Nearly 50 streets in London will be reclaimed for play and for encouraging stronger communities on World Car Free Day tomorrow. Air pollution is now a major problem in the world's cities. In the UK alone, poor air quality is a factor in over 40,000 premature deaths each year.
British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday proposed doubling the 5p charge on plastic bags to 10p. She also suggested that the charge should be extended to all shops, rather than just the larger stores (companies that have 250 or more employees) that currently have to charge for bags. Several of the large supermarket chains have already moved over to only offering 10p ‘bags for life’, rather than 5p single use bags.
British Adventurer Ash Dykes is now underway in attempting one of the greatest world-first expeditions of the decade in traversing the length of China’s Yangtze River.
The first ever systematic analysis of the impacts of humans on our oceans has discovered that a maximum of just 13% can still truly be called ‘wilderness’ areas. The report from the University of Queensland, Australia and the Wildlife Conservation Society has found that almost all of the areas that are still free from the damaging impacts of human beings are at the Poles and in the most remote parts of the Pacific Ocean.
There’s no doubt about it, it’s hot out there! We are likely to see the hottest temperature of 2018 so far somewhere in the UK later this week. There is even talk of the hottest ever UK temperature being recorded in the coming weeks, beating Faversham, Kent’s 2003 record of 38.5℃ (101.3℉). June 2018 was among the top five hottest and driest ever seen in the UK, with provisional data showing that some counties may have had their driest June ever recorded: Dorset 2.0mm (4% of average), Essex 1.7mm (4% of average) and Middlesex just 0.7mm (2% of average). Our normally green countryside is turning to shades of yellow and brown as we roast in the summer heatwave.
Whilst young people are the most likely group to want to own and drive an electric car in the next ten years, many are now choosing not to drive at all.
Recent research in which over 10,000 drivers were polled by UK motoring organisation the AA has found that half of 25-34 year-olds would like to own an electric car. 40% of those aged 18-24 and 35-44 agree with them. This figure dropped to just 25% among the over 65s. Overall, 31% of those questioned said they would like to own an electric vehicle.
A recently published report from the National Surveys on Energy and the Environment (NSEE) has shown that Americans’ views on climate change are themselves changing. A record 73% now think that there is real evidence for global warming. 60% of Americans also believe that humans are responsible for climate change, either primarily (34%) or partly 26%).
There are 31,536,000 seconds in a year, whilst an international football pitch measures 0.82 hectares, so EXACTLY a football pitch per second would amount to 25,859,520 hectares.