Skeptic Society Magazine

Tag: net

Could natural hydrogen from underground help the UK get to net zero?

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The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall contains rocks that could generate hydrogen gas

pio3/Shutterstock

In recent years, the discovery of small amounts of hydrogen gas underground has spurred a worldwide search for what could prove to be a significant new source of zero-carbon fuel, but so far, prospectors have largely skipped the UK.

According to a briefing on natural hydrogen produced by the Royal Society, that isn’t due to its geology. “There are rocks that certainly would fit within having the potential to produce hydrogen, but the investigations haven’t been done,” says Barbara Sherwood Lollar at the University of Toronto in Canada, who led work on the report.

It also isn’t down to lack of interest in the gas. The UK’s latest hydrogen strategy says that when produced via low-carbon methods, it “has a critical role in helping to achieve our Clean Energy Superpower Mission”, including as a source of power for heavy industry and transportation and in long-duration energy storage. Natural hydrogen, however, isn’t mentioned as a potential source.

Novelty is one reason for this, says Philip Ball at Keele University, UK, who contributed to the report and is an investor in natural hydrogen companies. “Nobody is paying attention, basically. No one is regulating this new subject. No one understands it.”

That could be starting to change. Ball says several companies have purchased rights to explore for hydrogen in parts of the UK, for instance in Devon in the south-west, while relevant research is going on at several universities. The British Geological Survey is also working on a more detailed study of the potential for natural hydrogen in the UK. The country’s rich history of geological study means there is plenty of data to draw on.

And there is reason to think there might be something to find in it. According to the Royal Society report, the UK has ample amounts of the rocks known to generate natural hydrogen, for example iron-rich ultramafic rocks that produce the gas when they react with water. These occur in regions such as the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall and the Shetland Islands in Scotland. Geological formations in other areas such as the North Pennines may also produce hydrogen as a result of natural radioactivity splitting water molecules.

“It’s most definitely going to be in the UK,” says Ball. “Whether it’s in economic quantities is the question.”

If there is hydrogen to be found beneath the UK, no one should expect “some bonanza of an endlessly renewable commodity”, says Sherwood Lollar. She says one broader purpose of the report was to offer a “course correction” for some of the more dubious claims that have been made about natural hydrogen, such as the idea that large amounts of the gas are rising from deep in Earth’s mantle or even core.

That said, more conservative estimates of how much hydrogen may be generated in the crust are still significant: the report estimates that around 1 million tonnes of the gas seep out of the crust each year globally, which over time could produce some large accumulations. “Even if we can capture a small proportion of this, it could still be an important contributor to the hydrogen economy,” says Sherwood Lollar.

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June 19, 2025
Tyler Perry’s eye-watering net worth is over nine digits — how he’s spent his fortune

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Tyler Perry has come a long way from his tough childhood growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Madea star was born Emmitt Perry Jr. to mom Willie Maxine Perry and dad Emmitt Perry Sr., and has previously described his childhood, which was marred with poverty and abuse, as a living hell.

When he was 16, he took on the first name Tyler to distance himself from his father, and in his 20s, he moved to Atlanta, where he began his career as a playwright, filmmaker and actor.

© Getty Images
Tyler at the 2005 premiere of Diary of a Mad Black Woman, the beginning of the Madea franchise

Stepping into the spotlight

He made his directorial debut in 2006 with an adaptation of Madea’s Family Reunion, which has spawned into a wide-ranging franchise of movies that he has both starred in and directed.

The movie franchise came to an end in 2019 with Madea Family Funeral, its 11th and final installment. Per Variety, across all 21 movies that Tyler has made with Lionsgate, they generated over $1 billion in ticket sales.

Net worth

Tyler’s net worth is not far from that eye-watering amount. In 2020, he officially became a billionaire, and per Forbes, today has a net worth of $1.4 billion.

© Getty
The actor spent many years contributing to Oprah’s OWN

According to the outlet, his wealth comes both from his cut as a producer and from a library of media dating back to the early 1990s, and the fact that he owns 100% of the content he’s created in the last three decades.

Speaking with Forbes in September 2020 about his rags to riches story, he noted: “I love when people say you come from ‘humble beginnings,’” adding: “[It] means you were poor as hell.”

© Getty Images
At the premiere of his latest movie, Straw

“You got to understand, I had no mentors,” he further shared. “My father doesn’t know anything about business, and my uncles and mother, they know nothing about this. I didn’t go to business school. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned in progress.”

How he spends it

At the time, Forbes further reported that among Tyler’s assets are homes in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as well as two planes, plus he also owns a 330-acre studio lot in Atlanta, where he shoots much of his projects.

© Getty Images
Tyler attending the 2025 Met Gala

One of his properties, his eight bedroom, and 12 bathroom, $43 million Beverly Hills home, is of special notoriety, as it’s where Meghan Markle and Prince Harry briefly lived when they left England and the royal family.

Personal life

Tyler is largely private about his personal life. From around 2009 to 2020, he was in a relationship with Ethiopian model, filmmaker and activist Gelila Bekele, and in November 2014, they welcomed a son, Aman. Tyler confirmed he was single in 2020.

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June 6, 2025
Blair’s net zero comments less an ‘attack’ and more a highlighting of a policy paradox that’s been clear for some time | Science, Climate & Tech News

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Judging by the headlines, Sir Keir Starmer’s predecessor has gone for the jugular.

“Net zero is doomed to fail, warns Tony Blair,” wrote The Times; “Blair blows hole in Labour’s net zero plans,” said The Independent; “Net zero is doomed, Blair tells Starmer,” cheered The Daily Telegraph.

Clearly a direct attack on one of Sir Keir’s central missions for government, and on the eve of local elections, no less.

Yet at the despatch box later – “in full head teacher mode,” according to our politics team – Mr Starmer scolded the house.

“If you look at the details of what Tony Blair said, he’s absolutely aligned with what we’re doing here.”

Just the sort of thing a wounded prime minister might say after being so publicly skewered.

Being the good pupil that I am, I’d read what Tony Blair actually wrote, and Sir Keir kind of has a point.

Image:
Starmer at today’s PMQs. Pic: PA

Nowhere in his so-called “attack” does Blair directly criticise UK policy.

His foreword, and the report itself, are focused instead on the wider, global contradiction around net zero. Namely, how, despite all the climate summits, the expansion of renewable energy and roll-out of electric cars, fossil fuel consumption is still going up.

The paradox identified in the report – and plain to many of us who’ve been following net zero for a while – is that just as the world finally accepts the danger of climate change, there’s growing resistance to do anything about it.

The problem, rightly identified by the report, isn’t with the net zero goal – but the narrative.

To net zero sceptics, the goal is a virtue-signalling act of national self-harm that will hobble the UK while the rest of the world pollutes its way to economic superiority.

To net zero adherents, including many in government, it means an opportunity to replace fossil fuels with something better that will also secure our economic future.

Read more:
Environment secretary defends green policies
Drivers ‘confused’ by electric vehicle transition

Following the headlines this morning, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) put out a clarification.

It stated its report was clear in its support for the government’s 2050 net zero targets and that by supporting technologies to replace fossil fuels, the government’s approach “is the right one”.

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What you can do to reach net zero

Today’s media reaction to the report effectively proves how correct its analysis is.

The policy details around replacing fossil fuels with cheaper and cleaner alternatives don’t sell papers or win votes.

Nor does persuading people that eating slightly less meat might be better for them too, not just animals and the planet.

But presenting net zero as a morally-charged culture war – a binary choice between fossil-fuelled doom or solar-powered salvation – does.

And that, in a nutshell, is the problem.

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April 30, 2025
‘Bring on the fight’ over net zero, energy secretary Ed Miliband tells critics | Science, Climate & Tech News

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The government is up for the fight over net zero every hour, day and month of the year, says Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

Amid growing attacks on its climate policies from the Trump administration, UK political parties and some businesses, the government this week reiterated its assertion that clean power will make Britain more secure.

Wrapping up a two-day summit on energy security in London, Mr Miliband said: “The critics need to know that if they want to fight about this, this government says ‘bring it on’.”

Clean power provides “energy security, lower bills [and] the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century”, he said.

Whereas “insecure” fossil fuels are to blame for “the cost of living crisis, which ruined family finances, which ruined public finances, which ruined business finances”.

Renewable electricity in the UK is cheaper than gas, but the benefits don’t reach households very easily because prices are still closely linked with the cost of gas – something the government wants to fix.

In the last week, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP accused Mr Miliband of “net zero lunacy”, while President Trump’s US official at the London summit Tommy Joyce on Thursday called net zero “harmful and dangerous”.

More from Science, Climate & Tech

In a news conference on Friday, Mr Miliband said: “Whether it is political parties or other forces that want to take on net zero and the clean energy transition, they need to know this government is not for bending, this government is not for buckling, this government is standing firm.”

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‘Tropical nights’ soar in European hotspots

But, with trade talks under way and the UK still heavily reliant on US oil and gas, Mr Miliband said Britain will find “common ground” with America on energy, despite wildly different views on climate policy.

“Obviously there are some differences, but there is also common ground,” he said, citing shared interests in boosting nuclear power.

The American official at the summit, acting assistant secretary Tommy Joyce, enjoyed plenty of time with the government during his visit, sitting next to Mr Miliband at a ceremonial dinner on Thursday evening, and meeting energy minister Michael Shanks on Friday.

Also on the charm offensive with the Americans this week was Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has been in Washington trying to win favour for a US-UK trade deal.

Washington’s attacks on climate and net zero policies, which Mr Trump sees as a threat that empowers rival China, threatened to overshadow the energy security summit.

But it wrapped up on Friday with little fanfare, just closing remarks from co-host the International Energy Agency and Mr Miliband about the importance of clean energy and the materials need to build them.

They will both be pleased that they and the other 60 countries present held the line on the transition to cleaner energy.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the summit that clean power was “in the DNA of my government”.

But his government was also the target of environmental protesters outside the summit at Lancaster House, who called out its wavering over the Rosebank oil and gas field.

It has also been criticised for approving airport expansions and relaxing rules around electric vehicles.

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April 25, 2025
Incels ‘slipping through the net’ of government intervention, experts warn | UK News

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Incels are “slipping through the net” of government efforts to intervene and deradicalise affected boys and men, experts have told Sky News.

Academics, including co-authors of an independent government report on the mostly online subculture, have warned that efforts like Prevent and the Online Safety Act were struggling to fully grapple with the problem.

The incel – or “involuntarily celibate” – movement is a largely, but not entirely, online subculture of males who feel unable to have sex or find love and express hostility and extreme resentment towards women.

It is not the only extremist ideology that features misogynistic narratives and was described as a “manifestation of a much wider societal issue of violence against women and girls”.

Image:
Actor Owen Cooper plays Jamie Miller in Adolescence. Pic: Netflix

The issue was portrayed in the recent TV show Adolescence.

Often found on encrypted platforms or “dark corners of the internet”, bleeding into the real world, inceldom isn’t illegal but can perpetuate violence.

It has been linked to a number of violent attacks in the West, including the 2021 Plymouth mass shooting by Jake Davison who killed five people.

Misogyny as a hate crime

Dr Lisa Siguira told Sky News that misogyny not being defined as a hate crime left enforcement efforts sometimes toothless to try and tackle inceldom, leaving it freer to operate.

Incel content, she said, existed on a spectrum from the mildly alarming and grossly distasteful, veering into violently misogynistic but often it did not meet the threshold of illegality.

Image:
Jake Davison killed five people in a mass shooting in Plymouth. Pic: PA

So while content was mostly scrubbed from more mainstream platforms by companies themselves, incels were free to thrive in closed-off forums and on encrypted chat apps.

Sky News understands the government is currently considering recommendations from the Law Commission, two of which link to the issue of misogyny as a hate crime.

The Law Commission previously recommended not to make misogyny a hate crime and Rape Crisis England and Wales said that making sex and gender protected characteristics risks further complicating the judicial process, making it even harder to secure convictions.

Read more from Sky News:
Huge fire breaks out at substation
Ultimate guide to local elections
The Alarm frontman has died

‘Slipping through the gaps’

Giving another example of how incels slipped through the gaps, Dr Andrew Thomas, a co-author of an independent government report on incels, said there was sometimes confusion between services like Prevent and health and social service on who was responsible for radicalised individuals.

Incels accounted for around 1% of Prevent referrals in the year 2023/24.

Dr Thomas said: “The former [Prevent] often don’t see incels as ‘extreme’ enough for Prevent relative to other groups.

“They often present as men with poor social skills who need mental health and social support.

“The latter come across as very extreme to the NHS and seem like a Prevent issue.”

Legislating the internet

Dr Joe Whittaker told Sky News the issue of trying to help those drawn into inceldom was further complicated by the wider difficulties of trying to legislate the internet.

He explained: “The pace of technological change moves a lot faster than the government… it took years to turn the Online Safety Bill into an act.”

He added: “There’s a real argument we’ve reached the peak of what we can do with decentralised and encrypted platforms,” cautioning against infringing on privacy rights.

So even if enforcement efforts were given greater power, forcing websites and apps from around the world to comply would be increasingly difficult.

He also pointed out lessons learned from trying to deal with extreme Islamist terrorists, where such individuals were simply forced into more shut-off areas on the internet instead of the root issues of radicalisation being dealt with.

‘Scourge on our society’

A government spokesperson told Sky News: “Violence against women and girls is a scourge on our society which is why we have set out an unprecedented mission to halve these crimes within a decade.

“Parts of the Online Safety Act have come into force meaning companies must take action to protect users from illegal material including extreme sexual violence.

“Further protections from this summer will require platforms to protect children from harmful misogynistic and violent content.

“While incel ideologies make up a small fraction of referrals to Prevent, they are monitored as an emerging threat with tailored support provided to individuals.

“Tackling misogyny both online and offline is central to supporting victims and preventing harm in our communities and we will not hesitate to strengthen laws to deliver this mission.”

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April 3, 2025
The Vast Majority of Trump’s Net Worth Is Now in His Meme Coin

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Yes, you’re reading that correctly.

Meme Streak

President-elect Donald Trump may have spent his career playing the role of a wheeler-dealer businessman, but his actual financial track record has always been dodgy — he inherited a vast sum, declared bankruptcy at ventures ranging from a hotel to a casino, and estimates of his wealth have been a frequent topic of speculation for decades.

Underscoring that tenuous real-world performance, it appears that Trump has now accumulated vastly more wealth in the past 24 hours than he did in his entire life previously. Yes, you’re reading that correctly: since launching a meme coin called $TRUMP on the eve of his second presidency about a day ago, Axios estimated earlier today that 89 percent of Trump’s net worth was tied up in the cryptocurrency, putting it north of $60 billion and making him — on paper, at least — one of the world’s 25 richest people.

In a preview of Trump’s certain-to-be-chaotic adventures in the world of blockchain, though, the coin subsequently crashed by about 50 percent — meaning it still represents the overwhelming majority of Trump’s worth, but makes him substantially poorer than he was this morning.

Wallet Inspector

We should point out that none of this is remotely fair in any normal sense of the word; the only reason for $TRUMP’s explosive growth is the fact that Trump is about to be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.

In that position, two things will be true. First, Trump will have immense regulatory power over the crypto industry; after slamming the tech for years, he reversed his position when it became financially convenient to him, and has now nominated crypto advocate Paul Atkins as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. And second, any wealthy people who need a favor from Trump will now be able to buy caches of his meme coin to earn influence.

Add it all up, and the whole thing reeks to high heaven. Trump’s crypto isn’t shooting up in value because of any intrinsic technical or business acumen; it’s doing so because investors believe — rightly, in all likelihood — that it will be a lucrative conflict of interest over the next four years.

More on Donald Trump: Trump Pledges Information About Mystery Drones on “Day One” of Presidency

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January 20, 2025
Energy Committee Chair Hopes Trump Will “Follow The Money” On Net Zero

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Energy committee chair and Labour MP Bill Esterton said he believed Donald Trump would “follow the money” on green energy. (Alamy)

5 min read15 November

Bill Esterson, chair of the energy committee, believes president-elect Donald Trump will want to “follow the money” on energy policy and not bring about a “dramatic” shift in the US approach to tackling climate change.

Trump’s victory over Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris in last week’s presidential election has triggered concern in the West about the direction he could soon take the US in some areas, including the climate.

There are worries, for example, that the Republican candidate will withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement when he returns to the White House, and that his deregulatory agenda will come at the expense of the country’s green ambitions.

However, Esterson, the Labour MP for Sefton Central, is hopeful that a Trump presidency will not bring about a major departure from Washington’s current green agenda.

He told PoliticsHome that Trump will “want to be alongside the big energy players” when he returns to the White House and that for economic reasons he is unlikely to abandon the green agenda.

“This is 2024, there’s already been a marked shift in energy policy in the United States,” said the committee chair.

“Exxon Mobil [energy company], for example, said they’re not going to change their plans.

“They’re going to continue to invest in renewables, move away from fossil fuels…

“Donald Trump will, as he always does, follow the money and will want to be alongside the big energy players. And I suspect that just as everywhere else in the world, the markets in America will drive the clean energy transition, regardless of the views of members of the federal government administration.

“There’s been for quite some time a desire for investors to not end up with stranded assets in the fossil fuel industry, they’ve recognized the potential value of divesting and investing, therefore, into clean energy.”

However, the Labour MP admitted that Trump’s victory in last week’s US presidential election presented an opportunity for the Keir Starmer Government given the “real degree of stability and commitment” in the UK when it comes to energy policy, pointing to policies like the National Wealth Fund and the removal of the onshore wind ban.

“There is a great deal of appetite from the investment community to support the UK’s plans and with a Chancellor [Rachel Reeves] who is committed to stability and getting market confidence and attracting investment from the private sector — alongside the public sector — with the industrial strategy, which gives that degree of certainty.”

Esterson said that while there is a “degree of uncertainty” in the US over what the Trump administration’s energy policy will be, to major business players it only “reinforces the benefits of investing in the UK because of the stability and the fact that you’ve got four years at least of absolute certainty around government policy”.

He said the fact that Prime Minister Starmer was one of only two G7 leaders to speak at the COP climate summit this week further demonstrates the UK’s commitment to the green transition.

“I’m greatly encouraged that we will see the scale of investment that’s needed to give the country every chance of delivering not just the 2030 clean power objective, but net zero by 2050,” the committee chair said.

Adam Berman, deputy director of policy at Energy UK, told PoliticsHome that while there has been a lot of discussion about a Trump presidency leading to a boost in investment in the UK, the UK must not “rest on its laurels” and must ensure “incentives” remain.

“I would certainly caution the UK not to rest on its laurels just because there’s a Trump victory, that necessarily a lot of low carbon investment will come to the UK,” said Berman.

“We will have to keep making the case to investors that the UK is investable, and keep and keep making our policy structures investable.”

Berman said, however, that investment sentiment was “really good” around the Government.

“That’s not an ideological point. This Government has said it is going to move faster and with more ambition through the energy transition into this Clean Power Plan,” said Berman.

“As a result, investors are looking more seriously at the UK and that doesn’t have anything to do with policy structures. It’s just that ministers are going out the whole time talking about the benefits of clean energy, defending clean energy projects, even when there’s disruption to local communities. That is what investors want to see.”

Adam Bell, a former government energy adviser and director of policy at Stonehaven, told PoliticsHome that a second Trump term provides the UK with an opportunity to be a world leader in energy.

“It puts us at the forefront as one of the economies that is doing the most to tackle climate change,” said Bell.

“At the same time, the language that Starmer has been using at COP, which is principally around energy and security, points to a wish to decouple our supplies from parts of the world that are increasingly becoming less friendly, and which might ultimately extend to broad areas of trade as well.

“It is bound up with a broader geopolitical picture: we are becoming green, in part because it’s the right thing to do, but in part because it enables us to be more energy independent than we have been for a very long time.”

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November 15, 2024
Any delay in reaching net zero will influence climate for centuries

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Ice collapsing into the water at Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina

R.M. Nunes/Alamy

Even a few years’ delay in reaching net-zero emissions will have repercussions for hundreds or even thousands of years, leading to warmer oceans, more extensive ice loss in Antarctica and higher temperatures around the world.

Nations around the world have collectively promised to prevent more than 2°C of global warming, a goal that can only be achieved by reaching net-zero emissions – effectively ending almost all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions – before the end of the century. But once that hugely challenging goal…

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November 11, 2024
UoG leading farming and food research in bid to help UK meet net zero targets

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The University of Gloucestershire is leading a project to identify potential changes to what we eat and how we farm in the county to help the UK meet its net zero targets.

The Gloucestershire Food and Farming for Net Zero (Integrating Local Climate Policies) project has been awarded £30,000 in funding by UK Research and Innovation’s Agri-Food Net Zero Network+ to support the country’s target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It will report in May next year.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Uni of Gloucestershire’s new Vice Chancellor lays bare her ambitions

The university is working with the public sector and farmers on the initiative.

Dr Aimee Morse, who is leading it, noted that any transition must continue to “support jobs in the food and farming sector, and ensure people can access healthy, affordable food”.

“Our new project will build on the strength of food and farming expertise, as well as our strength in collaboration,” she said.

“It brings together a range of organisations to identify actions that local councils and their partners can take that will support positive changes in the food and farming industry, and people’s health and wellbeing, whilst ensuring the most efficient use of public money.”

Experts from the university’s countryside and community research institute (CCRI) will work with the Gloucestershire food and farming partnership as well as climate leadership Gloucestershire (which comprises a number of bodies) on the initiative.

Cllr Mike McKeown, chair of climate leadership Gloucestershire, said: “Food, farming, and agriculture are vital not only to our economy but also to the environment, particularly in Gloucestershire, where these sectors hold the unique potential to absorb carbon.

“By collectively addressing the challenges and opportunities, we can drive positive, locally relevant, and sustainable changes that contribute to reaching net zero.

“For example, regenerative agriculture will be a key part of this transformation, helping to restore ecosystems while enhancing resilience to climate change.”

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October 25, 2024
Birmingham’s Ardent to support net zero target with three major National Grid projects

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Birmingham-based surveying and management firm Ardent has been selected for three major projects with National Grid.

The company, which specialises in utilities and renewables, will support the delivery of over 100km of new cabling for Eastern Green Link 3 and Eastern Green Link 4 which will transport clean energy generated in Scotland into Lincolnshire and north Norfolk to power up to four million homes.

READ MORE: Green light for Allsee Technologies’ Birmingham HQ set to create 150 jobs

It will also be operating on a scheme proposing a new 60km 400kV overhead line from Chesterfield to Willington to support the UK’s net zero target, while the third project is an uprating of existing infrastructure with new substations, again in the Midlands and South Yorkshire.

“We were, of course, delighted to be appointed to the framework last year as it was a real testament to the growth and stature of the business over recent years. said Nick Dexter, head of utilities at Ardent.

“And now we have the opportunity to deliver on three significant schemes with National Grid that will add further capacity to the network as part of the Great Grid Upgrade, which is absolutely crucial in creating more electricity capacity for the country.

“The projects will be delivered, largely, by our teams in Birmingham, Leeds and London but we will utilise resources from across all of our offices which, again, underlines how the strength and stature of the business means we can undertake such significant work that will have a lasting, positive effect on the nation’s transition to net zero.”

Around 30 Ardent staff will be working on the schemes and services will include land referencing, land assembly, compensation and GIS and digital data capturing.

The projects are expected to be delivered over three to six years.

Ardent was appointed to National Grid’s UK Land and Property (UKLP) framework for land rights and land referencing last autumn to support the transition towards net zero.

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October 11, 2024