Recently one newspaper reported that hydrogen based fuel would be available in a few years, it would be capable of using it in existing cars and would sell for about a third of today’s oil based fuel, provided the fuel was not taxed. If you factor in the tax that all governments now place on fuel, then the new hydrogen fuel would be considerably more expensive than fossil based petrol and diesel, but the news report glossed over this aspect. Today oil is trading at just over $95 a barrel for Brent crude, and Mr Jim Rogers who co founded the… Read More »

The Summer Time issue is beginning to be debated again. Every year the clocks go forward on 27th March 2011. Until then most of us will experience very light mornings and dark evenings. Suddenly on 28th March the mornings will stay darker longer and the evenings will stay lighter longer. At the moment summer time lasts seven months; I would welcome a change. We should move the clocks two hours forward on 27th March and one hour back on 30th October. I believe there to be environmental benefits in that most people wake up in the morning and go to sleep at… Read More »

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has reported on investment in “green” sectors.  They believe that this would produce high growth, decoupled from intensive consumption.  I doubt if we will ever decouple high growth from intensive consumption because the “green” sector simply replaces one thing we are buying with another thing, rather than turning out consumer desirables for consumption.  However, two things stand out from the report of which I was not previously specifically aware, but of which I held suspicions. 1.   Globally the UNEP believes that the generation of heat and power by fossil fuel (excluding nuclear energy) is… Read More »

Flying less is more, say UK businesses.  Nearly half of UK businesses said that they had cut business flights over the past two years and, of these, 85% said they don’t intend to return to ‘business as usual’ flying. Together, these findings suggest that future business flying will not return to pre-recessionary levels. Although no such report has been carried out in Ireland, we believe this trend is being replicated here at home.  The report, found that nearly all companies who have reduced their flying say it’s possible to stay profitable and competitive while flying less. The key findings of… Read More »

Zero Carbon is to some people a consummation devoutly to be wished and for others such stuff which dreams are made on. For me, it is a foolish fallacy that stands in the way of real climate change action. In the UK the Centre for Alternative Technology has provided a blue print to enable the United Kingdom to become “zero carbon” by 2030. I have not studied the report but its substance has been reported and I can comment on the Zero Carbon route that the Centre points out for us. Link to this post!

One of the stories that crept under my personal radar a couple of week ago related to aircraft engines. Aircrafts account of 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions. The impact of this figure is thought to be higher because the emissions are expelled at height, where they can do the most absorption of light energy. Further aircraft expel vapour trials which are thought to have an effect on the amount of light reaching the surface of the planet by dimming it. Link to this post!

If they have any sense, the leaders of the world will do well to play down expectations for next winter’s climate change conference in México. The conference in Copenhagen left a great many people disappointed. I predicted that the conference would not be successful, as it seemed to me that the nations of the world needed more time. They might not be in climate change denial, but they are certainly in denial that they are doing anything worthwhile to protect us from climate change. Link to this post!

What do people from Mexico City, Norway, Central Slovakia, Northern China, and South Australia all now have in common with the British? It is talking about the weather. One time the weather was a subject that I only really heard the British and Irish talk about. We would be famous for going on about it, sometimes in minute detail, perhaps that was how we partly overcame our reserve. Nowadays everyone is talking about the weather. Link to this post!

There is a kind of simplistic approach that some journalists use when it comes to climate change. Some treat climate change as a religion claiming that a single very hot summer is evidence of climate change. Some are climate change deniers who can be even more fervently religious in their approach. In a leading national newspaper in the United Kingdom recently a whole list of “evidence” to support the claim that climate change is bunkum, was published. Among the points made (such as Alaska experienced its coldest winter for ten years recently) was a claim about polar bear numbers actually… Read More »

As the world’s nations prepare to negotiate at Copenhagen in December the specific negotiators will be concentrating on targets. Each major nation will have a different idea about which target is right for it, and each small nation will have more ambitious targets than each large nation.I expect that at the end of the negotiations various leaders will attend and as a result of their attendance claim credit for a deal that has saved the world because the nations of the world will have signed up to a series of targets. Hooray! Unfortunately most of targets will be flexible and… Read More »

Solar water heating is the most cost effective form of clean renewable energy that a householder can get.  If you are thinking about becoming “greener” and investing in a solar system, then this guide will help you. Modern solar systems work with heat exchange; the household water does not flow through the panels, but a heat exchange fluid is pumped through them. This ensures long panel life. The heat exchange fluid has anti-freeze properties. Modern systems should not use car anti freeze, but a special food safe polypropylene glycol, which is harmless. The great advantage that solar heat has over… Read More »

If you live by our close to the Atlantic Ocean it would be wise to do something to protect yourself from hurricanes. It seems, I stress seems, that hurricanes are more frequent now than at any time in the past one thousand years so it must we worth reviewing your storm protection measures. I know that we were not measuring and recording hurricanes a thousand years ago but researchers can examine sediments left behind by previous anti cyclones and date them with reasonable accuracy. Penn State University has been doing just this and they conclude that the planet suffers from… Read More »

Is there going to be enough food for the earth’s expanding population by the end of the 21st Century, when the planet will need to feed some ten billion people? Will there be enough timber to provide wood and the other resources which the world’s population will need by then? These are two questions that have been vexing scientists, which we can condense into one – can plants adapt to climate change. Some research that will provide some guidance on these questions has been done, but it seems to have been given little publicity. The work has been done as… Read More »

With the hypocrisy of which only thick skinned beasts are capable without understanding the irony you might remember that last December the politicians of the world jetted off to a climate change conference. In order to keep their personal carbon feet as large as possible they went to Bali, in the South Pacific, probably the most inconvenient place they could find in terms of location. Never mind, the politicians and other attendees no doubt consoled themselves in their spare time with the pleasures of that South Sea Island. Once in Bali they started their deliberations about saving the planet from… Read More »

 the past forty years one Brazilian State, Amazonia, has turned land with the surface area four times the size of Wales from tropical rain forest into farmland or waste land. The farmland is used for rearing cattle, to feed the mouths of the ever prosperous world which is what happens when people can afford a richer diet. How does the loss of the tropical rain forest fit into the overall climate change picture? Brazil is not the only place where tropical forest is being lost. If I listed every nation where there is tropical forest, whether rain forest or deciduous… Read More »

We live on our planet and have throughout the time when we have been living here lived as part of a complex process, getting our sustenance from the planet and when we die providing sustenance for the planet. It has been a balanced process, but we have been very successful in sharing the same table as all the other living organisms, so successful that we have increased our numbers, sometimes at the expense of other organisms as we compete for the basic things that support our lives. But the position of humans sharing the planet with other life is changing… Read More »

Fortune telling is the preserve of entertainers and charlatans but predicting future climate changes is a science, albeit one in its infancy and that is a paradox, considering just how complex this infant is. Nevertheless this infant science is all that our leaders have to guide them in making the decisions that they make today. Those decisions will shape our future in ways far more fundamental than decisions ever made throughout human history. Link to this post!

The world solar thermal business is relatively small and generally run by small businesses compared with such multinational companies as banks, food distributors and oil and gas companies. Those that own and run solar thermal businesses are really the unsung heroes of the environmental movement. The public (and some governmental organisations) regard solar thermal as a lifestyle choice, the preserve of the environmentally committed and perhaps even the crank. Link to this post!

The election of the President of the United States of America is the most important event that will take place this year. The United States is the world′s most powerful and influential country. Its leader, subject to the checks and balances of the United States Constitution provides leadership. Although the President cannot put all of his ideas into law, he (or she) will be able to direct policy which will not only affect Americans but also affect the whole world. In environmental terms, America is a massive polluter and a massive emitted of greenhouse gases. The present President, Mr Bush,… Read More »