Shrinking Lake Chad Highlights Environmental Change

Quite startling images of Lake Chad in today's papers really bring home the impact of humankind on the global environment. Sattelite images indicate that since 1963 the lake has reduced in size by 95%. The Scotsman ran an article on this very topic and also mentioned that Mount Kilimanjaro has lost 80% of its ice cap in the past 100 years and that the Dead Sea is 25 metres lower than it was 50 years ago. You can read the article at:

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1398802007

Anyway, don't want to say too much on the topic (just a quick blog today and I have written an article for the SNP Student Wing newspaper on the issue of climate change, and don't want to spoil that for you when you all rush out to read that!) but the pictures of Lake Chad were one of the starkest examples of the change to the Earth's environment in the last decades.

I am aware that there are those who question humankind's role in global warming, and I am hardly an expert in this field, although I do note that the vast majority of mainstream scientific opinion does seem to be in support of the viewpoint that we have and continue to play a determining factor in this trend. However, those who question our role have to ask themselves the question, can we afford to gamble that we haven't played any part? Wouldn't it be safer to assume we have and act accordingly and strive to make environmental improvements.

Anyway, I'm off to play my part by saving some energy by ending this post and turning off my computer for the night.

The White Elephant in the Room

Today I managed to catch up with Friends of the Earth Scotland who had set up their "Nuclear White Elephant" in Edinburgh. They were out campaigning against the creation of a new generation of nuclear power stations, and I have to say I totally agree with them. And not only do I agree with them, but so do the people of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth according to our survey returns.

As I have mentioned before on the blog we have been busily delivering surveys across the constituency and one of the questions we have asked is whether or not people believe that new nuclear power stations should be constructed. And they have delivered a resounding no to such a suggestion. 66.3% of those who responded were against with a mere 14.2% for (the remaining 19.5% said that they don't know).

I'm with them on this one. Nuclear power is hugely expensive and leaves us with radioactive waste that will pollute for hundreds of years to come. It is also unnecessary given that in Scotland we produce more power than we consume.

Far from building new nuclear power stations we should be investing in Scotland's renewable energy potential. The power of wind, wave and the Sun (no jokes about the power from the latter being negligible in Scotland please!) should be harnessed.

We have the potential to be world leaders in green sources of energy. For the benefit of our environment we should take it as well as the benefits to our economy this can bring.