Edinburgh may commit to carbon neutral goal by 2037
5 years ago
COUNCILLORS are to consider plans which would commit Edinburgh to becoming a carbon neutral city by 2037. Members of Edinburgh City Council will debate the proposals today. The Sustainability Approach report outlines a three-step delivery plan for the capital to work towards achieving a net zero carbon target by 2030, but with a hard target of meeting this by 2037. The local authority is currently on course to meet a target to reduce carbon emissions by 42% by 2020. In the report, it is indicated that if the new proposals are agreed to, the council would work as a matter of urgency with partners to secure a formal agreement, acknowledging the need for a city-wide effort to meet targets.
10 years ago
SCIENTISTS say they have worked out a way to join up damaged nerves using a “sonic screwdriver”. The researchers, at Glasgow University, say the Dr Who-like device, called a heptagon acoustic tweezer, allows them to tweak the cells in nerve tissue. Previous methods of so-called “cell patterning” have been found to be either inflexible, limited or too expensive and timeconsuming. But the university team, involving a range of researchers from engineering to biology, say they have discovered a novel, electronically controlled method for generating dynamic cell patterns using a device based on acoustic force for spatial manipulation of cells and particles – “a specific kind of sonic screwdriver”.
25 years ago
SCOTLAND’S First Minister Donald Dewar is poised to freeze tolls on the Skye road bridge. The move for the duration of the present contract will be made whether or not Labour strike an agreement with the Liberal Democrats. There was speculation in the Highlands and Islands yesterday that the Liberal Democrats had demanded in their coalition negotiations that the tolls on the Skye bridge be suspended pending an inquiry. One Lib Dem source said: “We went into the negotiations with our manifesto below our arm, and in that manifesto is a commitment to abolition of the tolls.”
50 years ago
THE Rabies Bill, to strengthen rabies controls in England, Scotland, and Wales, was given an unopposed second reading yesterday in the House of Lords. Lord Strabolgi, for the government, said it was the same as the bill which fell in the last parliament because of the General Election. He said the period of quarantine would certainly not be relaxed. The government were considering methods by which to educate the public on the seriousness of trying to smuggle animals through customs without quarantine. It appeared that foxes would be the culprits in carrying rabies, but the government would use gin traps with the greatest reluctance.
100 years ago
A LETTER from Miss Jane SR Thomson, Kilmardinny, Bearsden, to the general manager of the Tramways Department, suggested that the desirability of acquiring Kilmardinny estate as an outlet and resort for residenters on the north side of the city. The estate has natural advantages, including a loch several acres. The transference of ground at Knightswood Farm and west of Corkerhill Road on the Cardonald lands for the erection of Episcopal churches is recommended by the Housing Committee, who also advise that the bowling greens proposed to be laid out on the Moss
Park scheme be formed on the ground adjoining that reserved for tennis courts.