Helping the rain forests

There are a number of websites that make a contribution to a charity whenever you use them. The one below is a bit different.

Ecosia www.Ecosia.org is a search engine run by a non-profit group that uses 80% of revenue generated by leads to protect the Rain Forests.

I have put it on my desktop without any problems, it simply changed the little search box on the top RHS from 'Google' to 'Ecosia'. Every time I have used it, a small fee is paid to Ecosia and this is used for their work on the rainforests. I figure appears in the bottom right of your screen telling you how much rainforest you have saved.

If you find other websites that donate to environmental charities let us know.

Packaging

I do not often shop in Lidl but this morning we needed a few things so went in the one at Balsall Heath.
As I was coming out I noticed a lady who had past through the checkout and was packing her purchases into her bags. However before she put them in her bag she removed much of the packaging. For instance she took the bag of cornflakes out of its box and discarded the box.
I had heard of and seen this happening in Germany but never seen it in the UK.
Many of us moan about excess packaging but not many of us do something about it. I take my hat off to the Balsall Heath lady.
Incidentally Lidl do now stock some Fairtrade goods. I saw chocolate, tea, and coffee and there could have been more.

A New Year

Happy New Year to everybody. I hope you have all made resolutions to help improve the environment this year.

The start of a new year makes me start putting things in a new diary. Usually we start thinking about what plants we are going to grow particularly in the allotment. However as I write snow is falling outside so perhaps I will put it off for now.

However despite the supermarkets almost destroying the natural rhythms of the year by importing food when it is out of season there are a still a few things that can only be bought at certain times. The one that comes to mind in January is Seville oranges to make marmalade. This month is the only time of the year one can find them and even then one has to search.

I love marmalade so do go out and search and buy enough to make enough marmalade for a year. If you have not tried making your own now is the time! You can do it in the warm and ignore the weather outside.

Christmas Tree

Northfield Ecocentre in their Sustainable Christmas Tips
recommends getting a real Christmas tree with roots. We have been doing this successfully for well over ten years. We have just finished decorating the tree shown above. The tree spends the rest of the year in a big plant pot in the garden and is then lifted in just before Christmas each year. We have the decorated tree in the conservatory so that it does not get too hot and shed its leaves. Our particular tree started smaller but has grown a bit each year.

Climate Change

The last few weeks have brought out the sceptics about climate change. I suppose it is the build up to the Copenhagen talks that has made them realise that there is some publicity available for outlandish statements.

I wonder where all these people have been living for the last few years or is it just me that is showing my age.

When my children were young we bought two sledges because each year it was fun to go to the hill local park. Before they were teenagers we found we never got the sledges out of the loft as the snow was not thick enough! That was only twenty years ago. About the same time every year I would anticipate waking up at least a couple of times in the morning and find the snow too thick to even try and get to work. Only ten years later it was never a problem.

I keep some notes about when my trees and plants first flower or bear fruit. Over the years this has steadily been getting earlier. There is an occasional year which bucks the trend but the warmer weather is clearly there in my records.

Yes none of the above stand close scientific scrutiny but it convinces me that there is something happening. Surely all the sceptics can see the changes as well or do they not look out the window?

The Wave

Occasionally there is an event that attracts people’s attention. The one that is coming soon is “The Wave”. This is an event that is happening in London on December 5th.
Activists from all over UK are coming together to show that they are concerned about Climate Change and want our elected leaders to do something about it.
Ahead of the crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life will flow through the streets of London to demonstrate their support for a safe climate future for all.
Part of a global series of public actions, The Wave will call on world leaders to take urgent action to secure a fair international deal to stop global warming exceeding the danger threshold of 2 degrees C.
The Wave, organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, will show mass support by people from all backgrounds for a better, low carbon future for the UK and the world.
We want the UK Government to show leadership at Copenhagen. We want them to Protect the Poorest, Act Fair & Fast, and to Quit Dirty Coal now, to inspire the deal the world needs..
I will be at "The Wave” - the UK’s biggest ever demonstration in support of action on climate change so far. There are buses going from all round Birmingham.
Hope to see you there.
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Made in Birmingham

Esther Boyd describes in her Birmingham Mail – Lighter Footprints Blog visiting the Ecohouse in Balsall Heath last Saturday. I also went during the day but was impressed with some different issues.
It is a great achievement to build a house that conforms to Sustainable Homes Code 6. It is even more of an achievement to incorporate an existing Victorian house into the design. John Christopher the architect and owner of the house described the effort he had put in to achieve the standard. What we have to remember is that by 2016 this house has not to be the exception but the norm. Every new house will have to achieve this standard.
The house is very much a building that will be appreciated by architects both for its layout and aesthetics but it was not that which impressed me. What I thought was especially special was the way materials had been chosen. Some were recycled, some were local but all had a low embedded energy content. For instance the floors were made of clay from the site instead of using cement that uses a lot of energy to produce. A lot of care had gone into each detail but I was left wondering what will happen when houses to Sustainability Homes Code 6 have to be mass produced.

A great effort and one that should put Birmingham on the Eco-homes map.

Growth or Degrowth?

The forthcoming Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December is encouraging many people to put forward their suggestions and comments. These include Nick Stern who was one of the first to write about the economics of Climate Change. He has now said that ” the current economic depression gives the world a unique, unrepeatable opportunity to tackle climate change and poverty.”
Oliver Tickell in the Guardian follows this up with “one thing we do not need is an early recovery which raises demand for fossil energy, creating new spikes in the price of oil, gas and coal, so sowing the seeds of its own destruction. For the high price of fossil fuels was surely one of the triggers that created this global depression in the first place. That is why we need to to bring about huge investments in renewable energy technologies and the associated infrastructure
Not to forget energy efficiency and conservation: making our homes, offices, industries and transport systems more frugal in their energy demands. In this way when the recovery comes, we will have the clean, green energy to supply it, and lower demand to avoid pushing up fossil fuel prices. And in the meanwhile we will have created millions of jobs in the new green industries, civil engineering and construction, putting skilled but idle hands to productive use.”
All this may sound rather academic and you find yourself asking “What can I do?” Magazines and newspapers are full of adverts encouraging us to take advantage of offers about insulating our homes. At least we should each look to see if we have brought our own properties up to scratch. Also remember that this encourages employment in the local green industries.