I have just come inside after giving my car a good cleaning and waxing. I always feel uncomfortable pandering to a car, as though it should be pandering to me. Petrol, maintenance, taxes, licence and to top it all, clean it so it doesn't turn into a heap of rust. All car owners are slaves.
After that I fixed my father's car. It had a problem with its central locking system. All these electrical, sound, vision and navigation systems and yet your average car does less miles per gallon than a Model T Ford. The car is not exactly a progressive technology.
Still, it keeps the Neanderthals busy. I chug along doing my eco-driving thing. The Neanderthals overtake, cut in, break the speed limit. Anything to show me that it's their DNA that the ladies really want. I chug along and catch them up at the next junction. The result, I used less petrol and they burst a few blood vessels in anger. I wonder if they would behave the same way on a horse?
Green fatigue
Nine out of ten members of the public believe that global warming is happening. However, none of the 90% knows what to do. We get confusing messages.
On the one hand, members of the government say we should cut down to save energy and resources. These same members of the government do not set a good example by jetting around the world signing protocols and agreements about maybe doing something in the future to stop global warming. By which time it could well be too late.
Meanwhile, more airports, roads and whole new towns are given planning permission. Finance ministers talk of nothing but economic growth. We are told to cut back but to carry on spending to keep the economy running. No wonder we are confused about how to save the planet.
The problem is that the government doesn't really know what to do. Politicians are frightened. An honest politician, who really believes in democracy (remember that?) and is not in it for the money, would say, "The game's up." However, we don't have honest politicians any more. The only time I voted was in 1997 to help rid the UK of a corrupt Tory party and now what do we have?
The best that individuals can do is to help themselves. Self-reliance. Save energy. Insulate. Less waste. Don't vote unless it's for someone that will build a sustainable future for you and your family. The big decisions can only be made by those who are too afraid to make them so prepare yourselves for the worst. Plan for the worst case scenario.
Guardian - 'Green fatigue' leads to fear of backlash over climate change
Guardian - Go green - you'll save more than just the planet
Guardian - Sow the seeds of healthy eating for your family and reap the benefits
On the one hand, members of the government say we should cut down to save energy and resources. These same members of the government do not set a good example by jetting around the world signing protocols and agreements about maybe doing something in the future to stop global warming. By which time it could well be too late.
Meanwhile, more airports, roads and whole new towns are given planning permission. Finance ministers talk of nothing but economic growth. We are told to cut back but to carry on spending to keep the economy running. No wonder we are confused about how to save the planet.
The problem is that the government doesn't really know what to do. Politicians are frightened. An honest politician, who really believes in democracy (remember that?) and is not in it for the money, would say, "The game's up." However, we don't have honest politicians any more. The only time I voted was in 1997 to help rid the UK of a corrupt Tory party and now what do we have?
The best that individuals can do is to help themselves. Self-reliance. Save energy. Insulate. Less waste. Don't vote unless it's for someone that will build a sustainable future for you and your family. The big decisions can only be made by those who are too afraid to make them so prepare yourselves for the worst. Plan for the worst case scenario.
Guardian - 'Green fatigue' leads to fear of backlash over climate change
Guardian - Go green - you'll save more than just the planet
Guardian - Sow the seeds of healthy eating for your family and reap the benefits
Cheap photovoltaic cells on the horizon
I have been following a company called Nanosolar for sometime. They have developed a method for printing solar cells on aluminium foil. The Solarply technology promises cells at 50p per watt. That's £50 for a 100W panel. Much more affordable than the polycrystalline cells of today, where a 100W panel will set you back £700.Guardian - Solar energy 'revolution' brings green power closer
Nanosolar - Company website
Chinese environmentalism
Yes, such a thing does exist. The Chinese communist party might appear to be a monolithic institution but it will never do anything to harm its survival. That includes avoiding environmental destruction. A large damn on the Yangtze river is to be abandoned.
Guardian - China abandons plans for huge dam on Yangtze
Guardian - China abandons plans for huge dam on Yangtze
Brighter LEDs
Scottish universities at Glasgow and Strathclyde are developing brighter LEDs. These are the small light emitting devices that tell you when you should be switching off your television at the mains at night.
LEDs use less power and last longer than compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Clusters of ultra-bright LEDs will eventually supersede CFLs.
BBC - New efficient bulb sees the light
LEDs use less power and last longer than compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Clusters of ultra-bright LEDs will eventually supersede CFLs.
BBC - New efficient bulb sees the light
Unions stand up for you
It must be hard being a union member these days. I was never in one myself. When I worked in offices unions were non-existent because former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made it hard for people to set up a union in a new company. She then did away with older established industries that did have unions.
Today union members are as scarce as the valuable manufacturing industries they work for. I thank you for not telling me that we have an information economy now and don't need industry nor unions. I tell you that a nation's wealth is governed by what it makes. Information is cheap and transcends borders.
It is good to see the Trades Union Congress (TUC) speaking out against the super rich. The wealth of the super rich is greater than the GDP of Africa. If every rich celebrity gave a small portion of their wealth to poverty eradication the world would be a better place.
Instead, celebrities with their diseased minds are desperate to get on chat shows, lifestyle magazines, celebrity "reality" contests or going to premières so that low-paid people (who should know better) can scream "I love you" at them. How much money and fame is enough? If celebrities spent some of their time reading Top 10 lists of the well-known then they might just realise that once you are dead, you are forgotten.
Unions are important. They protect the low-paid from exploitation. Today, the west is no different from the Victorian era. We have regressed to a time of few unions, workers with poor pay and conditions. Add to that, the modern world's exploitation of mass migration to break up unions and enforce low pay in the west.
If the wealthy were forced to spread their wealth amongst poor countries then there would be no need for mass migration and the trampling on the west's growing army of poor people. How about it (I'm struggling for his name... the one the ladies swoon for...) Brad Pitt? Your next première in Africa, in a factory you financed the building of.
BBC - TUC head targets 'soar-away rich'
Today union members are as scarce as the valuable manufacturing industries they work for. I thank you for not telling me that we have an information economy now and don't need industry nor unions. I tell you that a nation's wealth is governed by what it makes. Information is cheap and transcends borders.
It is good to see the Trades Union Congress (TUC) speaking out against the super rich. The wealth of the super rich is greater than the GDP of Africa. If every rich celebrity gave a small portion of their wealth to poverty eradication the world would be a better place.
Instead, celebrities with their diseased minds are desperate to get on chat shows, lifestyle magazines, celebrity "reality" contests or going to premières so that low-paid people (who should know better) can scream "I love you" at them. How much money and fame is enough? If celebrities spent some of their time reading Top 10 lists of the well-known then they might just realise that once you are dead, you are forgotten.
Unions are important. They protect the low-paid from exploitation. Today, the west is no different from the Victorian era. We have regressed to a time of few unions, workers with poor pay and conditions. Add to that, the modern world's exploitation of mass migration to break up unions and enforce low pay in the west.
If the wealthy were forced to spread their wealth amongst poor countries then there would be no need for mass migration and the trampling on the west's growing army of poor people. How about it (I'm struggling for his name... the one the ladies swoon for...) Brad Pitt? Your next première in Africa, in a factory you financed the building of.
BBC - TUC head targets 'soar-away rich'
Climate change affecting wildlife
Whilst many welcome climate change because they think the weather will get better, the reality is very much different. Flora and fauna confused into growing and breeding earlier than normal because of mild late winters only to be killed off in a cold snap in spring. Crops ruined by torrential rainfall.
Many urban people are indifferent to species loss but the planet depends on its ecosystems. Human destruction of the environment and climate change is a cloud over us that has no silver lining.
Guardian - 2007 was year of chaos for UK's wildlife, says National Trust
Many urban people are indifferent to species loss but the planet depends on its ecosystems. Human destruction of the environment and climate change is a cloud over us that has no silver lining.
Guardian - 2007 was year of chaos for UK's wildlife, says National Trust
What's the fuss?
Yesterday, the roads were full of cars. The shops full of frustrated consumers. And all for what? Credit card bills, bloated stomachs and a pile junk under a tree that will either be broken or forgotten by the new year.I'm not a Christian in the traditional sense. Spiritual certainly. A scientist that believes in some sort of creation and that Richard Dawkins (whom I have met) is a pompous idiot. Still, I'm not a Christian in the sense that I have the right to celebrate a mass glorifying the birth of Christ the Messiah. In other words Christmas.
So, I'm not a hypocrite and treated today the same as any other. Hence, I have not passed out from eating and drinking too much. My bank balance is very healthy. I have no junk that will end up on eBay or Freecycle next week.
"Oh James, Christmas is for the kids." Oh do f*ck off. Christmas is for fat cats, getting wealthy on the stupidity of others. Christmas is no longer a celebration of the birth of Jesus who fought with words against an evil over consuming empire. It is a celebration, by an over consuming western empire, of all that is wrong with itself.
Eat, drink and vomit.
Addendum
In answer to a comment.
I have read every book written by Mr Dawkins. It was part of my reading list whilst studying for my AI degree. My specialisation was Genetic Programming and his books helped me to understand genetics.
Now, one thing I can be accused of is knocking out these posts very quickly. I am a fast typist and my posts are rarely complete.
Having met Richard Dawkins I can say that he is a very abrupt person. He has already made up his mind about everything and stomps all over anyone he meets, whether he agrees with them or not.
As far as your average Christian is concerned, I am an atheist. I believe the Abrahamic God to have been created in the image of man.
However, this universe was created. Not by an Abrahamic God but it was certainly created.
Being from an AI background I rather like the simulation theory for the universe we observe today. Like any theory it falls down by the simple fact that we can never know how or why the universe was created.
Intelligent design believers and Big Bangers are just banging their heads against the wall. Because both of them could well be correct.
The Big Bang gave rise to our universe but what gave rise to the Big Bang? What is it we perceive when we observe the universe? What do perceive when we immerse ourselves in a virtual reality game? What happens when technology blurs the seams between virtuality and reality?
Have I already typed this and am typing it again as an avatar in a virtual reality game? Mr Dawkins over-stepped himself.
Make power not war - Plutonium for nuclear reactors
EU scientists are investigating ways of using stockpiles of weapon's grade plutonium in a new generation of nuclear reactors. This will help generate electricity and keep plutonium out of the hands of terrorists.
Guardian - Reactors could burn weapons plutonium
Guardian - Reactors could burn weapons plutonium
Why the UK is doomed
Nothing lasts forever. A failing amongst humans is their belief that life has never been so good and things can only get better. The reality is that life has never changed. Technology gives us new ways of living but the underlying aspects of life; the desire for food, a home and warmth have never changed.
UK reserves of North Sea oil and gas are in decline. This will result in a drastically reduced tax income for the UK government. Less money for the government to spend on social projects. The upkeep of the fabric of society and required infrastructure will be impossible.
Recently, I put a petition on the government's website asking people to sign up to vertical living projects. More than anything it was a test to see how much people are willing to change their lifestyles to ensure a sustainable future. The petition was not supported because people are inherently selfish.
There were many excuses. The main one being that "It's okay for other people to live vertically but not me because I have special circumstances." The special circumstance was usually, "I don't like living in a high-rise." Everyone is selfish and wants the best for themselves (if it is there to be had) to the detriment of all others.
People want a house to provide a home for their family even though a house is inefficient for urban living. There is a lack of community and people want to shut themselves off from others. People regard vertical living as being for poor people and the lower classes in general. Urbanites believe that a house is for middle-class people with a job and money. That it is the ultimate urban living space regardless of the damage done to the environment.
The desire for houses will result in ever more land being used for the construction of housing estates. That will mean less land for the farming of food and bio-fuels. The UK imports the majority of its food. That is unsustainable. More so as transport fuel increases in cost, climate change lays waste to global farmland and other nations switch to more lucrative bio-fuel crops.
As prime building land becomes harder to find flood plains will be increasingly used for building housing estates. This will result in many more floods as rainwater is unable to drain quickly into the sea.
The UK population is expected to double within 100 years. Of course, selfish people don't care what will happen to their grandchildren.
Successive governments lie about an ageing population and a population that doesn't want to work. Governments tell us that we need migrants to pay for the pensions of our ageing population and to do jobs we won't do want to do. These are lies. The truth is that migrants are brought in to act as slave labour doing all jobs cheaply (whether the existing population wants to do those jobs or not) so that the business elite can continue making profits. The migrants are then taxed to replace the loss from oil taxes.
New government legislation is targeted at preventing migrants, looking for low income jobs, from entering the country. Instead, highly qualified migrants will be allowed to settle and compete with existing professionals so that businesses can drive down corporate wage bills.
The future will see a divided society of individuals who lack the cohesion generated by a sense of national identity. These individuals will be fighting for basic resources and a small space in which to live. The land will be denuded of bio-diversity and adequate farmland to provide for a nation increasingly hungry for local food and bio-fuel.
Law and order will break down as various groups with pan-national agendas take control due to a police force underfunded by lowered government tax income. A police force hamstrung by failed politically correct policies. Today's policemen avoid dangerous areas unless they travel to them in a fast car. No fuel will mean no police cars and urban ghettoes controlled by crime gangs.
Renewable energy projects will fail to keep up with demand so long as the government insists on constant economic growth and a growing migrant workforce to ensure that economic growth is competitive. Economic growth requires a constant population increase, which is beyond the UK's carrying capacity and an increasing requirement for natural resources, which are impossible to be met.
History shows us that societies come and go. That failed societies do not control population size or resource usage. Easter Island, with a much reduced population and none of its former culture, is now totally dependent on Chile for infrequent resources. The Anasazi of North America are gone altogether. Their former homelands a desert. The Mayans have only their language but are now part of modern Mexico and Guatemala and their western lifestyles. Even Greek and European empires have collapsed and have been absorbed into the western sphere.
There can only be so many rescues. Previous collapses had the benefit of a less populated world that was not dependent on fossil fuels. The earth is now at a stage where its dependencies are fully global. The earth does not have the luxury of reaching out to another planet as Easter Island had to other nations. The UK has been living beyond its means for far too long. It has no where to turn to because the whole world, to varying degrees, is in a similar state. The UK will suffer a collapse of population, resources and global power.
UK reserves of North Sea oil and gas are in decline. This will result in a drastically reduced tax income for the UK government. Less money for the government to spend on social projects. The upkeep of the fabric of society and required infrastructure will be impossible.
Recently, I put a petition on the government's website asking people to sign up to vertical living projects. More than anything it was a test to see how much people are willing to change their lifestyles to ensure a sustainable future. The petition was not supported because people are inherently selfish.
There were many excuses. The main one being that "It's okay for other people to live vertically but not me because I have special circumstances." The special circumstance was usually, "I don't like living in a high-rise." Everyone is selfish and wants the best for themselves (if it is there to be had) to the detriment of all others.
People want a house to provide a home for their family even though a house is inefficient for urban living. There is a lack of community and people want to shut themselves off from others. People regard vertical living as being for poor people and the lower classes in general. Urbanites believe that a house is for middle-class people with a job and money. That it is the ultimate urban living space regardless of the damage done to the environment.
The desire for houses will result in ever more land being used for the construction of housing estates. That will mean less land for the farming of food and bio-fuels. The UK imports the majority of its food. That is unsustainable. More so as transport fuel increases in cost, climate change lays waste to global farmland and other nations switch to more lucrative bio-fuel crops.
As prime building land becomes harder to find flood plains will be increasingly used for building housing estates. This will result in many more floods as rainwater is unable to drain quickly into the sea.
The UK population is expected to double within 100 years. Of course, selfish people don't care what will happen to their grandchildren.
Successive governments lie about an ageing population and a population that doesn't want to work. Governments tell us that we need migrants to pay for the pensions of our ageing population and to do jobs we won't do want to do. These are lies. The truth is that migrants are brought in to act as slave labour doing all jobs cheaply (whether the existing population wants to do those jobs or not) so that the business elite can continue making profits. The migrants are then taxed to replace the loss from oil taxes.
New government legislation is targeted at preventing migrants, looking for low income jobs, from entering the country. Instead, highly qualified migrants will be allowed to settle and compete with existing professionals so that businesses can drive down corporate wage bills.
The future will see a divided society of individuals who lack the cohesion generated by a sense of national identity. These individuals will be fighting for basic resources and a small space in which to live. The land will be denuded of bio-diversity and adequate farmland to provide for a nation increasingly hungry for local food and bio-fuel.
Law and order will break down as various groups with pan-national agendas take control due to a police force underfunded by lowered government tax income. A police force hamstrung by failed politically correct policies. Today's policemen avoid dangerous areas unless they travel to them in a fast car. No fuel will mean no police cars and urban ghettoes controlled by crime gangs.
Renewable energy projects will fail to keep up with demand so long as the government insists on constant economic growth and a growing migrant workforce to ensure that economic growth is competitive. Economic growth requires a constant population increase, which is beyond the UK's carrying capacity and an increasing requirement for natural resources, which are impossible to be met.
History shows us that societies come and go. That failed societies do not control population size or resource usage. Easter Island, with a much reduced population and none of its former culture, is now totally dependent on Chile for infrequent resources. The Anasazi of North America are gone altogether. Their former homelands a desert. The Mayans have only their language but are now part of modern Mexico and Guatemala and their western lifestyles. Even Greek and European empires have collapsed and have been absorbed into the western sphere.
There can only be so many rescues. Previous collapses had the benefit of a less populated world that was not dependent on fossil fuels. The earth is now at a stage where its dependencies are fully global. The earth does not have the luxury of reaching out to another planet as Easter Island had to other nations. The UK has been living beyond its means for far too long. It has no where to turn to because the whole world, to varying degrees, is in a similar state. The UK will suffer a collapse of population, resources and global power.
Wood gas as engine fuel
Wood gas is a product of the destructive distillation of wood. It is an old but simple technology that anyone can utilise.Wood gas has many uses, from heating and cooking to the fuelling of stationary and automotive engines.
A document by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) covers all aspects of building gasifiers for fuelling engines. The document can be found on the FAO website at http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0512e/t0512e00.htm.
A PDF document can also be found at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/t0512e/t0512e00.pdf
More about wood gasification can be found on the Wood Gas website.
Happy solstice
I'm going away for a few days. Celebrating the solstice with a friend. I'm glad the sun is on its way back to the northern hemisphere. In the UK, the sun sets half an hour earlier than it did in Ireland so much of the afternoon is spent in darkness. Not good for someone who doesn't function in darkness and who is frustrated by not living in the countryside. Well, the new year will solve both those problems.
Clean coal supported by UK Conservative Party
The UK Conservative party is putting forward plans for "Green Coal", whereby carbon dioxide emissions are captured. I support this as the UK has large coal reserves and these should be exploited for energy security rather than importing foreign oil and uranium.
However, the Conservatives wish to capture carbon dioxide emissions and bury it underground. I don't believe this is the right way to go. By converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, using renewable energy, you have another home-grown energy source. See my previous article Fuel from carbon dioxide and sunshine
BBC - Cameron targets 'green coal' goal
However, the Conservatives wish to capture carbon dioxide emissions and bury it underground. I don't believe this is the right way to go. By converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, using renewable energy, you have another home-grown energy source. See my previous article Fuel from carbon dioxide and sunshine
BBC - Cameron targets 'green coal' goal
Where there's ignorance...
there's a fast buck to be made. I was just reading a Guardian article about a helpful company called Green Homes Concierge Service. You only have to look at the company name to realise that it's purpose is to take money off dumb middle-class greenies. "Green Homes" to attract those bleeding heart liberals. "Concierge Service" to remind our liberal friends that this company is classy and necessarily expensive. £199 for something you can do yourself.
Anything this company does can be learnt on the Internet in a day. Why do some people throw their money at their green problems? The whole point of greening yourself is keeping your wallet in your pocket. Too many people have a guilty conscience and throw their wallets at their problems.
The Guardian article smacks of kick-back. "Review our company and I'll come round and do the whole concierge service thing on your home, you gullible two-income family idiot you."
Do yourself a favour. Form a self-reliant group among friends. Pool ideas and skills. Join forums on the Internet and ask questions. Read blogs like this and pull off all the information you can find on it. Do anything but give your hard-earned money to the quick buck merchants.
Every penny of your money should be used for the benefit of your home and family. It should not be given to people who probably drive around in big cars when they are not fleecing the gullible.
Guardian - Cold comfort
Anything this company does can be learnt on the Internet in a day. Why do some people throw their money at their green problems? The whole point of greening yourself is keeping your wallet in your pocket. Too many people have a guilty conscience and throw their wallets at their problems.
The Guardian article smacks of kick-back. "Review our company and I'll come round and do the whole concierge service thing on your home, you gullible two-income family idiot you."
Do yourself a favour. Form a self-reliant group among friends. Pool ideas and skills. Join forums on the Internet and ask questions. Read blogs like this and pull off all the information you can find on it. Do anything but give your hard-earned money to the quick buck merchants.
Every penny of your money should be used for the benefit of your home and family. It should not be given to people who probably drive around in big cars when they are not fleecing the gullible.
Guardian - Cold comfort
SkySails to cross the Atlantic
SkySails is a new concept in sailing ships that uses kites rather than sails. It aims to save as much as 50% of shipping fuel costs. With shipping accounting for a large proportion of our emissions this could be a valuable piece of technology.
Reuters - German ship fights climate change with high-tech kite
Reuters - German ship fights climate change with high-tech kite
Petition the Prime Minister - vertical living projects
Petition the Prime Minister to start vertical living projects that make more efficient use of urban land.A petition on 10 Downing Street's e-Petitions website I would like you all to sign.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Vertical-Living
The petition asks the government to build up rather than out when it comes to building the 3 million extra homes it requires. Our urban areas are very inefficient at present with houses under utilised. Sub-urban sprawl is swallowing up valuable land that will be needed for local food, bio-fuel crops and wind farms. With purpose built vertical living you can comfortably house more people per acre of land.
This is not a return to 1960s crumbling concrete tower blocks. This is the construction of well built, energy efficient towers. There will be green spaces between towers. Efficient transport systems.
Having spent some time living in Madrid I can vouch for vertical living. Most urban living in Spain is vertical with little urban sprawl. Cities are more compact but with no feeling of being overcrowded.
Please can all UK residents and ex-pats support this petition. Tell your family and friends to do likewise.
Thank you for your support.
Britain's shanty towns
Months after flooding forced people from their homes, there are many still living in makeshift accommodation. They feel forgotten in their caravans. The banks have the deeds on their house. The occupiers still have a mortgage to pay. Builders have moved on to other flood plains to build cheap houses entrapping others with bad mortgages.
These floods are not a freak of nature. They are occurring year after year due to a combination of climate change and bad building practice. Every flood sees an increase in insurance premiums. One day insurers will refuse to insure parts of the country because they know the home-owners are living in an area that will flood every year and can't afford the premiums.
I don't know how the government can say it is going to build millions more homes. I don't see how it can remain silent when some project a doubling of the UK population. All I can see is that more people will be living in squalor as the years go buy. Houses built in totally unsuitable areas. Many people with no ability to afford a mortgage. People crammed into ever smaller spaces.
A huge underclass of people discarded because businesses are permitted to import labour with the excuse "they're just here to do the work we don't want to do". The reality being that they are brought here to smash unions and do any job to reduce business salary bills. "Oh but they are here because we are an ageing population and we need taxes for future pension bills." The reality being that in the next 50 years the population will on average age by just 6 months.
There was a time when people could leave the country to find a new space for themselves on the planet. The "Wild West". Australia. Now, this overcrowded planet has nowhere for countries to let off steam and send excess population. And yet, some countries treat its own people as a commodity to be traded against a mobile global work force.
Flood victims feel they have been forgotten. We are all forgotten through globalisation that has no respect for individuals, their distinct cultures or the lie of the land. As the population rises above that which the gathering of resources can handle we will all be living in sub-standard houses. Plans to green our houses may never come to fruition if greed is allowed to win. Having a house at all will become a luxury.
Guardian -
'It's quite depressing ... a lot of us think we have been forgotten'
Guardian - Flood threat on a par with terrorism, says expert
These floods are not a freak of nature. They are occurring year after year due to a combination of climate change and bad building practice. Every flood sees an increase in insurance premiums. One day insurers will refuse to insure parts of the country because they know the home-owners are living in an area that will flood every year and can't afford the premiums.
I don't know how the government can say it is going to build millions more homes. I don't see how it can remain silent when some project a doubling of the UK population. All I can see is that more people will be living in squalor as the years go buy. Houses built in totally unsuitable areas. Many people with no ability to afford a mortgage. People crammed into ever smaller spaces.
A huge underclass of people discarded because businesses are permitted to import labour with the excuse "they're just here to do the work we don't want to do". The reality being that they are brought here to smash unions and do any job to reduce business salary bills. "Oh but they are here because we are an ageing population and we need taxes for future pension bills." The reality being that in the next 50 years the population will on average age by just 6 months.
There was a time when people could leave the country to find a new space for themselves on the planet. The "Wild West". Australia. Now, this overcrowded planet has nowhere for countries to let off steam and send excess population. And yet, some countries treat its own people as a commodity to be traded against a mobile global work force.
Flood victims feel they have been forgotten. We are all forgotten through globalisation that has no respect for individuals, their distinct cultures or the lie of the land. As the population rises above that which the gathering of resources can handle we will all be living in sub-standard houses. Plans to green our houses may never come to fruition if greed is allowed to win. Having a house at all will become a luxury.
Guardian -
'It's quite depressing ... a lot of us think we have been forgotten'
Guardian - Flood threat on a par with terrorism, says expert
Wheat breaks through $10
The price of wheat is broken through $10 a bushel on the futures exchange. The Fed's interest rate cut resulted in a slight rise in the value of the dollar so we can't blame the dollar on revaluing the price of wheat.Instead it is drought, bio-fuel and the never ending new mouths to be fed. Be it peak oil or less cheap oil or a desire to be weaned off Arab oil, bio-fuels will compete more and more for wheat.
However, from my experiment with calorie counting I could probably do with a lot less wheat in my diet. At over 1 calorie a gram, you can't be eating too much of the stuff. No wonder they want to stick it in SUVs instead.
BBC - Wheat breaks through $10 a bushel
BBC - UN warns on soaring food prices
All schools to be carbon free by 2016
Rent-an-initiative is at it again. The UK government has announced that all new schools will be zero carbon come 2016. However, I don't think wind turbines and solar panels will be enough. Considering that by 2016 all school children will be obese then maybe installing treadmills to power the country is a better idea. Liposuction for bio-fuel conversion during break time?
I tire of all this talk about emission reduction from governments. As yet, I see no actual reduction activity.
Guardian - All new schools to be zero-carbon by 2016
I tire of all this talk about emission reduction from governments. As yet, I see no actual reduction activity.
Guardian - All new schools to be zero-carbon by 2016
Fuel from carbon dioxide and sunshine
We all know that carbon dioxide emissions are strangling the life out of our planet. A method for converting carbon dioxide into the fuel gas carbon monoxide is under development at Sandia Labs.
The method uses high temperatures produced by a solar concentrator to force a ceramic containing oxide to release its oxygen. The ceramic, depleted of its oxide, is then exposed to carbon dioxide gas. The high temperature allows the ceramic to strip an oxygen atom from the carbon dioxide. This creates carbon monoxide, which can either be burnt as a fuel itself or can be used as a feedstock for making liquid fuels.
If the development works then there is the possibility of scrubbing the atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Instead of burying the carbon dioxide deep underground it can be put to better use.
Technology Review - Turning Carbon Dioxide into Fuel
The method uses high temperatures produced by a solar concentrator to force a ceramic containing oxide to release its oxygen. The ceramic, depleted of its oxide, is then exposed to carbon dioxide gas. The high temperature allows the ceramic to strip an oxygen atom from the carbon dioxide. This creates carbon monoxide, which can either be burnt as a fuel itself or can be used as a feedstock for making liquid fuels.
If the development works then there is the possibility of scrubbing the atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Instead of burying the carbon dioxide deep underground it can be put to better use.
Technology Review - Turning Carbon Dioxide into Fuel
New wood gas web site
We have created a new wood gas blog. The blog covers the work of myself and friends in wood gasification. The site will trawl the Internet for the latest work in gasification and present it in one easy to access portal.
Site - Wood Gas
Site - Wood Gas
Wood gas stove in operation
A video I made earlier in the year. It shows the constituent parts, the fuelling and operation of the stove.
Composting for beginners
The bins you can buy from your local garden centre, or hardware store, are a waste of time. Many are far too small. To make compost you need to be able to turn the material you are composting on a regular basis. Composting bins are too fiddly with a tiny little door for emptying it of compost, assuming it ever makes any.
The worst aspect of a composting bin is that you have to pay someone to supply you with a lump of plastic to do something that you can do for yourself. When you have bought your big lump of plastic you will no doubt become frustrated with it. You will try and get rid of it but it's not as easy as getting rid of an unwanted fizzy drink bottle.
The best thing to do is build your own composter. It's not difficult, it will cost you nothing and it will make perfect compost. I have written detailed instructions at the following link.
http://www.ecopunk.org.uk/2006/04/composting_13.html
I realise that many of you live in urban areas and/or are not keen on rats. If an open compost heap like mine is not to your liking then I can recommend two alternatives.
The first recommendation is to bury your kitchen waste in the garden. Save your waste for a couple of days, just before flies start laying eggs on it. Take the waste into the garden. Dig a little hole for it and then cover it over with soil. Your soil will benefit from the activity of the worms when they find the waste. Next time, dig a hole somewhere else.
Garden waste can be used as mulch. Get a garden shredder to shred large items of waste like bushes. Better still, save money and use a lawnmower. Just lay the waste on the grass and go over it a few times with the mower. The chips can then be sprinkled on top of the soil to create a mulch.
The mulch will help the soil to retain moisture and over time the worms will turn the mulch into compost. Mulch is really natures way of composting. Stuff like grass clippings and leaves in autumn can just be mixed into the soil or used as mulch too.
If you don't have need for compost but want to keep organic waste out of landfill sites then see if your local rubbish collection service has a special collection for organic waste. Your waste will be taken away and made into compost for others.
Agreement in Bali
I have no idea what about. Probably an agreement to agree about something in the future when the world is in a bigger mess.
With GW's government agreeing to the text, I am sure it is a watered down and meaningless text that everyone will forget about.
The text is no more than an agreement to meet again over the next two years and discuss what to do. That's when the corporations will dig their heels in. After all, it's the corporations and their puppets that govern our oligarchies.
At least the Big Pollute in Bali is over. I can agree with others without moving from my room. Why is it so difficult for people in suits?
BBC - Climate deal sealed by US U-turn
Guardian - The summit's carbon footprint
Guardian - More questions than answers
With GW's government agreeing to the text, I am sure it is a watered down and meaningless text that everyone will forget about.
The text is no more than an agreement to meet again over the next two years and discuss what to do. That's when the corporations will dig their heels in. After all, it's the corporations and their puppets that govern our oligarchies.
At least the Big Pollute in Bali is over. I can agree with others without moving from my room. Why is it so difficult for people in suits?
BBC - Climate deal sealed by US U-turn
Guardian - The summit's carbon footprint
Guardian - More questions than answers
What is a zero carbon home?
Well, for a start, it is not a home where no carbon has been used to build it. In fact lots of carbon dioxide is produced when the concrete used to build the house was manufactured. Transporting men and materials to the building site creates carbon emissions. So too the energy used from machines and tools used in the construction of the home.
When someone refers to a home being zero carbon it means the energy used to heat, light and power the home, after its construction, is generated using renewable means. Preferably the energy is either generated (or saved thus obviating the need to generate it in the first place) on the property. Photo voltaic cells and wind turbines to produce electricity. Solar water heaters to produce hot water. Insulation and capture of heat from the sun within the fabric of the building to cut down on the amount of heating required.
The UK government wants all new houses to be zero carbon by 2016. I don't see it happening. Especially with English Heritage listing so many Victorian streets when they should all be pulled down and replaced with zero carbon high-rise apartment blocks.
Guardian - Barratt contracted to build UK's first eco-village
Guardian - Q&A: Zero-carbon homes
When someone refers to a home being zero carbon it means the energy used to heat, light and power the home, after its construction, is generated using renewable means. Preferably the energy is either generated (or saved thus obviating the need to generate it in the first place) on the property. Photo voltaic cells and wind turbines to produce electricity. Solar water heaters to produce hot water. Insulation and capture of heat from the sun within the fabric of the building to cut down on the amount of heating required.
The UK government wants all new houses to be zero carbon by 2016. I don't see it happening. Especially with English Heritage listing so many Victorian streets when they should all be pulled down and replaced with zero carbon high-rise apartment blocks.
Guardian - Barratt contracted to build UK's first eco-village
Guardian - Q&A: Zero-carbon homes
Are you really doing enough?
Chris Goodall doesn't think so. Many things done in the name of living a green lifestlye are no more than middle-class feel good gimics.
Myth 1 Eco lightbulbs are the best way to save electricity at homeGuardian - Carbon Myths
Myth 2 Flying is responsible for only 2% of carbon dioxide emissions
Myth 3 All packaging is wicked
Myth 4 Hybrid cars are the way forward
Myth 5 Avoid food miles
Myth 6 Microgeneration is a good way for Britain to cut emissions
My 2008 predictions
I present here my predictions for 2008. Next to each prediction I have put a percentage chance of it actually happening. Feel free to add your own predictions in the comments section. Or, as you normally do, shoot them down in flames.
Oil over $100 a barrel
Given that oil is a dwindling resource, and that we discover less each year, then the price can only go up. The industrial powerhouses in the east will ensure that demand increases whilst OPEC struggles to stay at current production levels.
100% certainty.
Gold over $1000 per troy ounce
Paper money is worthless. Our fiat currencies are dependent on building houses and inflating economies with debt rather than tangible wealth. Sensible money will convert from paper to gold.
75% certainty.
Gold Investments - Latest gold price
US dollar to continue slide in value
The rising price of oil and gold is also due to the fact that they are priced in dollars. Every time the dollar devalues the price of commodities have to be revalued. Bit of a pain really.
More oil producing nations will start asking for oil transactions to be completed in currencies other than the dollar. Iran, for example, no longer sells any oil in dollars. Couple this with the flight to gold and there will be far less demand for dollars as the world's reserve currency.
There is one benefit from this for the US. It makes US manufacturers (what's left of them) more competitive. This allows the US government to buy time from its populace by providing more low paid jobs.
100% certainty.
US will not attack Iran
GW shot his bolt when he attacked the lightweight bin Laden in Afghanistan and the irrelevant Hussein in Iraq. Iran is the key power in the region. Pakistan will be destabilised and Iran and bin Laden will have a ready-made nuclear arsenal for no price at all.
100% certainty.
Carbon emissions to rise next year
Regardless of the men in suits signing agreements and protocols there will be no cuts in carbon emissions next year.
Carbon emissions will continue to rise.
100% certainty.
Afghanistan will fall to the Taleban
NATO controls nothing outside of Kabul. It is played for a mug by the inhabitants.
I am making this a 50% certainty simply because the Taleban and its allies simply do not need to control Kabul or Afghanistan. It is a non-country, based upon tribal lines. The Taleban and its allies can train personnel and trade drugs in the countryside with impunity.
50% certainty.
Allies begin to leave majority of Iraq, save for a few enclaves
This is pretty much like Afghanistan. The western world only sees through the eyes of nation states. Asymmetric warfare is not based on the nation state. The US can have its mega embassy in Baghdad whilst Syria, Turkey and Iran manipulate the rest of Iraq.
British and Australian forces will be out next year and the US will fall back to its mega embassy after the next US president is installed.
75% certainty.
No major Atlantic hurricane season
I believe that the climate system is changing and that hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico will not be so common. Look to the eastern Atlantic for hurricanes in the future.
90% certainty.
Republican to win US presidential race
Obama or Clinton? Nope. The US is a different political animal to Europe.
I don't believe enough people will change their allegiance to swing states from Republican to Democrat.
When the going gets tough the tough vote right of centre.
Think of Weimar Germany and hyperinflation. Maybe it is too early for that.
66% certainty.
Europeans not to notice any difference between Republicans and Democrats
Following on from what I wrote above. For a European it is hard to see any difference between Republicans and Democrats. An American probably could but I am not an American. All US politicians look conservative to European eyes. To American eyes there are some conservatives in Europe who do as they are told and the rest are commies.
No matter what party the next US president is from he (and it will be a he) will put America first when it comes to energy, food and finance. Don't expect treaties and agreements to be suddenly ratified if there was a change of leadership like in Australia.
100% certainty.
The beginning of global famine
We are used to seeing starving Africans. Now, with food competing with bio-fuels for farmland, we will see the price of our staple foods increasing. The urban poor in the west will find it even harder to put food on the table.
100% certainty.
Stock market crash?
Who cares? Paper money is worthless and so is the economy. The stock market is not based on reality. Put your money somewhere else.
Whatever %.
The Credit Crunch
What a mess. Are we told the half of it?
Banks writing-down the value of their assets. Hundreds of billions in debt lost to the winds. And what do the central banks do? They print hundreds of billions more of your favourite fiat currencies. Paying off the loss of worthless paper with yet more worthless paper.
Our politicians talk of a slight-downturn in 2008. Do they ever tell us the truth? The enormity is too great for anyone to comprehend.
On a personal level I worry about my bank accounts. Plural. I have spread my money around many banks in the hope that not all get wiped out. A good portion is going into gold bullion.
What's going to happen in 2008? I'm with the bankers and politicians. I haven't the slightly clue.
More extreme weather?
Average temperatures higher than last year. Wetter summers. More floods. More tornadoes and high winds. Yes to all of the above.
100% certainty.
Less ice
Areas with ice are not on everyone's list of places to go to on holiday but ice has an important role to play in moderating the climate. Ice reflects heat from the sun back into space, which helps to cool the planet.
However, the melting of polar ice is accelerating. The loss of ice reveals dark ocean and land to the sun, which heats up the earth and the melting of ice accelerates yet again.
I believe the Arctic Ocean and Greenland will be free of ice within my lifetime.
100% certainty
Oil over $100 a barrel
Given that oil is a dwindling resource, and that we discover less each year, then the price can only go up. The industrial powerhouses in the east will ensure that demand increases whilst OPEC struggles to stay at current production levels.
100% certainty.
Gold over $1000 per troy ounce
Paper money is worthless. Our fiat currencies are dependent on building houses and inflating economies with debt rather than tangible wealth. Sensible money will convert from paper to gold.
75% certainty.
Gold Investments - Latest gold price
US dollar to continue slide in value
The rising price of oil and gold is also due to the fact that they are priced in dollars. Every time the dollar devalues the price of commodities have to be revalued. Bit of a pain really.
More oil producing nations will start asking for oil transactions to be completed in currencies other than the dollar. Iran, for example, no longer sells any oil in dollars. Couple this with the flight to gold and there will be far less demand for dollars as the world's reserve currency.
There is one benefit from this for the US. It makes US manufacturers (what's left of them) more competitive. This allows the US government to buy time from its populace by providing more low paid jobs.
100% certainty.
US will not attack Iran
GW shot his bolt when he attacked the lightweight bin Laden in Afghanistan and the irrelevant Hussein in Iraq. Iran is the key power in the region. Pakistan will be destabilised and Iran and bin Laden will have a ready-made nuclear arsenal for no price at all.
100% certainty.
Carbon emissions to rise next year
Regardless of the men in suits signing agreements and protocols there will be no cuts in carbon emissions next year.
Carbon emissions will continue to rise.
100% certainty.
Afghanistan will fall to the Taleban
NATO controls nothing outside of Kabul. It is played for a mug by the inhabitants.
I am making this a 50% certainty simply because the Taleban and its allies simply do not need to control Kabul or Afghanistan. It is a non-country, based upon tribal lines. The Taleban and its allies can train personnel and trade drugs in the countryside with impunity.
50% certainty.
Allies begin to leave majority of Iraq, save for a few enclaves
This is pretty much like Afghanistan. The western world only sees through the eyes of nation states. Asymmetric warfare is not based on the nation state. The US can have its mega embassy in Baghdad whilst Syria, Turkey and Iran manipulate the rest of Iraq.
British and Australian forces will be out next year and the US will fall back to its mega embassy after the next US president is installed.
75% certainty.
No major Atlantic hurricane season
I believe that the climate system is changing and that hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico will not be so common. Look to the eastern Atlantic for hurricanes in the future.
90% certainty.
Republican to win US presidential race
Obama or Clinton? Nope. The US is a different political animal to Europe.
I don't believe enough people will change their allegiance to swing states from Republican to Democrat.
When the going gets tough the tough vote right of centre.
Think of Weimar Germany and hyperinflation. Maybe it is too early for that.
66% certainty.
Europeans not to notice any difference between Republicans and Democrats
Following on from what I wrote above. For a European it is hard to see any difference between Republicans and Democrats. An American probably could but I am not an American. All US politicians look conservative to European eyes. To American eyes there are some conservatives in Europe who do as they are told and the rest are commies.
No matter what party the next US president is from he (and it will be a he) will put America first when it comes to energy, food and finance. Don't expect treaties and agreements to be suddenly ratified if there was a change of leadership like in Australia.
100% certainty.
The beginning of global famine
We are used to seeing starving Africans. Now, with food competing with bio-fuels for farmland, we will see the price of our staple foods increasing. The urban poor in the west will find it even harder to put food on the table.
100% certainty.
Stock market crash?
Who cares? Paper money is worthless and so is the economy. The stock market is not based on reality. Put your money somewhere else.
Whatever %.
The Credit Crunch
What a mess. Are we told the half of it?
Banks writing-down the value of their assets. Hundreds of billions in debt lost to the winds. And what do the central banks do? They print hundreds of billions more of your favourite fiat currencies. Paying off the loss of worthless paper with yet more worthless paper.
Our politicians talk of a slight-downturn in 2008. Do they ever tell us the truth? The enormity is too great for anyone to comprehend.
On a personal level I worry about my bank accounts. Plural. I have spread my money around many banks in the hope that not all get wiped out. A good portion is going into gold bullion.
What's going to happen in 2008? I'm with the bankers and politicians. I haven't the slightly clue.
More extreme weather?
Average temperatures higher than last year. Wetter summers. More floods. More tornadoes and high winds. Yes to all of the above.
100% certainty.
Less ice
Areas with ice are not on everyone's list of places to go to on holiday but ice has an important role to play in moderating the climate. Ice reflects heat from the sun back into space, which helps to cool the planet.
However, the melting of polar ice is accelerating. The loss of ice reveals dark ocean and land to the sun, which heats up the earth and the melting of ice accelerates yet again.
I believe the Arctic Ocean and Greenland will be free of ice within my lifetime.
100% certainty
Almost a good idea
In the Guardian, George Monbiot came up with a great idea for solving the problem of climate change. Namely, leaving fossil fuels in the ground. Of course, as he surmised, nobody is actually going to do that.
Monbiot then when on to note that whilst we consumers are urged to use less energy (something else that won't happen) the government does nothing to ensure that less energy is there for us to use. Instead, the government offers tax breaks and incentives for businesses to get as much energy as they can out of the ground.
The easier we make it for producers to get energy out of the ground the easier it is for we consumers to use it (see Jevon's Paradox).
What Monbiot doesn't say is what I am going to say now. That the time is too late for talking about emission cuts. A much better idea is to force businesses and people to be more efficient by limiting the amount of energy available to them. In other words rationing, just like in the Second World War. Why bother talking about an 80% carbon emission cut? Just reduce the amount of carbon available by 80%. Problem solved.
Of course, it will never happen because for the men in suits consumption is an aphrodisiac. And for the rest of us, why should we be thrifty if our betters aren't?
Guardian - The real answer to climate change is to leave fossil fuels in the ground
Monbiot then when on to note that whilst we consumers are urged to use less energy (something else that won't happen) the government does nothing to ensure that less energy is there for us to use. Instead, the government offers tax breaks and incentives for businesses to get as much energy as they can out of the ground.
The easier we make it for producers to get energy out of the ground the easier it is for we consumers to use it (see Jevon's Paradox).
What Monbiot doesn't say is what I am going to say now. That the time is too late for talking about emission cuts. A much better idea is to force businesses and people to be more efficient by limiting the amount of energy available to them. In other words rationing, just like in the Second World War. Why bother talking about an 80% carbon emission cut? Just reduce the amount of carbon available by 80%. Problem solved.
Of course, it will never happen because for the men in suits consumption is an aphrodisiac. And for the rest of us, why should we be thrifty if our betters aren't?
Guardian - The real answer to climate change is to leave fossil fuels in the ground
Caffeine free
I haven't had anything with caffeine in it for about two months. Never a tea drinker, coffee was an occasional luxury. I hate hot drinks anyway. There's nothing worse than working up a sweat in the summer and then drinking something that doesn't cool you down.
Fizzy drinks were always my weakness. I replaced them with juices and fruit yoghurt. I have a sweet tooth but caffeine has nothing to do with sweetness so why bother with it.
At first I had headaches after stopping my caffeine intake. However, I remember having as many headaches from taking too much caffeine. I was as irritable from taking caffeine as I was waiting for the next dose.
It takes a while cleaning out your system. Plenty of water is what's needed. Now, I feel much more relaxed. I sleep just six to seven hours a day and jump out of bed in the morning. I don't need anything to get me going.
Take the plunge. Go caffeine free but don't drink decaffeinated as, by definition, there is still caffeine present.
Fizzy drinks were always my weakness. I replaced them with juices and fruit yoghurt. I have a sweet tooth but caffeine has nothing to do with sweetness so why bother with it.
At first I had headaches after stopping my caffeine intake. However, I remember having as many headaches from taking too much caffeine. I was as irritable from taking caffeine as I was waiting for the next dose.
It takes a while cleaning out your system. Plenty of water is what's needed. Now, I feel much more relaxed. I sleep just six to seven hours a day and jump out of bed in the morning. I don't need anything to get me going.
Take the plunge. Go caffeine free but don't drink decaffeinated as, by definition, there is still caffeine present.
Decrease my carbon footprint? No can do
In public, scientists and politicians give an optimistic smile when talking about the environment. Not so in private.
BBC - Climate change goal 'unreachable'
BBC - Climate change goal 'unreachable'
7000 more wind turbines off Britain's coast
The UK government may put forward plans for a massive increase in wind turbine construction. The coast will be transformed by two turbines for every mile of coastline. It is hoped that the power generated would provide electricity for every home in the UK by 2020.However, as the government is also desperate to see infinite economic growth, mass migration to pay for the Prime Minister's pension scheme and other unsustainable activities then expect to see many more turbines than that.
BBC - Huge expansion for wind turbines
Guardian - Q&A: Wind power
Guardian - Government's offshore wind power target branded 'pie in the sky'
China is eating into our emission cuts
China needs to be fully integrated into our low carbon future. As is, anything we do to save the planet will be more than negated by Chinese economic growth. Something to think about when you next buy a cheap consumer item that you could probably do without.
Guardian - Why the Himalayas might not look like this for much longer
Guardian - Why the Himalayas might not look like this for much longer
Down to the bear bones
I have been busy since July clearing out unwanted stuff from my parental home. At the same time I have been making shelves for my parents so their home is a lot tidier than it used to be.
My belongings used to fill the attic, the spare bedroom, conservatory, garden shed and garage in addition to my old bedroom. After car boot sales, eBay, Amazon and Freecycle I have not only made more space for my parents but also financed my stay here.
I was surprised how much of my childhood is of value to others. Selling off a model railway, Action Man (US - GI Joe), Subbuteo soccer and rugby games, and miniature toy soldiers proved lucrative. I only wish I hadn't thrown out so much other stuff during the early 1990s.
Why couldn't the Internet have started sooner? Why couldn't I have invented eBay? After all, there was a student in my computing degree class who saw the future and set up one of the first domain registration companies in the UK.
Oh well, that's all in the past. I have no business acumen anyway. Time to look to the future. My intentions being to own a small car with enough space to hold my downsized life. The car could well be on eBay too if I move further than a European destination.
We in the west own so much junk. Things we really have no need for. If I watch television programmes about Africa I see tribal people who couldn't downsize any further. Shelter, hunting and cooking equipment and some animals. You can't get more downsized than that. They walk pretty much everywhere. Of course, if they give up (like our western ancestors) and head to the city then it all begins to go wrong for them.
That made me think. Almost all people who live in urban areas today can trace their ancestry back to someone who gave up and headed to the city for fame and fortune. And how many urban dwellers can claim they succeeded?
Most urban dwellers end up as consumers, cogs in an unsustainable machine, making a small proportion of the population wealthy. That is not for me. I used to work in an office. Always passed over for promotion, I could never debase myself and be a part of office politics. For the past five years I have done the odd job tutoring, fixing computers or designing websites. Cash (or food) in hand.
When I lived in London I had ulcers and a never-ending depression. That is now all gone. I think many urban dwellers are now as I was, miserable. They try to cure themselves with drink, drugs and shopping.
My belongings used to fill the attic, the spare bedroom, conservatory, garden shed and garage in addition to my old bedroom. After car boot sales, eBay, Amazon and Freecycle I have not only made more space for my parents but also financed my stay here.
I was surprised how much of my childhood is of value to others. Selling off a model railway, Action Man (US - GI Joe), Subbuteo soccer and rugby games, and miniature toy soldiers proved lucrative. I only wish I hadn't thrown out so much other stuff during the early 1990s.
Why couldn't the Internet have started sooner? Why couldn't I have invented eBay? After all, there was a student in my computing degree class who saw the future and set up one of the first domain registration companies in the UK.
Oh well, that's all in the past. I have no business acumen anyway. Time to look to the future. My intentions being to own a small car with enough space to hold my downsized life. The car could well be on eBay too if I move further than a European destination.
We in the west own so much junk. Things we really have no need for. If I watch television programmes about Africa I see tribal people who couldn't downsize any further. Shelter, hunting and cooking equipment and some animals. You can't get more downsized than that. They walk pretty much everywhere. Of course, if they give up (like our western ancestors) and head to the city then it all begins to go wrong for them.
That made me think. Almost all people who live in urban areas today can trace their ancestry back to someone who gave up and headed to the city for fame and fortune. And how many urban dwellers can claim they succeeded?
Most urban dwellers end up as consumers, cogs in an unsustainable machine, making a small proportion of the population wealthy. That is not for me. I used to work in an office. Always passed over for promotion, I could never debase myself and be a part of office politics. For the past five years I have done the odd job tutoring, fixing computers or designing websites. Cash (or food) in hand.
When I lived in London I had ulcers and a never-ending depression. That is now all gone. I think many urban dwellers are now as I was, miserable. They try to cure themselves with drink, drugs and shopping.
Labels:
car boot sales,
downsizing,
eBay,
freecycle,
freegan,
green lifestyle,
lifehacking
3 comments:
Back in the US of A
I read on a weekly basis that Americans complain about the price of their petrol (US speak - gas, gasoline). My blog is primarily based in the UK and Ireland with a more generalised look at the world in general. There are other blogs that are more centred on the US so I leave it to them to do their share of the whining. I have plenty to do myself over here. However, I would like to say that Americans can be thankful they don't live over here.
Americans find that $3.00 for a gallon of petrol to be extortionate. Some Americans want to sell up and move to Europe. I wonder what they would make of European petrol prices?
A US gallon equals 3.78 litres. In the US 1 litre of petrol would cost about $0.80 or £0.38. In the UK a litre of petrol costs £1.08 at a petrol station near here. That's almost three times the price paid in the US. If an American driver bought a US gallon of petrol in the UK and had to pay it in dollars it would cost that driver $8.40 so $3.00 is very much a bargain.
It means that the average American can probably feel more pain in their wallets before they ever decide to change their behaviour. Judging by Europe's ability to put up with the pain, a gallon of petrol could probably go to $10.00 a gallon in the US and Americans would still be pumping their Hummers to the brim.
Americans find that $3.00 for a gallon of petrol to be extortionate. Some Americans want to sell up and move to Europe. I wonder what they would make of European petrol prices?
A US gallon equals 3.78 litres. In the US 1 litre of petrol would cost about $0.80 or £0.38. In the UK a litre of petrol costs £1.08 at a petrol station near here. That's almost three times the price paid in the US. If an American driver bought a US gallon of petrol in the UK and had to pay it in dollars it would cost that driver $8.40 so $3.00 is very much a bargain.
It means that the average American can probably feel more pain in their wallets before they ever decide to change their behaviour. Judging by Europe's ability to put up with the pain, a gallon of petrol could probably go to $10.00 a gallon in the US and Americans would still be pumping their Hummers to the brim.
The future is LED
Just as you are told to replace your incandescent light bults with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) there is a new light source that is even more environmentally friendly. Many have already been using LEDs for lighting, myself included.
The latest LEDs are brighter and whiter than ever. They use less power than CFLs and can be dimmed, unlike many CFLs. They are easier to dispose of than CFLs, which contain mercury.
BBC - The future is bright for LEDs
The latest LEDs are brighter and whiter than ever. They use less power than CFLs and can be dimmed, unlike many CFLs. They are easier to dispose of than CFLs, which contain mercury.
BBC - The future is bright for LEDs
Bio-fuel in favour of food
This year saw the rising tensions between bio-fuel and food. If an impoverished farmer can earn more money from his crop by selling it to bio-fuel manufacturers instead of greedy supermarkets then he does so. It has lead to higher food prices but who are we to deny those most important of our citizens?
Over the past year there have been protests and riots throughout the world because the prices on staple foods have sky-rocketed. Mexican's who cannot afford their tortillas have rioted. Italians have protested over the price of their pasta.
On closer inspection, is the competition between food and bio-fuel a bad thing? It is after all another consequence of overpopulation. Too many people chasing too little petroleum has resulted in demand outstripping supply. This has lead to near record prices for oil. Land being developed for houses and shops for our swelling urban areas leads to less farmland. Less farmland means that farmers have to sell their crops to the highest bidder.
The competition for farmland between bio-fuel and food has brought the overpopulation question to a head. It will lead to famine and enough of a die-off of the world's population. Those of us remaining will be able to live a western lifestyle in a carbon neutral economy with each of us owning an SUV each.
There, not such a bad thing after all. It's probably why our glorious leaders have adopted the multi-cult. Western nations are to act as lifeboats until we are 1.5 billion strong, which is the carrying capacity of the earth. We are currently at 1.3 billion but another 0.2 billion migrants and we are all set for the rest of the world's population to die off. It all makes sense now.
Over the past year there have been protests and riots throughout the world because the prices on staple foods have sky-rocketed. Mexican's who cannot afford their tortillas have rioted. Italians have protested over the price of their pasta.
On closer inspection, is the competition between food and bio-fuel a bad thing? It is after all another consequence of overpopulation. Too many people chasing too little petroleum has resulted in demand outstripping supply. This has lead to near record prices for oil. Land being developed for houses and shops for our swelling urban areas leads to less farmland. Less farmland means that farmers have to sell their crops to the highest bidder.
The competition for farmland between bio-fuel and food has brought the overpopulation question to a head. It will lead to famine and enough of a die-off of the world's population. Those of us remaining will be able to live a western lifestyle in a carbon neutral economy with each of us owning an SUV each.
There, not such a bad thing after all. It's probably why our glorious leaders have adopted the multi-cult. Western nations are to act as lifeboats until we are 1.5 billion strong, which is the carrying capacity of the earth. We are currently at 1.3 billion but another 0.2 billion migrants and we are all set for the rest of the world's population to die off. It all makes sense now.
A million micro-generators for the UK grid
The UK Conservative party wants to encourage home-owners and businesses to produce their own electricity and sell their excess to the National Grid. In Germany, 300,000 micro-installations provide 12% of the country's electricity.
As micro-generation is generally carbon neutral, it is a policy that must be implemented to reduce carbon emissions. As energy demand increases people should play a more active role in producing and saving energy. It will give them a greater understanding of the problems we face.
Guardian - People power: Tories see 1m households selling electricity back to the suppliers
BBC - Tory plans for home power sources
As micro-generation is generally carbon neutral, it is a policy that must be implemented to reduce carbon emissions. As energy demand increases people should play a more active role in producing and saving energy. It will give them a greater understanding of the problems we face.
Guardian - People power: Tories see 1m households selling electricity back to the suppliers
BBC - Tory plans for home power sources
A protest that I am not concerned with
There are as many knee jerk environmentalists who shout down coal and nuclear power stations as there are liberals shouting down people who question mass migration. I am one environmentalist that welcomes coal fired power stations. Maybe not in the manner that the government intends to use coal though.
I would prefer coal gasification. It's not a new technology. Our homes were fed with coal gas before North Sea gas came on stream in the 1960s. Above all else we have plenty of coal of our own so we don't need to be held hostage to quite so much Arab oil.
Home dug gasified coal, some renewable energy sources, Australian uranium thrown in and we have a nice dependable source of power to keep us going for some time to come. A switch away from the oil to the electric economy and Gordon can have his 80% emission reduction.
Guardian - Activists stop Welsh coalmine excavation
I would prefer coal gasification. It's not a new technology. Our homes were fed with coal gas before North Sea gas came on stream in the 1960s. Above all else we have plenty of coal of our own so we don't need to be held hostage to quite so much Arab oil.
Home dug gasified coal, some renewable energy sources, Australian uranium thrown in and we have a nice dependable source of power to keep us going for some time to come. A switch away from the oil to the electric economy and Gordon can have his 80% emission reduction.
Guardian - Activists stop Welsh coalmine excavation
Consume and be merry?
This says a lot about our world today.
Consume less, we must, if we are to have any future at all.
Guardian - Eat, drink and be miserable: the true cost of our addiction to shopping
But the alternative of lower consumption is something no politician is prepared to consider. In one policy discussion on the subject, Treasury officials responded with contempt, and referred to it as tantamount to "going back to living in caves". We have a political system built on economic growth as measured by gross domestic product, and that is driven by ever-rising consumer spending. Economic growth is needed to service public debt and pay for the welfare state. If people stopped shopping, the economy would ultimately collapse. No wonder, then, that one of the politicians' tasks after a terrorist outrage is to reassure the public and urge them to keep shopping (as both George Bush and Ken Livingstone did). Advertising and marketing, huge sectors of the economy, are entirely devoted to ensuring that we keep shopping and that our children follow in our footsteps.
Consume less, we must, if we are to have any future at all.
Guardian - Eat, drink and be miserable: the true cost of our addiction to shopping
Food riots to come
Climate change, overpopulation, peak oil, bio-fuels. All of them separate little problems for us to solve? Think again. They will all impact on the food you eat. Rather, the food you would eat but can't because it wasn't grown due to the pressures our farmers now face.
Guardian - Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring
Guardian - Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring
Green geezers
A Greenpeace video to impress upon young men the need for energy saving.
Youtube - Greenpeace - Sunshine
Youtube - Greenpeace - Sunshine
As I said, "Too little, too late"
Thankfully there are people like George Monbiot who have the time to do the maths. By his calculations if we wish to save the planet then industrialised nations, like the UK and the US, are going to have to cut their emissions by almost 100%.
I don't think we can cut our emissions by 10% so it's all a waste of time. Global catastrophe, here we come. I always wanted some new scientific discovery to permit me to live for a thousand years so that I could see how the world progresses. It looks like I don't need such a discovery. Even if I live to the average age of 70 I will get a good dose of the future afore I die.
Unlike Monbiot, I think the challenge is too great. It's like building a perpetual motion machine to defeat the laws of thermodynamics. People want to have their cake and eat it. They want to stop climate change but make no concessions on lifestyle. The public wants scientists, that they don't trust by the way, to come up with some magic to clean up the mess and allow them to carry on living as they are. Am I the only one who can see the fallacy?
Guardian - This crisis demands a reappraisal of who we are and what progress means
I don't think we can cut our emissions by 10% so it's all a waste of time. Global catastrophe, here we come. I always wanted some new scientific discovery to permit me to live for a thousand years so that I could see how the world progresses. It looks like I don't need such a discovery. Even if I live to the average age of 70 I will get a good dose of the future afore I die.
Unlike Monbiot, I think the challenge is too great. It's like building a perpetual motion machine to defeat the laws of thermodynamics. People want to have their cake and eat it. They want to stop climate change but make no concessions on lifestyle. The public wants scientists, that they don't trust by the way, to come up with some magic to clean up the mess and allow them to carry on living as they are. Am I the only one who can see the fallacy?
Guardian - This crisis demands a reappraisal of who we are and what progress means
Expansion of the tropics
There are those in colder climes that welcome climate change. "I would love a 6C temperature rise," they say, "I wouldn't have to spend so much on heating."
Not the most intelligent of things to say. A warmer climate won't save energy. At the height of summer you are going to spend the money you saved during the winter on air conditioning to keep you cool.
Closer to the equator life will be a lot harsher with more drought and famine. A hotter tropics will lead to extreme weather conditions for the entire globe. Farming everywhere will be affected. Think of this year with the incessant rainfall and the reduced yields it caused in our kitchen gardens. Think of no water or food in Africa and millions more on the move to other parts of the globe.
BBC - 'Tropics expand' as world warms
Not the most intelligent of things to say. A warmer climate won't save energy. At the height of summer you are going to spend the money you saved during the winter on air conditioning to keep you cool.
Closer to the equator life will be a lot harsher with more drought and famine. A hotter tropics will lead to extreme weather conditions for the entire globe. Farming everywhere will be affected. Think of this year with the incessant rainfall and the reduced yields it caused in our kitchen gardens. Think of no water or food in Africa and millions more on the move to other parts of the globe.
BBC - 'Tropics expand' as world warms
Earth: The Power of the Planet
An excellent television series on BBC2 called Earth: The Power of the Planet is presented by the excellent and down to earth Dr Iain Stewart. The series shows the natural forces that have shaped the planet. Last night's episode concerned the atmosphere that gave life to us all.
The most interesting part of the programme was his visit to the Siberian tundra. A place where millions of cubic metres of methane gas is trapped in frozen lakes. Methane is more than twenty times the greenhouse that carbon dioxide is.
As the planet warms methane will be released from thawing lakes and will enter the atmosphere thus accelerating climate change. It is the one thing that I fear more than bird flu, nuclear conflict or migration. It could well be a sudden occurrence with no way of stopping it and is reason enough to mend our ways.
BBC - Earth: The Power of the Planet
The most interesting part of the programme was his visit to the Siberian tundra. A place where millions of cubic metres of methane gas is trapped in frozen lakes. Methane is more than twenty times the greenhouse that carbon dioxide is.
As the planet warms methane will be released from thawing lakes and will enter the atmosphere thus accelerating climate change. It is the one thing that I fear more than bird flu, nuclear conflict or migration. It could well be a sudden occurrence with no way of stopping it and is reason enough to mend our ways.
BBC - Earth: The Power of the Planet
Many intellects and not one brain between them
Some leading thinkers were asked to "nominate the big boost needed in the face of a rapidly warming planet." Not one of them mentioned overpopulation. An unsustainably high population emits more carbon than the planet knows what to do with thus resulting in climate change. A smaller population leads to less emissions and less climate change.
We are cursed with lilly livered liberals who believe that science and the power of liberal thought can conquer all. We are trapped between politicians and liberals thinkers. God help us all.
Guardian - What breakthrough would best advance the fight against climate change?
We are cursed with lilly livered liberals who believe that science and the power of liberal thought can conquer all. We are trapped between politicians and liberals thinkers. God help us all.
Guardian - What breakthrough would best advance the fight against climate change?
First brew
After six days of fermentation the bubbler on the demijohn slowed markedly. I decided to measure the specific gravity to see how things had progressed.The starting specific gravity was 1.05 but today it had fallen to 1.01, which I believe makes it a 5% alcohol. In other words (1.05 - 1.01) * 125 = 5%.
I siphoned off some into a glass as can be seen in the photo above. It tastes a lot like the cider I drank in Asturias, Northern Spain. From passing through Asturian fields in a train it was obvious that they only use eating apples in their cider. So too did I in my cider.
I also put a spoon of brown sugar into a bottle and siphoned some cider into it for a secondary fermentation. It is now sealed and in the garage, where it will either explode or become a rather nice sparkling cider.
The next brew will have a higher starting specific gravity as I will add sugar and aim for a 6.5% brew.
A new era?
I believe that we are entering a new era. I don't know what the new era will bring. All I know is that overpopulation, over consumption, dwindling resources and climate change will force changes upon the planet.
An article on the Market Oracle encapsulates many things that I have mentioned in my blog.
Market Oracle - Are We Heading for Hyperinflation or Deflation? - At Philosophical Crossroads
An article on the Market Oracle encapsulates many things that I have mentioned in my blog.
Market Oracle - Are We Heading for Hyperinflation or Deflation? - At Philosophical Crossroads
Africa to provide one sixth of Europe's electricty needs
It's big ideas like this that the world needs now. A £5 billion project is being considered that will see hundreds of solar power stations along Africa's Mediterranean coast. Submarine cables will transmit this electricity to Europe.
Of course, the current worry about importing our energy from Islamic countries that could turn on us at any moment is only exacerbated by this project. All of Africa's northern countries are Islamic with large numbers of radicals desperate to throw off pro-western dictatorships.
Still, there are many do-good liberals who want north Africa and the middle east to join the EU. One way or another Europe's fastest growing religion is coming by hook or by crook. So long as the EU suits, in their gated homes, get their carbon free energy then they probably won't care about the consequences.
Guardian - How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power
Of course, the current worry about importing our energy from Islamic countries that could turn on us at any moment is only exacerbated by this project. All of Africa's northern countries are Islamic with large numbers of radicals desperate to throw off pro-western dictatorships.
Still, there are many do-good liberals who want north Africa and the middle east to join the EU. One way or another Europe's fastest growing religion is coming by hook or by crook. So long as the EU suits, in their gated homes, get their carbon free energy then they probably won't care about the consequences.
Guardian - How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power
Where do all these calories come from?
For the first time in my life, I decided to count calories. I'm not a dieter simply because diets don't work. I just eat and let my belt buckle send me a reminder. However, I'm in an experimental mood at the moment so I made a note of all the calories I had been chomping on today.
Item - Quantity - Calories
Orange Juice - 1 litre - 470
Yoghurt - 1 pot - 100
Soup - 1 tin - 212
Bread - 200g - 540
Curry (homemade with chicken, tomatoes, onions, chiles, garam masala and chile poweder) - 116+46+30 = 192
Naan bread - 150g - 340
Rice - 80g - 280
Total = 2134 calories
A good job I made a point of not touching chocolate or cake today!
I was told by an Indian friend that I ate too much rice with my curry. If you are attentive and see a waiter in an Indian restaurant having a meal then you will notice that he doesn't eat rice but shovels up the meal with a piece of naan bread.
My curry consisted of two fillets of chicken and a whole tin of tomatoes. I only ate half of it so the rest can wait until tomorrow.
I drink a lot of orange juice but I don't drink tea or coffee. Other than that it is water and whatever cider I brew up.
As you can see, it doesn't take much to almost reach my recommended daily intake of 2500 calories. It reminds me that we westerners eat too much and that I can eat simply, cheaply and stay healthy.
Item - Quantity - Calories
Orange Juice - 1 litre - 470
Yoghurt - 1 pot - 100
Soup - 1 tin - 212
Bread - 200g - 540
Curry (homemade with chicken, tomatoes, onions, chiles, garam masala and chile poweder) - 116+46+30 = 192
Naan bread - 150g - 340
Rice - 80g - 280
Total = 2134 calories
A good job I made a point of not touching chocolate or cake today!
I was told by an Indian friend that I ate too much rice with my curry. If you are attentive and see a waiter in an Indian restaurant having a meal then you will notice that he doesn't eat rice but shovels up the meal with a piece of naan bread.
My curry consisted of two fillets of chicken and a whole tin of tomatoes. I only ate half of it so the rest can wait until tomorrow.
I drink a lot of orange juice but I don't drink tea or coffee. Other than that it is water and whatever cider I brew up.
As you can see, it doesn't take much to almost reach my recommended daily intake of 2500 calories. It reminds me that we westerners eat too much and that I can eat simply, cheaply and stay healthy.
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