Category: Counting On …

Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on

Counting on … 1.088

1st April 2023

On Thursday the Guardian recorded a quote from Grant Shapps, the energy and net zero secretary, who was justifying the continued production of oil and gas in the North Sea:“Unless you can explain how we can transition [to net zero] without oil and gas, we need oil and gas,” he said . “I am very keen that we fill those cavities with storing carbon. I think there are huge opportunities for us to do that.”

It seems to me that the problem is that the oil companies and the government are going out of their way not to look for ways of transitioning away from fossil fuels. 

For example what about a report from the World Resource Institute, 4 Ways to Shift from Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy? https://www.wri.org/insights/4-ways-shift-fossil-fuels-clean-energy

Or this report,  How to accelerate the green energy transition, from the Chatham House think tank: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/03/how-accelerate-green-energy-transition

Listen to https://www.wri.org/podcasts/how-phase-out-fossil-fuels-without-leaving-people-behind

Counting on …day 1.087

31st March 2023

“Normalising activism, or even conversations about climate change, is something Salamon* sees as a key psychological challenge. “It’s important to understand the forces of normalcy and social conformity. There’s a social psychology experiment where a room is filling with smoke. If all the other people in the room are just sitting there as if nothing was happening, the study subject will also not act. But if one person raises the alarm, it totally changes the dynamic. Yale calls it the ‘Spiral of Silence’ – people don’t talk about climate because other people don’t talk about it. The good news is that we can flip this, and normalise being alarmed about the climate emergency.” 

“What we’re talking about is getting the public to realise that we are not safe, our families are not safe, everything we love is not safe. The emergency is so advanced that we don’t have time for gradualist approaches. While small changes are better than nothing, I would rather see activists waking up the public and calling for solutions that could actually work”” https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/12/meet-the-psychologist-who-matchmakes-philanthropists-with-cash-strapped-activists?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=EN_TESTMay&utm_content=meet-the-psychologist-who-matchmakes-philanthropists-with-cash-strapped-activists&_ope=eyJndWlkIjoiMTJjMTk2MDNmOWI2YTEwZmZmMTQ0ODYyMWQ3NDJhNDcifQ==

  • Margaret Klein Salamon is a climate psychologist based in New York.

Counting on …day 1.086

30th March 2023

According to the Office of National Statistics, electricity prices in the UK had increased by 67 per cent in January 2023 compared to January 2022.

Solar power installations doubled in 2022 compared to 2021, according to MCS, the standards organisation in charge of solar installations.

In January alone, nearly 15,000 domestic solar power installations were added to the British grid, more than any other month since 2016. https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/11/energy-crisis-solar-panel-sales-double-in-the-uk-as-homeowners-look-to-cut-soaring-bills

Counting on …day 1.085

29th March 2023

“We built a small data centre in Exmouth leisure centre. Most normal data centres waste the heat that the computers generate. We capture ours and we give it for free to the swimming pool to heat the pool,” Bjornsgaard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The technique works for the data centre and the pool – the heat from the computers warms the water and the transfer of heat into the pool cools the computers.

“It’s great for them – they get to reduce the cost of heating the pool and reduce the amount of carbon they use, and good for us because we can offer cheaper computer services because we don’t have the cooling costs,” Bjornsgaard said. “We built a small data centre in Exmouth leisure centre. Most normal data centres waste the heat that the computers generate. We capture ours and we give it for free to the swimming pool to heat the pool,” Bjornsgaard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The technique works for the data centre and the pool – the heat from the computers warms the water and the transfer of heat into the pool cools the computers.

“It’s great for them – they get to reduce the cost of heating the pool and reduce the amount of carbon they use, and good for us because we can offer cheaper computer services because we don’t have the cooling costs,” Bjornsgaard said. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/14/innovative-heat-tech-save-england-swimming-pools-from-closure?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A better world is possible!

Counting on … day 1.084

28th March 2023

The Ethical Consumer magazine notes that ‘Cutting down on meat and dairy is one of the biggest ways you can reduce your personal carbon footprint. It can also help you avoid issues associated with factory farming, like the routine mutilation of animals or the cramped conditions they’re very often kept in.

If you have time, the cheapest and healthiest way of reducing meat and dairy is to cook from scratch using ingredients like beans, tofu and lentils, rather than relying on processed vegan foods. Processed foods also have a higher carbon footprint than cooking a meal from scratch.’

Eco Tips

Counting on … day 1.083

27th March 2023

Transform Trade is calling in the Government to set up a fashion watch dog that would stamp out poor practices in the fashion industry that are both unfair to the workers and damaging to the environment. Transform Trade’ campaign has invited supporters to make a little dog (wearing a fashionable item) and send it with a letter to their MP – https://www.transform-trade.org/1000-dogs

Counting on … day 1.081

24th March 2023

The climate crisis and its effects on people and nations needs a redistribution of resources to ensure justice as well as being an expression of loving our neighbour. We often rely on governments as the largest holders of wealth to address this but the response can be patchy.

“Last month, Nick Hepworth, executive director of Water Witness International, criticised the British government for slashing its contribution to the £90m Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters programme, known as BRACC in Malawi, as part of the UK’s 2021 cut to the aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP.” Guardian 

“In April, the UN had received only 3% of funds for its $6bn appeal for Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said the current crisis was partly due to the British government’s “compassion failure” and decision to slash the overseas aid budget by £4.6bn last year (2022) According to the [last year’s] IPC assessment for Somalia, an estimated 1.5 million under-fives face acute malnutrition by the end of the year, including 386,400 who are likely to be severely malnourished. Those numbers are only expected to go up.” Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jun/22/somalia-the-worst-humanitarian-crisis-weve-ever-seen?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 1.081

24th March 2023

“Hidden underground in rural Sussex is the world’s largest collection of seeds from wild plants. The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) is home to over 2.4 billion seeds, representing over 39,000 different species of the world’s storable seeds.  This is the most diverse wild plant species genetic resource on Earth – a global insurance policy to store and conserve seeds from common, rare or endangered useful plants.  Seeds are largely collected by global partners as part of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, as well as during field work led by Kew scientists”. https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/research-facilities/millennium-seed-bank

Counting on … day 1.080

23rd March 2023

On Wednesdays I join the Earth Vigil sat outside the House of Parliament,  praying for the well being of the world in this time of crises. As Wednesday features Prime Minister’s Questions and thus the arrival of the Prime Minister in his cavalcade, at Carriage Gate, many groups congregate to highlight their concerns. 

Yesterday we shared our space with a new group,  Mothers Manifesto, which is raising awareness of child hunger. The mothers themselves what’d begun on Mothering Sunday, a 6 day hunger strike. The day before, protesting outside Downing Street thy had met with Caroline Lucas. 

For more info – https://www.mothermanifesto.com/home