left behind in the green race to sustainable energy. A reliance on fossil fuels could leave them lagging in terms of access to energy in years to come. Overall £196.5bn was invested in renewables globally, according to the Renewables 2016 report...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor In 2017 a fantastic experiment will take place in the Netherlands, a hi-tech village will be built and will live totally off the grid. It is hoped it will be 100 per cent sustainable. Currently industrial agriculture techniques for crops and livestock damage the environment, the earth needs to find a way to sustain itself without destroying the planet. This new community, in Almere twenty minutes from Amsterdam, will have one hundred homes and will...