Monday 13 December 2010
Monday 6 December 2010
Sunday 21 November 2010
Bright Blue Gorilla
Lose with English film review
Lose with English is based around a bizarre inventor of fitness devices by the name of English Jones, which leads him to TV fame and fortune followed quickly by debt and disaster as English's inventions fail, resulting in injuries and poisoning in various catastrophic ways. Failure brings out the usual suspects including debt collectors, the intelligence services and even the Italian mafia as English goes into hiding.
The plot thickens as the FBI and Interpol get involved and the mafia attempt to terminate the contract. English meanwhile is holed out incognito, working as a pizza delivery boy in a Pizza takeaway, keeping low and tinkering with his next invention to help rebuild his fortune.
The mafia find English and give chase. English cycles off and gets away, resulting in one of the mafia hit men winding up in hospital, but the net is closing in. Under extreme pressure English suddenly invents a new device, which promises to turn his luck around. Everyone is taken in, except the hit men who now want revenge. The climax comes as they enter English’s apartment to kill him. English enters followed by his new investors and colleagues, making the hit tricky. The hit men decide to kill everyone and jump out only to be confronted by the FBI and Interpol.
English’s new invention, a fitness pillow turns out to have been made in China and is full of lead contaminants, resulting in law suits and English’s final downfall. Or is it?
The film’s humor is directed at vanity, greed and the shallow nature of the US fitness industry and the gullibility of consumers, while mocking the sharks who prey on debt.
Lose with English is the fourth budget film from the talented and charming Robyn and Michael, both run-away musicians from LA. More info about them can be found here: http://brightbluegorilla.com
The film was personally introduced by the couple with a selection of songs as part of a film club promotion in Cologne, Germany on 20th November 2010.
My rating: 4 out of 5 for entertainment with a great plot that does justice to the genre. This is impressive work on a very tight budget and an inspiration to aspiring film-makers to get out there and produce art, rather than becoming duped into the grab for cash.
###
BBG website: http://www.brightbluegorilla.com/movies.html
Lose with English is based around a bizarre inventor of fitness devices by the name of English Jones, which leads him to TV fame and fortune followed quickly by debt and disaster as English's inventions fail, resulting in injuries and poisoning in various catastrophic ways. Failure brings out the usual suspects including debt collectors, the intelligence services and even the Italian mafia as English goes into hiding.
The plot thickens as the FBI and Interpol get involved and the mafia attempt to terminate the contract. English meanwhile is holed out incognito, working as a pizza delivery boy in a Pizza takeaway, keeping low and tinkering with his next invention to help rebuild his fortune.
The mafia find English and give chase. English cycles off and gets away, resulting in one of the mafia hit men winding up in hospital, but the net is closing in. Under extreme pressure English suddenly invents a new device, which promises to turn his luck around. Everyone is taken in, except the hit men who now want revenge. The climax comes as they enter English’s apartment to kill him. English enters followed by his new investors and colleagues, making the hit tricky. The hit men decide to kill everyone and jump out only to be confronted by the FBI and Interpol.
English’s new invention, a fitness pillow turns out to have been made in China and is full of lead contaminants, resulting in law suits and English’s final downfall. Or is it?
The film’s humor is directed at vanity, greed and the shallow nature of the US fitness industry and the gullibility of consumers, while mocking the sharks who prey on debt.
Lose with English is the fourth budget film from the talented and charming Robyn and Michael, both run-away musicians from LA. More info about them can be found here: http://brightbluegorilla.com
The film was personally introduced by the couple with a selection of songs as part of a film club promotion in Cologne, Germany on 20th November 2010.
My rating: 4 out of 5 for entertainment with a great plot that does justice to the genre. This is impressive work on a very tight budget and an inspiration to aspiring film-makers to get out there and produce art, rather than becoming duped into the grab for cash.
###
BBG website: http://www.brightbluegorilla.com/movies.html
Thursday 18 November 2010
Logic pyramids and the Dead Rabbit
Logic pyramids are robust tools used to make predictions by employing structured analysis. Data forms the basis of the logic pyramid. Data in the form of metrics such as temperature readings, or time for example inform us, or provide information for further analysis. This offers us knowledge and hopefully the wisdom to understand and ultimately become wiser as a result. This should lead us to taking action in some form leading to change, which provides more data in the form of dynamic feedback loops. These are indicators of the success of the action. Logic pyramids are seen in science and education as well as business analytics.
I call the opposite of a logic pyramid the Dead Rabbit for reasons that will become clear later. By simply turning the logic pyramid on its head, the opposites of the terms used in the logic pyramid are defined. Data becomes noise, information becomes no information, misinformation, or even worse disinformation (simply put: lies). This can only lead to ignorance, fear, doubt and uncertainty, which ultimately ends with inaction and even death. Hence the dead rabbit. Rabbits cannot process vehicles (they are cute, but dumb) and so become roadkill as fear freezes them as the truck approaches.
Classic examples of the Dead Rabbit in action are seen in propaganda campaigns. They were honed by the tobacco industry and have been perfected by the denial industry.
I call the opposite of a logic pyramid the Dead Rabbit for reasons that will become clear later. By simply turning the logic pyramid on its head, the opposites of the terms used in the logic pyramid are defined. Data becomes noise, information becomes no information, misinformation, or even worse disinformation (simply put: lies). This can only lead to ignorance, fear, doubt and uncertainty, which ultimately ends with inaction and even death. Hence the dead rabbit. Rabbits cannot process vehicles (they are cute, but dumb) and so become roadkill as fear freezes them as the truck approaches.
Classic examples of the Dead Rabbit in action are seen in propaganda campaigns. They were honed by the tobacco industry and have been perfected by the denial industry.
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Cloud computing & business apps
Download this:
https://www.dropbox.com
Summarize this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/oct/16/personal-productivity-apps
Then upload it to Dropbox.
https://www.dropbox.com
Summarize this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/oct/16/personal-productivity-apps
Then upload it to Dropbox.
Monday 15 November 2010
Green technology - water
Water-saving solutions:
* A system for using cooling water of lower quality. Info here.
* The dry toilet & compost loos.
* Rainwater harvesting (alternative source) &
* Greywater systems (reuse)
* Desalination – solar desalination.
Green tech
Principle: Sustainability.
PPP – polluter pays principle
How? The law – legal instruments
Litigation – legal processes (in a court of law).
RRR – reduce, reuse, recycle
Increasing efficiency is green
Cradle to the grave analysis. Closed loop recycling.
Impact, footprint
At least one in five of the companies using the largest amounts of water in the world is already experiencing damage to their business from drought and other shortages, flooding, and rising prices.
The wide scope of commercial problems posed by growing pressure on global water supplies and changing weather patterns is revealed by a survey of the 302 biggest companies in the most water-intensive sectors, across 25 countries.
The study was commissioned by the increasingly influential Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which conducts an annual study of what companies are doing to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on behalf of investors holding US$16trillion (£9.9tr) of assets.
About half the companies responded to the water survey, of whom 39% said they were already experiencing "detrimental impacts". In answer to a separate question, about half said the risks to their businesses were "current or near term" - in the next one to five years - a sample likely to have significant crossover with those already reporting problems.
Companies most at risk are in the food and drink, tobacco, and metals and mining sectors, says the first CDP Water Disclosure report. Other concerns listed were fines and litigation for pollution.
Marcus Norton, who headed the report, said companies that replied to the survey were more likely to have taken action to address water issues affecting their business, but he was still "impressed" by the replies: 96% were aware of potential problems, and two-thirds have somebody responsible for water issues at board or executive committee level.
Of the companies which did not reply, not all would be ignoring the problems, but Norton hoped in following years more companies would show they take the issue "seriously".
"I don't think this is an issue of the price of water increasing even 10-fold, which I think in many cases it will," he added. "For me it's about building resilience to and avoiding catastrophic damage from water scarcity and physical risks. If you run out of water you can't operate. We have seen floods in China and Pakistan cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damage."
Companies that ignore water dangers "pose a risk to investments", said Anne Kvam, head of corporate governance of Norges Bank Investment Management, a lead sponsor of the report.
The report, written by London-based consultancy Environmental Resource Management, names six companies showing "best practice" as mining giant Anglo American, consumer group Colgate-Palmolive, auto maker Ford, US utility PG&E, and engineers GE and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. This was not intended to suggest the named corporations were the top six, only that subjectively they were "good examples", said Norton.
A major report, Charting Our Water Future, commissioned by Nestlé and brewer SAB Miller among others last year, calculated by 2030 global water demand would outstrip supply by 40%, with shortages in some parts of the world much more severe than others, but also claimed existing management and technology could cut water use and boost supply enough to close the gap.
Nestlé chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, previously warned water is a greater threat than climate change, and called for significant rises in water prices to pressure big users to be more efficient.
Solutions:
Identify the problems.
More? We must make more!!! More, more, more. Really?
We are using too much water and fossil fuels.
Climate change impacts – droughts & floods.
Water resources.
Limits to growth.
Solutions: Less resources for the goods and services we use and using renewable sources of supply.
Nuclear power, fusion reactors? No.
Norwegian energy exports (hydropower).
HVDC and smart grids. Osmosis energy.
Reduce, reuse, recycle..but if you cannot…
Desalination (seawater to fresh water):
Reverse osmosis
Solar desalination
Cradle to the grave analysis. Closed loop recycling.
Where do we use water?
Domestic sector, water-saving systems. Grey water recycling.
Toilets – dry toilets
Compost toilets.
Urine - water, urea – full of nitrates – a fertiliser.
Faeces. The breaks down to form compost.
The trick is not to mix the two!
Hygiene is important here!
WC water closet.
Film by McKinsey
http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/water/charting_our_water_future.aspx
* A system for using cooling water of lower quality. Info here.
* The dry toilet & compost loos.
* Rainwater harvesting (alternative source) &
* Greywater systems (reuse)
* Desalination – solar desalination.
Green tech
Principle: Sustainability.
PPP – polluter pays principle
How? The law – legal instruments
Litigation – legal processes (in a court of law).
RRR – reduce, reuse, recycle
Increasing efficiency is green
Cradle to the grave analysis. Closed loop recycling.
Impact, footprint
At least one in five of the companies using the largest amounts of water in the world is already experiencing damage to their business from drought and other shortages, flooding, and rising prices.
The wide scope of commercial problems posed by growing pressure on global water supplies and changing weather patterns is revealed by a survey of the 302 biggest companies in the most water-intensive sectors, across 25 countries.
The study was commissioned by the increasingly influential Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which conducts an annual study of what companies are doing to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on behalf of investors holding US$16trillion (£9.9tr) of assets.
About half the companies responded to the water survey, of whom 39% said they were already experiencing "detrimental impacts". In answer to a separate question, about half said the risks to their businesses were "current or near term" - in the next one to five years - a sample likely to have significant crossover with those already reporting problems.
Companies most at risk are in the food and drink, tobacco, and metals and mining sectors, says the first CDP Water Disclosure report. Other concerns listed were fines and litigation for pollution.
Marcus Norton, who headed the report, said companies that replied to the survey were more likely to have taken action to address water issues affecting their business, but he was still "impressed" by the replies: 96% were aware of potential problems, and two-thirds have somebody responsible for water issues at board or executive committee level.
Of the companies which did not reply, not all would be ignoring the problems, but Norton hoped in following years more companies would show they take the issue "seriously".
"I don't think this is an issue of the price of water increasing even 10-fold, which I think in many cases it will," he added. "For me it's about building resilience to and avoiding catastrophic damage from water scarcity and physical risks. If you run out of water you can't operate. We have seen floods in China and Pakistan cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damage."
Companies that ignore water dangers "pose a risk to investments", said Anne Kvam, head of corporate governance of Norges Bank Investment Management, a lead sponsor of the report.
The report, written by London-based consultancy Environmental Resource Management, names six companies showing "best practice" as mining giant Anglo American, consumer group Colgate-Palmolive, auto maker Ford, US utility PG&E, and engineers GE and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. This was not intended to suggest the named corporations were the top six, only that subjectively they were "good examples", said Norton.
A major report, Charting Our Water Future, commissioned by Nestlé and brewer SAB Miller among others last year, calculated by 2030 global water demand would outstrip supply by 40%, with shortages in some parts of the world much more severe than others, but also claimed existing management and technology could cut water use and boost supply enough to close the gap.
Nestlé chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, previously warned water is a greater threat than climate change, and called for significant rises in water prices to pressure big users to be more efficient.
Solutions:
Identify the problems.
More? We must make more!!! More, more, more. Really?
We are using too much water and fossil fuels.
Climate change impacts – droughts & floods.
Water resources.
Limits to growth.
Solutions: Less resources for the goods and services we use and using renewable sources of supply.
Nuclear power, fusion reactors? No.
Norwegian energy exports (hydropower).
HVDC and smart grids. Osmosis energy.
Reduce, reuse, recycle..but if you cannot…
Desalination (seawater to fresh water):
Reverse osmosis
Solar desalination
Cradle to the grave analysis. Closed loop recycling.
Where do we use water?
Domestic sector, water-saving systems. Grey water recycling.
Toilets – dry toilets
Compost toilets.
Urine - water, urea – full of nitrates – a fertiliser.
Faeces. The breaks down to form compost.
The trick is not to mix the two!
Hygiene is important here!
WC water closet.
Film by McKinsey
http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/water/charting_our_water_future.aspx
Thursday 11 November 2010
Food and drink
Food & Drink
You are what you eat.
What do you eat?
I eat junk.
If you eat healthy food, you should be healthy.
If you eat healthy food you could also be ill, but not from the food, right?
If you drink English tea, you should become English…
Typical English tea is a mixture, or blend of different varieties, such as Ceylon, Assam & Darjeeling. There is also Kenyan, Rwandan, and tea from China. Earl Grey is a mixture of tea with flavouring from bergamot orange.
What is tea? Dried leaves of various plants.
Tea is a generic term. The opposite is specific.
There is the tea plant, which grows at over 1,200 meters above sea level.
I am on a diet – meaning you are eating less, or eating more – as in a sport diet. Both mean a change of diet.
What do you eat (or consume)?
Types of consumer:
If you eat at the Mensa, you are a Mensavore.
If you only eat vegetables and fruit you are a vegan. Vegans do not eat anything that comes from animals, insects, or seafood.
If you only eat insects, you are an insectivore. Examples food are locusts, ants, termites etc. E.g. anteaters
A vegetarian does not eat meat, but they sometimes eat seafood and also dairy products. This includes milk, cheese, yoghurt & eggs.
Squid & octopus are both closely related: Group of animals known as Cephalopods, which includes jellyfish.
If you only eat meat, or insects you are a carnivore.
Snails
Carnival – meat eating festival.
If you only eat fruit you are a fruitivore. E.g. the fruit bat, or some strange people. The urang utan is another example.
If you only drink blood you are a vampire, or a Masai.
Veins and arteries.
If you eat both vegetables and meat (everything in fact!) you are an omnivore. Most of us are omnivores.
If you eat people you are a cannibal.
Is there anything you don’t eat?
Insects, dogs, cats, horses, people? Raisins, spinach, sauerkraut, caraway, cucumber, gherkins,
pickled food e.g. pickled onions, eggs.
I don’t eat any of the things above and I also don’t eat chips (French fries).
Crisps are snacks.
What do you eat? What’s your favourite food?
Pizza. Fast food?
Why become vegetarian?
It healthy, or healthier?
We do not need to eat meat to survive. Meat is often contaminated with diseases and toxins and medicines such as antibiotics, growth hormones etc.
Animal rights, animal cruelty (factory farming),
Slow food is regional, traditional, enjoyable, healthy food.
My favourite German food is goose, served with dumplings and cabbage. St. Martins goose is a tradition.
What is the most common dish in England?
Beans on toast? Maybe.
Haggis is stuffed sheep’s stomach.
Clue: It’s not fish and chips. Cod was the food of the poor because it was cheap, but we fished out all the cod and that was the end of cheap fish.
It is Chicken tikka masala.
Finger food is food you can eat with your fingers.
I eat chicken…
What is good food?
No artificial substances (E-numbers for example), pesticides, artificial fertilisers (NPK)
N = Nitrates
P = phosphates
K = Potassium
If you do not use any artificial fertilisers, or chemicals in farming your food is organic (Bio in German).
Babies are very sensitive to trace amounts of chemicals. E.g. DDT, PCB’s etc.
FYI: LD50. Toxicology is the study of poisonous substances.
Meme = an information virus (from Richard Dawkins)
Ethics in food:
Hygiene (disease control) e.g. salmonella in egg production. Factory farms for chickens are unhygienic for example.
Conditions in which the animals live.
Health issues. How good for you is this food?
Junk food: Unhealthy food. Fast food.
Examples include McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC.
Fast food kills variety, but variety is the spice of life.
Kebab? Is a kebab unhealthy? Why? What makes food healthy, or unhealthy? It depends on where the ingredients come from.
Too much fat (uncountable)*
*Much and many: Much is uncountable. Many can be counted. For example: Wine.
Healthy food. Slow food. A balanced diet.
The ingredients are good for you. What does the body need?
Foodstuff:
Vitamins (fruit & veg also sugar), protein (eggs), minerals (NaCl, Ca, Mg, Fe etc), fats (unsaturated (in plants) & saturated fats (e.g. in meat)), carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, starch and fibre).
Carrots – vitamin A accumulates (builds up) in the body. Vitamin A is deadly in high amounts.
Too much of a good thing is bad for you.
Vitamin C however, passes through the body.
Vitamin D comes from sunlight. That is why we suffer in the winter (SAD disorder). Think of disease, or ill at ease. Sick is an old word, which also to throw.
Prefix – e.g. dis something negative.
Suffix
Fluids, especially water.
You are what you eat.
What do you eat?
I eat junk.
If you eat healthy food, you should be healthy.
If you eat healthy food you could also be ill, but not from the food, right?
If you drink English tea, you should become English…
Typical English tea is a mixture, or blend of different varieties, such as Ceylon, Assam & Darjeeling. There is also Kenyan, Rwandan, and tea from China. Earl Grey is a mixture of tea with flavouring from bergamot orange.
What is tea? Dried leaves of various plants.
Tea is a generic term. The opposite is specific.
There is the tea plant, which grows at over 1,200 meters above sea level.
I am on a diet – meaning you are eating less, or eating more – as in a sport diet. Both mean a change of diet.
What do you eat (or consume)?
Types of consumer:
If you eat at the Mensa, you are a Mensavore.
If you only eat vegetables and fruit you are a vegan. Vegans do not eat anything that comes from animals, insects, or seafood.
If you only eat insects, you are an insectivore. Examples food are locusts, ants, termites etc. E.g. anteaters
A vegetarian does not eat meat, but they sometimes eat seafood and also dairy products. This includes milk, cheese, yoghurt & eggs.
Squid & octopus are both closely related: Group of animals known as Cephalopods, which includes jellyfish.
If you only eat meat, or insects you are a carnivore.
Snails
Carnival – meat eating festival.
If you only eat fruit you are a fruitivore. E.g. the fruit bat, or some strange people. The urang utan is another example.
If you only drink blood you are a vampire, or a Masai.
Veins and arteries.
If you eat both vegetables and meat (everything in fact!) you are an omnivore. Most of us are omnivores.
If you eat people you are a cannibal.
Is there anything you don’t eat?
Insects, dogs, cats, horses, people? Raisins, spinach, sauerkraut, caraway, cucumber, gherkins,
pickled food e.g. pickled onions, eggs.
I don’t eat any of the things above and I also don’t eat chips (French fries).
Crisps are snacks.
What do you eat? What’s your favourite food?
Pizza. Fast food?
Why become vegetarian?
It healthy, or healthier?
We do not need to eat meat to survive. Meat is often contaminated with diseases and toxins and medicines such as antibiotics, growth hormones etc.
Animal rights, animal cruelty (factory farming),
Slow food is regional, traditional, enjoyable, healthy food.
My favourite German food is goose, served with dumplings and cabbage. St. Martins goose is a tradition.
What is the most common dish in England?
Beans on toast? Maybe.
Haggis is stuffed sheep’s stomach.
Clue: It’s not fish and chips. Cod was the food of the poor because it was cheap, but we fished out all the cod and that was the end of cheap fish.
It is Chicken tikka masala.
Finger food is food you can eat with your fingers.
I eat chicken…
What is good food?
No artificial substances (E-numbers for example), pesticides, artificial fertilisers (NPK)
N = Nitrates
P = phosphates
K = Potassium
If you do not use any artificial fertilisers, or chemicals in farming your food is organic (Bio in German).
Babies are very sensitive to trace amounts of chemicals. E.g. DDT, PCB’s etc.
FYI: LD50. Toxicology is the study of poisonous substances.
Meme = an information virus (from Richard Dawkins)
Ethics in food:
Hygiene (disease control) e.g. salmonella in egg production. Factory farms for chickens are unhygienic for example.
Conditions in which the animals live.
Health issues. How good for you is this food?
Junk food: Unhealthy food. Fast food.
Examples include McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC.
Fast food kills variety, but variety is the spice of life.
Kebab? Is a kebab unhealthy? Why? What makes food healthy, or unhealthy? It depends on where the ingredients come from.
Too much fat (uncountable)*
*Much and many: Much is uncountable. Many can be counted. For example: Wine.
Healthy food. Slow food. A balanced diet.
The ingredients are good for you. What does the body need?
Foodstuff:
Vitamins (fruit & veg also sugar), protein (eggs), minerals (NaCl, Ca, Mg, Fe etc), fats (unsaturated (in plants) & saturated fats (e.g. in meat)), carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, starch and fibre).
Carrots – vitamin A accumulates (builds up) in the body. Vitamin A is deadly in high amounts.
Too much of a good thing is bad for you.
Vitamin C however, passes through the body.
Vitamin D comes from sunlight. That is why we suffer in the winter (SAD disorder). Think of disease, or ill at ease. Sick is an old word, which also to throw.
Prefix – e.g. dis something negative.
Suffix
Fluids, especially water.
Thursday 4 November 2010
The Weather
The Weather
How does the weather work? What drives the weather?
What is weather?
Wind – how do we measure wind? In m/s (mph) Beaufort scale (logarithmic scale of 0 to 15)
Clouds – Cirrus, cumulus, stratos
The sun drives the weather. It heats up the atmosphere?
The angle of the sun determines the seasons and temperatures during the day and during the year, but the climate is the driver of the weather. As the amount of greenhouse gases increase the climate changes. The planet is heating up resulting in the snow melting, sea level rise, more extreme weather. Another result is more, or less rain. In areas where it is dry it will become drier and wet areas will become wetter, leading to longer droughts in summer, and increased flooding in winter.
Not only that, climate change will also lead to increasing ocean acidification as more CO2 enters the system. This is bad news because coral reefs which are made of carbonate minerals will be destroyed.
Cause and effect.
Types of weather:
Objective: stormy weather (wind force 6 to 8), calm, hurricanes, tropical cyclones - weather systems.
Subjective: Nice weather, bad weather.
Characteristics of the weather:
Temperature (measured with a thermometer. In Europe the unit is in degrees Celsius, but in the USA it is degrees Fahrenheit. The scientific unit is Kelvin). Zero degrees Celsius (the freezing point of water) is 273.15 K, or 32°F. The boiling point is 100°C.
Air movement, water movement (or cycles) is described as wind.
Air pressures can high, or low. In BAR, or hPa. Normal air pressure at sea level is approx. 1 Bar or 1000 hPa. Air pressure is the result of the amount of air above us.
Seasons: Winter, spring, summer & fall (US English) UK English it’s autumn.
In the winter it’s colder than in summer.
What, where, why, how and when questions (about the weather).
Definition: The weather is a process in the atmosphere.
1. Understand the task (or the question).
2. Brainstorm
3. Report
HOME
How does the weather work? What drives the weather?
What is weather?
Wind – how do we measure wind? In m/s (mph) Beaufort scale (logarithmic scale of 0 to 15)
Clouds – Cirrus, cumulus, stratos
The sun drives the weather. It heats up the atmosphere?
The angle of the sun determines the seasons and temperatures during the day and during the year, but the climate is the driver of the weather. As the amount of greenhouse gases increase the climate changes. The planet is heating up resulting in the snow melting, sea level rise, more extreme weather. Another result is more, or less rain. In areas where it is dry it will become drier and wet areas will become wetter, leading to longer droughts in summer, and increased flooding in winter.
Not only that, climate change will also lead to increasing ocean acidification as more CO2 enters the system. This is bad news because coral reefs which are made of carbonate minerals will be destroyed.
Cause and effect.
Types of weather:
Objective: stormy weather (wind force 6 to 8), calm, hurricanes, tropical cyclones - weather systems.
Subjective: Nice weather, bad weather.
Characteristics of the weather:
Temperature (measured with a thermometer. In Europe the unit is in degrees Celsius, but in the USA it is degrees Fahrenheit. The scientific unit is Kelvin). Zero degrees Celsius (the freezing point of water) is 273.15 K, or 32°F. The boiling point is 100°C.
Air movement, water movement (or cycles) is described as wind.
Air pressures can high, or low. In BAR, or hPa. Normal air pressure at sea level is approx. 1 Bar or 1000 hPa. Air pressure is the result of the amount of air above us.
Seasons: Winter, spring, summer & fall (US English) UK English it’s autumn.
In the winter it’s colder than in summer.
What, where, why, how and when questions (about the weather).
Definition: The weather is a process in the atmosphere.
1. Understand the task (or the question).
2. Brainstorm
3. Report
HOME
Monday 18 October 2010
Smart beer
I’m sitting at anchor on my solar PV powered boat as I type away on this laptop. Not far away the harbour is stuffed full of portable generators as 300 boat owners struggle to keep their beers cold after the electricity was cut off due to non-payment.
Pretty dumb really and not a reflection on everyday reality in suburbia… not yet at least. But we face many challenges in the near future if we want to keep enjoying our current lifestyles. It seems that energy resources are reaching peak, just as our demand for energy is increasing. Add the issue of the heat we are generating with the burning of fossil fuels and the scale of the challenge becomes clear.
So what’s the solution? In short there is no simple answer, no miracle cure. We could stop drinking beer, but granny needs her life support machine to keep functioning. Clearly we have to reduce our demand for energy and become smarter about how we utilise it. It is madness for example that we wastefully burn 70% of the oil we extract in planes, automobiles and ships when much of our transport needs can be met by electric motors and plug-in hybrids which are over 95% efficient in converting energy into motion (compared with a petrol engine at 40%). The only problem here is the massive demand for electrical power this would involve.
So how do we create the infrastructure we need to keep our transport systems running? The answer lies with smart grids. The combination of a responsive electrical grid, coupled with smart meters and linked to intelligent devices provides the solution. If we could make our devices truly intelligent by using open source protocols we could achieve a dynamic response network, which would keep the lights running while charging our vehicles. Believe it or not, we do have the electrical reserve in the system to enable this to happen today. How? Peak demand occurs during the day, but at night power stations have to maintain a spinning reserve which electric vehicles could use to charge their batteries. Fully charged vehicles can also provide power back into the grid when it’s needed at peak times during the day.
This just one example of the advantages of smart solutions. Builiding management systems have been using intelligent control systems based on open protocols such as LON for years. Such systems typically save 30% on energy bills due to the intelligent interoperation of systems. Smart solutions can also be found in street lighting and industrial automation and in just about any system that requires energy.
Now while none of this is new (the technology is already there)the problem is that we are simply not adopting it, or we are not adopting truly smart systems. Smart meters must allow communication at the device level and not just display information about energy consumption. They must also provide real value-added to the customer by enabling them to decide when that want their devices to operate. Flexible pricing provides a great incentive here.
We also need to build trust and confidence that smart solutions are in all of our interests. Badly implemented smart meters which only serve to allow power companies to save money and remote reading and cutting people off for non-payment are not the solution. The real benefits that smart systems provide is ensuring energy supplies, energy security and addressing climate change by increased efficiency, reduced demand and dynamic response.
As for the beers, the solar system on my boat just about keeps them cold, but this isolated solution is not suitable for everyone and judging by the pile of noisy generators in the harbour, the price people are paying for not preparing for the future is a high one. After all, how can anyone enjoy a quiet drink when they are chocking in fumes and deafened by the noise? Seems rather dumb to me. So let’s build a smart future, one which is open, fair and flexible. I for one would drink to that!
Pretty dumb really and not a reflection on everyday reality in suburbia… not yet at least. But we face many challenges in the near future if we want to keep enjoying our current lifestyles. It seems that energy resources are reaching peak, just as our demand for energy is increasing. Add the issue of the heat we are generating with the burning of fossil fuels and the scale of the challenge becomes clear.
So what’s the solution? In short there is no simple answer, no miracle cure. We could stop drinking beer, but granny needs her life support machine to keep functioning. Clearly we have to reduce our demand for energy and become smarter about how we utilise it. It is madness for example that we wastefully burn 70% of the oil we extract in planes, automobiles and ships when much of our transport needs can be met by electric motors and plug-in hybrids which are over 95% efficient in converting energy into motion (compared with a petrol engine at 40%). The only problem here is the massive demand for electrical power this would involve.
So how do we create the infrastructure we need to keep our transport systems running? The answer lies with smart grids. The combination of a responsive electrical grid, coupled with smart meters and linked to intelligent devices provides the solution. If we could make our devices truly intelligent by using open source protocols we could achieve a dynamic response network, which would keep the lights running while charging our vehicles. Believe it or not, we do have the electrical reserve in the system to enable this to happen today. How? Peak demand occurs during the day, but at night power stations have to maintain a spinning reserve which electric vehicles could use to charge their batteries. Fully charged vehicles can also provide power back into the grid when it’s needed at peak times during the day.
This just one example of the advantages of smart solutions. Builiding management systems have been using intelligent control systems based on open protocols such as LON for years. Such systems typically save 30% on energy bills due to the intelligent interoperation of systems. Smart solutions can also be found in street lighting and industrial automation and in just about any system that requires energy.
Now while none of this is new (the technology is already there)the problem is that we are simply not adopting it, or we are not adopting truly smart systems. Smart meters must allow communication at the device level and not just display information about energy consumption. They must also provide real value-added to the customer by enabling them to decide when that want their devices to operate. Flexible pricing provides a great incentive here.
We also need to build trust and confidence that smart solutions are in all of our interests. Badly implemented smart meters which only serve to allow power companies to save money and remote reading and cutting people off for non-payment are not the solution. The real benefits that smart systems provide is ensuring energy supplies, energy security and addressing climate change by increased efficiency, reduced demand and dynamic response.
As for the beers, the solar system on my boat just about keeps them cold, but this isolated solution is not suitable for everyone and judging by the pile of noisy generators in the harbour, the price people are paying for not preparing for the future is a high one. After all, how can anyone enjoy a quiet drink when they are chocking in fumes and deafened by the noise? Seems rather dumb to me. So let’s build a smart future, one which is open, fair and flexible. I for one would drink to that!
EU environmental law – does it really protect us?
The Hungarian red mud incident has shown us that European law is insufficient to protect us from the consequences of environmental damage. EU environmental law must be tightened in order to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future and to ensure that liability is made clear when such accidents do occur.
European environmental law is designed to improve and maintain a high quality of life for EU citizens. This takes the form of directives and is supported by case study law, which tests the application of such laws. EU environmental law is based on the polluter pays principle.
The recent spill of toxic waste in Hungary involved the accidental release of over one million cubic metres of so called red mud, which has affected air, land and water. Nine people have died and 120 injured in the incident after a reservoir containing the toxic waste from an aluminium plant burst, flooding local villages and sending the waste into local waterways, which feeds the river Danube. The CEO of the company was arrested, but has since been released due to a lack of evidence against him. In fact, the company involved cannot be prosecuted for harm to people, although it can be made liable to damage to the environment.
So which EU laws cover this incident? One possibly relevant directive is the EU Waste Framework directive, which invokes the polluter pays principle. Unfortunately this directive only covers highly toxic waste. The plant was given permission to operate in 2006 under the IPPC directive, which requires businesses to comply to certain conditions in order to operate. In retrospect it seems that the permit to operate was issued without the company complying to the mandatory environmental conditions as stated in that directive. Unlike with the Superfund in the USA, there are no sources of funding, which can cover the costs of cleaning up this waste. The recently implemented Environmental Liability directive (ELD) however, is currently being re-examined to include mandatory financial security in the light of the red mud disaster and may be tightened to take such incidents into account.
Clearly there are a number of issues here: Existing EU law is insufficient to protect the environment while existing laws are not being implemented properly. Hungary is set to take over presidency of the EU in January next year and is promising to tighten the law, but it seems to be a case of closing the stable doors after the horse has bolted and getting down to business as usual.
The plant has now reopened and villagers invited to return to their homes, giving a clear signal that economic and social concerns are overriding environmental issues as the incident is swept under the (red) carpet. Greenpeace Hungary stated that the decision to allow the villagers to return to their homes was "entirely irresponsible" as no data existed regarding whether it is safe to do this.
The incident in Hungary is certainly not the first,or the last of its kind. An incident in Romania in the year 2000 saw the release of wastes including cyanide and heavy metals from a gold mine entering the river Danube. The mine owners refused to accept liability for the incident, claiming that reports of the damage had been “grossly exaggerated”. Despite demands from Greenpeace at the time for full liability, a ban on mining in sensitive areas and improved working standards nothing was done to improve matters. It must be noted that Romania was not a member of the EU at the time as it joined seven years later in 2007, but the whole region is home to the legacy of ex-Soviet mining, which could lead to many more of such incidents in the future. A spokesman for the World Wide Fund for Nature stated in a recent Guardian article that: "There are a string of disasters waiting to happen at sites across the Danube basin".
It seems that current EU legislation and it's implementation is insufficient to improve and maintain a high quality of life for EU citizens as the case of the red mud spill in Hungary has proven. By re-examining such cases it is hoped that future EU law will prove effective in protecting the environment.
European environmental law is designed to improve and maintain a high quality of life for EU citizens. This takes the form of directives and is supported by case study law, which tests the application of such laws. EU environmental law is based on the polluter pays principle.
The recent spill of toxic waste in Hungary involved the accidental release of over one million cubic metres of so called red mud, which has affected air, land and water. Nine people have died and 120 injured in the incident after a reservoir containing the toxic waste from an aluminium plant burst, flooding local villages and sending the waste into local waterways, which feeds the river Danube. The CEO of the company was arrested, but has since been released due to a lack of evidence against him. In fact, the company involved cannot be prosecuted for harm to people, although it can be made liable to damage to the environment.
So which EU laws cover this incident? One possibly relevant directive is the EU Waste Framework directive, which invokes the polluter pays principle. Unfortunately this directive only covers highly toxic waste. The plant was given permission to operate in 2006 under the IPPC directive, which requires businesses to comply to certain conditions in order to operate. In retrospect it seems that the permit to operate was issued without the company complying to the mandatory environmental conditions as stated in that directive. Unlike with the Superfund in the USA, there are no sources of funding, which can cover the costs of cleaning up this waste. The recently implemented Environmental Liability directive (ELD) however, is currently being re-examined to include mandatory financial security in the light of the red mud disaster and may be tightened to take such incidents into account.
Clearly there are a number of issues here: Existing EU law is insufficient to protect the environment while existing laws are not being implemented properly. Hungary is set to take over presidency of the EU in January next year and is promising to tighten the law, but it seems to be a case of closing the stable doors after the horse has bolted and getting down to business as usual.
The plant has now reopened and villagers invited to return to their homes, giving a clear signal that economic and social concerns are overriding environmental issues as the incident is swept under the (red) carpet. Greenpeace Hungary stated that the decision to allow the villagers to return to their homes was "entirely irresponsible" as no data existed regarding whether it is safe to do this.
The incident in Hungary is certainly not the first,or the last of its kind. An incident in Romania in the year 2000 saw the release of wastes including cyanide and heavy metals from a gold mine entering the river Danube. The mine owners refused to accept liability for the incident, claiming that reports of the damage had been “grossly exaggerated”. Despite demands from Greenpeace at the time for full liability, a ban on mining in sensitive areas and improved working standards nothing was done to improve matters. It must be noted that Romania was not a member of the EU at the time as it joined seven years later in 2007, but the whole region is home to the legacy of ex-Soviet mining, which could lead to many more of such incidents in the future. A spokesman for the World Wide Fund for Nature stated in a recent Guardian article that: "There are a string of disasters waiting to happen at sites across the Danube basin".
It seems that current EU legislation and it's implementation is insufficient to improve and maintain a high quality of life for EU citizens as the case of the red mud spill in Hungary has proven. By re-examining such cases it is hoped that future EU law will prove effective in protecting the environment.
Monday 11 October 2010
Current affairs notes 11/10
Current affairs
China – state communism – human rights, no freedom of expression.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/intellectuals-detained-nobel-celebration
China
North Korea – communism – Dictatorship – Kim jong il
Both have no press freedom, no democracy
Hungary – a mixture of toxic waste has escaped from a bauxite plant.
Al ore. Red mud.
Many people have been affected/moved (evacuated)
The environment has been badly affected and will be for many years.
Aluminium Al, electrolysis. Energy intensive. Recycling saves 95% of the energy of production.
Liability. Who is to blame and who pays? Us.
----
Chile: 33 miners have been trapped underground for 66 days. The mine used to produce gold and copper. They have been trapped 800 metres underground for months. Initially they sent medication to the miners. They want to get them out by December, but they will probably start getting them out this week.
Human interest stories…
Google cars
Search engines
Advertising, data mining, profiling
Target audience
Male, interested in technology, disposable income.
Amazon -books
Sell everything.
Targeting advertising. Profiling.
B to C
…
Proposition 19
Legalisation
Tourism
Afghanistan
Cannabis
Opium – codine, morphine, heroin.
Morroco –billions
Mexico drug wars, Cartels – an illegal business.
Network of organised crime. Corruption.
Demand and supply.
Cambodia, & The Philippines
Tobacco & alcohol
China – state communism – human rights, no freedom of expression.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/intellectuals-detained-nobel-celebration
China
North Korea – communism – Dictatorship – Kim jong il
Both have no press freedom, no democracy
Hungary – a mixture of toxic waste has escaped from a bauxite plant.
Al ore. Red mud.
Many people have been affected/moved (evacuated)
The environment has been badly affected and will be for many years.
Aluminium Al, electrolysis. Energy intensive. Recycling saves 95% of the energy of production.
Liability. Who is to blame and who pays? Us.
----
Chile: 33 miners have been trapped underground for 66 days. The mine used to produce gold and copper. They have been trapped 800 metres underground for months. Initially they sent medication to the miners. They want to get them out by December, but they will probably start getting them out this week.
Human interest stories…
Google cars
Search engines
Advertising, data mining, profiling
Target audience
Male, interested in technology, disposable income.
Amazon -books
Sell everything.
Targeting advertising. Profiling.
B to C
…
Proposition 19
Legalisation
Tourism
Afghanistan
Cannabis
Opium – codine, morphine, heroin.
Morroco –billions
Mexico drug wars, Cartels – an illegal business.
Network of organised crime. Corruption.
Demand and supply.
Cambodia, & The Philippines
Tobacco & alcohol
Monday 4 October 2010
English course outline
Aim: To learn Business English!
How long? 2 years.
IELTS Level C1
ESA National
ESA International
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Intros
Plan & structure – 6 point plan
Letter of motivation
My blog: http://bluecloud9.blogspot.com/
Newspapers/websites:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
Tools:
German/English dictionary
www.leo.org
http://www.dict.cc/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/
http://www.ted.com/
Topics:
Dislikes
Likes -
Past
Present
Future –
Negatives:
Dishonesty – unhelpfulness, selfishness, war
Positives/small talk
Nice people – festivals, sports, weather, handedness
6- point plan
1. Understand the task
2. Brainstorm
3. Group
4. Order
5. Write - Execute
6. Check your work
Letter of motivation
Intro
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been asked to write a letter of motivation and to complete it within 30 minutes
Past tense
Ever since I was young I have been interested in blowing up tall buildings. When I was twelve years old I set fire to the local library.
Present tense
Now I am in prison.
Future
I hope that I will be freed soon to continue my path of destruction. If you accept me on the explosives for beginners course I will be your best student.
I look forward to receiving your positive response.
Yours faithfully,
How long? 2 years.
IELTS Level C1
ESA National
ESA International
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Intros
Plan & structure – 6 point plan
Letter of motivation
My blog: http://bluecloud9.blogspot.com/
Newspapers/websites:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
Tools:
German/English dictionary
www.leo.org
http://www.dict.cc/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/
http://www.ted.com/
Topics:
Dislikes
Likes -
Past
Present
Future –
Negatives:
Dishonesty – unhelpfulness, selfishness, war
Positives/small talk
Nice people – festivals, sports, weather, handedness
6- point plan
1. Understand the task
2. Brainstorm
3. Group
4. Order
5. Write - Execute
6. Check your work
Letter of motivation
Intro
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been asked to write a letter of motivation and to complete it within 30 minutes
Past tense
Ever since I was young I have been interested in blowing up tall buildings. When I was twelve years old I set fire to the local library.
Present tense
Now I am in prison.
Future
I hope that I will be freed soon to continue my path of destruction. If you accept me on the explosives for beginners course I will be your best student.
I look forward to receiving your positive response.
Yours faithfully,
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Shambolic
Take the organic away
It has no place in this valley
Long gone is the day
Sneaked down a back alley.
For Mammon is in town
Take the money, feed the flies
Screw the dumb tourists
Om Shanti a lie.
It looks deceive
Apocolypse now
They've poisioned the water
And slaughtered the cow.
A shambles it's not
Shambala it's name
They shagged a virgin
And a book gave it fame.
So down fall the mighty
Who workship false gods
They prey on the tourist
And don't give a sod.
So take it, or leave it
Just walk away
True justice that's silent
The ghost that left town.
It has no place in this valley
Long gone is the day
Sneaked down a back alley.
For Mammon is in town
Take the money, feed the flies
Screw the dumb tourists
Om Shanti a lie.
It looks deceive
Apocolypse now
They've poisioned the water
And slaughtered the cow.
A shambles it's not
Shambala it's name
They shagged a virgin
And a book gave it fame.
So down fall the mighty
Who workship false gods
They prey on the tourist
And don't give a sod.
So take it, or leave it
Just walk away
True justice that's silent
The ghost that left town.
Friday 10 September 2010
Monday 6 September 2010
Where is reality?
What’s it like to be left behind when everyone else is right?
Why do I feel in the minority, in the wrong, left to fight?
How come the compass swings away from the centre?
And all of our force is in flight.
Where is reality? Has it gone with the night?
Our leaders run riot, they leave us behind,
Is it flight that protects us from facing our minds?
The midpoint is empty, a ghostly machine,
There is no real sentry, just rocks in between.
The left and the right,
The up and the down,
The forward and backward,
All this without sound.
Strong is the warrior who finds the right way
For life’s an illusion,
Between night and day.
So wake up at sunrise and search through the clouds,
The streets are all empty, gone are the crowds.
Wherever your journey there’s no place to go,
Apart from reality all this is a show.
A game we keep playing,
A dance to a tune
That none of us listen to, except a select few.
Where is reality?
It’s there lost in time
You’ll know when you find it
A sublime out of mind.
So come, succumb and come inside,
Life’s a reality that flows with the tide.
So take a deep breath
And look right and left
You see something out there
A dance in the light.
4B2.
Why do I feel in the minority, in the wrong, left to fight?
How come the compass swings away from the centre?
And all of our force is in flight.
Where is reality? Has it gone with the night?
Our leaders run riot, they leave us behind,
Is it flight that protects us from facing our minds?
The midpoint is empty, a ghostly machine,
There is no real sentry, just rocks in between.
The left and the right,
The up and the down,
The forward and backward,
All this without sound.
Strong is the warrior who finds the right way
For life’s an illusion,
Between night and day.
So wake up at sunrise and search through the clouds,
The streets are all empty, gone are the crowds.
Wherever your journey there’s no place to go,
Apart from reality all this is a show.
A game we keep playing,
A dance to a tune
That none of us listen to, except a select few.
Where is reality?
It’s there lost in time
You’ll know when you find it
A sublime out of mind.
So come, succumb and come inside,
Life’s a reality that flows with the tide.
So take a deep breath
And look right and left
You see something out there
A dance in the light.
4B2.
Sunday 5 September 2010
Clear your mind
What is right?
What is wrong?
And what is left in the end?
Is it life, is it death, is it something in between?
Life is spin, there is no right or wrong,
But what is left of life when it’s all gone?
What’s left ain’t right, not by a long sight.
Left or right a polar split
A good left hook the boxers gift.
The centre is a void the earth it’s core
And life is a dance upon it’s shore.
The dance of life is in the music of our minds,
And those who feel it , know how it shines.
So clear your mind and listen to the dance
The moves you make are a fine game of chance.
So the left and the right are really an illusion
A poser’s position that has no conclusion.
The goal is the path, the fork in the road
Which has to be taken whatever the load.
So go left if it’s right, but most of us don’t
We go wrong in our bias for dumb is our code.
What we see in the world is polarisation
Dressed up as a gift called globalisation.
A mining firm has more power than a country,
And oil spills are a matter of money.
Clear your mind.
Let’s make these things simple.
What’s wrong with the world
Is all these dumb people.
They forgot the real centre
Is a place you can enter
As long as you leave your greed;
your placebo.
The void is the middle, a place to find
The mid-point you’ll see when you clear your mind
The fussing and fighting that drags us down
Is the blindness that stops us from being found.
Clear your mind,
And dance.
Dedicated to B.
What is wrong?
And what is left in the end?
Is it life, is it death, is it something in between?
Life is spin, there is no right or wrong,
But what is left of life when it’s all gone?
What’s left ain’t right, not by a long sight.
Left or right a polar split
A good left hook the boxers gift.
The centre is a void the earth it’s core
And life is a dance upon it’s shore.
The dance of life is in the music of our minds,
And those who feel it , know how it shines.
So clear your mind and listen to the dance
The moves you make are a fine game of chance.
So the left and the right are really an illusion
A poser’s position that has no conclusion.
The goal is the path, the fork in the road
Which has to be taken whatever the load.
So go left if it’s right, but most of us don’t
We go wrong in our bias for dumb is our code.
What we see in the world is polarisation
Dressed up as a gift called globalisation.
A mining firm has more power than a country,
And oil spills are a matter of money.
Clear your mind.
Let’s make these things simple.
What’s wrong with the world
Is all these dumb people.
They forgot the real centre
Is a place you can enter
As long as you leave your greed;
your placebo.
The void is the middle, a place to find
The mid-point you’ll see when you clear your mind
The fussing and fighting that drags us down
Is the blindness that stops us from being found.
Clear your mind,
And dance.
Dedicated to B.
Monday 28 June 2010
Sunday 20 June 2010
Water
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/20/plan-pump-water-dead-sea-environmentalists-red
Tuesday 18 May 2010
A sustainable transport policy?
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/05/17/fast-train-to-nowhere/
The UK Is on the road to nowhere. Write your own transport policy, which meets the government's CO2 reduction target of 80% by 2050.
The UK Is on the road to nowhere. Write your own transport policy, which meets the government's CO2 reduction target of 80% by 2050.
Monday 17 May 2010
Happiness
What makes you happy?
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
200 words please!
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
200 words please!
Tuesday 11 May 2010
The collapse of industrial civilisation
By George Monbiot:
I share their despair, but I'm not quite ready to climb the Dark Mountain
To sit back and wait for the collapse of industrial civilisation is to conspire in the destruction of everything greens value
Those who defend economic growth often argue that only rich countries can afford to protect the environment. The bigger the economy, the more money will be available for stopping pollution, investing in new forms of energy, preserving wilderness. Only the wealthy can live sustainably.
Anyone who has watched the emerging horror in the Gulf of Mexico in the past few days has cause to doubt this. The world's richest country decided not to impose the rules that might have prevented the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, arguing that these would impede the pursuit of greater wealth. Economic growth, and the demand for oil that it propelled, drove companies to drill in difficult and risky places.
But we needn't rely on this event to dismiss the cornucopians' thesis as self-serving nonsense. A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences calculates deforestation rates between 2000 and 2005 in the countries with the largest areas of forest cover. The nation with the lowest rate was the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The nation with the highest, caused by a combination of logging and fire, was the United States. Loss of forest cover there (6% of its own forests in five years) was almost twice as fast as in Indonesia and 10 times as fast as in the DRC. Why? Because those poorer countries have less money to invest in opening up remote places and felling trees.
The wealthy nations are plundering not only their own resources. The environmental disasters caused by the oil industry in Ecuador and Nigeria are not driven by Ecuadorian or Nigerian demand, but by the thirst for oil in richer nations. Deforestation in Indonesia is driven by the rich world's demand for palm oil and timber, in Brazil by our hunger for timber and animal feed.
The Guardian's carbon calculator reveals that the UK has greatly underestimated the climate impacts of our consumption. The reason is that official figures don't count outsourced emissions: the greenhouse gases produced by other countries manufacturing goods for our markets. Another recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the UK imports a net 253m tonnes of carbon dioxide, embodied in the goods it buys. When this is taken into account, we find that far from cutting emissions since 1990, as the last government claimed, we have increased them. Wealth wrecks the environment.
So the Dark Mountain Project, whose ideas are spreading rapidly through the environment movement, is worth examining. It contends that "capitalism has absorbed the greens". Instead of seeking to protect the natural world from the impact of humans, the project claims that environmentalists now work on "sustaining human civilisation at the comfort level which the world's rich people – us – feel is their right".
Today's greens, it charges, seek to sustain the culture that knackers the planet, demanding only that we replace old, polluting technologies with new ones – wind farms, solar arrays, wave machines – that wreck even more of the world's wild places. They have lost their feelings for nature, reducing the problem to an engineering challenge. They've forgotten that they are supposed to be defending the biosphere: instead they are trying to save industrial civilisation.
That task, Paul Kingsnorth – a co-founder of Dark Mountain – believes, is futile: "The civilisation we are a part of is hitting the buffers at full speed, and it is too late to stop it." Nor can we bargain with it, as "the economic system we rely upon cannot be tamed without collapsing, for it relies upon … growth in order to function". Instead of trying to reduce the impacts of our civilisation, we should "start thinking about how we are going to live through its fall, and what we can learn from its collapse … Our task is to negotiate the coming descent as best we can, whilst creating new myths which put humanity in its proper place".
Though a fair bit of this takes aim at my writing and the ideas I champion, I recognise the truth in it. Something has been lost along the way. Among the charts and tables and technofixes, in the desperate search for green solutions that can work politically and economically, we have tended to forget the love of nature that drew us into all this.
But I cannot make the leap that Dark Mountain demands. The first problem with its vision is that industrial civilisation is much more resilient than it proposes. In the opening essay of the movement's first book, to be published this week, John Michael Greer proposes that conventional oil supplies peaked in 2005, that gas will peak by 2030, and that coal will do so by 2040.
While I'm prepared to believe that oil supplies might decline in the next few years, his coal prediction is hogwash. Energy companies in the UK, as the latest ENDS report shows, are now beginning to deploy a technology that will greatly increase available reserves. Government figures suggest that underground coal gasification – injecting oxygen into coal seams and extracting the hydrogen and methane they release – can boost the UK's land-based coal reserves 70-fold; and it opens up even more under the seabed. There are vast untapped reserves of other fossil fuels – bitumen, oil shale, methane clathrates – that energy companies will turn to if the price is right.
Like all cultures, industrial civilisation will collapse at some point. Resource depletion and climate change are likely causes. But I don't believe it will happen soon: not in this century, perhaps not even in the next. If it continues to rely on economic growth, if it doesn't reduce its reliance on primary resources, our civilisation will tank the biosphere before it goes down. To sit back and wait for what the Dark Mountain people believe will be civilisation's imminent collapse, without trying to change the way it operates, is to conspire in the destruction of everything greens are supposed to value.
Nor do I accept their undiscriminating attack on industrial technologies. There is a world of difference between the impact of windfarms and the impact of mining tar sands or drilling for oil: the turbines might spoil the view but, as the latest disaster shows, the effects of oil seep into the planet's every pore. And unless environmentalists also seek to sustain the achievements of industrial civilisation – health, education, sanitation, nutrition – the field will be left to those who rightly wish to preserve them, but don't give a stuff about the impacts.
We can accept these benefits while rejecting perpetual growth. We can embrace engineering while rejecting many of the uses to which it is put. We can defend healthcare while attacking useless consumption. This approach is boring, unromantic, uncertain of success, but a lot less ugly than the alternatives.
For all that, the debate this project has begun is worth having, which is why I'll be going to the Dark Mountain festival this month. There are no easy answers to the fix we're in. But there are no easy non-answers either.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/may/10/deepwater-horizon-greens-collapse-civilisation
I share their despair, but I'm not quite ready to climb the Dark Mountain
To sit back and wait for the collapse of industrial civilisation is to conspire in the destruction of everything greens value
Those who defend economic growth often argue that only rich countries can afford to protect the environment. The bigger the economy, the more money will be available for stopping pollution, investing in new forms of energy, preserving wilderness. Only the wealthy can live sustainably.
Anyone who has watched the emerging horror in the Gulf of Mexico in the past few days has cause to doubt this. The world's richest country decided not to impose the rules that might have prevented the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, arguing that these would impede the pursuit of greater wealth. Economic growth, and the demand for oil that it propelled, drove companies to drill in difficult and risky places.
But we needn't rely on this event to dismiss the cornucopians' thesis as self-serving nonsense. A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences calculates deforestation rates between 2000 and 2005 in the countries with the largest areas of forest cover. The nation with the lowest rate was the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The nation with the highest, caused by a combination of logging and fire, was the United States. Loss of forest cover there (6% of its own forests in five years) was almost twice as fast as in Indonesia and 10 times as fast as in the DRC. Why? Because those poorer countries have less money to invest in opening up remote places and felling trees.
The wealthy nations are plundering not only their own resources. The environmental disasters caused by the oil industry in Ecuador and Nigeria are not driven by Ecuadorian or Nigerian demand, but by the thirst for oil in richer nations. Deforestation in Indonesia is driven by the rich world's demand for palm oil and timber, in Brazil by our hunger for timber and animal feed.
The Guardian's carbon calculator reveals that the UK has greatly underestimated the climate impacts of our consumption. The reason is that official figures don't count outsourced emissions: the greenhouse gases produced by other countries manufacturing goods for our markets. Another recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the UK imports a net 253m tonnes of carbon dioxide, embodied in the goods it buys. When this is taken into account, we find that far from cutting emissions since 1990, as the last government claimed, we have increased them. Wealth wrecks the environment.
So the Dark Mountain Project, whose ideas are spreading rapidly through the environment movement, is worth examining. It contends that "capitalism has absorbed the greens". Instead of seeking to protect the natural world from the impact of humans, the project claims that environmentalists now work on "sustaining human civilisation at the comfort level which the world's rich people – us – feel is their right".
Today's greens, it charges, seek to sustain the culture that knackers the planet, demanding only that we replace old, polluting technologies with new ones – wind farms, solar arrays, wave machines – that wreck even more of the world's wild places. They have lost their feelings for nature, reducing the problem to an engineering challenge. They've forgotten that they are supposed to be defending the biosphere: instead they are trying to save industrial civilisation.
That task, Paul Kingsnorth – a co-founder of Dark Mountain – believes, is futile: "The civilisation we are a part of is hitting the buffers at full speed, and it is too late to stop it." Nor can we bargain with it, as "the economic system we rely upon cannot be tamed without collapsing, for it relies upon … growth in order to function". Instead of trying to reduce the impacts of our civilisation, we should "start thinking about how we are going to live through its fall, and what we can learn from its collapse … Our task is to negotiate the coming descent as best we can, whilst creating new myths which put humanity in its proper place".
Though a fair bit of this takes aim at my writing and the ideas I champion, I recognise the truth in it. Something has been lost along the way. Among the charts and tables and technofixes, in the desperate search for green solutions that can work politically and economically, we have tended to forget the love of nature that drew us into all this.
But I cannot make the leap that Dark Mountain demands. The first problem with its vision is that industrial civilisation is much more resilient than it proposes. In the opening essay of the movement's first book, to be published this week, John Michael Greer proposes that conventional oil supplies peaked in 2005, that gas will peak by 2030, and that coal will do so by 2040.
While I'm prepared to believe that oil supplies might decline in the next few years, his coal prediction is hogwash. Energy companies in the UK, as the latest ENDS report shows, are now beginning to deploy a technology that will greatly increase available reserves. Government figures suggest that underground coal gasification – injecting oxygen into coal seams and extracting the hydrogen and methane they release – can boost the UK's land-based coal reserves 70-fold; and it opens up even more under the seabed. There are vast untapped reserves of other fossil fuels – bitumen, oil shale, methane clathrates – that energy companies will turn to if the price is right.
Like all cultures, industrial civilisation will collapse at some point. Resource depletion and climate change are likely causes. But I don't believe it will happen soon: not in this century, perhaps not even in the next. If it continues to rely on economic growth, if it doesn't reduce its reliance on primary resources, our civilisation will tank the biosphere before it goes down. To sit back and wait for what the Dark Mountain people believe will be civilisation's imminent collapse, without trying to change the way it operates, is to conspire in the destruction of everything greens are supposed to value.
Nor do I accept their undiscriminating attack on industrial technologies. There is a world of difference between the impact of windfarms and the impact of mining tar sands or drilling for oil: the turbines might spoil the view but, as the latest disaster shows, the effects of oil seep into the planet's every pore. And unless environmentalists also seek to sustain the achievements of industrial civilisation – health, education, sanitation, nutrition – the field will be left to those who rightly wish to preserve them, but don't give a stuff about the impacts.
We can accept these benefits while rejecting perpetual growth. We can embrace engineering while rejecting many of the uses to which it is put. We can defend healthcare while attacking useless consumption. This approach is boring, unromantic, uncertain of success, but a lot less ugly than the alternatives.
For all that, the debate this project has begun is worth having, which is why I'll be going to the Dark Mountain festival this month. There are no easy answers to the fix we're in. But there are no easy non-answers either.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/may/10/deepwater-horizon-greens-collapse-civilisation
Monday 10 May 2010
Globalization
Globalisation is a good thing. Discuss.
Define globalisation
Globalization can be defined as the increased interconnection of networks, economies, cultures, politics and communications. Although globalization has been increasing for a millenia, for definition purposes, the relevant stages began in 1944 with the Bretton Woods and the formation of the UN in 1945.
Globalization emcompases global concerns, such as conflicts, education, health and access to clean water (millenium goals). Global institutions include the United Nations 1, The World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, etc.
Global treaties, protocols and agreements cover a range of issues including those concerning trade, e.g. the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade2 (GATT which resulted from failed negotiations for an International Trade Organisation), environmental polution (the Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal Protocol to name but a few.
The history of globalisation
Travel and trade are ancient human traits, but recently the world has become connected in a global sense. Global awareness really began in the 1960's as the space race began and pollution due to pesticides entered the mainstream media.
Present global issues
Today we are all affected by globalization and global issues. Never before have we been as interdependent as we are now. Today it is possible to trade goods around the planet, for wealthy people to travel almost anywhere they like. Communications systems such as mobile telephony and the internet enable us to talk to each other and share information, while the GPS system, along with the interconnection of applications such as Google Maps allows us to view ourselves as never before.
Today corporations are larger than many nations and wield more power. People have become consumers and the global population is increasing as never before. Migration is also increasing, although restrictions exist to prevent mass immigration into richer nations.
The challenges we now face are greater in nature than ever before. Energy consumption, often from sources, which are on the other side of the planet is increasing, and with it, the issues of peak oil, an increasing reliance on unstable states and climate change resulting from their use are all challenging our ability to develop into a sustainable globalized world.
The future.
To be decided.
Define globalisation
Globalization can be defined as the increased interconnection of networks, economies, cultures, politics and communications. Although globalization has been increasing for a millenia, for definition purposes, the relevant stages began in 1944 with the Bretton Woods and the formation of the UN in 1945.
Globalization emcompases global concerns, such as conflicts, education, health and access to clean water (millenium goals). Global institutions include the United Nations 1, The World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, etc.
Global treaties, protocols and agreements cover a range of issues including those concerning trade, e.g. the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade2 (GATT which resulted from failed negotiations for an International Trade Organisation), environmental polution (the Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal Protocol to name but a few.
The history of globalisation
Travel and trade are ancient human traits, but recently the world has become connected in a global sense. Global awareness really began in the 1960's as the space race began and pollution due to pesticides entered the mainstream media.
Present global issues
Today we are all affected by globalization and global issues. Never before have we been as interdependent as we are now. Today it is possible to trade goods around the planet, for wealthy people to travel almost anywhere they like. Communications systems such as mobile telephony and the internet enable us to talk to each other and share information, while the GPS system, along with the interconnection of applications such as Google Maps allows us to view ourselves as never before.
Today corporations are larger than many nations and wield more power. People have become consumers and the global population is increasing as never before. Migration is also increasing, although restrictions exist to prevent mass immigration into richer nations.
The challenges we now face are greater in nature than ever before. Energy consumption, often from sources, which are on the other side of the planet is increasing, and with it, the issues of peak oil, an increasing reliance on unstable states and climate change resulting from their use are all challenging our ability to develop into a sustainable globalized world.
The future.
To be decided.
Friday 7 May 2010
The UK National Carbon Calculator
How would you reduce carbon dioxide emmisions in the UK? Take the test and find out!
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Left handedness - why?
Most people are right handed. Have any of you ever wondered why? Only left-handed really tend to think about this. So why are about 10% of us left-handed?
The answer may be simple: The division of labour. Left-handedness also offers an evolutionary advantage in combat an evasion if small numbers do the unexpected. This is explained in game theory.
The answer may be simple: The division of labour. Left-handedness also offers an evolutionary advantage in combat an evasion if small numbers do the unexpected. This is explained in game theory.
Sunday 18 April 2010
The EU flight ban
This from Focus Online:
http://www.focus.de/reisen/fliegen/aschewolke-deutschland-bleibt-am-boden_aid_499893.html
Summarised in English.
http://www.focus.de/reisen/fliegen/aschewolke-deutschland-bleibt-am-boden_aid_499893.html
Summarised in English.
Thursday 8 April 2010
Monday 22 March 2010
BEC Vantage listening exercise
http://www.candidates.cambridgeesol.org/cs/Help_with_exams/Professional_English/BEC_Vantage/Papers?paper=Listening
Tourism
The latest update on Goa:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/goa-tensions-threaten-expat-paradise
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/goa-tensions-threaten-expat-paradise
Thursday 18 March 2010
Plastic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2010/02/100218_6min_plastic_page.shtml
Rubbish, or garbage, or litter
Write about plastic pollution
Notes:
The structure:
Identify the problem
Give examples and facts
Provide solutions
Examples and facts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/oprah-shines-light-on-gre_n_190552.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10patch.html?_r=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M
Rubbish, or garbage, or litter
Write about plastic pollution
Notes:
The structure:
Identify the problem
Give examples and facts
Provide solutions
Examples and facts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/oprah-shines-light-on-gre_n_190552.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10patch.html?_r=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Monday 15 March 2010
Immigration
Immigration
Is immigration a good thing? Discuss.
Immigration can be defined as the movement of people to new countries and cultures, especially from poorer to richer countries. Immigration is increasing around the world, with an estimated 200 million migrants worldwide according to the International Migration Organisation, and the tendency is increasing.
So is immigration a good thing? The answer depends on a number of factors such as the reason for immigrating. Many people were attracted to Europe and the USA to help the economies which boomed after the sceond world war. Others acame to places like Britain as they had attained British citizenship in the colonies. All of these people brought skills from the their countries of birth, which resulted in a skills shortage in those nations.
In times of recession, foreign workers and even immigrants tend to have to return to their old countries as jobs dry up. They are often at the front line when it comes to job loses and are often targeted by racists who acuse them of stealing their work.
While you can differentiate between legal and illegal migrants, most immigration is due to economic reasons, with asylum seekers making up the minority. Why? There are many reasons for immigration: Jobs, health care, medication. money, wars, persecution and love. For many there is simply no perspective in the home country. Climate change is also becoming an increasing factor and will be of major concern as the planet heats up.
Issues which affect immigrants include integration into society, leanring a new language for example being one of the most important challenges. A lack of integration can lead to isolution from society and is one other cause of racism.
What is the percentage of immigrants in Germany? According to wikipedia, Germany has the third highest percentage of immigrants wolrdwide (CIA State of World Population 2006 report ). The MPI puts this figure at 8.9% of the population. In the UK this percentage is much lower at 5.2%.
The flip side of the coin is emigration, which is often for similar, but also other reasons, such as reitred people moving to warmer climates. Many Germans emigrate to France, the USA, Canada, or Australia for example.
There has been an increasingly strong response to immigration across the globe with countries like the USA increasing controls on many of it's borders. The Mexican border for example is being fenced off and large numbers of patrols and surveillence equipment are being employed. In Europe the internal borders have been removed and the focus placed on creating a Fortress Europe – Frontex being the organistion responsible for patrolling the borders of Europe.
Like it, or not immigration is on the increase. In the past migrant workers have helped build up the economies of the world's industrialised nations. To oppose immigration when times get hard, or worse to seek to blame immigrants is not only hypocritical, it is inhuman.
Fortress Europe – Frontex
Is immigration a good thing? Discuss.
Immigration can be defined as the movement of people to new countries and cultures, especially from poorer to richer countries. Immigration is increasing around the world, with an estimated 200 million migrants worldwide according to the International Migration Organisation, and the tendency is increasing.
So is immigration a good thing? The answer depends on a number of factors such as the reason for immigrating. Many people were attracted to Europe and the USA to help the economies which boomed after the sceond world war. Others acame to places like Britain as they had attained British citizenship in the colonies. All of these people brought skills from the their countries of birth, which resulted in a skills shortage in those nations.
In times of recession, foreign workers and even immigrants tend to have to return to their old countries as jobs dry up. They are often at the front line when it comes to job loses and are often targeted by racists who acuse them of stealing their work.
While you can differentiate between legal and illegal migrants, most immigration is due to economic reasons, with asylum seekers making up the minority. Why? There are many reasons for immigration: Jobs, health care, medication. money, wars, persecution and love. For many there is simply no perspective in the home country. Climate change is also becoming an increasing factor and will be of major concern as the planet heats up.
Issues which affect immigrants include integration into society, leanring a new language for example being one of the most important challenges. A lack of integration can lead to isolution from society and is one other cause of racism.
What is the percentage of immigrants in Germany? According to wikipedia, Germany has the third highest percentage of immigrants wolrdwide (CIA State of World Population 2006 report ). The MPI puts this figure at 8.9% of the population. In the UK this percentage is much lower at 5.2%.
The flip side of the coin is emigration, which is often for similar, but also other reasons, such as reitred people moving to warmer climates. Many Germans emigrate to France, the USA, Canada, or Australia for example.
There has been an increasingly strong response to immigration across the globe with countries like the USA increasing controls on many of it's borders. The Mexican border for example is being fenced off and large numbers of patrols and surveillence equipment are being employed. In Europe the internal borders have been removed and the focus placed on creating a Fortress Europe – Frontex being the organistion responsible for patrolling the borders of Europe.
Like it, or not immigration is on the increase. In the past migrant workers have helped build up the economies of the world's industrialised nations. To oppose immigration when times get hard, or worse to seek to blame immigrants is not only hypocritical, it is inhuman.
Fortress Europe – Frontex
The meaning of life
What is the meaning of life?
This is one of the central questions facing mankind. There are two schools of thought that attempt to address this question: religion and philosophy. The meaning of life addresses such thoughts as why are we here, what is death and what the hell am I doing in this classroom?
In religion the meaning of life is a central question regardless of the religion. Most attempt to answer this question by throwing God into the picture and explaining things in such a way that you have to simply believe the story.
From the philosophical perspective, the meaning of life is addressed using critical, systematic and rational arguments.
A scientific approach would be to consider life itself as starter. Evolution describes the path of life from the beginning to the present day. Intelligence can be described scientifically and ultimately consciousness is the basis for asking the question.
In popular culture, the meaning of life has been considered through drug culture, for example due to the taking of mind altering drugs. Aldous Huxley pioneered the use of mescaline to gaining insights into what he termed the Perenial Philosophy and also wrote the book The Doors of Perception
Thursday 11 March 2010
Google - a brief analysis
Google was founded in California in 1998, and began mainly by providing search engine services with a successful revenue model based on user targeted advertising and search engine result optimization. Since then it has exploded into a major global player, provided an array of products and services that have come to threaten the giants of the internet, although 97% of it's income still comes from advertising. It's revenue in 2009 was 23.6 billion US dollars.
Google also provide a number of software products and services including Google Earth, YouTube, Google Mail, Google Docs and also hardware in the form of the Nexus One mobile phone and server hardware.
Google's latest plans for providing an open source operating system combined with a range of apps is set to revolutionize the use of computers and the internet by utilising cloud computing to provide a holistic range of services, all based on open source software.
Google is one of the world's most powerful brands and one of it's best employers. Google has however been criticized for it's privacy policy and many are concerned about issues of copyright concerning the Google Books service and censorship relating to it's operations in China.
Google's vision statement is “Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful”
The future looks bright for Google. According to rumors, they are planning to introduce a netbook in 2010 using the Google Chrome OS, which is based on the Android OS (ultimately this is Linux).
10 Things Google has found to be true
1.Focus on the user and all else will follow
2.It's best to do one thing really, really well
3.Fast is better than slow
4.Democracy on the web works
5.You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer
6.You can make money without doing evil
7.There's always more information out there
8.The need for information crosses all borders
9.You can be serious without a suit
10.Great just isn't good enough
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Enough is enough - the CRU
JBowers
9 Mar 2010, 8:56PM
George Woodwell, Director Emeritus, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center, says enough is enough.
"The response to the [email] vandals is to bury them with the data and experience of a century of scholarly research and analysis. The information that is important in making the decisions as to how to manage our world is unequivocal and must be advanced, not as questions at the edge of scientific knowledge where scientist like to dwell, but as the facts that they are, facts as immutable as the law of gravity. The climatic disruption is not a theory open to a belief system any more than the solar system is a theory, or gravity, or the oceanic tides, or evolution. This approach is uncompromising, partisan in the sense of selected for the purpose. It is not a lecture to undergraduates; nor is it ecology 101. It is a clear statement of what is required for government to do its job in protecting the public welfare. The scientific community has a firm responsibility in this realm now. This is not the time to wring our hands over the challenges to hyper-scientific objectivity, the purity of scholars, and to tie ourselves in knots with apologies for alleged errors of trifling import.
The fact is that we, humans, have changed the composition of the atmosphere with respect to heat-trapping gases enough to start the progression of global climate, not into a new steady state, but into an open-ended warming that is pulling the environment out from under this civilization. If one wonders where that process leads, one need not look far around the world to find dysfunctional landscapes. Have a quick look at New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, or Haiti before the earthquake. All have fallen far below any point where internal resources can be used to restore a nation with a functional political system, a vital economy, and a functional environment. They have fallen into an abyss, beyond rescue without massive outside aid that will, first, restore a functional landscape to produce, for instance, a water supply, and stable agriculture, and a fishery. Something to build an economy around, and to support a government.
The challenge is complicated, the most complicated international environmental issue the world has ever faced. The scientific community has done brilliantly with the IPCC, by nature a conservative apparatus. It is time now, thirty years after the problem was recognized as threatening this civilization, for the scientific community to come forth with clear instructions, relentlessly repeated and amplified, as to how to restore a functional habitat for humanity. It can be done, but the scientific community has a big responsibility not now widely recognized or accepted."
9 Mar 2010, 8:56PM
George Woodwell, Director Emeritus, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center, says enough is enough.
"The response to the [email] vandals is to bury them with the data and experience of a century of scholarly research and analysis. The information that is important in making the decisions as to how to manage our world is unequivocal and must be advanced, not as questions at the edge of scientific knowledge where scientist like to dwell, but as the facts that they are, facts as immutable as the law of gravity. The climatic disruption is not a theory open to a belief system any more than the solar system is a theory, or gravity, or the oceanic tides, or evolution. This approach is uncompromising, partisan in the sense of selected for the purpose. It is not a lecture to undergraduates; nor is it ecology 101. It is a clear statement of what is required for government to do its job in protecting the public welfare. The scientific community has a firm responsibility in this realm now. This is not the time to wring our hands over the challenges to hyper-scientific objectivity, the purity of scholars, and to tie ourselves in knots with apologies for alleged errors of trifling import.
The fact is that we, humans, have changed the composition of the atmosphere with respect to heat-trapping gases enough to start the progression of global climate, not into a new steady state, but into an open-ended warming that is pulling the environment out from under this civilization. If one wonders where that process leads, one need not look far around the world to find dysfunctional landscapes. Have a quick look at New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, or Haiti before the earthquake. All have fallen far below any point where internal resources can be used to restore a nation with a functional political system, a vital economy, and a functional environment. They have fallen into an abyss, beyond rescue without massive outside aid that will, first, restore a functional landscape to produce, for instance, a water supply, and stable agriculture, and a fishery. Something to build an economy around, and to support a government.
The challenge is complicated, the most complicated international environmental issue the world has ever faced. The scientific community has done brilliantly with the IPCC, by nature a conservative apparatus. It is time now, thirty years after the problem was recognized as threatening this civilization, for the scientific community to come forth with clear instructions, relentlessly repeated and amplified, as to how to restore a functional habitat for humanity. It can be done, but the scientific community has a big responsibility not now widely recognized or accepted."
Al Gore video on TED
http://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_s_new_thinking_on_the_climate_crisis.html
The latest from Al Gore on climate change.
A summary:
Environmental problems are similar to military crises, they can be local, regional, or global and all require similar strategies. Climate change is a global crisis and mobilising resources requires the mobilisation of politics on a global scale.
The evidence of climate change is increasing. Increasing Arctic sea ice melt is an example and the CSI project aims to bring the science of climate change into education.But climate change has the lowest priority compared to other issues in the USA and media coverage is extremely poor.
Al Gore then presents increasing oil consumption figures as well as showing urban development in places like Bolivia and the growth in global fisheries. The solution: Put a price on carbon. The EU super grid using HVDC cables and investments in geothermal, efficiency and conservation are vital.
But the USA did not ratify the Kyoto protocol. Even Australia signed up after the Big Dry drought and 780 cities have signed up.
We need another hero generation. Gore: "History has presented us with a choice. We can do this. We have the capacity."
"One final point: I'm optimistic. Rise to the challenge with joy and gratitude."
Presentation ends.
Interview with TED:
Are you excited about political parties plans to tackle climate change?
All three have put forward plans, but the main sponsors are pushing clean coal! WE need more radical solutions. We need to be active citizens on the internet. No new coal fired power stations, but nobody is talking on that scale. The Global Alliance are doing great things though.
And finally a quote from Africa:
If you want to go quickly, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
The latest from Al Gore on climate change.
A summary:
Environmental problems are similar to military crises, they can be local, regional, or global and all require similar strategies. Climate change is a global crisis and mobilising resources requires the mobilisation of politics on a global scale.
The evidence of climate change is increasing. Increasing Arctic sea ice melt is an example and the CSI project aims to bring the science of climate change into education.But climate change has the lowest priority compared to other issues in the USA and media coverage is extremely poor.
Al Gore then presents increasing oil consumption figures as well as showing urban development in places like Bolivia and the growth in global fisheries. The solution: Put a price on carbon. The EU super grid using HVDC cables and investments in geothermal, efficiency and conservation are vital.
But the USA did not ratify the Kyoto protocol. Even Australia signed up after the Big Dry drought and 780 cities have signed up.
We need another hero generation. Gore: "History has presented us with a choice. We can do this. We have the capacity."
"One final point: I'm optimistic. Rise to the challenge with joy and gratitude."
Presentation ends.
Interview with TED:
Are you excited about political parties plans to tackle climate change?
All three have put forward plans, but the main sponsors are pushing clean coal! WE need more radical solutions. We need to be active citizens on the internet. No new coal fired power stations, but nobody is talking on that scale. The Global Alliance are doing great things though.
And finally a quote from Africa:
If you want to go quickly, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
Monday 8 March 2010
Sunday 7 March 2010
Bill Gates on energy & climate
Energy is mankind's greatest challenge and climate change our greatest threat. We are currently producing 26 billion tons of CO2 per year, and in the USA that's 20 tons per capita. The challenge boils down to the equation:
CO2 = PxSxExC
Where P is population, S are the services, E is energy and C is carbon intensity. One of these has to reduce to zero. The world's population is set to grow from 6.8 billion today to 9 billion by 2050. Improving medicines etc. may reduce the total by 10 – 15%, but that's it.
With services, it may be possible to increase efficiency by up to 50% to 13Mt, but with energy, E we need a miracle. A miracle in a tight time line & gimmicks won't help; we need solutions.
Five technologies are promising. They include clean fossil fuels, nuclear, wind, solar PV and thermal solar. Others not included such as biomass, tidal power may also help.
Problems exist with these five technologies such as CCS, which involves huge volumes of CO2 to be disposed of. Nuclear power entails high costs for regulation, safety issues and waste disposal problems.
Sustainable sources are harvested, meaning a lower density of energy than power plants. They are also intermittent sources. Other issues include cost, transmission and storage issues. Batteries are insufficient to store the energy we need as above a 20 – 30 % share of sustainable energy some form of storage is needed.
So a miracle is required. Bill Gross @ eSolar for example. Some good ideas are around such as
Terrapower.
So what needs to go on the report card? An 80% CO2 reduction by 2050 with zero emissions in rich countries, so a lot of work needed there. By 2020 a 20% reduction must be realized. There are many good books on this subject, such as Al Gore's ''Our choice'', or David McKay's ''Sustainable Energy - Without the hot air''.
What do we have to do? More research funding is needed along with an innovation agenda. Market mechanisms are also needed such as the CO2 trade cap and trade.
The scale of investment in Terrapower is 100's of millions of dollars , as well as needing to identifying the regulator & the location of such a project. The energy density of this technology is an advantage and waste fuel from conventional processes can be used as fuel. The technology is similar to that in fast breeder reactors.
The timescale and likelihood are 20 years to invent & 20 years to deploy. We must remember that, in the words of Bill Gates: “An energy breakthrough is the most important thing”.
What about taking emergency measures if that doesn't work? Geo-engineering (heart surgery for the obese analogy) may be required, but it is a risky measure. This must be seen as an insurance policy if all else fails.
But what would you say to so-called climate skeptics? How are they wrong? They have no scientific argument. A parallel is with AIDS. We must endure the pain now for gain later. Make it economical viable and the CO2 skeptics will accept it. Bjorn Lomborg, a famous sceptic talks about it being an R&D issue. Clearly solutions must be economically viable as although he rich can afford incresed energy costs, the poor cannot. That is why R&D, which is underfunded must be better supported.
Link to the video here
CO2 = PxSxExC
Where P is population, S are the services, E is energy and C is carbon intensity. One of these has to reduce to zero. The world's population is set to grow from 6.8 billion today to 9 billion by 2050. Improving medicines etc. may reduce the total by 10 – 15%, but that's it.
With services, it may be possible to increase efficiency by up to 50% to 13Mt, but with energy, E we need a miracle. A miracle in a tight time line & gimmicks won't help; we need solutions.
Five technologies are promising. They include clean fossil fuels, nuclear, wind, solar PV and thermal solar. Others not included such as biomass, tidal power may also help.
Problems exist with these five technologies such as CCS, which involves huge volumes of CO2 to be disposed of. Nuclear power entails high costs for regulation, safety issues and waste disposal problems.
Sustainable sources are harvested, meaning a lower density of energy than power plants. They are also intermittent sources. Other issues include cost, transmission and storage issues. Batteries are insufficient to store the energy we need as above a 20 – 30 % share of sustainable energy some form of storage is needed.
So a miracle is required. Bill Gross @ eSolar for example. Some good ideas are around such as
Terrapower.
So what needs to go on the report card? An 80% CO2 reduction by 2050 with zero emissions in rich countries, so a lot of work needed there. By 2020 a 20% reduction must be realized. There are many good books on this subject, such as Al Gore's ''Our choice'', or David McKay's ''Sustainable Energy - Without the hot air''.
What do we have to do? More research funding is needed along with an innovation agenda. Market mechanisms are also needed such as the CO2 trade cap and trade.
The scale of investment in Terrapower is 100's of millions of dollars , as well as needing to identifying the regulator & the location of such a project. The energy density of this technology is an advantage and waste fuel from conventional processes can be used as fuel. The technology is similar to that in fast breeder reactors.
The timescale and likelihood are 20 years to invent & 20 years to deploy. We must remember that, in the words of Bill Gates: “An energy breakthrough is the most important thing”.
What about taking emergency measures if that doesn't work? Geo-engineering (heart surgery for the obese analogy) may be required, but it is a risky measure. This must be seen as an insurance policy if all else fails.
But what would you say to so-called climate skeptics? How are they wrong? They have no scientific argument. A parallel is with AIDS. We must endure the pain now for gain later. Make it economical viable and the CO2 skeptics will accept it. Bjorn Lomborg, a famous sceptic talks about it being an R&D issue. Clearly solutions must be economically viable as although he rich can afford incresed energy costs, the poor cannot. That is why R&D, which is underfunded must be better supported.
Link to the video here
Thursday 18 February 2010
Plug-in hybrids
Here the link to the video
Why electric cars?
1.Energy supplies – peak oil
2.Climate change
3.Energy security – fighting wars for oil
4.Money – it will become cheaper to use electric vehicles.
Electricity production
Sustainable energy is free & unlimited? Remember nothing is for free...
One thing is for sure: The Sun will shine tomorrow!
Hydropower – reserviors and dams. Large hydro is not sustainable.
Pumped storage is useful.
Demand profile over 24 hours. - the graph of demand and supply.
How is it possible to reduce peak demand?
When demand is low at night power stations must keep running, to provide a spinning reserve.
How is it possible to know if a car is fully charged or not?
What did GE present? Smart grids. An intelligent communication network.
What is a smart meter?
A special meter is needed to control demand. The latest are called smart meters.
Peak demand usually occurs in the afternoon.
Flexible pricing is currently only available to larger consumers, but it must be available to all.
Demand management uses stored energy from batteries by employing intelligent controls. Communication is set up between the provider and the consumer via the grid (see Gridwise). Smart meters in the buildings make it possible to control the devices in that building.
Electric supply issues:
Black outs - a complete loss of power.
Brown outs – a serious reduction of supply.
UPS systems – uninterruptable power supplies help avoid this problem by using batteries, but they are expensive and limited in capacity.
84% refers to what figure?
ROI – return on investment = the time needed to get your money back. Break even point. After that you make a profit.
Why electric cars?
1.Energy supplies – peak oil
2.Climate change
3.Energy security – fighting wars for oil
4.Money – it will become cheaper to use electric vehicles.
Electricity production
Sustainable energy is free & unlimited? Remember nothing is for free...
One thing is for sure: The Sun will shine tomorrow!
Hydropower – reserviors and dams. Large hydro is not sustainable.
Pumped storage is useful.
Demand profile over 24 hours. - the graph of demand and supply.
How is it possible to reduce peak demand?
When demand is low at night power stations must keep running, to provide a spinning reserve.
How is it possible to know if a car is fully charged or not?
What did GE present? Smart grids. An intelligent communication network.
What is a smart meter?
A special meter is needed to control demand. The latest are called smart meters.
Peak demand usually occurs in the afternoon.
Flexible pricing is currently only available to larger consumers, but it must be available to all.
Demand management uses stored energy from batteries by employing intelligent controls. Communication is set up between the provider and the consumer via the grid (see Gridwise). Smart meters in the buildings make it possible to control the devices in that building.
Electric supply issues:
Black outs - a complete loss of power.
Brown outs – a serious reduction of supply.
UPS systems – uninterruptable power supplies help avoid this problem by using batteries, but they are expensive and limited in capacity.
84% refers to what figure?
ROI – return on investment = the time needed to get your money back. Break even point. After that you make a profit.
Monday 8 February 2010
The Energy Crisis
Firstly define the term.
Wikipedia*, an encylcopedia, Encarta, Google, blogs, newspapers? Reliable information. Books
It is Web 2.0 – anyone can edit it.
Science journals. Are they reliable? A journal
Peer review.
E = mc2
An example with food
A farmer plants a seed and in the earth. The plants are watered by rain and the plant grows.At some point it's ready for harvesting. Tractors are involved. No chemicals are involved if it is organic (Bio). Chemicals include pesticides and fertilisers.
Fertilisers come from the oil industry.
The food is then harvested, processed and then transported to a warehouse.
Energy issues:
Energy supply – supplies from nuclear power, the sun (solar power), wind, oil, coal & gas.
Demand & supply. Demand is high and increasing while the supply is leveling off and now diminishing. Peak oil
Energy security – Energy in Germany. War.
Electrical energy comes from power stations. They run on nuclear power, brown coal (it's full of sulphur and produces a lot of CO2).
Fuels – oil, mostly the middle East especially Saudi Arabia & Iraq. Peak oil.
Climate change – GHG's, mostly CO2, but also include CH4, but also unburnt hydrocarbons, etc.
Sustainable energy – energy cannot be created, or destroyed (laws of thermodynamics).Entropy.
Links:
International Energy Agency
http://iea.org/
Guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/07/branson-warns-peak-oil-close
Interesting comment on the above article
Wikipedia*, an encylcopedia, Encarta, Google, blogs, newspapers? Reliable information. Books
It is Web 2.0 – anyone can edit it.
Science journals. Are they reliable? A journal
Peer review.
E = mc2
An example with food
A farmer plants a seed and in the earth. The plants are watered by rain and the plant grows.At some point it's ready for harvesting. Tractors are involved. No chemicals are involved if it is organic (Bio). Chemicals include pesticides and fertilisers.
Fertilisers come from the oil industry.
The food is then harvested, processed and then transported to a warehouse.
Energy issues:
Energy supply – supplies from nuclear power, the sun (solar power), wind, oil, coal & gas.
Demand & supply. Demand is high and increasing while the supply is leveling off and now diminishing. Peak oil
Energy security – Energy in Germany. War.
Electrical energy comes from power stations. They run on nuclear power, brown coal (it's full of sulphur and produces a lot of CO2).
Fuels – oil, mostly the middle East especially Saudi Arabia & Iraq. Peak oil.
Climate change – GHG's, mostly CO2, but also include CH4, but also unburnt hydrocarbons, etc.
Sustainable energy – energy cannot be created, or destroyed (laws of thermodynamics).Entropy.
Links:
International Energy Agency
http://iea.org/
Guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/07/branson-warns-peak-oil-close
Interesting comment on the above article
Monday 1 February 2010
Improved pigs
Improved:
A CD containing information about people who haven't paid their taxes has been offered to the German government. But a government spokesperson said today that they haven't decided whether they are going to pay the 2.5 million euros for this CD yet.
The total value of the tax reportedly amounts to 100 million euros. Is the CD genuine? Does it contain useful data? Five names from the CD have been provided in order to prove its value, each owing at least half a million euros in unpaid taxes.
The legal situation has not yet been made clear, with Germany's defence minister, Karl zu Guttenberg stating that he was ''uncomfortable with the use of stolen data'' but that his opinion did not necessarily reflect that of the government.
The leaked data has raised a moral dilemma within Germany. The question of whether it is right, or wrong for German citizens to avoid paying tax while other role models such as Boris Becker simply take advantage of tax loopholes.
People are now asking themselves if this is a crime, what should be the punishment? One thing for sure is that a long hard examination is needed of the financial system that has allowed this to happen in the first place.
A CD containing information about people who haven't paid their taxes has been offered to the German government. But a government spokesperson said today that they haven't decided whether they are going to pay the 2.5 million euros for this CD yet.
The total value of the tax reportedly amounts to 100 million euros. Is the CD genuine? Does it contain useful data? Five names from the CD have been provided in order to prove its value, each owing at least half a million euros in unpaid taxes.
The legal situation has not yet been made clear, with Germany's defence minister, Karl zu Guttenberg stating that he was ''uncomfortable with the use of stolen data'' but that his opinion did not necessarily reflect that of the government.
The leaked data has raised a moral dilemma within Germany. The question of whether it is right, or wrong for German citizens to avoid paying tax while other role models such as Boris Becker simply take advantage of tax loopholes.
People are now asking themselves if this is a crime, what should be the punishment? One thing for sure is that a long hard examination is needed of the financial system that has allowed this to happen in the first place.
Pigs
A CD containing information about people who haven't paid their taxes has been offered to the German government.
They haven't decided whether they are going to pay the 2. 5 million euros for this CD yet.
The total value of the tax reportedly amounts to 100 million euros. Is the CD genuine? Does it contain useful data? Five names from the CD have been provided in order to prove the value of the data, each owing at least half a million euros.
Blackmail?
legal?
Leak
Moral dilemma
Is it right, or wrong?
Role models
Tax loopholes and tax policy
Is it a crime? And what is the punishment?
Greedy, fat pigs.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/87410d26-0e8d-11df-bd79-00144feabdc0.html
They haven't decided whether they are going to pay the 2. 5 million euros for this CD yet.
The total value of the tax reportedly amounts to 100 million euros. Is the CD genuine? Does it contain useful data? Five names from the CD have been provided in order to prove the value of the data, each owing at least half a million euros.
Blackmail?
legal?
Leak
Moral dilemma
Is it right, or wrong?
Role models
Tax loopholes and tax policy
Is it a crime? And what is the punishment?
Greedy, fat pigs.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/87410d26-0e8d-11df-bd79-00144feabdc0.html
Saturday 30 January 2010
Here comes the flood
Cost of UK flood protection doubles to £1bn a year
Latest data from the Environment Agency shows that more than half a million UK homes are at 'significant' risk of flooding
The devastating floods of summer 2007 which affected Tewkesbury cost a total of £3.2bn according to the EA. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty
More than half a million homes are at "significant" risk of flooding and the cost of protecting them will double to £1bn a year by 2035, according to the latest data from the Environment Agency (EA).
The rising costs will be incurred from the impacts of climate change that will take effect in the coming decades, meaning the risks to homes and communities will increase unless defences are improved.
The costs of dealing with floods can run into the billions - the devastating floods of summer 2007 cost a total of £3.2bn according to the EA, including more than £2bn in costs to homeowners and businesses as well as 400,000 of lost school days. The EA estimates that 5 million people live and work in the 2.4m properties in England that are at some risk of flooding and, at present, around £570m is spent every year building and maintaining the defences required for them. Half a million of those properties are in highest risk band, which means they are at risk of flooding due to extreme weather expected once every 75 years.
Climate scientists predict that, by the 2080s, sea levels could be around 70cm higher around the southern parts of the UK, making serious storm surges and floods more frequent. Using predictions from the UK Climate Impacts Programme, the EA estimates that keeping all 2.4m at-risk homes at the existing level of flood risk for the next 25 years will cost £1bn per year by 2035. "Assuming that no new properties are adding to that risk, then that investment is to maintain the existing infrastructure and to invest to make sure it isn't worsened, taking into account the uncertainties of climate change," said Robert Runcie, the EA's director of flood and coastal risk management.
"What we know from the science of climate change is that weather patterns are going to become more extreme. The risk is going to get greater and we need to up our game in response to that," said Chris Smith, the EA chairman, in an evidence session to the House of Commons environmental audit committee (EAC) last week.
"The case for flood defence is very strong. The cost benefit of any flood defence work that we do, the benefit is at least five times the cost. The average cost to a home of being flooded is £20,000 to £30,000. The average cost to a home of being burgled is about £1000. So the damage that flooding does in terms of its impact on people's livelihoods is huge."
But getting this money out of government has proved difficult. "The Treasury have crawled all over our figures and have agreed that our working is absolutely in order and have agreed with the conclusions that we have reached," said Smith. "What they have not done, of course, is commit the actual figures and that is unlikely to happen this side of an election or, I suspect, the other."
An Treasury spokeswoman said:"The government will make decisions about the allocation of expenditure, including the allocation for flood risk management, at the next spending review." She pointed out that spending on on flood and coastal erosion risk management had increased in recent years, from £394m in 2002-03 to £564m in 2005-06.
Not spending the money could have even bigger consequences. The EA estimates that the annual cost of damage to residential and commercial property from flooding in England could rise from £2.5bn to £4bn by 2035 without the extra cash for flood defences. Investing the money would save England some £180bn over the next 100 years.
"Even at a time of unprecedented financial pressure, this is something that has to be given a priority," said EAC chair and Conservative MP Tim Yeo. "We could be more creative about getting private sector investment in as well. Where you've got new developments taking place, it's quite legitimate in my view for the planning authority to say, look, although what we're going to ask for [in flood defences] is not directly related to the houses or supermarket you're putting up there, it is of concern to this community and we do need to accelerate investment in flood-prevention measures so we want to supplement what the taxpayer is being asked for with developer contributions."
Runcie said that flood management in future would depend on careful planning and preventing the construction of new buildings on flood plains. "One of the things that's made a huge difference on that is a change to the planning laws where, only last year, we became a formal consultee. In the last 12 months, of the thousands of applications for major developments that have been proposed, only 4% went against our recommendations."
Monday 25 January 2010
Your motivation
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been given a simple, easy task: To write a letter of motivation. How do I begin?
Brainstorm!
I the past I was extremely lazy. I did love blowing up tall buildings though, so it seemd a good idea for me to consider a career in destroying things. My mother always got angry when I set fire to the sofa. Maybe I should think about a career in the fireworks industry.
Now I am studying pyrotechnics. I really enjoy setting fireworks to music and am learning to combine DMX systems with the fireworks. It's great fun!
In the future i want to start up a business organising firework dance party events. If I get the chance I will organise the biggest party ever seen, using the latest automation technologies to achieve this.
I look forward to receiving your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Saturday 23 January 2010
The environmental impact of emails
This article about charging money for sending emails got me thinking.
Friday 22 January 2010
Extinction and alien invaders
An article just appeared in The Guardian about invasive species. It motivated me to write this:
This has been happening since man started moving around with their germs & domesticated crops & animals. What's new is the rate of the invasion.
Fact 1: This is irreversible.
Fact 2: eradication may and often does backfire. Our understanding of ecosystems is inadequate.
Fact 3: We are responsible for initiating a mass extinction on this planet due to our ignorance.
Even now we continue to perpetrate this disaster and globalisation has truly opened up the disaster market. As someone else pointed out, climate change is adding to the stress, not only on the species level, but also on the ecosystem level.
So live with it folks. England's green and pleasant land will look quite different in the future. And invasive species like Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam, or giant hogweed are only the first ambassadors of change.
The eel is almost certainly gone from British rivers as yesterday'S Guardian reported. Aggressive Chinese mitten crabs and signal crayfish have invaded our rivers (at least you can BBQ the crayfish). I imagine the Nile perch is not far away from gobbling up what's left of our indigenous fish.
That's the tragedy. Ecosystems are being pushed into extremes where only the toughest, pollution resistant species can survive.
Some invaders fill new niches, such as the parakeets that are now at home in many cities, but others like the rabbit have wrought destruction in Australia.
One thing is for sure: Homo sapiens have made a right mess of things in the paradise we evolved in.
And in reply to another poster here:
Yes, we're the cause, but if it wasn't us, it would be something else.But what else could cause all this damage? This mentality is frighteningly similar to that of the opportunistic thief: "Well it was just asking for me to steal it. If I hadn't someone else would." You might be intersted in the concept of anthropogenic extinction. Others talk about the Holocene Extinction: scientists estimate that during the 20th century, between 20,000 and two million species actually became extinct, but the precise total cannot be determined more accurately within the limits of present knowledge. Up to 140,000 species per year (based on Species-area theory) may be the present rate of extinction based upon upper bound estimating. Personally I prefer the term Anthropocene, which describes the period we are now in, which is rapidly changing the face of the earth due to the effects of our activities on the planet. Wake up and smell the roses, or the balsam, whichever is going in your garden now.
Monday 18 January 2010
New Greenpeace ship!!!
This came as great news.
Greenpeace to build £14m flagship
The Rainbow Warrior III mega-yacht will be one of the greenest ships afloat, complete with satellite video system and a helipad
It's great to see this happening. The Greenpeace ships are the most visible and symbolic part of Greenpeace worldwide.
And don't forget, Greenpeace began on sailing yachts in their campaign to stop nuclear testing at sea. The original Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French secret agents in Aukland harbour and is now an artificial reef.
The money that Greenpeace received from the French enabled the conversion of what became the Rainbow Warrior II, a 500 tonne ship with a heart (and an appetite to match).
Now is the time for the replacement for the Rainbow Warrior II. Like the MV Greenpeace (my favourite GP ship and one which remains anchored in my memory) the Warrior was extensively refitted. The same is true with theEsperanza and the original Beluga, an ex- fire ship.
Now Greenpeace has the Beluga II, also a sailing ship and a fine coastal cruiser with a sailing rig that can be lowered for inland work.
I look forward to the realisation of a truly green ship and wish her success in her many missions.
Luxury cruise liner docks in Haiti
Jet skis, BBQ steak and cocktails on a private beach in a disaster zone? No problem. Just make sure the locals don't get past the armed guards.
The world has become global so a disaster like this is now in your face and whether you like it or not we are connected.
Remember the sick feeling we all must have felt when the tsunami struck on Boxing day? Kind of put things into perspective.
It's not as though we weren't aware of the plight of many in this poor country. Jared Diamond wrote clearly in his book Collapse about the poverty and corruption they face. A disaster like this has made it transparent and now it is a gaping wound for all of us to stare at, not just the rich on their luxury liners.
And as for tourists feeding local incomes, nothing on earth could buy a place on a lifeboat as the Titanic sank. Haitians are now dying and will kill for food and water. That is the crime here. Whilst people are in desperate need of the very basics, money cannot help, its food. water, a roof over their heads, sanitation and communications that are required.
And this ship has plenty of all these things. It's wrong just to say that a trickle of money will help at all. How does it look to desperate locals when they look over the fence and the decadent rich?
Original article that set me off:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/cruise-ships-haiti-earthquake
Sunday 17 January 2010
Haiti
This morning the death toll rose to an estimated 200,000 lives lost. So far...
This could rise dramatically if aid does not reach those worst affected. Rioting, followed by a compete breakdown of society could well ensue.
Now is the time to reach deep into our pockets. Donate to an NGO. My choice was the German Red Cross, but the choice is yours.
International Committee of the Red Cross:
Friday 15 January 2010
Death of the Nile
A shocking new documentary shows the death of one of the world's greatest rivers.
Join International Rivers in the fight to save our rivers.
In Britain, the campaign group Thamesbank are working to bring the Thames back to life.
Get active and join them.
Thursday 14 January 2010
Bluecloud's blog is born
Well it had to happen sooner, or later. Bluecloud's blog.
Here is a collection of comments, most of which I, Bluecloud have made on The Guardian newspaper over the last five years, or so.
In total I have penned over 4, 220 comments in that time. I have been mentioned in articles a number of times and am currently drafting an article I hope will get published in their esteemed newspaper. We shall see...
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