Greening the construction industry

Leading property and construction firms have formed the UK Green Building Council and given themselves 10 years to transform their industry and make it sustainable. They also make the sensible observation that energy saving measures shouldn't just be applied to new builds as houses that have already been built will still account for 75% of the housing stock in 2050.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Climate Challenge

Can you balance the budget, keep the electorate happy and fed and reduce greenhouse gas emmissions? Try the BBC's Climate Challenge.

Technorati tag: Climate

Solar power heads toward the dollar per watt landmark

Solar power costs are dropping and could soon cross over the point where they're cheaper than fossil fuels and other supplies. Germany passed a law demanding utilities buy excess electricity from microgeneration at a good price and the take up of solar, and no doubt other technologies, has soared.

The only people too stupid to be excited by these developments are the electricity and oil companies.

"There is no silver bullet," said Jeroen Van der Veer, Shell's chief executive.
"We have invested a bit in all forms of renewable energy ourselves and maybe we'll find a winner one day. But the reality is that in twenty years time we'll still be using more oil than now," he said.

Technorati tag: Solar Power

The 2010 Imperative

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_wilson/2007/02/building_a_green_future.html
http://www.2010imperative.org/
The Global Emergency Teach In, next Tuesday.  Share ideas and plans for reducing the eco-impact of the built environment.

Sacrifice What?

I've noticed the word "sacrifice", or variations on it, popping up in discussions of global warming recently. The deniers and nay-sayers gleefully tell us that "ordinary people" won't be able or willing to make the sacrifices- ie lifestyle changes- necessary to cut carbon dioxide output. I believe they are insulting the very people they pretend to champion, under estimating what the average citizen is capable of.

Sadly, too many Greens have taken up this idea and talk of the troubles we face. All talk of sacrifice suggests we'll have to go back to the Dark Ages to cut consumption.

It's all nonsense, of course. What's needed is a fresh look at just what we'd be giving up and a more honest description of it. So let's make a few sacrifices. Let's sacrifice-

Paying too much for bland, boring food that's over packaged and shipped halfway around the world. Research has shown that local shops and markets are consistently cheaper than the supermarket chains. They're also friendlier, put more money into the local economy and stock foods you won't find on Tesco's shelves.

Burning money running a status symbol that increasingly says bad things about you, that is a danger to everyone on the road- including its occupants- and spends most of its life carting nothing more substantial than air. If people took the time to find the largest car they needed, rather than the ideal vehicle for a trek across Alaska with the extended family, they could save hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds a year without sacrificing any of the convenience and comfort of having a car. Of course, it would be best if they could leave the car behind more often as well, but maybe they'd learn that when they realised how little they really needed it.

Teaching children to be unhealthy and dependent on others. They could walk to school, getting exercise, building self confidence and teaching them to do stuff for themselves. It would probably make them safer in other ways as well. Recognising, and being recognised in, their neighbourhood should help children spot trouble such as the mythical danger stranger if it ever appeared.

Paying exorbitant energy bills because our filament bulbs use more energy making heat than they do making light. Really, when a decent compact fluorescent bulb will pay for itself in less than a year, why do people insist on the false economy of filament bulbs?

That's just a sample. Next time someone tells you the culture won't change because of the sacrifices involved try one of them as a reply. We're all in a position to make sacrifices which actually leave us better off as well as helping the environment. When we've pocketed the money from them, more drastic action will be less painful and easier to contemplate.

Reviewing the Nuclear Review

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6364281.stm
The Government's nuclear review (AKA whitewash) has been judged biased and misleading and there are calls for a new white paper on the subject.

Tony Blair et al insist that their fixation on nuclear power is a brave and radical attempt to counter global warming when it's actually a cowardly and backward effort to avoid doing anything.  If they want to do something radical they should start subsidising insulation and double glazing for houses in the worst Council Tax bands and paying to put solar water heaters on every South facing roof in the country.  Start by reducing the need for centralised energy production and helping those whose energy costs are a greater proportion of their expenditure.  It will increase the prosperity of the country, likely encourage further spending on energy saving and cut carbon dioxide production.

Then they can start funding micro-generation and communal energy projects.  Water turbines on weirs, local windmills, geothermal for a whole street, that sort of thing.  Lots of little projects have a better chance of coming in on time and under budget than one big one and a distributed power generation system will be more robust.

There are a lot of reasons why this won't happen, but they all have one common factor- Tony Blair's cowardice.  The Daily Mail would moan about the undeserving getting cossetted with free insulation and rail against "Nanny Statism".  The NIMBYs would try to halt schemes designed to make them better off.  Big Energy companies would complain because they would lose their monopolies and hold over consumers.  Most of all, this sort of scheme would give power back to ordinary people, the sort of prospect that gives every politician nightmares.

Carbon Footprints

To coincide with teh publication of teh Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report last week, activists stencilled "carbon footprints" on the pavement outside flight centres etc.

Starry Night Lights

This is a paid review through ReviewMe.

At first I thought Starry Night Lights were going to be unhappy with what they'd spent their money on. The company is dedicated to providing outside lighting that cuts down light pollution. This, I thought, was an aesthetic issue, of interest only to astronomers and Lisa Simpson.

With the caveat that exterior lighting should be reduced as much as possible, Starry Night Lights do make a fair argument for the environmental benefits of their products. They want house-holders to eliminate unnecessary illumination and install shaded and low energy lighting only where it's absolutely necessary, and then have it linked to motion sensors so it only comes on when needed.

There's no denying the earnestness of the man behind this company, he even has his own outdoor lighting blog where he questions the logic of illumination oneupmanship and suggests solutions. The site, sadly, is a bit clunky, looking very much like an old school effort from the early days of online commerce. And it's based in the USA, so of no use to me even if I was in the market for low energy external lighting.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Lighting

Sign my cycling petition

My petition on the Number 10 site-

Introduce a Cycling Proficiency style test for children and adults to make them more confident and competent on the road. This will be voluntary except for- bus and taxi drivers, officials with responsibilities for transport, those guilty of certain driving offences and motoring journalists. Include a section on cycle craft into the driving test which will be waived for any learner who has passed Cycling Proficiency in the last five years. This will make motorists more aware of other road users, improve the safety of cyclists on our roads and hopefully increase the number of people using bikes.

Please pop over and sign it. It's far more reasonably worded than most of the transport related petitions on there and I think it's a realistic proposal. The bit about motoring journalists is a joke.

They should have their licences revoked automatically.

Technorati tag: Cycling, Petition

Catching up with Green links

I've been neglecting How to Save the World for Free, and not cross-posting Green links from Spinneyhead. So here are as many as I could find, just to catch up.

Some days I just want to go and live in a tent somewhere.

The fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we can look forward to a rise in the average global temperature of between 2.5 and 5 Celsius by the end of the century. The IPCC is considered conservative when assessing global warming, so for them to come out with such a serious assessment means the evidence is now overwhelming.

Watch our leaders say it's a terrible thing and something major needs to be done- then do nothing.

Action for Sustainable Living. I've been meaning to post this link since someone gave me their business card before Christmas.

Nuclear power plant sites, usually close to the sea, could be at risk from the effects of global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6289367.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6288957.stm
American industry groups are calling on George Bush to introduce mandatory emission standards in his State of the Union address.  He's not going to, but the sentiment is appreciated.

Australians take to their bikes.

2012 Olympics to be the "greenest ever".
Tony Blair takes the credit.

Does anyone really believe the supermarkets talk of going Green? Much like George Monbiot, I'm convinced it's all PR and the very nature of their business makes them unsustainable.

How Green is your supermarket? Following Tescos and Marks & Spencers' announcements, the Telegraph tests the big four to see how they're doing at present.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/19/ndress19.xml
Dissolving dresses as a metaphor for throwaway culture.

Tesco is the latest supermarket chain to insist it is going Green. The problem is, the Greenest thing many Tesco stores could do would be to close, because the emissions from all the cars driving to them is greater than any direct or indirect CO2 production getting the products on the shelves.

Scientists have developed a "health check" that can predict how farming methods will affect an area's biodiversity.

Green cleaning put to the test.

Britain is to have the world's first official carbon offsetting standards.

Asian states sign key energy deal.

European Commission rules will require new cars to produce less than 120 grams of CO2 per mile

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Climate links

A few links I've not had the time to post this week.

The Independent looks at companies that will help you offset the carbon cost of your flights and other activities.

Big businesses get together and have a climate change meeting.

Ming Campbell reassures us that airline taxes will not affect the poor.

David Cameron calls for a "culture change" to tackle global warming.

The EU announces new energy plans.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Politics

Floating on air and cutting emmissions at sea

A Danish helicopter pilot with a passion for sailing has developed a system that could cut the fuel consumption of cargo ships by 15%. It works by pumping air into a cavity under the ship, thus reducing drag. The extra cost of installing such a system on a brand new vessel would likely be paid for withing four years.

Technorati tag: Shipping

Charging for waste

The Local Government Association are proposing schemes to cut the amount of domestic waste. One possibility is to charge households more if they throw more stuff out. This will only work if there's a baseline amount of rubbish removal covered by Council Tax with rebates for those who produce less and charges for tose who produce more. And it wouldn't be the easiest thing to police.

A better idea, also hinted at, is to cut the amount of unnecessary material entering the house in the first place- fining manufacturers and shops whose products are over-packaged.

Technorati tag: Waste

Drivel in the Daily Telegraph

Janet Daley believes that Green policies are just a middle class plot to keep the 'umble workin' man down. Just in case they, like the Daily Mail, won't publish comments that are too sensible to fit their world view, here's my reply-

We have these things called feet, and there's a wonderful invention known as the bicycle. Intelligent use of these allows far more efficient access to the "metropolitan existence" than a car ever could, whilst saving enough money to more than cover any increased cost of longer journeys.

The call is for people to consume less. This, some fail to recognise, saves money. The poorer members of society will benefit more from it as energy costs are a greater proportion of their expenses. If Janet Daley really cares about the welfare of ordinary working people she should be calling for carbon trading and more energy saving measures to give them the boost they deserve.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Snowmen against global warming

Students in Oslo created a small army of plywood snowmen demonstrating against global warming, and placed them outside the Parliament buildings.

via BoingBoing

Technorati tag: Snowman, Norway

Meet the Green party's male principal speaker"

Derek Wall is the leader of the English Green party, or would be if they went in for such titles, and the only party head to be banned from every Tesco store in the country.

There's an interesting statistic in the profile.

Asked to name one or more other parties that they might support, Conservatives polled were much more likely to choose the Liberal Democrats or the Greens than parties such as UKIP.

Some 32% of Tories say they might vote Lib Dem and 19% say Green.

Technorati tag: Green Party, Green Party

Big, dumb and fading away

The sales of urban 4 wheel drives, and hopefully other oversized thirsty cars, look set to continue dropping as fuel economy becomes an important factor in purchases.

It's refreshing news, especially as, on top of all their other sins, they encourage bad driving in their owners.

Technorati tag: SUV, Road Safety

The Guardian's list of the top ten Greenest councils

Sadly, Manchester is nowhere on this list of the top ten Greenest councils and the twenty next best.

Technorati tag: Council, Green

Fighting Climate Change down on the farm

A collection of environment and agriculture related items from the BBC today-

David Cameron wants Britain's food labelling laws changed so UK farmers can benefit from "food Patriotism".

A project has launched to highlight the potential opportunities, as well as the dangers, of climate chenge for farmers.

The next generation of biofuels, one of the opportunities the above project will no doubt be looking into.

A conference on boosting the recycling of farm waste in East Anglia.

Technorati tag: Agriculture, Biofuel, Food Miles

Taking on the climate sceptics

No matter that the mass of evidence points to climate change being real and influenced by mankind, there are still some who won't accept it. The few dissenters get funding and far more airtime than their minority views deserve, without really saying anything of any substance. So Britain's leading climate scientist is calling on them to put up or shut up and present their arguments against global warming for consideration by their peers.

You can follow the debate, and even participate, at www.nerc.ac.uk.

Technorati tag: Global Warming