The Telegraph & Argus: News from across the Bradford district

Victims of a greedy food industry

9:28am Wednesday 22nd May 2013

We take the much-praised British countryside for granted, particularly the hedge-divided patchwork of fields and the mile after mile of drystone walls creeping up the hillsides. It wasn’t always, so and if we had been alive in 1750 we would have been up in arms. Before then, much of the land was open, unfenced and in common use, with far fewer people feeding off the land around them.

Global warming is still a hot topic

9:12am Wednesday 15th May 2013

It's rather significant that the last time the global temperature for a month was below its 20th century average was February 1985, and that May 2012, the hottest May on record, was the 327th consecutive month above this average.

Glimmer of hope for our

10:24am Wednesday 8th May 2013

March 21 – the Spring Equinox – is the day when the sun is vertically overhead in the northern hemisphere for the first time in six months. This year it snowed. Good. It meant that bees were still tucked up in bed.

Putting our waste to good use

9:02am Wednesday 1st May 2013

Much of that bitterly cold easterly wind that froze us through and kept snow on the ground in the week up to Easter had already blown across Denmark, on the other side of the North Sea. Despite this, most of the Danes had kept as warm as toast, with minimum emissions of CO2. So how did they manage that while we were shivering?

Speed of change is alarming

8:50am Wednesday 24th April 2013

Different groups of people have widely varying views about climate change and its cause, from the vast majority of Earth scientists who understand the underlying physics and know it’s mainly the result of human activity, to the few who deny that it is happening at all or, if it is, blame the sun, cosmic rays or divine intervention.

Thatcher’s climate change concerns remain

8:53am Wednesday 17th April 2013

Those who know me will be surprised to read my opinion that, in one respect, Margaret Thatcher was absolutely right.

All part of the bigger picture...

8:31am Wednesday 10th April 2013

Sometimes it’s necessary to take a second look at decisions that affect our daily lives and we might then realise that our first reaction was probably wrong.

Efficient way of producing more power

8:50am Wednesday 3rd April 2013

I think I remember seeing a large gasometer on Canal Road many years ago. It was used to store gas extracted from coal, and there was another one dominating the Oval cricket ground. However, they’ve nearly all disappeared since we turned to North Sea natural gas, and imports.

Powering homes with our leftovers

9:14am Wednesday 27th March 2013

The market town of Witney, and the surrounding area in Oxfordshire, is the constituency of David Cameron, the Prime Minister, but it’s likely to be better known in the future for developments that could show a carbon reduction path for the rest of us.

Meat industry offers food for thought

8:25am Wednesday 20th March 2013

Four recent reports deal with the problems caused by some of the animals we share the planet with – and eat – and there is still some way to go before we arrive at a sensible relationship.

Future rests with world’s big nations

10:26am Wednesday 13th March 2013

The good news first. Recent figures show that the United States is now producing less carbon dioxide than in the past – indeed, last year was the lowest total since 1994, and there’s been a reduction of 13 per cent in the last five years.

Is it time to return to rationing?

8:56am Wednesday 6th March 2013

Some years ago, Lord Stern wrote a very serious review of economics and climate change because he thought the world would warm between two and three degrees by 2100. He believed it was time we started to do something about it.

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