Going Green

As international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions stall, schemes to slow global warming using fantastical technologies once dismissed as a sideshow are getting serious consideration

“I have seen all kinds of proposals,” said James Fleming, author of “Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control” and a member of the National Academy geo-engineering committee.
“People are getting more and more desperate about climate change,” he said. “I think it is quite probable we will get the OK to do this.”

So what are these ideas:

Aerosol injection, 
Spraying aerosols high up into the stratosphere is currently the most talked-about form of SRM. The technique, which is known as “stratospheric aerosol injection”, could cool the planet in a similar way to a large volcanic eruption.

 Marine cloud brightening, 
In theory, this could involve using ships to spray saltwater into the clouds above the sea.
Once airborne, the salt particles would act as “cloud condensation nuclei”, meaning they would facilitate the condensation of water vapour into liquid. As more water droplets are created, clouds would appear larger and brighter.

 Ocean mirror, 
A less well-known option for limiting the effects of sunlight would be to use an “ocean mirror”. In theory, this would involve using a fleet of sea vessels to churn up millions of tiny microbubbles on the ocean surface.
This seafoam would reflect away sunlight, cooling the planet, explains Prof Julian Evans, an emeritus professor in materials science from University College London. 


Cloud thinning, 
Another less-explored option for reducing the effects of sunlight at the Earth’s surface would be to “remove” cirrus clouds from the atmosphere.
Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy clouds made of ice crystals, which form at high altitudes. The clouds reflect away some sunlight, but also absorb large amounts of long-wave radiation – meaning that, on balance, they warm the planet.

Space sunshades
The final technology discussed by scientists involves sending a giant mirror – or fleet of mirrors – into orbit in order to reflect away more sunlight from the Earth.
The size of the mirror would determine how much sunlight it could reflect back towards space and, therefore, its cooling effect, says Prof Govindasamy Bala, from the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science.

The world is racing towards an electric vehicle (EV) rebirth because of issues ranging from environmental concerns to the high fluctuating oil prices that continue to push consumers toward alternatives to combustion engines. 
Today’s Electric Cars, however, is beyond anything nineteenth century drivers could imagine. From intelligent driving to proactive service and remote vehicle access, these new electrics cars can offer the safety and convenience today’s consumers crave. 
To push drivers toward “plugging in,” however, automakers must better educate them, as well as offer a uniquely “connected” driving experience. Equally important, they must embrace innovative business models and partnerships.

Last earth day, We decided to do something for the environment! but we though we could do more than just do our bit of recycling, because MORE needs to be done, so we set our sights on championing new Green idea, and how to get more people doing more green things, because global action is required NOW! This year, Earth Day 2022 calls on everyone to divest from unsustainable investments, and support eco-conscious brands and products to help send a clear message to corporations that consumers mean business.

This week sparked a new wave of Environmental activism. The Group's idea is that, you switch off all of your electrical appliances, lights, or switch off at the breakers for 10 minutes, this effectively creates a 10 minute boycott of the privatised portions of our power supply, losing them up to an estimated £9m in revenue. this campaign is called the #bigpoweroff It happened on the 10th of April and is going to happen on the 16th of April at 7pm. this happened in Spain in 2019 and managed to cause lot of brown out leaving the electricity companies offer millions in concessions because they were in breach of their contracts of not supplying electricity to their customers. the last one didn't do much, we'll see what happens this weekend.

The IPCC Report came out a few days ago about mitigating the effects of climate change. The IPCC third report looks at over the 2010 - 2020 period and makes projections of what needs to be done to prevent global warming and to limit the climate to 1.5 degrees of warming. In the last decade the world has managed to curb some critical items. CO2 emissions rose 54% from the millennium. Last 10 years only a 24% increase. So have managed to reduce the real amount of emissions by a third Between 2000 -2010 worldwide it was proposed that the number of coal plants to be built was 855. In the decade 2010-2020 of the 855 coal power stations to be built, only 189 were actually built and the rest cancelled. The reason for this is that Coal is now much more expensive to burn because of increased Mining and shipping costs. The price of renewables too has dropped. It is now cheaper to build a wind farm than a power station with the same power output. But in addition to this a coal power station will have the cost of the coal to power it to be supplied and the cost of running a wind turbine is just maintenance. The wind farm only produces power on windy days whereas the coal power station can produce power all the time. But installing more wind farms in different locations means that wind is more or less guaranteed. This sign could hopefully mean the demise of the coal power station within a few years. 

tomorrow (1st of April) There will be No vat on energy saving materials such as solar panel installation, heat pumps it the UK. So in this episode we answer is this the right time to invest in renewable energy for your home! But beware the small print - this new scheme only covers new systems, not so much addons to current ones!

There are new types of solar panels coming to the market,  that are both solar thermal and photovoltaic. These keep the panels cooler in summer and increase the efficiency. 
With the price of Gas going up solar thermal can really effectively cut the hot water bills in the spring, summer and autumn.

In this Jubilee Year the Queen started Queens Green Canopy which is to Plant a tree for the Jubilee during the months Oct '21 - Mar 22' and then Oct '22 - Mar '23 Tree planting seasons
The Jubilee started 2nd February but major Celebrations take place from 2nd June  with Street parties and other celebrations


Ive seen a few jubilees
Silver Jubilee 1977 at Uni studying for exams
Golden Jubilee 2002
Diamond Jubilee 2012
Platinum Jubilee 2022 6th Feb
whereas Paul has only seen from the millennium.

In February the IPCC release their sixth report about how in the year 2022  how the Climate Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability of the world

their was 6 Big Findings from the IPCC 2022 Report which we discuss in this podcast

1. Climate impacts are already more widespread and severe than expected.
2. We are locked into even worse impacts from climate change in the near-term. 
3. Risks will escalate quickly with higher temperatures, often causing irreversible impacts of climate change.
4. Inequity, conflict and development challenges heighten vulnerability to climate risks.  
5. Adaptation is crucial. Feasible solutions already exist, but more support must reach vulnerable communities.
6. But some impacts of climate change are already too severe to adapt to. The world needs urgent action now to address losses and damages.

At Cop 26 all countries agreed to make changes to phase out fossils fuel and to say no to gas and oil, but Putin with his invasion in Ukraine has put a stop to this. simply saying No to Russian Gas is not a big problem in the the UK and USA due to only using a small amount of Russian gas however some of Europe countries are using a huge amount of gas there is a significant problem. The EU gets roughly 40% of its gas from Russia: According to figure from research group Transport & Environment, this dependence costs around $118m a day. 
We can’t stop it immediately because we need to power to drive our industry. But paying for all this gas and oil is powering Russia’s army 
So what are the alternatives.
Going Totally green  much, much faster than planned by building more wind turbines and nuclear power stations. - a good idea but very slow -it will still take years to complete even at a much accelerated pace.
Buying the oil and gas from elsewhere - and alternative but the idea of the pipeline was to speed up the delivery process rather than shipping the gas in boats which isn’t really practical.
Looking for oil and gas in the North Sea, where the UK knows there is a an oilfield - This still will take time and money and goes against climate change policies.
Fracking - really frowned upon because of the damage it may cause.
simply as people to use less thus reducing our reliance on Gas. Now in the UK this is possible but not in Europe because of their heavy reliance.
If we continue to upset Putin with sanctions he might just cut off the gas and Europe will be plunged into a state of little or no power.
Gas and Oil are used for other things, not just making power but the chemical industry is very reliant on Oil for its products. We are also seeing non Russian oil companies leaving the Russian oil cartels, like Shell and BP. 

When COP26 Happened in October, a survey to place asking questions about there attitudes climate change, this question has been asked for the last few years and we can see how it is changing over time. Attitudes have been changing due to more education about climate change. In this podcast about how attitudes have changed about climate change, we explore how the use of simple messaging can change people attitudes and re-education of the population is having a large impact on climate change.