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These days there are hundeds of campaigns, schemes and groups aiming to 'save the planet', all of then well-meaning but of varying effectiveness.  I don't actually like the term 'save the planet', as I tend to take things literally and in my view, the planet will be around for a long time... I prefer to think of these ideas as 'keep the planet habitable for humans and other life-forms' but that's much less catchy....

One such scheme is Earth Hour, which this year takes place on Saturday 28th March at 8.30pm.  The idea is that for one hour, around the globe, all participating individuals, businesses, local authorities etc switch off their lights, computers and other electrical appliances for one hour.  All well and good... it's not asking anything too difficult or complicated, it saves energy, gives people a sense of participation, and yes, this has made it one of the most popular campaigns around.

This year it is being labelled as 'Vote Earth' and the website claims that 930 cities and towns in 80 countries are participating; the aim is to involve a billion people. It started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, with about 2.2 million homes switching off their lights, and last year an estimated 50 million people joined in.  So, during that hour, a lot of energy was not used which would have been if things had gone on as normal.

The popularity of this event is evident when doing a search on Facebook for 'Earth Hour'... I counted up to 300 groups dedicated to it before I gave up.  Some were for individual towns and cities, some for states or countries, some for supporters and fans.  However, this search also showed a handful of groups with names like 'Anti Earth Hour', 'Earth Hour Sucks', 'People against Earth Hour', 'Earth Hour was Useless', and 'F*ck Earth Hour'.  These groups fall into two broad categories, the so-called 'climate deniers' who think that the broad scientific consensus that man-made gas emissions are altering the planet's atmosphere is wrong, and that any observable warming is part of some 'natural cycle', and those who feel that just switching off your lights for one hour per year is a complete waste of time when what we actually need to do is to cut our total emissions by 80%.  This view is promoted by the various Facebook groups such as 'Earth Hour Every Month' and the more radical 'Earth Hour Every Week'.  Maybe I should start a Facebook Group called 'Earth Hour Every Hour'?

Unfortunately, I will be unable to 'attend' Earth Hour this year as I have a ticket to go and see the Ukuele Orchestra, and my guess is that they'll need amplification which is of course, based on electric power.  I'll stick to my Earth Hour Every Hour concept, I think!

I was brought up as an atheist, but as an adult and a scientist, I believe that we cannot prove the non-existance of a Deity, and I have lots of people in my life who have assorted faiths, so being overtly atheist somehow seems wrong to me, so I'm officially agnostic; I'm a 'don't know'.  This seems to be a respectful and honest position to take.

People like me do go on about how big the problem is.  We often use numbers to prove a point.  Sometimes it's difficult to envisage how many, or how much when it comes to climate change, resource use, waste etc, but I've found an excellent website which gives us an insight into some of these figures.

You may remember seeing the Climate Camp in the media this year, where protestors and campaigners gathered near Kingsnorth Coal-Fired Power Station in Kent during the first week of August. One of the aims of the camp was to draw attention to the situation that faces humanity if we continue to burn coal unabated.. like E ON would like to do, by building another power station at the site to replace the old one.  The proposed new electricity generator would emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, with no 'carbon capture and storage' technology installed.  To many of us, behaviour like this is just criminal and exceedingly foolish.

From October 2008 all public buildings over a certain size will be required to display an Energy Performance Certificate, which will be in the form of an A-G rating similar to a new fridge or car.  Buildings use about 50% of our energy in this country and therefore if they are made to be more efficient, we are going to get big savings of carbon emissions AND money from our fuel and energy bills.  EPCs are also part of the Home Information Pack which house sellers have to provide, but only public buildings over 1000m2 have to display the Certificate, although smaller buildings can voluntarily do so.

This regulation has been brought in because of the EC's Energy Performance Directive, responding to the needs of climate change and reducing our carbon footprint.  The assessment of your building has to be by an accredited assessor, who will look at the fabric of the building, the ventilation, lighting, heating, cooling, hot water and fuel/s used, plus any other mechanical or electrical systems, to see if they are running efficiently.  These details will be inputted into a software programme and the energy efficiency rating will be calculated.  The person in control of the building will be provided with reccommendations and advice, especially for the air conditioning and boiler systems.  Displaying the certificate shows visitors to your building how energy efficient it is, and if you have an efficient building or work towards making it more efficient, you will be showing 'corporate social responsibility' AND saving money!  You can download the pdf guide to this here, and learn more about EPCs generally here.

Ways in which you can make your building more energy efficient are many, but start with how they are used by the people within them, such as turning off monitors and printers at night, and turning off lights when the room's not being used, only heating the required amount of water in a kettle etc etc... the same type of energy-saving behaviour we should be doing at home.  At work, though, we may have motion sensors which switch lights on when we come into a room (and off when there's been no movement for a few minutes), and time switches which turn computers off after the office has shut.  These measures are good investments as we cannot rely on individuals to always do the right thing!  However the fabric of the building is very important too, external wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, internal wall insulation, roof-space insulation, double or triple glazing, draughtproofing... these all help conserve heat and reduce waste.  Replacing old lightbulbs with compact fluorescents or LEDs also reduces your bills, although like many measures may have a high initial cost which is recouped over several years.  Old, inefficient heating systems can be replaced...and these days, there are some interesting low-carbon options including heat pumps (more on these in a future blog) and biomass boilers, as well as 'traditional' gas or oil heating, but more efficient than older models.  With energy prices going relentlessly up (and there is no hope of them going down folks), these technologies are looking increasingly viable and cost effective.