The Know Daily - Thursday 30th March 2023

_{Read in 5m 45s ∙ Listening to FLO + Missy Elliott}

The Southern Lights, a natural phenomenon also known as the Aurora Australis which occurs in the southern hemisphere between March and September, have been especially vivid this year across New Zealand. Amateur and professional photographers have been camping out on beaches to capture the breathtaking displays of green and pink light. “Faced with such a scene, you can instantly forget all your troubles,” one observer told the BBC. A selection of awe-inspiring images can be found here.

🪫 “Powering Up Britain”

The government has today published a revised climate change strategy aimed at guaranteeing UK energy security. But the proposals - and particularly the use of controversial carbon capture technology - have been met with a lukewarm response from scientists and environmental campaigners.

What’s the aim of the strategy?
The updated Powering Up Britain strategy is largely focused on increasing clean energy (wind, solar, nuclear) in the hope of driving down fossil fuel emissions and cutting energy bills over the long term. In setting out the plans, the government also emphasised its intention to maintain “a world-leading position in achieving net zero”.

While the 1,000-page strategy contains a raft of measures, “many had been announced previously” and the strategy has “hardly any new cash”, said Sky News.

Why is carbon capture so controversial?
The strategy includes a £20 billion commitment to investment in technology to capture carbon dioxide from the air. According to The Guardian, this captured carbon dioxide will be stored in undersea caverns, “to enable an expansion of oil and gas in the North Sea”.

Those in favour of the policy - which had already been announced in this year’s spring budget - argue that it’s important in the transition to cleaner energy. But many scientists have cast doubt on the efficacy of the technology. Dr Peter Connor told Sky News that it has “little to show” in terms of significantly reducing the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere. “This is a commitment to maintaining the status quo of burning fossil fuels,” he said.

Got it. What else does the strategy include?
Other key measures include a pledge of £160 million for port infrastructure to help expand offshore wind (which was announced in 2021) and a commitment to insulate 300,000 of the poorest performing homes.

What could happen next?
The revised strategy could face a legal challenge from environmental campaigners, who took the government to court last year over its Net Zero Strategy - and won. Campaign group Friends of the Earth has said that it will closely examine the documents and return to court if the proposals fail to meet legal obligations to cut carbon emissions.

🍯 Fake honey causes a buzz

A new investigation has suggested that nearly half of all honey imported into the EU is probably fraudulent - in other words, blended with cheap sugar syrups.

Tell me more.
The European Commission tested 320 honey samples, finding that 147 (46%) were likely to have been adulterated with cheap sugar syrups. Ten samples from the UK were tested, and all failed the authenticity test. The report suggested that this honey was likely produced in other countries before being processed in the UK, then re-exported to the EU.

So where does the UK’s honey come from?
Last year, the UK imported more than 38,000 tonnes of honey from China, its biggest supplier.

Artuto Carillo, of the international Honey Authenticity Network, said the UK is “flooded” with cheap adulterated honey from China, and called on the government to address this “tremendous problem”.

What’s the problem with fake honey?
Officials have emphasised that while the risk to health is very low, these adulterated products defraud customers and make it harder for legitimate producers to succeed. “They face unfair competition from operators who can slash prices thanks to illicit, cheap ingredients,” said the EU’s anti-fraud office.

How can I avoid falling victim to honey fraud?
According to master beekeeper Lynne Ingram, the price of a jar of honey is key to knowing whether or not it’s genuine. “If you see honey that is as cheap as 75p a jar, it is too good to be true,” she told The Guardian. Ingram suggested that shoppers should prioritise brands which state the country of origin on their labels or, even better, source the sweet stuff from local beekeepers.

What is the government doing?
Ministers have historically disputed claims that honey imports are adulterated on an industrial scale; as recently as January, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said there was “insufficient evidence” to indicate fraud.

However, a DEFRA spokesperson said this weekend that they are investigating the results of the EU’s investigation and that the government takes any type of food fraud “very seriously”.

🌌 Space discovery: An “ultramassive” black hole about 30 billion times the mass of the sun has been discovered by UK astronomers. The “gargantuan” black hole is one of the biggest ever found.

📋 Pension rollback: Raising the state pension age from 66 to 68 has been delayed to the mid 2040s, the government is due to announce today.

🍞 Salt in sliced bread: 75% of pre-packaged loaves of supermarket bread contain as much salt or more per slice than a packet of ready salted crisps, research by the campaign group Action on Salt has found.

✝️ Prayers for the Pope: People around the world are praying for the swift recovery of Pope Francis, who has been hospitalised in Rome with a respiratory infection. The 86-year-old has a recent history of medical challenges.

🏃‍♀️ Sleep study: The health risks associated with insomnia - or a lack of sleep - disappear in people who do more than 2.5 hours of exercise a week, a new study has found.

Trivia answer: C) 72kg - and this replica of the nugget shows just how lucky a find it was.

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