Green (Living) Review

LOW CARBON INVESTMENT

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is delighted that the new Government has taken the Institution’s calls for a green investment fund seriously and will continue to welcome news on how their Green Investment Bank will be financed.

Green technologies is now a global marketplace of $3 trillion but as result of a staggeringly low commitment from past governments, the UK has less than a five percent share of this market. We have a legal and moral responsibility to protect the environment, so CIWEM fully supports the GIB Commission’s recommendation that £550 billion worth of investment is needed to meet UK climate change and renewable energy targets between now and 2020.

CIWEM believes that low carbon investment is a vital part of our economic recovery, so we must develop new green businesses and industries across the country. However, the Government must also recognise that technology alone is not enough to confront climate change. Technological advances must be firmly rooted in development within environmental limits, which requires a fundamental shift away from conventional market-led consumerism to a new economic model that allows for more sustainable lifestyles. Increased funding for green job training, as well as mandatory refurbishment standards for sustainable homes, schools and other buildings are also vital.

CIWEM’s Executive Director, Nick Reeves, said: “The Green Investment Bank must offer value for money, investing in cutting edge renewable technologies that lead us to a genuinely competitive low carbon economy.”

“The railway mania of the 1800s was backed by a mind-boggling level of investment that was akin to treble the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP). This was infrastructure development and risk-taking on a massive scale that required numerous Acts of Parliament very quickly. Our carbon targets will be missed unless urgent action is taken to improve access to capital, so we urge the Government to fast track the development of their green bank. They are in a unique position: they can set the UK onto a trajectory of an adaptable, low-carbon society; or go down in history as the Government that failed to act in time.”

CIWEM now has great expectations for the Treasury’s planned low-carbon policy announcements scheduled for the autumn to demonstrate a true commitment to the environment.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is an independent professional body and a registered charity, advancing the science and practice of water and environmental management for a clean, green and sustainable world, www.ciwem.org

Source: CIWEM

The End of Oil – Book Review

Review by June Birch, Inside Outsider Publications

The End of Oil
What happens when the cheap oil is gone and then all the oil
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Tatchipen Media, July 2010
70 pages
E-book £3.95
Printed & Bound £5.95 (£9.95 inclusive of worldwide delivery)

When you have had the opportunity to meet the author, as I did, the thing that shines out about Veshengro, is that he doesn’t just talk about sustainability, he lives it, has lived it most of his life by choice and really knows what he is talking about. Furthermore he comes from a tradition of sustainable living and so many of his ideas are centuries sound.

The other thing is that, although there are many sound homesteaders out there, who know exactly how to live in their surroundings, Veshengro has bridged the gap that most people have, of living inside a society which is not sustainable and bringing his own ethics to it. Added to this an extraordinary breadth of knowledge, imagination and enthusiasm for good new ideas, and we have an author with an individual voice whose work I love to read.

In the advertisement for "When the Oil Runs Out", there is a chapter to read to give you a feel for the rest of the book, Veshengro gives you some background, but this isn’t a deeply theoretical essay, just enough to point out honestly what the problems might or might not be. It’s written for everyone and from a very practical base, although the imaginative leaps into the future took me to places I didn’t expect to go.

This is a unique view of post peak oil life, with common sense and knowledgeable advice and some delightful and useful illustrations of sustainable transport from the past; I doubt you will find anything like it elsewhere. There is a reference section at the end for some standard works.

We all have views on how things might happen, mine differ in some respects, but the detail in this book on each aspect he touches is a real "WAKE UP" plea to the reader. Some issues may be controversial, but they are honestly expressed and allow for open debate.

Veshengro writes with courage and the conviction of his ideas, which is why I am a regular follower of his blog in the Green (Living) Review.

The other thing that I personally like is that the book isn’t totally divided up into individual topics. Many writers do this, and it isn’t a natural way of dealing with things, just a formal one. You can escape from reality, by thinking, well, I’ve covered that.

Veshengro, however, pulls the reader back to another point in the way that good conversation does, in fact it’s like listening to a friend who knows a lot and has the comfortable feel of a conversation.

I don’t know how things will turn out, either, but the fact that Veshengro knows about living sustainably and can, ultimately, see a future, comforts me, and may comfort you.

I look forward, with genuine enthusiasm, to the companion volume on useful skills to know and hope that it won’t take too long to produce!

Almost all Exxon Valdez cleanup crew dead! CNN

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

And the clean up crews associated with the BPP oil spill could face the same fate.

Many have already been taken ill with almost all the same symptoms but BP refuses to tell anyone what is in the dispersants that are being sprayed though it will be the same as what was in the them at the Exxon Valdez spill.

If that stuff has killed the majority of the crews that did the previous clean up in Alaska, which is not that long ago, one can also but wonder what impact that stuff will have on the sea and on everyone else.

Most of the people that worked on the Exxon Valdez spill clean up have not made it past their fifty-fifth birthday and the concerns must be that the same fate that awaits those that have (been) volunteered to work on the clean up of the BP Deep Water Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The world must demand that BP, British Petroleum, now calling itself “Beyond Petroleum”, must come – and pardon the pun – clean and state truthfully what is contained in the dispersants that are being sprayed and what precautions operators must take.

My suggestion would be the wearing of full NBC suit – and I am serious – with full NBC respirator.

But, we must also wonder what effect this stuff that is being sprayed will have on the marine life and on human health in general should the wind carry that spray to the shore and contaminate people.

All this happening should make us finally reexamine – but I doubt that it will – our love affair with oil and with the oil companies, in the case of governments.

Rumor has it that the judge who overturned the drilling stop issued by President Obama has serious financial interests in the oil industry and the drilling companies.

Time people with such connection be thrown out of office an d gotten rid of and that rather pronto, and regardless whether in the USA, Britain or elsewhere in the world.

Growing wild edibles

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Growing “wild edibles” may sound silly to many, I know, for you are, basically, growing then what most gardeners think as “weeds”, but there are many “weeds” that are edible, in fact, that are good to eat, very good, in fact, that that have high nutritional values. Dandelion and nettles are just two of those.

The plants of the “Rumex” family are also (mostly) edible and good eating as is chickweed and purslane.

As it is always being said that a weed is but a plant in the wrong place and in this case we actually look at bringing weeds into our gardens, in a controlled environment, to grow for food.

Aside from those mentioned above there are a fair number of other edible weeds that are very good to eat and, which, in my opinion, would be worth “cultivating”.

The thing about growing edible weeds is that they grow where other vegetables may not.

We all, I am sure, have parts in our gardens where nothing but weeds want to grow so if weeds want to grow there then it might as well be edible ones that we can control and use.

The list of edible weeds and those that can be used for medicinal purposes – they are then called medicinal herbs – is rather a lengthy one and I will not even try to list them here. Another time, maybe, we can go into deeper detail.

The will be some gardeners who will consider you, and me, somewhat strange if not slightly mental for growing weeds in our vegetable gardens rather than getting rid of them but ... as said, many edible weeds are very good for us and have great nutritional value and health benefits.

But, remember to make sure that you know exactly what weeds you are planting for food. There are some that have lookalike ones that are, in fact, poisonous.

Using edible weeds, foraging for them and growing them, can be a great addition to our diet.

DECARBONISE OUR ELECTRICITY

In light of the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s figures showing a decrease in renewable energy production, The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is renewing its call for electricity generation to be virtually de-carbonised by 2030.

In response to the challenges of climate change, to deliver genuine sustainability, and to improve our energy security, CIWEM believes that the UK radically needs to increase our supply of renewable energy. CIWEM calls for the fast-tracking of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy production and urges the Government to provide the necessary financial support.

De-carbonising electricity generation is a relatively low-cost option compared to other sectors and would make a major contribution to targets, with electricity generation forming roughly 37 percent of UK carbon dioxide emissions. An evolving energy mix, with an increasing proportion of low-carbon and renewable fuels is required. Offshore wind, wave and tidal technologies are existing or emerging technologies that can harness some of the UK’s most abundant renewable energy sources on a large scale in the near to medium term.

The UK’s accessible offshore wind resource is potentially among the greatest in the world, with the benefits of a shallow continental shelf and strong and consistent winds meaning that there is sufficient resource to power the UK nearly three times over. With a large tidal range and wide ocean swell window, the UK also has very significant tidal and wave resources. Improvements to grid connection for new sources of generation are pending and these, together with improvements to long range transmission and grid stability that are the subjects of ongoing work, should provide a strong environment for the optimisation of the UK’s abundant offshore energy resources in the medium-term.

Renewable energy derived from the nation’s waste must also be promoted to help ensure energy security and reduce the reliance on conventional disposal options. In the context of the 2007 Waste Strategy for England which promotes waste as a resource, CIWEM believes there should be urgent work on the delivery of biogas injection into either the national grid or more local networks. This should be done with the maximisation of energy generation from waste via anaerobic digestion, as well as optimising landfill gas capture and utilising the potential for alternative fuelling of waste industry vehicles.

CIWEM’s Executive Director, Nick Reeves, said: “We must make radical changes to society’s infrastructure and behaviour to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and invest heavily so that future generations are able to meet their needs. In other words, we must become a low carbon society. Doing so is economically feasible, and could establish a more sustainable and secure way of life.”

CIWEM’s Fitting the Bill: A Manifesto for Environmental Action is available to download on http://www.ciwem.org/policy/policies/manifesto09.pdf

CIWEM’s newly published PPS on Waste and Climate Change can be downloaded from http://www.ciwem.org/policy/policies/pps.asp

Source: CIWEM

New, easy to understand book on Peak Oil and a world after the Oil Age

Epsom, Surrey, UK, July 2010: In “The End of Oil”, published in July 2010 by Tatchipen Media, the Romani Publishing & Media Company, the author, Michael Smith (Veshengro), points out the facts of the (cheap) oil running out and to what a world after the Oil Age might be like, in an easy manner.

This 70-page book in A4 format is written with the layperson in mind enabling him or her to understand the serious issue of Peak Oil and the implications of a post Oil Age world.

In an easy essay style of writing the author is trying to communicate to the reader the gravity of the situation that we all are in without bamboozling him or her with lots of scientific and pseudo scientific facts and the author also has not attempted to reinvent the wheel by repeating what has been said by other writers so many times.

The fact is that the world is running out of oil and while this may mean immense changes for all of us and the way that we live it is very good for the environment and the Planet.

The book “The End of Oil” is available as an E-book or printed-on-demand and in order to keep down the costs for printing and binding the work is done in-house in an A4 “report” format. However, shipping is very high worldwide and thus making the printed copy expensive compared to the E-book.

The publishers and the author would like to encourage readers, therefore, to purchase the E-book and then, if they so wish, print and bind the book into a physical one themselves so as to reduce the impact of this book on the environment.

The age of oil, of cheap oil to begin with, and other cheap fossil fuels, is coming to an end and just like the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, the Oil Age will be remembered as part of history some day – if Climate Change, which is due much to the way we have used and are using fossil fuels, does not end everything first.

With “The End of Oil” the author is issuing a “wake up call” and is trying to help the reader make the transition to a world without oil which, though different, will be better for all concerned.

The book is available for purchase via “The End of Oil” website http://the-end-of-oil.blogspot.com/ using PayPal. E-book will be dispatched via email immediately upon receipt of funds and notification from PayPal; printed copies require a minimum of 28 days for delivery.

The author of “The End of Oil” is Romani-Gypsy of origin and has written extensively on such diverse issues as green living, general and green politics, homesteading, recycling, Romani affairs and politics. He lives in Epsom, Surrey, England.

Ecomodo – a new Green community concept

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

We have Freecycle and breakaways from that world-wide organization, including Freegle, but Ecomodo (http://www.ecomodo.com/) is in a different league altogether.

Unlike all those others, and many other names besides the mentioned ones exist, whose concept is of giving things away free via a network, a community, Ecomodo is, basically, a lending bank that uses the community involved as a “tool shed”, as it is the members that lend to other members, and it is not just tools.

Ecomodo is an online marketplace that lets you lend and borrow each other’s everyday objects, skills and spaces with confidence. You can lend for free, for a fee or for charity and Ecomodo facilitates the transaction to make good returns for all.

By lending out your assets, Ecomodo can help you make money for yourself; raise money for a good cause and feel good by helping out a friend or neighbor. By borrowing instead of buying, Ecomodo saves you money, time and space.

Imagine the sheds, lofts, cupboards of all your neighbors, friends, and colleagues, all opened up for you to use. Think about what is in your cupboard.

Ecomodo wants everyone to maximize the utility of their assets, to reduce the need for wasteful purchases and to get more out of what we already collectively own. It is a reality that we live in a consumer driven society. Our aim is to create a society of socially responsible consumers whilst preserving your quality of life. Ecomodo, with your help, can do this.

Whether you are an individual, a charity, a community group, school or other public or private organisation, Ecomodo can help you enrich your community.

Pooling your resources gives everyone around you the chance to live a rich life and try new things with minimal financial and environmental impact. Create a lending circle for your community, pool your resources and make a difference together.

Join the marketplace of good returns @ http://www.ecomodo.com/

Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

'GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness' – Book Launch

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The evening of Wednesday, July 14, 2010 saw the launch of the “GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness” book edited by Marian Van Eyk McCain with articles and essays by a great variety of people in the green movement including Satish Kumar. The main speaker at the event was Jonathon Porritt, well-known environmentalist and speaker.

The launch took place at St. James', Piccadilly, in the heart of London, a venue that could be referred to, possibly, as London's Green Spiritual Home, as it seems many such events.

There may be some in some Christian circles who might regards the use of a church for such events as wrong especially when it involves semi-pagan rituals as well. But that, as far as I would see it, is their problem and should not be ours.

The book, from what I have seen so far, seems to be a most interesting and important collection of articles and hopefully I shall be able to review the book here soon as well.

Jonathon's talk had the economy as a theme with the question “Can we achieve growth and prosperity and still have room for the needs of the human spirit?” dealing with our consumption and growth driven world one and we all must question the sanity of this course that the world is still on, in my opinion.

The majority of the world and everyone in it is addicted, and there is no other word for it, to this growth-driven economic model which may cause human life to be impossible on our Planet by 2050 or thereabouts, if something does not happen before to end this.

It is time that we all woke up to the fact that business as usual is not an option and really must do a 180degree turn about and develop a new sustainable model of the economy, one where growth is not the deciding factor or any factor at all.

Whether this will be done by means of the Transition Movement or organizations such as Findhorn or others is a question that cannot be answered without the use of some psychic powers.

In my opinion, it will be more likely be a combination of a series of different ones of them. No single one, I believe,will have all the answers and we may have to do a marriage between a number of systems and ideas.

Back to the book, however: From what I heard to far I look forward to actually getting a copy for review and then acquainting the reader further with it.

Green Britannia

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Eight out of ten Brits now actively environmentally friendly
Over half recycle every day
But one in five of are still doing nothing to help the planet

New research has shown that the eco message seems to have finally hit home with the majority of the nation.

Eight out of ten Brits are now taking active, conscious steps to be more environmentally friendly. So, at least, they claim in the replies to a survey.

But the study – which polled 3,000 Brits via an online survey carried out by Onepoll in April 2010 – commissioned by cleaning giants Vileda, also revealed that one in five fail to do anything to help preserve the planet.

As the number of local authorities providing separate recycling bins to homes increases, it’s encouraging to see 56% of the nation making use of the new facility and now recycling on a daily basis too.

More than half of us (57%) are now regularly using eco-friendly products and almost a quarter of us are recycling on a monthly basis.

We are now far more likely to insist on buying products from companies that also display the very best eco-friendly credentials, but the study has shown but 72% of those polled believe that manufacturers aren’t doing enough to be ‘green’.

The research has been commissioned by Vileda in the run up to launching its Naturals range of cleaning products – all made from renewable resources.

Vileda spokesperson Lindsey Taylor said: “The majority of us are now taking our individual environmental contribution very seriously indeed. Not only that, but we have shown that Britain won’t blindly buy products any more – we routinely check the environmental credentials of what we purchase.

“It is worrying that a fifth of us, knowing the potentially damaging effects our behavior can have on the environment, still admit to making absolutely no contribution to the national effort to be eco-friendly.”

The concern that many will have with this is the fact that is was carried out by a – basically – chemical company and as to the green credentials of the Vileda Naturals range.

Having requested samples of products of that range when the launch of them was announced and never, in fact, received as much as a reply, my concerns really run deep as to whether the green credentials are real or whether, as in so many cases, it is but greenwash.

OIL IS STAINING THE ARTS

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) has embarked on a campaign to persuade the Government and cultural institutions to reject money from oil and gas companies that use sponsorship as a way to launder their reputations and mask their environmentally destructive nature.

In a published letter to The Guardian, CIWEM calls for the arts to be cleansed of the oil stains from such sponsorship. And in further letters to both Tate Director, Sir Nick Serota, and to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Jeremy Hunt MP, CIWEM has called for a halt to the tyranny of oil patronage, particularly condemning BP’s sponsorship of the Tate galleries. The Institution is asking how this country’s most revered arts establishments can continue to allow themselves to be supported by those with such terrible legacies of environmental, social and economic damage.

CIWEM deplores the continuing acceptance of guilt monies and influence from the petro-carbon industries, as this sullies the arts, and undermines our cultural institutions. At times of economic recession, there are debates about replacement funding for the arts, but crimes against the environment are crimes against humanity.

Oil money is an expedient too far.

As the world and indeed Tate have learned to flourish without support from slavery, tobacco and alcohol, we and they must learn to emerge from the culture of fossil fuels and the insidious oil industry. BP, Shell and all other petro-chemical corporations must be denied control of our arts and cultural institutions, right now.

Nick Reeves, CIWEM’s Executive Director, says: "Art is the highest form of human expression and has the power to alter human behaviour. Public arts institutions have a duty of care - that cuts across all other considerations - to ensure that they promote positive messages on the environment and avoid partnerships that undermine the credibility of those messages."

“Our letters call on the Trustees and Director of Tate to put a halt to the tyranny of oil patronage and we further call on the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to use his powers as the responsible minister to ensure this happens.”

CIWEM’s call to cleanse the oil stains from art was published in The Guardian on Monday 28th June.

CIWEM’s Art and Environment Network (AEN) aims to put creativity at the heart of environmental management, policy and practice. Members of the AEN represent august and respected cultural institutions, universities and agencies entrusted to care for the environment. More information can be found at www.ciwem.org/arts.

Source: CIWEM

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