Black Cabs Do Not Equal Green Cabs

Photo by mrpattersonsir

The Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill was invited along by Central Taxis to unveil their new scheme for greener taxis today, as reported by the Guardian.

Except, for most of the taxi fleet they're not getting greener at all.

Central Taxis have decided to waste money by using a carbon-offsetting company, which they claim will "save" around 4,000 tones of CO₂ from the atmosphere. The carbon-offset company will be using Central Taxis money to capture methane gas from a coal mine in China.

Firstly, how does capturing methane save CO₂? They're different gases. I suspect either Central Taxis or the CarbonNeutral Company have fallen into the trap of using CO₂ as a shorthand for all greenhouse gases, when they really mean the equivalent of 4,000 tons of CO₂.

But that's a minor quibble.

My second point is that methane captured from coal mines is utilised elsewhere, and therefore reaches the atmosphere anyway. As in the UK, China uses captured methane to power energy generation plants as well as cooking appliances in nearby towns. We do it in this country, are we really expecting the Chinese not to?

In my opinion, Central Taxis have been sold a pup. Far better to have invested the money in a greener, cleaner taxi fleet. One can only hope that the next generation of black cabs are either hybrids or, even better, electric.

Green In The Media 28th February - 6th March

Monday 28th February

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:00 to 18:30
A damp proof membrane is laid to prevent heat loss from the eco-house. And Tommy uses thermal blocks instead of concrete to increase efficiency. Will it work?

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:30 to 19:00
The first floor joists are put in along with a timber frame for the roof. Then Tommy and the boys take time out to tackle the ultimate donut scoffing, non-lip licking challenge.

Tuesday 1st March

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:00 to 18:30
Tommy and the team are making good progress on the eco-build. While Will fixes the noggins in the roof, Tommy installs the polyurethane wall insulation and a vapour barrier.

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:30 to 19:00
Tommy hopes the rain will hold off while he fits the roof slates and solar panels. His eco-build is the most environmentally friendly in the Fens, but can he keep to his budget?

Wednesday 2nd March

Can Chemistry Save the World?
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 2030, 0130, Sat 1330)
Chemistry's reputation is not always good. Andrew Luck-Baker asks if chemistry can change its profile and be seen to be green.

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:00 to 18:30
Tommy gets a deal at the local timber yard on some sweet chestnut for his exterior cladding, but when part of the stock is ruined in the rain, its time for a re-think.

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:30 to 19:00
Tommy's chuffed with progress and his limestone floor, but when Victoria changes the kitchen plans without accounting for electrical points or plumbing, it costs them days.

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
Coral is perhaps the most threatened ecosystem across the world. Climate change is a growing threat but Tom Heap discovers there are signs of hope if man can be kept at bay.

Thursday 3rd March

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.

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:00 to 18:30
As the deadline approaches Tommy's feeling the pressure and calls in extra troops. They're tiling, plumbing and fitting the stairs - will they find time to landscape the garden?


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

18,000

- number of containers that new cargo ships will be able to carry #

4 billion

- rubber bands used by Royal Mail in the last 5 years #

2.3 tons

- CO₂ that a "zero-carbon" home will be allowed to emit #

60,000 barrels

- oil saved by Coca Cola's plant-based packaging in 2010 #

17 million

- people in the US who's drinking water has been contaminated by Perchlorate, a component in making explosives and rocket fuel #

Blow It Out Your Borehole!

Photo by lydurs

Newcastle is digging a big hole for itself.

When I say a big hole, I mean a biiiig hole. 2,000 metres straight down, to be exact.

The plan is a first for a city centre site in Britain: to tap the geothermal energy below ground and provide heating to nearby buildings.

It's not a new technology - Iceland meets the heating and hot water requirements of 87% of all it's buildings in this way.

(In fact, Iceland has so much geothermal energy it heats the pavements of Reykjavik during winter - see the photo below!)

Hopefully the Newcastle project will prove to be a relatively cheap resounding success, and spur other towns around the UK to dig their own big holes.

Photo by Stig Nygaard

Baby Boomers Just Don't Care

Photo by H.L.I.T.

I heard Radio Scotland's Call Kaye yesterday (hear it here), and quite frankly it left me...well, despairing.

The phone-in was discussing the recent Royal Commission on Environmental Protection report which states that the baby-boomer generation, those now aged 50-65, have the biggest carbon footprint and are also the least likely to do anything about it.

I've heard many excuses for this - they grew up during wartime and post-war austerity, they believed they had to live fast, they've worked hard and now want to enjoy the fruits of that.

But quite frankly, what I heard yesterday destroyed those myths. Simply, most people just don't care.

That was the overriding sentiment that came from the callers - climate change is nothing to do with us, whatever we do will have no effect anyway, so why should we change our lifestyle and feel guilty?

I'm increasingly of the opinion that the general public needs to be taken out of the equation when we're tackling these things. On the other hand, we've managed to change people's lifestyles slightly in the last few years despite their general opposition.

It's just hard to hear people say they don't give a stuff.

Infographic: A World Without Oil

I like this (via 1BOG)

Home Solar Power Discounts - One Block Off the Grid

Oil Cost You More And More Each Day

Photo by Brian Forbes

And so it begins. The cost of the new Forth Replacement Road Bridge has jumped by £100 million without any work yet being done on it.

Apparently the Scottish Government are only just coming clean about the sodding great oil pipeline which crosses the proposed site of the bridge's southern approach.

Indemnifying against damage to the pipe will cost £100 million. Alternatively, they could re-route the approach (£200 million) or reroute the pipeline (£extortionate).

It seems to have been presented to parliament as a fait accompli, as the government shrug their shoulders and say "Well, what can you do?"

I'll tell you what you can do - you can wait for the engineer's report on the remedies to the existing bridge before you spend a penny on what might be a completely unnecessary piece of infrastructure.

But then, a dry support cable doesn't provide as good a photo opportunity as a brand new bridge, does it?

Europe To Beat 2020 Emissions Targets

Photo by rockcohen

"We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." - JFK

It's one of my bugbears that politicians set easy targets, knowing they are achievable. Usually when I mention this, it's in the context of the Scottish Government. They are past masters at announcing they'll do something, when all the plans are in place for them easily achieving it.

You might say it's good politicking, that it means you'll never fail in the eyes of the electorate.

Personally, I think it shows a lack of ambition.

Faced with the need to reduce emissions by 3% per year, they chose to announce they would reduce emissions by 0.5% per year - because they could do it easily.

A new report shows that the European Union is on course to easily beat it's climate commitments of a 20% emissions reduction by 2020. I'm sure there will be much back-slapping and congratulating.

But if you're going to easily beat your target, then the target is wrong. Raise it. Take it to 30%, or match the Scottish Government's plan of 42%.

What is the point of a government if it does not improve people's lives? What is the point of a government that merely stands still instead of striving for better?

Green In The Media 21st - 27th February

Monday 21st February

Unreported World
On: more4
Time: 23:40 to 00:10
India: Children Of The Inferno.
Unreported World visits north east India, where reporter Aidan Hartley reveals a vision of hell where the earth is literally on fire, as vast subterranean coal fires burn out of control beneath towns and villages, children mine coal day in day out, and half a million people are being moved out of their ancestral villages to make way for the coal mines fuelling India's growth. Everywhere the team travels in Jharia, the fires are burning. India's reliance on coal could significantly influence climate change in the future, and is causing global concern. But, here on the ground, it's clear that for locals, a nightmarish existence is already a reality.

Tuesday 22nd February

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 23rd February

Can Chemistry Save the World?
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 10:32 to 11:00 (Also 1530, 2030, 0130, Sat 1330)
Chemistry's reputation is not always good. Andrew Luck-Baker asks if chemistry can change its profile and be seen to be green.

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
Could the military lead us into a green future? Getting fuel to the Afghan frontline costs money and lives. Tom Heap investigates US and UK efforts to find alternatives.

Man on Earth
On: more4
Time: 23:05 to 00:10 (Also 0215)
Tony Robinson concludes his journey to some of the world's most important and intriguing archaeological sites to find out what happened to our ancestors when violent climate change turned their worlds upside down. In this final programme, Tony examines societies similar to our own, who not only survived climate change, but flourished. In Peru the Hauri people embraced a savage drought, developed advanced techniques of water management and founded a great empire, itself the basis of the great Inca nation. In Europe, Tony learns how a mini-Ice Age triggered the Black Death; but rather than cripple medieval Europe it launched a period of unprecedented progress. The Industrial Revolution and globalisation were hastened by the benefits of a stable climate, but Tony also learns how this stability appears to be ending, bringing an unprecedented new threat to human societies.

Thursday 24th February

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.

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:30 to 19:00
Tommy and his team get to grips with their latest challenge - to build a home in 60 days for less than £60k, making eco-smart living the next step in affordable homes.

Arthur's Hell on High Water
On: Channel 4
Time: 01:05 to 02:00
Chef and eco-friendly restaurateur Arthur Potts Dawson is passionate about the environment and sustainable food, and thus not a fan of trawler fishing, where boats fish with huge nets and catch vast numbers of fish; the majority of which end up dead back in the ocean because they cannot be sold. In a bid to understand the realities faced by the trawler men who are trying to make ends meet, Arthur takes to the seas for one week, living and working alongside life-long fishermen on a commercial trawler and testing his ethics as he sees first hand the struggles faced by commercial fisherman.

Friday 25th February

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:00 to 18:30
Tommy and the team start installing the water harvesting drainage system which will collect rainwater to use in the toilets, washing machine and dishwasher.

Tommy Walsh's Eco House
On: Quest
Time: 18:30 to 19:00
When the block and beam floor doesn't arrive Tommy's on the warpath. Can the team come up with a solution so the brickies can crack on with building the wall?

Sunday 27th February

The People's Supermarket
On: Channel 4
Time: 20:00 to 21:00
Arthur's recruited just over 350 members to the supermarket, but most of them are not coming into the shop - to shop or to work their shifts. Takings at the till are stubbornly low and the supermarket's financial situation is dire. It looks as if Arthur hasn't got enough money to cover the rent. The People's Supermarket faces closure and Arthur's dream of a not-for-profit shop that's run for and by the people may well be over. He gathers the members to a meeting and tells them use the shop or lose it. At the end of the momentous week Arthur holds a party at the shop in a final bid to recruit the remaining members he needs to staff the shop full time.


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

20%

- proportion of the world's fresh water which is held in Lake Baikal in Southern Siberia #

$8 billion

- fine imposed on Chevron for polluting the Amazon #

25%

- reduction in emissions that will occur in the EU by 2020 with current proposals. The target is 20% #

190 gigatons

- carbon that could be released by 2020 by thawing permafrost #

6,000

- badgers that could be killed under licence this year #

Super Scary Dairy Dead

Photo by Davichi

Plans for what the tabloids called the "super scary dairy" have been withdrawn, and the project is now dead.

And for once, we've got the Environment Agency to thank.

They looked at the mega-dairy scheme to keep 4,000 cows in a large shed in Lincolnshire and realised that the local groundwater supply would be at risk from all the slurry the cows produced. In fact, an "unacceptable risk".

Most of us may be distanced from the process of providing our food, and have a romantic view of farming in this country, but in this case it seems to have worked as almost everyone who heard about the mega-dairy balked at the plans. Originally to be 8,000 cows, it beggars belief that anyone could think this could be in any way healthy for the cattle who will be milked multiple times a day and kept indoors, never seeing grass.

Just because the Americans do it, that doesn't mean we have to let it happen here. It might be idealised, but we like our farms to actually look like farms. Not industrial units.

Edinburgh To Look More Welcoming

Photo by Tr1xx

It always seems a bit weird to me how Edinburgh treats its tourists.

We lure them with culture and history and shopping and a fantastic city to walk around in and explore. Then when night falls, the tourist quickly discovers that there's no focal point for city nightlife.

Sure, there are great bars and restaurants dotted around, but you mostly have to go and seek them out (unless you're lucky enough to discover the Grassmarket early in your stay).

The biggest letdown is Princes Street. We spend a fortune (in carbon as well as money!) lighting up the castle for everyone to admire, and then ensure that one vantage point - Princes St Gardens - is closed, while the other - Princes Street itself - is turned into a virtual ghost-town with all the stores closed and the locals avoiding the area.

So it's welcome news that the Council are about to approve new plans for Edinburgh that will see pedestrians and tourists given a more welcome atmosphere.

And maybe, just maybe, it will mean it's no longer a waste of time lighting up the castle for no one to see.

Plane Coating, Green Washing

Photo by acebal

There's a convincing argument that the planet would be a lot better off without low-cost airlines.

Since they sprang into existence in the mid-90s, there seems to be a general sense of entitlement amongst the public that they can jet off to wherever in Europe they fancy for a weekend, for the same price as filling their car up.

It has become such a norm, Tony Blair said when he was Prime Minister

"I personally think these things are a bit impractical actually to expect people to [give up flying]"

Of course, the recession put paid to a lot of excess. Airlines could no longer fly the less profitable routes, people discovered they owned holiday homes in parts of Europe they could no longer get to, and travelling abroad was curtailed to once a year, if that.

So it's left the airlines desperately scrambling to reduce costs, which is where nanotechnology has stepped in.

Easyjet has begun spraying some of it's planes with a nanotech coating which it claims will reduce fuel costs by 2%, or around £14million a year.

Of course, they're careful to couch it in some greenwash. They're saving emissions by 2% a year!

I've got a plan for them to save emissions by 100% a year. But it involves them never flying again.

Green In The Media 14th - 20th February

Monday 14th February

Power of Scotland
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 20:00 to 20:30
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond wants his country to become the green energy capital of Europe. But are his goals feasible?

Tuesday 15th February

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.

The Chinese are Coming
On: BBC 2
Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (Also Wed 0110)
In the Amazon, Justin witnesses the phenomenal impact of the Chinese hunger for resources on the indigenous people and the environment.

Who Killed the Honey Bee?
On: BBC 4
Time: 21:00 to 22:00
With an affliction dubbed colony collapse disorder wiping out bees worldwide, Martha Kearney explores the terrifying implications of their possible extinction and the loss of their most vital service to nature, pollination, without which global food production would collapse. The threat to keepers, farmers and our food supply is acute and growing, and yet the cause of this 'Marie Celeste syndrome' that causes bees to flee their hives remains a mystery.

Wednesday 16th February

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
Man's effect on the environment and how the environment reacts. Metal detecting has produced some fantastic finds recently. The Staffordshire and Frome Hoards have excited the historian in all of us, but Alice Roberts asks at what cost.

Man on Earth
On: more4
Time: 23:05 to 00:10 (Also 0210)
Tony Robinson continues his journey to some of the world's most important and intriguing archaeological sites to find out what happened to our ancestors when violent climate change turned their worlds upside down. In this programme Tony picks through the ruins of three great civilisations from the last 2,000 years to ask what made these civilisations more vulnerable to climate catastrophe than the ones who survived.

Thursday 17th February

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.

Friday 18th February

On Your Bike
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 15:45 to 16:00
A history of the bicycle presented by Martin Ellis. The mountain bike arrives from California and coincides with a new fashion for fitness and concerns for the environment. Bikes are back in fashion for work and pleasure.

Horizon
On: BBC 1
Time: 01:00 to 02:00
Science Under Attack.
Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse examines why science appears to be under attack, and why public trust in key scientific theories has been eroded - from the theory that man-made climate change is warming our planet, to the safety of GM food, or that HIV causes AIDS. He interviews scientists and campaigners from both sides of the climate change debate, and travels to New York to meet Tony, who has HIV but doesn't believe that that the virus is responsible for AIDS. This is a passionate defence of the importance of scientific evidence and the power of experiment, and a look at what scientists themselves need to do to earn trust in controversial areas of science in the 21st century.
(Signed)

Sunday 20th February

The People's Supermarket
On: Channel 4
Time: 20:00 to 21:00
Three months after opening Britain's most innovative supermarket Arthur Potts Dawson is struggling to keep The People's Supermarket open. It's hardly proving to be the utopian dream he had hoped for. Arthur turns personal shopper to show die-hard Sainsbury's families that his style of shopping and cooking is better. And determined to challenge the conventional model where overstocked shelves can lead to waste, Arthur goes back to his roots as a chef and opens The People's Kitchen in the supermarket. But will people be happy to eat food previously destined for the bin?


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

20%

- decrease in carbon emissions by the Department for Energy & Climate Change #

194.4 Gigatonnes

- installed wind capacity throughout the world, up 22.5% in 2010 #

86, 397, 666

- passengers who used London Waterloo station in 2009-10 #

€1 billion

- UK government profit from the sale of carbon permits last year #

40%

- overstatement of Saudi oil reserves revealed in a wikileaks cable #

Charlie Is My Darlin'

I usually fall asleep with the radio on, a habit I picked up when I first moved to Edinburgh and listening to the radio was the only way to block out the noise of the mice I shared a basement bedsit with. In case you're wondering, my current radio/alarm clock has a "sleep" function, so you can set it to switch off after a certain time, thereby not using more energy than necessary!

5 Live is my preferred audio companion, and Dotun Adebayo my favourite presenter. So as I crawled into bed with Dotun last night, I heard him trailing an item about Prince Charles speaking about climate change.

Unfortunately, I didn't hear it. I was asleep within seconds.

So this morning, I read the accompanying news item and went to "listen again" to the item on the BBC website.

In a nutshell, Charlie had a go at climate sceptics and environmentalists while speaking to MEPs in Brussels.

He said that climate sceptics were playing

"a reckless game of roulette with the future inheritance of those who come after us."

Meanwhile, he also had a pop at environmentalists who go around pronouncing doom all the time, or who tell people that they have to 'give up' their entire lifestyle, instead of playing on the positives of sustainability.

He's right, of course, if about two years behind the curve on the way environmental organisations think these days.

The problem is, the words come from Prince Charles. The British public don't have much regard for him, and the newspapers paint him as a bit of a loony. Does he therefore do more harm than good to the green cause?

And talking of loonies, let's return to that radio piece from last night. You can hear it here (from the 12:40 mark if it's not already cued up).

Green Party MEP Keith Taylor is pitched against UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom to discuss Prince Charles' comments, and to say Mr Bloom is an idiot isn't too strong. His scepticism hits the usual marks that we've heard being debunked a million times before, ranging from "look out the window, it's cold" to "it hasn't warmed since 1995". (Incidentally, 1995? Where did he get that one from??)

Then he calls on Charles to abdicate:

"...if the Prince of Wales wants to be a politician, and what he did today was give a Green Party speech, he must abdicate from the throne and stand for parliament as I did..."

So there you have it, Godfrey Bloom abdicated before he stood for parliament.

Lives In A House, A Very Small House, In The Country

I thought my one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh was small, but this takes the biscuit!

Oh, and I'm not entirely sure those last three seconds were meant to be on the video...

Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Then Cut It's Head Off

Photo by Robert Hoge

"Give me a crocodile sandwich, and make it snappy!"

Yes, it's an old joke, but I have actually uttered those words for real. Albeit I was given a rather withering look for my troubles.

There used to be a sandwich shop on Lothian Road in Edinburgh which, amongst the usual fare of Egg Mayo or Tuna, did some rather more exotic sarnies. I couldn't help myself. The aforementioned crocodile was one. Kangaroo was another.

I didn't question where the meat came from, I was too caught up in the "new taste sensation" experience. For the record, kangaroo was rabbitey/gamey while crocodile was extremely chewy.

Last week, I stumbled across the information that there's currently a petition before the Scottish Parliament urging them to ban the import to Scotland of kangaroo meat and skin.

I was intrigued enough to delve further, and what I discovered horrified me.

Traditionally considered a pest in Australia, kangaroos are now a big industry. 2 to 4 million are killed every year for their meat and skin.

If the hunter happens to kill a female kangaroo that has a joey either in the pouch or with it, then according to the National Code of Practice the joey is to be

"bludgeoned to death, decapitated or shot"

If the joey is "at foot" rather than in the pouch, then the shooting will probably scare it off. They are dependent on the mother for milk for the first 8 months they are out of the pouch, so hopping away from the scene is actually signing their own death warrant as they will slowly starve to death.

There are other concerns, too. Australia is not exactly a cold country, and yet hunters are allowed to run around with kangaroo carcasses on the back of their trucks for hours as they search for more roos to shoot, bludgeon or decapitate.

You can read more on the trade via the submissions to the petition committee on the Scottish Parliament website, or on the Australian Wildlife Protection Council site.

Unbelievably, Russia is ahead of the EU on this one, having already banned the import of kangaroo meat. I suspect, though, that the Scots will say this is out of their remit (the law on meat import is a grey area) and the petitioners should have a go at the EU as a whole, rather than constituent members.

Having Our Railways Renationalised For Us

Photo by jonworth-eu

I think it's universally agreed, even amongst Tories, that the privatisation of the UK's railways was botched.

We were told that British Rail was costing too much, that it no longer worked, that state-run railways were a 19th Century anachronism that had no place in the modern world. Privatisation was the way to go. Only private companies could run our railways more efficiently and at less cost to the taxpayer.

So the government broke British Rail up, and sold the various parts to "expert" private companies. And pretty soon the bus companies realised that you can't run the railway system like a bus network. And the airlines discovered that you can't run the rail network like a high-end airline.

Oh, if only we had some railway professionals who knew how to run a network and could sort it all out for us, like the kind we used to have under British Rail...

News was leaked to the papers this weekend of the foreign companies bidding for the West Coast franchise, currently run by Virgin. And it has caused much hilarity:

German state-owned railway Deutsche Bahn
Spanish state-owned railway RENFE
Dutch state-owned railway Albellio (a subsidiary of NEDRailways)
Itailian state-owned railway Trenitalia

A "government source" quoted in the Observer yesterday said:

This shows that Britain is open for business.

No, it doesn't. It shows that Britain cocked it up completely and now hasn't got a company big enough to compete across Europe, so is selling it's railway to other countries.

Actually, not other countries. Other governments.

Green In The Media 7th - 13th February

Monday 7th February

Could it Happen Here?
On: BBC Radio Scotland
Time: 15:30 to 16:00 (Also Sat 0600)
America's Oil Disaster.
Euan McIlwraith heads into the future to imagine how Scotland's environment would cope if an American-style oil disaster happened here.

Tuesday 8th February

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 9th February

Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30(Also Thu 1330)
As the Arctic melts it is the local people who are experiencing the toughest impacts of climate change. Tom Heap reports from Arctic Canada on the changing lives of the Inuit.

A History of Ancient Britain
On: BBC 2
Time: 21:00 to 22:00
Neil Oliver travels back to ice age Britain as he begins the epic story of how our land and its people came to be over thousands of years of ancient history. This episode sees a struggle for survival in a brutal world of climate change and environmental catastrope.

Man on Earth
On: more4
Time: 23:05 to 00:05 (Also 0210)
Tony Robinson continues his journey to some of the world's most important and intriguing archaeological sites to find out what happened to our ancestors when violent climate change turned their worlds upside down. In this programme Tony traces how global warming at the end of the last Ice Age was the catalyst for the dawn of civilisation, but also unleashed devastation. Twelve thousand years ago our planet emerged from the last great Ice Age, with temperatures rising by five degrees in just a few decades. After 190,000 years living as nomadic hunter-gatherers, our ancestors were forced to change with the world around them. In Europe the rise in temperature unleashed an agricultural revolution, while in North Africa around 7,000 years ago a savage drought led Saharan refugees to settle along the River Nile. In the limited space they had to learn new skills and form new social structures, going on to found the Kingdom of Egypt.

Thursday 10th February

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

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.

In Denial: Climate on the Couch
On: BBC Radio Four
Time: 21:00 to 21:30
If climate change is as serious as the scientists say it is, why are most of us not that bothered? Jolyon Jenkins asks if greens could use better psychology to sharpen their message.

Sunday 13th February

The People's Supermarket
On: Channel 4
Time: 20:00 to 21:00
It's been six weeks since the people's supermarket was conceived, and now that it's open Arthur and the other members have their work cut out if they want to make this independent business succeed. So far the members are mostly middle-class but Arthur's dream is to serve the entire community; and plus he needs more members.


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

1.32 billion

- passenger journeys made on the UK rail network in 2010 #

50%

- drop in carpooling in the US since 1980 #

8 billion tonnes

- amount of CO₂ that the Amazon emitted last year during a drought #

8.7%

- fall in UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2009 #

3-4 million

- kangaroos killed each year in Australia for their meat and skin #

85%

- proportion of the world's oyster beds that have disappeared through over-exploitation #

What Will The Leith Biomass Plant Actually Look Like?

Forth Energy lodged their planning application the other day for the proposed Biomass energy plant in Leith Docks.

If you recall, this is the power station that Forth Energy wants to power by importing wood chips from America. They're continuing with the greenwash, despite all evidence to the contrary.

It's difficult to imagine just what an impact this kind of plant will have on Leith and Edinburgh's skyline. So it's nice to see someone quick off the mark with a Google Earth mock-up, based on Forth Energy's planning application.

You can download the file for the biomass plant here, and you can download Google Earth here.

Here's some pictures to give you some idea of the scale of this monstrosity.


Here it is from Calton Hill:



If the game gets boring at Easter Road (insert your own joke here) then you can gaze out at the power plant:



And when the tourists are watching the One O'Clock Gun being fired, they can admire the perfect target down the road:


Greener Leith keep a better eye on the to-ing and fro-ing than I do, so if you want to know more then I'd urge you to read their blog

Trump Blinks

Can it be? Is it too good to be true?

The Press & Journal reports that Donald Trump has decided not to press ahead with trying to get Aberdeenshire residents evicted from their homes.

To recap the whole story quickly, Trump is building a new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He was given planning permission, despite the sand dunes where he bought the land being designated a "Site of Special Scientific Interest" due to the biodiversity there. He then decided that he didn't like his new neighbours and started proceedings to have the local council compulsorily evict the homeowners from their own properties - the same local council who gave him planning permission for the properties despite the fact he didn't own them.

The Donald now says that compulsory purchase was never an option, and his company never asked for it - despite there being written evidence to the contrary.

So what has changed? Well, according to Trumpland:

A statement from the Trump Organisation last night said: “Through a combination of landscaping and planting, the preliminary work to eliminate the negative visual impact of the poorly maintained and unkempt properties that border our development has completely succeeded

In reality, what has happened is that huge walls of earth have appeared beside the homes, shielding them from view.

I'm sure the residents would rather not look out on Trump's estate anyway.