Which? report highlights money-saving eco products ‘you should avoid’

Greenwashing alert!

“An investigation by Which? magazine has identified10 products (I’m surprised they only found 10!) which the consumer group claims might not offer worthwhile savings,” … and in some cases “actually did the opposite of what it claimed to do“.

via Which? report highlights money-saving eco products ‘you should avoid’ | Money | guardian.co.uk.

While I of course advocate green gadgets, not just any old ones. The worst gadget I received was a plastic shower timer where the sand all clogged up after not even 1 use, so I had to throw it away. While it was “free” to me – how many resources went into it? Best advice? Don’t trust the small print! Ask friends for their recommendations or check out other reviews on blogs, etc. I’ll try to include some more green tips in future posts too.

I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat (but farm it right) | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

This comment piece is based on a book by Simon Fairlie “Meat: A Benign Extravagance“, which shows how the only ethical response to concerns around eating meat (food security, environmental destruction, animal welfare, human health, climate change, to name a few in no particular order) is surprisingly not to stop eating meat. This echoes some of the thinking in my early posts on vegetarianism.

As Monbiot concludes: “The meat-producing system Fairlie advocates differs sharply from the one now practised in the rich world: low energy, low waste, just, diverse, small-scale. But if we were to adopt it, we could eat meat, milk and eggs (albeit much less) with a clean conscience. By keeping out of the debate over how livestock should be kept, those of us who have advocated veganism have allowed the champions of cruel, destructive, famine-inducing meat farming to prevail.”

While this won’t make me a meat-eater, it does at least appease my conscience for not being a vegan. But it does focus my attention that you can still be an unethical vegetarian, depending on where/how the animal products I consume are produced – where I have definite room for improvement!

via I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat (but farm it right) | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian.

How Electric Cars Owners Can Get A Paycheck | ThinkProgress

More innvoative thinking outside of the box, nudging us every closer to models for electric cars can work. From ThinkProgess:

Critics of electric cars often point to their high-priced batteries and limited range. An American startup thinks it can turn this equation on its head with technology that would generate an income stream for the buyers of such vehicles. It has set up a project in Denmark to show how they can cash in.

Nuvve Corp., based in El Cajon, Calif., is starting tests in Denmark with computerized electronic gear that aggregates the electrical output of parked electric cars, allowing them to act as one giant battery and to participate in wholesale electricity markets when power demand is high. If the power transmission authority requests electricity from the cars, Nuvve gets a response from each plugged-in vehicle indicating its available capacity.

Then Nuvve offers the vehicles’ aggregate power for sale and distributes the revenue back to the car owners. An electric vehicle owner could earn as much as $10,000 over the life of the car, depending on market price for electricity and the owner’s commitment to make the battery available to sell power back to the grid

via July 15 News: How Electric Cars Owners Can Get A Paycheck; BP Oil Still Washing Ashore in Gulf | ThinkProgress.

Population 7 Billion, special from National Geographic magazine

Long article – but worth reading through for the nuances to the “population debate”. The most powerful section for me:

“The number of people does matter, of course. But how people consume resources matters a lot more. Some of us leave much bigger footprints than others. The central challenge for the future of people and the planet is how to raise more of us out of poverty—the slum dwellers in Delhi, the subsistence farmers in Rwanda—while reducing the impact each of us has on the planet.”

via Population 7 Billion – Pictures, More From National Geographic magazine.

Trailer | motherthefilm.com

Trailer | motherthefilm.com.

http://www.motherthefilm.com/trailer

This film dares to talk about the “elephant in the room” of the growing human population – but dares to because it brings an honest, compasionate message. We need to address rising human population levels as their associated consumption is not sustaianble on one planet, and that we can slow the rise simply through education of girls, leading to their empowerment to control their family size.

It doesn’t appear to be on general release, but I hope word will spread so that many more men and women can hear it’s important message and realise that population issues need not be controversial if we take the right approach.

Harvesting energy: body heat to warm buildings

The human body gives off approx. 100W equivalent of heat energy. Aside from having parties to warm up your house on a cold day, here is an ingenious use for human heat generated from 250,000 commuters passing through Stockholm train station each day:

BBC News – Harvesting energy: body heat to warm buildings.

Environmental books I’d like to read

As my lifelong learning on environmental issues continues, I’ve started to collate a list of books that I’ve heard are “must reads”. I’ll add to this list as and when I hear new recommendations.

• Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring our place in the natural world (Ed. Keogh, 2010) – this review sent to me by Andrea should encourage anyone feeling disillusioned with the state of the environment
• Pollan, M. 2006. The Omnivores Dilemma. Penguin Books, New York, USA. – the essential book to understand the ethical as well as economic and environmental problems the meat-dominated food industry presents us. An interesting critique can be read here, as well as the response on The Grist.
• Diamond, J. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed – although the case studies are written in such a “little too convenient” way, the final chapter gives an excellent overview of the main features of societies in decline, and cautions us not to assume that ours will survive.
• The World Without Us (Alan Weisman, 2007) – I haven’t read this yet, but apparently it’s a very powerful description on how the earth would respond if humans stopped existing tomorrow, highlighting how resilient nature is, but also how some of human creations will last for centuries. So, similar to James Lovelock’s the Revenge of Gaia – but ultimately more positive!
• Without the Hot Air (David Mackay) – all the numbers in simple format to show how the UK can realistically meet 100% of its energy needs through renewables. And it’s FREE to download too.

[Edit - 21st July 2011]

•  “Meat: A Benign Extravagance (Simon Fairlie, 2011) – I haven’t read this but just posted a very supportive review from George Monbiot, who had to eat his words that veganism is the only response to the ethical dilemma of eating meat. “Simon Fairlie pays handsome tribute to vegans for opening up the debate. He then subjects their case to the first treatment I’ve read that is both objective and forensic. His book is an abattoir for misleading claims and dodgy figures, on both sides of the argument.”

Helping others get what they want, under our (sustainability) conditions

I recently undertook an enlightening Negotiation training course with Negoservices – I loved the approach that it’s not about trying to convince someone that your idea is right, but helping others achieve what they want, but under your conditions. This is such a positive, constructive approach. I’m starting to see this approach working everywhere, both personally and in my work.

There are 2 examples touted by Prof James Hensen, a prominent US Climate Scientist in this article in the Independent. He realises that we “can’t burn all the coal or unconventional fossil fuels [such as oil from tar sands, deepwater drilling and sources revealed by melting ice]” as this would push the greenhouse gases to over 450ppm. The only effective way to phase them out is through carbon taxes, though the big emitters US and China are seemingly against this idea. However, as Hensen points out, “China has every reason to tax carbon because they have invested a lot in carbon-free energy. They’re now number one in production of solar, wind and nuclear. But clean energy is not going to take over from dirty energy if fossil fuels remain the cheapest. So they need to put a price on carbon within their country and they’re now actually thinking about that. They can see that economically they will be better off if the world starts to move towards clean energy, as they will be in a great position to sell these technologies to the rest of us.” So, China gets what they want, but under our conditions.

This also follows for another issue that he raises in his article. Scientists can see the imminent risks of runaway climate change, however, if they don’t articulate clearly the policy implications of their research, then politicians will do so instead, often with their own interests at heart. As Hensen explains, “I realised that if we [scientists] don’t help to connect the dots from what the science says to what the implications are for policy, then those dots get connected by people who have special interests… I think scientists are able to be objective. Governments just don’t face the facts clearly.” So, in order to get what we want, we have to articulate it clearly, and under what conditions and not allow others to do so for us.

YouTube – Windfall – Official Trailer

I’m looking forward to seeing this film, “Windfall” at the Green Screenings in Amsterdam soon. However, I hope this film will not be used as way to say a categorical “no” to wind energy. Moreover, instead of showing that wind is not a good energy source, on the contrary, it shows very clearly that if we want to harness the power of the wind (and we NEED to!) then developers must genuinely engage affected stakeholders to hear and deal with their concerns. Otherwise everyone will get their backs up against wind energy power, and as a society we’ll end up saying “yes” to more coal, oil and nuclear energy. Wind developers please note – the Earth can’t afford for you to develop wind in the wrong way in the wrong places! Please engage in a responsible, sustainable way positively!

22 Uses for Lemon Peels

Similar to the “uses for white vinegar tips and uses”, this piece on uses for lemon is insightful and very useful!

Lemons juice is about 5 to 6 percent citric acid and has a pH level of between 2 and 3. This low pH acidity makes lemon juice a great ally in breaking down rust and mineral stains, but gentle enough to not dull finishes.

Everything from cleaning microwaves and deodorising bins, to getting rid of dry elbows! I love lemon even more now!

via 22 Uses for Lemon Peels Page 5 | Care2 Healthy & Green Living.