Rob Edwards

Faith leaders call for tougher action on climate

from Sunday Herald, 30 March 2008

Scotland's three main faiths have come together this weekend in an unprecedented plea to government ministers to raise the game on climate change. They have warned Scotland must toughen its plans to cut the pollution warming the globe to help prevent millions from dying in poor countries.

Protestant, Catholic and Islamic leaders are urging the Scottish National Party not to abandon its manifesto commitment to mandatory targets to reduce climate pollution by three per cent a year.

They have come out in support of demands made by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland - a new coalition of more than 30 groups with at least 1.5 million supporters. The coalition's campaign for more action to tackle climate change, also being launched today, is backed by the Sunday Herald.

Wild salmon 'under threat' from fish farms

from Sunday Herald, 30 March 2008

Scotland’s wild fish are increasingly being killed by lice leaking from salmon farms, new government research has revealed. But keeping them a safe distance apart has been deemed too costly and "logistically difficult" a solution.

A raft of internal reports from the Scottish government’s Fisheries Research Services (FRS) in Aberdeen and Pitlochry have uncovered strong evidence that sea lice from caged salmon contaminate fish in the wild - and that the problem seems to be getting worse.

CalMac ferries 'could go bust'

from Sunday Herald, 23 March 2008

The public ferry company, Caledonian MacBrayne, could go bust and vital transport links to the islands be lost if the European Commission wins a prolonged legal battle with the Scottish government, officials have warned.

Such a stark scenario, revealed in an internal government database obtained last week by the Sunday Herald, would be “scandalous” and “outrageous”, say experts. Some are even daring the commission to go to court to bring the matter to a head.

The Scottish government doesn't eat much Scottish food

from Sunday Herald, 23 March 2008

In the First Minister Alex Salmond’s well-publicised bid to eat only Scottish food last week, he would have been well advised to steer clear of the Scottish government’s own canteens.

An investigation by the Sunday Herald has discovered that as much as 80% of the vegetables and half the meat served to nearly 6,000 civil servants in Edinburgh and Glasgow are imported from outwith Scotland.

The revelation, condemned as “appalling” by food campaigners, has prompted drastic action by ministers. The contract for supplying meals and snacks to the Scottish government and its guests is now to be put out to tender to help boost local food.

Scottish government to ban bottled water

from Sunday Herald, 23 March 2008

Bottled water is to be banned at Scottish government events as part of a bid to ‘go greener’ and protect the environment.

Ministers have told the Sunday Herald that bottles of still water will no longer be provided at meetings hosted on government premises in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Instead, the water will come from the mains.

Disputed hawk trapping trial postponed

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

An intensely controversial scheme to trap sparrowhawks to prevent them from killing racing pigeons has been postponed because of last-minute problems in getting licences from the UK government.

The Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell, decided at the end of last week to delay a trial programme to relocate sparrowhawks hunting near pigeon lofts. The trial had been due to begin on Monday, but it won’t now take place until the autumn at the earliest.

The surprise decision prompted an angry reaction from pigeon-fanciers, who claimed they had been “shafted”. Wildlife groups, however, were pleased because they regarded the trial as unnecessary, illegal and potentially harmful.

Local food project saved at eleventh hour

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

A prize-winning local food project, which was closed down last week because of a funding shortfall, has been given an eleventh-hour reprieve after an investigation by the Sunday Herald.

On Friday morning Highlands and Islands Local Food Network (HILFN) was “gutted” at having to cancel a £60,000 apprenticeship scheme for local food producers. But by Friday afternoon crucial funding had been reinstated, putting the scheme back on track.

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) office covering Inverness and east highland reversed an earlier decision not to fund six apprentices from their area to join the year-long training scheme. This means that the scheme can now go ahead, to the delight of its organisers.

Attack on government food discussion

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

The Scottish government’s public discussion on food policy has been attacked as “bland motherhood and apple pie” and “ridiculous” by an international food expert.

But the criticisms have been dismissed as an “extreme rant” by the environment minister, Richard Lochhead, who pointed out that the discussion had been welcomed by the vast majority of people.

Government food grants go green

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

Food businesses in Scotland will have to prove that they are being environmentally-friendly if they want to qualify for a slice of a new £60 million government grant scheme.

Ministers have decided that commitments to sustainability, reducing waste and healthy eating will be critical in deciding whether or not to back enterprises with much-needed funds.

Depleted uranium turns earthworms into glowworms

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

By Jasper Hamill

Earthworms were pushed into the firing line last week after a resumption of the testing of depleted uranium shells at Dundrennan.

Significant levels of radioactive uranium isotopes were found in the flesh of worms at the Ministry of Defence's Dumfries weapons range last year. Despite concerns from environmentalists and the international community, the MoD last week started a series of tests of depleted uranium (DU) shells, supposed "safety checks".

Revealed: the oil companies which breached safety rules

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

The oil companies guilty of a series of safety breaches on North Sea rigs have been named and shamed by the government’s health and safety watchdog - but only after a freedom of information request by the Sunday Herald.

In the last three years Shell, Total, BP, Chevron, Maersk and other companies have all faced legal action from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), forcing them to fix flaws in their crucial safety and maintenance systems.

Numerous rules designed to reduce the risk of accidents, fires and explosions to prevent workers from being injured or killed have been broken. Fire doors, valves, and other critical safety equipment have been found to be faulty, and maintenance regimes inadequate.

The shocking new face of world hunger

from Sunday Herald 09 March 2008

by Kate Smith and Rob Edwards

It is the new face of hunger. A perfect storm of food scarcity, global warming, rocketing oil prices and the world population explosion is plunging humanity into the biggest crisis of the 21st century by pushing up food prices and spreading hunger and poverty from rural areas into cities.

Millions more of the world’s most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages loom and crop prices spiral ever upwards. And for the first time in history, say experts, the impact is spreading from the developing to the developed world.

More than 73 million people in 78 countries who depend on food handouts from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are facing reduced rations this year. The increasing scarcity of food is the “biggest crisis looming for the world”, according to WFP officials.

Tackling food scarcity in Scotland

comment from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

You may think you’ve heard it all before: prolonged droughts, looming food shortages, and the threat of starving millions. But think again. This time it’s different.

As we report today, the world is facing an unprecedented combination of circumstances that is pushing it to the brink of disaster. The rising price of oil, the exploding population and the havoc wreaked by global warming are all conspiring to create food scarcity.

Biofuels: the big mistake

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

The global drive for a new green fuel to power cars, lorries and planes is worsening world food shortages and threatening to make billions go hungry.

Biofuels, enthusiastically backed by the US, UK and other European governments, have been sold as the solution to global warming. Making fuels from growing crops has been marketed as the way to cut climate pollution while keeping on driving.

But now experts are warning that this could all be a disastrous mistake. Converting large amounts of land to crops for biofuels is reducing food production just when the world needs to increase it.

Higher food bills, and eating less meat

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

Families in Scotland are going to be hit by ever higher food bills, while the nation’s farmers could play a vital role feeding the world in the future. But we may all need to eat less meat to help save the planet.

These are the main messages from Scottish food specialists worried about the growing world food crisis. As a relatively rich developed country, Scotland is unlikely to experience mass starvation, but it will have to undergo some radical changes.

Trident missiles delayed by mystery ingredient

from New Scientist, 08 March 2008

Plans by the US and UK governments to prolong the life of Trident nuclear weapons have hit a serious snag because of a dangerous and mysterious ingredient codenamed Fogbank. As a result, politicians are likely to come under pressure to fund the design of new warheads instead.

Both countries want to refurbish the ageing W76 warheads at the tip of Trident missiles, to make them safer and more reliable. But now their programmes face delays due to manufacturing problems at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge in Tennessee. A new $50 million plant built to replace a facility that had been demolished has run into teething troubles, suggests a series of hints from the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which runs Y-12.

What next for Scotland's water industry?

a talk to a Holyrood conference 'Turning the tide: the future of Scotland's water’, Edinburgh, 03 March 2008

First I would like to say something about bottled water. What is the point of it? It's hugely wasteful of resources, ludicrously expensive, and in most cases tastes no different from the water that comes out of the tap. What is the point of paying through the nose for the stuff? Why do people do it? The clue - someone pointed out to me the other day - is in the name of one of the main brands of bottled water - Evian. Look what happens if you spell the word backwards - Evian becomes naive. Maybe that's what the purchasers of bottled water are.

Thank you for inviting me to speak. It is an unusual privilege for a journalist to be asked to comment on current affairs rather than to report other people's comments, which is what I spend most of my time doing. It's daunting and, some might say, something of a cheek for a journalist to be pontificating about the future of Scotland's water, especially as many in the audience will know more than I do. Most of what I do is to write stories about the times that things that go wrong, ignoring the many more frequent times when things go right.