Here are the headlines this week, (commencing 21/10/24)

RSPB reports that gamekeepers are killing birds of prey:

Over the past 15 years, over 1300 protected bird of prey species have been killed due to gamekeepers trying to protect game bird numbers since the shooting industry contributes £3.3 billion pounds per annum. This number is far from accurate as many of the shootings happen in remote parts where it is hard to monitor the number of deaths. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation have responded to this statement by the RSPB, claiming they have “absolutely zero tolerance” of this illegal act of shooting protected species.

Birdwatchers are among the witnesses of these crimes and subsequently have reported various deaths of birds to the police. According to the RSPB three quarters of the prosecution cases were linked to shooting estates and gamekeepers. Only 1 out of 62 prosecution cases in the last 15 years resulted in a prison sentence. Despite this, Gareth Dockerty from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation claims that £500 million is put into conservation efforts by the industry every single year and also suggesting that habitats are provided for the birds. Many shooting agencies have criticised the RSPB statement, accusing them of not cooperating and making a “sweeping generalisation”.

Scientists are drilling into volcanoes:

Krafla is a volcano in northeast Iceland which has erupted on 30 occasions in the past 1000 years, the most recent event in the 1980s. An organisation known as Krafla magma Testbed are trying to understand how magma behaves underground with the aim of improving the accuracy of forecasting eruptions and also making the most out of geothermal energy. KMT will start drilling boreholes in 2027 to create a magma observatory 1.3 miles down. Lava has been monitored over the years as it is easier due to it being on the surface however, magma monitoring is a harder challenge as it is less accessible to scientists. This project aims to fix this by putting pressure and temperature sensors into the molten rock. Since Iceland has 33 active volcano systems and 800 million across the planet live within 100km of active volcanoes, the KMT organisation hope that their research can save lives in the future. Past horrific events have taken place such as the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010 where the closure of European air space resulted in a loss of £3 billion.

85% of Iceland’s heating comes from geothermal sources and the Krafla power plant is the source of hot water and heating for 30,000 households. In 2009, engineers hit magma at 2.1km deep which was an unexpectedly shallow depth. The magma chamber was around 900 degrees Celsius which held 10 times as much energy as an average well therefore, 2 of the same size wells could supply the same energy as the 22 wells in use by the current power plant.

New materials will need to be used to drill these boreholes due to the extreme conditions which they present. Sigrun Nanna Karlsdottir, a professor at the University of Iceland, said that more “corrosion resistant alloys” will need to be explored.