Eco commitment not top priority!

According to Mintel (research analysts) 2008 is not going to be the year for the environment. Only 1 in 3 UK adults will try to increase their recycling levels and only 1 in 10 will reduce the number of times they use their cars.

This a stark contrast to the almost 3 in 5 people who are planning to exercise more this year and the 56% who are planing to eat healthier. Getting one’s finances in shape also came out a  higher priority than the environment.

These may be noble sentiments, in light of rising obesity levels and the recent credit crunch, but when it comes to dealing with the environment I can’t help but think people are sticking their heads in the sand. How can little old me make a difference, so I won’t bother. Maybe they are simply overwhelmed by all the info out there! Maybe there’s too much information out there, or maybe people have just forgotten that all you really have to do is reduce your consumption and your waste.

Of course there could just be too much focus on the environment. How about the simple premise that following some of the ideas I and others have given could just simply SAVE YOU MONEY, with a nice side effect of helping the environment.

 
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Tags: mintel, research, environment, money saving, green, eco

Building Nostalgia!

One of the great advantages of having kids is that you get to play with all those toys that really you’re too old for. One of my favourites is LEGO!

Well, today the humble LEGO brick celebrates being 50 years old.

In those 50 years how much pleasure must this simple little toy have given many generations? It helps develop the imagination, dexterity skills and problem solving. All to help design the correct shape from a fairly uniform looking plastic brick.

I’ve never been to LEGOland, but I know a few people who have and it sounds fabulous. I just know the kids would love it. In fact I think I’ve just found somewhere to go in the next school holidays.

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Tags: lego, legoland, anniversary, 50 years, imagination, dexterity, problem solving

What a load of hot air!

When I first got into cars at a fairly young age there was a great, what I believed to be, urban mith. It involved an, I think Canadian engineer who developed a car that ran on water. Well, apparently when the oil companies found out about this, the man was paid a large amount of money and the car that ran on water disappeared.

It appears that the oil companies may have missed this one, and now it’s too late!

I can’t believe how amazing this is! A car that runs on nothing but AIR, with zero emissions is about to go on sale with the help of Tata Motors the Indian company who brought us the worlds cheapest car.

The car was developed by a French inventor and Formula One engineer who has now teamed up with Tata Motors with what is said to be ‘an environmentally friendly and scalable technology’. The idea can be used in cars, commercial vehicles and even power generation.

The engine uses compressed air stored in a tank at a pressure of about 300 bars to pump the pistons much in the same way a combustion engine does. The range of the tank is about 60 miles at 50 mph. The tank can be refilled at home using a regular outlet, which takes about 4 hours, but if you can find an industrial compressor capable if 3500 psi (like those found in scuba shops) the job can be done in a few minutes and cost between £1-£2. If the pressurised air can be heated then the car can drive for nearly 500 miles.

Tata, it is speculated may have an Air Car on the road by the end of 2008. Well I don’t know about anyone else but I want one. Of course there are those that think I talk alot of hot air anyway.

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Tags: air car, compressed air, Tata motors, zero emissions

Piggin’ ridiculous!

My wife and I are just going through the minefield that is school admissions at the moment and trying to decide which primary school we should send our almost four year old daughter to. Trawling through some education websites looking at Ofsted reports and other things I came across this story.

I cannot believe this, but apparently a government agency’s awards panel (Becta) has decreed that a digital book based on The Three Little Pigs is offensive to Muslims. Supposedly the use of pigs raises cultural issues! The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders.

Now is it just me? Isn’t this whole thing a bit ridiculous? Books are meant to be read not eaten. How can a story that uses everyday animals be deemed offensive? These stories are designed to help teach kids to read using memorable images to reinforce the words.

If anything I think it should be the wolf that is offended as the book suggests climbing down a chimney which may go against several Health & Safety regulations, with not a warning sign in site! Could he sue? And I’ve seen no sign of a risk assessment for the building and destruction of property!

 
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Tags: education, ofsted, three little pigs, becta, primary school

We are sailing, even with engines!

I didn’t realise until today that the fuel burnt by cargo ships accounts for 4% of all global CO2 emissions, that’s almost twice as much as the aviation industry produces – why is it that we’re not told this? Why is the aviation industry being held up as the big bad carbon producer, is it because they’re an easy target?

Well, in a great attempt to combat these emissions the Dutch company SkySails GmbH has joined forces with Beluga Shipping to make a maiden voyage from Germany to Venezuela using a 160sq m, computer-controlled kite. This state-of-the-art kite will hopefully help reduce the carbon emissions by as much as 20%. This could have an amazing impact on global warming as reported by the BBC!

The high-tech on-board computer allows the kite to harness the full power of the wind, and hopefully over the next few months a few more practical tests of the technology will be able to show significant reduction in fuel consumption, and therefore cost and emissions.

A spokesman from SkySails said, ‘nevertheless, it differs very much from traditional sailing, as we do not have any bothersome masts on deck which might be a hindrance to cargo-loading operations.’

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Tags: cargo  ships, kite, fuel reduction, sailing, carbon emissions, global warming, skysails

Frost free no more

By the end of the year B&Q the UK’s largest DIY retailer and patio heater sector supplier will have phased out all gas and electric patio heaters. In 2005 they sold 50,000 units, so stopping selling these heaters is going to have the effect of reducing turnover by a staggering £8m.

So why have they made this amazing decision, I hear you ask? Well, apparently it’s an environmental issue. For a long time people like Friends Of The Earth have been chastising the use of patio heaters because of the carbon they produce.

I must admit that until now I hadn’t quite realised just how much carbon they produce. A typical patio heater wastes as much energy in an hour as making 400 cups of tea, and if used fairly regularly across a year can produce as much carbon as a 4×4 doing average mileage.

I’m pretty glad that I’ve never felt the cold that much and never given into the whinges.

 

Tags: B&Q, patio heaters, carbon emissions, DIY, friends of the earth

Act on CO2 explosion!

I’ve had the UK governments site Act on CO2 listed on my ‘useful links’ for quite a while now and I even made reference to it in one of my early posts about calculating your carbon footprint.

According to Hitwise there has a been a dramatic increase in searches for the website, due, I think mainly, to a well positioned advertising campaign that didn’t give you a web address, but challenged you to search for the site. It seemed this worked as a campaign, but is it not a bit of a long shot, what if people hadn’t bothered!

But they did so that’s all good.

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Tags: act on co2, search engines, UK government

Super Green – or do I mean orange!

According to the BBC, scientists in the USA have engineered a carrot that provides extra calcium. They hope that if this can be introduced into the normal diet it may help in the reduction in the instances of diseases like osteoporosis.

Now is it just me, or is not the point of a healthy varied diet to provide the majority of the nutrients we need! So if people aren’t eating the correct foods why pick a carrot to help increase calcium levels? Is it not the lack of vegetables in the western diet that’s causing the prevalence of the vast majority of modern diseases – so picking a vegetable, good idea! This was tried once before with the humble broccoli, I think that failed then too.

Although the history of the carrot on the BBC piece is quite interesting, I didn’t realise that the carrot we know and love so well was actually originally purple and was only turned orange in the 17th century.

As the for the veggies on my table this year, they’ll all be as normal as possible and if we have a good year in the garden hopefully the vast majority will be home grown.

 

Tags: carrots, calcium, healthy diet, home grown, osteoporosis, genetic engineering

Forum one person to another

Just a quick post! I’ve been meaning to put something up about this for the past few days and keep forgetting. You know how you turn on the PC to do something and then for the life of you can’t remember why? Well I did this time!

Anyway, a good friend of mine (Wolfieb) has started a forum about, well anything you want! It’s fairly new at the moment, but that’s the good thing. Get in there and help shape the way the forum goes, make it your place.

So, see you there!

 

Tags: forums, one to one, your views

Taking your own advice!

Well yesterday I received our latest gas bill and I thought it would be interesting to dig out the bill for the same quarter last year and what a difference.

All I’ve done since this quarter last year is insulate the loft, board it out with chipboard loft flooring and turn our hot water tank thermostat down from 65 degrees C to 60 degrees C. Combine that with trying to keep the room thermostat down to under 20 degrees and here’s what happens:

Oct – Dec 2006 £229
Oct – Dec 2007 £166

So there you go, even if you don’t think global warming is happening, and it’s not man contributing to the increase in carbon emissions, by following just a few of my simple tips you can save yourself loadsa money!!

Happy spending

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Tags: money saving, green tips, hot water