Fish Fight

I'm not much of a fan of fish.

I don't like eating them, I quickly get bored of looking at them, and I don't see the point of keeping them as pets. After all, aren't pets supposed to return your love for them, rather than just be an ornament?

As for fishermen, I'm perhaps going to speak out of turn here when I admit that they've always struck me as complaining, greedy idiots. Greedy idiots because they are scraping the seas clean of all the fish in them, and complainers because they are always moaning that they are being prevented from taking as much fish as they want.

That is perhaps a bit harsh on them, after all they are trying to make a living in a harsh environment, which they wouldn't be doing if there wasn't a consumer demand to be met.

More than fishermen, though, I despise fish farmers. But that's a whole different story.

In January, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is starting a new campaign called Fish Fight in which he is attempting to get the EU to change their mind about "discarding", the practice of throwing back any fish caught which does not meet the quota. The problem is that the fish are already dead, so we are literally throwing away food.

There's a campaign site where you can sign a letter to the EU Commissioner and there will be a TV series in the next few weeks.

Here's a video promoting the campaign:



Of course, the real solution to the problem is for us not to consume so much fish in the first place. But that's just crazy talk, isn't it?

Save 100%

Photo by jenny downing

I don't get shopping in general, but I particularly don't get Boxing Day Sales.

People queueing at 4am on the day after Christmas, when they should be sleeping off their overindulgence of food and alcohol. Grabbing clothes off rails regardless of size or even whether they like it. The frenzy that comes with the thought that no one else must have what you covet, and you will do anything to get your hands on it. Fist-fights breaking out over a pair of trousers that you will wear once then decide you can't ever wear again because it's last year's fashion (which is why they're in the sale anyway). And for that matter, the stupidity of fashion "seasons" which render clothes obsolete within 6 months.

Like I said, I don't get it.

There was a phone-in on Five Live this morning which also had BBC reporters around the country interviewing retailers and shoppers.

The retailers were bigging it all up, saying how wonderful they were being to the population by discounting their goods so much at this difficult time.

The shoppers were for the most part falling for it, proclaiming wide-eyed how much they had saved - not realising that in order to save lots, you have to spend lots. My jaw hit the floor at one woman who had bought some new bedding, as she explained how she replaces all of her bedding every year. For the love of god, why?

The phone-in folks were better value for money. The reason they had time to phone in to a radio show was because they weren't at the shops. They were, for the most part, calling the bargain-hunters fools.

One man had a good rant about materialistic consumerism, another woman had a go about the planet's finite resources and don't we have enough Stuff already.

But the comment of the morning belonged to another woman who sighed a lot:

"We spend Christmas Day receiving loads of presents and then less than 24 hours later we go mad trying to buy even more unnecessary crap. Aren't the presents enough?"

For myself, I saved 100% - I didn't buy anything.

Photo by Plutor

Green In The Media 27th December - 2nd January

Monday 27th December

Chop Shop: London Garage
On: Quest
Time: 21:00 to 22:00
Angry Frog.
Eco-sceptic Bernie is happy to recycle if it means he makes more money - but can this amputated Pajero fulfil Leepu's design ambitions and really run on used curry oil?

Tuesday 28th December

Farming Today
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 05:45 to 06:00
Extreme winter weather threatens the crop at an organic vegetable farm in Warrington. Caz Graham learns how they keep their box scheme running when veg is frozen into the ground.

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

Thursday 30th December

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 1st January

Our World
On: BBC News
Time: 05:30 to 06:00 (Also 1430, 0330, Sun 1030, 1430)
Alaska - After the Spill.
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reawakened painful memories for people who lived through what was America's worst spill - until now - in the once-bountiful waters of southern Alaska. Rajesh Mirchandani reports.


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

A Quarter Of Scotland's Power Now From Renewables

Photo by eidoloon

Let's march into Christmas with some festive cheer: Scotland produced 27% of it's electricity from renewable sources in 2009, according to new figures.

That's over a quarter of our power from wind and hydro sources.

Even better in my mind, energy consumption dropped at the same time.

Okay, it was only 4% and it was during a recession, but energy conservation is the often-overlooked low-hanging fruit in the future power conundrum.

So it's a win-win to enter the season of goodwill to all men*!


(*Exceptions apply. Mainly to coal companies)

Green In The Media 20th - 26th December

As we enter the holiday season, blogging will be slow to non-existent. Enjoy the food, wine and partying!


Monday 20th December

The Material World
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30
2010 has been a year of disasters: floods, wild fires, volcanoes, earthquakes and a record-breaking oil spill. Material World has time and again been reporting on some of the disasters that have struck over the year. As earth scientists gather at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco to review their data from each event, Quentin Cooper asks how science helped and what the lessons are for the future.

Tuesday 21st December

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

Wednesday 22nd December

Nanoparticles
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130, Sat 1330)
Nanoparticles are all around us. What effect could they be having on our environment?

Supermarkets: What Price Cheap Food?
On: BBC 1
Time: 21:00 to 22:00
In a Panorama Special, reporter Paul Kenyon looks behind the special offers to examine the true cost of Britain's cheap food, asking how the leading supermarket chains can afford to keep expanding and slashing food prices in the middle of a global recession. Paul visits the mega-farms coming our way from the United States, and Panorama carries out pioneering scientific research to discover whether 'Made in Britain' always means what it says.

Thursday 23rd December

One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 0230, 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.tv/?p=1&r=20818
Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

The Week In Green Numbers

4,100

- pedestrians killed in the US by cars in 2009 #

60%

- drop in Alberta's caribou numbers in the last century #

3,000

- electric cars being deployed on the streets of Paris in a car-hire scheme #

£3

- cost added to a turkey this year by the high price of animal feed #

£150 million

- how much the government spends each year to clean chewing gum off the streets #

uSwitch Your Mindset

Photo by Brian Forbes

There was a bit of scaremongering today from a price-comparison site about the future of electricity prices.

UK Energy Minister Chris Huhne announced that the price of low-carbon energy would be guaranteed, and this bizarrely prompted uSwitch to declare that the average household would pay £500 more per year for their power.

If energy generation from renewables is to grow, it does, of course, need a bit of a kick start to bring prices into the realms of the profitable for the companies concerned. As the price of oil increases (it's creeping back towards $100 a barrel at the moment) then renewable energy is more and more affordable.

But you don't hear uSwitch expressing shock and horror that the future price of oil might add £500 to a household's bill.

Last week, I got a letter from Scottish Power informing me that they were putting up the cost of electricity by 8.9%, and gas by 2%.

I doubt they'd get away with sending a future letter saying they'd have to increase the price of electricity because the cost of the wind blowing has increased.

But then, a steady electricity price isn't in uSwitch's interests, is it?

I'm Dreaming Of A White Elephant

Photo by cybernoelie

The Scottish Parliament have just approved the Forth Crossing Bill, paving the way for a new, unnecessary bridge across the River Forth from Edinburgh to Fife.

Chicken Little, in the form of the First Minister Alex Salmond, has been running around telling anyone who will listen "The bridge is falling down! The bridge is falling down!"

It's an exaggeration of course, although there have been many exaggerations in the debate over the current bridge. A fake time-limit has been imposed, although no one can say what that time-limit is - only that the new bridge must be started next year otherwise there will be "dire consequences".

In fact, the cables on the existing bridge could be replaced for just £122 million. The new bridge will cost £2 billion - the most expensive bridge in the world.The Scottish Greens, along with others, have referred the whole project to the Auditor General.

Knowing how large capital infrastructure projects go in Scotland, this will be a complete nightmare that will cost more than the projected £2 billion and take many, many years.

An Incinerator By Any Other Name Would Smell As Foul

Photo by Ole Poulson

Viridor have finally got their approval for a new super-incinerator in Dunbar, east of Edinburgh.

Having been rejected by East Lothian Council last year on environmental grounds, it has now been approved by the Scottish Government...on environmental grounds!

Naturally, Viridor are greenwashing the entire project - aided and abetted by the BBC who seem to reprint their press release without looking much into the details. In fact, in the BBC report you won't read the word "incinerator", you'll only see the name that Viridor gives it: "a waste-to-energy plant".

Incinerators create a fifteen-mile fallout zone, causing a 480% increase in cancer rates and shortening lifespans in the area by 20 years.

If that's not bad enough (and it would appear it's not), the beast will need feeding. Once it's going, Viridor has an incentive not to recycle, and in fact to work against and lobby against recycling. Edinburgh's main landfill operator will be wanting Edinburgh to increase the amount of waste it produces.

And Edinburgh will be able to claim that it sends less and less waste to landfill.

Which will be, well, rubbish.

Beaker Breaks And Goes

So Scotland managed to lose its Transport and Climate Change Minister over the weekend. We found two replacements behind the sofa cushions.

Like a few others, I had great fun on twitter on Monday night taking the mickey out of Stewart Stevenson's performance on Newsnight Scotland. He was a bit hapless in trying to defend his department from the charges that they'd done absolutely nothing about a heavy snowfall on Monday morning.

As much as I enjoyed seeing his discomfort, I wasn't actually all that angry at him or the government. In fact, I wasn't angry at all. I was just having a bit of fun.

On Monday, I was supposed to drive to Perthshire so on Sunday night I checked the Transport Scotland website. They were warning of Heavy Snow falling on Ice, making for hazardous driving conditions. I checked the BBC Weather website. Sure enough, they were also forecasting Heavy Snow. I decided not to travel.

So given that Transport Scotland had actually forecast the heavy snow that brought the country to a halt, why did Stevenson take so much flak?

Well, it's one thing forecasting it, and it's another thing doing anything about it. The public perceived that they weren't warned that they might spend two days stuck on the motorway, so that must be someone's fault. And it's definitely not the fault of the poor, maligned motorist, because obviously they had all done what I had done and checked out Transport Scotland's website. Hadn't they?

But Stevenson's performance on Newsnight was woeful, and the opposition parties smelt blood. By Saturday he was gone, and his portfolio has been split between two others.




Keith Brown, a man I've never heard of, has taken over at Transport. He used to be a marine, so that has given the newspapers much fun about him being parachuted in to marshal the troops.















Climate Change is now the responsibility of Roseanna Cunningham. I've always found her a wee bit scary, but I've really no idea why. Some people you take to, some you don't, and I've never taken to her.






Whether they remain in those posts after the elections in May, we'll have to wait and see. Before then, Cunningham has to come up with a plan for Scotland to reduce it's emissions, something that Stevenson failed to do with any conviction.

Green In The Media 13th - 19th December

Tuesday 14th December

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

Wednesday 15th December

Nanoparticles
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130)
Nanoparticles are all around us. What effect could they be having on our environment?

Thursday 16th December

Live Energy and Climate Change Questions
On: BBC Parliament
Time: 10:30 to 11:30 (Also 0100)
Live coverage of questions in the House of Commons to Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne and his team of ministers.

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.tv/?p=1&r=20818
Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

Diagnosis: Murder

Photo by D'Arcy Norman

Picture the scene:

You're lying in a hospital bed. White coats surround you, a phalanx of consultants who are all discussing amongst themselves how best to help you. A few nurses fuss over you as they hook up IV drips and check monitoring equipment.

Finally, the consultants stand back.

"What's the diagnosis, Doc?" you croak

"Well," says one of the consultants, "you're definitely sick."

You look quizzically at him. "Yes, I know that, but what are you going to do about it?"

The consultants look at each other, then look at the floor and refuse to make eye contact with you.

"We have done something about it. We've agreed you're sick."

"So that's all you're going to do for me?"

"Well, yes. And you should be bloody grateful for it, too."


Apparently a "deal" has been reached at Cancún. The world has agreed that the planet is sick, and that they should do something about it.

This, we're told, should be celebrated as progress.

The Week In Green Numbers

500GW

- power generated by renewables in China by 2020 #

350,000

- people who die due to climate change each year #

60%

- reduction in orchards in the UK since the 1950s #

4,300

- deaths in London every year from poor air quality #

48 million tons

- plastic waste in the US every year #

300 Years Of Fossil Fuels In 300 Seconds

Love this video:

Oil Transfers Banned In Scottish Waters

Photo by Peter Kaminski

I think I've told the story before, but back in a former life I worked on the Jetties at Grangemouth Oil refinery.

My office was about 20 yards from one of the docks, with ships coming and going constantly, the bow thrusters churning the water right outside my window.

There are two things that stick in my memory from those days.

The first is the Russians. They were still the rather exotic Soviet Union in those days, and their ships would come in and offload their cargo. The sailors would then walk around the car park, and if they fancied the look of your car they would offer you cash to take it there and then. They couldn't afford the more high-end cars, obviously, but it was a good way for the staff (and their friends!) to get rid of some rustbuckets. The Soviet ships would head back to the Baltic with 20-30 cars strapped to their decks.

The other thing I remember is the water. The workers on the site used to joke that if you fell into the Forth, you wouldn't survive 30 seconds. Not because of the cold, but because of all the crap that was in there. Oil tankers aren't exactly clean beasts, and when you add spillages from them to the chemicals that would come off the site and the general detritus that accumulates around a port, the water was incredibly filthy. I always wondered just what those bow thrusters were churning up.

So I'm very pleased to see that ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Forth have been ruled out by the government. They're being restricted to just one place in UK waters, and I think even that is one place too many.

A massive oil spill in the Forth would have been devastating. The chances have been dramatically diminished by the removal of the threat of ship-to-ship transfers.

Where Is Everyone Going?

Photo by Lingaraj GJ

One of the questions I regularly get asked on the trains, and which always stumps me for an answer, is "Why are so many people travelling today?"

Quite memorably, this was asked of me by a man with a Newcastle United scarf around his neck. The train was full of Newcastle United fans, all wearing scarves and tops. Newcastle United were playing at home that day. The train was travelling to Newcastle. "Why are so many people on the train today?" the guy asked me.

People seem to believe that they have the only legitimate reason for travelling anywhere. It's the same on the roads, drivers seem to think that the road should be completely clear except for them.

We've seen this in Scotland in the last fortnight with the large snowfalls causing what the newspapers call "chaos and misery" on the roads. One guy was filmed indignantly standing next to his abandoned car, saying "They've known about this since last Wednesday!" Well, yes, mate, but you've known about it since last Wednesday as well and you still tried to drive to Inverness!

A billboard has appeared around Edinburgh lately advertising a SatNav system. Maybe a few drivers will read it and have a change of mindset. The advert says simply:

You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic

The Definition Of Idiocy

Photo by David Spender via Wikimedia Commons

This from the file marked "Belief Beggared".

Chris Huhne, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, is considering flying back to the UK from the climate summit in Cancún, Mexico, to vote on tuition fees in the House of Commons.

Then he will fly back to Mexico.

That's a round-trip of 11,000 miles just to pass through a doorway.

By someone who is negotiating to reduce carbon emissions.

I think this goes beyond despairing. This is into the realms of Suitably Raging.

Trump Sued For Fraud And Racketeering

It seems that The Donald wants to be seen as the sole rescuer of the North East economy in Scotland.

He's opposing a new offshore windfarm development which would be seen from his golf course, and therefore the jobs which would be created by it.

He obviously doesn't want any of his golfers to think of Scotland as anything other than a windswept romantic backwater which allowed Trump to build a shrine to himself. Keep that nasty 21st Century away, please, this is Brigadoon!

Meanwhile, over in America, Trump is being sued by 33 investors for fraud and racketeering after a development in Panama turned out to be less than was promised.

You can read the story here, but basically the Trump organisation withdrew the offer of financing after the investors had put in part of the money, the apartments were smaller than promised, a beach club was moved and a casino never built.

How much will the development at Menie look like the original plans, I wonder?

The End Of The American Dream?

Photo by zaphodsotherhead

I was talking to someone the other week about American politics, and I said that I felt like we were nearing the end of US political dominance of the world.

I deliberately made a distinction from cultural dominance - our shared language and all of Hollywood's money means that our cinemas and TVs will always be filled with US products, but I can feel a shift in the world's politics.

At what point did it start? You could argue that the end of the Soviet Union also signalled the end of America as a political force. The US increasingly retreated from world politics (barring a little sojourn into Kosovo) throughout the 90s. When 9/11 happened, the world expressed its shock and horror but precious few countries were willing to commit troops to a fight in Afghanistan. Even fewer wanted to know about Iraq.

America discovered that without the threat of the Soviet Union hanging over other countries, the Western world felt that they owed America nothing. The US was no longer the protector. Worse, with increasing globalisation, it was starting to be seen as the bully and aggressor.

Add to this the political views on climate change. It's now a forbidden subject in US politics. If you want to get elected, you either can't mention it or you campaign denying the science. The rest of the world is looking on aghast, and telling the US to "get out of the way".

As they are overtaken in the pollution stakes by China, the US are being seen as an irritating irrelevance at climate talks. The smaller nations, particularly in Africa, owe more to China and India than they do to the US.

And it's not just politics. Big business and innovation is increasingly heading East. The US are stuck with the mentality that they have to bow to whatever Big Business says, the same Big Business that builds huge cars that no one can afford to run and blasts the tops off of mountains because it's easier than tunnelling.

Perhaps it's not surprising that US politics is failing when the politicians are all in the pocket of the same Big Business.

Here's a video of Dr Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, saying much the same thing about

America's declining competitive edge in critical new technologies, including those that will power the industrial revolution of the new century - energy efficiency, and renewable, low carbon energy production.

Green In The Media 6th - 12th December

Tuesday 7th December

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

Thursday 9th December

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 Caroline Spelman and her ministerial team.

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

Friday 10th December

Horizon
On: BBC 1
Time: 01:55 to 02:55
The Death of the Oceans?.
Sir David Attenborough reveals the findings of one of the most ambitious scientific studies of our time - an investigation into what is happening to our oceans. He looks at whether it is too late to save their remarkable biodiversity. Horizon travels from the cold waters of the North Atlantic to the tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef to meet the scientists who are transforming our understanding of this unique habitat. Attenborough explores some of the ways in which we are affecting marine life - from over-fishing to the acidification of sea water. The film also uncovers the disturbing story of how shipping noise is deafening whales and dolphins, affecting their survival in the future. (Signed)


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

2,509 square miles

- area of Amazon rainforest deforested last year, the lowest level ever recorded #

100 billion

- number of plastic bags saved by China imposing a charge on them #

7,000

- number of jobs created when Kenya imposed a 40% export tax on leather raw materials, which the EU wants them to get rid of #

200,000

- number of people expected to attend an Eco-Products exhibition in Japan #

$2 billion

- what Russia is about to spend to clean up space junk. Or that's what they claim the "pod" is for. But anyone who has seen 'You Only Live Twice' will know different #

Warmest And Coldest

Photo by Dale Harvey

Look out your window. That's the sight of the warmest year on record. It's also the sight of the coldest year since 1996.

The Met Office say that 2010 has been the coldest year in Britain since 1996. It's easy to believe when you're knee-deep in the second major snow-fall of the year.

But globally, it's also the hottest year since measurements began. Several parts of the planet experienced record high temperatures, and while Britain has frozen others are wondering where their winter weather has disappeared to.

Experiencing climate is such a localised phenomenon that it's hard to convey to others what different weather feels like. Stand outside in the current snow and try to imagine lying half-naked on a beach in the Caribbean - bet you can't!

That's the reason it's so hard to get people to "believe" in global warming. They hear the word "warming", look out the window, put on an extra jumper, and decide you're talking pish.

I'm sure the people of the Maldives won't have much trouble understanding the science.