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Climate Crisis

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  1. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    the imperative of rejecting the straightjacket of capitalist realism

    Autobiography title material.

    the individual human lifespan is just not quite broad enough

    The change in the climate since we were kids is quite noticeable, even allowing for southward migration. But the intersection of the sets of people who would believe this, be interested, want to do anything, know what to do and be able to do it is minimal.

    What would the Dictator Benign of all Caledonia do? What would the people stand for before declaring the Dictator not so benign and throwing him in the rising sea?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    “What would the Dictator Benign of all Caledonia do? What would the people stand for before declaring the Dictator not so benign and throwing him in the rising sea?“

    That question is slightly part of the problem.

    An assumption that any part of the ‘developed’ world can make any significant difference AND has some sort of electorate that would allow the experiment AND have politicians with the imagination/power to do much.

    Only politicians believe they have answers and ‘if only we could get the chance to carry them out’.

    Today’s news.

    A handful of MPs don’t like their leader and imagine they will lead a 4th way.

    A Japanese car company thinks they can make more money by not making cars in the UK.

    The same country that ‘may have hottest February day ever this week’.

    Presume that will apply to other countries too - this week, next year, whenever.

    There’s even some degree of agreement that this is ‘bad’.

    Little chance of ‘well we’d better do something then’.

    Today’s even more bizarre news is that a Commons’ committee is recommending a ONE PENNY tax on clothes to fund a recycling scheme.

    ONE POUND would hardly make much difference to the ‘problem of fast fashion’.

    Business as usual - it’s what the voters want (see ‘war on motorists’ etc).

    Presume “Dictator Benign of all Caledonia” has worked out how to get power without an election?!

    Posted 5 years ago #
  3. mgj
    Member

    An issue covered in reasonable phylisophical detail in two of my favourite books. In The Trouble With Lichen, a trebling of human lifespan creates panic in governments and for working men. And Wyndhams The Kraken Wakes has exactly the sort of response to climate change that the current media has exhibited (its only a wee bit change, come back when its dreadful and too late for us to do anything)

    Posted 5 years ago #
  4. gembo
    Member

    @chdot you missed out the quite strange news that Derek Hatton has rejoined the Labour Party.

    This can only be a Trotskyite plot to annoy Stephen Kinnock so much that he does actually join Chuka Amuna.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  5. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Presume “Dictator Benign of all Caledonia” has worked out how to get power without an election?!

    By unpopular demand.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  6. chdot
    Admin

    “you missed out the quite strange news that Derek Hatton has rejoined the Labour Party”

    No I didn’t.

    Not worthy of comment.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  7. gembo
    Member

    degsy was quite annoying on the radio this morning. My l'pool homies tell me Tony Mulhearn was the real power in Militant

    Posted 5 years ago #
  8. chdot
    Admin

    But the Liverpool Echo reported that on Wednesday Hatton was notified of his suspension pending an investigation into a tweet he posted in 2012.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/20/derek-hatton-suspended-from-labour-over-tweet

    Can we get back to Climate Chaos now?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  9. chdot
    Admin

  10. chdot
    Admin

    This is interesting - I learnt when I was there last summer that the city of Amsterdam plans to rid the city of gas heating by 2020 (IIRC) to reduce CO2 emissions: (link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47306766 ) Households are expected to replace gas systems with electric ones.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/urbaneprofessor/status/1098495960974528512?s=20

    Posted 5 years ago #
  11. neddie
    Member

    I think electric ground-source heat-pumps, powered mostly by renewables is the way forward.

    Some sort of demand-management would also be needed to prevent spikes in demand which would most likely be filled by gas-fired generation.

    (Using gas to generate electricity to power traditional heating elements is very inefficient.)

    The issue with ground-source heat-pumps is often where to put the tubes - they need to be buried quite deep underground. In tenemented areas, this would have to be done as a shared system, with all neighbours in a block consenting... but how to mandate / encourage that...?

    Of course, none of this should be done until first of all, all buildings are insulated to the max.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  12. jdanielp
    Member

    @neddie ground-source heat-pump tubes can also be buried relatively shallowly underground as I understand it, but they do then take up a far greater area. Burying deep is clearly the way to go for tenemented areas, as you say. I would love to live somewhere with a combination of ground-source heating, solar array and/or wind turbine-generated electricity, and a home battery to keep things in balance.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  13. chdot
    Admin

  14. unhurt
    Member

    (Can we have a quiet word about how Spokes tweets look? Message good but always buried in a painful-to-parse wall of abbreviations, acronyms, links & @s - and sometimes a line of transport emojis to boot. There are examples out there of good campaign communications on Twitter, I've seen some...)

    Posted 5 years ago #
  15. acsimpson
    Member

    On a related note are there any companies which specialise in this sort of thing around Edinburgh? I'm not interested in a company which will come along and quote to do the work, or even someone who can make a back of the postage stamp calculation (aka home report). What I would like to find is a company who can take the time to assess an individual house and all it's idiosyncrasies and recommend the best place to start with improving it.

    The background is that we live in a unique(?) 90's build which seems to have been designed with no regard to energy efficiency. It is cross shaped with 1.5 stories and suspended wooden floors above a well ventilated void downstair. ie the floor, walls and roof are all about as poor as possible for heat release.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  16. chdot
    Admin

    “Can we have a quiet word about how Spokes tweets”

    Don’t know if that a/c is managed by more than one person, but there is someone on here who will.

    Spokes Twittering is an extension of newsletter and website.

    There are different views...

    Posted 5 years ago #
  17. Arellcat
    Moderator

    @ac, it's a shame you missed Tuesday evening's Home Energy Scotland: Smarter Homes, Smarter Energy seminar.

    If I were you, start by calling HES on 0808 808 2282, or go to to the HES website and fill in one of their home energy surveys. Either approach can lead to one of their assessors visiting your house for an hour or two and writing a (very good) report on costed interventions, depending on your home's EPC recommendations and your own energy usage habits.

    If you want a crazy detailed report, try speaking with nextGenergy. Shirley Paterson really knows her stuff.

    I'm currently looking quite hard in the direction of an air source heat pump, and (much, probably) later, solar PV and battery storage. And, according to HES, aerogel underfloor insulation is a thing now!

    Posted 5 years ago #
  18. steveo
    Member

    Thats on my list of stuff to do this year too. My attic conversion is quite old and probably wouldn't pass modern building regulations as there is virtually no insulation in the eves and I'm hesitant to add any without further advice lest stuff gets damp.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  19. acsimpson
    Member

    Thanks Arellcat. That sounds like a good place to start. I assume you know that funding for Solar PV is about to disappear. If you can install now you will benefit from the FIT and export rates.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  20. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Can we have a quiet word about how Spokes tweets look?

    My eyes actually refuse to see them. The electronic version of a naked madman shouting and doing jazz hands.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  21. Arellcat
    Moderator

    @ac, yes, there isn't long to get onto the FiT train. But the UK (via BEIS) is currently consulting on a sort-of-replacement, called the Smart Export Guarantee.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-future-for-small-scale-low-carbon-generation

    Associated salt in the wound is that the RHI looks set to end in 2021. By all accounts it hasn't lived up to expectations in terms of heat generation.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  22. sallyhinch
    Member

    Second the Home Energy Scotland reports suggestion - they're really good (we've had two now).

    Posted 5 years ago #
  23. chdot
    Admin

    The report signalled a heightened interest by governments in biodiversity, a subject that rarely gets the same attention as climate change. Many states reported economic losses caused by disappearing or shifting ecosystems. Ireland, Norway, Poland and Switzerland noted shrinking bumblebee populations. Egypt was concerned that its fishing industry would suffer because fish were migrating northwards due to rising ocean temperatures. Gambia said communities were being forced to buy expensive industrially-produced products because free wild food sources were becoming scarcer.

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/21/worlds-food-supply-under-severe-threat-from-loss-of-biodiversity

    Posted 5 years ago #
  24. chdot
    Admin

  25. chdot
    Admin

  26. chdot
    Admin

  27. gembo
    Member

    The photo makes the crags look like a volcano erupting again. Also shows the symmetry of the original new town design by James Craig.

    Fag butt surely not starting that fire in February?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  28. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Spotted the fire in the distance as I went to the shops. Crossed Inch park and the bin in the kids playground was also on fire. Wondered if I'd missed something in the news.

    Lady who had called the pompiers said kids lit the bin fire to get high on the fumes but given that the kids in question were smoking a Camberwell carrot as they sauntered off I hae ma doots.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  29. chdot
    Admin

  30. Rosie
    Member

    @gembo It has been very dry. I've been watering container plants, which I don't normally do until summer.

    Posted 5 years ago #

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