I am here

Here I am

Looking back on what’s completed

And towards, all the other pieces

You are here

Here you are amongst all the pieces

Shining forth into the dark

Holding tight this restless heart

Raindrops ripple the painted mirror

In a silence so serene it shimmers

I find something shrinking growing dimmer

A wind whispers as I try to listen

Ripples finding the sunlight to glisten

Slowly passing by I find something missing

The path patterned with dusky debris

Time becoming the falling of leaves

Something fading with each breath I breathe

Shadows dance on the brick built mill

Each inhale bringing the morning chill

Apart from something I can start to still

Like the reflections in the water

And the passing of leaves to litter

Minds all need their time to recover

I speak

Not because I ought

But because I trust you hear

Not to trap my thoughts

But for help which way to steer

So you may have heard Britain has gone TWO WHOLE MONTHS without using coal to generate electricity. Wonderful, Britain I am proud of you. In fact the month of May was the 1st entire calendar month to have no coal burned for electricity since, wait for it, the industrial revolution. So we’ve been doing coal for a while but now thanks to an extra sunny May, a solar energy boom, means no more coal! For now. There are still three coal plants in Britain but these are planned to close in the next five years.

But I hear, what has any of this got to do with Steve and his carbon. Well this is where it gets interesting. I was digging around looking at how we can spot how much energy has been generated from where. I found the Department of Energy and Climate Change Excel sheets interesting for long term trends. Then I found the National Grid ESO’s Great Britains Electricity Explained get yourself a tasty visual monthly snapshot of whats going on with POWER. But finally bring in Steve to present the Two-Day Carbon intensity forecast. Yes there is such a thing as a Carbon Intensity forecast and it will tell you how much carbon is produced per unit of electricity(kWh) in each region. It will tell you how much power is coming from where, is it wind, solar, gas, etc. And with the help of WWF it will tell you when to plug in and when to plug out to make your energy use as renewable as possible.

But that’s it really. If you want to stop reading now I have no new juicy news or it’s quite possible none of this was news for you anyway so umm gutted. However, if you want a bit more let’s break down the carbon intenstity forecast a little more.

What is it?

It’s a carbon intensity forecast. Yes, but did I know carbon intensity is the amount of CO2 produced in grams per kilowatthour of energy produced. Maybe because I kind of said that already. But let’s break it down even more. What’s a kilowatthour look like, a kilowatt hour is an amount of power, specifically electric power. It is equal to using 1000 watts(1kW) of power for 1 hour. This is what you’ll see on your energy bills. Still doesn’t really tell us what it looks like so what uses 1000 watts for an hour in your house. Let’s go with an iron, approx 1kW power, so if you iron clothes for 1 hour you’ve used 1kWh of energy. So that means according to the forecast for right now you’ve produced 262g of CO2. Just because if you waited just 2 days, until June 11th at 2pm that same amount of ironing would only produce 102g. A whopping 160g of carbon saved boom you are a hero and your clothes are looking fresh. That is equivalent to about a km in your average British car. Maybe not much but I think the principle is cool.

And lets take the principle forward a little. Combine it with something else cool like electric cars. Say your electric car takes 8.5 hours to charge from your standard home wall socket. This could maybe be putting out a power at 3400W? so 3.4kW for 8.5 hours is 28.9kWh so if we magically collapsed and folded and did wizardy with time to make that 8.5 hours happen now we would emit 7572g of carbon if we did it on the 11th at 2pm bang on you would emit 2947g. Saving almost 5000g of carbon being emitted. Tada you’re even more of a hero. And not travelled 39km in your average nowadays car. That I reckon is a difference.

But it’s not all down to us, and I’m not recommending a constant consulation of the carbon forecast as to when to have a cup of tea. But if you’re using power heavy appliances for a sustained time. Why not consult the forecast?

What’s this? A country that isn’t contributing to climate change, a whole country soaking up and offsetting carbon emissions. Impossible! But that is excatly what Bhutan is doing and has been doing for a very long time. If you don’t believe me click here and listen to their president tell you all about it, or keep reading for my summary or do both. You do you.

Who are they? Bhutan is a tiny country in the Himalayas, sitting between China and India. And when I say small I mean 700,000 people which is equivalent to about two Nottinghams or almost a tenth of a London. They are ruled by a King BUT their king imposed a democracy on the people through their constitution. And while he was there he made it constitutional for a King to retire at 65 AND gave the people a mechanism to impeach their King. It was one of these fabulous kings that came out with the comment that maybe sets Bhutan apart from the rest of us. Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product. This gives Bhutan an incredible power to grow their economy but to do so without comprising their social development, environmental sustainability or cultural preservation. So that’s who they are but what is it this enlightened country are doing.

What are they doing? There is currently (2016) 72% forest cover in Bhutan and a minimum of 60% forest cover for all time is set out in their constitution. 50% of the country is protected and all of this protected land is connected with “biological corridors”. Biological corridors are possibly my favourite thing ever. Just imagine the conversation in the UK. Two blokes sat in the pub, one says to the other “It’s sad that the badgers in the North will never see the South Downs” “Wait wait wait” says the other “What if we made forest roads for the badgers”. Pure class Bhutan love it. This protected forest is what makes Bhutan a carbon neutral country, or even carbon negative. In the video it is stated that Bhutan generates 2.2 million tonnes of CO2 a year, the forest cover absorbs 3x this. So Bhutan with all of this pristine and beautiful nature is sequestrating 4 million tonnes of CO2.

They are also exporting lots and lots of green energy. The fast flowing rivers in this mountainous region are being harnessed for hydropower. In 2016 when this video was recorded they exported enough energy to offset 6 million tonnes of CO2, in 2020 they are expected to offset 17 million tonnes and if they reach their aim of harnessing 50% of the potential hydroenergy in the country they will be able to offset 50 million tonnes of CO2. That’s more CO2 than the city of New York generates in a YEAR.

What can I do? Well this post is a bit different, and there’s no real practical application from this video. All I can do is applaud Bhutan for being truly unique and revolutionary in the way they are doing things. But there is the sad news. Bhutan is doing everything they can for our planet and everyone on it. But the country is in trouble from us. Bhutan contains 2700 glacial lakes, and they are melting. Just one of these lakes flooded its dams and wrecked havoc on the towns below. Imagine the damage all of them could do. So where is the justice, how can I sit here in my warm home, eating whatever I want and driving anywhere I want whilst a country committed to saving this planet floods. I cannot, it’s not a matter of saving the planet for the planets sake, it a matter of justice and doing what is fair for all the people calling this planet home.

Maybe, just maybe I’m a little late to the party on this one. This article made the press back in November (wooo) and they have probably done a much better job than I will at writing about it but here goes anyway.

The short version is 5, rather well renowned scientists wrote an article! This article was then signed by 11,258 scientists from 153 countries. Impressive huh, these guys obviously dropped something big(Picture university offices in Oregon bursting into flames as they hit print). This paper laid out a series of “vital signs” in graphical forms displaying the effects on humans on the climate. And it isn’t a pretty picture, metaphorically, the graphs are lovely. The 5 then lay out what they think needs to change to prevent climate disaster and urge everyone to adopt these climate vital signs for assessing impact in the future. That’s the short version, if that’s enough of me here is the link to the article. Have a read look at our trajectory for yourself. If you haven’t had enough keep going down for what I took from it.

Who are they? The 5 who published the paper were; William Ripple “Distinguished professor of ecology” and Christopher Wolf Post-doc from the Oregon State University, a university in the top 1% of world universities. Also featuring is Thomas Newsome lecturer at the University of Sydney, the chief science and policy officer of the conservation biology institute Phoebe Barnard and William Moomaw Professor Emeritus of the Fletcher School. As a side note their paper was published in BioScience’s, a journal with impact factor 6.591 which I would say is respectable.

What did they do? These scientists went through with their “moral obligation” to “warn humanity of any catastrophic threat” They visually represented the vital signs of our planets health far beyond the standard global surface temperature used before. They looked at these vital signs over the last 40 years using “relevant data sets that are clear, understandable, systemically collected for at least the last 5 years and updated at least annually”.

What did they say? To quote “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live, in ways that improve the vital signs summarised in our graphs”. Further to this they lay out six critical and interrelated steps in how we can change. They also state that we will need more than these but as a start this is good. The steps are as follows;

1)Energy – Energy efficiency and conservation practices must improve, fossil fuels must be replaced IF safe for people and planet and fossil fuels still in the ground should stay in the ground. The article highlights the need for wealthier countries to support and assist poorer nations in this transition.

2)Short-lived pollutants – Simply methane, soot and HFCs should stop being put into the atmosphere.

3)Nature – The good one. We need to protect and restore Earths ecosystems!! Pro-forestation, reforestation and afforestation should all be increased in a safe and thought out manner.

4)Food – Reducing meat consumption by eating mainly plant based food. This frees up land used for cattle and other ruminant livestock for reforestation and essential food production in a much more effective manner. Food waste is also mentioned at the end, reduction in waste improves food efficiency.

5)Economy – Move away from GDP to sustaining ecosystems and human well-being as measures of success. This should also curtail the extraction of materials and over exploitation of ecosystems driven by this constant need for growth.

6)Population – World population should ideally start to reduce… This seems a bit dark… Got Utopia vibes… not great but a valid point.

What can we do/What am I doing?

1) Confession time . I don’t think my energy supplier is the greenest going. Shoot me I’m a student, in a student flat so we went cheap. I didn’t buy in to the climate and I suck. But I won’t be a student for much longer, and my next supplier will be judged on their use of renewable energy and that alone.

2) Umm this one on a personal level I don’t really know… Please sen help or stop eating cows…

3)NATUREEEEEEEEEE. I love nature and surely that is the biggest thing we can do to encourage this change. Go outside, hug a tree, listen to some birds and pay for the car parks, the forestry commission or national trust to show we want green space. And we want it all!

4) System change is going to take a while. Changing diet can happen tonight. I am vegan and proud and I promise you will not miss anything when you get into it. There is now I am sure a plant based version of everything. Try it. I get it if you don’t want to say “I’m a Vegan” but why not try “I eat a plant-based diet” instead.

5) “I’M NOT BUYING YOUR CRAP” he says, or tries. But not buying is probably the best way to say I don’t care about growth, maybe, I’m not an expert. But shopping recycled fashion and electronics, repairing and re-purposing items surely says something.

6) Consider not having children right now… If you’re like me this might suck, you might have always wanted to be a parent. But the fact is this is an emergency and maybe not having kids right now is what it will take to keep this planet the way it was when we were kids. So the kids that are already here can enjoy all the wonders we did. But still does kinda suck.

Everything is dying

And the World is on Fire

And you’re not even trying

Just calling me a liar

You ask where is my proof

As the World it Burns

Just look at the Truth

As sure as the World turns

An emergency this is

But all seems so calm

A cataclysmic disaster is this

But the power is in your palms

Take action and fast

Change your way, make it right

Before time to save is past

And we’re left with no hope in sight

Hi people. So welcome! This page might possibly be just me talking to myself about stuff I find cool/inspiring/drags me up out of the pit of “THE WORLD IS ON FIRE” and a new flat favourite “THINK OF THE WALRUSES(WALRUSI*)”.

Anyway the plan is to just dump some form of podcast/article/meme review on here weekly. Talking about whats going on in the sustainability/environmental world, from a guy with no expertise just trying to do his bit.

So God bless and I hope you enjoy my slightly ordered internet rants.