Tag: Climate Change

Keeping warm during power cuts in storms

Devon has been battered by the elements this week. My mum lives in a new house in a village in Devon. With new build properties, there has been a move to make sure that the buildings are energy efficient and heating supplies are sustainable, homes well insulated, which are all a good things and help the planet and also should help bring mums energy costs down in the long run.

Devon also got hit by snow this week on Thursday and although there was enough snow to stop the buses running for a few hours where I live in Exeter, where mum lives the storm took out the electricity supply too.

She has an air pump at the garden which is run  by electricity where air pumps heats up hot water, that then go to under floor heating pipes under the floors downstairs and takes hot water upstairs to radiators and a water storage unit. Well the village that she lives in had this power cut and on Thursday her electric was off from 09:30am to 4pm and during this time the temperature dropped too and snow fell.

I was worried about her and unfortunately the mobile phone network also went down in the area at about the same time, for all I know also due to having no electricity supply too. When I managed to get hold of her just after 4pm she was ok but cold and the heating was able to come on as soon as the electricity came back on, but she was so cold that she had to spend much of the day in bed just to keep warm and comfortable.

So over the weekend I have been trying to research possible ways of providing electricity or other support for her during a power cut. On the weekend we also had our second name storm of the season, I was staying with my mum and at around 6 am this morning the wind was blowing and the rain was pouring down there was another brief power cut although this time the power came straight back on fortunately. It is likely there will be more storms and power cuts on the way this season too.

So I started to do some research into possibly energy or devises that could assist mum during a power cut and the first thing I started looking into was the possibly of what they call a power station its a kind of rechargeable large battery, that people take on holiday when they go camping. I though wouldn’t it be great if maybe it could power a kettle and a heater, while the electric is off in the house that would be an awesome comfort to my mum and the only worry then would be where to plug it in and how many cups of tea she could make and how long it could heat a room for.

But from what little research I have done so far it take a huge amount of electricity to heat up a kettle let alone an electric heater, which would use a huge amount of electricity that a simply battery powered station simply could not provide. If lucky you might be able to heat up a small camping kettle a few times a battery charge, whilst spending something like £500 or more on a battery power station powerful enough to be able to heat the kettle and not much else. I don’t think the technology of kettles heating up water has changed much in over 50 or more as there has not been seen to be a need for that kind of invention we just switch them on at the mains and they work.

My Dad also sensible suggested a thermos flask for her to keep hot water in, for what every hot drink she might want to make use of it for. You can get ones that are 500ml or 1000ml in size made by thermos that will keep water heated for potentially up to 24 hours. There are minor problems with doing this though. To provide hot water during a power cut firstly, you don’t know when the power cut is going to happen so you would need to fill it with hot water before any big storm is forecast, just in case. Secondly if you accidently forget to fill it up or don’t fill it up before the electric goes off its no use to you whatsoever.

Price wise though it’s much more realistic to by a thermos flask for £25 and make good use of it rather than spend £500 or more on a battery power station that is not powerful enough to heat up your home kettle. So it looks like Santa will be getting mum a thermos flask for Christmas and as for the electric battery power station although it sounds like a great idea sadly it’s just not practical or powerful enough for the budget that we have.

It feels like better minds than mine will need to tackle these issues head on as if we are planning to have properties more dependant on just electric for there power needs no more gas central heating systems or wood burners or oil heating systems in home then homes in communities which are vulnerable to the elements and power cuts when storms take place will also have to have some sort of back up system that can continue to supply electricity while the main power is off during winter months.

Were nowhere near investing in a solar panel roof for to be covered in snow or for the sky to be covered in clouds and she doesn’t have the land to place a working wind powered generator onto. If the batteries for home power stations could improve or if home electrical products became less power hungry then that is certainly an investment for the future. But for now I think we will stick to a thermos flask.

Sting – Soul Cake

For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful!

When your the chosen one put on this planet by your American Christian God and then voted into office on his second time round by about 51% of the voting US electorate. Is this a huge vote against the global consensus on what is needed for the environment?

The US now has Trump in charge of deciding what happens in the court of humanity on the future of the climate of this world, a supreme court judge for an issue he has no time for and frankly does not understand and who’s interest it serves, to not care or understand anything about protecting or preserving anything to do with it either.

In reality the policy is one of seeing the environment as a mere stock or commodity to be treated like everything else as something to be bought and sold on an alter of American capitalism and exploitation. Not engaging with the attempt to protect or preserve but to be bought or sold merely for profit.

What he does will be no accident or miscalculation. He can now act as judge and jury on the future fate of this planet, by making a conscious choice to destroy past international treaties with the environment being relegated to a mere commercial product and play thing for a few dollars more a capitalist’s wet dream on the alter of Christian capitalism, but at what cost to us all?

It’s just like playing a game and rolling dice with the globe, a game that can be lost as well as won. Trump will now pick up a set of dice and roll them to see what happens next at the expense of the planet and its populations. One roll could result in no serious irreversible climate damage over the next four years while pumping out black gold from the seas and ground just to reduce the price of gasoline for consumers and make him and his buddies a lot of money.

Whereas on an alternative landing of the roll of the dice it could result in destroying recognised globally established environmental treaties, designed to save this planet and stave of irreversible global climate catastrophise. It could lead to us reaching one of many global tipping points that would result in global climate collapse in ecological systems on the planet and then to the death of us all or a serious reduction in humans ability to survive in spaces on this planet or degrade considerable this planets ability to sustain life as we know it.

While Trump might be banking on the unlikely outcome and too busy counting his profits in his bank accounts to think that the American nation is to big and powerful to be lost to a global issue and might not be affected. If he is wrong, we will all end up counting the cost and paying the price. Just when many US citizens shout out that their prayers have been answered and that their god is good capitalist Christian god and the heir to the thrown of power is Trump, who is now their president elect. I fear the god of this earth to whom I pray to on this planet has yet to give their answer back and will most likely have the last word on this matter of the climate.

We are all now left with no alternative at this moment in time, but to hope that climate scientists are wrong and have miscalculated with all the evidence presented to them that the climate is in peril and so to our ability to maintain life on this earth unless we change course and the fact that we are seeing 100 year likely storms on a yearly basis and are just about to brake another climate record for hottest global temperature on record this year is inconsequential.

We all have to hope, whether we like it or not that exploiting the climate, degrading the environment and the dismantling of globally agreed climate treaties has no irreversible consequences or a bare minimum negative effect to this world or just merely consequences that can be witnessed and then circumnavigated or reversed in some as yet unforeseen way to prevent climate collapse and irreversible habitat and species extinction. I would rather not leave the future of my home, species and plant to Trump and hope, but I was not at the ballot box when his name was put on the card.

Mr President-elect for what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels

Open Letter for Whole Truth Five

Dear Attorney General, Richard Hermer KC,

This week has seen one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history. On Thursday 18th July, five people were given the highest sentences for nonviolent protest this country has ever seen. They were on trial for holding a zoom call, calling on others to take action to raise the alarm about the greatest threat humanity has ever faced: the climate and nature crises.

These sentences were handed down just days after the new government’s policy of no new licensing for oil and gas infrastructure was announced. In a world of sound, evidence-based governance, none of this needed to happen. With prisons at breaking point and the new government acting urgently to address this, how can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity? The sentences, ranging from 4 to 5 years, are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault. 

The defendants were denied the right to explain to a jury why they took the action they did, making a mockery of the right to a fair trial, with the judge saying that the Crown Prosecution’s agreed facts on climate collapse – including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months – were “neither here nor there”. These five brave, defiant people, like all nonviolent protestors, are fulfilling a necessary service by alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face, as scientists in their droves express their fear that many of the Earth’s systems are already at breaking point.

Immediately after the verdict, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders issued an extraordinary statement: “Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” 

According to the Office for National Statistics, 74% of people in the UK want urgent action on the climate crisis. Until a couple of weeks ago that majority was blocked by a Prime Minister who used climate – an existential threat – as a wedge issue in an election he lost. This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk. The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.

The world stands at a crossroads and so does our democracy. We write in support of Chris Packham and Dale Vince’s request for an urgent meeting with you, to be recorded so it is transparent to the public, to discuss the jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.

Sincerely, and with love for all humanity,

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-prison-for-protest?source=direct_link&


Hot air from Boris and Trump this week

Oh and a serious increase in sea temperatures stunning and frightening scientist across the globe.

Record temperature combined with an anticipated El Niño could devastate marine life and increase the chances of extreme weather.

Entire north Atlantic has never been as warm and Global sea temperatures are spiking to levels that has scientists stunned and frightened Air temperatures too are at record highs and record low Antarctic ice.

The global ocean hit a new record temperature of 21.1 ºC in early April, 0.1 ºC higher than the last record in March 2016. Although striking, the figure (see ‘How the ocean is warming’) is in line with the ocean warming anticipated from climate change. What is remarkable is its occurrence ahead of — rather than during — the El Niño climate event that is expected to bring warmer, wetter weather to the eastern Pacific region later this year.

That means warmer-than-average ocean temperatures are likely to persist or even intensify, bringing with them more-extreme weather and marine heatwaves, which spell problems for marine life from corals to whales.

“We are probably looking at a string of record highs over the next year or so,” says Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “This coming year is gonna be a wild ride if the El Niño really takes off.”

How the ocean is warming: Line chart showing global ocean surface temperature from 1982 to April 2023.

While these world is being irreparably scarred by the actions of man and life on earth changing events are happening right before our eyes in Britain were all being so wonderfully polite about it with the main topic on the weather being how good it’s got and how gloriously warm it is.

Humans in positions of power still continue to argue the toss over things that just in the real big picture way just don’t matter or won’t matter on a dead burning planet. In the UK we have an enquiry on how the government did during covid due to come out tomorrow and the former leader of the conservative party has already resigned from parliament saying the enquiry is flawed because I assume they think he was either accidently or deliberately incompetent and/or negligent.

So while Boris ditches a spine from his back and gets out while the going gets tough, in the USA the former president Donald Trump is being prosecuted for taking confidential and top secret documents out of the white house and claiming he could do what he liked while president so he did nothing wrong which is absolute rubbish and will be shown as such in any court of law worth its salt.

The only slight silver lining to these incompetent former leaders of the free world, is that both these men are not in power anymore. But alas they both aspire to come back into power, and people would again be duped into voting for them, they are full of pomp and promises, just completely lack competence and an ability to deliver. Its not as if they have not done enough damage already to their own countries and planet already!!!

First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining

Stranger than fiction and more horrifying than Halloween

The world has gone mad, stark ravingly bonkingly looney tunerlingerly mad and we are so used to knowing this, that it no longer upsets, disturbs or surprises us. Well it’s all kind of very normal now.

We vote for politicians that we hate and distrust or even better don’t vote at all, for policies we don’t believe in and support in order to manage the disintegration, destruction and dismantling of the world.

If your an atheist you can blame those dam religious nuts for trying to force their somewhat medieval views, opinions and prayers onto the rest of us.

If you are religious you can blame those degenerate freedom thinking folk or go straight for the jugular and claim that those that don’t believe what you believe that are evil and going straight to hell.

If you have no view or interest on what is going on concerning the future of the planet or even just the next election for who you can vote for or how or even what the earth will look like in a year or decade from now then fair bleeding play for reading this far into the blog post but also a little shame on you for simply not caring.

Madness in reality is now the new norm, with the leader of the UN saying we are on the highway to hell due to the climate catastrophe unfolding right before our very eyes and we either a) agree and say hey ho what do you know or (b) choose blindly ignore what is happening or (c) to know what is being stated but claim without evidence or factual information at your side that it is fake news and a mainstream conspiracy.

Scientist and news outlets have warned and reported on the destruction and potential destruction of the earth since I was a child and the news and scientific reports are continuing to be accurate and get worse and yet as a people we seem powerless to act and are just spectators on the side-line of a man made apocalypse.

You could not invent or make up a lie that is crueller than the truth.

No story told, book written or film seen is as down beat and nerve wreckingly potentially depressing and madness inducing as our very own potential unfolding right before our eyes future the destructive nature of man and his/her capacity to be born into such a wonderful environment and then with out even realising, caring or being able to stop him or herself witness its very destruction.  

If we can get over worrying about how many pennies or cents that are promised in a pay check, instead of worrying more about what those pennies or cents can be used for that are taken out of a pay check for the benefit of you and others then we might just stand a chance of surviving this sorry mess we built up for ourselves in 2022.

But alas not even the basic sums of human decency and respect seem to add up in the general consciousness these days and perhaps they never did. Dictators invade or plan there next invasion or bomb drop on the free. The democratic nations of the world continue only able to vote for their own pennies or cents in their own wallets and with an eye also to keeping economic migrants foreigners from your shores.

The war on climate change – just your typical father and son small talk!

I went out for a meal with my father last week, a sort of pre-birthday pub meal for him and as so often happens we got talking about the world, democracy and climate change, you know just your typical type of small talk you might say!

The way that it came up in the conversation it really is very much like the areas of conversation were all connected. My father is an educated man, more intelligent than me by far, has a better grasp of the English language, loves to read books and also listens a lot to BBC radio 4 which is our UK radio station for informing people and educating people.

So he is well armed to have a discussion about almost any subject matter and express his views on it eloquently and to the point.

Whereas for me on the other hand I am a news junkie mostly about what is going on in the local area as well as globally the good and bad. From watching the news on the TV, reading articles on the web and also keeping an eye on social media and blogs. I am also dyslexic and struggle to read books and struggle to remember what I have read  so I don’t tend to gain information from long articles or books, my memory has evolved in a different way, where I have an emotional memory that  remembers things in relation to my emotional connection to them or from a pictorial or visual stimulus too rather than from remembering words from a page I would rather look at pictures that as they say is worth a thousand words.

There are many things that me and my Dad agree on but also it seems the longer you talk to anyone about any subject the more you find to disagree about rather than agree. We are both fearful for the future of the planet and humanity, we both in our own way try to do our own bit whether that is simply recycling consuming ethically, donating to charities and also advocating change for others when appropriate. But when it comes to our world views he is very much a pessimist and thinks we are all doomed and hopes he is wrong where as I am very much more of an optimist and hope we are not all doomed and hope I am not proven wrong.

With the recent heat waves, fires and lack of rain that have struck Europe over the last few weeks it always makes me think that although we might have it bad here its far worse in the area of the globe that have had famine, food shortages and lack of water for decades such places in Africa that are far hotter it than us for far longer too make me feel like there can never be time for a poor me attitude for how bad I might think I have ever had it in relation to how bad others have and will have it in the future.  

We had a brief respite from the heat today when a storm came over Exeter, it was only a little one but the air and coolness in that storm and rain was sweet.

Storm clouds over Exeter today

Ocean Colour Scene – The Riverboat Song

A Climate of fear & changing times for us all

Who would have thought just a few weeks ago that after having nearly tamed corona virus and with countries starting to try to implement a road map to mitigate climate catastrophe World War 3 was on the horizon and not just that but that we are only minutes away from a potential nuclear catastrophe like we had not been threatened with for over 50 years.   

Growing up when reading about potential problems for the future one threat that was talked about was the concept of climate change wars. This being a situation where nations and people would be increasingly fighting for ever decreasing resourses and when I look to Putin and how his actions in the Ukraine are unfolding that is exactly what this is a violent and deadly grab for resources on his own boarder in the name of reunification of Ukraine to Russia. People are calling him mad which he might well be. But he is also cold and calculated and has so much to lose if his war goes wrong for him that I fear what is still yet to come for Ukraine and the those next in Putins sights.

He will surely see the West’s sanctions and his now global status diminished to that of leader of a pariah state as an act of war and further evidence in his own mind that the west has always hated Russia and it does not matter what he does he just can’t win . His political judgements are increasingly looking like the actions of a gambler on a heavy losing streak risking it all and yet having still not hit rock bottom. There are very little factors in place to stop him from creating more devastation for Ukraine and the planet and continue to role his dice and inflict his decisions on others again and again and again.  

A leading academic called Harald Welzer , author of Climate Wars: Why People Will Be Killed in the 21st Century, stated back in November 2017 that “My belief is that we will see a renaissance of violent conflict in the 21st century, and that many of these conflicts will spring from climate change.”

A professor at the University of Flensburg in Germany, Welzer studies the cultural and political implications of climate change. His book, first published in 2012.

Twentieth-century wars were fought over land, religion, and economics. But Welzer argues that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over something quite different: climate change, and the shortages of water and food that will come from it.

“Ideology will always be a surface-level justification for conflict, But if you look deeply at the source of future conflicts, I think you’ll see a basic resource conflict at the bottom of it all.”

So with that in mind I don’t see Putin as just mad but I do see him as an incredibly dangerous individual with a large arsenal at his disposal and a lot to lose and nearly nothing left to gain. This is all very dark stuff that has been rattling around in my head for the last week. There are very few positive outcomes from this scenario should it have a hint of truth within it at all.

One of the biggest game changers for this conflict that has yet to state how it will act under the circumstances is that of China. China could embolden Russia to continue along a potentially catastrophic path or could be the peacemaker. Though Russia is on the brink of having lost global power and influence due to its invasion of Ukraine, China on the other hand is a powerful nation with more to gain from a thriving and more stable and peaceful world than it has to gain from one at nuclear war with itself. Putin might get to a point where he feels that he has nothing to lose by escalating a war to a nuclear crisis put China and President Xi Jinping will not be in such a hurry or have the belief and conviction concerning the necessity to set the world on fire.

China though having tried and failed to set out a coherent diplomatic position in the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is now attempting to position itself as a potential peacemaker to end the war.

That position has not entailed acknowledging that Russia has invaded Ukraine, let alone condemning it. But as China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in a call on 1 March, Beijing stood ready to support negotiations to reach a political settlement. According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Kuleba said he was willing to move forward with talks and “looked forward to China’s mediation efforts for the ceasefire”. 

This horific real life story is in no way over and continues to unfold before our very eyes.

Expert on green living I am not!

But the futre of the planet is still in our hands

I have just had the good fortune or should that be misfortune of trying to calculate my carbon footprint online! After completing my fifth or so survey this evening I am none the wiser as to whether the results are good or bad. I’ve done one by the World Wildlife Fund, United Nations and one called CoolClimate Calculator to name but a few. There are things I know I do that are good like getting my electricity on what is called an “Octopus super green tariff” which uses green energy measures for my electricity and carbon offsets my gas usage. Also not owning a car or a pet even and using public transport, but there are things I do that don’t help such as eating meat, purchasing goods (or should that be bads) from Amazon and flying to Dublin last year. So on the eco tour of my life choice journey it’s kind of a swings and roundabouts ride or snakes and ladders game you might say but hopefully and mostly going in the rightly sourced direction!

I do think that it’s important to try to be ethical and think about the environment consequences of what we do, thoughtful with what we consume both purchases for our homes, body and charitable donations to others too!

But it’s not that easy to work out what you need, want or don’t need or don’t want. Or know how to buy something ethically or unethically. I can shop locally for food my favourite baker on the Quayside near me is selling great fresh bread and locally sourced milk, but when I go in there one of my main problem is also not buying there delicious cakes, ummm cakes!!

Here is one someone made earlier

One of my biggest purchases last year (in size and cost) was no not a cake! But to invest in a new bed my last one was knackered with rusty springs, rusty springs I tell you. Well in need of replacement even before the pandemic started but the bed firms stopped doing disposal and recycling of old beds during the covid-19 lockdowns so it was very difficult trying to sort out getting a new bed while sorting out the departure of the old one. But how do I know what is an ethically sourced bed or not.

Out with the old and sleeping on the new

I bought the bed from a local store of a national chain of stores that had a shop in Exeter, because I do like to support stores with a local base when I can and when I know what I am purchasing, but I have no idea if it was an environmentally friendly or unfriendly purchase.

I think we just need to be mindful of what we are doing and purchasing and why at all times as the little consumers that we are, I have just remembered a phrase my Grandpa used to say about having or buying something which was ‘it’s only a bargain if you actually need it’.

So maybe I can’t be the most ethically sourced consumer on the planet but what I can do is not be frivolous with the time, money and resources that I do have at my disposal.

Villagers – Set the Tigers Free

Environmental catastrophe or slow car crash syndrome!

I don’t know if you have ever been in a car accident or crash but for a very brief moment in time all your senses are heightened and it feels like everything that is happening in slow motion even though time ticks along at its same old pace. Your eyes are wide open and if like I was, your in the passenger seat then all you can do is sit and watch the driver hopefully move the vehicle to somewhere safe (if your lucky).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on the current state of knowledge about climate change. Today they issued a IPCC report is ‘code red for humanity’

Though many will still scoff at the idea of climate change and claim it’s still a matter of what ever they can try and stretch our little brains into believing it is, so long as it is anything other than actual climate change and does not interfere with their capitalist freedoms to make money at the expense of others, such naysayers will always exist on a spectrum of opinions and ideas about ever changing situations on big issues. There are many that still don’t believe that Covid-19 exists but at least they never stopped the development of vaccines and medical advancements for the rest of us.

We could seriously be looking at the car crash of a situation that could very much destroy this planet and all life on it if we are not careful, the idea of the destruction of wildlife, climate change and irreversible decline in climate are ideas that have been around the block since when I was a child and yet still we get headlines like those of today like this warning that this was some how not foreseen, certainly not acted upon as quickly as it could have been and were still in the eye of the storm or the screeching of the breaks of the car crash of a situation.

Just as with Covid-19 I feel that humanity has within it the capacity to do what is right, when it is asked to and by those that need to. But time really will wait for no man, women or environment to see if we learn our own collective climate changing lessons.  

Rory Ellis – Road of no return

Consumption Activism!

Bolsanaro presidency a threat to the Amazon?

The responsibility concerning the collapse of the world’s ecosystems, the destruction of its environment and an inaction on these destructive policies , falls at our doors today, into our bank accounts when we get paid and out of our wallets when we buy something.

Bolsonaro’s cultural genocide of native people and Ecocide of Amazon Rainforest is truly terrifying. If you buy products that are generated as a result of a chopped down and mining rainforest then potentially you are indirectly part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Consumption of mined goods, wood paper, oil, fish and meat is often what results in some of the most vulnerable habitat of our planet being desecrated.

Climate Crisis: Farming on the Frontline

The cold hard truth is as capitalist consumers and you can afford to buy fair-trade products, sustainably sourced and or locally sourced produce there is no reason not to. If we shift the emphasis as consumers to sustainable, organic, fair-trade, locally sourced produce we force Presidents such as Bolsonaro to look at their own means of making profit and getting votes.

This can start the very next time you go to the shop and buy a food item or product, if you are serious about doing something then start by doing what is in effect your contribution to saving the biodiversity of this world.

The view that it is somebody else’s responsibility is not really valid; we all have our part to play.

Song – Afro Celt Sound System – Dark Moon, High Tide