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.
Monday, 14 March 2022
Once in a Ban Ki-moon?
The former United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, feels the invasion of Ukraine has left countries with stark choices. There is an energy crisis but the urgent need to counter climate change hasn't gone away. He is clearly of the view that all countries must rapidly embrace the use of renewables, rather than return to fossil fuels (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/13/fracking-is-dangerous-ban-ki-moon-warns-uk-government-over-climate-commitments). Ban Ki-moon specifically says that the UK should not contemplate restarting its fracking (the obtaining of 'natural gas' from shale deposits) permissions in Northern England. This view is, of course, totally at variance with urging of disrupter Nigel Farage and his 'new' 'Britain Means Business' vehicle. Britain Means Business's campaign, 'Vote Power Not Poverty', insists on a return to fracking and coal mining in the UK. Farage is aided-and-abetted by the UK Conservative Party's 'Net Zero Scrutiny Group'. There is a danger the horrors of the Ukraine war (and it is clearly a war!) will, in football parlance, 'cause us to take our eye off the ball'. If we do so, we are likely to be trading one set of horrors for another 'down the road'. Embracing renewables is not something that can be put off until 'better times'.
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