Going Green

Across the globe, countries such as Japan, Italy, Norway, Iran and Finland are breaking heat records as a swing of heat waves makes life very difficult. One question people keep asking is are they occuring more often? 
Lets start to answer that by stating what is a heat wave.  simply put it is a system of high atmospheric pressure moves into an area and lasts two or more days. 
Climate change is making these occur more often and increasing the intensity of these high pressure systems changing the local climate in many places. Causing Droughts and wild fires in places that don't usually have them causing issues of having more problems for emergency services and other bodies

Who should set the climate targets? Should it be, the scientists, the people, the governments? Philip and Paul open this can of worms and try to decide which is best.

Climate targets are the limits that scientists and policymakers have set in plans to combat climate change. 

These targets can take different forms, from goals for limiting the Earth’s warming to hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions, and but they can be set really by anyone, however they should follow a plan.

#climatechange #podcast #climatechangeawareness

The UK has a problem, its known as water scarcity. A survey of 2,000 Brits revealing that water consumption is low down on the priority agenda for environmental concerns, while Sir James Bevan chief of the Environment agency warns that the Lack of water presents ‘existential’ threat to our climate will be felt for decades if we dont do something about it. 
This Summer, UK water companies have joined forces again to launch Water’s Worth Saving,(https://watersworthsaving.org.uk/) a national campaign encouraging the public to make every drop count this summer.

Everything is so bad, the climate change is causing fires and floods and what the point of doing anything. If I turn down the heating a bit, if I use an electric car - how's that going to change anything?

The honest answer is if I do all these changes it won't change anything but what are the consequences of doing nothing? 

Doing nothing isn't an option. Doing nothing will cost far more than doing something.

Russia's special operation on Ukraine is devastating for the country and having efects on europe with them being denied oil and gas but this can only push the development of renewable technology futher unless the countries want to develop  more coal.

It's not our problem . One world yes it is.

What is solar punk? Putting solar panels on the roof is not solar punk, It’s being one with nature It’s a different way of thinking. It’s not where they were made from, but how to make them even greener and cleaner. Using grey water, creating new environments. Using some out of the box thinking. Why are our wind turbines not made of wood?. Why not float them above the houses. What not live where the resources are rather than moving the resources. Data centre running off solar energy. Build a data centre in Iceland. Make a tropical environment above to use up the Heat.

The long weekend in the UK to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee was truly wonderous. There were street parties, parades, events put on up and down the country. Even my little town did its bit with a funfair, a stage and live band in the park and after the beacon had been lit, fireworks to finish. But as we walked away the field was littered with rubbish. Bottles, plastic cups, the remains of half eaten food - just abandoned on the field. The bins were no better. There were full to over flowing many times over. Earlier in the evening I had seen someone try to empty them. There was a team going around picking up the litter as they found it, but the crowd was too big and their number was too small.

Many people talk about climate change and recycling but for some of the population the message has yet to get through.

There are loads of companies willing to sell solar panels to home owners, but with no feed in tariff does it make sense to install panels on the roof. The costs of electricity and gas are soaring so perhaps any difference will be worthwhile. The cost of panels has dropped over the years but is now rising again. The power of the panels has increased. So does it make sense to install panels?

Would you do better to invest in air source heating or another technology.

Solar water works really well and we have found a very quick return on our investment, using little or no gas to heat the hot water from March to October and this is really worth it. Solar voltaic - on a good day we make all the electricity we use during the daylight hours minus the first and last one when the sum is too low. But of course at night the system doesn't work and that is where batteries can come in, but their high cost and short life span mean they need to be replaced currently more or less once you have had them for 10 years or so. Some are better but these are more expensive.

It appears that we are not doing enough so should we just give up.
Some countries won't play, others make empty promises.
I try to do my bit but nobody else does so what is the point?
It won't make much difference to me - I'm old it's someone else's problem.
The kids talk all about doing this and that, but they still use loads of power on their phones and computers wasting more than they are saving.
The world is going to pot and I can't do anything about it.

Little differences make a big change everyone needs to do their bit but what is the incentive - climate change is happening but it won't happen to me
If I had been better would my house still have got/ hit by a tornado, burnt out, flooded.
These are just some of the questions and statements made by people in the wake of climate change.

With fuel prices soaring, WE need a new fuel source, WE need a Green Hydrogen Revolution. Electrification cannot get us to net zero. So many things require natural gas; fertilisers, Plastics, and other essential chemicals. But we can replace Natural gas with Hydrogen.
 8 months ago we talked about the Many colours of Hydrogen, and since then the Government has formed a Hydrogen working group, a group that is trying to Accelerate the Green Hydrogen Revolution.
 
 Their latest report, by RENEWABLE UK states that this Green Hydrogen Revolution will "solve the challenge of integrating renewables into our energy system through, for example, the provision of system balancing services, seasonal storage and by minimising curtailment of renewables"

Momentum for this Green Hydrogen Revolution is gathering worldwide as an increasing number of stakeholders view it as a critical component of future energy systems. Over 40 countries (including the EU27) have hydrogen strategies, and at least 13 have targets specific to green hydrogen. More recently, the European Commission outlined its plan to achieve EU independence from Russian fossil fuels by quadrupling its 2030 target to 20.6Mt of green hydrogen, which will require well in excess of 100GW of both electrolyser and renewable generation capacity.

A few days ago the UK Met Office researchers said that there's now around a fifty-fifty chance that the worlds climate will warm by more than 1.5C over the next five years. Under the Paris climate agreement, which committed the world to keeping the rise in global temperatures well below 2C while pursuing efforts keep them under 1.5C. The UK and Egypt as part of their role as president of COP brought more than 40 countries together this week to drive implementation of countries climate commitments. However from COP26 we know some countries commitments are weak, like Australia's. Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software company Atlassian, has been attempting to close an Australian coal mine operated by Australia’s biggest polluter, the energy utility AGL. The Australia government has blocked the take over by saying the coal mine is a strategic asset. Just a few nights ago the billionaire hired brokers to stand in the market late Monday to snap up an 11.28% voting stake, which may be enough to thwart the demerger at the upcoming shareholder meeting in June. At least someone is trying to do something about our climate, because researchers has found that the whole aviation industry has failed to achieve any of their climate targets, that by the way they set themselves as 'reasonable' targets.