Sometimes you just have to sit back and appreciate the show

This is indeed a class war, and the campaign against the Aga starts here

Actually, some pretty good points being made, but I rather suspect this may get all rather lost as some whipping up a lasagne en route to the next protest won't see it that way.

And, as I now notice the sidebar, it just has to get more... 'interesting'....

This is something worse than class war

One I think I will observe, discretely from a distance. Whilst many Fiesta-driving, tabloid-buying MoPs (Members of the Public Striving) might well know nothing about the battle raging aroun.. above them.

First Self Trumpet Blow of the New Year (sorry)

I know green blogs are a bit of a bore when they talk about themselves all the time.

But I like to think we're pretty well balanced, and when something complimentary happens it does make you proud and feel like sharing.

This was a welcome surprise, and spin-off from our little Voucher Tree initiative from late last year, which did pretty well locally.

Well, it has spun off and gone a bit further, which is nice, all thanks to my Vac:Sac catching the eye of the Hereford Journal photographer.

It was also worth noting that in chatting with the reporter when she was researching the story, the link we now have with Poundland piqued her interest mote than a little, and cropped up more than once in the piece.

I think a New Resolution might be to get back in touch and a) do something jointly to help their customers 'green up' even more with Junkk.com, and b) PR the heck out of it!

Scary!

That was my reaction to this piece on CO2 absorption by the world's oceans in yesterday's Telegraph.

Evidence suggests that our warming oceans are no longer absorbing Carbon at the rates they used to, which just might point to the fact that climate change could well accelerate.

Buy pass

Of all the activist groups, I have found Greenpeace to be the most erratic to follow and/or support consistently.

Protest is very much the bedrock of a free society, and they have dealt in this for decades, pretty much always effectively but not, IMHO, always wisely.

As a rule of thumb, I am not in favour of anything that creates risk, breaks laws, incites violence or, and especially, efforts that selectively target and inconvenience poor schmoes just trying to get on with their lives.

With this latter at least, I usually wonder how the perpetrators would feel if their chance and a holiday or somesuch was ruined by a bunch of others who are often a tad selective about what they do and what they aim to stop.

However, smart ways of raising profile that hit the pockets evenly by being more targeted at corporates and governments (it all ends up back in our wallets no matter what, let's not forget) are, when done well, to be admired.

Hence I think the purchase of a parcel of land in the way of the proposed 3rd runway, to be divided into mini-plots, to be very smart.

Not quite so sure on some of the justifications being used (the spokesperson was very inarticulate and hence less than persuasive in soliciting public support on SKY news just now), and again the choice of celebrity messengers (a few of the luvvies being against this seem quite well travelled, and indeed seem more concerned with what was going on over their West London homes than sea levels in the Maldives), but this is one worth following to see how the various protagonists handle it all (I see Mr. Brown in a dithering funk, the business community tying itself in contradictory 'good for the community' knots and the activists getting more radical and losing public sympathy pretty quickly... all per usual).

BBC - Protesters buy up Heathrow land

Irony Alert - A picture is worth a 1,000 words

Peter in Greenland

A silent prayer from the media scrum covered the religious group paying for climate action.

Check the picture captioned 'At the end of the trip, Peter flies home...'

I can't believe it wasn't staged. Very subtle if so. Or maybe he just got on the, er, plane first or off last.

21 today

20 big green ideas

Personally, I think reuse is a neat extra one to consider:)

It has emerged...

This is less about wind power than media reporting, though it is obviously the topic featured too...

A small complaint

I am still prepared to be convinced on the enviROI of the whole national endeavour, but when I don't trust government and can't reply on the MSM, I have to say that when the latter get nailed like this my scepticism level has to creep up a notch higher.

To 'er'...divine. Well, better than nothing.

CES 2009: Greenpeace says gadgets could be greener

Not exactly the best start to the year

Why waste authorities are a lot of rubbish

Sadly, the commenters so far are a wee bit more concerned about the misuse of mobiles, than our seeing yet more decision-making, and accountability, hived off to yet another quango.

Is this really what is taking place?

No point asking my MP as he's out to lunch having decided a year ago to quit next election, which has resulted in 'interesting' representation.

Fly me to the moon

I think it's one venue as yet unexplored.

UN Climate Conference: The countdown to Copenhagen

I'm sorry, I got as far as '15,000 officials from 200 countries (officials, advisers, diplomats, campaigners and media personnel)' to start losing faith.

When I saw the rallying cry is back to 'global warming' I pretty much gave up.

Value judgements

Regular readers know I often bang on about enviROI of projects.

Well, now there's another one in the mix:

Chance for social enterprise to be more enterprising

I wish them well.

But I can see it being a lot trickier than enviROI which, despite allowing for the option of a person to be content with losing money for an environmental benefit, still is pretty grounded in numbers plus and minus.

I don't envy trying to put a figure that means much on many possibly socially beneficial projects.

Beating the crunch

Sadly, not the credit crunch this time:(

However, in the spirit of 'it's good to share', and my last car-borne outing had a relatively happy outcome (our re-engined Golf doing sterling work as we speak... long may it continue to do so), let's try again.

Monday was, according to the Daily Telegraph, 'the most stressful day of the year.' Well, yes, I could get around to accepting that.

For this was the day my tropics-trained missus met black ice for the first time, and that's one postbox that won't be taking mail for a wee while.

Now it was an incredibly slow impact, as even the airbags didn't go off.

And, though it really... really looks worse in the picture, after a quick gander my hopes were raised.

Sure, all the crumple zones had done what they were meant to, but as far as I could gather, beyond the front, bonnet and a few important bits of engine that bore the brunt, it was all in one piece. And nothing major bent any further back.

Sadly, this seems not enough to be worth saving to the counters of beans at my insurers. I guess the cost of mending came in above the cost of slipping us the road value and, well, money talks.

So again I am presented with a series of dilemmas that span the whole gamut from enviro to eco.. nomic.

Take the money and get a replacement? If so, maybe an existing LPG? Or try and 'save' it. I am not sure what one can do, but assuming they give me the write-off value I can still 'buy' it from them and then try and fix it. But... is it worth it?

Another journey is embraked upon which I'll share....

UPDATE

The plot thick... well, goes further downhill.

It really is not worth trying to save. It can be fixed, but to do so would take something like £5k, and that's to end up with a car 'worth' £1300 (according to the nice man from Norwich Union - I then had to spend all day yesterday 'proving' it was worth more, and ended up in some bizarre Marrakesh-market haggle. Not what I expected from a top insurer).

I am now on the trail of some dual/bifuels, and they do seem to be like hen's teeth. Especially at the budget I have set. A further 'complication' is that having chatted with a few garages they seem to think getting a factory-fitted option is much safer to a retro-fitted kit version, and that reduces things a lot more. So far all I am seeing is a few Volvos.

The hunt continues....

ET, recycle that phone...

Wind turbine destroyed after 'octopus UFO' seen in sky

Interesting possible explanation from the media to this incident.

I wonder if advanced cultures have no knowledge of wind turbines; hence the unfamiliarity leading to the impact (though after a few billion miles dodgy asteroids I'd have thought a turbine blade might be easily dodged).

Maybe they looked at the enviROI? Not sure being unable to cope with ice is too encouraging, what with the climate change we're experiencing.

I wonder if the actual reason will be shared? If it is mundane I doubt it.

Gaurdian - UFOs crashing into wind farms: has the Guardian solved the mystery? - QED

Telegraph - 'UFO' turbine debris sent to German forensic scientists

Times - We just can’t get enough of those little green men - best explataion yet as 1st comment to this

One can but hope...

Will We Be Green in 2009?

Some interesting, and encouraging (I was about to shut up shop) signs for genuine green initiatives as far as the consumer is concerned.

Quite a lot bears out what we've been banging on about anyway.

Or... we could end up with a multimillion £ recycling campaign when they have nowhere to put what they've got already, and a bunch more 'our CEO drives a 7litre hydrogen-powered limo', like that has any end-benefit value or relevance to the poor consumer trudging the aisles.

What do you reckon?

There is a free report available.

enviROI is even more important now

Catching up on the last few weeks' papers' 'green' pages has not been fun.

Not just because the news is pretty dire, but more because of many authorities reactions to it.

There are too many to post here, but just as an example of situation and reaction...

Telegraph - First glimpse of rubbish mountains caused by recycling industry slump

Daily Mail - Recycling crisis: Taxpayers foot the bill for UK's growing waste paper mountain as market collapses

Telegraph - Waste Watch: waste, litter and wind turbines

Reduction and reuse anyone?

Numbers games

I am guided in the value of much that is 'green' by enviROI.

Whilst based on a rather less than thrilling hypothetical (I hope) concept, I found this, and the comments provoked... interesting:

The carbon footprint of nuclear war

First Irony Alert of the Year

And, bless, it goes to.... The Guardian...

Tell Obama what his inauguration means to you and win a ticket to the proceedings

Winners will be given airfare...

New Year recycling

While I was away I noticed something that I couldn't resist commenting on...

Next year on Newsnight ... possibly the return of Ethical Man.

If you are doing another 'Ethical Man', while I appreciate all the useful information that was/is/will be shared to help make informed environmental commitments, it would be useful if the options laid out are balanced and have the full enviROI consequences, pro and con, laid out. Try finding a reporter qualified to report and challenge the issues, and able to appreciate the irony of standing on ice floes to which they have flown, to decry the consequences of the rest of 'us' flying.

So.. no more 'analysts', please.

Plus, as purely personal opinion, when it comes to the gimmick, I do rather question the eventual message sent out that whatever a family does commit to can be picked up and then dropped once the show run is over. That rather errs on 'do as we say, and did for a wee while because it ticks a box'. A planet is for life, not just a special segment.

I think the facts, and objective consequences, being laid out will suffice.

And if a Newsnight twofer is still deemed necessary, might one hope for more moderate (or at least a change from the usual researcher's speed-dial suspects) debaters be invited to discuss any disputed issues?

A Plane Stupid or Greenpeace spokesperson vs. a big oil or airline lobbyist frankly leaves the likes of me stuck in a no man's land as the two extremes trade global warming absolutes at each other.

You can't appreciate the subtle hues of green if they are only presented in black or white. Much like most other topics.

Serve the interests of the public (those who can only afford small hatchbacks rather than Priuses), not market rate pay grades driven by ratings.

Carbon Negative Cement?

Sound a bit far fetched?

Given that cement, the backbone of almost all of mankind's basic building blocks, accounts for some 5% of global CO2 emissions (that's more than the entire aviation industry), any breakthrough in reducing the cement industry's emissions ought to be very welcome.

Well, step forward a new cement from Novacem that not only reduces CO2 emissions during production, it also absorbs CO2 as it hardens, arguably making it carbon negative. Full story from Aggregate Research.

"Novacems cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative. "

It will be very interesting to see just what the EnviROI of this new product might be, but it sounds to me like it could be a BIG winner, not just for Novacem, but also for the environment.

The clue is in the headline

Rubbish answers

Looks like the box ticking and target meeting is going great already.

Shame about the enviROI.

I still think reduction and reuse might be better than mnay of the efforts devoted to recycling.