Hell-in-a-handcart Headline of the year...

...must go to the Daily Mail who, in response to some perceived threat of enforced food recycling, thundered:

"A SLOP BUCKET FOR EVERY HOME"

Blimey, O'Reilly, do they never tire of being indignant?

Headline of the week (or year)...

Fatties Cause Global Warming in the Sun.

Green April Fools

I've only spotted one, the Guardian's story that the EU will ban the amber from traffic lights next year to save energy. Classy spoof of a Daily Mail reader's nightmare.

Spotted any others?

Lord Mandelson Goes Green...

...not the way he expected...

UK Govt Announces Green Home Makeovers

Today the UK Government announced a package of green measures for every home in the UK. For some reason this will not start until 2013, which would be after at least one general election, but as the other two main political parties are proposing similar measures, this is unlikely to go away.

Very welcome, but maybe a little more haste would be in order.

There's plenty of work to do too, with the Energy Savings Trust estimating there are 7.3m cavity walls that could be filled with insulation, 7m solid walls that could be insulated, and 12.9m lofts which do not have the recommended depth of insulation, and 4.5m G-rated (the least efficient) gas boilers.

The light bulbs flicker at The Mail

The Daily Mail's ferocious attack on the tyrannical march of energy efficient lightbulbs seems to have flickered and died... a search today suggests that the last attack dog article on bulbs was on 10 Jan. And today they're proclaiming a breakthrough in LED technology which will be even greener than "unpopular" CFLs. Blimey!

But in case you think they're going soft, a column today proclaims recycling a waste of time and a con, despite the absence of any evidence to back this up - just based on a quote re incineration from Peter Jones. 77% of readers say recycling is a waste of time in an on-line poll.

For those overseas readers who are familiar with The Mail and it's rabid rants at everything modern or progressive, you can get a flavour from the satirical Daily Mail Headline Generator - my favourite "Can Gypsies Give You Cancer?" If only this was an exaggeration...

Looking back at 2008 and forward to 2009...

A Happy New Year to all! 

There were only two big stories last year and they've both had big Green implications:

First, the economy (stupid...). The global financial system turned out to be a huge house of cards: complex financial 'products' were outed as hot air, bad debts turned out to be worth less than the paper they were written on and the whole thing was so poorly regulated that a man with the wonderfully appropriate name of Madoff snaffled $50bn without anybody noticing. Some put all this down to greed, but I put it down to stupidity.

From a green point of view, the economic collapse may give the planet some slack as people stop buying so much, become more conscious of their energy bills and cancel that third holiday. But the resulting pessimism and despair doesn't square with my desire to see people 'thrive' in an eco-friendly way. Hopefully we can rebuild the economy in a greener and more socially responsible manner rather than running like lemmings towards a cliff. The biggest obstacle in the short term is the precipitous drop in oil prices which is undermining the cleantech/ renewables markets.

And the second big story was of course the election of Barack Obama. The skin colour thing is beside the point to me. When Ruud Gullit became the first black Premiership football manager, nobody commented on this fact because he was Ruud Gullit, one of the greatest players ever (pity the skills weren't transferable to management). Same with Obama - to me he was not 'the black guy', but the guy who had the vision and the oratory to sell a beautiful, green, fairer future for the US and the rest of the world. This is some achievement when the superpower's political system has been swirling in a cynical, anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-culture, small minded, lowest common denominator cesspit for the best part of a decade. Hope is cool again.

And the signs look good for the green industries. Obama has appointed a number of climate scientists to key positions in his new administration and has made some very clear and precise commitments on what he intends to do when in power. Let's just hope that he remains steadfast when the rubber hits the road (or doesn't as the case may be) later this year.

So 2009 is a hard one to predict - the economic situation and Obama's leadership give a huge opportunity, but it will be hard for any decision maker to go for the long term benefit over the short term gain. But of course we can all do our bit, not least when it comes to supporting those decision makers. Let's make it a green one!

Many 'greens' not so green...

With the Guardian reporting last week that many people who saw themselves as Green actually have the largest carbon footprints. They should read eco-living myth no 1 and eco-living myth no 2 to understand why that is...

Meat the Press

I still find it funny (peculiar and a little haha) that when someone in a lofty position something that everyone has known for over a decade, it can still make the headlines. Today the Observer led on the chair of the UN's IPCC telling us that we should eat less meat to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (meat is reckoned to be responsible for about 20% of manmade sources of ghgs). I remember discussing this earnestly with a group of treehuggers over a bottle of wine on a woodland conservation holiday in about 1995. It's a bit like the furore when Sir David King said climate change was a bigger threat than terrorism - stating the bleedin' obvious to the rest of us, but 'controversial' in the eyes of the meeja.

Anyway, chez Kane had already decided to cut the beef a bit. Made a lovely spicy aubergine and bean stew topped with bulgur wheat last night to kickstart the new resolution. Mmmmm...

Great Global Warming Swindle - knuckles rapped

The UK's broadcasting regulator Ofcom has published its views on Channel 4's The Great Global Warming Swindle.

The verdict in a nutshell:

1. The programme did misrepresent several eminent scientists.

2. While the gist of the scientific argument was 'wrong', it was within the rights of Channel 4 to broadcast it.

Point 2 brings out a real tug-of-war in my head - normally I welcome freedom of speech to a degree which would make many others blanch, but this programme has been used by so many as 'proof' that climate change is just a massive hoax to raise taxes that I start spitting with rage.

It is not Ofcom's fault, it is a matter of our attitudes - if Channel 4 had insulted a person, a 'race' of people (eg Celebrity Big Brother) or a company, it would have been rightly condemned. But the concept of 'insulting' the plight of our life support system is just to big and complex for our little minds to cope.

A million petrolheads weep!

The Hummer is dead!

A million tree huggers cheer!

Bushwhacking, renewed renewables and the biofuels debate rumbles on...

Massive amount of eco-living related stuff in the press today:

First off, GWB's pronouncement that the US will lead a new global agreement on climate change because (I presume) he's been so good at international affairs recently and his Government's record on climate change is so much better than that of the UN. Welcomed by other Governments, slammed by the Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth etc.

My Verdict: Better than nothing I suppose, but Bush's reliance on the techno-fix is unlikely to deliver the goods - unlike the proposals the UN are putting forward. But George knows best, doesn't he?

Secondly, here in the UK, the Governments Low Carbon Building Programme (which subsidises micro-renewables) is about to be relaunched after its recent suspension, according to the ENDS report. You will have to have planning permission before you apply and you will have to install within 3 or 4 months depending on the technology. There is no monthly cap so the mad rush on the 1st will go, but each household is limited to £2500 which will impact on solar PV.

My Verdict: I thought planning controls on microrenewables were about to be relaxed... joined up thinking... anyway, apart from that this seems like a good way forward.

Lastly, again from ENDS, WWF are calling for biofuels to only be produced on existing fallow land to avoid rainforest destruction.

My Verdict: Good call WWF - I believe biofuels can be part of the solution if we get the growing standards right, unlike George Monbiot who thinks they are worse than fossil fuels.

Shrimp Fishing Damage

I'm probably breaking a gazillion types of copyright here, but this picture of seabed damage caused by shrimp fishing off the coast of China is making people around the world sit up and think about where our food comes from.

A Good (Easter) Egg

If you want to buy someone an Easter Egg this year, go for Sainsbury's according to Oxfordshire County Council. According to the Beeb, the council reviewed the amount of packaging on a range of eggs and found that the big supermakets' offering had only 16% packaging by weight compared to 47% for a Nestle egg. Excessive packaging is actually illegal in the UK, although there have been very few prosecutions - mostly for computer software being sent out in huge crates.

And on that note, have a good Easter!

Micro generation red tape to be cut

Good News, Ruth Kelly, the UK's Communities Secretary, has announced that the need for planning permission for micro-renewables will be removed in many cases. I'm very pleased to here this - a neighbour of mine built a massive garden house without needing planning permission but you do need it for some solar panels - a daft situation.

In the meantime Conservative leader David Cameron has had to take his much vaunted micro wind turbine down as it was installed a whole metre from where it should have been - to avoid ripping his chimney off methinks. Bet he wishes he'd waited a few months.

Cow Burps Banished!

I've been away on a short break (only 40 miles from home, carbon counters), so just a quick look at recent news today:

With the news that the UK's greenhouse gas emissions rose 1.25% last year, German scientists claim that a new pill to reduce
cows' burping is the way forward. Bovine wind apparently accounts for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions... well I never.

More seriously, the Energy Savings Trust has issued a 'Green Barometer' on public attitudes to climate change which shows the gap between concern and action isn't closing fast. You can read my views on it here.

Playing Away From Home

I've started a new role as weekly green news pundit on HippyShopper.com.

My first piece is on predictions for Gordon Brown's last budget.

Food Waste (W)rapped

The main green issue I was concerned with over the weekend was whether Ireland would snatch the 6 Nations trophy, but sadly, it almost literally slipped through their fingers...

Anyway, back to eco-living. The UK Government's Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) announced at the weekend that British households are throwing away around a third of all the food they buy, amounting to 6.7m tonnes every year.

I've blogged before on why waste food is such a massive environmental issue and what you can do about it, but WRAP have provided a simple 5 point leaflet, with some tasty sounding recipes designed to use leftovers - worth a look. As I work from home, leftovers usually become "lunch tomorrow". Of course I could have done this when I worked in an office, but it required being organised in the morning rather than running around looking for my keys.

If you haven't come across WRAP before, the quango was established in 2000 to improve markets in recycled materials and originally had a very limited remit. Once derided as "Waste of Resources And Public money", they seem to have raised their game in the last couple of years, with Chief Exec Jennie Price popping up all over the place to get the recycling and waste minimisation message across. They are also building up a decent selection of publications.

The Great Global Warming Swindle C4 tonight

Ummm. Interesting programme.

I have to leave the climatology/sun spots/oceanography arguments to the experts, but many of the programme's arguments were full of holes, for example:

i. The assertation that 10,000's jobs are dependent on global warming - well surely many, many more are dependent on a high carbon economy, so the idea that the establishment has a vested interest in global warming is laughable.

ii. They criticise the research history of many of the IPCC scientists, yet I don't recall seeing a peer reviewed paper ripping apart the theory of man-made global warming.

iii. They say that there is a huge CO2 emission from 'dying vegetation'. Vegetation grows in annual cycles so the CO2 from dead vegetation is reabsorbed in the spring - the Carbon Cycle. Can't say the same about volcanos, I must admit.

iv. That the whole thing is a Thatcherite/Hard Left conspiracy to defeat the miners/big business. Well the US Govt has long been sceptical and therefore must be free of these prejudices - so how come US scientists tell their Government that global warming is man-made?

v. They state (correctly) that there is a lag between CO2 and temperature to prove one argument, then repeatedly state that economic growth and global temperature patterns do not coincide over a period of decades - you can't have your cake and eat it.

vi. That the global warming conspiracy is keeping billions in poverty. I've never heard any environmentalist argue that the poor shouldn't have their fair share of resources - the unfairness is due to the current orthodoxy. Quite to the contrary, the pinning of the global environmental problem on the West is a constant theme amongst campaigners - as the programme pointed out when they were trying to make a different argument. I found this line extremely offensive.

OK, so maybe the programme makers threw in all this rubbish to pad out the programme to an hour and a half, and diluted these scientists' message of dissent, but at the end of the day:

- If 'we' are wrong we still end up with clean, secure, sustainable energy use with reduced congestion, better local air quality, improved community cohesion and we won't have world war III when we hit peak oil.

- If 'they' are wrong, it IS the end of the world.

So therefore I'd rather wait for the message to come directly from the research community than believe a rubbish TV programme like this.

Green TV

If you live in the UK, you're spoilt for choice on TV tonight.

On eco-living, Panorama (8:30pm BBC1) has Justin Rowlatt living greener for a year. For those who miss it, or for our non-UK readers, the programme should be available on-line for a week afterwards.

Clashing with this is Dispatches: Greenwash (8:00pm Channel 4), where George Monbiot tears into the UK Government's Climate Change efforts (no doubt with some relish). You can read the gist of this in the Guardian: the headline article and a piece from Monbiot himself.

Later in the week is a documentary entitled The Great Global Warming Swindle (Channel 4, Thurs, 9:00pm), which I'm sure will stimulate some debate. The central argument is that the warming effect is due to solar activity and CO2 emissions are following temperature and not the other way around. This is a common argument, but why isn't there a body of peer-reviewed scientific papers to back it up? Surely the achievement of proving global warming is a natural cycle would make 'Science', 'Nature' or one of the other most prestigious journals? We'll just have to watch & see...