April 2009 Archives

I hope that readers have been informed and inspired, as I have been, by the entries on this blog by those who shared their experiences with you during the last seven weeks.

I may share some of my experiences during my holiday in a later blog, but today I would like to focus on the recent financial incentives for car owners, supposedly to reduce carbon emissions.

Modern, fuel efficient cars and electric cars produce less CO₂ whilst they are being driven than older cars. The Government tells us that incentives - of £2,000 for scrapping your old car and of £5,000 for buying an electric car - will benefit all taxpayers through reducing CO₂ emissions.

Is there reliable evidence to support this assumption?

Politicians, and influential people in the motor industry, assure us that this is an effective use of our taxes - but it is not clear how many tonnes of CO₂ will be saved by these generous subsidies.

Some of us may question these assurances as they come from people with a conflict of interest. Should we give them the benefit of the doubt, as an increase in sales in cars will benefit our economy in addition to the environmental benefits? This might be a valid argument if the new car had to be manufactured in our country, but this condition would be contrary to EU law.

It would be legal for there to be a condition that the new car must be more efficient than your scrapped car, but this is not the case: "...£2000 from the government could help you trade in your old Citroen C1 for a new Porsche Cayenne". This quote is from an article by George Monbiot who also notes: "Because between 15 and 20% of a car's emissions are produced during its manufacture, the optimal age for a car... is 19 years... it would make more sense for the government to pay us to keep our old bangers on the road."

A switch to an electric car, if your current car is 19 years old, will not reduce your CO₂ emissions until the National Grid produces significant amounts of electricity from renewable sources. At present the emissions of around 160 grams of CO₂ for a plug in, hybrid car are roughly the same as its petrol-powered equivalent.

So are there more cost effective ways of reducing CO₂ emissions from cars?

A report by the UK Energy Research Centre recommends "...incentivising overall changes in the way people travel by encouraging walking and cycling, for example, and also discouraging the use of cars through taxation or other levies"

Common sense really: to reduce CO₂ emissions from cars we need to change our behaviour: make shorter journeys and use alternative ways of travelling.

Have a good weekend where you live. Walk or cycle for shorter distances (check last week's blog) and chose destinations for longer journeys where you can travel by bus or train or car share. You won't get a handout but you will be making a real difference to CO₂ emissions.

It's an inauspicious start
On the way to King's Norton Station
A passing driver hurls abuse at me for daring to share his road
But my spirits quickly lift as I pedal up Primrose Hill
And the traffic disperses and the narrow confines of the city give way
Bright sunshine, birdsong and open space are my new companions
I am armed with Philip's 'Cycle Tours around Birmingham'
Which has mapped out an enticing 55-mile circular route
South from the city's southern suburbs to the Vale of Evesham
Picking up momentum and ignoring the beckoning beer garden of The Peacock
My bicycle and I plunge down the head of a serene valley
Then navigate the quiet country lanes around Hopwood and Alvechurch at a more sedate pace
We spot yellowhammers and greenfinches
The miles notch up swiftly helped by the ingenious route
Designed to always take the bike down the steeper hills
Weaving in and out of the railway embankment near Bromsgrove Station
I reach the longest flight of canal locks in the country at Tardebigge
As I walk the bike along the towpath
The little lambs in the opposite field are bleating for England
The owner of a canal boat basks contentedly in the sun as her wood stove burns
The canalside Queen's Head at Stoke Pound is just too inviting
And I stop for a refreshing pint of ale courtesy of the Malvern Hills Brewery
Which lies just twenty miles south-west of here
After my exertions in the beer garden the shadows are beginning to lengthen
And I decide to head for home
At the summit of Cobley Hill swallows skim joyfully
The steep climb offers a rewarding panorama
To the south: Broadway and the hazy Cotswolds
To the south west: the misty Malverns
To the west: the brooding Clee Hills
As I fly down the Roman Road of Icknield Street with weariness in my bones
The orange disc of the sun finally slips below the horizon
I startle a fox and pursue a bemused bat
I will sleep well tonight

Dave Watton is Joint Project Coordinator at Northfield Ecocentre in South West Birmingham. The centre works with the community to find practical ways to live better and protect the environment.

Heading up to Northfield, I leave the house armed with my nan's old pick-up stick and a roomy 20-litre carrier bag. I get no further than the neighbour's lawn before I spot my first catch - a lonely crisp packet fluttering sadly in the breeze. Bending forward, I snatch it up with my orthopedic hand and drop it into the waiting sack. A few yards on, a squashed lager can nestles in the gutter. Levering it up with the magic claw, I toss it with relish into my net like a shiny silver fish. It is soon joined by a plastic water bottle, a couple of fizzy drink cans and several sweet wrappers. As I progress steadily along the backroads of B29, my handy hook retrieves a varied assortment of discarded flotsam and jetsam. Fast food packaging, pizza boxes, beer cans, alcopop bottles, chip paper, chewing-gum wrappers, yesterday's newsprint. Translated into useful resources, that's oil, aluminium, glass and wood pulp. There are hot spots where I have to be selective: the anonymous grass verge at the end of the street, a windswept bus shelter, a neglected-looking patch of waste ground. I register a few turned heads and amused or bemused looks from passing cars: 'What's that bloke up to?' Half-way up the hill, I encounter my first public litter bin and it strikes me how far I've had to walk to find one. I quickly empty out the non-recyclable items and carry on, saving the bottles, plastic and cans for my green box when I get home. Back in port, I tip out the results of my trawl. It's not terribly pretty. But far from feeling disillusioned, I have a tangible sense of achievement. How I enjoyed cycling back through the mile or so of clean streets I'd left behind me. It reminds me of the so-called 'broken windows syndrome': a little more time spent looking after our own local patches could go a long way.

Dave Watton is Joint Project Coordinator at Northfield Ecocentre in South West Birmingham. The centre works with the community to find practical ways to live better and protect the environment.

I thought I would talk about shopping today. We all like to buy new things occasionally but it does seem we've gone to extremes.

My parents have moved to rural France. When they visit us my Mum is horrified by the amount of time we all spend shopping. "Shopping is a national sport these days" she is often heard to mutter.

In rural France shops close every lunch time for 2 hours, the workers need their lunch too! Shops aren't open at all on Sundays & very often they are closed on Mondays too.

It seems we don't quite know what to do with ourselves when we have time off so we head to the shops. Every year we upgrade our mobile phones. We replace appliances that work perfectly with newer models, & we have more clothes in our wardrobes than we can possibly wear.

I wonder why we do this? It costs us money we don't need to spend. It is a huge drain on the earth's limited resources - it takes around 4,000 litres of water to make one cotton t-shirt. It also uses huge amounts of energy to make these products. The production of 1 kg of cotton clothing can release around 6.5kg carbon.

We have alternatives. I have become a charity shop junkie, almost all my clothes are from charity shops, so are my husband's & my son's. Most of our furniture is too. Not only do we save lots of money but we find amazing, original pieces. We also use freecycle & ebay. All of this means we are reusing other people's unwanted items, reducing carbon emissions & saving things from incineration or landfill.

Mostly though, we try to buy only the things we need. I don't need to upgrade my phone, CD player/ipod or any other gadget for a newer version. People always used to say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I say " if it ain't broke, don't replace it".

Hello, I'm Georgia Stokes & I am joint Coordinator of Northfield Ecocentre.

I've worked for a few charities in my career & one of the phrases people (friends, family or strangers) use most when they know you work for a charity is 'I'm doing my bit'.

Before I started work at the Ecocentre I thought I was 'doing my bit' for the environment. My husband & I have always used public transport & walked alot rather than driving, especially for long journeys. Before our son was born we invested in a set of real nappies to avoid waste & save precious resources. We recycle & have a compost bin. Almost all of our clothes & household furniture come from charity shops. It's been a long time since I went shopping on the high street & I don't think I could pay those prices now. We have always looked at where our food comes from & try to buy organic, fair-trade food where possible.

If I'm honest though I think we always knew there was more we could be doing, the rest just seemed more difficult so we kept putting it off.

Since working at the Ecocentre I have realised we don't need to be doing it on our own. There are many people we can learn from who are willing to share their own experiences that can help us. With their inspiration & help my husband & I are taking bigger & bolder steps.

I now get my organic vegetables delivered weekly to my door. I know I am eating more seasonally, and that no fertilisers - one of the biggest carbon producers in all our lifestyles - have been used. However, my husband & I have decided to go a step further & have just created a magnificent vegetable patch in our garden & we are going to have a go at growing our own. It has been great fun & good exercise getting it ready, and our son has thoroughly enjoyed helping us do it (while getting completely mucky).

We are now planning to get rid of our car & have got ourselves some bikes. We monitor our energy consumption & look for ways to reduce it, this does save us money too which is great. We have learnt so much already.

Through the Ecocentre I have met & been inspired by so many people who are all taking action to reduce their impact on our environment, in their own ways. They are 'doing their bit' already but are constantly seeking new ways to do more. Working together, sharing our knowledge, ideas & experiences we can all do that bit more. This I think has been my biggest lesson so far.

A long time ago, in 1973, I went to Wales with my husband and a baby of a year old. We went with great intentions to become self sufficient and run a small holding that would provide all our needs. We had an outside earth loo, no phone, television or washing machine (we'd have drained our well), no freezer, and dishwashers were unheard of in our world. Our Rayburn was fired with peele mel (a by product of anthricite) and we had a wood burner created from an old bread oven - utilizing old wood from the land.

Idyllic? Much of the time it was. Wonderful in the heat of the summer, miserable in the wet Welsh winter and scarey when we were snowed in by 10 foot snow drifts in 1980! Many young couples around us were doing the same. We gardened, darned, sewed our own clothes, made cheese and jams, swapped what we had in excess and gave each other unneeded childrens clothes. We shopped for our basic needs at the little village shop. We went for inspiration to CAT in Machynlleth, www.cat.org.uk and started mulching nettles and comfrey, to manure the garden, and companion cropping, and my husband, a carpenter, made a geodesic green house. There is great satisfaction in creating something that enables you to provide for yourself. Those lettuces, strawberries, cabbages that you grew yourself and nurtured to life; the goat you love, providing the peaceful opportunity to milk her daily; and the comical ducks providing eggs and plenty of entertainment, all bring a sense of satisfaction and pleasure to the food on the table.

We were lucky and it was hard work, BUT, it was our CHOICE to do it. To live off the land; to rebuild, renovate and insulate the old cottage and barn where we lived, and we enjoyed it, and, I'm glad to say, so did our kids. But, there was no pressure and there was the knowledge that if it all went wrong we could always go to a supermarket or, if we failed completely, return to life in the city.

That was then................

Now I live in a terraced house in Kings Heath, with a strip of garden and most of the trappings of present day living, and the looming glooming prospect of climate change. This is far from idyllic and far from a game. It is demanding and immediate and I realise that I would be foolish to ignore all the predictions and advice coming from people and places I have always respected. It seems that a change of life-style is no longer a choice but is becoming a necessity. I pray for a miracle, but in the mean time I realise that I have to learn about, and really understand what is going on, and do what I can to help make a change.

So what am I doing to save our planet? (Honestly!)

I have joined Transition City Birmingham and feel a network of support from all kinds of people, with different talents and knowledge, spread thoughout the whole of Birmingham.
I don't have a freezer or dishwasher (very carbon wasteful).
I have a push bike and hat and am getting used to riding in the city.
I try to use my car as little as possible and drive at 55 mph on long journeys. (It's hard!).
I started my vegetable garden and am part of GROFUN (Growing Real Organic Food in Urban Neighbourhoods) in Kings Heath.
I belong to Susmo (Sustainable Moseley) and would like to help start a transition group in Kings Heath.
I try to avoid buying things in plastic as much as I can, unless recycleable. I avoid buying bottled water.
I use energy saving light bulbs and turn things off when not in use, particularly pilot lights.
I keep my heating low and have recently put in a new combi boiler. It was expensive, but cuts my bills down greatly.
I recycle.
I am getting my loft insulated.
I try to use green products as much as possible, for everything from cleaning to hair washing. It concerns me that we put so much toxic stuff down our drains.

As I look at this list, it seems so little! And so late!
But even so, there could still be time - a 100 months is just over eight years and a lot can happen if we work as communities. Go to www.trainsitiontowns.org or get The Transition Handbook from Bonds Books in Harborne www.bondsbooks.com.
We can't do this alone, but supporting each other, sharing, swapping, becoming more aware and offering what skills and talents we have to the creative pool can begin to make change happen. It could also be fun, enabling us to meet new people and possibly get to know our neighbours a little better. We have to begin to work together and trust each other, and quickly so that it's not too late to make a change. So that we don't prove to be The Age of Stupid.

It really is up to us.

And most important of all.
We have to make sure that we do all we can to ensure that our government makes the right choices at the Climate Change Conference in December. This is the world leaders opportunity to save the world from the rising CO2 emmissions. Let's hope and pray that they are not stupid too............

Hi. I'm Shabdam. I returned to live in Birmingham about a year ago, after 35 years of life in rural Wales.

I work as a craniosacral therapist and help my clients to begin to listen to their bodies. It is amazing how we can avoid looking after ourselves and put off the exercise; the change in diet; the need to relax and de-stress that our body is gently asking us for. We simply do not see the reality of what is going on. When at last we do, it is often when there is cause for concern and it's much harder for us to make the changes to our way of life that will lead to better health. We can be so unaware of what is right there in front of our noses. And, if we become a little aware, we often put it off until tomorrow, when we will "make a real start"!

I think many of us are doing the same with our environment!

I really hope that future generations don't look back and wonder how we could have been so foolish. How we could have been so blind to what was happening around us. (Always so much easier to see in retrospect). Some people are aware and are trying their best to wake the others up to some kind of action. But we are so comfortable that it is hard to begin to realise that we are at the 'tipping point'. See Royal College of Art video www.wakeupfreakout.org. We really don't want to give up what we think we have and can easily close our eyes to what is happening around us.
Seeing the film 'The Age of Stupid' a couple of weeks ago, was an eye-opener.
www.ageofstupid.net. This film really brought home to me the foolishness of many of the things I see going on around me, and in which I participate! Habits are very hard to break, particularly when they make us comfortable!

But if we all try to do something to save our planet, we might just leave a home for our grandchildren! Some ideas and information can be found through the Transition movement. See www.transitionculture.org. Do look if you haven't already done so.

Hi. I'm Shabdam. I returned to live in Birmingham about a year ago, after 35 years of life in rural Wales.

I work as a craniosacral therapist and help my clients to begin to listen to their bodies. It is amazing how we can avoid looking after ourselves and put off the exercise; the change in diet; the need to relax and de-stress that our body is gently asking us for. We simply do not see the reality of what is going on. When at last we do, it is often when there is cause for concern and it's much harder for us to make the changes to our way of life that will lead to better health. We can be so unaware of what is right there in front of our noses. And, if we become a little aware, we often put it off until tomorrow, when we will "make a real start"!

I think many of us are doing the same with our environment!

I really hope that future generations don't look back and wonder how we could have been so foolish. How we could have been so blind to what was happening around us. (Always so much easier to see in retrospect). Some people are aware and are trying their best to wake the others up to some kind of action. But we are so comfortable that it is hard to begin to realise that we are at the 'tipping point'. See Royal College of Art video www.wakeupfreakout.org. We really don't want to give up what we think we have and can easily close our eyes to what is happening around us.
Seeing the film 'The Age of Stupid' a couple of weeks ago, was an eye-opener.
www.ageofstupid.net. This film really brought home to me the foolishness of many of the things I see going on around me, and in which I participate! Habits are very hard to break, particularly when they make us comfortable!

But if we all try to do something to save our planet, we might just leave a home for our grandchildren! Some ideas and information can be found through the Transition movement. See www.transitionculture.org. Do look if you haven't already done so.