Going Green

For years Gas companies and suppliers, have been telling us to cook with gas, because cooking with gas is FASTER, CLEANER, and CHEAPER than Electricity. Except cooking with gas produces lots of harmful pollutants, and recently has become more expensive. But electricity has been becoming cheaper due to the new renewables coming online. so they only thing the gas companies can say is that gas stoves is faster than electricity except with induction hobs, gas is now one of the slowest ways of cooking. In this episode Paul and Philip discuss why influencers are taking pictures of themselves with there gas stoves, electrification of home and cities, and why it is best to convert to induction hobs over gas.

The last couple of years have really decimated the holiday industry, and now may be a good time as you think about next year's holiday to do something a little different and a little greener. Perhaps instead of flying somewhere then maybe taking the train and making a second holiday of taking the train somewhere might be a better idea. Using the train is a much more green approach than driving or flying. Choosing a different type of holiday can help. If you fly then you can hire an electric car to go around the places. Some countries like Switzerland have loads of car charging points to enable you to see all the scenery. You might like to hire an e-bike and cycle around places like Belgium sampling local produce, or visit the Loire valley and taste all the wines on a bike. You can now take a more eco-friendly ferry to Brittany to save on that Carbon Footprint. Eco friendly holidays are found all over the place now - check which ones are approved. The National Trust offers many in the UK with electric charging points. Eco friendly holidays don't have to be sleeping in a tent or in a eco built house but instead can be sailing around the Mediterranean using up on fuel in a luxury yacht.
Artwork  "https://www.freepik.com/vectors/travel" Travel vector created by pikisuperstar 

In this episode Philip and Paul look at SailGP and its Sustainability Impact League. As well as being Powered by Nature, the organisers have gone one stage further by introducing a Green aspect to the competition. There is an additional prize for the most green team. 

A second leader board, which runs alongside the Season Championship, has been created to monitor the performance of the teams in the Impact League, with each team's score at each SailGP event being added to the overall Impact League leader board. At the end of the season it is proposed that there will be two podiums, with the winner of the Impact League crowned alongside the Season Champion and earning funding for its purpose partner, who supports and advises them throughout the season and is visible on the team’s livery. SailGP's Impact League has been set some sustainability criteria - social and environmental - to operate against with each team awarded points based on its fulfilment of these criteria. The criteria range from pioneering new technologies focusing on clean energy solutions and removing all single-use plastics, to diversity and inclusion and using the team's voice for good. Each team will be externally audited and an overall leader board created after each event. Philip and Paul look at this and look at whether this could be inserted into other sports to improve their sustainability and perhaps including all the spectators to earn extra points for their team. We have seen Formula One with formula-E coming along - but this would be so much better if all the factories also became eco-friendly. #podcast #climatechange #climatecrisis #climateemergency #raceforthefuture

In this weeks podcast, We discuss the expected outcomes of COP26. go through what has been agreed at COP26 and how those outcomes will help prevent or decrease global warming to 1.5 degrees of pre industrial levels. We talk about what isn't expected but need by others and how current Goals dont meet the outcomes of previous COP's. the Major Agreements are; More than 100 world leaders promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, The US and the EU announced a global partnership to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas methane by 2030 More than 40 countries committed to move away from coal Some new pots of money were announced to help developing countries adapt to climate change and deal with the damage and loss it brings

Philip and Paul look into fireworks and the chemicals that they use in their propellants such as Sulfur Carbon and Potassium Nitrate and the toxic chemicals like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide that they produce. They also look at the toxic chemicals that make the pretty colours. When these fireworks explode they leave behind microscopic particulates in the air. The largest of these called PM10 stay around for up to five days and the smallest stay around for several years in the air we breathe. Every year in every country where there are fireworks days after the events there is a rise in the number of hospital emissions with sufferers of Asthma and other breathing problems directly related to the firework displays. Some of the chemicals in the fireworks are toxic like copper and this can get into the topsoil and be taken up by plants and enter the food chain. So what are the alternatives - really there is no such thing as eco friendly fireworks - the ones labelled so just have slightly less nasties in them. Home fireworks are usually the worst culprits, so if is often best to go to a professional display but better still go and watch a laser display or a drone show.

What is meant by Carbon Neutral and how can we get there is a common question. Philip and Paul discuss how they can get to carbon neutral or better. My company buys in Power. Much of this is made via solar panels, but at night we need to get the power from the grid, which is up to 50% renewably generated. Our hot water is supplied during the summer by solar thermal, but in the winter not enough heat is generated so we need to buy in green house unfriendly methane gas. We need water and this also has a greenhouse content to it. Our vehicles are not electric but we don't use them much for the company only going out a short distance every few weeks. To offset these emissions we need to buy some carbon credit in some form by planting some new tree of finding some other form of carbon sequestration.

There are becoming more options available as Gas prices soar and the Government stop new installations of Gas boilers. New homes will be banned from installing new gas and oil boilers by 2025 and the government wants to see no new gas and oil boilers sold after 2035. So what are the options and what are the costs involved. Philip and Paul find out.

There are just a few choices you can make. Air /Ground source, hydrogen and district heating. Of these only one is really available. Many people think solar panels making electricity - but these are not the best for heating. They can be used as a power source for Air source pumps and powering other capture devices. The most effective seem to be

Solar Thermal  Two types traditional air or water filled tubes. New alternatives are not necessarily placed in the sun but capture heat from the air. Ground Source Dig a deep hole and this means as deep as possible - at least 6metres deep

A ground source heat pump is a central heating and/or cooling system that pumps heat to or from the ground. It uses the earth as a heat source (in the winter) or a heat sink(in the summer). This design takes advantage of the moderate temperatures in the ground to boost efficiency and reduce the operational costs of heating and cooling systems Ground source heat pumps harvest heat absorbed at the Earth's surface from solar energy. The temperature in the ground below 6 metres (20 ft) is roughly equal to the mean annual air temperature around 9°C -11°C in the UK depending on location. This is the minimum distance the pipes should really be buried. It is not using geothermal energy. 

Air source heat pumps absorb heat from the outside air. Even when it is cold outside there is usually enough heat in the air to heat the house. Heat pumps supply more energy than they consume, by extracting heat from their surroundings. This heat can then be used to heat the house and this is generally by warm air convectors as sold by many of the companies out there in the business. An air source heat pump extracts heat from the outside air in the same way that a fridge extracts heat from its inside. It can get heat from the air even when the temperature is as low as -15° C. Heat pumps have some impact on the environment as they need to use electricity to run but the heat they extract from the air is constantly being renewed by the sun naturally. Therefore the electricity is being used to power the pump not create the heat. Therefore it seems that you can get more out of the system than you put in. This is because the sun is providing the rest of the energy.

These systems do not provide enough energy to heat the house as they often work at a much lower temperature than conventional boilers  but they do provide lower background heat, and the only real way of using this is to have loads of insulation.

There are five categories of prizes to projects that might change the world. This Sunday the prizes are to be given. Philip and Paul take a look at some of the finalists and given their opinion on which prizes they think should win. All these projects look good even ones that are not the finalists since we all need to our bit to improve the world we live in.

There are five prize areas the first is to try to protect and restore nature, the second is to clean our air, the third is to revive our oceans, the fourth is to build a waste free world and finally the fifth prize is to fix our climate.

All the projects are worthwhile and many are innovative. 

The Prize aims to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism, by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change, and inspiring collective action. 

The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge unites people to tackle some of today’s biggest challenges, delivering impact on a range of issues that matter to Their Royal Highnesses and to society.

The PM announced UK to move to all renewable energy by 2035. Much of this power will come from Wind Turbines, which over the past 4 years have nearly doubled in capacity from 19GW to 35GW. But the easy installations of the offshore wind farms have been done, so now it is more likely to have to be floating  wind farms further out to sea or just in deeper waters. It is not just these wind farms that we need, because although this year we have more capacity to produce wind power, the total was less due to less wind than over the past few years. Solar was also down due to a cloudier year. So what else can we use and how can we store the electricity made in windier and sunnier times. One method is to use liquified air. Air is cooled and compressed using  surplus energy. When not enough electricity is around the compressed liquified gas is allowed to warm producing very large amount of air to drive a turbine and make electricity.

More wind farms may not be enough and so additional sources like wave power that is being used in the Orkneys may need to be deployed around the coast of the UK.

We watch Extinction Rebellion climbing on trains and the protestors pulled off by the passengers, and we see Insulate Britain, blocked the main motorways of the UK bringing hundreds of people to a standstill preventing them going to work. Do these protests work. They certainly upset many of the people nearby, but they do make the headlines. Do people the think about insulating their house because insulate Britain blocked the M25. Do people use less Plastic because someone tries to superglue themselves to the roof of a train? Are there better ways to protest of change the way that people think. Episodes of the Blue Planet have had far more success in making people aware of plastic in the Oceans than school strikes every Friday. Strikes and rhetoric may not be the most effective way to persuade people  and Governments to change. What do you think. Philip and Paul look into the matter and come up with their own ideas.