So, what’s this about a “climate lockdown”?
https://spice-spotlight.scot/2023/01/27/so-whats-this-about-a-climate-lockdown/
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » This site
Dealing with Climate Change & Justice
(1312 posts)- Started 2 years ago by chdot
- Latest reply from chdot
- This topic is
sticky
-
Posted 1 year ago #
-
Oh no not *FACTS*?!!
Posted 1 year ago # -
@neddie For someone who derides others for lack of understanding, you don't half spout some nonsense yourself. You can ventilate a building like the Victorians did, by making it a draughty humid pile that's inefficient to heat and expensive to live in, or you can do it like civilised countries do with the MVHR systems I mentioned in my post. I'm arguing for Enerphit retrofits, not hot-gluing some packing foam to the front of the house then shonking off down the pub for the rest of the day.
"Just for the cost of some timber" - as if that cost is nothing at all, as if it's not also thousands of pounds of skilled labour that plenty of people living in tenements simply do not have. So what's your solution, better just to make us all sell up, clear out the riffraff to the council estates where they belong eh.
Posted 1 year ago # -
And I thought the days of CCE spats was past…!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I'm sure it would be possible to have a system of secured loans whereby the cost for these improvements is funded centrally but when a property transfers ownership the cost needs repaid.
Posted 1 year ago # -
My solution is to make timber energy efficient windows more affordable by any or all of the following:
- Mandate that everyone uses timber framed windows, thereby driving down costs through efficiencies of scale. The wood material itself isn't any more expensive to manufacture than uPVC, the "expense" only comes from the wide availability of uPVC-frame and relative scarcity of timber-frame. Furthermore, uPVC is seriously deleterious to the environment: a completely unsustainable fossil-fuel product pumping toxins into the air and water systems that eventually degrade into microplastics in the ocean. Timber by comparison is almost completely renewable and harmless.
- Government grants to support the installation of timber windows
As long as people continue with using plastic for everything, we are absolutely doomed as a species
Posted 1 year ago # -
If we do go down the "you have to do it This way, so grants will pay for it" route(which I'm by no means opposed to, I just see no sign of it happening and place people making their homes more liveable and energy efficient over ethereal notions of architectural purity), aluminium frames are almost as sustainable, require less maintenance, and are more affordable and effective when talking about "high performance"(ie thermal-gapped frames, very air tight, ideally triple glazed panes) systems which is where we really should be guiding people. They also don't require Ye Olde Experte Fitters with knowledge of brass and rope pulley systems.
Posted 1 year ago # -
EST came round our house with their infra red sensor and showed us how poor it was. So windows were number one and after installed it was much better. Not as good as a Ventrolla or some such 'non plastic' sash and case but a lot faster to fit (urgent need etc).
In carbon terms the lightweight magnetic surround is 2.5cm wood and allows fitters to match the non square windows common on old properties. Polycarbonate glazing is 'bad' but we had DIY glass before and that needed heavier framing. They took that away to use for plant greenhouses.
Environmentally we see lots of people not agreeing on what we should do. Stop buying stuff and aim for de-growth is one route. I accept that loans for cargobikes or glazing are only available to people with proven income in first place. I can't see way round that.
The environmental question always hits the growth question. Particularly when politicians use phrases like 'Turbo-charge the economy'. (no-one really says that in 2023?! :-)Posted 1 year ago # -
Somebody posted this on the recumbent forums recently:
https://www.recumbent.news/2023/01/20/aventybike-is-lambo-like-looking-velomobile-from-poland/
It makes me want to bang my head repeatedly on the table.
Take a perfect transportation concept that from a carbon point of view is very low emission - a standard velomobile - and make it look like a car, which is the exact thing velomobiles are NOT. So you take a super efficient platform and make it much heavier and less aerodynamic, which means it now needs a battery. And it looks like a car.
Why. Just why.
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
The Programme for Government 2021 included a welcome set of climate commitments linked to delivering a just transition. With the energy price cap currently predicted to rise by as much as 65% in October against April’s price, the Programme for Government in 2022 must supercharge the transition to a net-zero economy. Action in 2022-2023 will be the real test of this administration and its ability to flex its powers and work with business, citizens and the third sector to tackle both the climate and cost of living crises.
“
https://cerg.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CERG-Main-Report-2022-Updated-080922.pdf
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
But the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), which represents 16,000 farmers and rural people, says the pledge supports a “worrying” narrative about meat and dairy’s connection to climate change which is too “simplistic”.
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
“It’s bizarre and unfortunate that the NFU is displaying such a lack of imagination when the stakes are so high. Resolving the climate and nature crises will entail difficult trade-offs in land use, and a radical shift in the way that we eat and farm. With the right policies in place, farmers and producers can be paid to lead the change. In adopting such an obstructionist stance, the NFU is letting down its members, failing the public, and stunting progress towards a greener future.”
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
Shell’s actual spending on renewables is fraction of what it claims, group alleges Non-profit group
Global Witness urges US regulator to investigate oil giant and potentially impose fines over apparent ‘mislabeling’
“
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/01/shell-renwable-energy-spending-sec-global-witness
Posted 1 year ago # -
That certainly seems to be the case in Aboyne where my Mum's previously clean neighbourhood now smells like a laundry basket on the 6th of November.
When cycling on a still night there now seems to be a lot more pockets of air smelling of smoke than before.
Although both of these are of course anecdata.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted 1 year ago #
-
My gut feeling is that the "woodburner debate" is being used as a distraction technique by fossil fuel interests, to distract from transport, specifically cars. A sector which has made zero progress on overall CO2 emissions and zero progress in terms of traffic reduction.
This particular article comes from UCL, an engineering institution that likes to "engine" things, especially fossil fuelled high performance cars. What interest would an engineering institution normally have in low-tech woodburning stoves?
Also, they tend to compare dirty open fires with the very lowest particulate emission Euro 6 diesel or petrol engines, which aren't representative of the fleet.
A good woodburning stove is a world away from an open fire. Operated* correctly, with dry wood, it burns with a blue flame. Some even have "catalytic" converters (although I question whether there is really a catalytic process going on, or if this is just marketing)
*Whether people operate them correctly or not is another matter
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
BP scales back climate goals as profits more than double to £23bn
“
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/07/bp-profits-windfall-tax-gas-prices-ukraine-war
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
In the wake of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, and the rocketing gas and oil prices that followed, Boris Johnson launched what was supposed to be an energy security strategy. That was 10 months ago and was accompanied by the claim that the nuclear component would be accelerated by the immediate establishment of a “flagship body” called Great British Nuclear. This promise has gone the way of so many of that bloviator’s empty boasts. Simon Bowen, the industry expert who was appointed to advise on GBN’s creation, recently told MPs that it still doesn’t exist, ministers have not set out “a plan which tells us which technologies we need and when and where” and no funding has been agreed. “The piece that is missing at the moment is the overarching strategy.” Quite an important piece to be missing, wouldn’t you say?
…
Even when Britons have a lot of other stuff to make them anxious – a collapsing NHS, a cost of living crunch, waves of strikes in essential services – the climate crisis still commands a place in the top four of voters’ concerns.
…
It is a huge handicap that the Conservative party is so divided within itself about net zero. Some Tories do understand the imperative. Others scoff at what David Cameron once derided as “green crap”. I still meet a few who think the climate crisis is a hoax concocted by a conspiracy involving Extinction Rebellion, Sir David Attenborough and Beijing. Many Tories can think of net zero only as a painful burden to be moaned about and never as a fabulous opportunity to be eagerly seized.
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
Downing Street has confirmed five appointments.
Grant Shapps will be the new secretary of state for energy security and net zero. He was business secretary.
Michelle Donelan will be the new secretary of state for science, innovation and technology. She was culture secretary.
Kemi Badenoch will be the new secretary of state for business and trade. She was international trade secretary, but she will retain the “president of the board of trade” title she currently has (although it is little used) and she will remain minister for women and equalities.
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
Johnson has also accepted a donation of more than £1m from Christopher Harborne, an investor in crypto and aviation fuel based in Thailand who previously donated £6m to the Brexit party, now known as Reform UK.
“
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/08/boris-johnson-advance-payment-speeches
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
Rishi Sunak flew back to London from Dorset last night before flying to Cornwall this morning, No 10 confirms – UK politics live
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
Experts have urged the UK to leave the controversial energy charter treaty (ECT), a secret court system that enables fossil fuel companies to sue governments for huge sums over policies that could affect future profits.
The European Commission said this week that remaining part of the treaty would “clearly undermine” climate targets and that an exit by EU countries appeared “inevitable”. Seven EU countries, including France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, have already said they will quit the ECT.
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
James Shaw says country is entering ‘period of consequences’ for inaction over climate change as extreme weather wreaks havoc across the North Island
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
Blending hydrogen into the gas network can only makes any sense if it's fossil-based. Once you've gone to the expense of generating green power, if you blend it, you waste 70% turning it straight back to electricity, or 85% by failing to put the power into a heat pump.
Bonkers!
“
https://mobile.twitter.com/mliebreich/status/1625405256057192448
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
Climate crisis
World risks descending into a climate ‘doom loop’, warn thinktanks
Report says simply coping with escalating impacts of climate crisis could override tackling root cause
“
Posted 1 year ago #
Reply »
You must log in to post.
posts
