Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Auto - What's the other one?

Scoop two unique test-drives of environmentally friendly vehicles

"Remind me. Is this the one that I read about recently that all the green-pols and celebs are queuing up to ‘endorse’ (way cooler than a Prius); the one that will need a truck to follow it to fill up?
I love Hydrogen. All that comes out the pipe is water ‘n all (though I gather that water vapour is a greenhouse ‘gas’).
And anything that investigates this potential is a great thing (and how this piece was written). But.....
I implore any and all, from gushing ‘It’s electric... there’s no pollution. The electronic juice is made by magic’ TV anchors, ‘Look at me, I care’ rock stars and ‘I’m serious about this Green thing’ pols to not let us think that it is ANYWHERE NEAR an alternative for the common, driving person, yet. And let’s not forget the enviro cost of making a new car, too.
I am still trying to figure out whether buying a wind turbine is a daft financially and will only hasten my grandkids’ suntans.

Nice bike, though."

What we say. What we do.


Don't want to steal their thunder, but this from reuters (if you can find it) is interesting.

I did it. And so have a fair few others, around the world.

What stuck me was how consistent the results were. High 80's yes. Pretty much around the globe.

Now I've told you what I think, what can we do, Mr. Media?

Rubbish - How to save the planet - your starter for 1

It - It's a rubbish tax – and it won't work allowed comments!:

"Who, for instance, is going to tell whether all the rubbish in your bin is in fact yours, or has been dumped in your bin by your tax-avoiding neighbour?"

Good question. But I believe that this has already been answered - detection to fine and criminal conviction, though I'm not aware if there was any trial, burden of proof or anything. Until the appeal. It's done by 'officers', though I'm also not too terribly sure what their training, qualifications or levels of oversight are either. Bet they’re on a bonus, too, which means lobbing a nasty in the local beat bins will be a nice little earner for the cousin-in-law.

The law seems to have the same view, so thus far we have a ton more civil servants (salary, pension, redundancy or sidelining costs and stress-compo inc.), a few squillion more the legal profession (on whose tab?) and the net benefit to the global environment is.... please tell me.

And how many times does it have to be pointed out that it is the bigger picture that is vital at all times. Tokenistic target-meeting in a city (Ken, please note) isn't much good if it is shunted off to China, where they'll probably burn it and the CO2 will waft globally anyway.

Reduction is getting some major attention but is usually in heavy duty areas (ie: energy production) over the heads of most consumers. Well, me at least. I’m still trying to figure out whether buying a Prius or home wind turbine will bankrupt me and/or actually speed my grandkids’ demise.

Re:use and re:pair are much more re:warding to the individual, but most of the effort relevant to the re:areas as far as the public is concerned is causing grief. And with the best will in the world, recycling, while great, is not that tangibly rewarding in the home situation.

Make an Xmas trip to the Science Museum to see what else we can do to motivate folk by being on their side for a change, not shrill shrews, scolds or nannies:

http://www.danacentre.org.uk/events/2006/12/06/206

Air - What goes up.. probably has a down side

'Nightmare' expansion of British airports predicted

And I quote: "It is now time for those politicians who claim to have so-called green credentials to either put up or shut up.

"We accept that the UK economy and its people have much to gain from a successful aviation industry. But there is universal recognition that the aviation industry is one of the fastest growing contributors to global warming."

Booker Prizes - Recycling & Solar

Thre's an interesting commentator I have missed until now, which is a pity. He's called Christopher Booker (and chums), and he/they write(s) in the Sunday Telegraph. From his archive he's a bit of a scourge of 'Less than sensible' e-initiatives.

It's a rubbish tax – and it won't work

How does 'recycling' end up here?

Solar panels won't save the planet

A rich seam. I look forward to engaging with him/them.

Will It, er, work?

ITER - NUCLEAR FUSION PROJECT - The answer is... I hope so!

Telegraph.
Indy.

CARB(ON/OFF) - Carbon

I'm creating a new category soon on our internal filing and, soon, the site.

It's labeled, simply 'Carbon'. There's one other, equally simply labeled 'Climate'.

The titles are about all that's simple about them. As these two fill very soon get filled with a swathe of stuff.

Scheme to cut 'carbon footprint'.

In theory it looks good, but I sense it being hijacked by agendas. Look at home wind turbines.

And I love the quotes, look at what they are saying, and check what we have being banging on about for years (and other before us). Only they are on £250kpa, sit in the City and have a lot gain from flying to Bali to discuss all this.

Well, that's one way to deal with it - Energy

UK 'facing power cuts in decade’

Not much more to say, really. So I'll mention why that 'Energy' is bolted on the back there in the title.

The reason is I'm mucking about with e-filing, both internally and externally. I'm not sure if it will help readers, but it's there to assist search functions locating similar topics.

The Lengths Some Will Go To... [Airlines]

Left hand. Right hand.

The airlines have been coming in for a bit of stick lately with, some might say, good reason, at least global warming-wise.

And in response they have been 're:sponding' with initiatives, such as 'investing in bio-fuels' as claimed by Virgin.

So I was interested in this: Virgin in Mile High confusion Â… , and not for the rather puerile 'in humour' masquerading as business communication.

One area not so commented on much (other than by me), is the amount of space being devoted per passenger - majorsociooeconomicc stuff that is subject for another debate.

But I can't see lobbing a dirty great plane up in the sky with two people and a tennis court is quite the way to be heading.