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BGB News
The news section aims to bring you the stories and developments in technology of wind, solar and other low carbon energy sources, news of community projects around the country and the latest on climate science, the politics, power plays and dirty tricks that form a background to the sustainability debate.
Keep it underground keeps an eye on the growing exploitation of “unconventional hydrocarbons” including tar sands and “fracked” gas and the risks this poses to the battle to control global warming.
Media Watch monitors the campaign of fake science and media manipulation to distort the truth about sustainability and climate science. A disturbing trend in the States is news outlets running stories beyond misleading and into the territory of outright fiction, a trend becoming increasingly common in sections of the UK press.
Sustainability is about far more than the technology and lifestyle changes we will all have to make. There's a political battle raging between a multi-trillion dollar energy industry that doesn't want to see an end to the fossil fuel gravy train and an overwhelming global scientific consensus that says failure to control carbon emissions will be catastrophic.We aim to keep you abreast of the truth beyond the hype.
Wind Denial??
In the lists of obstacles to developing a sensible path to sustainability few are doing a better job of feeding the public with false and misleading information than the Daily Mail. Their latest headline "Wind turbines: A Burning Issue" led an absurdly misleading piece about storm damage in the Ardrossen wind-farm in Ayrshire.
The fire - which seriously damaged a turbine, happened in exceptional weather conditions, with wind speeds of over 100 mph. The Mail's spin on the story was "turbines don't work when the wind blows". The article goes on to attack wind because it produces no power when the wind doesn't blow or when it blows to hard. The reality is that turbines feather their blades when wind speeds exceed 50 mph to prevent accidents. The fire was almost certainly caused by by a failure of the fail-safe system.
Attacking wind because it produces no power when the wind doesn't blow or when it blows too hard is hardly news, that's what wind turbines are designed to do. What's more worrying is the escalation of seriously misleading journalism - in this case, almost certainly strongly influenced by a bit of "fake research" recently launched by the Adam Smith institute.
Real Cost of Coal
The socialised costs of the environmental and health impacts of fossil fuel use are rarely mentioned in the debate about renewable energy subsidies - and they are surprisingly high.
Greenest Government - Never?
Why is it that only 1 in 50 people polled by YouGov still believe David Cameron's promise to make the current government Britain's "greenest ever". Is he hostage to his own right wing?
7 questions for climate week
With climate week having just past we thought we would post 7 statements on the subject to see how much you have learnt! - Some of them are sneaky - Test yourself and check out the answers!!
Prosperity without growth
Professor Tim Jackson, the author of the acclaimed book Prosperity Without Growth takes us through the conflict between our economy's insatiable need for growth and the inextricable link between growth and carbon emissions.
