Three more of my amazing but true green stories

With the August Bank holiday a few days away now is a good time to look back at three of this year’s amazing but true green stories.

Ron Fox, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science Innovation Park, (www.noreus.co.uk), picks his favourite environmental tales in the last three months.

Wetland success: A little-known UK landscape has been awarded world heritage status after a 40-year campaign.

The Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland in the far north of Scotland covers almost 2,000 sq km (469,500 acres) of one of the most intact and extensive blanket bog systems in the world.

Blanket bogs are wetland ecosystems created when peat, a soil made up of partially decayed matter, accumulates in waterlogged conditions.

Peat bogs are a crucial defence against climate change, locking away carbon so that it’s not released as carbon dioxide.

It has been estimated the entire system could contain as much as 400 million tonnes of carbon, which is reckoned to be twice that contained in all of Britain’s woodlands.

This vast tract of peat bog joins just 121 landscapes worldwide which have been awarded the designation by Unesco, a UN organisation that promotes co-operation on education and science.

The only two others are on the UK mainland: the “Jurassic Coast” in Dorset and the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Shining example: A council has installed solar panels at one of its offices in a bid to reach net zero emissions. Panels fitted to Cotswold District Council’s Trinity Road base in Cirencester are expected to save the authority about £42,000 per year.

The council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and has since installed a range of energy-saving technology.

The authority said the power generated by the panels is largely expected to meet, and at times exceed, the building’s electricity needs during the summer.

The new panels are predicted to generate 141,000kWh of power annually – producing a carbon saving of approximately 29 tonnes of greenhouse gases.

It is likely to take five years to recover the cost of the installation.

Last year, the council launched Cotswold Home Solar to help residents find suitable solar options for their homes.

“It is a simple but very effective idea,” said Ron. “But why aren’t more councils doing this?”

Out of this world idea: A ‘Noah’s Ark’ could be built on the Moon where frozen samples of the most at-risk species on Earth would be sent.

Scientists from some of the top universities in the world are working on the project called a biorepository which would serve as a frozen vault in case certain species disappeared from our planet because of climate change, natural disasters and wars.

The vault would likely be built on either the north pole or the south pole of the Moon because temperatures there are -200°C and it would not need an active power supply because it would be powered by the cold temperatures.

The scientists, including those from Harvard and the Smithsonian in the USA, say that having another base on the Moon would be a good back-up plan to the one already here on Earth in Svalbard, Norway.

“If you want any green energy advice, call me on 0845 474 6641 or go to www.noreus.co.uk – but in the mean time have a green and happy holiday weekend.

Caption: The Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland has been awarded world heritage status.