Why we're launching Climate Crisis: Time For Change campaign

Across our daily and weekly titles, we will share updates on how local and national businesses across the UK are responding to the challenge of the global climate crisis.

The challenge that lies ahead for people and businesses over the next ten years simply cannot be underestimated.

This exponential crisis threatens the very existence of the planet and every species that inhabits it. All of us have a responsibility to play a part in the solution - no matter how large or small a contribution we can make.

Newsquest is committed to bringing an open and honest view of the climate crisis.

We commit to promoting sustainable options and choices across our lifestyle brands, and will allow the voices of those with the right knowledge to be heard at every opportunity to ensure that the information we share is relevant and correct.

Here is a round-up of stories from around the UK. 

Money raised from Greta Thunberg speech in Bristol to fund rewilding project

Greta spoke to thousands that had gathered at College Green (Ben Birchall/PA)

Funds raised after a climate strike in Bristol with Greta Thunberg will be used for a rewilding project on the site the protest took place, it has been announced.

Greta, 18, was the headline speaker at the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate at College Green in the city on February 28 last year.

More than 15,000 people attended the event, which coincided with Greta’s 80th school strike, in the pouring rain.

After the protest, a fundraiser was launched to repair the ground at College Green, which was left muddy and without grass.

The campaign, launched by local resident Jon Usher, raised £15,575 with an additional contribution of £5,000 from the company Good Energy. Repairs to the lawn were completed in April 2020 and the remaining funds will now be used to create meadows at the site.

These will contain native species such as strawberry clover, cowslip, white campion, and tufted vetch as well as bright flowering species such as common poppy, cornflower and yellow rattle. It is hoped this will attract pollinators and such as solitary bees, beetles, bumble bees, butterflies, hoverflies that will in turn support more insect-feeding birds.

Volvo pledge to go all-electric by 2030

Volvo’s announcement follows a similar move by some other manufacturers (Volvo Cars Group/PA)

Volvo has pledged to sell only electric cars by 2030 and switch all sales to online.

The Swedish manufacturer announced it will phase out all cars with an internal combustion engine – including hybrids – by the end of the decade.

It said offering only online sales will create “transparent and set pricing” for its vehicles.

The firm expects demand for pure electric cars to grow due to legislation and a “rapid expansion” of charging infrastructure.

The UK is planning to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, with hybrids prohibited five years later.

Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders data shows 46,000 new Volvo cars were registered in the UK last year.

Graphic designer Adam Costello launched Inland Sea in 2017 with a desire to “raise awareness of plastic pollution, and how plastic in the cities can end up in the sea”.

Adam, who is also a keen surfer, set about designing T-shirts made out of recycled plastic bottles, woven with organic cotton.

“You’re immersed in the sea every day when you’re surfing, so you’re on the front line of environmental issues – you’re the first to see all the plastic pollution,” he says.

He added: “The more you look into that plastic pollution – it goes into animals and then into our food chain – the more alarming it becomes.”

Now, Adam has launched a Kickstarter campaign – aptly named ‘Does my carbon footprint look big in this’ – to raise funds to develop a range of T-shirts made using fabric that contains seaweed fibre – called SeaCell.

But it’s not just about T-shirts. Ultimately, Costello wants to run a business that is actively “trying to solve the climate crisis”.

To find out more about the Kickstarter, visit the website, and to learn more about Inland Sea, visit inlandsea.co.uk.

Shrimp living in polluted waters produce 70% less sperm - a warning to humans

: A high magnification picture using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) photo of some echinogammarus marinus sperm (University of Portsmouth/PA)

Scientists warn the discover that shrimp living in polluted waters produce 70% less sperm is a warning to all species, including humans.

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth also found that there were six times less of the sea creatures living in the study area on the south coast of England, compared with cleaner waters.

Professor Alex Ford, professor of biology, said the study, published in Aquatic Toxicology, mirrors similar findings in other animals, including humans, and should be treated like the “canary in the mine”.

The research was carried out on shrimp numbers in Langstone Harbour, next to Portsmouth, have also shown that females are producing less eggs which the scientists believe could lead to a population collapse in the area with a knock-on effect on the food chain.