But Will Nessie Fit Through The Pipes?

Glendoe Hydro-Electirc Power Station opens today at Loch Ness. Or rather, inside a mountain near Loch Ness.

The water is released from a top reservoir through a pipe and turbine which are built underground, and into a bottom reservoir when electricity is needed. When there is spare capacity like overnight, water is pumped back up to the top reservoir.

Here's the BBC report from Glendoe, which shows you inside the mountain:



(If you're reading this via email or RSS reader, the video may not show. Click here to come to the blog and view it)

Power Use Report Card Apr - Jun 09

Another quarter of the year has gone, so it's time to report on my energy usage over the period. I'm a great believer in practising what I preach and holding myself to a higher standard, and having to report to you lot on my power use is a way of accounting for my sins.

Gas Stats:

Length of Period: 91 Days

Total Usage: 81kW/h

Average Per Day: 0.9 kW/h

YTD Total Usage: 283 kW/h

YTD Average Per Day: 1.55 kW/h

If Applied Over The Year: 566 kW/h

Average Yearly UK Household Gas Use: 19,000 kW/h

CO2 Emissions From My Gas Use This Quarter: 15.39kg

As you can see, turning off the gas central heating has had a huge effect on my usage. I'm still heating hot water unnecessarily, though. During my next holidays, I plan to mess around with the various switches to see what happens (not a rather large boom, I hope!)

Electricity Stats:

Length of Period: 91 Days

Total Usage: 511 kW/h

Average Per Day: 5.6 kW/h

YTD Total Usage: 1041 kW/h

YTD Average Per Day: 5.7 kW/h

If Applied Over The Year: 2081 kW/h

Average Yearly UK Household Electricity Use: 3,700 kW/h

CO2 Emissions From My Electricity Use This Quarter: 220kg

My electricity use follows my shift pattern and hasn't changed much since the last report, and I don't anticipate it changing much in the future.

Figures for average UK energy use and CO2 figures are taken from the book How to Live a Low-carbon Life by Chris Goodall

Carry On Regardless

So that didn't last long, did it?

The Scottish Government's brand-spanking-new 42% emissions-cut target is in danger of collapse because they can't face up to the implications of it. It seems they're only just realising that they can't go expanding airports and roads, and building new coal-fired power stations, without breaking their own legal pledges.

Is that the sound of backpedalling I hear?

Green In The Media 29th June - 5th July

Highlight this week is Tracy Worcester's investigation into the pig breeding industry, Pig Business. Will it turn me vegetarian?

Monday 29th June

Grand Designs
On: more4
Time: 23:05 to 00:10
Kelly and Masoko Neville set about building a spectacular oak framed and straw baled hexagonal house in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Kelly, a carpenter, had always dreamed of building an eco-friendly home that could provide a base for a new self-sufficient life where he and Masoko could produce their own food and energy from the land. Three years later, Kevin McCloud goes back to visit Kelly, Masoko and their young son Acer to see if they are managing to lead the idyllic self-sufficient life they so craved.

Tuesday 30th June

Pig Business
On: more4
Time: 22:00 to 23:40 (Also 0045)
Eco-campaigner Tracy Worcester, a former actress and now Marchioness of Worcester, has campaigned for years for quality food, animal welfare and environmental protection through a revitalisation of rural economies. Pig Business is her four year exploration of intensive pig farming. She argues that intensive production systems can harm human and environmental health, and is pushing traditional farmers out of business. In the film, she travels from the UK to the US and Poland to meet local people who claim to have been adversely affected by the new industrial pig production methods, as well as leading politicians and environmental campaigner Robert Kennedy Junior. Worcester also confronts industrial farming executives with her findings and argues that supermarket labelling is not a reliable guide to where pork is actually sourced from.

Wednesday 1st July

The Wednesday Documentary
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 09:05 to 09:30 (Also 1305, 2005, 0105)
The Greening of The Deserts.
Areas of the Sahara desert are turning green. Is this due to more rainfall or better farming methods? Ayisha Yahya reports.

Thursday 2nd July

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:30 to 11:00 (Also 1630, 2030, 0130)
The programme that explores the biggest issues in global development and the environment.

Live Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Questions
On: BBC Parliament
Time: 10:30 to 11:30 (Also 0100)
Live coverage of questions in the House of Commons to Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Hilary Benn and his ministerial team.

Sunday 5th July

Countryfile
On: BBC 1
Time: 19:00 to 20:00
John Craven investigates whether the way we breed Holstein cows is creating "milk machines".


Excerpts taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=20818
Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

BBC Incredulous

Why is this a story?

The Week In Green Numbers

£500 million

- estimated cost of a power-producing tidal barrage over the Solway Firth between Scotland and England

355,000

- number of people killed annually by exposure to pesticides and toxins

69%

- increase in the organic health & beauty market in the UK in 2008

10 miles long, 2 miles wide & 130 feet deep

- size of just one migratory shoal of sardines, hotly pursued by thousands of dolphins, sharks and killer whales who think it is Christmas

Super Transport Hub Is Nonsense

A think tank has decided that what Scotland really really needs is a giant transport hub centred around a "super-airport" just outside Edinburgh.

The Super-Airport would be accompanied by a high-speed train terminal linking all Scotland's cities, and the whole shebang would be surrounded by roads taking you to the four corners of the country.

This proposal is so wrong on so many levels I barely know where to start. So let me start with what I know best.

I'm all for high-speed rail travel being rolled out across the country, and I'm all for more transport hubs. But running a high-speed line from this "super-airport" to Edinburgh, a proposed 5 minute journey, provides no economies. Particularly when it would only take 10 minutes for a "normal" train.

The study also doesn't seem to take into account the current bus service (quite fast compared to other airports in my experience) and the future tram service (which will be even faster).

The "Super-Airport" itself is a non-starter. There are no benefits to having a centralised airport serving an entire country, albeit a small one like Scotland. All that does is increase the pollution from people trying to get to the airport. It also assumes that air travel will continue to grow, but we've seen in this economy that air passenger numbers are way down with some airlines struggling to cope (BA asking staff to work for free, for example).

Plus, and this is the damning part in my opinion, the "Super-Airport" won't actually replace the current airports, even if politicians at the time say it will. Once built, they would be told that it would be bad for the economy to demolish the existing infrastructure so we'd better let the market decide where airlines will land - and inevitably, the airlines will choose the cities rather than a hub.

Do I even need to tell you my opinion of building more roads to service an unnecessary airport?

Nazi Seagulls From Hell: There Be Whales Here!

My hatred for seagulls knows no bounds. As a good environmentalist, they're a species I'd like to see wiped off the face of the earth.

Let's face it, they add nothing to the food chain so committing genocide (gull-icide?) against them will have no detrimental effects to the planet. Plus, it would be my bloodthirsty revenge for them attacking me.

It seems man is not the only species to be plagued by these scavengers. Whales off the coast of Argentina are regularly attacked, with the gulls eating away at the flesh and blubber as the whales surface to breathe.

The BBC has the extraordinary pictures.

Life, The Universe and Everything

Photo by odolphie

The Climate Change (Scotland) Bill has just been passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament in the last few minutes.

There is more than just the emissions reduction figure in the Bill, but it will be that which grabs the headlines tomorrow. Scotland is now legally bound to reduce it's emissions by 42% by 2020.

As Stewart Stevenson pointed out at the end of the day's proceedings, Douglas Adams informed us that 42 was the answer to life, the universe and everything.

It's not the answer. It's just the beginning.

This Is How We Do It In Scotland

Almost Mrs Average has captured footage of a sight which is extremely rare outside of the native Scotland.

It's the lesser-spotted Kiltie-Cold-Bum squashing Tetra-Paks:

Scottish Climate Change Bill: T Minus 1 Day

I was at work last night, my train just passing Carstairs State Hospital (a secure psychiatric facility), when I received a tweet on my phone from Patrick Harvie:

SNP finally accept a 42% climate target, with strings. Not perfect, but it's better than what they wanted. A victory for the campaigners!

It was just last Thursday that I was despairing of the government's "ambitious" climate change bill. They had decided to make a constitutional issue of the emissions reduction target - saying that Scotland could achieve a 34% reduction but couldn't do more unless we had independence from the UK.

Complete bullshit, of course.

Every expert in the land agreed that we need a minimum of 42% cuts. It was perhaps appropriate that I was looking out at Carstairs when I read the tweet.

Anything less than 42% would have been criminally insane.

Greenpeace Making Waves

I have, on occasion, had a rant about "Direct Action". Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. Sometimes it works, other times it's just a publicity stunt.

Greenpeace last night boarded a coal-carrying ship owned by the energy company e.on which was heading for the Kingsnorth power station in Kent. Even if I was a whole-hearted cheerleader for all types of Direct Action, looking at the photos on their website you'd never get me on that wee inflatable speedboat in a million years!

Someone should tell Greenpeace that the old saying "You don't have to be mad to work here, but it helps" is supposed to be a joke, not a recruiting philosophy!

Scottish Climate Change Bill: T Minus 2 Days

Here's Stewart Stevenson talking about Scotland's future predicted climate:



To which I add, if it's so crucial that we act, then commit yourself to a 50% emissions reduction target instead of a wishy-washy 34%

The Biggest Polluters In Scotland

Photo of Grangemouth by John via Wikimedia Commons

Rob Edwards reveals in today's Sunday Herald that SEPA have announced Scotland's dirtiest companies for 2008.

There are 36 sites on the list in total. Unbelievably, there are six companies who find themselves on the list for the third year running.

Clearly, naming and shaming them in a SEPA report isn't having much of an impact. People will only see the report if they read the newspaper article(s), and how many people read their local newspaper these days?

Maybe it would be an idea to put pressure on the companies by sending a mailshot to every household in a 5 mile radius detailing how that company pollutes the local environment? That takes the naming and shaming to a local, grassroots level, and one that can't be buried in one paragraph on page 27.

(Of course, I'm completely ignoring the paper waste caused by the mailshot!)

Go and take a look at the list. And then wonder to yourself whether it's actually safe to live in Grangemouth...

Green In The Media 22nd June - 28th June

It's all about the radio this week. The only decent green you'll see on TV is the Centre Court at Wimbledon.

Tuesday 23rd June

Back from Bali
On: Community Channel
Time: 06:20 to 06:30 (Also Thu 0620)
After a critical UN meeting to discuss plans for a new global agreement, two members of WWF-UK discuss the impact of climate change on vulnerable people, ecosystems and species.

I Own Britain's Best Home
On: FIVER
Time: 09:00 to 10:00 (Also 1400)
The search begins for Britain's Best Home of 2009. Including a timber-framed eco house in Norfolk. Yes, I'm scraping the barrel here!

Wednesday 24th June

The Wednesday Documentary
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 09:05 to 09:30
Farm Swap.
Farming is fundamental to our way of life. But do all farmers have similar objectives? We meet two very different farmers.

The Greening of the Deserts
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30
First of two programmes in which Ayisha Yahya explores predictions from some scientists and meteorologists that some deserts, including the Sahara, could get greener in the future and experience more rainfall. This runs contrary to more usual predictions about the future of global warming in Africa that envisage more drought, floods, land degradation, epidemics and resource wars. Ayisha travels to Mali and Egypt to explore the arguments.

Thursday 25th June

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:30 to 11:00 (Also 1630, 2030, 0130, Sat 2035)
The programme that explores the biggest issues in global development and the environment.

Life Begins Again
On: Channel 4
Time: 12:35 to 13:40
Gaby Roslin meets people starting a new life. Disillusioned by city living, Derek and Julie Gane have had enough of Bournemouth and want to use their skills to create an alternative therapy centre in Cornwall. They've bought a series of farm buildings in the tiny hamlet of West Curry, but with none of them habitable they'll be living in a caravan while they carry out the renovation. Gaby Roslin meets the couple and discovers their eco-friendly plans. A year on though, things take a very unexpected twist.

Leading Edge
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30
Geoff Watts meets Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society, who shares his perspective on how he has adapted to the role and the influence it can have on the international stage. He discusses the role that science academies have in setting international standards for things like carbon emissions, nuclear test bans, the protection of wilderness areas such as Antarctica and the freedom of scientists to travel and communicate across political boundaries.

Friday 26th June

Any Questions?
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 20:00 to 20:50 (Also Sat 1310)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the topical debate in Birmingham. Panellists include Hilary Benn, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs.


Excerpts taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=20818
Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

The Week In Green Numbers

A bumper crop this week...

107%

- rise in cycling on major roads 2000-2008

500%

- increase in the amount of litter dropped in the UK since 1960

12 Billion

- number of steel food and drink cans used in Britain every year

20%

- fall in the number of charter flight passengers from the UK in the first 3 months of this year

800,000

- number of UK homes at risk of flooding within 25 years due to rising sea levels

£30 Billion

- estimated cost of a new high-speed rail line from London to Glasgow

£6 Billion

- government investments in road projects over the next 5 years

£2.5 Billion

- global sales of Fair Trade products in 2008

Two Inquiries For The Price Of...Erm, Two

Photo by Elsie esq.

If two incidents occurred due to almost the exact same thing, and resulted in death and injury, you would expect them to be investigated together, right?

Well, not if the government doesn't want to be embarrassed about the way maintenance on the railway is run.

Potters Bar: derailment due to faulty points caused by poor maintenance

Grayrigg: derailment due to faulty points caused by failures in maintenance management

It's patently obvious that there should be a joint inquest into both incidents, but instead the government has announced separate public inquiries.

So instead of one report saying the system of maintenance on the railway is inadequate, they're going to get two. And waste public money at the same time.

We're As Ambitious As The Next Country

...or not, if we're talking climate change

I was wanting to comment on the UK Climate Predictions report which is coming out this afternoon, but it's still being debated in Westminster and hasn't actually gone online yet. So I'll leave you to discover the wonders of climate change on your town for yourself.

Instead, I was mildly surprised to discover climate change being front and centre in First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament. This follows yesterday's publication of their "road map" of how they will deliver their emissions reduction targets.

Actually, I shouldn't call it a road map, should I? Maybe a "cycle-path map"!

The Scottish Government have repeatedly said their climate change bill would be the "most ambitious in the world". Then, when it was published, we discovered that actually it was no more ambitious than the UK bill being published at Westminster. Actually, given the lead we have in renewable energy generation over England, you could argue that it is less ambitious.

The Labour opposition decided to go on the offensive on this today, and called for a 40% reductions target for 2020 rather than the proposed 34%. (Which makes you wonder why they can't do 40% in Westminster too, where they are still in power...)

Then the real reason for the targets being the same came out. It's being used as a political football. We could do more if we had independence, said the First Minister, but because we don't we're stuck with the same 34% target as London.

Complete nonsense, of course. Unless he has in mind gaining control over "Scotland's Oil" and then immediately shutting down all the North Sea oilfields.

Incidentally, I went googling for the old SNP "It's Scotland's Oil" poster to illustrate this piece, and only found one instance - embedded in a book. It appears to have been whitewashed from history.

In Every Corner Of The World

Their own blurb:

Welcome to the world premier of the new video from 350.org. It sums up the basics of the 350 movement--the science, the creativity, and most importantly, the International Day of Climate Action on 24 October, 2009. Enjoy--and pass it on to your friends.

Sustainable Slippers

Last winter, I decided to get myself a new pair of slippers. The old trainers that I'd been wearing around the house for the last two years were falling apart at the seams, and just weren't warm enough. So I started doing my research.

Let me tell you, if you're a man and you want some environmentally-friendly slippers, then you're in for a shock. There's very little on the market. I had almost given up the search when I read Green Jellybean's blogpost about getting a new pair of Simple slippers as a present. They fitted the bill perfectly - felted wool, organic cotton, water-based glue, recycled box etc.

There was just one slight problem - the reason for Green Jellybean mentioning them was because they fell apart. The water-based glue wasn't strong enough. Maybe, I thought, he had got a duff pair. So I went to John Lewis to take a look at them for myself, and ended up walking out the door £30 lighter but with a nice new pair of slippers.

And boy, the comfort was amazing. Particularly compared to the old trainers I'd been kicking around in! They were warm, too. I soon fell in love.

A couple of weeks ago, Green Jellybean posted a follow-up story about his slippers. The replacement pair he had got from John Lewis had developed holes in the upper. As I read his rant, I thought it was a shame that he had had such a bad time with the slippers. Glancing down at my own, I thought that after all, mine had been perf....where the hell did those holes come from???

Yes, the uppers on my slippers have developed holes - funnily enough in almost the exact same spots as Green Jellybean's have. I've decided not to take them back to the store, since I suspect they'll just throw them out. I'll wear them until they fall apart completely. And look elsewhere for new ones when the time comes.

But the crux of the matter is this - it doesn't matter how environmentally-friendly you make your product, how organic the materials, how recycled the packaging, how non-toxic the glue - if you have to buy a new pair every six months then they're not sustainable.

And neither is your business.

Waste Disposal Sucks

Photo by keepwaddling1

Quite a few years ago now, I worked in Princes Street, Edinburgh's main shopping street. It was a revelation to discover that there's quite a lot going on under that pavement - our "basement" was actually part of a series of rooms linked by a corridor. The corridor ran for the length of the block before ending in a locked door, but it was rumoured to run the entire length of Princes Street itself.

Of course, it wasn't long before some of my colleagues discovered that the electronics store next door had left their basement door unlocked. After the police got involved, they became ex-colleagues - it didn't take much detecting work for this "crime of the century"!

The City Council now want to install a vacuum-powered rubbish system under Princes Street, I assume using the corridor that runs under the street. The idea is that the stores and vendors can dispose of their rubbish unseen by the populace, thereby removing the need for the rubbish trucks to come calling day and night.

What the newspaper article doesn't say is if the rubbish will be sorted for recycling. I suspect not - they talk about "compacting" the waste near the end of the article.

By the way, doesn't the photo make you want to visit Scotland for your summer holidays??!

Father's Day Fail

I spotted this in a chemist shop in Blairgowrie on Friday...

Get On Your Bike

If you've been thinking of getting yourself a bike and ditching the car for the work commutes, then now is the time.

It's Bike Week this week, with a number of events held throughout the country for every level of cyclist.

Check out their website if you want to know what's on in your area.

Green In The Media 15th June - 21st June

I like BBC Four. It's not a channel designed to be watched all the time, but rather to dip in and out of, except on their frequent "theme" nights. This week, they're devoting an entire night of programming to...airports. And then showing a documentary about North Sea Oil. And then another night about motor racing.

Guess I'll be avoiding BBC Four this week...

Monday 15th June

Villages On The Frontline

On: Community Channel

Time: 08:30 to 08:55 (Also Wed 0830, Fri 0830)

Spain.

A billion people in a million villages live with the threat of their fields and pasture turning to dust. Local reporters go to the front line to find that villagers are fighting back.

Frontiers

On: BBC Radio Four

Time: 21:00 to 21:30

Bioprecipitation.

Richard Hollingham investigates if bacteria in the atmosphere can influence the weather and meets some of the scientists who are working in what has been called 'bioprecipitation'. He talks to David Sands from Montana University, who coined the term, and visits labs in Avignon and London where researchers are trying to understand more about the impact of bacterial particles on our weather. If the complexities of bioprecipitation can be unravelled, it might be possible to turn the process to our advantage and use these extraordinary bacteria to encourage rainfall in drought-affected regions of the world.

Tuesday 16th June

Villages On The Frontline

On: Community Channel

Time: 08:30 to 08:55 (Also Thu 0830, Sat 0830)

Tanzania.

A billion people in a million villages live with the threat of their fields and pasture turning to dust. Local reporters go to the front line to find that villagers are fighting back.

Wednesday 17th June

The Wednesday Documentary

On: BBC World Service Radio

Time: 09:05 to 09:30 (Also 1305, 2005, 0105)

Farm Swap.

Farming is fundamental to our way of life. But do all farmers have similar objectives? We meet two very different farmers.

Megastructures

On: five

Time: 20:00 to 21:00

Sellafield Demolition.

Gripping documentary series that explores huge engineering projects from all over the world. This instalment follows the elaborate and dangerous demolition of four obsolete cooling towers at Sellafield power plant. A family-run company from America with specialist expertise in demolition has been selected to dismantle the 90m-high towers. The team must plant 4,000 sticks of dynamite in such a way that the structures do not hit nearby buildings when they collapse.

Thursday 18th June

One Planet

On: BBC World Service Radio

Time: 10:30 to 11:00 (Also 1630, 2030, 0130)

The programme that explores the biggest issues in global development and the environment.

Excerpts taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=20818

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

The Week In Green Numbers

2.5 million

- tonnes of plastic packaging used in Britain every year

0.6%

- rise in methane levels in 2008 in Norway as permafrost melted

700 million

- number of displaced people due to climate change by 2050

200 million

- tonnes of CO2 emitted from volcanoes every year

27 billion

- tonnnes of CO2 emitted by human activity every year

Infernal Infernos

Photo by Ole Poulson

There's something about incinerators that seems to give local councils a warm glow, particularly those around Edinburgh. First there was the proposed Super Incinerator in Dunbar which would have burned twice the waste that Edinburgh actually produced. Then there was the, erm, proposed Super Incinerator in Dunbar...

Then at the beginning of May, yet another incinerator was proposed, this time within Edinburgh's city limits.

Perhaps now though there will be a moratorium on the plans. The Scottish Parliament has agreed a Green Party amendment to a government motion that condemns the plants as unnecessary and that reduce, reuse and recycle should be the mantra.

New Movie Hits The Web

Want to critique and influence a new movie?

Rob at Transition Culture has put a preview version of their new movie In Transition on his website for everyone to watch. It's still a work in progress, so now is your chance to comment on it and perhaps influence some changes in the final film.

The film is 60 minutes long and will only be up for 72 hours, so grab the bull by the horns now...

I Love The Smell Of Particulates In The Morning!

Photo by Elsie esq.

When I first started working on the railway, I was a steward in the buffet car. One day, we went through the tunnel outside Birmingham New Street station, and the buffet car filled with diesel exhaust fumes and smoke. I could barely breathe, visibility was about two feet, and one guy standing at the counter was demanding I make his coffee. I still remember his words - "It's only a wee bit of smoke!"

It took a couple of hours for the smoke to clear, and I spent most of the journey back to Edinburgh with my face poking out of the window. I was still feeling nauseous the next day.

Maybe the coffee-demanding guy worked for London City airport. They have a "unique" way of parking the aircraft there, where the jet exhausts point straight at the building. Can you guess what happens next?

Thank You For Your Patience

This video is part of an ad campaign that starts tonight, with Network Rail thanking people for their patience while the West Coast Main Line was upgraded.

Of course, events have subsequently overtaken it - the line is near full capacity again and there is serious talk in the rail industry of a network of dedicated High Speed tracks. There is also near unanimity that we'll have to wait for the next government, though, since Labour haven't been much interested in the railway in the last 12 years. Opportunities missed...

Still, it's a stirring advert:



(If you can't see the advert, you may have to visit the website to see it)

Green In The Media 8th June - 14th June

I've occasionally given a Scottish day and time for a programme instead of the UK one, and I did once manage to sneak a Radio Scotland show into the listings, but I've never featured something in gaelic before. I know all you English folk will be retuning your satellite dishes especially to watch it...

Monday 8th June

Villages On The Frontline
On: Community Channel
Time: 08:30 to 08:55 (Also Wed 0830, Fri 0830)
Morocco.
A billion people in a million villages live with the threat of their fields and pasture turning to dust. Local reporters go to the front line to find that villagers are fighting back.

Tuesday 9th June

Villages On The Frontline
On: Community Channel
Time: 08:30 to 08:55 (Also Thu 0830, Sat 0830)
Niger.
A billion people in a million villages live with the threat of their fields and pasture turning to dust. Local reporters go to the front line to find that villagers are fighting back.

File on 4
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 20:00 to 20:40
Julian O'Halloran investigates claims that industrial-scale pig farms in America played a key role in exposing us to the swine flu virus. Local people near the first known case in Mexico questioned the role of an American-owned industrial scale pig farm not far away. Any link was strenuously denied, however, and the US pork industry soon helped persuade medical authorities to drop the term 'swine flu'. But for years American virologists have been studying the links between new and potentially risky flu viruses and farm animals. Whatever the role of pig farms in Mexico, experts say that parts of the current flu virus can be traced back to outbreaks of swine flu, then affecting only pigs, in several American states in 1998.

Thursday 11th June

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:30 to 11:00 (Also 1630, 2030, 0130)
The programme that explores the biggest issues in global development and the environment.

The Material World
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 16:30 to 17:00
As the UK research councils pour new money into eco-engineering, Quentin Cooper hears about the challenges of low-carbon housing. All new housing must be zero-carbon by 2016 according to government policy, but is such a commitment even meaningful? The aim seems worthy, but experts say that new homes often use twice the energy expected, partly because the engineering science is too poor.

'S Ann An Ile
On: BBC 2 Scotland
Time: 19:30 to 20:00
A' sealltainn air coimhearsnachd Ile tro sgathan na Gaidhlig. Bliadhna-sgoile ur - agus sgoileirean ura - aig Aonad Gaidhlig Bunsgoil a' Bhogha Mhoir. Agus Ile a' gabhail sinteag air thoiseach ann an saoghal cumhachd leantainneach, le toradh cumhachd ga thoirt bho stuaghan na mara. Exploring the community of Islay through the prism of Gaelic. A new term and new pupils at Bowmore Primary's Gaelic Unit. Islay leaps to the forefront of green energy generation as engineers harness the power of the sea.


Excerpts taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=20818
Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

The Week In Green Numbers

One of my friends pointed out to me last week that the numbers weren't actually green, they were orange. Smartarse!

20%

- amount of wild fish caught which is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council

78%

- number of British adults unaware of overfishing

92%

- number of climate skeptic books directly associated with right-wing free-market think tanks

11.8

- minutes a day the average Briton spends walking and cycling

36 Reasons

I saw this via Treehugger

For all the naysayers out there who don't want Edinburgh's tram system (erm, that covers most of Edinburgh's citizens and all it's taxi drivers) then here are 36 reasons that streetcars (trams) are better than buses.

An A-poll-ing Turnout?

I've just fulfilled my constitutional duty and voted in the European elections. Is it a duty, though? I've always held the view that a citizen should be prepared to give up 5 minutes of their time every couple of years in order to tell the politicians exactly what they think and believe in.

But I also have a lot of time for the counter argument, that a citizen should have the right to withdraw from the voting process - although I'm happier for them to do it as a protest rather than through apathy.

Some polls have suggested that there may be a relatively high turnout (for a European election) today, thanks to the scandals which have been rocking Westminster lately. I have to say, I voted in Gorgie Parish Church and I was the only person in there. The ballot box was filling up rapidly, but after talking to the polling clerk it turns out that the boxes are full because the ballot papers are so long, not because there have been lots of people voting. In fact, he used the words "very, very quiet".

Campaigning has been mute, too. Literature came through my door once, buried inside the Herald & Post. The polling place itself, in the photo above, only has two signs outside it - one for the SNP and one for the Green Party. The big three Westminster parties seem to have given up.

A Fair Fight?

Train v Plane - is this a fair fight?

Where There Is Light, May We Bring Darkness...

Photo by andronicusmax

The Guardian has started a campaign to get railway stations to switch their lights out during the day, after one of their reporters noticed that Stratford Station has spotlights pointing at the sky. I have to say Edinburgh Waverley is really good at it's lighting use. There are, of course, some that are left on 24 hours but a lot of the lights are switched off during the day - it takes the Network Rail staff a good few minutes to flick all those switches!

But while the station as a whole is good, I can't say I'm too impressed with my immediate colleagues. There are mornings when I walk into our mess room and it's lit up like Blackpool, with no one around. The TV will be switched on for a quick 5 minute blast of Sky Sports News, then it will be left on for the rest of the day in an empty room. In fact, the other morning I walked in at 8am to find it tuned to a channel which had stopped broadcasting at 1am!

And don't get me started on the air conditioner...okay, you've got me started! The building's hvac system has mysteriously stopped working in our messroom, so a portable aircon unit was brought it. Then the only window which can open was blocked off with a big plank of wood in order to provide an outlet for the aircon exhaust! (Actually, although it's a bugbear, I have to admit that the window looks out on to the station and therefore there is no wind likely to blow into the room).

I've been fighting a guerilla war against this - switching off lights as I leave the room, making a point of switching the tv off, tsk-ing in a loud voice when one of my colleagues turned the aircon unit on in mid-december. Some may see it as a losing battle, but I will keep up the good fight...

Act The F*ck Now!

Thanks to Rob Edwards for this Friends Of The Earth Europe video: