This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Friday 10 September 2021
Now That's What I Call Careless!
The UK's much-contested High Speed 2 (HS2) development is intended to speed trains between London and Birmingham. The development certainly seems to be having an environmental impact. Contractors constructing a tunnel system through hills at Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire, have managed to 'lose' 1600 cubic metres of toxic, clay slurry (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/10/hs2-potentially-highly-polluting-bentonite). The slurry is called 'bentonite' and the amount would be sufficient to fill more than 50 large trucks. The slurry has been lost in a vent shaft. It is feared that the bentonite will be moved by flowing water, as it passes through cracks in the rocks. If this happens, it will pollute diverse, sensitive chalk streams in the area. HS2 has already been critised for its destruction of protected, wooded areas.
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