Rob Edwards

The roads at risk of landslides

from Sunday Herald, 19 July 2008

Vast areas of upland Scotland are vulnerable to landslides in bad weather, putting many of the country’s vital arterial routes at risk.

A map produced by the British Geological Survey (BGS) shows that stretches of the A9, M74 and many other major roads pass through zones where there is a “significant” potential for landslides.

Yet a study promised four years ago by Scottish ministers to pinpoint the precise sites at risk has still not been completed - and the Scottish government has come under fire for its “lack of urgency”.

M74 will undermine air pollution targets, ministers told

from Sunday Herald, 06 July 2008

The government’s plan to extend the M74 into Glasgow will undermine targets to cut air pollution and combat climate chaos, according to secret advice given to ministers.

A memo from officials to the former environment minister, Ross Finnie, in 2005 warned that building the five-mile, six-lane motorway would breach Glasgow’s air quality objective and significantly hamper plans to cut carbon emissions from transport.

But the M74 extension was still given the go-ahead by the previous Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition, and has been backed by the current Scottish Nationalist government. The groundbreaking ceremony to launch construction work in May was headed by the First Minister, Alex Salmond.

Scottish civil servants take 36 flights a day

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2008

Civil servants have failed to kick their flying habit. In the last year Scottish government officials have spent £1 million of public money taking 8,700 flights between Scotland and England.

On average they made 36 flights every working day, mostly between Edinburgh and London. They also flew regularly to Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Inverness.

As part of its bid to “go greener”, the Scottish government is urging members of the public to “choose not to fly when there's a suitable alternative”. The vast majority of the journeys made by civil servants can be easily done by train.

Glasgow bids to go greener

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2008

The Dear Green Place wants to get greener. Glasgow City Council has launched a bid to become one of Europe’s most environmentally-friendly cities.

The council’s leaders are trying to shake off the city’s image as one of the most polluted, most wasteful and most road-obsessed in Scotland by agreeing a series of initiatives aimed at making it more sustainable.

The council has set up a high-level consortium led by Strathclyde University to examine every aspect of life in the city. The objective is “to position Glasgow as one of Europe’s most sustainable cities within five to ten years”.

The green leaders who chose to drive

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2008

They urge everyone else to leave their cars at home to help save the planet, then they jump into theirs.

The board members of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) made five times more journeys by car than by train last year - and claimed ten times more in expenses for them.

New website of walks through Glasgow

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2008

An award-winning website encouraging people to walk instead of taking the car is being launched this week in Glasgow.

Walkit.com generates maps of how to get by foot between any two points in the city. It also estimates how long it will take, how many calories you will burn and how much pollution you will save.

3,000 government car trips under fire

01 June 2008

 

Scottish ministers and senior officials have made nearly 3,000 journeys in government limos, averaging 80 a week, while telling members of the public to use their cars less.

The Sunday Herald has obtained official details of all the occasions on which ministerial cars have been used between 16 May 2007 and 31 January 2008. Top of the list is the finance minister, John Swinney, with exactly 500 trips, closely followed by the First Minister, Alex Salmond, with 488.

Climate target under threat from air travel

from Sunday Herald, 25 May 2008

Rocketing pollution caused by air travel from Scotland could wreck the government’s attempts to cut the emissions that are disrupting the climate, according to a new study.

If the number of passengers flying from Scottish airports increases as predicted, emissions from planes could end up swamping those from all other sources - and sabotaging ministers’ plans to reduce climate pollution 80% by 2050.

 

The revelation has reinforced calls from campaigners for aviation to be fully included in the forthcoming Scottish climate change bill. If it is not, they warn, the bill could be “completely ineffective”.

One year on, how green is the SNP?

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008

The SNP grew up on oil, is wedded to economic expansion and always wants to put Scotland first. As a political party, it has never developed a coherent theoretical approach to one of the defining issues of the age: the environment.

It comes as some surprise then, that after a year in power, the SNP has won warm plaudits from many environmentalists. There are still major reservations, of course, but most observers outside political parties seem to think that the SNP is doing a better job than its predecessors in government.

The future for cars is electric, says WWF

27 April 2008

There is a future for cars, but only if they are powered by electricity instead of oil.

That is the message that is going to be delivered by environmental group, WWF, tomorrow as the prospect of fuel shortages looms, due to the industrial dispute at Grangemouth.

Call for companies to green their cars

from Sunday Herald, 06 April 2008

Scottish firms could save a total of £270 million a year by taking advantage of a new tax break for greener cars, claims a report out today.

Switching to low-polluting cars could significantly cut the bills of companies because of lower government taxes on vehicles emitting 120 grams or less of carbon dioxide per kilometre. The new taxes are due to come into force today.

The historic toilet in the way of a new Forth bridge

from Sunday Herald, 03 February 2008

The government’s controversial £4 billion plan to build another road bridge across the Firth of Forth is going to run into an unexpected hitch: a historic toilet.

A First World War latrine at Port Edgar in South Queensferry, along with a cell block, an air raid shelter and naval barracks, have all been put under legal protection by the government’s guardian of ancient monuments, Historic Scotland. But the buildings are directly in the way of the proposed new bridge.

The Sunday Herald can also reveal that another government agency, Transport Scotland, secretly tried to prevent the buildings from being protected in order to clear the path for the new bridge - a move that has been attacked as “inappropriate meddling” by environmentalists.

Environment watchdog goes green - mostly

from Sunday Herald, 27 January 2008

Scotland’s environmental watchdog is succeeding in greening itself by cutting pollution, waste and air travel - but it still has a problem with the mountains of paper it uses.

The latest green audit of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), to be published tomorrow, shows that the organisation is on track to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 20% of 1998-99 levels by 2010.

But it has failed to meet its target to reduce paper consumption per employee by five per cent of 2005-06 levels. Only a three per cent cut was actually made, though measures have now been introduced to try and improve on that.

Paris and back in 26 hours

from Sunday Herald, 30 December 2007

It's 5.30 in the morning, and I am cycling through the streets of Edinburgh towards Waverley station. Cash machines blink at me from banks, and the eery quiet is broken only by the growl of a taxi and the occasional burst of pre-dawn birdsong.

At the station the bike rack, as always, is full. But it's not long before I'm settled in my seat on the 5.50 am train to London, exhaling. This was the train I had to catch to make my journey feasible - Paris in a day on the inaugural Eurostar service from St Pancras International.

Forth bridge protest 'gagged' by Parliament

from Sunday Herald, 21 October 2007

Protesters against a new road bridge across the Firth of Forth Forth claim they have been "gagged" by the Scottish Parliament.

They say they are being preventing from speaking in support of their petition at a meeting of the Parliament's Public Petitions Committee on Tuesday. The petition calls on ministers to reverse their decision to back another Forth road crossing.

Virgin using animal sex video to boost train travel

from Sunday Herald, 14 October 2007

A video of pantomime animals simulating vigorous and varied sex acts is being quietly circulated on the internet in an attempt to boost environmental business for Richard Branson's Virgin Trains company.

As part of a new "viral marketing" campaign, bloggers are being offered money to post the unbranded video on their blogs. Called "sex party", it features actors dressed up as wildlife complaining that global warming has made species copulate more early and more often.

New Forth bridge would cause 'gridlock'

from Sunday Herald, 30 September 2007

The Scottish government's £1.6 billion plan for a new road bridge across the Firth of Forth will bring traffic "gridlock" to Edinburgh, triggering an economic and environmental disaster.

That is the dire warning being sounded this weekend by the City of Edinburgh Council, which is run by a coalition of LibDem and SNP councillors. They have all backed a report from officials that condemns a new bridge, and are meeting with ministers to express their concerns in October.

The cost of demolishing the Forth Road Bridge

from Sunday Herald, 23 September 2007

The Scottish government's transport agency is considering demolishing the Forth Road Bridge - at a cost of nearly £130 million. A report by Transport Scotland, released under freedom of information law, reveals that consultants have been asked to estimate the cost of dismantling the entire 43-year-old structure.

SNP challenged to solve its environmental policy problems

from Sunday Herald, 02 September 2007

Scottish National Party ministers are this week being challenged to solve the problems that plague their environmental policies on pollution, transport, waste and wildlife.

A powerful coalition of all Scotland's major environmental groups is urging the new Scottish government to cut carbon emissions, reduce car and air travel, ban large incinerators and stem the loss of wild plants and animals.

Eternal city-sized forests needed to offset traffic pollution

from Sunday Herald, 26 August 2007

A forest the size of Edinburgh would need to be planted every year - and maintained for eternity - to offset all the pollution caused by road traffic in Scotland.

That is the conclusion of an expert report for the government agency, Transport Scotland, which says that planting trees to soak up climate-wrecking vehicle fumes is "not practical".