I Feel The Need, The Need For Speed

Photo by viernest

We've all been there, whether as a driver or passenger. We're tootling along on the motorway when a wankermobile comes up behind us. Far too close to our back bumper, we can see the driver getting redder in the face and starting to foam at the mouth. Then the headlights get flashed. How dare we get in his way (and it's almost always a he). How dare we dawdle in the fast lane at a mere 70mph!

I was going to write a whole diatribe about how head-bangingly stupid it is to propose to increase the speed limit to 80mph on the motorways. But Robert Llewellyn has written it better, and Alison Johnstone was on Radio Scotland this morning saying it better (should be lined up, but if not you can hear her at the 2hr8min mark).

No One Wants To Build Waverley Line

Photo by waferboard

It almost beggars belief that in this economic climate, the Scottish Government have announced that they can't find anyone willing to build the Borders Rail Link.

Actually, no, it doesn't. This is a big capital project in Scotland, that involves laying tracks within Edinburgh. Anyone with half a brain would hear those words and run a mile.

But it's yet another blow to a project that the SNP government have never been too fond of. I've little doubt that if this had been a new motorway from Edinburgh to Galashiels then it would have been signed, sealed and built within their first four year term. Their attitude to public transport stinks, quite frankly.

So what now for the Waverley Line? Network Rail and Transport Scotland will oversee the work, subcontracting as they go. Since they're the experts, they should have been doing it anyway, and they should have started four years ago.

Wanna Pump The Tar Sands

I like a protest with a sense of humour!

Edinburgh Rooftops To Be Carpeted In Solar Panels?

Photo by bkusler

Well, this came out of nowhere!

Edinburgh Council have announced that they're going to look in to putting solar panels on all council-owned properties in the city. That means council houses, schools, offices, depots and care homes could be benefiting from photovoltaic panels on the roof providing carbon-free power.

There are a few ways this could go, providing it actually happens.

The first is that the council just rent out the roofspace to a private company. That company makes a huge obscene profit for a fixed price to the council and very little benefit to the local taxpayers.

The second is that the council house tenant, schools and care homes get to keep the profit from any energy produced and sold into the grid through the feed-in tariff. This gives the poorest in society an incentive to lower their own power bills for a bigger "profit".

The third is that all the revenue produced in a community is used to the benefit of that community, so that private renters and homeowners can also benefit from the money generated by the neighbouring roofs.

I'd prefer that third scenario, followed by the second. Given Edinburgh's track record, I fear we'd end up with the first. Of course, we're a long way off it happening, if it will at all.

David Mitchell on Sustainability and Carbon Tax

Robert F Kennedy on Solar v Coal v Oil

I heard this as part of a speech that Robert F Kennedy gave to the Commonwealth Club of California, broadcast last week on Radio Ecoshock, and loved it so much I thought I'd take the time to transcribe it. You can hear the full segment on the Radio Ecoshock website or their podcast.

"We need to build a smart grid, it costs very little, about 4 months of the Iraq war. To build the generation for that grid, let me give you an example. Right now, one of our portfolio companies...is building the biggest power plant in America which is in the Mojave desert and it’s a solar thermal plant. This is not solar voltaic of the kind your grandmother used to bolt to her roof! This is a mirror farm in the desert where they put a turbine on top of a tower...and the surround it by concentric rings of mirrors that...reflect sunlight onto that turbine. It’s a very efficient way of generating energy.

We’re building this plant in three years. It takes ten years to build a coal plant! It costs $3 billion a Gigawatt to construct, the same price it costs to build a coal plant. One-fifth the price it costs to build a nuke plant. And once you build our plant, it’s free energy forever!

Once you build that coal plant, now you’ve got to go to the Appalachians, cut down the mountains, ship them across the country on railroads, warp every rail in this country so that we can’t have high-speed rail, burn the coal, poison every fish, kill 60,000 people a year, cause a million asthma attacks, acidify the lakes and all the other costs.

Once you build an oil plant for the same $3 billion, and remember ours is then free...now you’ve got to go to Saudi Arabia, punch holes in the ground, bring up the oil, refine it expensively, genuflect to the sheiks who despise democracy and are hated by their own people, get in periodic wars that cost us $3 trillion, escort it across the Atlantic with a military escort that Exxon doesn’t pay for, you and I do, then you spill it all over the Gulf, spill it all over Valdez, burn the oil and poison everybody in our country.”

Green In The Media 26th September - 2nd October

Monday 26th September


One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 11:32 to 11:50 (Also 1630, Fri 1930, Sat 0030, Sun 1930)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.

Tuesday 27th September


Up in Smoke
On: more4
Time: 22:00 to 23:20 (Also 0125)
Slash-and-burn farming generates more carbon emissions than all air and road travel combined. It's one of the biggest contributors to deforestation and global warming. British scientist Mike Hands thinks he has a sustainable alternative for farming in equatorial rainforests. It's taken him 25 years to develop. But can impoverished farmers afford to risk adopting a new farming method, and can Mike convince governments and agencies to back his plans? Filmed over four years, with Mike and Honduran farmers Faustino and Aladino, Up in Smoke addresses one of the most urgent issues facing humanity. 

Wednesday 28th September


Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio 4
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
Arabic engineers once made Yemen a fertile oasis. Today it is in imminent danger of running out of water. Leana Hosea reports on efforts to avert a crisis.



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

2 kilometres

- fishing exclusion zone around Dounreay Nuclear Plant in Scotland #

73 million

- sharks harvested every year, mainly for shark fin soup. Shark fins are tasteless. #

200 trillion cubic feet

- shale gas discovered in Lancashire, England #

30 million

- people displaced by environmental and weather disasters in 2010 #

45%

- increase in global CO² emissions between 1990 and 2010 #

Wind Of Change

Here's a rather wonderful wee film.

I've mentioned Fintry before, the village in Scotland that, instead of fighting a proposed windfarm nearby, decided to ask the developers if they could buy one of the turbines. The developers agreed, the windfarm was built, and the local community is now benefiting from the money generated.

This short film shows how the turbine money has spurred the uptake of other renewable and sustainable initiatives throughout Fintry. Grab your popcorn and enjoy!

A Thank You

Visitors to the actual blog site may have noticed these two shiny new badges over the weekend:

 

Yep, I've been named in the Total Politics Blog Awards 2011. It's my 2nd year running in the awards (despite what the listings say!), and I'm pleased to announce that I've risen to the 5th Best Green Blog in the UK. I'm also at 15 in the Best Scottish Blogs. If you want to see the other winners, you can click the appropriate button above or go to the Total Politics website.

Thanks for all who voted for me in what turned out to be a convoluted process. I'm sure more people would vote if Total Politics simplified proceedings.

Right, before my head swells too much, let's get back to despairing...

Oh, For Fork's Sake!

Photo by Ed Townend

After 10 years of good service, my cutlery was in dire need of replacement. 2 teaspoons had broken, a fork had gone AWOL, and the metallic coat was chipping off which meant I occasionally found wee shards of metal in my food.

So, what is a greenie to do in this situation? There seems to be a distinct gap in the eco market for cutlery, unless you go on lots of picnics, so I was keeping an eye out for what I could see in stores. And there wasn't much.

Finally, in Sainsbury's last Friday, I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and just buy some. I wasn't after a silver service set, so my choice came down to some cheap and cheerful stuff much like my old cutlery, or an overpriced set with Jamie Oliver's face on the box.

Naturally, I chose cheap and cheerful. £10, reduced to £5. After all, if my last cheap and cheerful set lasted me 10 years, then there's no reason to suspect the next lot won't either.

I wasn't too enamoured by the plastic ties holding the four "display" pieces of cutlery to the front of the box, but the box was small, easily-recycled cardboard and all the other pieces were out of view in the back, so minimum packaging.

Imagine my shock, then, when I got home and opened the box to find this:


It's hard to tell from the photo, but every piece of cutlery was individually wrapped in it's own wee plastic bag. Well, I say "wrapped" but actually the bags were open at one end, so there's not even a hygiene issue here. And even if there was, who uses cutlery without washing it first?

There seems to be no logical reason for each knife, fork and spoon to be individually bagged, which leaves me despairing of society again. Or whoever in Sainsbury's buying department thought this was a good idea.

Green In The Media 19th - 25th September

Monday 19th September


One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 11:32 to 11:50 (Also 1630, Fri 1930, Sat 0030, Sun 1930)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.


Panorama
On: BBC 1
Time: 20:30 to 21:00
Drinking Our Rivers Dry?
Most of our water comes from rivers, and environmentalists fear we are pushing some of them and the wildlife they support to the edge. With many of Britain's rivers at the limit of what can sustainably be taken from them, Simon Boazman investigates whether the water industry and its regulators are doing enough to protect the nation's rivers.

Wednesday 21st September


Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio 4
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
A Very Large Hole In The Sahara
Scientists are looking at novel ways to halt sea-level rise and reverse global warming. Miranda Krestovnikoff investigates which futuristic geoengineering concepts could become a reality.


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

40 years old

- age of Greenpeace. Happy birthday! #

4.24 million km²

- minimum of Arctic sea ice this year, the lowest ever #

83%

- Americans who believe global warming is happening, up from 75% last year #

460 acres

- size of a new woodland to be planted to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee #

11%

- drop in butterfly numbers in the UK this year #

Climate Reality: A Reminder

The Climate Reality project has been going for around 12 hours now.

If you remember, this is a 24 hour project bringing people from around the world to discuss climate effects in their areas and the attempts of the deniers to obfuscate the issue.

You can watch it on their website just now, and they reach the UK at 7pm tonight.

You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Hurl

This from the file marked "You couldn't make it up!"

Donald Trump, denier of climate change, destroyer of sites of special scientific interest, the man who obliterated a unique dune system and habitat to many creatures, has called a proposed offshore wind farm "environmentally irresponsible".

If your laughter gives way to tears, I don't blame you. But here comes the sickly feeling:

In a letter to the First Minister, Alex Salmond, he makes veiled threats about "promises" he was made, and queries why anyone would invest in Scotland if he can't get his own way.

Will our esteemed First Minister drop his trousers and bend over for The Donald once again? Or will he, for once, say no to the bully?

Edinburgh Getting Sloppy

Photo by jbloom

It's a no-brainer, really.

It costs £100 for every tonne of waste being sent to a landfill site. It costs £40 for every tonne of food waste that is recycled. If it was my money - and hey, it is, it's my council tax - then I know which one I'd choose.

Thankfully, Edinburgh Council has decided the same thing, and after a successful trial is now planning to roll out food recycling bins across the city.

It's easy to say that we should be composting all of our food waste, but not so easy to do when you live in a tenement flat with only one houseplant! Hopefully this scheme will see residents finding something useful to do with all that food that goes to waste.

Arctic Melting At Fastest Rate Ever

Go and get an ice cube out of the freezer. Go on. I'll wait.

Got one? Whaddya mean no? Okay, let's do it as a thought experiment. Imagine an ice cube melting. Slowly disappearing into a small puddle, maybe cracking as it does so.

It melts in three dimensions. It doesn't melt from the sides first, or from the top down.

That's what makes the news that the Arctic Sea Ice has melted to a new low so scary. This data just measures the top of the ice, the bit we can see from the satellites. What's happening to the thickness of the ice? What's happening underneath? That data will come out shortly, but it doesn't look good.

Green In The Media 12th - 18th September

Monday 12th September


One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 11:32 to 11:50 (Also 1630, Fri 1930, Sat 0030, Sun 1930)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.

Wednesday 14th September


Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio 4
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
British air quality consistently breaches European regulations. Is it possible for individuals to improve the air that they breathe? Tom Heap investigates.


Horizon
On: BBC 2
Time: 21:00 to 22:00
Is Nuclear Power Safe?
Series exploring topical scientific issues. Six months after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant and the release of radiation there, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nuclear power is safe. He begins in Japan, where he meets some of the tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated from the exclusion zone. He travels to an abandoned village just outside the zone to witness a nuclear clean-up operation. Jim draws on the latest scientific findings from Japan and from the previous explosion at Chernobyl to understand how dangerous the release of radiation is likely to be and what that means for our trust in nuclear power.



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

28.9%

- drop in Scottish greenhouse gas emissions since 1990 #

1.5 million tonnes

- carbon footprint of Google #

62%

- proportion of deforested Amazon rainforest which is used for cattle grazing #

19.4%

- drop in passenger numbers from Prestwick Airport compared to last July #

20 feet

- length of crocodile captured in the Philippines #

The Fat Lady Sings

I've mentioned Climate Reality before, the event this month where Al Gore has gathered presenters from around the world to, well, present in their time zone for an hour the reality about climate change.

A week out from the project starting, they've released a couple of (extremely) short videos:

Oppose Eigg Fish Farm

The fine folk on the Isle of Eigg have managed to power their entire island with renewable power. Now, they've got a fight on their hands.

Highland Council have received an application form for a fish farm just off the island. The farm would be the size of 28 football pitches.

Islanders have been quick in their opposition, with an e-petition which gives a devastating rebuttal to the fish farm. Please take 2 minutes out of your day to read why the locals oppose the development, and sign the petition if you agree with them.

Lothian Buses To Launch Hybrid Fleet

Lothian Buses are finally getting around to launching some hybrid buses onto Edinburgh's streets.

From Sunday, all of the buses on the No 10 route will be replaced with brand new diesel-electric hybrids. The company says they chose the No 10 route as it passes through some of the worst air-polluted areas of the city.

They boast that the buses will feature automatic announcements and free WiFi. If the auto announcements are anything like the train ones, I suspect there may be many complaints before they're turned off! They always sound good in a board meeting, but in practice they drive passengers to distraction - particularly if the stops are close together like they are in Edinburgh.

What the buses actually look like seems to be held under lock and key for the moment. I haven't seen an Evening News for a couple of days so I don't know if they've sneaked a picture, but Lothian Buses themselves certainly aren't giving the game away online! I suspect they're these ones from Alexander Dennis's website.

You can see for yourself on Saturday - they'll have a public unveiling on Castle Street between 11am - 3pm, with "free eco-friendly and local gifts". So, organic castle rock??

Scottish Emissions Down Another 7%

The Scottish Government have released new figures showing that greenhouse gas emissions in the country have fallen by 28.9% since 1990. That's a further 7% reduction in 2009.

That's a huge step towards our goals of a 42% reduction by 2020. But I fear complacency.

As Stan Blackley, the head of Friends of the Earth Scotland says, preliminary figures actually showed an increase in 2010 - the latest statistics only go up to 2009 - and the emissions reduction may just be riding on the coattails of the recession.

However, I do have the hope that, as with climate change, it is the overall trend that counts rather than individual yearly figures. And a 29% drop over 20 years is a very, very positive trend.

Hopefully, the government will increase their efforts to continue the trend despite the upcoming upward blip.

Edinburgh Council Staff Waiting To Pounce

When it comes to recycling, some days I think the carrot approach is right. Some days I think the stick is right.

And some days, I want to be wielding that stick. Quite forcefully.

Edinburgh City Council have opted for the carrot. Their staff will be lying in wait around the city to catch unsuspecting recyclers and "reward" them with a £10 voucher.

Firstly, I've never been convinced that rewarding people who do something anyway is a good approach. Surely fining people who don't recycle would be a better incentive to get folks carting their Irn Bru cans to the nearest aluminium bin?

And secondly, consumption produces the need for recycling. So Edinburgh are rewarding people who recycle with a voucher encouraging them to consume more, and therefore produce more waste. Surely nonsensical?

Trams Back On Track. Sort Of.

Okay people, you can stand easy. Put down the pitchforks, extinguish the torches and stop rehearsing the chants. We won't be marching on Edinburgh City Chambers.

I was travelling last Friday and so I missed the giant lightbulb hovering over the Council, slowly flickering into life as they rejected their week-old idiotic decision to end the trams at Haymarket and instead go with their previous plan to go into the city centre at St Andrew Square.

Of course, I would have been delighted if they had gone with their previous-previous plan of going all the way down Leith Walk, but that would have been earth-shattering. And after the week Edinburgh Council has had, I'm pretty sure none of the Councillors want to see any shattered earth in the city ever again.

Green In The Media 5th - 11th September

Monday 5th September


One Planet
On: BBC World Service Radio
Time: 11:32 to 11:50 (Also 1630, Fri 1930, Sat 0030, Sun 1930)
One Planet looks at how we use our planet.

Wednesday 7th September


Costing the Earth
On: BBC Radio 4
Time: 21:00 to 21:30 (Also Thu 1330)
Environmental investigation series.

Saturday 10th September


Green Party 2011 - Caroline Lucas Speech
On: BBC Parliament
Time: 21:40 to 22:10 (Also 0110, Sun 0410)
Recorded coverage of Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP making her keynote speech to the Green Party Conference in Sheffield, from Friday 9 September.



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

126%

- UK rainfall in August compared to the monthly average #

7 meters

- glacier retreat per year in the 1970s #

25 meters

- glacier retreat per year in the 2000s #

83%

- worldwide consumers who believe it is "important for a company to have environmental programs" #

20.8%

- German power that came from renewables in the first half of 2011 #