Full Coverage: Climate change

30.12.2005 It is easy and financially rewarding for individuals to have a positive impact on climate chaos. This section explains how you can help by saving energy and lowering your carbon emissions - and in return you could save money.

30.12.2005 It's the people, stupid. But who exactly?

30.12.2005 A detailed insight into the science behind global warming and climate change. The impact of recent climate reports are explained in a no-nonsense language as are many of the common terms and phrases often used by the press and politicians alike.

30.12.2005 from Peter Armstrong's blog:
The day arrives... After all the weeks of preparation, Dean from ICE Energy arrived this morning for the commissioning of the heat pump system.

The sequence was: check all the plumbing and electrics and then add glycol to both the ground loops. But will it work?

29.12.2005 Princeton's Robert Socolow has created a very useful concept he calls "stabilization wedges" to illustrate the idea that we need a combination of approaches to climate change.

With stabilization wedges, a multitude of projects, from efficiency to de-carbonization to sequestration and more, combine to reduce overall carbon emissions, a task that at times can seem impossible. Individually, the wedges are difficult but achievable. As Scolow is quoted by the Economist, this approach "decomposes a heroic challenge (eliminating the emissions in the stabilisation triangle) into a limited set of merely monumental tasks."

Check out his very graphic animation explaining the concept - and showing that smart ways of living at home can produce a saving of a billion tonnes of CO2 over the vital next 50 years.

29.12.2005 from The Energy Blog:
Green and Gold Energy, Australia, is about to launch its innovative Sunball solar device.

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It's a meter across and tracks the sun automatically during the day. This appliance is claimed to be able to produce electricity at prices competitive with the grid, with a cost of US$1,100 per unit or US$3.33/W. Exports are expected in summer 2006.

28.12.2005 Environmentalists and business leaders are applauding politicians in seven northeast U.S. states for forming an alliance to mandate greenhouse gas emission reductions while keeping costs down.

23.12.2005 The UK is to spend £3.5 million over three years researching "clean coal" technologies with China with the aim of developing power stations that emit less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

21.12.2005 Santa's snowy home is in danger of melting well before the end of this century, unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut drastically, warns a leading environment group.

18.12.2005 From Peter Armstrong's blog:
At last we are underway with our heat pump system. The instruction manual says: dig trench, lay pipe, pressure test and backfill. But it ain't that easy. We've got excellent JCB drivers, Diddy and Richard, working with our long-time builder, John. We plan a route across the lawn and through the wood that gives us the necessary 400 metres of trench.

We've decided to cut a nine inch trench for each pipe, rather than a 1 metre trench for a pair, because of the amount of extra digging. It starts well, but we immediately hit problems.

17.12.2005 For my upcoming flight to Nairobi and Lusaka, Key Travel report that I will be producing 4 tons of CO2. To offset this I’m offered options for planting trees in Mexico or Uganda. I’ve chosen the Bushenyi District in Uganda where they say they are planting of mixed native woodlot for timber, including mahogany, cedar, African cherry, laurel, and silk trees, with boundary planting for fuel wood and fruit. My offset costs £16.43.

17.12.2005 From Mark Porthouse's blog:
Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) are earnt by green/renewable energy suppliers for the energy they create from hydro, wind, tidal energy sources.

So, simply put, if you buy one ROC (and do not sell it on) then you are forcing the energy market to produce a certain amount of energy from renewable sources. In fact one ROC is given for every megawatthour (mWh - 1,000kWh) of electricity generated from renewable sources. It is perhaps typical for a family home to use around 5mWh of electricity per year.

17.12.2005 Detailed pictures of photovoltaic arrays installed on the roof of St James Church, Piccadilly, London in November 2005.

The 44-panel PV system is estimated to generate 4,100 KW hours p.a. and save about 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

17.12.2005 From Andii Bowsher's blog:
Looks like a dream come true for run-around purposes. Less good for taking the family on holiday, but that's not so frequent.Got to remember that the average journey in the UK is 8 miles and one person is usually in the vehicle ... electric car with a minute TCO.

GoinGreen :: G-wiz :: Automatic Electric Vehicle

17.12.2005 From TreeHugger:
The Guardian asked ad agencies to spread the message of global warming out to the populace at large, instead of ‘buy more, buy more’. From Soul, an advert “inspired by the government's chief scientist Professor Sir David King's claim that the threat to the planet from global warming is greater than that posed by terrorism.”

17.12.2005 Alternative Energy Blog:
A miniature urban wind farm is being built on top of a 13-storey building in Manchester city centre using micro wind turbines.

The 24 turbines, which will stand 3m tall, will be erected on top of the CIS building on Portland Street. The turbines will produce 56,000 units of renewable energy each year, enough electricity to service about 5% of the energy needs of the building.

17.12.2005 The mini power station will start operating at the four bedroomed Berwickshire Housing Association house at Gunsgreenhill next month for a 12 month trial period and the energy system has been approved to European standards .

"It uses an electro chemical device to convert hydrogen into electricity and heat and after it's installed what you have is a mini power station in your property," explained Alastair Brown, Berwickshire Housing Association's director of operations.

17.12.2005 From Grownupgreen:
MYTH: We can meet our international obligations on climate change and still have unrestrained growth in aviation and airports

FALSE! Aviation is the UKÂ’s fastest growing source of CO2 emissions and by 2010 the increase in emissions from aviation would wipe out the GovernmentÂ’s Kyoto and domestic reductions programme. (House of Commons Environment Audit Committee)

17.12.2005 John Nicholson's blog:
My wife is a nurse and she had to get to theatre early the next morning. The hospital in Bangor was twelve miles away and there were no busses that early. So I set to and made up my own form of diesel substitute by testing all kinds of oil I had in the house, including some vegetable oil. To my amazement the car went very well on this form of fuel, and I have been improving the recipe ever since.

16.12.2005 Interesting piece in the Guardian about a new mini wind turbine made in Scotland by Windsave. It’s said to produce 1kW in a 12 m/s wind. In our case it would only contribute a little, but at only £750 it’s worth it if only to experiment with and offset a little of the increased electricity use with the heat pump. What makes it possible for Hedgerley is that it is barely above the roof height, doesn’t require planning permission and plugs straight into the existing electricity meter.