Richard Elen has been involved in alternative technology and the environment since the mid-1970s. He was a member of the group that produced Undercurrents, one of the first "AT" magazines (in fact Peter Harper coined the phrase therein). He was also a regular member of the team that produced the Climate Action Network's Eco magazine from the UN Climate Talks in the run-up to Kyoto (it is still produced today).
Long a supporter of renewable energy, he is also particularly interested in the potential of virtual worlds for education, conferencing and networking with minimal CO2 emissions. He believes that the future lies in massive investment in public transport and renewables and suspects that bringing energy and communications back into public ownership is one of the few ways in which this might be achieved in the time we have left.
According to a survey published by the EIA, British supermarkets are not doing nearly enough to phase out HFC refrigerants – leakage of which is a significant cause of global warming. The Chilling Facts report names – and shames.
The cold snap hitting the UK from Siberia this week does not indicate that Global Warming doesn’t exist. On the contrary, it may go to prove it does.
In France, the Old Left is rising again. Working people are becoming angry that bankers are being bailed out to continue to pay obscene bonuses while ordinary peoples’ jobs go to the wall. Governments are under pressure to limit mass unemployment as a result of the recession. But this cannot be done by propping up environmentally-dangerous industries. They must be required to change. It’s a story of danger – and of opportunity.
In a recent interview in Britain’s New Scientist magazine, scientist James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia Hypothesis and the man whose work on CFCs led to their being banned, says that he believes that at least 90% of the human population will be wiped out by the end of the century as a direct result of climate change.
Some UK charities and vision experts are calling into question the European Union decision to phase out traditional incandescent light bulbs in favour of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs).
The 44th President faces enormous challenges implementing an environmentally-friendly agenda.
What, I found myself wondering, is Greenpeace doing aligning itself with a Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate? Well, pragmatism, I suppose. But it started me thinking about who is the greenest on the mainstream UK political scene. And about Zac Goldsmith.
The current Russia/Ukraine gas crisis is moving British gas companies to sell British gas supplies overseas, thereby keeping prices high and hitting UK consumers directly. Is is time for the UK to take political and economic control of their energy supply and run the industry for the public good and not for overseas profit?
Letting the auto industry go to hell in a handbasket is probably not an option. The impact on the economy would be one thing. But the direct and indirect human impact would be terrible.
That leaves us wondering how to square this particular circle. We are faced with a powerful combination of crises, both economic and environmental. Is there a way to address both at once? Well, yes.
I doubt many people on either side of the fence are surprised that the referendum on Manchester’s congestion charge resulted in a resounding “no” vote. Apart from the fact that the plan itself was a great deal more complicated than that in London, people will, simply, probably not vote for environmentally-sound measures – not now, and not at all, probably, until it’s too late. Why? Because we are basically selfish.
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