I have become more and more aware that I use toooooo many tissues. I’ve managed to remember to recycle them but I still grab one to clean my hands of oil and mess when cooking instead of a cloth. It’s a habit I have to break!
Incidentally, I was just reading about Kimberly-Clark. They make a point of using virgin wood pulp as this makes softer tissues.
So… we are joining hands with France and about to make a fortune by becoming world leaders in the nuclear power industry.
For those of us that are not scientists, this argument swings like the proverbial pendulum.
I agree with Steve Webb, Lib Dem’s Enviroman, that this will produce no benefit until 2020 and we need something done NOW. Rather than spend a fortune on new energy creation schemes that will only deliver in 12 years time, we need huge sums of money spent on helping us, the people using the energy, to make better use of it. Cut the cost of solar and photovoltaic panels, provide better recycling systems, make it easy for people to live sustainably. This will cut down on the amount of energy we need.
The other side of the argument is that we must become energy independent. We can’t rely on imports to keep our power stations going so, from this point of view, nuclear is the obvious route. It is clean, it provides jobs, it’s there when you need it.
The problem with wind and sun is that they are not consistent. We can’t expect the clouds to part for extra solar gain at half time when everyone puts on the kettle. Nor the wind to blow extra hard at the end of the block buster movie (sorry, ‘film’, I get told off for saying ‘movie’!). Electricity is not something you can pop into a box and stick on the shelf to use later. You need huge farms of turbines and panels if you want to make the supply run efficient so I can see the argument against these.
But what about waves? We are an island. As long as we have Moon, the tides will go in and out in a very reliable fashion. The problem here lies in the government’s desire to wreck the coastline and various eco-systems instead of working with it to a happy conclusion.
Why are government scientists and environmentalists always at loggerheads? I’ll answer that in another question. Why does money still over-rule a sensible argument?
Unfortunately, I think we need some nuclear power stations (never thought I’d hear myself saying that). But I would hate it to be the government’s total solution.
Or if I add the comma: Tax, Glaciers and Paint. That about sums up my day’s round-up:
Al Gore has suggested to India that they cut income tax and instead tax polluters. Hit the budget, I reckon every country should do this, its the only way to make people listen unfortunately.
Timely, too, with today’s announcement that the glaciers are melting faste
But the one that cheers me up is the guys in Swansesa Uni who have managed to generate a windfarms worth of energy by painting roof tops. Great stuff guys :>)
I don’t believe it. President Bush just said:
“We gotta get off oil, American has got to change its habits,” Bush told a crowd at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, a meeting of global energy officials and an adjoining trade show that’s the largest all-renewables show ever held in the United States. “It should be obvious to all, demand has outstripped supply, which makes prices go up.”
Who finally managed to tell him? No wait, I’ve got it: He’s been genetically modified! Must have been…
OK, I haven’t spoken much about food on this site but I am a keen cook and make practically everything from scratch. Tonight, I decided that, since the Riverford meat box had given me a marinade, I would dice up this fortnight’s chicken and do the business.
Now, I have quartered a chicken before, I have removed the breasts and roasted the rest before, but I have never diced a raw chicken before.
And after tonight’s experience – I shan’t be doing it again!
I’m sure that there are a good many cooks out there who know the secrets of chicken dicing – I am not one of them. I think I have been at it an hour and, having already put into the oven a bolognaise sauce, a beef casserole, the chicken breasts for tonight’s dinner, and the wings for Seren (my kitten who likes roast chicken and gets a treat now and again) I have had enough of the kitchen for one evening, thank you very much!
If there is an easy way to dice a raw chicken – I would like to hear about it :>)
I’ve been a bit quiet recently but that is because my life has been rather busy of the Plastic Bag Free Chesham front.
Would like to say here that it was fab to be invited on to the panel after Al Gore’s film was shown on Monday evening. Thank you very much to Vicki Mistry and the Fair Trade team for organising the event.
It was good to see the film again. It was first shown here in January 2007 when a few of us were trying to raise climate change awareness in Chesham. As a result of this second viewing it looks as though the seeds have been sown that may take us to the next stage – Transition Town.