@dougparr.bsky.social
@greenpeaceuk.bsky.social chief scientist, policy director View are all my own, except those I've borrowed
@dougparr.bsky.socialyes, basically. We need each calorie to count more in terms of the micronutrients supplied. And it seems the only way this can reasonably be done is to restore soil health
@dougparr.bsky.socialDue to **declining soil quality**, nutrients in fruit & vegetables are sharply lower
Researchers at Deep Science Ventures found twice the fruit & veg need to be eaten today to get the same level of minerals like potassium, magnesium or copper than 60 yrs ago
@dougparr.bsky.socialOh yeah, and in addition to doing the maths wrong, they used a Climate Change Committee report from 2020. But the numbers were updated (and much smaller) in their 2025 report So the numbers are both out-of-date and wrong Can you imagine what it'd be like if they ran the Treasury?
@drsimevans.carbonbrief.orgReposted by @dougparr.bsky.socialFACTCHECK: UK Conservatives double the ‘cost of net-zero’ after spreadsheet blunder The Tory "Right Way" booklet makes an erroneous claim about the cost of cutting emissions, possibly taken from a Jan26 thinktank report, and deffo the most idiotic error I've seen for a while 🧵
@dougparr.bsky.socialThe party of business and sound financial management?
Give me a break
Badenoch pamphlet seems to have made this ridiculous claim about net zero delivery by copying am erroneous spreadsheet from one of the right-wing junktanks
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
@dougparr.bsky.socialThat's a very high proportion of people who find out what the real state of play is with climate change, who then think
"Christ we should really do something about that"
@dougparr.bsky.socialIs there something peculiarly British about celebrating wildlife species on banknotes but only grudgingly (or not at all) doing things to avert their decline?
@dougparr.bsky.socialBreaching limits but going up “The trifluoroacetic acid on the Earth today will be on the Earth for the next thousand years, and the TFA concentrations we see now are probably the lowest we’ll see in your lifetime” says Professor Hans Peter Heinrich Arp, Norwegian University of Science &Technology
@dougparr.bsky.socialTrifluoro acetic acid persists in the environment for 1000s of years
It's a breakdown product of refrigerant gases, & of pesticides like flufenacet
Present in all England's surface waters, nearly 90% of groundwater
2/5 water sites tested breached new limits set by EU
@dougparr.bsky.socialExpert analysis of Tory claim stripping 'net zero regulation' from new homes saves £50,000 concludes it only makes sense if:
1. Every new heat pump is most expensive available
2. All insulation stripped out
3. Someone at CCHQ still failed their GCSE in Maths
@dougparr.bsky.socialProvisions include abandoning reviews, so there's a much weakened mechanism for banning pesticides if evidence starts to show problems, Also taking into account crop yields when considering restrictions on use, thus reducing the drive for innovation for safer products
@dougparr.bsky.socialDocuments obtained by Freedom of Information requests show that parts of the 'simplification drive' have ended up closely reflecting the demands of fertiliser & chemical companies to roll back environmental & health safeguards
Insects in EU have declined 75% in 3 decades
@dougparr.bsky.socialtbh the proposed programme is almost indistinguishable from a climate denialist govt None of the key delivery policies would be left in place in electricity, transport, buildings. Not clear in industry or agriculture - but then the policies in those spaces aren't very strong anyway
@dougparr.bsky.socialStanlow refinery is now owned by EET Fuels
Documents obtained by investigative journalists describe breaches with cyanide, benzene and heavy oils regularly spilled into waterways & groundwater.
Permitted levels for chemical releases were exceeded 100s of times.
@dougparr.bsky.socialPS @jamesdyson.bsky.social from E3G on the Tories proposed scrapping of new homes regulations:
"By scrapping this standard the Tories would in effect be introducing a £1000 annual 'New Homes Tax' and damaging the mission to make the UK energy independent by tackling our addiction to high-cost gas"
@dougparr.bsky.socialIt's impressive in a way just how wrong you can be in a single press release ENDS
@dougparr.bsky.social4. And the unequivocal 'go ahead for Heathrow 3rd runway' says they aren't that interested in humans. The govts Impact Assessment says the Net Present Value for UK residents ranges from -£23.4 bn to -£62.5 bn over 60 years It's bad for people, because of -£58-82bn in noise, air pollution etc
@dougparr.bsky.social3. They have swallowed idea (as has current govt tbf) that planning regs are to blame for high cost of nuclear power & construction But things like nukes & rail are expensive to build in UK once planning is done. Expert analysis says issue is lack of planning expertise, not the regs per se
@dougparr.bsky.social2. Intelligence chiefs now say nature loss is a national security issue. Yet the proposition is that regulators of pollution and nature damage are 'scrapped' Not clear how they expect to comply with existing law, or whether they'll repeal it
@dougparr.bsky.socialLatest announcement from Tory shadow chancellor strongly suggests a party stuck in an idealogical rut, unable to learn
1. Scrapping regulations on low carbon home building - was done in 2015 by Tory govt, ended up costing UK many ££ billions in fuel & retrofit