Cows are reportedly collapsing and in some cases being euthanized in Denmark following the implementation of a climate policy aimed at reducing a cow’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Danish media report. [some emphasis, links added]

The Nordic country has promoted policies that finance large dairy farms to adopt synthetic additives in their feed as of Jan. 1, 2025, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to Agriland.

However, farmers are reportedly voicing concerns now that their cows have started giving less milk, collapsing, and in some instances getting so ill that they need to be euthanized, according to the Danish media outlet Jyllands-Posten.

“We have so many people who call us and are unhappy about what is happening in their herds,” Kjartan Poulsen, chairman of the National Association of Danish Dairy Producers, told the publication.

Denmark has aggressive climate goals that include reaching “climate neutrality” by 2050 and reducing emissions by 70% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

The cow feed policy is part of Denmark’s emissions-reduction goals, and reportedly, one additive mixed in with cow feed called Bovaer may be the cause of the cows’ health decline, according to Jyllands-Posten.

Bovaer is a “synthetic organic compound that can be added to cattle feed to reduce the methane they produce and expel,” according to UC Davis.

Cow burps emit more methane than cow flatulence, according to NASA.

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Top image of a Simmental cow, looking like she just had some Danish cattle feed. By Stephan Forstmann from Pixabay

Read rest at Daily Caller

Finalists in this year’s Earthshot Awards include a breakthrough microplastics filter and “the world’s first fully upcycled skyscraper”. The final 15 were announced in October, all exhibiting seemingly landmark technological or other innovations with relevance to nature, air, oceans, waste and climate (to summarise the five categories around which the award is structured).¹

This year’s cohort were selected from nearly 2,500 nominees submitted by the Prize’s network of 575 nominators from 72 countries.

To be announced on 5 November, the final five will each receive £1 million and membership of a fellowship program that supplies mentorship, resources and technical support, including access to a network of influential businesses, investors and climate experts.

Finalists in the category of “Protect & Restore Nature” include Tenure Facility, the custodians of a global funding and legal mechanism dedicated to guaranteeing land and forest rights for Indigenous and Afrodescendant Peoples, as well as local communities.

Another nature finalist, re.green, is a Brazilian firm whose AI and satellite data solution “makes protecting forests financially viable”. Offering a seemingly unique restoration approach, re.green combines AI, drones and satellite imagery with ecological and financial data to identify land with the biggest potential for restoration – a sophisticated jumping-off point for carrying out this restoration. It also offers a revenue model based on carbon credits and sustainable timber. The approach is being developed in the Amazon and Atlantic rainforests of Brazil.

Another forest conservation innovation contends for a prize within the nature category. Tropical Forest Forever Facility is described as the most ambitious forest protection fund in history, and has created a $125 billion programme that proposes to pay countries in return for safeguarding their forests.

Public particularity
Three municipalities comprise contenders In the award category of “Clean Our Air”: The City of Bogotá, The State of Gujarat, and the City of Guangzhou.

Bogotá has responded to an air quality crisis that peaked between 1998 and 2005, and which included particulate matter levels exceeding WHO limits by a factor of seven. This was attributed to diesel buses, freight trucks and dust from unpaved roads. An Urban Zone for Clean Air (ZUMA) was introduced in Bosa, a highly polluted, low-income area in the southwest of the Colombian city. The initiative has involved changes to public transport in the area, and its latest fruits include the largest cycle path network in Latin America, and one of the world’s biggest electric bus fleets at over 1,400 buses. And air pollution has fallen by 24% since 2018.

The State of Gujarat, another entrant in this category, has pioneered the world’s first trading scheme for particulate emissions, demonstrating the strengths of a flexible, market-based approach in reducing emissions at a higher rate and lower cost than traditional regulation, while allowing businesses to continue growing, in the appraisal of the Earthshot Prize.

And The City of Guangzhou has chosen to tackle a terrifying PM2.5 problem – attributed to the quantity of bus, taxi, and car journeys undertaken daily by residents – with a large-scale program of electrification of buses and taxis. The initiative also appears underpinned by circularity, with retired lithium-iron bus batteries being repurposed for storage for solar and wind energy.

Masters of the sift
In another award category of “Revive Our Oceans”, Bristol-based Matter’s breakthrough filtration technology aligns with the firm’s stated ambition to make a dent in the problem of global microplastic pollution, and to stop this reaching rivers and oceans.

The filtration approach, Regen®, is said to be the first that’s been built specifically to target microplastic fibres, such as those released by textiles and laundry in washing machines and textile manufacturing. At household level, Regen.® powers the Bosch and Siemens Microplastic Filter, which captures up to 97% of fibres without the need for replacement cartridges.

Accelerating WEEE reuse
Several waste-related innovations are also in the final 15 (in the category of “Build a Waste-free World”). Shanghai-based ATRenew has created a breakthrough system for processing electronic waste. Seemingly set apart by its scale and speed, ATRenew’s approach relies on “Matrix”, an AI-powered system that sorts, tests, quality controls, grades and prices up to 100,000 devices daily. In the five years of the company’s life, ATRenew has processed 150 million electronics, equivalent to every smartphone in the UK and France combined. The group has so far been active in China, Japan and Sweden, with expansion plans now targeting Southeast Asia and Latin America. Blurb on the Earthshot website says ATRenew’s approach “is ensuring the phone in your pocket can be reused across borders”.

Another waste-related finalist is Quay Quarter Tower. The tallest building in Sydney when it opened in 1976, it faced the prospect of demolition after it had reached its end-of-life. Enter a group of visionary architects and engineers, who charted a path for the building to be upcycled and retrofitted into perpetuity. This included Danish architects 3XN, Australian executive partner BVN, and engineering firms BG&E and Arup. On competion of the work in 2022, they had reportedly managed to retain 65% of the original structure and 98% of the core, with the avoidance of more than 12,000 tonnes of embodied carbon.

Final-15 contenders in the remaining award category of “Fix Our Climate” include Barbados, which – under the leadership of Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley – is said to be reshaping global climate finance systems, making them fairer and more effective for climate-vulnerable nations.

US company Form Energy, on the other hand, purports to tackle one of the key missing puzzle pieces in the energy transition: providing a cost-effective technology able to store energy generated by wind and solar over consecutive days, at the requisite scale. The group has developed iron-air batteries that can store electricity for up to 100 hours “at a fraction of the cost of lithium-based batteries”.

Form Enegy’s first high-volume battery manufacturing facility has been built in Weirton, West Virginia. “Built in a year, this 550,000-square-foot plant shows that advanced manufacturing can be achieved both rapidly and efficiently,” says the group’s listing on the awards website.

The Winners of the Earthshot Prize 2025 will be announced in Rio de Janeiro on 5 November.

Notes
[1] The Earthshot Prize is structured around five key challenge areas, called the “Earthshots.” These are:

• “Protect and Restore Nature” – Initiatives that conserve ecosystems, protect wildlife, and restore degraded land and habitats.
• “Clean Our Air” – Solutions aimed at reducing air pollution and improving air quality for people and the planet.
• “Revive Our Oceans” – Efforts to restore ocean health, including protecting marine life, reducing plastic pollution, and regenerating fisheries.
• “Build a Waste-Free World” – Innovations that minimize waste, promote recycling, and redesign products and systems for circularity.
• “Fix Our Climate” – Technologies and initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support renewable energy, and advance climate resilience.

A rented boat with hotel-like facilities, which Brazilian radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his delegation will use throughout the COP30 climate alarmism summit, will consume at least 4,000 liters of diesel fuel, the outlet Poder 360 reported on Wednesday. [some emphasis, links added]

Brazil is presently hosting COP30, a gathering of over 190 countries in the city of Belém, Pará, to discuss “climate solutions” that will run through November 21. Lula officially inaugurated the climate summit on Thursday morning, accompanying participating heads of state as they arrived at the event’s venue.

According to the state-owned outlet Agência Brasil, heads of state and leaders of international organizations are expected to deliver speeches lasting up to five minutes throughout Thursday and Friday.

The United States will not send high-level officials to the climate alarmist event.

Lula arrived in Belém alongside his wife, Rosângela “Janja” Lula da Silva, on Saturday.

In its report, Poder 360 said that Lula and his delegation will stay on the Iana III, a vessel rented by the Brazilian government that reportedly belongs to Icotur, a Manaus-based private transport and tourism company.

The vessel has three floors and measures 45 meters long and 8 meters wide, with a four-person crew, staff to serve passengers, and additional employees depending on the client’s needs.

All passenger facilities are air-conditioned. The vessel uses conventional diesel fuel and not biodiesel, which is “not commonly used in the region.”

Poder 360 detailed that the boat will consume at least 4,000 liters of diesel fuel to travel from the city of Manaus, Amazonas, to Belém and back.

The outlet pointed out that the journey along the Amazon River takes five days, and the return journey takes seven days due to the countercurrent.

The vessel would not need to consume diesel while docked in Belém, as it is reportedly capable of connecting to the power grid.

“The Brazilian-made engine consumes 50 liters of diesel per hour of navigation. The fuel is considered one of the most polluting. The vessel travels between 20 and 30 kilometers per hour,” Poder 360 explained. “The distance between the two capitals by river is 1,650 kilometers. Considering the five days for the outward journey and seven days for the return journey, consumption should be around 4,000 liters of diesel.”

Poder 360 pointed out that the trip could be completed in as few as three days if the boat does not dock at ports at the end of each day, stressing that the reason for overnight stays is that there are “pirate” boats along the Amazon River, “most of which often attack at night.”

According to Poder 360, Iana III was chosen because of the size of its rooms, with Lula prioritizing “larger rooms and guest comfort over the number of rooms.”

Unnamed nautical tourism sector representatives reportedly asserted to the outlet that the “vessel is not as luxurious as the press has reported.” Poder 360 published video footage taken this week of the Brazilian first lady dancing aboard the vessel.

Poder 360, citing information from the Brazilian Secretariat of Social Communication (Secom), reported that the average daily rental charge for Iana III is 2,647 Brazilian reais (roughly $495) per person.

Secom reportedly asserted that the rented vessel represented the “most economical alternative compared to the options available in conventional hotels in Belem,” but did not disclose details about what other options were evaluated before renting the boat.

Lula had expressed his intention to stay on a boat during his visit to the region in early October, where he reportedly claimed that he “did not want luxury.”

“I told Janja, I’m not even going to a hotel, I’m going to sleep on a boat. While the gringos are sleeping, I’ll be fishing,” Lula said in October.

The Brazilian presidency reportedly did not disclose how many people are staying on the boat besides Lula and the first lady, nor how many crewmembers were hired, nor the total rental costs.

“The Presidency stated that all decisions follow advance planning, security criteria, and transparency. As this is a presidential trip, expenses that could jeopardize the safety of the president, vice president, and their families are classified as confidential,” the report reads.

The Brazilian government’s preparations for COP30 have met numerous difficulties throughout the year, most notably, several delegations complaining about Belém’s “exorbitant” lodging prices, leading to delegations expressing that they found it difficult to secure accommodation for their respective representatives.

Read rest at Breitbart

The world’s first high-speed marine engine running exclusively on methanol has been successfully tested, Rolls-Royce announced on 27 October, in what seems an important milestone for carbon-neutral shipping.

While methanol engines in shipping have so far been demonstrated with the larger, slower-speed class of vessels, Rolls-Royce’s announcement marks a technological first in the development of a high-speed marine engine (i.e., one suitable for smaller vessels such as ferries and yachts).

In a video, Dr Johannes Kech, Head of Methanol Engine Development in the Power Systems division at Rolls-Royce, explained some of the technical hurdles that had to be overcome, including the complete absence of lubricity with methanol – in other words, it has no lubricating properties, unlike diesel – which required the group to work with suppliers to develop a new injection system.

There are also important differences in the combustion properties of methanol compared to diesel, including its much higher ignition temperature, and the fact that it burns much more quickly. “We have fundamentally redesigned the combustion process, the turbocharging, and the engine control system – and even adapted our test bench infrastructure,” he said, in a press release from the group. “Initial tests show that the engine is running smoothly – now it’s time for fine-tuning.”

Completed at the company’s test bench in Friedrichshafen, southern Germany, the innovation is a product of the meOHmare research project, which aims to develop a CO₂-neutral high-speed marine engine powered by green methanol by the end of 2025.

Rolls-Royce, injection system specialist Woodward L’Orange, and the WTZ Roßlau technology and research centre have been working on the meOHmare joint project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

“This is a genuine world first,” said Dr. Jörg Stratmann, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG. “To date, there is no other high-speed engine in this performance class that runs purely on methanol. We are investing specifically in future technologies in order to open up efficient ways for our customers to reduce CO2 emissions and further expand our leading role in sustainable propulsion systems.”

An important signal
“With this successful test run, we are sending a clear signal: green methanol is a future-oriented fuel – and the technology for it is here,” said Denise Kurtulus, Senior Vice President Global Marine at Rolls-Royce. “The single-fuel methanol engine is an attractive solution, especially for operators of ferries, yachts or supply vessels who want to reduce their carbon footprint. The task now is to create the framework conditions for wider use.”

Alongside the single-fuel methanol engine, Rolls-Royce is also developing a dual-fuel concept that can operate on both methanol and diesel — serving as a bridging technology until green methanol becomes more widely available.

Why methanol?
Green methanol is seen as one of the most promising alternative fuels for the maritime industry. When produced using renewable electricity in a power-to-X process, it offers CO₂-neutral operation, is biodegradable, and emits significantly fewer pollutants than fossil fuels.

It also has advantages in being liquid and easy to store. Compared to hydrogen, it doesn’t require pressurised tanks or other forms of specialized handling.

“For us, methanol is the fuel of the future in shipping – clean, efficient, and climate-friendly,” said Kurtulus. “It burns with significantly lower emissions than fossil fuels and has a high energy density compared to other sustainable energy sources.”

The BBC is preparing to launch an investigation to assess bias in its climate change coverage, amid a growing crisis at the corporation. [some emphasis, links added]

The broadcaster has decided to review its climate and energy policy reporting after a string of controversies. It has been forced to make a series of corrections, with some programs being removed altogether. …snip…

Boris Johnson has led calls for Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, to “explain or resign” over the bias scandal engulfing the broadcaster, while MPs said it was time for Mr Davie to “come out of hiding”.

Now the broadcaster will face fresh scrutiny on its climate coverage, with its Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee deciding to carry out a “thematic review” of its coverage of “energy policy in the UK and climate change”.

This would make it the latest in a series of reviews on impartiality carried out by the BBC in recent years.

They are part of its 10-point impartiality plan, which was introduced in 2021, following an inquiry into the scandal surrounding the 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, involving Martin Bashir.

Last night, Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, said the review was “not before time”.

“The BBC must investigate its appalling climate change bias. However, given recent BBC bias scandals, I have no confidence that it will present the true findings. The only solution is to have a totally independent review of the BBC’s climate scaremongering,” he said.

Claire Coutinho, shadow energy secretary, said:

“The consensus on how to address climate change is breaking. If we stick to the current path, we will be poorer and weaker. It’s vital the BBC is able to report news about climate change impartially and make sure all views are represented.”

Earlier this year, the BBC quietly edited an episode of Question Time after allegedly making a false claim about net zero. The corporation has defended the move, saying it is “normal practice to edit the programme before broadcast for audience clarity.”

Last year, a complaint was upheld when a BBC News article presented as fact the claim that “human-induced climate change made recent extreme heat in the US [Southwest], Mexico, and Central America around 35 times more likely.”

In May 2022, Justin Rowlatt, the BBC’s climate editor, was found to have made misleading claims about extreme weather in a Panorama documentary.

In October 2020, Ofcom upheld a complaint by the National Farmers’ Union regarding the documentary “Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?“, and the documentary was later removed from BBC iPlayer.

The BBC has also been criticized by those on the Left who argue that the corporation has allowed too many climate change skeptics on air and has not challenged them sufficiently on their views.

Read full post at The Telegraph

Environmental services provider Adler & Allan has acquired the specialist consultancies, Thomson Environmental Consultants and Atmos Consulting from Mornington Partners. The acquisition of both companies represents a significant enhancement to Adler & Allan’s ‘green collar’ consulting capabilities, said the group.

Lucy Hunt, CEO of Thomson Environmental Consultants, said, “The Thomson team are delighted to be joining Adler & Allan. Their market-leading range of integrated environmental services and blue-chip client base represent an excellent opportunity to enhance our collective reach within the UK’s Environmental Consultancy sector. Working as part of Adler & Allan, our highly-skilled teams will be able to deliver more for clients, continuing to enable business and nature to thrive together.”

Jean Curran, Managing Director of Atmos Consulting, said, “Joining Adler & Allan is a natural and exceptionally positive evolution for Atmos, connecting us to a broader network of environmental expertise and opening up new opportunities to collaborate and enhance the value we deliver for clients. Adler & Allan’s proven track record and cultural alignment make them an excellent fit for Atmos. With access to greater scale, our team is excited to pursue growth as part of their Environmental Consultancy team while continuing to deliver the trusted, solutions-focused advice that defines our work.”

Adler & Allan are on a mission to enhance the quality, reach and flexibility of the integrated environmental solutions required by customers and regulatory bodies alike. With an unmatched blend of environmental consulting, infrastructure lifecycle management expertise, and pollution response capabilities operating across multiple industrial sectors, the addition of Thomson Environmental Consultants and Atmos Consulting will add further balance to the Group’s mix of engineering and advisory service capabilities.

Henrik Pedersen, CEO of Adler & Allan, said, “This acquisition marks yet another key milestone in our ambitious growth-focused strategy to create an integrated suite of environmental services across the UK and beyond. We’re extremely proud to welcome Atmos Consulting and Thomson Environmental Consultants to the Adler & Allan family.”

Adler & Allan, which is backed by Private Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, said it remains committed to pursuing an acquisition-focused strategy, integrating highly specialised environmental services providers in support of customers across the UK, North America, Europe and Australasia.

The United Nations’ COP30 climate doomer conference officially kicked off on Monday in Brazil with the notable absences of top world polluters China and India. [emphasis, links added]

President Donald Trump, who has been at the forefront of pushing back against the U.N.’s climate agenda, did not send any high-level representatives to the gathering.

This year’s COP sees some 50,000 representatives from over 190 countries gather in the Brazilian city of Belém, Pará, consuming a significant amount of fossil fuels in air travel to condemn non-green energy through a two-week-long agenda addressing “climate change,” green policies, and other topics related to the Paris Agreement agenda — which President Trump pulled the U.S. out of this year.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright recently described COP30 as “harmful and misguided,” and as a “hoax,” suggesting that he may participate in next year’s COP “just to try and deliver some common sense.”

The upcoming series of meetings was preceded by a two-day Summit hosted by Brazil’s radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in which Lula and several other leftist presidents, such as Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and Chile’s outgoing President Gabriel Boric, dedicated time at the podium to lash out against President Trump for standing against the climate alarmism movement.

The Brazilian outlet Poder 360 reported that last week’s Summit had the lowest number of heads of state in four years, with only 18 presidents, 11 prime ministers, the Vatican Secretary of State, and one king traveling.

The outlet remarked that the turnout is roughly half that of COP29, hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, and less than a quarter of the 139 heads of state reportedly participated in COP28, which was hosted by the United Arab Emirates in 2023.

Even the BBC called into question the need for a two-week-long world climate gathering, given that over 160 heads of state skipped out on the Summit, including President Trump, China’s Xi Jinping, and India’s Narendra Modi.

Breitbart News recently reported that even Bill Gates downgraded the severity of “climate change,” a notable change after years of continued climate doomerism from the Microsoft cofounder.

Although the COP yearly gatherings are allegedly intended to present “solutions” to climate change and pro-environmentalists’ causes, reports from earlier this year indicate that the Brazilian government decimated thousands of acres of the Amazon rainforest to make way for a highway in Belém for COP30, which President Trump reiterated on Sunday on Truth Social.

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Top image of COP30 opening ceremony via Reuters’ Live Climate Summit/YouTube screencap

Read rest at Breitbart

Keep Britain Tidy calls for action and says rogue ‘white van’ traders are driving surge in illegal dumping

Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy is calling for urgent action to clamp down on rogue waste operators and strengthen enforcement on waste crime as new research among local authorities reveals fly-tipping incidents are rising and councils are increasingly frustrated by the scale of the problem.  

To inform its new ‘Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight’ campaign, Keep Britain Tidy carried out research among local authorities, revealing that:

• 98% say fly-tipping is a problem in their area, with almost three quarters (70%) reporting a ‘major problem’. 

• Almost all (96%) are frustrated with the increasing severity of the issue. More than half (56%) report that incidents have increased in the past year and 54% feel that they won’t ever get on top of the problem. 

• Two in five (40%) fly-tipping incidents are now reported to be left by rogue ‘white van’ operators rather than individuals – showing how profit-driven waste crime has become a significant contributor to the problem.

Nationally, more than 1.15 million fly-tipping incidents were reported in 2023-24 by councils. With estimated costs to landowners and council tax-payers ranging from £100 million to £150 million for clearance and investigation, fly-tipping diverts funding away from vital services like schools, social care and parks.

Keep Britain Tidy is calling for coordinated national action with a new Fly-tipping Action Plan recommending a series of measures including: 

• Smarter prevention: facilitating the legitimate disposal of goods; stricter permitting and easier recognition for waste carriers, improved education for householders and increased responsibility on companies to collect, reuse and recycle commonly fly-tipped goods

• Tougher enforcement: ensuring local authorities are better equipped to catch waste criminals; introducing stronger penalties and deterrents including higher fines, points on driving licences and crushing of vehicles used by criminals.

Dr. Anna Scott, Director of Services at  Keep Britain Tidy,  said: “Fly-tipping is not a victimless crime nor is it petty offending, it is organised crime that undermines responsible businesses, damages our environment and erodes public trust. To turn the tide, we need tougher penalties to deter offenders, a robust permitting system so rogue operators can’t hide in plain sight and measures that make it easier for people to dispose of waste legally and responsibly. 

The survey revealed overwhelming support among local authorities for licensing and enforcement reforms to reduce fly-tipping. According to the research:

• 86% agree that providing legitimate waste carriers with a physical, easily recognisable permit would help reduce incidents of fly-tipping

• 95% agree that making it mandatory for waste carriers to display their permit number on vehicles used to transport waste would help to cut fly-tipping

• 86% say that the introduction of a mandatory, free Extended Producer Responsibility schemes for commonly fly-tipped items such as mattresses and sofas would reduce the number of large household items that are fly-tipped

• 94% agree that developing a platform to share intelligence relating to suspected illegal waste carriers would help reduce incidents

• 95% agree that ensuring fines handed down by magistrates’ courts are at least as high as a fixed penalty notice for fly-tipping would deter fly-tippers

• 83% say a national awareness campaign to educate residents on their duty of care for their own rubbish would cut the number of fly-tipping incidents

The key measures set out in Keep Britain Tidy’s Fly-tipping Action Plan are:

• Shut down rogue operators with tougher permitting

• Physical waste carrier permits should be clearly marked with the business name and permit number, and be easily recognisable and difficult to forge

• Vehicles used to collect waste should display their permit number clearly, making it easier for householders and authorities to spot illegitimate operators

• The Environment Agency’s register should aim to become an essential tool for householders looking for a legitimate, local domestic waste removal service

• Recognising the need for a national drive to educate the public around their duty of care and how to dispose of their waste responsibly, Keep Britain Tidy is launching a new campaign with local authorities under the banner of Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight in November 2025 and is encouraging all local authorities in England to support it.

• Cut the criminals off at source – create a circular economy for bulky waste

• Introduce a mandatory, free take-back scheme for commonly fly-tipped bulky items like mattresses, white goods and furniture through an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme

• Join the dots to help local authorities tackle the problem

• Identifying an appropriate agency to centralise intelligence and data-sharing between local authorities and enforcement bodies

• Strengthen enforcement and penalties

• The Sentencing Council for England and Wales should recommend that fines for waste crimes are at least as high as the Fixed Penalty Notices offered to those accused of waste crime in lieu of prosecution.

• On top of Defra’s commitment to make it easier for local authorities to confiscate and crush vehicles used to carry out fly-tipping, introduce other deterrents such as banning those found guilty of breaking waste laws from any future handling of waste.

 

Together, these measures form a practical roadmap to drive down fly-tipping, support local enforcement and ensure waste crime is treated with the seriousness it deserves.

Keep Britain Tidy is running a Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight public awareness campaign from 10^th – 23rd November to educate people about how to avoid falling for a #RubbishDeal when hiring someone to take away their household rubbish. Featuring real-life CCTV footage supplied by local authorities, the campaign exposes rogue ‘house clearance’ merchants being caught in the act of illegally dumping large quantities of household rubbish. 

No one cares about climate change anymore.

According to research by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, media coverage of climate change has dropped by half since 2023. The decline also shows up in Google searches for “climate change,” which have also decreased by half since 2023. [emphasis, links added]

People, it seems, have simply gotten tired of the same old story of doom and gloom and melting ice caps.

The fact that life has gone on normally — with GDPs continuing to increase and heat deaths decreasing — despite the fact that we’ve surpassed date after date of proclaimed catastrophic “tipping points” isn’t helping climate change activists, either.

Even Greta Thunberg has moved on from climate change, which seems to bore her now, in favor of going after Israel.

Six years ago, Thunberg, in a climate change speech, told the U.N., “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” Given that she’s no longer a child and nothing has happened, that may have been overwrought.

Polling also shows that climate change simply isn’t among the issues American voters care most about.

A report this September by the Democrat-aligned Searchlight Institute urged Democrats not to even say the words “climate change,” noting that voters prioritize climate change well behind issues like affordability, jobs, and healthcare.

The group called on Democrats to focus instead on climate change under the banner of affordable energy costs.

“Advocates and elected officials should understand that their messages are actively weakened by a focus on ‘climate’ over affordability and low energy prices,” the institute said, “and that voters are looking for immediate help with rising costs rather than solutions to abstract problems.

Numerous Democrats have followed this script and flipped their climate change strategy from one of doom and gloom to a focus on how green energy can decrease the cost of electricity.

For example, Democratic Reps. Sean Casten and Mike Levin recently proposed a bill called the Cheap Energy Agenda, which claims that the “cheapest” forms of energy are also the “cleanest.”

Last month, Politico declared, “Climate change is out. Energy affordability is in… Climate policy is decidedly unfashionable in 2025 — among Democrats.”

The reality that many alternative energy sources are simply more expensive than oil and natural gas is not stopping Democrats from pursuing the strategy. They hope that innovation will allow wind, solar, and the like to catch up before voters notice.

Every Democrat now knows to campaign on affordability — what @KathyHochul is showing here is the tough-mindedness to actually govern on affordability even though she’s going to take misguided shit from green groups over it.https://t.co/xAiO4Equ6W pic.twitter.com/Sa8zzI1sZ8

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 8, 2025

This shift comes from the party that pursued the alleviation of climate change as its top priority under President Joe Biden.

The Democratic Party’s landmark legislation under Biden, the “Inflation Reduction Act,” was in reality just a climate change subsidies bill. In fact, $783 billion out of the bill’s $891 billion in spending went to fighting climate change.

Voters are not deceived by the fact that Democrats have made climate change their central issue. According to the Searchlight Institute, voters said that the top priority of the Democratic Party is climate change, followed closely by LGBTQ issues.

In recent weeks, climate activists and scientists have adopted a posture of outright desperation.

While they have had the rug pulled out from under them by the Trump administration, both from the president’s rollback of the Inflation Reduction Act and the EPA’s rescinding of the legal basis for many climate change regulations, and have been facing funding issues from the fact that interest in climate change has dropped precipitously, what happened last month has made them even more afraid.

They now fear that even climate change stalwarts on the Left no longer care about climate change.

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Top photo by Gabriel McCallin on Unsplash

Read rest at American Spectator

The UK has a huge geothermal resource that is virtually invisible in government energy policy, says a new report published today (10 November).

The Coal Mines for Heat Decarbonisation report by Durham Energy Institute, University of Durham, lays out the untapped potential for mine water geothermal heat (MWGH) and what’s holding the sector back.

When coal mines closed across the UK, many former mines gradually filled with water. This water has been warmed by natural processes and, if sustainably managed, can provide a low-carbon, renewable source of heat for homes and businesses. In existing mine water geothermal systems, the heat is extracted using pumps and heat exchangers and fed into district heating systems.

With a quarter of UK homes and businesses sitting on former coalfields, the report estimates that these could potentially provide up to 1.2x the heat demand of the UK each year. Despite this potential, MWGH is little mentioned in government energy policy and has had limited take up in the UK.

The barriers are not technological challenges: MWGH has already been proven at scale, with systems operational in both the UK and abroad. The UK’s largest system is in Gateshead, where a 6MW pump supplies 40% of the heat for the city’s district heating network.

According to the report, broader national deployment is hampered by the lack of clear policies around MWGH and a complex regulatory system that distorts the economics and increases the perceived risks and capital costs for new schemes.

As a result, the authors say, the UK is missing out on a stable, renewable decentralised domestic energy source that could offer multiple benefits:

• Stable and consistent low temperature heat ideal for district heating.
• Running costs low in comparison to air source heat pumps but placing lower demand on the grid.
• Usable for heating, cooling (e.g. for data centres) and energy storage.
  Potential to create high quality jobs and bring economic renewal to deprived former mining areas.

The report lays out what needs to happen for the UK to reap these benefits:

• Recognition of geothermal heat as a natural resource, with a bespoke regulatory system.
• Decoupling of electricity pricing from gas, to incentivise MWGH over gas boilers.
  Including MWGH in national and regional energy planning and have a presumption in favour of MWGH schemes.
• Creating a funding mechanism to derisk initial capital investment, as was the case for other renewables at an early stage.

Professor Simone Abram, Executive Director of the Durham Energy Institute and Ørsted Chair in Green Energy Systems at Durham University, said:

“To unlock the potential for mine water geothermal heat will require a mix of financial incentives, regulatory reform and, most of all, leadership to champion this energy opportunity. Mine water heat provides a way for the UK to meet its net zero obligations and also to boost economic growth in often deprived former mining areas. The Northeast is leading the way, with the UK’s greatest concentration of mine water geothermal schemes in operation. As we lay out in this report, there are clear actions by governments and others that could mean the whole of the country can reap the benefits from our former mines.”