Dave, my brother is better than me!  He works for the Environment Agency, assessing flood risk - he has just bought a house and already gets his electricity from green power - his girlfriend who also works for the environment agency has been researching getting solar power for their house and even a mini wind farm!  They buy as much organic food and drink as possible and ride their bikes alot more than I do (witnessed by my lack of pump and inability to pump up the tires on my bike today!).  He also introduced me to Howies - my only revenge has been to buy the same t-shirt as him. 

 

Maybe I can trade emissions with him?!

 

Some Conservative (could have been Labour or the Lib Dems, they are all the same) was moaining about carbon neutral today on Radio 5, he said technology was the answer and that we shouldn't worry about how much energy we consume!  Stupid man - for that to work we actually have to invest in it and to do that at least initially before it is too late you need to introduce some legislation to promote it e.g change planning laws to force builders to include water butts in all houses as standard to capture drain water, to generate at least 50% of the new homes power via a local sustanable energy source e.g. wind and to heat water via solar panels on all houses!  Technology is there just needs implementing!  In a country with dwindling engineering, promoting a new high tech sector can only be a good thing!

 

The watering down of home seller packs and maybe the loss of energy ratings for homes can only be a bad thing!

 

(That was my final post for tonight!  I promise!) - I really do think that the randomness of tonights posts are a record for me for random rants!

In an attempt to see how much standby power I use I decided to monitor how much energy I (well me and secret partner whose doesn't want her name revealing, no she is not The Stig) used in a week.  I actually went round the house and counted what we have that is on standby!

 

Sky, Television, Video recorder, Xbox, 2 Stereos, and a DVD player... which I didn't think was too bad!?  The television is of some debate as it doesn't actually have a little red light to say 'hello, I am on standby!' but doesn't have a chunky on/off switch associated with turning the power tap off completely! 

 

Ok, so my meter readings for the house are 221.54 for water, 1318 for GAS, and importantly 58183 for Electricity.  Next Sunday i will take another set of readings and then that following week I will ensure we leave nothing on standby and then see what the difference is!  There are a few variables here to play with, such as temperature outside, change in activities from week to week etc... that might affect thing but I still want to see how much difference there is!

 

Let the games begin...I am coming to the conclusion this is my alta ego and some sort of kama for the rest of my life spent killing this planet in the most extreme ways possible!  Next week i am Go-Karting!

Just how do you balance your carb emissions when your favourite programme is Top Gear!  Whether paying for the pleasure of watching them destroy caravans (fire + caravan = lots of co2) or listening to Jeremy Clarkson (=hot air), it can't be a very carbon balancing thing to do!  But great fun to watch!

 

In other news, my attempts to buy a wormery without going via the internet are failing - you would think a garden center or two in the area would sell one but nope!  Looks like the internet, followed by a delivery while I am at work, followed by a trip in my car to pickup the wormery from the nearest delivery center (usually about 20miles away!).  This will all equal some more carbon neutralling to be done - although I will be able to finally cross one of the things off my carbon list (see earlier entry)!  Delivery companies really need to wake up and deliver during the evening or night when there is less traffic and people might actually be in!

 

I also got lost on route to IKEA in Milton Keynes!  More carbon failings and floggings from God if I make it that high!

 

The only good thing to happen this weekend, was to hear that my bank, the HSBC (of all banks) is trying to become carbon neutral!  Yes, really! 

 

Howies, my fav shop for getting t-shirts from (they are organic!  Apparently 25000 people a year die while producing our pesticide ridden clothes!) are moving into the high street!  Boo!  All for more organic clothes but not at the expense of some random other person wearing the same top!

I have been attacked by some of my friends for working for an airline company and as a result my contribution towards Global Warming.  I did an environmental degree and so have a fair few vocal friends and until now I have never known easyJets official stance.  I have always leant towards working at a local scale towards tackling climate change and can't see the point of big govt taxing industry and then doing nothing with the money to improve the environment - In Europe this just gets sucked into a huge beauractric hole!  Rubbish!

It was interesting to see easyJets response which to be honest I completely agree with.  At the moment we enjoy the luxury of low cost travel and with no alternative in terms of fuel I think it is only fair for companies such as eJ to offset their emissions against reductions in other industries where technology is present to reduce emissions. 

 

Anyway the article below, taken from Finance News (http://www.lse.co.uk/FinanceNews.asp?shareprice=&ArticleRef=13174&ArticleHeadline=EasyJet_slams_EU_plan_to_encourage_airlines_to_improve_environmental_performance) details more:-

 

"EasyJet slams EU plan to encourage airlines to improve environmental performance

LONDON (AFX) - EasyJet PLC criticised the European Parliament for voting yesterday to ask the European Commission to introduce punitive measures in a bid to encourage better environmental performance by airlines.

Yesterday, the parliament urged the commission to requiring a kerosene tax on all domestic and intra-EU flights and to propose arrangements for their worldwide introduction. It also said the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has the potential to play a part in addressing the climate impact of aviation, 'provided it is appropriately designed'.

Today, EasyJet said the measures would focus on a punitive design of the ETS, and said more taxes would simply create revenue for the government but would do nothing to help the environment.

'Low-fares airlines such as easyJet are designed for efficiency and as such they are part of the solution, not part of the problem,' it said. 'EasyJet and other young airlines have invested billions of pounds in the latest technology.'

It added: 'We only operate point-to-point services instead of connecting flights, which considerably lowers the number of take-offs and landings. Moreover, we use less congested airports and fly with the highest seat density and the highest load factors.'

EasyJet CEO Andy Harrison said: 'Aviation is responsible for a mere 3 pct of EU CO2 emissions, but accounts for 8 pct of EU GDP. Our sector brings higher economic value per tonne CO2 emitted than any other industry.'

The airline said it proposes a three-point strategy on the environment, the first of them being that aviation should be included in the existing EU ETS.

Secondly, it said: 'It is estimated that 12 pct of kerosene (and CO2 emissions) could be saved by optimising air traffic control in Europe.'

It added: 'It is high time that the 19th century-style air traffic management in Europe is fundamentally reformed.
Airlines are faced with over 30 local air traffic control providers, a patchwork of dog-legs that renders it impossible to fly the most direct paths between two airports.'

Thirdly, EasyJet said the EU should 'stop turning a blind eye' to direct and indirect subsidies for national airlines, which it said prevent sector consolidation and allow flag carriers to operate uneconomical routes with old, polluting, half-empty aircraft."