Entitled LONDON AWARE 08, the exhibition gives people a chance to meet and talk with the exhibitors.

And as the website tells us:

LONDON AWARE 08 will be a meeting point for everyone - businesses, charities and experts, as well as people who are taking their first steps into a greener world.

The event looks interesting, refreshing and very much down-to-earth. As it should be with no barriers between those in the know and those who aren’t. An ideal opportunity to spread the word. As quoted above, the organisers are keen to get those new to greener living involved.

Clicking on the visitor link over at the website, we are promised that information, advice and inspiration will be provided to allow us all to achieve a more sustainable way of life.

Companies from across the board will be in attendance to promote their sustainable products.

There will also be a series of lectures on climate change.

The event has been organised by UK AWARE - a group of people eager to make a difference. As they so realistically put it:

We realise that to really fight climate change we need to make the right choices also the easiest ones.

Further events are also planned for Manchester and Edinburgh.

Links:

UK AWARE

LONDON AWARE 08

Source:

Image courtesy of Flickr

Only 99,997 to go then.

Only three sustainable homes built in UK so far.

Image courtesy of Flickr.

The Agency has a special webpage dedicated to flooding, updated every 15 minutes, and as I type this, the page states the following:

1 severe flood warning

74 flood warnings

One warning issued covers the area that includes the town of Tewkesbury. This particular town made the headlines during last year’s summer due to appalling flooding. Indeed, there are residents still living in caravans due to the summer’s extensive damage and yet now these same people must prepare for another potential disaster hitting their neighbourhood.

Rivers and settlements very often go hand in hand. Tewkesbury is positioned so that it sits where the River Severn and the River Avon converge.

One resident, Julie Irwin, is quoted in The Guardian as saying: “Anxiety levels here are very high, more so because we’ve seen very little action from the council to clear the drains or the brooks…. I just feel we are sitting ducks.”

She added that many houses in the town were inches away from inundation.

Reuters have run the story and one paragraph sums the situation up in a distressingly simple sentence:

Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire found itself at risk once again as the river Avon overflowed its banks following five days of rain.

Gloucestershire isn’t so far away from where I type this. It’s been impossible not to notice the weather. Wind and rain have lashed and howled at my windows day and night with let-ups few and far between.

In a chillingly matter-of-fact summary of the summer flooding, the Environment Agency have drafted a report that begins:

In June and July 2007, there were several periods of extreme rainfall which gave rise to widespread flooding in England and parts of Wales. We experienced the wettest May to July since 1766 when reliable records began to be collected. Approximately 49,000 households and nearly 7,000 businesses were flooded. Major infrastructure such as transport links, schools, power and water supplies were disrupted.

Flooding was caused by drains, river channels and flood defences being overwhelmed by the extreme flows of water. This often happened very quickly and in these circumstances it is difficult to predict where flooding will occur.

I now fear a summary of our winter’s weather will read all too similarly.

So this is what they mean by climate chaos, is it? The UK often jests itself about its weather. A rather damp collection of islands that is all too frequently mildly overcast. We positively enjoy moaning about the weather. But now the joke’s over.

In the meantime, the Environment Agency have a page telling people what to do should there be the risk of a flood. I hope these tips prove useful whatever country you live in:

• Identify a safe place where you, your family and your pets can keep away from the floodwater.
• Gather essential items together. These include warm clothes, blankets, regular medication, a torch, food supplies, a mobile phone and a battery operated or wind-up radio.
• Turn off gas, electricity and water supplies at the mains.
• Move electrical items and valuables to a first floor or higher position.
• Floods can kill. NEVER attempt to walk or drive through any depth of floodwater.
• WAIT for the emergency services. Follow their instructions. If an evacuation order is issued you MUST comply.

A further page on the Agency’s website discusses climate change. It states quite clearly that the UK’s weather is changing. Heavier rain, more intense storms, these two weather patterns are becoming increasingly more regular.

The problem facing us here in the UK is that there is no “flood season.” Regardless of the time of year, flooding can occur.

And with reference to the storms, these can have environmental impacts offshore also. The Guardian article referenced earlier highlighted another environmental threat. The 6,000 tonne freighter, the Ice Prince, has sunk. The ship became another victim of the storms after its cargo of timber shifted. The vessel’s crew had to be rescued. The report continues:

The Ice Prince’s fuel tanks are full of 313 tonnes of intermediate fuel oil. IFO is a blend of heavy and lighter oils which can spread thinly over a wide area. There is also diesel on board.

With this borne in mind, the RSPB remain on standby should the hull break up. The thought that in the coming days the news will fill with shots of seabirds covered in oil is frightening and of course potentially very upsetting.

Sources:

Flood Report - The Guardian

Flood Report - Reuters

Environment Agency

Image obtained from Flickr

Useful Resources:

Climate Change - a page including useful links on the Environment Agency’s website.

Gavin Hudson wrote a moving account of his cleaning up an oil spill in South Korea.

The cause of death? Avian flu. (The H5N1 strain)

The dead birds were found at Abbotsbury swannery in Dorset which is a colony of mute swans. The swannery dates back to the 11th century and was established by Benedicitine monks.

Staff discovered the deaths during a routine check and are now being administered Tamiflu tablets as a precaution.

Whether it is more of a shock when it happens to such beautiful creatures is of course debatable, yet certainly it seems to have upset the people I have spoken to more than usual.

And as a report in The Guardian states:

The outbreak comes less than a month after restrictions on poultry movement were lifted in Norfolk and Suffolk that had been imposed after an outbreak of H5N1 on a free range turkey farm in November.

This is not good timing at all.

It is thought that wild birds are the source of the infection.

But certainly, as far as this writer is concerned, avian influenza still seems a rather mysterious area. It pops up in the news far too often, yet still I am ignorant as to the facts. So here goes.

Recent UK History

Again referring to the Guardian piece it states that in 2005 a parrot died of the disease. Fortunately the bird was in quarantine at the time which allowed the UK to maintain its disease-free status.

In April, 2006, 35,000 chickens had to be slaughtered at a farm in the south of England after an outbreak of the disease was discovered.

12 months ago, 159,000 turkeys had to be culled - again in the south of England - after it was found that some of the birds had died suspiciously. It appears the H5N1 strain was to blame.

Two months ago, yet again in the same part of the country, 5,000 birds were destroyed at a poultry farm during another outbreak.

What is Avian Flu?

The disease came to light in Italy around 100 years ago. It can affect a variety of both domesticated and wild birds.

This site explains:

Infection can range from asymptomatic to severe, depending on the virulence of the virus and the susceptibility of the avian host. Avian influenza in domestic chickens and turkeys is classified according to disease severity, with two recognized forms: highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as fowl plague, and low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI).

Avian influenza viruses that cause HPAI are highly virulent and mortality rates in infected flocks often approach 100%. While LPAI viruses are generally of lower virulence, LPAI in flocks should be controlled because LPAI viruses can serve as progenitors to HPAI viruses.

Sources:

The Guardian incl. Q and A

Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

Picture obtained here.

A Norwegian company called Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will build the complex, which will be completed in different stages to incorporate wafer, cell, and module production. REC already operates the world's current largest solar plant in Norway, which produces about 650 megawatts of energy annually.

A solar manufacturing plant would be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, and REC looked at 200 locations before settling on Singapore. A combination of tax incentives, grants, and a skilled workforce were some of the reasons REC liked it. Likewise, Singapore officials are thrilled about playing center stage in the world's rush to clean technology. Ko Kheng Hwa of the Economic Development Board explained:

Granted, our bushfire seasons are horrific!

OK, so yeah, I'm just having a bit of fun with the different words and descriptions, but I have a point. Not an etymological point, but a point nonetheless.

A Brief Australian History Lesson

The Californian fires have once again brought to light the sheer flammability of our surroundings. I live in Victoria, an Australian state with a very high bushfire rate. Australia has the dubious honor of being the home to what may have been the worst bush/wildfires in the world.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak may be the first mayor in the nation to drive a plug-in hybrid vehicle as his official city car.

Since he was first elected in 2002, Mayor Rybak's official car has been a Toyota Prius. But the dramatically superior gas mileage of a plug-in hybrid vehicle prompted him to make the switch: he had his hybrid converted to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, from which he expects to get about 70 miles per gallon (mpg) compared to his average 40 mpg with the Prius.

A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is like a regular hybrid with a cord. That is, its battery can be recharged by plugging it into a regular 120-volt outlet.

Typical of many PHEVs, Mayor Rybak's car can travel about 30 miles solely on battery power if the speeds are 30 mph or less. If he drives further or needs to go faster, the car automatically switches over to using the gas engine. But for local city driving — when speeds are low and distances are shorter — he could go days without using any gasoline to power the engine.

In McKibben and the Step It Up Team's new book, Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community (Henry Holt, $13.00), the authors show how normal, everyday people, without any community organizing background, were able to create successful events to rally support for addressing climate change. Reflecting on the success of Step It Up allows the authors to repeat what worked--and discard what didn't. Their seven tips (make it credible, snappy, collaborative, meaningful, creative, wired and seductive) are a framework for understanding how community organizing works in the 21st century.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) denied permits to two large, 700-megawatt plants proposed by Sunflower Electric Power. The plants would have cost about $3.6 billion and spewed 11 million tons of CO2 into the air each year. That’s almost the same amount of CO2 that the Northeastern states planned to have saved by 2020 with their cap-and-trade program. The attorneys general of those states had petitioned Kansas officials to deny the coal plants that would have effectively negated their efforts.

Interestingly, while the KDHE staff recommended that the plants be permitted, state law also allows the KDHE secretary to deny a permit if there is an unregulated emission that threatens public health or the environment. And that's what happened here: Secretary Roderick L. Bremby disagreed with his staff because of the unregulated CO2 emissions that pose a threat to global warming. He wrote in his news release: "I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing."

David Hawkins, a climate expert of the environmental group the National Resources Defense Council, believes that China is only going to make a move once America does.

"My impression is that the national government — top level ministry officials — in China regard the threats of global warming to their country with a much higher level of seriousness than their counterparts do here in the United States," he said.

The theory is that because China sees environmental problems as current and major problems that need to be dealt with now, they will be more likely to follow in America's footsteps when they make a move. Sadly, he doesn't think that they're alone in waiting for US leadership.

Besides the agreement by utilities to invest in energy efficiency, and besides Florida Power & Light’s major new commitment to solar energy, the Clinton Global Initiative is also partnering with the Joint U.S.-China Cooperation on Clean Energy (JUUCCCE) on efficiency efforts in China.

The China Lighting Conversion program will distribute 10 million free energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) to customers. CFLs use one-third the energy of traditional bulbs, but are still cost-prohibitive to many Chinese. According to JUUCCCE, the CFLs would save about 3.7 million tons of CO2 over 4 ½ years — enough to avoid having to build one typical U.S.-size coal plant. While I tell myself it's encouraging to see the start of another clean energy commitment in China, I'm still disheartened by the multiple coal plants they're building each week. But change has to start somewhere.

After a time of inquiry, now is the time for action, and France will be present at the forefront of the fight for human rights in the 21st century. The environmental new deal is an unprecedented democratic process. The role of the State is essentially to facilitate collective action. Its mission is to foster synergy between common and sometimes competing causes. After several weeks of debate one thing is clear: dialogue works and solutions exist.

Stirring indeed. But what makes this program so exceptional? The multilateral nature of the first phase, and the democratic or collective nature of the second, according to Borloo, adding that France can lead the way for the rest of the world by fashioning a sustainable society. "As both producers and consumers we will be subject to major changes, but those changes represent an opportunity for our economy, our health and our children." Sustainable living and economic growth are not incompatible. "By protecting the environment we prepare our companies for the economic competition of the future, we improve our quality of life, and we prevent illnesses caused by pollution."

Solar thermal power makes electricity by converting solar energy to heat that drives a thermal power plant.

The utility's plan is to build at least 300 megawatts (MW) of solar thermal in Florida; that's enough electricity to power about 150,000 homes. It will also help the state reach its goal of cutting CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by that same year.

California will get a 200-MW plant that will cover 2 square miles with flat mirrors that track the sun.

FPL's CEO Lew Hay told Reuters: "The thing we've got to make customers understand is that any fossil fuel has a hidden cost that society is paying every day, and that is the cost of carbon. We need to put a price on carbon, by doing so the illusion that coal-produced energy is low-cost will go away."

But then we get little nuggets of gold like this one, featuring the Ecuadorans who are now top on my list of "World's Greatest People."

Ecuador has pledged not to extract or explore the nearly one billion barrels of oil hidden underneath its Yasuni National Park. Despite the fact that oil exports make up one third of the country's budget, Ecuador will become the first country to deliberately leave oil reserves untouched.

However, Ecuador may not take quite the financial hit expected, because they could receive financial incentives in reward for this action. The fact that they are essentially removing the equivalent of 436 million tons of carbon dioxide from the planet is definitely worthy of such reward.

Yasuni is home to two indigenous tribes that live in voluntary isolation in what is described as one of the world's most biodiverse locations on the planet.

The utilities involved have more than 20 million customers and cover 22 states: Con Edison (ED), Edison International (EIX), Great Plains Energy (GXP), Duke Energy (DUK), Pepco Holdings (POM), PNM Resources (PNM), Sierra Pacific Resources (SRP), and Xcel Energy (XEL). Up until now, the only utilities that want to grow profits through energy efficiency investments have been in California.

The move by these utilities comes at a time when demand is growing, concerns and lawsuits about emissions abound, and global warming is a hot political and business issue.

Energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest way to cut global warming emissions, and the utilities agree: " …we share a common belief that energy efficiency is the greatest untapped resource in addressing global climate change in the near-term." Here are the major elements of their plan:

• Boost investments in energy efficiency projects to $1.5 billion per year in the next 10 years.

• Create a national institute for electric efficiency. The Energy Efficiency Institute will work on regulatory policy models, notably how utilities can make money when customers use less energy rather than more. It will be formed within the Edison Electric Institute, which represents the nation’s investor-owned utilities.