Coffee Cups, Again!

This announcement from Veolia is encouraging.

However, I'm not sure all the survey findings actually stack up. And I'd still like to find a way of preventing all those irresponsible motorists (and their passengers) who hurl their cups onto the verges and into the hedgerows around our village.


Grrr!

And Another One

Must be something in the water.

Name and Shame

Guideline Coaches - anti-social or what?

Note added 24 June 2017. I emailed Guidline about this on the day. Have I had an response? Have I hell!

Arctic Sea Ice - Or Not

These stats courtesy of New Scientist a couple of months ago:-


3sqm of Arctic sea ice disappear for ever 1 tonne of CO2 emitted.

a typical US car emits 1 tonne CO2 per 4000 km.

1 tonne of CO2 is emitted for each seat on a return flight from London to San Francisco.

the average European causes the emission of 7 tonnes of CO2 each year (for Americans double that plus!).

globally we emit 35 billion tonnes of CO2 each year.

at these rate the Arctic summer ice sheet WILL BE GONE by 2046.




Food for thought.

Feeding the Future

My post of yesterday on water leakage is a reminder that water is a key resource in our food supply. I recently came across some very interesting (and worrying) statistics:


Today, 800 million people go hungry.
By 2050 the world's population may have reached 10 billion.
About 30% of all our food ends up rotting on farms or in landfill.
In the UK households waste 20% of groceries simply because of confusion over labels ("best before" does not mean "do not eat after").
It takes over 30 times a much water to produce 1kg of beef as it does to produce the same weight of potatoes.
It takes 25kg of feed to produce 1kg of beef but just 2kg for 1kg of crickets. Let's eat more crickets.
There are some 50,000 edible plants in the world but just 3 (wheat, maize, rice) account for 60% of the world's calorie intake.
There are over 100,000 species of algae but we cultivate just 20 for food.
Vertical farming can use 95% less water than conventional cultivation.



Food for thought.

Why Do These People NEVER Give A Straight Answer?

My original:

Dear Mrs Milton

I was appalled to read in the Sunday Times last weekend (9 April 2017) indications that Britain will be scaling down its concern over climate change. I would be obliged if you would let me know whether this is true or not.

I quote from the Conservative Party manifesto of 2015: "We will push for a strong global climate deal later this year - one that keeps the goal of limiting global warming to two degrees firmly in reach. At home, we will continue to support the UK Climate Change Act"; also "We will work to prevent climate change and assist the poorest in adapting to it". How does scaling down concern over climate change align with these pledges?

As I'm sure you are aware, limiting warming to two degrees is already something of a stretch target; and because of the long residence times of most greenhouse gases in the atmosphere any lessening of GHG reduction has a ratcheting effect on global temperatures.

This apparent new stance would suggest that in trying to lessen the disaster that will be Brexit the government is now content also to wreck the environment for future generations.

Yours sincerely

Richard Bawden

Her (eventual) response:

I despair!

Phasing out single use bags

This is an interesting initiative by Tesco. It may have an effect but I wonder if pricing the alternative at somewhat more that 10p might be a good idea. And it, perhaps, needs coupling with other behavioural change initiatives. Whatever, let's hope it works.