Browse and be green!

In my last post I talked about Ecocho, but really wasn’t that convinced by it! Well today I came across something that I am totally convinced about; Eco-Flock.

I’ve been using Flock as my preferred browser for quite a while now, not only because it’s based on Firefox, but also you can blog directly from it (as I’m doing with this post) as well as keep up to date with all your social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. It also ties in nicely with YouTube and Flickr. All in all I’ve been very happy with Flock, it’s not the speediest browser I’ve tried but it’s far from the slowest and seems to run rings round IE7.

Today, in honour of Earth Day, Flock have released the Eco-Edition of Flock, which is basically the same as the great normal edition but with a green slant coming pre-configured with many green sites to keep you informed of global changes as they happen.

But the really great thing about this new browser is the fact that Flock will be donating 10% of its revenue generated by searches to green organisations. So the more you search using Eco-Flock the more money they will donate. At the end of the year the Flock community will then vote on which environmental charity the money goes to.

Installing the browser is a sinch and importing your current favourites etc. is simple, in fact as I was already using Flock I didn’t even have to go through this process.

So go ahead and use the Eco-Edition of Flock from today and make a real world of a difference.

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Tags: Flock, Eco-Edition, green browsing, green searching, environmental charities, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr

Ecocho: bless you!

Despite my last post , and my promise to make more of an effort here I am again nearly a month gone.

Anyway, that’s not the point of this post. This is just a heads up to a new search wrapper that I’ve heard about, Ecocho. This is a great place to search in either Yahoo or Google, but for every 1000 searches they will grow up to two trees (not sure I like the up to!). They also say that they will try to donate 70% of their revenues to carbon offsets.

I’m not entirely convinced by this, is it just a start up business trying to use the green banner to get a leg up, or is it a genuine attempt to try and help the environment?

You decide!

Tags: searchengine, yahoo, google, ecocho, carbon offsetting

Carbon free Lent

Do you normally give something up for lent? Well if you do why not consider trying something different this year!

Today two leading Bishops in the Church of England have teamed up with development agency ‘Tearfund‘ in calling for a personal cut in our carbon emissions for the 40 days of Lent.

The general idea is that for each of the 40 days of Lent, we try a different item from a list of actions which will have a positive effect on our carbon emissions, and therefore help us think about our daily actions and the effects they have on the earth and more importantly the poorer communities in the world.

Many of the suggestions are quite well known and indeed some of them have been suggested on this blog, but all in all I think this is a really great idea, even if your not particularly religious.

So go ahead and make a difference to the world today.

 
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Tags: lent, fasting, tearfund, 40 actions, carbon emissions

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

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

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

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

Green Music (no not Kermit singing!)

Music is a very personal thing, and I’m sure many people don’t particularly like Jack Johnson, but I kinda do. I’m not sure if it’s all about the music or that and a combination of the ethics and lifestyle Jack has. The idea of lazy days and afternoon surfing sessions and then singing a few songs is really appealing, just not having to be a slave to the work and mortgage treadmill.

But that’s not what this post is about. The reason for this post is just to say how impressed I am that the new album ‘Sleep through the static‘ was recorded at Jack’s own environmental studio using nothing but solar power.

With the sunny places so many of the current bands seem to hang out in, why are there not more albums recorded like this. Even better they could then all be sold via download at a cheaper price and so avoid all those carbon emissions from distribution.

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Tags: Jack Johnson, music, solar power, lazy days

Have you seen the light!

For those of you that know me this isn’t going to be a long lament about the superb guitar attributes of a certain Mr Jeff Heally. It’s all a load of bulbs!

I think I’ve blogged about this before but over the last few months we’ve been changing all of our light bulbs to be energy efficient. This has had quite a positive effect on our electricity bills!

But, it appears in the future things might be getting even better. Apparently at Glasgow University the boffins have been working on a super efficient LED, which is much brighter than a standard one and uses a lot less energy than any of the currently available energy saving light bulbs.

They have developed a cheaper and more efficient way of making small holes in the diodes which allow them to emit more light and so now become a viable option for household lighting.

Let’s see how this progresses and see if we make even further inroads in to reducing our carbon emissions.

 
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Tags: LED’s, energy efficient, carbon emissions, enrgy saving bulbs