Recently in holidays Category

Coal's in the news a bit recently.  The G20 protests, some of which were about the lack of action to combat climate change, and the disgusting response from some of the police has put images of last year's Kingsnorth policing back on our screens.  And then there is the pre-emptive policing of a proposed protest on Ratcliffe on Soar power station... another coal-burning electricity generator.

But this blog isn't about policing, however interesting that is.  It's about Coal.  Coal is fossilised plant remains from millions of years ago, and as such, is carbon which was sucked out of the atmosphere by those plants. When we mine coal, and burn it, that carbon is released right back into today's atmosphere.  Whilst coal is underground, it is in an oxygen-free environment.  When we dig it up, the methane (natural gas or 'firedamp') which is in the coal also gets into our atmosphere, and this gas is even more powerful than carbon dioxide for the global greenhouse.  When the coal comes in contact with the air, reactions take place on the surfaces oxidising the carbon, so releasing carbon dioxide even before the coal is burnt, which of course releases ALL of the carbon it contains.

Supporters of he coal industry talk about 'carbon capture and storage', an experimental technology in it's early infancy.  The theory might look good... take the carbon dioxide out of the gas leaving the chimney, pressurise it into liquid and pump this into empty gas fields, oil wells and aquifers... But large scale CCS is years if not decades away, and we really don't have that kind of time scale to continue trashing this planet.  We have existing technology which would stem our carbon haemorrhage... insulation, switching things off, A-rated appliances, renewable generation... and I believe that some of the investment in CCS could (should) be spent on these proven technologies.  I think that CCS does have it's part to play in a sustainable future, but I despair about disinvestment in renewables (for instance, what happened to Pelamis).

So, I want to invite you to participate in the Coal Caravan, a cycle trip from Nottingham to Blyth, starting on 24th April and finishing on 5th May, and taking in some of the biggest of the UK's coal mining communities.   There's cycling during the day, and nature walks, visits to open cast coal mines, and then meetings with discussion or film showings in the evening.  I hope to join them as they pass near to York, just for part of the day, to support the riders.

If some of you think that I'm being alarmist about climate change, then read what experts say in this website, 100 months. Some of the so-called' tipping points' seem to have already started... for instance there are disturbing reports of permafrost melting and raised methane levels in the arctic....  So, time is short.  What are YOU doing to be a responsible ancestor?

I'm not sure if I have any regular readers... certainly no-one has mentioned my little break from writing this blog.  I've had a month's holiday... over Christmas and New Year I just didn't feel like writing anything.  And no-one noticed!  Well, no-one asked why I wasn't keeping to my usual once a week routine.  I didn't go anywhere on holiday, I've been at home, looking after the children, my wife, cooking, composting, managing logpiles, doing occasional Professor Fiddlesticks gigs and trying to keep on top of the paperwork.  I suppose I've been a bit low, not as far as depressed, but not feeling my usual joyful optimistic self.

I attended a York in Transition meeting last night, the first Solar Panel Buyers Club. I was planning to extol the benefits of bulk buying this type of hot water system, but news this Monday morning from another airport protest means that some of this post will be discussing that too.

Late last week I had a meeting with a new friend who had come to York to participate in a historical re-enactment event.  I knew nothing about this pastime/lifestyle apart from seeing quite a few re-enactors at the Norfolk Park event in Sheffield a few years ago, when I attended as Professor Fiddlesticks. It looked as if they were having fun, but I though little more about it.

More often we are hearing various terms bandied around in the media and some of them are not self-explanitory... one of these is 'Peak Oil'.  So last week I attended a York Greenspeak meeting which was all about this fascinating and very current subject.  I knew a bit about the theory that oil reserves are about half finished, but less about how this will affect us economically and socially.

Peak oil was suggested by Shell geologist Dr Marion King Hubbert in 1956 as he had worked out that the discovery and extraction of oil would follow a 'bell curve' distribution.  He accurately predicted peak US oil production (1970) and that world oil production would be somewhere about now, ie that we may be about to start the long period of reduced oil extraction.  Peak world oil discovery was 1964, which means that although there is probably more oil to be discovered, it isn't the 'easy to get' stuff and it will be smaller quantities, and more expensive to get out.  Meanwhile, world oil use continues to rise, as developing countries continue to develop and human populations continue to grow.  Published world oil reserves suggest that peak oil will be about 2030, but recently Shell has drastically reduced their reserve figures, suggesting that oil companies may have overstated their reserves (to boost confidence and share prices?).

So, we are heading for a situation with less available mineral oil, and this will affect us in a number of ways.  Firstly, scarcity drives prices up.  We are already experiencing this.  When the price of a barrel of oil goes up, it becomes more economically viable to extract oil out of 'unconventional' sources such as tar sands and oil shales, but these require more energy to get the oil out, so the price won't go down again.  Higher prices also mean that investment into alternatives such as hydrogen, biofuels, coal liquifaction and nuclear will go up.  But all of these alternatives have problems and knock-on issues... biofuels for instance are competing for finite arable land for food and biodiversity, the hydrogen economy depends on either electricity to split water or fossil gas to provide the hydrogen, and coal and gas both add carbon dioxide to the overloaded atmosphere.  The two greenest solutions to the coming energy crisis are energy efficiency and renewables from wind, sun, tides and hydro.

So how do we 'ordinary people' deal with this knowledge?  Well it would be responsible and prudent to reduce our energy use, by driving less and in smaller more efficient vehicles, by reducing energy use in the home by insulating, having more efficient appliances and switching them off when not in use, by reducing meat and dairy in our diets, by buying less and recycling more, by buying locally and in season... you know the score by now!  Unfortunately, we all know what we SHOULD do but are finding it very difficult to change.

Last week, researchers at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that Carbon Dioxide levels had hit a new record high, of 387 parts per million (ppm), as measured by their research outpost in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.  This may not mean a lot to people less obsessed by CO2 levels than me, but it is significant, since the NOAA people say that the rate of accumulation is increasing, and is over 2ppm greater each year.  This is the highest CO2 concentration for 650,000 years, a level that humans have never experienced before.  This means that in just 6 or 7 years, the level will rise to 400ppm, a theoretical 'line in the sand' over which many scientists think that our climate will descend into chaos and become much more unpredictable and violent.

On Sunday 24th February 2008 the world changed... or did it? Certainly there was a 'first'; a jet plane made a short trip with one of it's four engines running on biofuel. A Virgin Boeing 747 flew from Heathrow to Schiphol in Amsterdam using a mixture of coconut and babassu nut oil. Sir Richard Branson hailed this as the dawn of a new era but I don't think we're there yet. This 'new era' isn't going to be easy either.

Much as though the so-called 'mile high club' might be attractive to some people, joining it does involve getting on an aeroplane, which some of us do not want to do.... So I have joined the No Miles High Club, a pioneering initiative to reward people for not flying.

Last Wednesday (14th November 07) was the first World Responsible Tourism Day, not that most people would have noticed.

Some of you will have noticed that is 'Organic Fortnight', a time when producers and retailers celebrate and promote products grown without artificial fertilisers and pesticides... and hopefully persuade even more of us to choose to buy organic.