Adam Varley

• Bsc, PhD
• Researcher at University of Stirling

Tense global politics, spikes in gas prices and increasingly urgent warnings about climate change raise questions over the future use of natural gas. UK longitudinal survey data reveal that beliefs about climate change increasingly reduced support for gas extraction between 2019 and 2022. Mounting public connections between climate and gas use sugg...

Shale gas is an expanding energy source worldwide, yet ‘fracking’ remains controversial. Amongst public concerns is induced seismicity (tremors). The UK had the most stringent induced seismicity regulations in the world, prior to instating a moratorium on shale gas development. The Government cited induced seismicity as the key rationale for its No...

To date, little research has investigated how public perceptions of policies to ban or restrict fossil-fuel extraction change over time; yet this topic is of crucial importance as countries worldwide seek to transition towards ‘net zero’ economies. This study addresses this gap by focusing on public responses to the 2019 moratorium on shale gas ext...

Research reveals that a “finite pool of worry” constrains concern about and action on climate change. Nevertheless, a longitudinal panel survey of 1,858 UK residents, surveyed in April 2019 and June 2020, reveals little evidence for diminishing climate change concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the sample identifies climate change as a b...

Surface waters are a fundamental resource. They fulfil key function in global biogeochemical cycles and are core to our water, food and energy security. The rapidly increasing rate of data collection from different Earth observation (EO) missions suitable for observing water bodies has promoted satellite remote sensing (RS) as a more widely recogni...

Soil erosion has been associated with various negative environmental impacts foremost of which is the potential pressure it could impose on global food security. The poor conditions of our agricultural soil can be attributed to years of unsustainable farming practices occurring throughout history that has placed significant pressure on the environm...

The Chernobyl nuclear power meltdown that took place in 1986 has left a radioactive contamination legacy that currently severely limits the economic potential of impacted regions including the Polessie State Radioecology Reserve in Southern Belarus. Extensive areas of forested land could potentially become economically viable for firewood and build...

Details of the instrumentation that can be used for validation of water quality parameters derived from Earth Observation data.

Cs-137 is considered to be the most significant anthropogenic contributor to human dose and presents a particularly difficult remediation challenge after a dispersal following nuclear incident. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant meltdown in April 1986 represents the largest nuclear accident in history and released over 80 PBq of 137Cs into the envir...

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown has to date been the single largest release of radioactivity into the environment. As a result, radioactive contamination that poses a significant threat to human health still persists across much of Europe with the highest concentrations associated with Belarus, Ukraine, and western Russia. Of the radionu...

This report presents the results of the 2015 survey to determine the habits and consumption patterns of people living and undertaking recreational activities in the vicinity of the Babcock Rosyth Site (BRS). The site is authorised to discharge gaseous radioactive waste in addition to the discharge of liquid radioactive waste through an outfall into...

Radium (226Ra) contamination derived from military, industrial, and pharmaceutical products can be found at a number of historical sites across the world posing a risk to human health. The analysis of spectral data derived using gamma-ray spectrometry can offer a powerful tool to rapidly estimate and map the activity, depth, and lateral distributio...

There are a large number of sites across the UK and the rest of the world that are known to be contaminated with (226)Ra owing to historical industrial and military activities. At some sites, where there is a realistic risk of contact with the general public there is a demand for proficient risk assessments to be undertaken. One of the governing fa...