Kicking Arse

Stewart Stevenson - Climate Change Minister

On Friday I had one of those days where a week of early shifts and 4 hours sleep every night finally caught up with me. In fact, after I got home from work on Friday afternoon I can't remember much of the rest of the day at all!

So now that I've got the excuse out of the way, here's the major news that I should have commented on last Friday - the Scottish government were defeated in parliament on their CO₂ emissions targets!

If you recall, the year-old Climate Change Act calls for a 42% reduction in emissions by 2020. The government decided that the best way to achieve that was by reducing emissions this year by just 0.5%. Followed by a similar small cut next year.

Clearly ludicrous, and the parliament agreed, so the government had it's collective bottom spanked and was sent home to think again.

Unfortunately there was some wilful misreporting of the outcome, with even the BBC getting in on the act at one point. They were saying that the emissions reductions were rejected, without saying that they were rejected for being inadequate.

This led at least one blogger I read to crow about the parliament having seen through the climate change "façade" and rejecting the whole legislation.

There's not a lot can be done about how a news organisation spins a story. There is, however, a lot that can be done about reducing those CO₂ emissions and hopefully the government will finally get its head in the game.

Green In The Media 31st May - 6th June

It's the return of Springwatch, Monday to Thursday at 8pm. Although I think they've missed Spring somewhat...

Tuesday 1st June

The Reith Lectures 2010
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 09:00 to 09:45 (Also Sat 2215)
The Scientific Citizen. Episode 1.
Scientific Horizons: Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, Master of Trinity College and Astronomer Royal, delivers four lectures exploring the challenges facing science in the 21st century. We are increasingly turning to government and the media to explain the risks we face. But in the wake of public confusion over issues like climate change, the swine 'flu vaccine and, more recently, Iceland's volcanic ash cloud, Martin Rees calls on scientists to come forward and play a greater role in helping us understand the science that affects us all.

Thursday 3rd June

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130, Sun 0630)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.

Sunday 6th June

Eco Solutions
On: CNN
Time: 23:30 to 00:00
Eco Solutions gives the viewer a unique peek into the situations that plague our planet and proposes real solutions to help us understand why we should make a change.


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

104%

- increase in fuel efficiency of US freight trains since 1980 #

35, 894.01 kg

- amount of CO₂ that Leithers have saved #

36 hours

- time it took for the Scottish Boiler Scrappage Scheme to run out of money #

17%

- proportion of honey bee colonies in the UK that didn't survive the winter #

$1 billion and rising

- cost of the clean-up operation in the Gulf of Mexico after the oil "spill" #

Bridge Over Troubled Voters

Photo by !Laurin

There's idiocy, and there's sheer bloody-mindedness.

And when it comes to the Forth Road Bridge 2, there's both.

Parliament yesterday backed the new bridge despite evidence that the existing bridge can be repaired and that the good people of Fife don't want it.

Not only that, but we also discovered yesterday that the Scottish budget is to be cut by £2 billion. Guess how much the new bridge will cost?

So we'll basically have to find £4 billion from somewhere, just to have more cars on the road.

SNP Tactical Voting does a better assessment of the politics behind it all than I could, but I'm increasingly of the opinion that this white elephant will never be built. The government will realise that we can't afford it and they'll announce a 'miracle cure' for the existing bridge, getting them out of an increasingly unsustainable position.

Won't they?

Trump Bunkered

Quite what Donald Trump was doing in Scotland yesterday wasn't exactly made clear to the media. Officially, The Donald & Son were here to see how their luxury golf course was coming on. But since there's not a lot to see there yet, it sounded more like a self-publicity exercise. Particularly since the Trump Organisation sent out time-embargoed press releases the day before.

But when The Donald did finally arrive, he got a wee bit more than he bargained for - some new neighbours.

Tripping Up Trump has taken Greenpeace's Airplot idea and transplanted it to the North East of Scotland. They've bought an acre of land on the site of the proposed golf course and are planning to divvy it up amongst as many people as possible, thereby making any legal moves at eviction a right pain in the ass for both Trump and Aberdeenshire Council.

You can sign up to be a part of The Bunker here, and here's a short video explaining it:

the Bunker - one of Menie from Adam Proctor on Vimeo.

Station Enhancements Cancelled

Remember that list of the 10 worst stations in Britain that was published last November?

They were:

1. Manchester Victoria

2. Clapham Junction

3. Crewe

4. Warrington Bank Quay

5. Barking

6. Preston

7. Wigan North Western

8. Luton

9. Liverpool Central

10. Stockport

    
    

The former government promised money to upgrade them. I, rather uncharitably, suggested that some of them could be improved with a tactical nuclear strike.

The new government, though, has decided that either option is far too expensive. The improvement programme has been cancelled as the Department for Transport tries to handle their £683 million budget cut.

What will be next for the chopping block?

MidgeWatch

Photo by a very brave Stefan Berkner

In my early teens, the family went away for what was to be a pleasant week-long stay in a caravan in Lochgoilhead, in the west of Scotland.

We arrived midday to find beautiful scenery next to a stunning loch, with barely a sound of civilisation to be heard beyond the caravan site.

Then early evening arrived, along with the midges. I've never known terror like it. Even the dog refused to go outside. The swarms descended on the lochside in a cloud so thick you could barely see 100 yards. They discovered every nook and cranny that could get them into the caravan. If you killed one, three more would spring up in it's place.

Despite sprays, HazMat suits and all the latest 1980's hi-tech, we discovered that the only thing that kept them at bay was my dad's pipe smoke. It's possibly the only time in history that kids have begged their parent to smoke more as they clung on to his torso for dear life.

We lasted just two nights in Lochgoilhead before heading for home covered in antihistamine cream.

Midges are the wildlife equivalent of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Indeed, instead of spending all that money on Trident, the government should take all of our enemies to Argyll for a night and then threaten to unleash the midge on their country if they even think about threatening us. Ahmadinejad would be a member of Greenpeace before you could blink.

Rather than fight back against the midge, we've now developed the tactic of running away, and that seems to be the idea behind a new iPhone App. Identify where the midges are, and stay away. It'll do sod-all for the tourist industry of Scotland, but at least we'll be spared the yearly ritual of finding children's skeletons picked clean, lying where they were abandoned by their parents during the family holiday the month before.

(Incidentally, how many times did you scratch while reading this?)

The Berwick Blues (& Twos)

Photo by Jon Evans

On Saturday I had a family of nine on my train - Mum & Dad, five kids and two grandparents - all heading off on holiday together. A couple of caravans next to a beach and a week of relaxation, perfect!

Except there was a slight problem. Half of them had tickets to North Berwick, and half of them had tickets to Berwick-upon-Tweed. If you don't know the geography of South-Eastern Scotland, there is 35 miles between the two places.

Indeed, Berwick-upon-Tweed is in England.

It transpired that Parents and Grandparents had booked their caravans separately, using only the word "Berwick". The Grandparents had therefore booked North Berwick, the Parents had gone with Berwick-upon-Tweed. As the realisation dawned on them, I decided to creep away quietly.

It's not the first time I've come across the confusion. A couple of months back I had to call the British Transport Police (BTP). They have centralised their call centre in London, so instead of ringing the local bobbies we now have to phone a dispatcher 500 miles away. As my next stop was Berwick-upon-Tweed, I told her that's where I wanted the police to attend the train. (Incidentally, there are no BTP officers in Berwick, they have to rely on Northumbria Police).

After a 3 minute phone call relaying all the necessary details, the call centre operator said back to me: "Okay, the police will meet you in Berwick, Dorset in 10 minutes"...then hung up the phone.

Despite the occasional call-centre snafu, the BTP are for the most part very good at their jobs. They've had a budget boost recently and a new pro-active Chief Constable, and it reflects in the new statistics showing that crime on the railways has dropped 7.3%.

The only crime that has increased are sexual offences, by 0.7%. I wonder if this is because there has been a culture change and more people feel they can report it now?

One other surprising line from the RailNews article -

“Research from Passenger Focus shows that young men under 26 are most concerned [about travelling at night]...

They are, apparently, the most likely to be assaulted, so perhaps I should begin keeping an eye out for them on my night-time trains as well as the lone women?

Government Emissions On The Up

As the Scottish Government prepares for a stooshie in the parliament this week over the country's CO₂ emissions targets, they've released their annual report (for 2008/09) on the environmental impact of the government itself.

And oh dear, they're in a bit of a mess.

Total emissions from energy use are up 2.5%.

Total emissions from transport have barely changed.

Water consumption has increased.

So what excuses have the government given? Well, they're upgrading the lighting in a fairly new building - Victoria Quay - and so needed to use more energy at night and weekends when the work was taking place. I have to admit I've never set foot in the building but given how new it is, why did they need to upgrade the lighting? I know from my own experience that a simple thing like leaving a computer on has a dramatic influence on my power use, but still, it does sound like a poor excuse.

As for transport, that's the fault of the English. You see, those devious buggers at Westminster changed how to calculate the emissions figures, increasing the amount of CO₂ that a flight actually produces to make it more realistic, so that's why there's barely a change. It has absolutely nothing to do with the nearly 5 million miles that government employees flew in the year.

Oh yeah, and please don't notice that car use increased by 6%.

But it's easy to take the piss out of what they've got wrong - what about the things they're getting right? The things they're on target to achieve?

The obvious figure to look out for as far as I'm concerned is the rail usage, which has increased 6%. Waste reduction, too, looks like it will be on target with a current recycling rate of 73%.

You can read the report here in pdf format, but unfortunately for the government the overall feel of it is negative - and it's those total energy use figures and air miles figures which drag the rest of the programme down.

It will be interesting to see next year's figures as the recession bites and government employee numbers fall.

Green In The Media 24th - 30th May

In the week of the state opening of parliament, James Lovelock argues that our political system has failed climate change and therefore we should get rid of democracy.

This would, of course, put David Dimbleby out of a job.


Monday 24th May

Analysis
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 20:30 to 21:00 (Also Sun 2130)
Doomed by Democracy?.
Governments might legitimately exercise emergency powers in wartime so, argues Prof James Lovelock, they should have similar powers to deal with the threat of global warming - even if that means abandoning democracy. The BBC's 'Ethical Man' Justin Rowlatt asks if Prof Lovelock is right to be so pessimistic about democratic societies' ability to act in the interests of future generations.

Wednesday 26th May

Moments of Genius
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 12:53 to 12:57
Britain's fist Green MP Caroline Lucas describes her favourite moment in the history of science: the invention of the contraceptive pill.

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
Today the Ganges is a filthy shadow of its former majesty but all that is about to change, with the World Bank lending the Indian government 1.5 billion dollars to help clean the river. But it is ten times the length of the Thames and many argue that its distance from the sea and its proximity to so many fast-growing cities, as well as India's lack of a sewage system, means that it is an impossible task. Efforts to clean up the Ganges tributary, the Yamuna, have failed, and scientists argue that more money is needed to expand treatment plants in Lucknow, Allahabad and Kanpur. But first sewage needs to reach these plants. Some argue that water management is the source of the problem and that this is where money should be spent. Climate change and dam building are drying up the river at its source and they argue the only way to clean it is to increase the flow of clean supply. Tom Heap travels the banks of the river to find out if the Holy Ganges can be saved.

Thursday 27th May

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130, Sun 0630)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.

Saturday 29th May

Eco Solutions
On: CNN
Time: 23:30 to 00:00
Eco Solutions gives the viewer a unique peek into the situations that plague our planet and proposes real solutions to help us understand why we should make a change.


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

8,100

- number of cows which were to be held at the so-called "super scary dairy" in Lincolnshire, never seeing grass and being milked 24/7 on a shift basis. The plans have been withdrawn #

£22 billion

- amount that the National Grid is spending over the next 5 years to modernise it's infrastructure #

320,000 tonnes

- amount of palm oil that Nestle uses every year. They have now agreed to source it sustainably #

500,000 tonnes

- amount of palm oil that the UK and Germany use in biofuels every year #

£1 billion

- profit that steelmaker ArcelorMittal could make from selling it's surplus Emissions Permits #

Scotland Set For £14 Billion Wind, Wave & Tide-Fall

An independent report released yesterday claims that Scotland could be sitting on a goldmine when it comes to offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

The Offshore Valuation Study estimates the potential for 206 GW. Harnessing just a third of that would earn the country £14 billion.

It's important that these figures come from an independent study. Perhaps those naysayers and doubters will find the potential income and jobs boost - 145,000 jobs, the report says - a bit of an eye-opener.

Scotland is well placed both technologically and geographically to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies.

And talking of which, here's a photo of the next-generation Pelamis machine actually in the water, I assume in Leith, taken by @JamiePolitics:

Sent Homewards Tae Think Again

Last month I wrote a post entitled "The Absence Of Shame" after the Scottish Government decided to try and wriggle their way out of their own carbon emissions reductions targets.

The country is committed to 42% reductions by 2020, but the Scottish Government proposed giving themselves a target of just 0.5% this year and next.

It was shameful and unjustifiable, no matter how much bluster Alex Salmond could muster in Parliament.

Yesterday, the government were sent homeward to think again. Led by Patrick Harvie, the Climate Change Committee rejected the government's proposals and they now have just two weeks left to either come up with a new plan or try and get their proposals through the full parliament.

The cynical part of me thinks that this is exactly what they will try, so that they can turn around later and say that they have tried to tackle climate change but the parliament willnae let them.

The optimistic part of me hopes that they can come up with a proper plan to reduce emissions adequately over the next two years.

I've said it before - the fact that the targets will be hard to achieve doesn't mean that you shouldn't attempt to achieve them. Being scared of failure (and the negative headlines) will mean you never strive to succeed.

And god help me, I'm starting to sound like an American Life Guru!

Wildlife To Get Escape Hatch

I watched the Springwatch Special last night (you can see it on the iPlayer here) which looked at the impacts of climate change on our wildlife. Part of the programme dealt with the issue of Britain's tendency to isolate nature reserves.

It was brought home by the story of a butterfly which conservationists tried to reintroduce to England back in the 1970s. They decided that a particular nature reserve was the ideal place for it, but they failed miserably. An aerial shot of the reserve showed why - it was only a couple of acres surrounded by farmland. An oasis in the desert which suffered every time the surrounding farmers drained their land.

Wildlife corridors would help - escape routes that our flora and fauna could escape through in times of crisis. And that's exactly what has been proposed for Scotland today. The Forestry Commission and Scottish Natural Heritage want to turn the whole of Central Scotland into one big wildlife corridor. The scheme would see everyone living in the area within 1000 feet of some greenery.

The plan is still at an embryonic stage, but it doesn't quite square with Edinburgh Council's plans to expand ever-westward, swallowing up the green belt as it goes. Perhaps someone should tell them to finish off building on the city's brownfield sites first?

The New Routemaster

I don't often visit London...in fact, scratch that sentence. I haven't been to London in 10 years, but I've been keeping an eye on the kerfuffle over Boris's Buses.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor, promised to get rid of the much-loathed bendy-bus and replace it with brand new Routemasters, those old iconic statesman-like buses with the open platform at the back.

I'm sure they were much beloved by those who rode them daily in London, but personally I don't see what all the fuss is about. The only time I was on one was when Kelvin Scottish bought some to trawl the streets of Glasgow. They were quietly binned after a while.

(And believe it or not, one of my colleagues owns this monstrosity!):

But how do you update the Routemaster design without losing some of the iconic features? Well, as it turns out, you don't. You design a bus with three doors, keep the back door open, and pass it off as a Routemaster. 853 goes into more detail but is similarly unimpressed.



Still, anything that gets more people using public transport is a good thing in my book, so hopefully it will get a couple of people out of their cars.

Green In The Media 17th - 23rd May

Springwatch will be back on 31st May (Spring? In June??), but in the meantime there's a special programme on Monday looking at nature and climate change.

Also, since it's not strictly "green" I haven't listed it below, but Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story gets an airing on Channel 4 next Saturday.

Monday 17th May

Springwatch
On: BBC 2
Time: 20:00 to 21:00
Signs of Change with Chris Packham.
Chris Packham shows us how changes in nature around us provide solid proof that climate change is already happening. Some of the most powerful data has come from amateur naturalists and recorders. Chris investigates what climate change means for UK plants and animals and predicts the winners and the losers.

Tuesday 18th May

The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion
On: BBC 2
Time: 21:00 to 22:00
Can We Have Unlimited Power?.
This film tells the story of how power has been harnessed from wind, steam, and from inside the atom. In the early years the drive for new sources of power was led by practical men who wanted to make money. Their inventions and ideas created fortunes and changed the course of history. It took centuries for science to catch up, to explain what power is, rather than simply what it does. This search revealed fundamental laws of nature, which apply across the universe.

Wednesday 19th May

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
Rare Earth Elements are vital to our electronic goods and green technologies. They are mined in China, which is threatening to cut off supply. Tom Heap searches for solutions to the looming crisis.

Thursday 20th May

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130, Sun 0630, 2330)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.


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

70,000 barrels a day

- new estimate of the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico #

20% - 25%

- global electricity demand that could be met by solar energy by 2050 #

52%

- increase in North Sea Cod numbers in 4 years after conservation measures were introduced #

9%

- increase in the amount of organic farmland in the UK last year

3 minutes

- length of time it rained at the North Pole in April. Rain this early in the year is completely unheard of #

Here's Our New Transport Secretary - God Help Us

Philip Hammond has been confirmed as our new Transport Secretary - and it doesn't look good for the railways, or for public transport in general.

To be honest, a Tory government was never going to be good for the railways anyway. Theresa Villiers had already stated that no rail project was secure, and Hammond himself keeps issuing the dreaded phrase "value for money".

It should be blindingly obvious from their botched privatisation of the rail network in the 1990s that the railway is a particularly special case that can't really do "value for money" on most of it's plans. And it shouldn't have to.

The rail network is supposed to be there for the public good, not for private gain.

But, I thought, I'll give Philip Hammond a chance. After all, you can only judge a man by how he does in the job. My worst fears were confirmed, however, with his first public utterance as Transport Secretary:

"We will end the war on motorists"

What war on motorists? You mean the one that the AA and the RAC made up for their own self-interests?

Perhaps I'm wrong and it's actually Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond who is our new Transport Secretary?

Burn, Baby, Burn

Photo by Ole Poulson

Isn't it nice to have a government that tramples all over democracy?

No, I'm not talking about the newly-elected one in Westminster with it's 55% proposals, I'm talking about the Scottish one.

They've just ignored the local council in Invergordon and approved an incinerator there.

Despite Highland Council discussing it for eight hours and looking at it from every angle, before finally rejecting it, the Scottish Government have decided that they know better. This does not bode well for other plans for incinerators around the country.

So just what is wrong with incinerators? They provide power don't they, which is cleaner than coal?

Well, yes, but they also provide toxic pollutants with a 15 mile fallout zone. This is from an article in The Ecologist that I quoted back in 2007:

A new waste incinerator could create a 15-mile 'fallout zone' that would shorten people's lives by up to 12 years, according to a world authority. Dr Dick van Steenis, a retired GP and toxicology expert, has spent many years researching the damage to public health caused by incinerators.

Studying the proposed 'energy from waste' incinerator for Newhaven, Sussex, van Steenis has warned that, if built, its emissions will cause cancer rates to soar - causing a 480 per cent rise in cases within 20 years. It will also lead to 'sky-high' rates of infant mortality, asthma and autism, and heart attacks among the thousands of people living in a 15-mile radius of the plant.

As well as that, they also reduce the incentive for reuse and recycling programmes. If the council can make money from the incinerator, then feeding it more and more of our household rubbish is a must.

And here's another thing - the new Westminster government wants to implement the Calman Commission recommendations, one of which was to give the Scottish Government control over Landfill Tax. This gives the central government an incentive NOT to recycle and to encourage more waste, and therefore more tax. Councils will then do the quickest and cheapest thing to divert waste from the landfill sites - and that will be an incinerator.

Atmospheric CO2 Keeps Rising

If you've visited the site in the last couple of months, you may have noticed this small widget sitting on the sidebar:

It's pretty self-explanatory - it details the current CO₂ levels, updated every month.

With all the volcanic ash in the atmosphere disrupting airline flights across Europe, I've been waiting impatiently to see what effect this would have on the emissions data.

Would the emissions increase more slowly compared to previous years? Would we even see a small decrease? Would there be no effect at all?

Well I've crunched the numbers...oh, okay, I did the taking-away sums...and here's the answer:

In April 2008, CO₂ increased by 1.22 parts per million (ppm)

In April 2009, CO₂ increased by 0.69 ppm

In April 2010, CO₂ increased by 1.33 ppm

That's a larger increase than the previous two Aprils!

Of course it is the long-term trend that we should be keeping an eye on, but it does beg the question - just how big would the increase have been if flying had been normal?

Supporting Agriculture...With A Bra

Photo by Reuters

As Kermit almost sang, sometimes it's not easy keeping a straight face when you're green.

This is a bra made by Triumph International in which you can grow your own rice.

Let me say that again...this is a bra in which you can grow rice.

I'm sure Triumph is trying to make a serious message about agriculture and world food production, but I could hardly read the accompanying text for the tears streaming down my face.

Apparently each cup is a mini rice paddy.

I'm wondering...if you're flat-chested and only have "a couple of fried eggs" to fill the bra with, would you be able to make a tasty meal of egg-fired rice?

Third Runway Cancelled

Photo by jondoeforty1

We've had a new government for less than 24 hours, and despite not yet having a Secretary of State for Transport at the time of writing, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have gone ahead and done what they both promised they would do - they've cancelled the project to build a third runway at Heathrow!

Not only that, they've also announced that they will refuse permission to build additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.

I have to make it plain that I don't want this government and the thought of what they might do to our environment fills me with dread. But I'll allow them a small whoop for the runway decision...

...before the cynical part of me says "Yeah, but what about all the smaller airports?"

"Third World" Sewage Plant Causing More Of A Stink

Photo by esparta

Those poor Leithers are getting battered again.

Not content with fighting off absurd proposals for a Biomass plant in Leith Docks which would have to import the fuel from America (which, incidentally, they now have a Facebook campaign page for), they've been putting up with a sewage plant which emits noxious odours.

Indeed, it has gotten so bad that the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency has been looking into what was downplayed as an "intermittent odour". Leith Links Residents' Association calls it

a cloud of hydrogen sulphide – the smell of rotten eggs.

I wonder if the smell is worse in winter since the treatment is "less vigorous" then?

The Association has now got to the point where they are instructing lawyers to seek compensation for local residents and possibly banning the plant from emitting any noxious fumes.

There is a way they could get ongoing compensation, though, and it's perhaps something that they can look at if the biomass plant gets the go-ahead as well. I'm told that some residents in the Craigentinny area of Edinburgh get a reduction in their Council Tax to compensate them for the 24 hour noise from the railway depot there.

Could the good people of Leith be bribed into putting up with the smell of rotten eggs?

At The Next Turn, Slap Your Forehead

I was in Birmingham for a meeting last week, a city which I think has few charms. It seems to suffer from "Glasgow Disease" - it has a City Centre without having a centre to the city.

What do I mean by that? If you dropped a tourist outside New Street Station, they would have little to see or do other than shop. Similarly with Glasgow Central Station. But if you drop them outside Waverley Station in Edinburgh, they're immediately confronted by a bloody great castle and the feeling that they're at the heart of something they can go and explore and keep coming back to.
But I'm digressing. What has this to do with being green?

On my infrequent sojourns to Birmingham I rarely stay in the same hotel twice, so I've usually got my wanderings planned like a military operation - printouts of routes via Google Maps, depending on which exit from New St Station I take.

This time, though, I decided to save the paper. I have Google Maps on my phone - indeed, I have free SatNav on my phone courtesy of Google. Surely, then, there is no need to cut down a tree just so that I can find a hotel?

Things started to go wrong when I took the wrong exit from New Street Station. No matter, the SatNav can direct me back to where I want to be. Just load it up, type in the hotel name and voila, I'm being told to turn left in 100 yards!

Except, a mile or so later, the SatNav seems to be directing me onto a dual carriageway. Yup, it doesn't do walking. Why did I think it would?

So it's back to Google Maps to see where the hell I am in relation to the hotel, and it turns out I'm a mile in the opposite direction. Instead of back-street shortcuts and quiet alleyways, I've managed to wander around the main roads. The fastest way for a car, maybe.

I hesitate to confess, but it took me an hour to find the hotel - which is less than a mile from the station! Next time, sod being green - I'm printing a map and ditching the SatNav.

Photo by Tim Green aka atoach

Green In The Media 10th - 16th May

Slim pickings this week, but that's okay since the entire country will be glued to the news channels for the whole week anyway as we try to figure out who our next Prime Minister will be.

Tuesday 11th May

Home Planet
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 15:00 to 15:30
Richard Daniel and the team discuss listeners' questions about the natural world and our impact on it.

Wednesday 12th May

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
2009 was a disastrous year for anyone who believed urgent action was needed in the fight against climate change. Tom Heap meets the scientists who want to see a radical rethink, and asks if it's right to abandon all the efforts made over the last decade. Can we really save the planet without every major nation signed up to the same plan?

Thursday 13th May

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130, Sun 0630)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.


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

7%

- drop in US CO₂ from energy sources in 2009 #

55%

- amount of the logging in Indonesia which is done illegally #

169.5 MW

- size of the two windfarms that Google has invested in #

100 tonnes

- weight of the steel-and-concrete box which BP wants to put over an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico #

1,252

- majority of Caroline Lucas, the first ever Green Party MP #

A New Green Dawn Has Broken

Many congratulations are in order to our brethren in the Green Party of England & Wales in managing to get Caroline Lucas elected to Westminster. She becomes the first Green MP, something I never thought would happen with a First Past The Post electoral system.

It's quite clear that the system in use in Westminster has had it's day. It is barely democratic in a modern world, and I think we've seen in the last few weeks a 'popular uprising' against having a choice between just two big parties that doesn't represent the diversity of the whole of the UK.

In saying that, the Liberal Democrats have actually lost seats. It seems from my perspective that the electorate have panicked into voting for the big two despite proclaiming their desire to vote for something else. Only a reform of the voting system can give them the representation they seek.

As for Scotland, the seats have not changed since the 2005 election. I've thought about it, and the phrase "treading water" comes to mind. Have we reached a stage where the Westminster election is no longer so important to us, so we're willing to stick with the status quo? Was there just no appetite for change north of the border? Do we now see that London barely touches our lives on a day to day basis?

I'd like to think that we'd reached that stage, but the turnout figures belie that point. If Scotland didn't care much for Westminster any more then the people wouldn't bother themselves to vote.

Perhaps, then, there was a collective scream - as if millions of voices cried out as one and shouted "No Bloody Tories!"

Vote Early, Vote Often

Whatever your political persuasions, take five minutes out of your day to go and put a cross in a box.

Bank Holiday Bonanaza

I'm determined to get some fresh air today so I'm off to play outside.

In the meantime, here's a small distraction for you: Environmental Assessments of Star Wars Characters

Did you know that Han Solo has a high Carbonite footprint?

Green In The Media 3rd - 9th May

There's something political happening this Thursday which seems to be taking up all the schedules.

Monday 3rd May

The Monday Documentary
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 09:06 to 09:30 (Also 1300, 1500, 2000, 0100)
The Price of Biofuels.
Gerry Northam investigates biofuels.

Tuesday 4th May

Home Planet
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 15:00 to 15:30
Richard Daniel and the team discuss listeners' questions about the natural world and our impact on it.

Wednesday 5th May

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
With five per cent of the world's flora and fauna, Brazil's enormous Cerrado district is a rich mosaic of grass and woodland that is being destroyed at twice the speed of the Amazon rainforest. Tim Hirsch visits the Cerrado to hear from local people who are trying to save their land by making it pay. Ice creams flavoured with unusual Cerrado fruits and bird-watching holidays for British tourists may not be able to compete with large-scale farming, but locals hope they'll give the area the publicity it needs for real protection.

Thursday 6th May

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130, Sat 2030, Sun 0630)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.


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

6%

- proportion of it's total forest cover that the US lost 2000-2005 #

137 Gigatonnes

- loss of mass in the Greenland ice sheet in 2002 #

286 Gigatonnes

- loss of mass in the Greenland ice sheet in 2009 #

70%

- amount of freshwater available for human use that is used by agriculture #

210,000 gallons a day

- oil pumping into the Gulf of Mexico from a sunken oil rig, a week after it was claimed there was no leak #

18.89 kg of CO₂ per month

- carbon footprint of this blog, the equivalent of 83 bottles of beer! #