The Green Village News for August, 2009
Monday, August 31st, 2009
A new study conducted by WRAP, Waste & Resources Action Programme, published on 28th August 2009, has identified that demand for waste wood will outstrip supply in the next few years. The report, ‘Wood Waste Market in the UK’, provides both a detailed analysis of how the situation with waste wood product availability is likely to develop over the coming years, and also looks at the origins of waste wood products.
WRAP’s research anticipates a 14% decrease in the amount of waste wood compared to before the recession, a figure which could take up to 5 years to return to pre-recession levels. Director of Market Development, Marcus Gover, advises that WRAP are keen to offer support to recycling and reprocessing businesses across the UK in light of the problems that this shortfall could cause.
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Tags: CHP plant, fossil fuels, landfill, recycling, waste wood, wood fired power station, WRAP
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Energy and Resources, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
The EU ban agreed to in December last year which will put an end to the sale of 100 watt and frosted incandescent light bulbs comes into place on 1st September 2009. The ban will help reduce carbon emissions, as energy efficient CFL (Compact Florescent Lamp) bulbs use less energy than the familiar incandescent bulbs, and also last up to 7 years, therefore significantly reducing the number of bulbs people need to buy.
Energy efficient light bulbs have become much cheaper to buy over the past couple of years, and advances in technology have meant they are now available in many different sizes and shapes, with both bayonet and screw fittings, and are even available to work with dimmer switches. There is some criticism however regarding the newer types of CFLs that they do cost more, however the Energy Saving Trust estimates that each energy efficient light bulb used can save between £3 and £6 on your electricity bill each year.
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Tags: CFL, electricity bills, energy bills, energy consumption, energy efficiency, energy efficient lightbulb, energy saving, incandescent light bulb, light bulb ban, lightbulb
Posted in Eco Home, Energy and Resources, Environmental Politics, Ethical shopping, Green Living, Green Planet, Science and Technology | 8 Comments
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
The NHS has the biggest carbon footprint of the whole UK public sector, emitting over 18 million tonnes of CO2 per year. In an effort to help reduce costs, save lives and help reduce the carbon emissions of the organisation, a handbook providing guidance to key decision-makers in the NHS has been issued along with a letter from the President of UK Faculty of Public Health, Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, the Director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit, David Pencheon, the Chief Executive of the NHS, David Nicholson, and the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Steve Barnett.
The handbook, ‘Sustaining a Healthy Future – Taking action on climate change (with a special focus on the NHS)’ outlines a number of motives for the health authority to put measures in place to reduce the huge levels of greenhouse gases emitted every year. As well as making a significant contribution towards the government’s targets for reduced levels of carbon emissions by 2020, the organisation is also facing up to their responsibility to act to prevent serious effects of climate change caused by global warming that would inevitably affect the world’s poorest nations with most impact.
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Tags: carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change, nhs
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Living, Green Planet, Health and Wellbeing | No Comments
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
Climate change film ‘The Age of Stupid’ will see Pete Postlethwaite posing the question of why we didn’t do something to save ourselves to Australia and New Zealand at tomorrow’s premiere. The premiere will be the follow on from the low carbon example set by the UK premiere in March which set a Guiness world record for the largest simultaneous film premiere with people watching the live link-up with London from cinemas across the UK.
The premiere will see the return of the green carpet for celebrities to walk up, and will have a number of guest speakers including the head of Greenpeace in Australia, a Senator and there is even the chance that the Australian Prime Minister may join the event by telephone. In addition to this, there will be a satellite link to a boat in the Arctic where explorer Eric Phillips will be on board waiting to join in discussions, a video message from some children in Copenhagen will pass on their message to world leaders, and viewers will be able to send text messages to question the director and producer team, Franny Armstrong and Lizzie Gillett after the film.
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Tags: age of stupid, australia, climate change, film, film premiere, franny armstrong, lizzie gillett, new zealand, solar cinema
Posted in Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Events and Courses, Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | 1 Comment
Monday, August 17th, 2009
The Chicken Out! team are going out and about on a tour of a number of UK cities over the 39 days spanning between 10th August and 17th September. The tour will last the same amount of days as a broiler house chicken lives, from the day of hatching to the day they are shipped to the supermarket shelves.
The tour coincides with a daily blog which tells the story of a factory farmed chick’s lifetime from the day it hatches until the end of its short life 39 days later. Chickens that are raised for meat in broiler houses live an unnatural and short life. Intensive farming of chickens means that large numbers of birds are crammed into vast broiler houses with no natural light, no stimulation to promote natural behaviour such as scratching and perching, and large numbers of the birds die before they even reach the age required to be sent off for food.
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Tags: broiler house, chicken out, factory farming, free range, free range chicken, free range eggs, hugh fearnley whittingstall, intensive farming
Posted in Ethical shopping, Food and Farming, Green Family, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Homeopathic doctors in Mexico City have discovered that homeopathy can be used to successfully treat and cure swine flu. The pandemic outbreak of the disease that is sweeping the globe, with over 215,000 cases reported and 1,735 people who have died after being infected with the disease.
Although a vaccination programme has been announced in the UK yesterday (Thursday) that will be rolled out from October to vaccinate 13 million people who are most at risk in the first stage of the plan, some people are sceptical about how effective immunisation will be. In America, one of the three strains of swine flu that people are contracting is resistant to the drug of choice being used to treat the disease, Tamiflu.
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Tags: alternative medicine, flu, flu vaccine, herbal medicine, homeopath, homeopathic remedy, homeopathy, influenza, pharmaceutical industry, swine flu, Tamiflu
Posted in Green Family, Green Living, Green Planet, Health and Wellbeing, Science and Technology | 4 Comments
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
It’s National Allotment Week and across the UK different events have been taking place to spread the word about growing your own. From open days at allotment gardens across the UK to a scarecrow competition launched by an Elvis impersonating scarecrow at the Eden Project in Cornwall, and plenty more to come before the week is out.
As well as enjoying a family day out at one of the events taking place, it is the ideal time to get some last minute gardening in before the end of the season. There are still plenty of different vegetables you can try your hand at, including radishes, carrots, turnips and beetroot, and, there are varieties of cabbage and lettuce that can be grown all year round.
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Tags: allotment, fruit, herbs, vegetable plot, vegetables
Posted in Events and Courses, Green Family, Green Living, Grow Your Own | No Comments
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
After 18 days of sit in protests from 11 workers trying to get their voices heard and save the Vestas Blades factory on the Isle of Wight the fight is over. A court order granted last week gave the authorisation for bailiffs to forcibly remove the sit-in protesters from the building.
The wind turbine factory was the only wind turbine manufacturing plant in the UK, which was originally looked at to be converted to make wind turbine blades that were tailored to the UK. Vestas backtracked on the decision however, blaming the UK planning system. The company also attributed the closing of the factory to insufficient demand in the UK for wind turbines, claims which come despite commitments to investing in more renewable energy from the UK government, and around the world.
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Tags: renewable energy, vestas, vestas blades, wind energy, wind power, wind turbine, wind turbine factory, wind turbines
Posted in Energy and Resources, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | No Comments
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Britain’s declining bee numbers have been cause for concern but the new beehive by Omlet could be the answer for boosting bee populations. The beehaus, backed by Natural England, is being dubbed as the urban beehive and has been designed to make it easy to keep bees in a garden or on a rooftop, helping ensure pollination of fruit and vegetables and providing up to 50 jars of honey over the summer.
Recently there have been concerns about the effects of poor weather, varroa mites and even pesticide use having detrimental effects on the bee populations of the UK, effects which are also being felt around the world. Bees are crucial for pollinating food crops and the honey market, and although more people are becoming aware of the downturn in numbers and taking action such as planting wildlife gardens with plants that attract bees such as rosemary and lavender, more still needs to be done to secure their future and the important role they play. The beehaus could be one answer to this, making urban beekeeping an option.
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Tags: bee hive, beehaus, beekeeping, bees, honey, natural england, omlet, pollination, urban beekeeping, varroa mite
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Conservation and Wildlife, Green Living, Green Planet, Grow Your Own, Self-Sufficiency | No Comments
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
Waiting lists of up to 9 years across different areas of Wales have led to calls for more to be done to increase growing spaces across the country. Growing your own vegetables is becoming ever more popular, with allotments still being the prime location for most if they can get their hands on a vacant plot.
The summit, which took place at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, aims to address the problem of waiting lists and how more allotment sites can be made available to the communities who want them, but is also looking to provide those with private allotments with more rights. Although legally councils should provide more growing spaces if people within the community are demanding them, this law is not being upheld in a lot of cases.
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Tags: allotment, fruit, Grow Your Own, landshare, the good life, vegetables, wales
Posted in Environmental Politics, Food and Farming, Green Living, Green Planet, Grow Your Own | No Comments
