Energy, Eden Project, Ecosmart Village, Ecocities, Ethical Shopping, Extinct Tuna?

News today about the increasing price of energy again. According to Ofgem reports, many more customers switched energy provider last month than is usual, some 900,000. This tactic does seem to help customers save money, however, it makes a small difference compared with the ever rising prices western energy suppliers are charging. Hopefully this increased economic difficulty will encourage awareness about the energy crisis and force people to look at better means of generating and supplying energy, so that we can be less dependent on unpredictable, and damaging, provisions. The BBC covered the story here.

Another energy topic that came up recently was sequestration. Japan announced last week plans to implement a scheme which would see a sixth of its CO2 produciton stored underground. The technology to facilitate this has long existed, but remains expensive and has never been used on such an enormous scale. It is not yet clear exactly how successful such methods are, and some have raised concerns that the liquid could leak into Earth, but geologists report no incidence of this thus far. Whilst the ideal would obviously be to expend less Carbon Dioxide in the first place (Japan currently emits 1.3 billion tonnes a year!), the plans are a step in the right direction and are being described as highly ambitious. Here's the Guardian's report on it.

Here's news that the aviation industry is fighting back already about the EU's provisional scheme to reduce air travel and make it cleaner. It is hardly a shock that they won't support the plans and they claim that their impact represents only a tiny proportion of global warming causes. This is hardly true, and certainly changing: the combination of other industries being forced to become more fuel efficient and reduce emissions and the fact that air travel is a massively growing industry as more and more people take more and more flights suggests that air travel will cause a higher proportion of our greenhouse gases than is currently the case. Lufthansa seems to be leading the lobby on MEPs before the crucial vote, but hopefully to no avbail.

This is about the Eden Porject and it's commitment to sustainability and recycling. Its founder is calling for an increase in the targets and challenges that we are setting ourselves. He is undertaking work with organisations and schools to educate and to make the tasks that lie ahead more fun and less depressingly onerous. He says that our environmental education is lacking behind that in many countries and has many suggestions to make on that score. To learn more about the Eden Project, go to their website here.

This is news that Barratt Homes have recently built a 'green village'. The company, whom I generally hate, and who currently build around 15,000 new homes a year in UK have recently built the EcoSmart Show Village, including a range of homes of different sizes. Unlike most eco-houses until now, these homes appear very conventional and fit in easily with the others on the estate. Barratt see that more and more buyers are demanding encironmentally friendly houses, and are pre-empting the future demand, which can only be good. In my opinion it is far too little far too late, but even if their reasons are entirely cynical and economical, that's fine. Let's hope it encourages others to follow suit. They include both simple, energy-saving technologies, and state of the art new experiments. Thus far, these homes are not for sale, but will instead be studied both by academics from Manchester University and the estate will be open to the public. Let's hope it is met with approval.

I wanted to reference this story, which follows on from yesterday's post about environmentalism in schools and making them green places. I particularly liked this story, though, as it's about a school in Cassop, not that far from where I live, where I know several people. It's an impressive effort. This Guardian story is also about teaching green issues. This report too considers building green schools for the future and whether they will implement systems that will be effective in the long term.

This isn't new, but I came across this amazing satellite picture recently showing the Gulf Stream, which is slowing down, so I'll put the link up for it. There's a link from this page to a great special report in the Guardain too.



Here's a link to a story about lobsters. It's from the Independent, so it probably won't last long, but it discusses whether or not they feel pain on being plunged into boiling water. One chain of shops, the leading organic chain store and owner of another chain, definitely thinks so and has banned their sale in all its shops. Matt Prescott, spokesperson for Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - I'll add the link right) has been working with the company and welcomes this decision. He says that the creatures unequivocally can feel pain: 'Scientists say that there is no dispute that [lobsters] have brains and nerve endings and feel pain like other animals. [They should not be] stewing in their own excrement before being boiled alive'. There is not absolute agreement on this point (and clearly both sides have an agenda), however, what is clear that is lobsters are not keen to be boiled, and try desperately to claw their way out of cooking pots and the general consensus is that they can (See Advocate for Animals Report collating all the existing studies and data here: Cephalopods and Decapod Crustaceans: Their Capacity to Experience Pain and Suffering). The industry is still enormous in the States, but this is not the first case of a business choosing to stop selling live lobster, so it will be interesting to see how other companies respond, both in the States and elsewhere.

Today's independent has a related article on tuna. The WWF among others have been warning that it is being farmed to extinction. The growth in popularity of sushi bars is held partially accountable for this, and they have certainly increased the demand for the fish. The real problem, however, is the irresponsible way in which tuna is being fished, with complete disregard for laws and international quotas, as well as disrespect for restricted breeding areas. Here's the article I originally found in the Independent, and here's the WWF's own coverage of the matter.

I also wanted to flag up this article. It's a follow-up to something I posted on a little while back about eco-cities. It is about inspiration for other countries coming from China, more specifically Dongtan, which aims to be zero-carbon. Ken Livingston is keen to follow the pattern on a much smaller scale in London. Who would have thought that the UK would rely on China for inspiration on sustainable living in the 21st Century?

Here's good news that more and more consumers are choosing to buy ethically produced and traded products, and therefore encouraging companies to produce such items. According to Easier Financial News Online 'Over 82 per cent of UK consumers would choose to buy an eco-friendly product in favour of a non-eco friendly product in order to do their bit for the environment and the fight against global warming, according to research Co-operative Insurance (CIS).' When faced with easy questions like that, it's to be expected that shoppers will vote for the ethical product, but people need to put pressure upon compnies to encorage them to focus on producing such goods.

Here's the unsurprising news that Fairtrade is continuing to do well. The UK is a leading market here and the business has continued to grow. Larger companies such as Marks and Spencer have too made the switch this year, and now sell only fairly traded coffee. This is indeed welcome news. Although some have been critical of business's cynical reasons for switching, most agree that the motives behind such moves are unimportant, it is the effects that count. I only hope that we continue to broaden the variety of fairly traded products available. We have long been able to buy coffee and chocolate, but surely the aim for the future has to be that we can buy every item, safe in the knowledge that it has been fairly traded.