Stark warning on Britain’s shrinking coast
The Independent is carrying a stark warning from the newly appointed head of the UK Environment Agency that homes will have to be abandoned to the sea as sea levels continue to rise. The BBC is also covering the same story although it disappeared quickly from the front page. This is partly global warming and partly us humans just accepting that the world doesn’t really care what we put where. Physics still works and the geographical processes of coastal erosion will simply be sped up. The sea has risen before and will rise again. This doesn’t mean it will be pleasant when it does - just ask anyone from New Orleans.
Published by Paul on August 18th, 2008 tagged Evidence | Comment now »
Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California
Cool! Good news from the New York Times - Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California - NYTimes.com. These plants, covering 12.5 square miles of land aim to produce up to 800 MegaWatts of electricity or about the same as a large coal-fired plant. All with no raw materials being ferried in, no waste materials going out and no worries about filtering pollution and carbon. This makes me really happy to see this sort of power plant being introduced.
Published by Paul on August 18th, 2008 tagged Practical, Renewable Energy | Comment now »
Floods in Northern Ireland
Is it just me or are floods like these in Northern Ireland becoming more common in the UK? What concerns me is that this is, yet again, a flood caused by an intense rainstorm. If we look at, for example, this, we see that this is exactly what we expect to see in the majority of global warming scenarios. Still not convinced?
Published by Paul on August 17th, 2008 tagged Evidence | Comment now »
Ecotricity - be green just by paying your electricity bill
www.ecotricity.co.uk looks to be a good way to put your money where your mouth is if you claim to be green and are in the UK. Hard cash is the only thing that will get businesses doing something about going green, so lead the way.
Published by Paul on August 17th, 2008 tagged Practical | Comment now »
Prius gets ethanol makeover
The Green Car web site is reporting that the Toyota Prius gets an ethanol makeover . Dutch firm Green Fuel Systems has launched an E85 Ethanol conversion kit for the Prius. This flexfuel kit allows to to fill up the Prius on bio-ethanol or normal fuel. Of course, only your conscience can decide if the ethanol you are filling up with is sustainably sourced without impacting food supplies or not.
Published by Paul on August 12th, 2008 tagged Practical, Renewable Energy | Comment now »
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
Six Degrees is both a very scary book and a very necessary one. Mark manages to cut through the scientific and political waffle and show us what it will actually mean to live on a hotter planet. One degree seems like nothing, but is already having quite an impact. Two degrees is probably the least we can hope for and is already scary. The scale goes up to six.
Six Degrees by Mark Lynas
Published by Paul on August 10th, 2008 tagged Books, Evidence | Comment now »
Intense rainfall due to global warming could raise flood risk
Environment: Intense rainfall due to global warming could raise flood risk. The Guardian reports that “Climate scientists have issued a fresh warning over the future risk of flooding after research showed heavy rainstorms are likely to become even more intense than predicted.”
Note that this is not flooding due to sea level rise, but simply intense rainstorms will cause more flooding as the drainage systems in place where simply not designed to cope with rainfall this heavy.
Published by Paul on August 8th, 2008 tagged Environment | Comment now »
Global Warming: Act Now or Wait?
Global Warming: Act Now or Wait? is a great article which summarises the consequenses of acting or not acting on global warming.
Published by Paul on August 7th, 2008 tagged Environment | Comment now »
Sea Level Rise Explorer
The guys over at Firetree.Net have made a great Google Maps hack so you can explore what would happen to your area as sea level rises. This only goes to +14m, which is just getting started if any of the large ice sheets in Greenland or Antarctica slide off into the sea.
Published by Paul on August 5th, 2008 tagged Environment | Comment now »
Tax Rebates for Gardens Petition
That’s it! I have had enough of England, far from being a green and pleasant land, becoming a concrete and ugly one. I may not live in the UK any more, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the things that make England a nice place to be.
I have created an electronic petition, available at the Prime Minister’s e-petition site aimed at providing a financial incentive/reward to those who help keep England green.
Many inner city gardens (front and rear) are being paved over, either to create parking spaces or patios, and this is causing flooding, as well as removing green spaces. I propose a system of tax rebates for ground not paved over (or covered in decking) with extra rebates for trees in the garden on a sliding scale according to height. Obviously care must be taken to avoid light-blocking etc, so you can’t just start planting Leylandii or other fast-growing conifers to get a tax rebate.
Before people start saying “but you need to have somewhere to park your car” let me just say, I agree! But you don’t need to pave over the whole front garden to do it. Just paving over the tyre tracks will work just as well, maintaining a green lawn which will allow moisture to soak into the ground, as well as being pleasant to look at.
So, if you think green taxes should not just be about punishing those that do the wrong thing, but about rewarding those who do the right thing, join the discussion below and help me formulate a comprehensive tax rebate proposal so those of us that help keep England a nice place to live are rewarded. Sign the petition and tell your friends.