Emissions of smoke from peatland fires may have been underestimated, according to UBoC PhD student Laura Kiely and others:
In the last few weeks thousands of peatland and forest fires have been burning across Sumatra and Kalimantan, two islands in Indonesia. Smoke from these fires causes haze across Singapore and Malaysia as well as areas of Indonesia, causing unhealthy levels of air pollution. Schools have been closed and residents are being advised to stay indoors.
Day One – Kenton Rogers from Treeconomics shows us how it is done.
It’s been nearly three summers since we first ventured out, our pockets bulging with books about trees, the scent of sap and science in our nostrils, and tape measures, maps, rainproof clipboards, and funny bits of plastic with a wobbly circle-thing on them all festooned about our persons – to begin the University of Leeds Campus i-Tree Eco Full Survey.
We have news of two kinds of Yum Yum Tree at UBoC this week.
The first is the (semi) fictitious kind – as described in typically charming and educational detail by the pen and brush of our Chair, Jonnie Wild, and his illustrator, Brita Granström, in their new book for small children. This is the third, along with The Carnivorous Crocodile and the Mud Monster to feature the Five Flamingos.
And, again, all profits are going to support our Reforest Africa project.
Day One – Kenton Rogers from Treeconomics shows us how it is done.
It’s been nearly three summers since we first ventured out, our pockets bulging with books about trees, the scent of sap and science in our nostrils, and tape measures, maps, rainproof clipboards, and funny bits of plastic with a wobbly circle-thing on them all festooned about our persons – to begin the University of Leeds Campus i-Tree Eco Full Survey.
Two members of the UBoC team have appeared on the BBC recently.
Kate Sambrook appeared on Paul Hudson’s Weather Show on the 8th of July, talking about her upcoming PhD.
She tweeted: “Thrilled to be back in the studio with @Hudsonweather on the @weathershowbbc talking about my PhD project and my podcast with @TheClimatePress on the history of climate change”
The Committee for Climate Change (of which our Trustee Piers Forster in a member) has advised that we need to halve emissions by 2030 if we’re to stand a fair chance of avoiding more than 1.5 degrees C of warming over pre-industrial levels, and possibly catastrophic climate impacts.
Restoring Hardknott Forest is a partnership between the University of Leeds and Forestry England which is restoring a 630 hectare former conifer plantation to a native oak and birch woodland.
UBoC’s Professor Dominick Spracklen and PhD researcher Felicity Monger were interviewed by Nick Garnett last week at the Leeds Forest Observatory on Radio 5 Live Breakfast, as part of UN International Day of Forests.
Dom Spracklen
You can listen to the interview here, first at about 55:20 and again at 1:56:30):
BBC Radio 5 Live have been doing excellent work on climate change and other global environmental issues such as plastic pollution, under their Cool Planet banner:
Dom and Felicity explained the research work being done at the observatory, the value of trees and their role in helping to mitigate climate change (clue; we can’t plant enough to fix the problem, but it certainly helps), and in helping to prevent flooding. Later they suggested ways in which people can get involved in supporting tree planting.
As Tom had explained in his talk, the United Bank of Carbon (UBoC) promotes the twinning of woodlands in the UK (temperate forest) and Africa, (tropical forest) because each biome offers unique and complementary benefits, both for the climate and for local communities. Tropical trees work harder to fix CO2 than UK trees, while offering many social and other benefits for local people and wildlife, and UK trees offer key engagement features for UK donors, while also delivering valuable carbon and other benefits. So a donation allowing the creation of a new twinning was a perfect outcome for UBoC. Continue reading New Forest Twins: York, UK = Masaka, Uganda→
United Bank of Carbon is a not-for-profit collaboration between businesses and environmental scientists, which protects and restores forests and other greenery, through environmentally and socially-responsible partnerships with local communities. We undertake research, support forest and woodland projects in the UK and the tropics that deliver CSR/PR benefits, provide carbon reduction advice, and help to arrange compensation for unavoidable carbon emissions
