It’s good to hear from Science Daily that there is a growing demand for more enviro-conscious cleaning products. Probably the one we all know best is Ecover. Their website is full of alternative solutions and not just for cleaning materials, either.
If anyone is wondering why E.On seems likely to get the go ahead for the new coal fired power plant in Kent, they would do well to look to activities around Merthyr Tydfil. A new open-cast coal mine is being dug out of the ground and appears to herald the revival of the UK coal industry. And its all being kept very quiet. George Monbiot has the details.
E.On’s justification is that they will be able to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to keep the emissions within limits. Which sounds great until you discover that CCS is still in its embryonic phase and no-one knows if it will ever become a practical solution.
Greenpeace point out that “plenty of ready-to-go solutions do exist: energy efficiency, combined heat and power, wind, wave, tidal and solar power, for example. All that’s lacking is the political will to implement them – and investing money, time and political will in CCS, like that other false solution, is only going to undermine the real solutions we already have.”
Wind power, anyone? Well, apparently that may be a little tricky to achieve. Times Online, looking at John Hutton’S desire to see 7,000 wind turbines built off our coastline by 2020, says that this equates to building two a day, starting right now. “It’s crazy,” says Sue Ion, from the Royal Academy of Engineering. “Building wind turbines in a difficult marine environment is not an easy job. This is a serious engineering challenge that hasn’t been thought through properly.”
So, until they work out that bringing down the price of solar panels and helping everyone to fit them on our rooves might just have a cumulative effect – all we can do is keep hitting the off switch.
As the twelfth night approaches you will be getting ready to take down the decorations and Christmas cards. The Woodland Trust are offering to recycle them for us via WHSmith, Tesco, TKMaxx and M&S.
You have until 31st January!
It’s a bit late in the year to be thinking about helping these guys find a home in which to hibernate. But spare a thought if you are planning a revamp of your garden. The hedgehog is heading for the endangered list with serious decline in numbers between 2001 and 2005 being recorded by the Mammals Trust UK.
Old fashioned gardens had ‘wild’ places such as compost and mown grass areas. These were usually at the bottom hidden behind a hedge. These were safe havens for the little creatures that come out at night and munch away at our slug population.
With the trend for tidy gardens, we are doing away with the little hidey-holes where hedgehogs like to sleep and hibernate. They do such a good job keeping our gardens free of pests and only ask for bed and board. Much cheaper than chemicals which might kills slugs but also kill the birds that eat the slugs.
So, if you are looking for a worthy news year’s resolution: Find a hedgehog and give it a home.