Oh, the buzzing of the bees

... in the cigarette trees......(From 'The Big Rock Candy Mountain'). Maybe a sound that you will not hear that much in the future, and that is a cause for great concern, as our little friends, the bees, in their many species, appear to be in almost terminal decline. Full report from the Indy.

So what? I hear many of you ask. Well, without bees, a lot of our food crops will not be pollinated, and yields will drop dramatically. So they are, kind of, errrrm, rather important to humanity.

The article explains how CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder), which has devastated parts of the USA, has since hit Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece hard too. Now it seems to be spreading into the UK. And the cause of CCD? There is some research which now points the finger at mobile phones. The suggestion is that mobile phone signals somehow interfere with the bees navigation systems; they are unable to find their way back home, and they die.

Yet another serious enviro issue to worry about. And that's NOT tongue in cheek!

Bee-minus?

NEW - (Junkk Male) I was not aware of it at the time or I'd have picthed in, but here's a response from No10 to a petition on this topic.

What goes down, can come up

Is it just me, but wouldn't it make a wee bit more sense not to chuck it out in the first place?

High price of plastics raises prospect of rubbish mining in dumps

I must be sitting on a gold mine (just personally - what Junkk.com is set up to offer by way of getting people paid by those willing to fork out cash rather than a fine seems an opportunity, too!

Britain's bin baron says: get recycling like the Germans

Recycling: mining muck

The hidden cost of recycling - now that sets a cat in even my own set of enviROI notions!

PRW - Mining for plastic in landfill within a decade

MRW - NEW - Councils miss out on "green gold"

Everything is relative, I guess

And I know that it's hard to reduce things as populations expand (even if economies might not be).

But...

After all the bazzillions spent on system and 'awareness' comms budgets, do these figures look good to you on an ROI and/or enviROI basis?

Defra says results show waste policy progress

Household waste is down from 25.8m to 25.6m tonnes;
Waste sent to landfill is down from 16.9 to 15.8m tonnes;
Average household recycling rates increased to 33.9%; and
Municipal waste reduced overall from 29.1m to 28.8m tonnes.

From the country that brought you 'bring out your dead...'

You have to admire the official optimism of some town hall policy wonks..

Manchester: Bring in bins to stop fire starters

'Entertain your kids. Impress your friends! A bin in the hall is a sure sign that you have the health of our balance sheet well up on the agenda, and the heck with smell or hygiene or space!'

Bless.

Numbers game

Just love it when arts and science meet

The oxygen crisis

I live in hope that just one liberal media outlet will hire someone who didn't do classics for Oxford of History of Social Work and Knitting at Kingston Poly.

Switch. But what to?

Our environmental concerns are on standby

Have to agree with (almost) all posters here, especially if the stats stand up, which makes it a very useful blog.

FWIW I charge my phone besides my desk and off it goes the moment it's 'done'.

Not for great enviro reasons, but a warm transformer is a penny-sucking transformer.

At current mobile usage, even if left on 24/7 (and with the alarm on - what's the carbon footprint of an additional, new bedside clock?) that's about 3hrs per week.

We also only do the washing at weekends and so that's off as soon as done (killed off the dryer years ago).

Even the dishwasher* is off before the 'drying' light goes out. At post wash heat opening the door and leaving a while seems to do as well.

A £5.99 gizmo on the TV/SKY/DVD combo plugs seems to kill 'em all pretty well without having to risk life and limb getting into the back-end spaghetti.

But I do totally agree that there is no excuse for these aspects not to be designed in.

ps: Having had a problem I had an eye-opening chat with my engineer. He reckoned the eco-setting was anything but. 5 degrees cooler but two hours longer. Plus the lower temp on appliances means the seals and pipes end up clogged more often and require him called out more often and bits being replaced.

If true, hardly seems very sensible ROI or enviROI even to me, more like another type of 'washing', if you know what I mean:)

Careful what you campaign for...

How I became an 'enviro-criminal'

First they came for the plastic bags, but I did not give Sir Stuart his 5p...

At least we can count on the Guardian not to leap on any ban-wagons that may lead to more fines and... oh.

Imagine if they decided travel ads were out, and car mags (like AutoTrader).

And a side order of getting your own house in order with that...

Fish on film: can it stop the waste?

Phew, at least they aren't targets. Think of the waste then!

And a side order of agenda with that...

Junk food ‘makes toddlers learn slower’

Too many Big Macs as a kid I guess, but to me it would have scanned better as '... more slowly'.

Also, is it just me, or does this just slightly look like the kind of 'report' we're going to be 'fed' (excuse pun) a fair bit from now on to help shape our actions in a better direction?

I'm all for sharing positives to encourage, but less keen on negatives to spin up scares. Especially if they backfire.

Money talks, losers walk

I have used them and abused them. But have also been used and abused.

Awards. Can't PR much without them; but waste so much trying to deal with them.

And really, what are they really there for, other than to use those who enter, and those like them (plus a pliant, culpable media and gullible audience) to make money?

Who pays... wins.

Wonder wall

Saving the planet by the pound

Soon we will be off on hols.

After a few years camping and a bit of relly duty, it has to be admitted that we are going somewhere sunny (actually also in the vicinity of terrorist bombing, and outbreak of hemorrhagic fever, a 2,000 sqm forst fire and small war) as the kids want to swim, the missus wants sun and I want to eat fun food.

So, what to do?

Well, reading this, in the absence of outright bans (yet), maybe an interim advocacy would be that airlines charge by the pound/kg.

However, there is slight self-interest at work here. Other than the missus' unmentionables and unneccesaries (actually very little compared to some of the fairer sex), other than Speedos* and toothbrushes for me and the boys we are struggling to fill one 20kg suitcase. Oh, and other than yours truly, the rest of the family swings in at about another me.

*There is a limit to what I will bare, and the planet could bear

These boots were made for walking around

They of course should have been my natural habitat from day one.

But somehow, for all the usual silly, untrue reasons... 'not enough time', etc... I have not been to one in an age.

Then, this weekend, the combination of a dead house and too early to disturb slumbering family, I donned my rucksack and pedalled off to our nearest one.

Awesome! A good few hundred stalls laid out in the cattle market. Yes, there were a few that erred on the tat (hey, they were selling, so the missus will be happy if I am inspired to purge ours... if not because it will be to make way for more Junkk), but there were some real finds at bargain prices.

I managed to get a 30cm vernier caliper and a micrometer to help with my Junkk data uploads.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to work them (I used to know, but with my eyesight the digital readout ones are a lot easier and I have gotten lazy).

If it works here...

Like most, I have a gas boiler (yes, I'll be nice, Mr. Putin). And outside is its vent.

Now, just I have never been able to figure out why all those pictures of oil rings and refineries had the stuff burning off without being used, I have often wondered why what seems (all due efficiencies inside) a lot of heat going out cannot be reused back in.

Now, one plan I had was to deflect it to waft over the car windscreen so in winter it is ice free.

Trouble is there a lot of vapour and well, it's also poisonous.

However, speaking of cars and exhausts, this looks interesting:

GM recycles exhaust into power

'Aving a bath Mother? Old up, I'll do a quick couple of blogs while you're running it'.

Me old bamboo..

Another possibly dodgy belief-set pricked:

They really need a 'stuff hierarchy', especially in the world of green, across all consumer categories.

In the world of textiles I had cotton just above whale foreskins down at the lower ends (excuse pun), but right up there at the top, along with hemp and Katherine Hammett bags I thought there was bamboo.

Pandering to the green consumer

Or... not.

Perhaps we should ask the flora and fauna?

This from Science Daily reports on research into the habitat boundaries of plants and animals in N. America.

It would appear that lots of species of flora and fauna are moving their habitat boundaries northwards (and in some cases, upwards) at an observable rate (we are talking decades here) as the planet's climate warms.

Now that's really strange, because I keep reading comments in posts on climate change that insist that the planet is actually cooling.

Maybe we should give Dr. Dolittle a call?

Spin

Phillipe Starck's Designer Wind Turbine

Without that name attached I doubt it would have rated a column inch anywhere, nor indeed would I be commenting.

But it does present an interesting, if rather worrying, insight in what that is 'green' gets done, and covered, that may or may not be actually worth a damn.

I have to say that my initial reaction to his 'conversion' was 'well, at least the profile of trying is worthy and if style will make 'em try, why not?', but then I looked at the thing, and the claims made for it, and started to wonder about the substance. And enviROI.

I'll leave the piece, and some very pertinent thread comments in reply, to speak on.

Times - Philippe Starck turbine creates green juice for homes - Nice of 'em to catch up

Greenbang - NEW - Designer Philippe Starck tarts up turbines

The world according to Starck...

Now. He's told the Times. And The Times has told this august tome. And, as is the way, you have now told us. According to what I have read.

Has anyone popped out to check the enviROI on this thing?

I have heard that it might be a wee bitty more style than substance, and the planet is running like a UK Olympic diver in the actual 'doing some good 'rankings.

It would be nifty to find out what the actual facts are. As with a possible IKEA solar panel, after my B&Q wind turbine temptation, there may be that which looks good, does their profits good, but by golly isn't all it's cracked up to be at end of t'day.

Do you hate junk mail?

Like most of us, the answer is almost certainly yes.

Now there is another good reason for detesting that pile of useless paper that drops through your letter box each week. This from BusinessGreen.com suggests that junk mail, just in the USA alone, has a carbon footprint equivalent to some nine million cars!

Now that sounds like a great reason for banning unsolicited junk mail to me! (Unless you've elected to opt in to receive it.)

Basking in a green glow

I was going to let it wash over me, but seeing a global PR campaign at work can be a scary thing.

IKEA to Sell Solar Panels, "Smart" Meters

This has to be the nth article on the topic I have seen today, from Sydney to Seattle.

Now, on balance, fair enough. However this also comes on the day I am reminded about the last home eco outing that has proven 'interesting', namely wind turbines.

So my envIROI meter is twitching again.

I just hope the company, and those who will buy from it, have and/or will do their homework very carefully before leaping.

I have but scratched the surface on the solar industry and its potential to me as a consumer, but one thing I already know is the first few 'toys' I bought were a variety of panel that are good for a few yeast tops. Not so good for pocket of planet.

Worth bearing in mind as you wheel your trolley down the aisle and see a tantalising display that might not work out as well as you bargained. It has happened before, and I was one who almost made a rash decision in a B&Q with a windmill that looked so shiny and worthy.

Not saying it might not bring affordable options to the masses and be done right, but just be aware.

ps: Smart meters are OK, I guess, but I haven't looked at ours in an age. What I do use, a lot, is the wireless standby remote.

I stand, on terra firma, corrected

At least, so it would seem.

I have in the past been, if not a critic, then at the very least a tad dubious about some of the green noises being made around sending a bunch of rich tourists up to space for a Kodak moment atop a column of greenhouse gasses.

Virgin Galactic is one giant leap for the well-heeled

'Incidentally, the carbon dioxide emissions of a passenger on a spaceflight will be roughly 60pc of those of a passenger on a regular London-New York flight, with Galactic working with engine manufacturers Pratt & Whitney towards eventually flying the aircraft on renewable jet fuel.'

Renewable jet fuel? That's a new one on me.

Anyway, see... in fact, it is saving the planet. Says so in the brochu... Telegraph.

Now, who'dathunk?

Recyclers are cashing in on the fortune in your bin

Times - NEW - Local councils find that it's waste not, want not with rubbish

Times - NEW - Rubbish is fast becoming the new gold as cost of raw materials rises

WRAP - NEW - Barriers to recycling at home - Worth bearing the above in mind as you read this