Not normally somebody I agree with, but Clarkson’s piece to end the current series of Top Gear was quite special. I think he’s right - the best hydrocarbon powered vehicles (planes, trains and automobiles) have been built. Now it’s time for something different.
Nice music too.
I’ve got quite into the idea of publishing my energy use information, partly as a way of keeping tabs on what my big carbon emitting activities are, but mainly because I’m interested in learning how easy (or otherwise) it is to work out. I’ll publish it on the blog every month. If you know better ways of working out the CO2, let me know.
For the month of April 2009:
So Grand Total = 171.435 kg CO2
Things I’ve left out:
Saw one of these on my way to work this morning. Encouraging.
Just noticed that Andy’s TED talk is up explaining Do The Green Thing. I’m a big fan.
One of the possibilities we considered in the Retail Futures work I did with Forum for the Future last year was the idea of allotment produce trading. Well here it comes - VegExchange.com got a good plug on Broadcasting House this morning.
Just a quick post on the UK Government’s decision a couple of weeks ago to give the go ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations. The decision for me is a stupid one rather than a dangerous one - I’m not anti-nuclear for safety reasons - my main objection is that the Government has just reduced the chances of an entrepreneurial set of solutions to a secure low carbon energy future.
I think they’ve pushed investment in micro and renewable energy in the UK back by a decade. It’s an industry that could grow really rapidly, providing employment and massive value but now the money is going to go to a few big firms that will - however you try to cut the figures - end up being be publicly subsidised.
Actually, my guess is that by 2020 nuclear construction will have halted. There will be court case after court case, protest after protest (and by the way, there are also hardly any trained nuclear engineers in the UK). We will end up with a set of mothballed nuclear construction sites and collapsed companies who have invested billions. Somebody is going to pick up the bill and you can expect lawyers to make tens of millions of pounds over the coming years writing the liability contracts for all this. If it doesn’t bring down the energy companies, it will bring down their insurers. Or Government will pick up the bill.
It’s an awful decision that shows no foresight and no trust in green innovation or entrepreneurialism.
I’m at BarCampUKGovWeb today about how Government could best use technology and set itself up so that other people can use their data too. Best thing I’ve found out about so far is Farmsubsidy.org. I’ve long thought the CAP is absolutely bonkers, but these guys prove just how crazy (and secretive) the system is.
I’ve written before about how complicated things are going to get as climate change becomes a much more mainstream issue. Adrian Hon has a good piece looking at a paper about the carbon emissions from various foods grown in the UK and New Zealand.
My friend Peter Macleod has a great idea in a comment piece in the Toronto Star today. He suggests that the new LED lighting system on the CN Tower should be used to show the city the impacts of citizens’ collective behaviour:
A nighttime glance at the tower could tell us whether we were gradually rolling back car usage or whether it was continuing to spike. It could tell us whether power consumption was in hand or we were headed for a brownout. Most importantly, it could illuminate our public imagination – to remind us of our goals and the progress we want to make.
Here’s the full piece.
There’s a great piece in the new Wired about Dongtan - the ambitious project to create a zero carbon city for half a million people near Shanghai. It’s something I’ve heard about tangentially and in shorter news articles but this is the first feature I’ve seen that tells a fuller story.
