the-BA : Science News Digest

Welcome to a special edition of the Science News Digest to tie in with the start of National Science Week and the launch of Click for the Climate.

BBC News Online reports on the BA’s Click for the Climate activity, encouraging the public to take action to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions as part of National Science Week, and also about how the supermarkets have been encouraged to lower the price of their energy-saving bulbs during the week.

To read about this on the BA website, visit here.

Click for the Climate now!

Listen out every weekday during National Science Week for BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme as it features Click for the Climate, starting with a look at the trials and tribulations of trying to live an ethical lifestyle, as described by Leo Hickman, Guardian columnist and author of A Life Stripped Bare.

In politics these days, it seems everyone is clamouring to be green. At the end of last week, the Liberal Democrats elected a new leader, Ming Campbell, and as the Daily Telegraph reports, he is considering a series of "green taxes" that could threaten cheap air fares, petrol prices and even domestic heating bills.

Meanwhile, the Tories, under recently-elected leader David Cameron, ‘want every home to have a gas-powered generator, solar cells on the roof or a heat-pump in the lawn,’ as the Telegraph also reported.

It's well known that the Prime Minister is in favour of nuclear power as a way of cutting carbon dioxide emissions. But his view was dealt a significant blow this week...

Edie.net reports this week that the government's own advisors have said in a new report that nuclear power is too costly and dangerous to justify its expansion in the UK. ‘The authors of the Sustainable Development Commission report found unsolved problems such as long-term radioactive waste disposal to tip the balance against nuclear.’

Anyone who has ever ventured on an independent holiday will, at some point, have delved into a trusted Lonely Planet guide or Rough Guide. But now the founders of the two books are having to face up to the contribution they have inadvertently made to climate change.

As the Austrialian publication The Age reports the founders of the guides, ‘troubled that they have helped spread a casual attitude towards air travel that could trigger devastating climate change, are uniting to urge tourists to fly less.’

Still, if you are planning on flying, then Virgin Atlantic are offering to plant trees to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from limousines used to drive its customers to airports. As environmentalists have pointed out, though, when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, Virgin Atlantic’s fleet of planes is much worse than a few limousines. The Guardian reports.

Last Sunday saw the start of David Attenborough’s new series, Planet Earth, with an impressive nine million viewers. The programme, with its spectacular photography, had just one problem, according to The Herald...

‘The pre-publicity for Planet Earth has been almost as epic as the series. For the poor reviewer, this might count as intimidating. Four years in the making, they say, millions in the spending; the biggest, most ambitious, most technologically-advanced project of its kind, and all with the imprimatur of David Attenborough. Short translation: Admire This.’