Thursday, April 30, 2009

Good day for ducks, and punts:)

CRC will impact on consumer habits, says carbon expert

In addition to reduction and recycling, it would also be great if consumer good suppliers also considered reuse in complement.

What would be interesting is how a component (and, by association, it's material) designated as reused would be viewed under this commitment.

Just imagine the benefits to not just landfill and consumers' pockets, but also manufacturers' and retailers' allowances, if tonnages destined only for the bin found viable second uses through being designed in for this purpose.

Sticks and stones may break my bones...

... but words can certainly freak you out.

I am minded of this in relation to climate change as the latest media furore surrounds swine flu, ably helped by officialdom.

I was hard-pressed today to equate the WHO-boss lady's 'We're all doooomed' with other talking heads saying it's best not to panic.

How many healthy folk have died of this so far? And vs. what in a normal period? Yet there seem to be quite a few headless chickens in the politico-media infirmament blowing money, and cred, on rather fruitless endeavours, from comms to kit.

Swine flu and hype – a media illness


For example: "We need someone to say it's all been overhyped," said BBC Wales.

'..it's interesting: because not only have the public lost all faith in the media; not only do so many people assume, now, that they are being misled; but more than that, the media themselves have lost all confidence in their own ability to give us the facts.'

Indeed.

Addendum:

This has coincided with a timely PR of some relevance, which I post here, E&EO...

How we in Britain manage flies on our waste mountains.

Environmental consultancy ADAS has carried out a project in Scotland entitled 'NO FLIES ON US'

When the owners of a Scottish landfill site received an upsurge in complaints
from local residents who blamed the landfill for the flies that were creating a
nuisance inside their homes, ADAS scientists were asked to investigate. Their
task was to ascertain fly numbers around the landfill site, and if possible,
where the flies were coming from.

They sought to determine through monitoring, information gathering and the creation of a
reliable evidence database, whether the problem was actual or perceived, if the
flies really did originate from the landfill site, and if so to determine how
far the problem might stretch, and what could be done to solve it.

The team reared 50,000 common houseflies, all at the same stage of pupation in
their life cycle. These were moved to the landfill site and buried in trays
containing sand mixed with an oil-based blue dye. The flies in the trays would
pick up small amounts of dye during their emergence process, and could therefore
be readily identified. Traps were then set at locations of varying distances
from the site and the flies caught analysed to see if they were dye marked.

The results showed that flies from the site were to be found only in relatively
close proximity. The data was not only used to determine the extent of the
problem, but also to determine trends. It could therefore also be used as an
early warning device to ascertain if a problem was on the horizon and allow pre
emptive measures to be put in place at an early stage.

Cranmer - Swine flu – the pandemic of fear

Guardian - NEW - Swine flu pandemic? It feels like a phoney war -

Daily Mash - NEW - SURVIVORS TO ENJOY GLORIOUS SUMMER, SAYS MET OFFICE - Bit rude at end!

Energy Consumption

An worthy investment of 5 minutes..

Cambridge Ideas: How many light bulbs does it take to change a man?

One thing I came away with is that, no matter how many bang on with silly, possibly 'feel good' distractions, with the demands of even a stable population, simple logic (forget climate change or Mr. Putin for a moment) dictates that a reduction in consumption is the prime target we should be pursuing.

Personally, on a domestic level I think every penny of funding should be going into quick-fix efficiency areas such as insulation in homes first, then reduction technologies. I would have been interested in how low energy bulbs might have influenced his home experiments, and what the full ground to ground enviROI of their promotion and use is.

But it also seems that the individual may have to accept the notion of consuming less. Not easy in a free, capitalist, consumerist, growing economy-obsessed system.

withouthotair.com