Talk about an incentive!

Which, as you know, floats my eco-boat! Try this: Cycling assessed at 20p a mile by IR.

And it's a tad better on the running costs, too. Like £1.08 a litre better, last time I looked.

NEWS/MEDIA PR - The Woman Who Stops Traffic

A new category for when I get a potentially worthy bit of PR about a media event (eg: TV programme) that may be worth a gander.

All the usual caveats as to possible green bandwagon vs. enviROI value apply, I for now simply cut & paste editted highlights as provided.

The Woman Who Stops Traffic

Get On Your Bike to Pledge Regional C02 Emissions Cuts

To coincide with the start of a compelling new three part series – The Woman Who Stops Traffic – Channel 4.com/green is launching an interactive map of the UK to track which region can come out on top for CO2 emission savings.

The online interactive UK map highlights the amount of CO2 emissions people can prevent in their region if they walked, cycled or used public transport to do any daily journey. Users can pledge how many times they will do a journey without the use of the car (based on the output of an average family car) and their CO2 prevention will be added to the map for their region.

The site will go live on the 26 February.

The heroine is one Kris Murrin, who says: “I’m not anti-car. I’ve got three kids. I’m a family of five. I’m not exactly going to be able to do a huge weekly shop on my bike. But the thing that bugs me is that a lot of people get into their car without even thinking ‘Is there another way I could do this journey?’”

May be worth a gander.

CATEGORY - THE GREELEETS

New category. Stands for 'Green Elites', and isn't meant in a good way.

Don't mind anyone with money, power, privilege or media connections caring about the planet.

Do mind, awfully, when it comes across as just more than a little insincere, disconnected from reality, exclusive, up-a-pedestal, self-indulgent, etc...

And more about filling some column inches with one's life to impress one's mates, than any real effort at making a difference. Ok, yah?

Times - A green battle at home

Just wondering... does one know any eco-hapless couples who live in a Midlands flat, but whose weekend options might not have included hunting the lesser-spotted Bruni on the estate?

Nothing like a bit of balance...

...but you can just end up coming down on neither side: Tories ditch green taxes

See, this blog is balanced; we think they are all useless. However, it would be nice to see one of the sorry crew in Westminster (Greens excepted) take a principled stand and stick to it, whilst finding ways to balance the two 'E's (see labels).

Killing two birds with one turtle?

I think I a mixing a saying with the death of a famous Greek, but hey.

Our national broadcaster's commitment to news.. and global warming: Slow news day

Slow.... Tell me about it!

I tuned into BBC Breakfast about 10 times this morning over 90 minutes, and every single time all I ended up with was some BBC brunette airflown in to flounce around the post-Oscar bashes.

It was obviously getting desperate as they they couldn't find any frocks on anyone remotely relevant to talk about, so they decided on talking about hers.... again... and again.

Licence fee issues, what licence fee issues? Climate change? What climate change?

I'm surprised they didn't do the turtle thing (missing irony is pretty common with the BBC when it comes to 'global warming'), but given their commitment to serious journalism I am sure they could have got one on a skateboard eventually.

More talk, and more targets

An interesting article from The Indy, highlighting the fact that the new housing minister, Caroline Flint, will announce later this week that ALL new 'non-domestic' buildings must be zero carbon by 2020. On top of the existing commitment to ensure that all new domestic properties are zero carbon by 2016 (strange, I was convinced that they said 2012 when that was first announced), that's an extremely ambitious target.

Let's see. Targets set by pols tend not to be overtly fixed and have a common habit of changing over time. And I find it rather odd that this sort of announcement comes when the grants system for renewables seems to have been deliberately halted.

By the way, this article suggests that we were wrong about how many new builds had qualified for Ol' Golden's much lauded stamp duty exemption, they reckon it is only three!
_________________________________________
n.b. I will be exhibiting SolarVenti in the Green Shoots Pavilion at the EcoBuild show for most of this week. Peter, I am sure, will continue to dig up interesting items for your perusal whilst I am away.

CATEGORY - Fairtrade

It's seems a tad fraught, at best.

I frankly don't know.

But it seems worth having a new a category to see what's out there and try and get to a view.

Ch4 - Fairtrade: always a better deal?

Telegraph - Is Fairtrade fair?

Telegraph - Fairtrade fails to tackle poverty, report says

Indy - NEW - Fairtrade sales double to £500m as supermarkets join trend

AD - Energy Trust & Direct Gov

As some may know, I spent much of my life as an ad man.

So I know what it takes to get an ad in front of the right audience in the right way.

Beyond the vast amount of (expensive) person hours involved in creation and execution, there is also the huge media spend. Colour pages in Sunday papers do not come cheap.

So in the great enviROI scheme of things, I was just wondering what these two beauties were intended to do, and whether they even came close to doing whatever it was that was actually intended. And whether they were worth the money for a single inseration now decorating the bottom of a parrot cage, when that money could have been better invested, well, anywhere.

I defy anyone to tell me what the Energy Savings Trust one is about and what you are meant to do. The Direct Gov's message is clearer, but I remain unconvinced that this really will have motivated many to, well, do whatever they are on about.

This kind of advertising, at least in this form, is vanity stuff, pure and simple. At best it is serving to add a bit of profile to the various departments in some kind of comms budget p*ssing contest.

But with such executions there are no winners, and by diverting funds from where they could do much more good, there are a load of losers. Us.

Games people play

Just for fun, I popped a comment, somewhat tongue in cheek, into the Andrew Marr show comments section, after a rather, how to say, 'less than challenging' interview with Ken Livingstone. Just to see if they could tell when someone is being utterly ironic, and highlight the value (at least here), of such moderated comments when all you need to attribute is a name and location.

Don't know why they bother with any pretence, when they could pretty much write 'em themselves.

Anyway, it's good to know the London Mayoral leadership will be guided by the likes of the BBC, based not on celebrity or gesture politics or personality attacks, but with the actual records, words and deeds of the candidates and those they have surrounding them investigated thoroughly.

Or, as I neglected to add in my initial post, should I perhaps influence the moderators on its inclusion... not.

Bless.

'Awesome show today. Andrew really took to task and nailed Mr. Livingstone on all his claims, whilst teasing out the substantive issues that truly matter in helping voters make informed political decisions.
Peter, UK'

Mind you, you can never have enough 'support': What's at stake An interesting insight into the value of agenda-driven media (both right and left)

PROF'S POSER - Pixel reviver

I have been told of this rather clever notion which, if it works, seems a worthy mention in Junkk.com's more fromal REPAIR advisories: killdeadpixel

Bascially a means to restimulate dead pixels on a screen.

Before I give it a full blown big-up (which it may deserve), I was wondering if any IT whizzes had a view on possible pros and cons and value.

It's not like this life is working out so well

As my wife is an addict of online community 'Second Life' so this caught my interest: Searching for a new virtual life

I watched the programme, and what really piqued my interest was the notion that some are using such communities for virtual conferences. We're talking teh capacity for hundreds to 'attend', and then break out into groups.

This I find very exciting, especially bearing in mind my oft-cited lack of faith in the plethora of big-ticket mega-conferences, especially enviro-related, that seem to actively promote exclusivity and positively encouarges carbon excess.

I am now pondering this big-time with my notion of a genuine 'People's Gathering' where those that may really have worthy contributions can attend, be heard and contribute.

Cure or kill?

We are very lucky on this blog that, so far, there have been no extremes of posting requiring even a reaction, much less intervention.

As moderator, I am well aware of the responsibility. But also the various threast that exist.

Hence I was interested in this:

Why online communities attract trolls

I have allowed 'Anons' to comment before, mainly because they almost all have had a reasonable contribution. So I am erring on reserving the right to delete (whilst posting I have) without much compunction if someone uses 'anon' to hide behind a more extreme response.

But it seems idealistic to ignore that an adequate definition of what is trolling is hard to arrive at, and 'ignoring' them may be easier to advocate than do.

As I have written:

I must say I am intrigued that there seems to be general consensus that there is a mechanism by which a 'troll' can be identified... and dealt with on either an individual poster and/or moderator basis.

I fear I seem unable to do so, and hence often have to trawl though a load of dross, and counter-dross, to try and arrive at an objective view on what is being discussed.

I envy those who can short-cut the process.

CATEGORY - IDEAS SITES

Just had a few nice folk sign up on Junkk.com (despite our money-strapped, UK-centric registration) as a result of a nice post in a nice blog/site.

What better excuse to start a new category by listing it, (and, in time, all others I come across/get told about). Least I can do:

craftser - US-based. Broad spread of craft-based ideas. Nice search facility.
make - NEW

More depressing predictions ........

..... this time from a report allegedly leaked from the Pentagon and obtained by The Observer.

"A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world."

"'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life'."

The odd thing is that the Pentagon officials appear to be trying very hard to move Dubbya from his head in the sand (or should that be head up the *****'s of big oil?) standpoint on climate change and its potential influences on the population of our little lump of planetary rock.

"You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars"

I find many of these predictive reports a little scary, although I guess most of them really do attempt to forecast the worst possible scenario. But if this report genuinely originates from the Pentagon, then I find this one very worrying.

The other odd thing is the the report predicts that Britain will be gripped in a rising sea level problem whilst being gripped in a 'Siberian' climate. That suggests that scientists at the Pentagon are predicting that the Gulf Stream will cease.

While the planet warms, we will fall into ever warmer and drier summers, but with bitterly cold, freezing winters. It doesn't sound too good does it?

QUOTE OF THE DAY - Friggin' in the riggin'

Another from today's Newswatch...

Some snitty editor trying to weasel out of an enquiry as to why the nation's broadcaster managed to fail to cover the Chancellor's press conference at The Treasury (you'd have thunk they might have thought getting the BBC there might have been a plan. They certainly seem good at getting them on site with much less pressing issues of public concern, such as PM pontifications on football managers) on Northern Rock:

"It's hard to rig a press conference".

Oh, I don't know. They seem to do pretty well most of the time.

An insight into how we get our news

Just watched the BBC's high-profile (Not) mea-culpa progamme, Newswatch.

Moderated by 'Uncle Ray' Snoddy, there was a lady viewer/scientist on with one of the customary cabal of defensive News editors.

Boy, was she focussed. And boy, was he inadequate.

The issue was the reporting of a Govt. report on dealing with the health consequences of a warmer climate (different to 'global warming'). Bascially the BBC had managed to get this as two completely differing takes, depending on when and where one looked.

Ignoring the actual ramifications of basic premise this lady had, that it would be nice to hear some good news as we all know the bad stuff, I was frankly appalled at this editor's explanations and excuses.

For a start he seemed pretty clear that the BBC will mess with facts in any way it feels necessary, and somehow it's all OK as the viewer needs to flit between headlines and subsequent text, but also what's on broadcast screen and online, to try and arrive at what the actual situation is/might be.

Frinakly I am getting to the point that news has about as much value as fiction, let alone reasonable debate. As a public service they are totally compromised.

Has fish had its chips?

Well, it looks increasingly likely over the coming decades, according to this from Reuters.

Whilst we mentioned both the increasing numbers of dead zones and the proportion of the oceans affected by man on this blog only recently, this report suggests that "Climate change has compounded previous problems such as over-fishing, as rising temperatures kill coral reefs, threaten tuna spawning grounds, and shift ocean currents and with them the plankton and small fish which underpin ocean food chains."

"A deadly combination of climate change, over-fishing and pollution could cause the collapse of commercial fish stocks worldwide within decades"

Given that some 2.6 Billion of our planet's population pretty much depend on fish protein, things don't look too promising, do they?

I suppose they could always eat corn and wheat etc instead. Oh, I forgot, where such crops do continue to grow, they'll be using all spare output to make stuff to run cars on. I think I feel a bit of a dilemma coming on somewhere down the road.

Everything is relative

Just ask the Ancient Pharoahs where it got 'em!

Not quite how to categorise this: Porsche launches second attack on congestion charge rise

Having a dirty great 4x4 Cayenne Turbo in Islington is not perhaps the most eco-laundable thing in the world. So no great sympathy there.

Nor is thrashing around looking for another mode of transport to drag into the mire with you, as airlines are trying on with shipping now. But oh, the irony... 'The German car marque claims the amount of emissions saved in a year as a result of the charge will be equal to the emissions produced at Heathrow Airport in less than four hours.'

However, my greater concern is priorities. And that stat, if proven, speaks volumes about where our leaders' brains are at in seriously dealing with things rather than dicking around with showboat Planet Ban-Its.

LONDON - First business kerbside collection service for WEEE and batteries

This is a new category to tie-in with Junkk.com's postcode localisation facilities.

It's a pretty much posted 'as is/maybe a bit edited' press release, but as it's so what I want to see and share I can see no reason to get it up and out asap:

First business kerbside collection service in the UK for WEEE and batteries

The Enhance business support programme has helped instigate First Mile’s unique successful business kerbside waste collection service for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and batteries.

First Mile is recruiting about ten new clients a day, since it launched the service in December 2007. It now has about 200 businesses using its new service.

Bruce Bratley, managing director, First Mile, said: “We want to get every SME in London recycling by 2010. That may sound a tall order, but it’s easy with First Mile’s services. ”

First Mile’s popular collection service provides London businesses with a package of storage sacks: a box of five WEEE sacks – £25 each – and one for dry cell batteries – £20 each. The sacks have been specially designed for heavy, rigid materials and can hold up to 25kg. Bulky WEEE is also collected; businesses simply slap a sticker (£25 each) on the item and call First Mile to collect the items outside their premises.

First Mile provides customers with consignment notes for hazardous waste and duty of care for all waste collected. Staff at First Mile are also undergoing training to separate the collected WEEE into equipment that can be reused or recycled.

EC Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) aims to minimise the impact of electrical and electronic goods on the environment, by increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill. It seeks to achieve this by making producers responsible for financing the collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and by obliging distributors to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge.
The WEEE Directive entered into force in the UK on 2 January 2007 with full producer responsibility from 1 July 2007.
www.berr.gov.uk/sectors/sustainability/weee/page30269.html

The Batteries Directive

The Batteries Directive was published in the Official Journal on 26 September 2006. The UK and all other Member States now have a deadline of 26 September 2008 to transpose the provisions into national law.
The Directive seeks to improve the environmental performance of batteries and accumulators and of the activities of all economic operators involved in the life cycle of batteries and accumulators, eg producers, distributors and end users and, in particular, those operators directly involved in the treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators.
When the Directive is transposed in the UK, the Directive will reduce the quantity of hazardous and non hazardous waste batteries going to landfill and increase the recovery of the materials they contain.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/batteries/index.htm

Links:

First Mile
First Mile provides easy recycling sacks for mixed waste, IT & electronics, batteries and confidential destruction. It also provides low cost, no hassle rubbish collections.
All prices include sacks, delivery, collection, disposal, recycling and compliance.

Enhance
Enhance is the support service for green enterprises in London. It helps develop businesses and social enterprises that reduce London’s waste, reuse resources or work with recycled materials.

London Development Agency (LDA)
The London Development Agency (LDA) works to improve the quality of life for all Londoners and drive sustainable economic growth.

London Remade
London Remade is in the business of recycling, creating environmental solutions for a sustainable capital.

London Community Recycling Network (LCRN)
LCRN is dedicated to supporting and promoting community-based sustainable waste management activities, and make them the preferred solution – financially, socially and environmentally .

A Cautionary IT tale

Spam is a pain. A royal nuisance.

And there's a lot that can be done to deal with it.

Some useful. Some... less so.

Despite the vast amount I get, my personal preference is still to deal with it myself. Select a sender or topic column at the end of the day, highlight and hit delete. Usually catches a good 90% in one big net. And the few one-offs you can scope and zap in a blink.

Trouble is, some get their knickers in a twist at just one errant email. And because they scream like neutered cats, a load of folk, from government dow... up, a ton of folk like to meddle on our behalf.

Which means beyond my personal setting on my PC, there are additional intercepts prior to anything arriving at Junkk Towers, at the ISP.

Now it seems there are levels of severity that incoming emails can be challenged upon, with all sorts of clever gizmos to spot a Viagra sale or organ extension a mile, or at least 9" away.

Thing is, these keep getting 'upped', I presume because the spammers are getting cleverer at dodging 'em.

And becuase of this, you might find that something you wouldn't have minded seeing, or even expected, gets whacked before arrival... and you won't know it. Serious if it is a person to person email, but eqaully a pain - all round - if it is a newsletter you have signed up for (like the forthcoming Junkk.com effort..... don't ask).

I only became aware of this because I realised I was no longer getting the BBC daily... after several weeks!!! No comment on its value, becuase it is of great value... at least to stimulate a line of enquiry.

So I checked, and yes, it was now dormant becuase it was bouncing. So I asked my ISP and no, I couldn't see what was being bounced (and had been without me being asked or even told), but I could request a white list exemption. BBC now back in the fold.

Not very satisfactory, and a bit of a worry. And now I am trying to figure out what else I might not be getting (it's a bit like proving a negative) to get them approved, too.

So.. bear it in mind. And any who have signed up for the Junkk.com newsletter... when it comes... soon... please ensure every mechanism to deafult stop it has been forwarned not to!