The Newsletter for Broadland Tree Wardens
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Broadsheet The Magazine for Broadland Tree Wardens Issue 196 – January 2021 0 Happy New Year 2021 – A Year for Change Broadsheet The Monthly Magazine for ESLEY and I wish you all a Happy New Year … and what Broadland Tree Wardens a challenging year 2021 promises to be! We have yet to L learn the full effect of the COVID-19 free for all the government allowed over the Christmas period (despite us now being in Tier 4) and Brexit now becomes a reality!! Add to that the fact that our ers to follow with ambitious targets at the virtual planet is in terrible danger, and climate summit he hosted on 12 December. The announcement has been broadly wel- world governments appear to only comed, although scientists say it does not pay lip service to that fact, and the guarantee dangerous climate change will be Issue 196 – January 2021 outlook is pretty bleak. avoided. They urged Mr Johnson to impose Well it will be if we all sit on our derrieres policies to back up his ambitions. Currently the and do nothing. Please, please, please, let’s all UK is slipping behind its existing targets. Inside this issue make 2021 the time for change because 2022 The PM said: “We have proven we can may very well be too late. reduce our emissions and create hundreds of 2021 A Year for Change - Editorial 1 One of our Tree Wardens proudly told me thousands of jobs in the process, uniting What is Climate Change? 4 that he had planted 32 trees this season. When businesses, academics, NGOs and local communities in a common goal to go further and What is the Woodland Carbon Code? 5 I asked why he hadn’t planted 33 he was shocked. faster to tackle climate change. Slash Global Elite High Carbon Lifestyles 6 Another Tree Warden said that he had “Today, we are taking the lead with an Not Enough Climate Ambition Shown 7 planted 100 metres of hedgerow. When I asked ambitious new target to reduce our emissions by 2030 faster than any major economy, but this is COVID Drives Emissions Drop 8 why he hadn’t planted 110 metres he looked at me as if I was mad (yes I know many of you a global effort which is why the UK is urging Jon Stokes on Why we all Need Trees 9 think I am). world leaders to bring forward their own am- Government Fund for Trees and Woods 10 A Tree Warden told me that her parish bitious plans to cut emissions and set net zero targets.” Green Recovery Challenge Fund 11 council was not interested in planting trees and I asked her why. She replied that they had One of the UK’s leading climate scientists, UN Temperature Goals Within Reach 12 never asked her to plant anything but when I Prof Sir Brian Hoskins, told BBC News: “Mr Lower Thames Crossing CO2 Impact 13 enquired further I discovered that she hadn’t Johnson’s target is ambitious, but we need action to back it up, right now.” National Parks Not Protecting Nature 14 attended a meeting of the council for over two years. Do they know that she exists? He noted that Chancellor Rishi Sunak Yorkshire Dales National Parks Planting 15 We can all do more. We all have to do recently committed £127bn to the HS2 rail link Deodar Planted in Taverham 15 more. We all have to encourage everyone else and new roads - which will both increase emissions - while offering just £1bn to home Reforestation to Include Tree Diversity 16 to do more. When I have completed a project I never insulation, which would reduce emissions. Environmental Hero 18 think of how well I’ve done or how good it has Prof Hoskins remarked: “The actions of the Tree Warden Training 18 turned out. Instead I wonder how much more I chancellor don't measure up. Every single department has to wear climate change glasses Brazil’s Deforestation Surges 19 could have achieved and how much better it could have all turned out. when they think of new policies and the Highways England Bullying Plants 19 Yep. I don’t only say to you “don’t ask what Treasury clearly hasn’t got that message.” £5m Project to Save Woodlands 20 the Broadland Tree Warden Network can do for He and other scientists said that even if the Next Steps in England’s Farming Policy 21 you but instead what you can do for the UK and other nations keep their promises on Broadland Tree Warden Network.” cutting emissions there was no guarantee the The Most Intriguing Trees in Norfolk 22 As my children used to complain, “you’re world would avoid serious heating. I Have a Cunning Plan 23 never satisfied are you Dad?” However, I “The world will be increasingly difficult and HS2 Attempts to Fell Veteran Oak 24 believe that they both now ensure that they do dangerous with every percentage point of temp- the very best they can. erature rise,” he said. “There are important Wood from the Cubbington Pear 25 So come on all of you, we still have a few things we don’t know for sure. How much more Logging Canada’s Fragile Forests 26 pounds in the tree planting kitty for this season. does it take to destabilise Antarctica, for Whitebark Pine Trees Dying 27 If you haven’t planted a tree yet this year then instance? We don't know… and the impact request one from me. In fact, why not go one could be devastating.” Making Woodland Work for Bats 27 better than that and request two? Then you can Prof Corinne Le Quéré from the University Dr Jo’s Corner - Broad Buckler-Fern 28 step back feeling very satisfied until you ask of East Anglia said if nations matched the UK’s Current Works to Trees Subject to a yourself why you didn’t plant three!! lead “it won’t be a safe climate but it will be a Tree Preservation Order and Section safer climate than we’d get based on current 211 Notifications for Works to Trees RITING on the BBC News levels of ambition.” Within Conservation Areas 29 A coalition of green groups is urging the website, Roger Harrabin, government to reach a 75% cut by 2030 and Stop Press – COVID-19 Tier 4 35 BBC environment analyst, W revealed that a government spend- In 2019, total UK greenhouse gas Broadsheet is written and published by ing watchdog has warned that emissions were 45% per cent lower than John Fleetwood, meeting the UK's world-leading in 1990. Achieving the new target, a 68% Broadland Tree Warden Network Co-ordinator climate change target will be a cut, will require the UK working 50% 4 Oakhill, Brundall, Norwich NR13 5AQ. harder than it currently is. Home: 01603 716 297 Mobile: 07555 535 741 "colossal challenge". Between 2008 and 2018 the energy E-mail [email protected] The National Audit Office says it will affect sector saw the biggest fall in emissions It is circulated free of charge to Broadland the way we work, travel, heat our homes - even (-62%) as the UK abandoned coal Tree Wardens parish and town councils, how much meat we eat. In a report it says the burning. It is followed by the waste parish meetings and other interested parties. cost of cutting CO2 is highly uncertain, but the sector (-46%) which started capturing cost of allowing temperatures to rise would methane emissions, and industry (29%) Any views expressed are not necessarily probably be greater. those of the Broadland Tree Warden Network. where efficiency improved. Emissions The PM has vowed to cut emissions by 68% from transport have barely fallen (-3%). All copyrights are acknowledged. by 2030 based on 1990 levels. Making the new Farm emissions are almost static (-2%). pledge, Boris Johnson urged other world lead- 1 the race to zero, so today’s announcement is than 110 other countries have committed to welcomed. The spotlight is on.” become carbon neutral by the middle of this Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Public century. He said he wants to see this Accounts Committee, said the net zero target momentum turned into a movement. was "daunting". Mr Guterres said he believes that tech- "The government hasn't put its own house nology will help us to reach these targets. "The in order yet or done enough to put the UK on coal business is going up in smoke," because it course to meet older, easier targets. It's time to costs more to run most of today's coal plants lead by example and shift its efforts up a gear," than it does to build new renewable plants from she said. scratch, he told the BBC. "We must forge a safer, more sustainable NITED Nations chief Antonio and equitable path", the UN chief concluded. Guterres has issued a stark He said it is time for this war against the more radical groups such as Extinction planet to end, adding: "We must declare a Rebellion say the UK should stop emissions U warning to world leaders permanent ceasefire and reconcile with nature." almost completely within a few years to be about the state of the planet saying confident of avoiding climate disaster. that "Our planet is broken”. HOSE of you who joined our Research by the London School of Econom- Justin Rowlatt, the BBC’s Chief environment ics (LSE) found that it is economically feasible AGM via Microsoft Teams will correspondent, reported that Antonio Guterres remember that Jo Parmenter for UK emissions to be cut by 72%.