Monday, June 30, 2008

Battery recycling coming to the UK

Well, the collection of used batteries is - the actual recycling will be undertaken in Le Havre, France.

Odd that we don't seem to have the means or intentions to recycle them on our side of the channel. I wonder if they are going to ship back over the outputs which "can then be used in smelting works, cement factories and also as road building materials"?

Full story from Letsrecycle.com.

Worried about Peak Oil?

And wondering what plans our Gov has to account for the forthcoming oil supply crunch?

Well, rather surprisingly, our Gov seems to think that oil supplies will not be a problem and that our economy will continue to sustain and grow as the UK's demand for oil continues to grow too.

Most experts within the oil business itself believe that peak oil will create a major economic headache for the western world and most western governments are actually making contingency plans - well, except ours.

Not compulsory, of course, but if you would like to lobby our Gov to actually DO something please feel free to sign up to the following Downing Street petition.

JUNKK - Festivals

ARTICLES

Guardian - Heading for the green fields

For what it's worth, 'The Big Green Gathering' (located not too far from Glastonbury in Somerset) seemed to have its heart in the right place and has a nice vibe. My wife was asked to perform with her band so we decided to make it a family camping break. I was just keen to scope what might be out there in the world of enviro stuff. A few fun stalls but I'd have to say a few DIY/Home shows at the NEC I've been to probably covered more, more thoroughly.

As the piece indicates, I did also have slight trouble reconciling a bunch of folk traveling from all over the place basically to consume (no matter how 'greenly'), especially as most of us were getting there in cars (reason, if not excuse: ours was packed to the gunnels with camping and muso kit). And looking at the number of belching old campers and/or brand new pristine 4x4s in the car park I'd say the rest of the new age/new green brigade had decided to live with the irony.

Frankly I am rather feeling most festivals/concerts should just get on with doing what they were mainly designed to do, and as best they can meet some common sense, practical and reasonable CSR obligations (minimal impact, leave it as you found it (or better), the various 'R's). Mitigation is of course great, and to an extent worth sharing, but I'd also try and avoid too much sanctimonious planet-pushing if the enviROI of having it is higher than not.

Especially if the excuse for the shortfall is 'awareness'. A few too many folk are make a wee bit too much money pumping out extra CO2 in the name of reducing it, and that does not add up to me.

INFO

agreenerfestival.com
Biggreengathering
sunrisecelebration.com

New NASA Climate Change Website

NASA has launched a new climate change website - see NASA Website.

The site provides a plethora of data, including some quite scary time series flash animations (click on the Climate Time Machine tag), plus loads of very considered but reasonably concise documentation.

Well worth a visit.