Green (Living) Review

Grow Your Own at RHS Flower Shows

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Grow Your Own is more and more in evidence at the various RHS shows and not just this year.

While Grow You Own (GYO), in “speed mode”, has been around for some time now, it is getting more and more main stage at the shows now. This was certainly not the case some years back

That GYO is reaching the main stage of the shows could very much be seen by the RHS Edible Garden at the 2011 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show as well as by a similar RHS show garden at the show last year.

GYO is, we all know, not new at all but the interest and the phenomenon os how it is taking off nowadays certainly is.

Allotment gardens have been around for now some time and the Diggers were the first who were trying to archive the GYO already centuries ago.

Seed merchants, gardening equipment manufacturers and supplies, etc., all are gearing up more and more to this market, including the many books on the subject now being produced. Even gardening suppliers, such as Haxnicks and seed companies such as Marchalls have brought out “grow your own vegetables” guide books.

As said, the grow your own vegetable “movement” is not a new one. During the two world wars there were the “Dig for Victory” campaigns and many of those images are being used by seed companies and others to promote the growing of your own vegetables. The Mr. DIGWELL Seeds are but one example of using this kind of retro as regards of grow your own veg. It must be welcomed, however, as this is the way things should be, in order to also ensure some kind of food security for the nation as a whole.

Is kerbside recycling of glass just for show?

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Time and again kerbside recycling vehicles, and those collecting glass from bottle banks, can be observed dumping mixed bottles and jars – white, brown, green, etc. – into the same bays on the vehicle without any separation of colors.

How can this then be recycled into new glass?

Such mixed glass cannot be recycled into new bottles and such like and thus, I would suggest, this glass is then just being ground up to be turned into aggregate or for products where the coloring does not matter.

Instead of kerbside recycling of glass we need to get back to deposits and returns on glass bottles and, ideally, also include glass jars in the same schemes and systems. It can be done; it was done before and is still being done in other countries.

It can be guaranteed that if one would put, say, 10pence deposit on a small glass bottle and small glass jars and maybe 20pence on large bottles and jars, none of those would be wasted but would all be brought back. If not by the original owner and user by children and other people who will pick them up to claim the deposit. This is not rocket science so, maybe, government could stop behaving as if it is.

While it may be true that recycling glass into new only takes a fraction of the energy to making bottles from scratch, a lot more energy and resources would be saved if we simply reused bottles and jars by cleaning and refilling them. As said, it used to be done with bottles and also can work with jars.

Baby KeepCup has been born

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Thursday July 21 2011 saw the celebration of the birth – that is to say the official launch – of the newest member of the KeepCup family, the 4oz baby one, known as the Extra Small, or XS for short.

This is the KeepCup for lovers of the brief version of a coffee, and especially a proper lovely Espresso shot.

The birth celebration, the launch, took place at Prufrock Cofee, at 23-25 Leather Lane, London, EC1 and it was a really good evening despite the initial torrential downpour when some of us arrived at the location.

Food and drink were brilliant and company was great, as was the music by the band.

This little cup, in my opinion, is also an ideal cup for baby, and especially for toddlers and children. Aside from the fact it can come in a lovely combination of colors, in the same way as, obviously, its bigger brothers and sisters.

The little device that closes the sipping port has seen some improvement since I last reviewed one of the KeepCup family and it is a lot more positive as to preventing the contents from spilling.

Nuclear power loses its luster in a sustainable energy future

Fukushima incident has sustainability experts rethink place nuclear in the low-carbon energy future

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

In the wake and aftermath of the Fukushima incident and fallout, in more than one sense of the word, a majority of sustainability experts around the world now say that nuclear power is not at all essential to a low-carbon energy future.

However, the British government keeps telling the British public that we need nuclear to be able to have energy, as, as they claim, renewables cannot do it. Which is bullshit and they know it.

Early indications are that the market may well share such sentiments:

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has announced that Japan is rethinking its stance on nuclear power and that renewable energy will become a cornerstone for his country's energy policy.

Japan's international credit rating was downgraded by Fitch last week in view of the risk the disaster poses to the country's economic growth and the anticipated costs of cleanup.

Only recently German Chancellor Angela Merkel, once a nuclear advocate, said all 17 of country's nuclear plants will close by 2022 and that there will be no new ones being built.

Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi, who wanted to reinstate nuclear in Italy after the shutdown following Fukushima has been defeated in a national referendum in which in well over 90 percent of all Italians eligible to vote told the government “no more nukes” and the government of the country will have to listen to this. The peoiple have spoken.

The sustainability experts who made their views known on nuclear power were surveyed by research firm GlobeScan Incorporated and SustainAbility Ltd., a think tank and strategy consultancy. The two firms periodically query a pool of sustainability professionals in business, government, nongovernmental organizations, academia, research and consulting and other service fields on issues affecting their work. The findings released today represent the opinions of 551 people from 67 countries; 58 percent of the respondents have worked in sustainability for more than 10 years, 32 percent have five to 10 years of experience, and the remainder have spent three to just under five years in the business.

Fifty-four percent of those surveyed on "The Future of Energy" contend that "society can achieve a sustainable, low-carbon energy future without nuclear power." In contrast, 33 percent said nuclear power is "an essential component" to a low-carbon energy future, as the chart to the right shows:

"It was a bit of a surprise to me that only a third of experts think nuclear power is an essential component ... I didn't expect such low numbers," said Jeff Erikson, a senior vice president for SustainAbility in Washington, D.C. "If the survey were taken a year ago, before Fukushima, the numbers would have been a lot higher."

The survey, part of ongoing research by SustainAbility and GlobeScan, was conducted online May 6 through 20, roughly two months after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan that knocked out the cooling systems at the Fukushima plant -- and almost two weeks before the Fitch's rating and Merkel's decision made headlines.

Perhaps not surprisingly, sustainability experts from the corporate sector were nearly five times as likely as those from NGOs to say that a sustainable energy future must include nuclear power.

Yet, the survey also found that among corporate respondents:

* Less than half, 47 percent, believe nuclear power is essential for sustainable energy scenario.

* 38 percent believe the opposite.

* 15 percent don't subscribe to either view.

At the other end of the spectrum:

* 10 percent of NGO respondents feel nuclear power is essential.

* 75 percent disagree.

* 15 percent say neither sentiment reflects their views.

Should government subsidize renewables, nukes, oil and coal?

The survey also asked sustainability experts whether they think government should subsidize energy options ranging from renewables to oil and coal -- and what they think will actually happen.

Although continued subsidies and incentives for renewables are at issue in the U.S. and abroad, the group is somewhat optimistic that government will still subsidize solar and wind power with slightly more than half saying so, as shown in the chart below:

Click on image to view full-size chart.

Less than a third said they believe government will subsidize hydro power, nuclear energy, natural gas, oil or coal in the future.

And a majority said they think government will let the market decide what should be done with coal and oil.

The survey found a big gap between what experts believe will happen and what they think government should do:

* 83 percent of the respondents said the government should continue to subsidize energy efficiency initiatives and solar power.

* 74 believe the same should be done for wind power.

* About a third said government should phase out use of nuclear power.

* Almost half said the same about coal, as the chart to the right shows:

Finally, the experts were asked to rank five things that businesses and institutional users can do to advance toward a sustainable energy future. The actions named were: investing in energy efficient technology, developing products and services that are less energy intensive, increasing renewable power purchases, lobbying for public policy and increasing employee engagement in energy efficiency and conservation measures.

Given a choice of designating the actions as a major focus, a secondary focus, not a focus at all or not applicable, a majority said each tactic would fall in the "major focus" category, as the chart below indicates:

The responses show "the experts strongly recommend that companies follow a diverse, strategic energy plan," said Erikson of SustainAbility.

That preference for a multifaceted course of action echoes findings from a SustainAbility / GlobeScan survey in April in which experts gave Unilever the top spot in a list of global corporate sustainability leaders. The respondents had named "commitment to sustainability values" as the key differentiator among high-performing companies, and the choice of Unilever illustrated the importance experts place on integrating those values throughout business operations, GlobeScan Senior Vice President Chris Coulter said at the time.

More information about the latest joint survey by SustainAbility and GlobeScan is available at www.GlobeScan.com. SustainAbility posts the survey results on its online library at www.sustainability.com/library/the-future-of-energy.

Renewables can very well supply all energy needs as long and especially if we change the way that we use and waste electricity and also and especially through changing the voltage and the current type of the power used.

It will take some time still, I should think, before the message will finally sink in, especially at business level, that the high-voltage alternate current electricity that we are using at present, regardless of what voltage is not one that can be sustained, and that alone for the loss in power transmission.

We need to come to the point where every roof, every pylon, every bridge, etc., is a power plant generating electricity for use in the house and to feed into a local low-voltage direct current grid.

Consumerism: the scourge and disease of today

Consumerism must truly be the scourge and disease of modern times

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

“We've all got this weird mental illness called consumerism” declares a new movie called 'Consumed: Inside the belly of the beast'.

And is it not true? We are constantly being told that our happiness depends on what we own and how much we spend and whether we have the newest and latests and best model.

But that is just not the case because for all our consuming we are no better off in terms of happiness and we are a lot worse off in terms of negative physical and psychological impacts. And also in financial terms more often than not.

The sub-prime lending issue is a prime example here in that people believed that they have to own a home rather than rent and even though they hardly could afford to they, nevertheless, followed the addiction and now many of those have lost their homes.

And a great majority falls prey to this illness of wanting more and more and new and new all the time. It is a disease that is killing the Earth.

Studies have shown that lottery winners are no happier than the rest of us, which really does makes you think, doesn't it. You would have thought that all that money would make them happy.

When our minds are in a constant state of want they will never be satisfied and marketing and government sees to that that our mind is constantly in that state.

Marketing and advertising is a big business aimed to subtly convince us that what we want is what we need and advertising is destroying society.

This movie questions how we operate in our age of high mass consumption and how it really isn't all that it is cracked up to be and we must ask ourselves those questions too.

From just the trailer it promises to be a thought provoking narrative of our gluttonous purchasing lifestyle and how it is leading us down the path of destruction, not just for the planet but also for society.

The problem, a little like with “Age of Stupid”, is going to be, no doubt, that the majority of those that go and watch this movie will be members of the choir and the bible study groups. The main congregation will not watch this in the same way as they did not watch “Age of Stupid” and other such thought provoking movies that they need to watch to understand as to what is going on.

We have gotten to a point now where the world, as a whole, though predominately in the developed countries and in places such as India and China, is now consuming as if we had the resources of three planets to extract from. This is quite ludicrous because, as I am sure you have noticed as well, we in fact have just the one lovely Planet to care for. And its resources are limited.

Oil is already well on the way out, as are coal, as are metals and other materials. This will mean that we need to reevaluate our ways and reconsider our demand for always new and better.

Products must be made again to last and to be repairable, and they will have to. That will mean keeping things for as long as possible for goods will also be more expensive.

Buying green has become yet another version of consumerism and I have termed it “greensumption”. This green version of consumerism is equally dangerous as is consumption and consumerism in general.

We must get away from this “I want”, perceived as “I need”, and look at our lives and our needs from an entirely new perspective. Buying a green product instead of a non-green one, if you don't have to buy new, is no less consumption. If you really have to buy something than try, if possible, to buy secondhand, old. That is more green than a new green product, often Made in China.

So take a step back from consuming and I promise you will not regret it and instead of buying think about how you can get by without or how you can repair what you have already got. We will have to do this anyway, I am sure, in the not so distant future. So, we best transition over to it now.

Britons catch cycling bug from Tour de France, says Halfords

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

I would suggest it has more to do with the gasoline prices in the UK than with the Tour

Bicycles are equalling the number of cars on the road in rush hour in major cities around the UK, as commuters switch from four wheels to two, and in some parts of London, such as in the financial district, it would appear that they outnumber cars.

Trips made by bikes in the capital shot up by 15% last year, according to Transport for London, a 150% increase since 2000, and this is indeed good news, for the cycle trades as well as the Planet.

In parts of Bristol, which was designated a “cycling city” by the Government in 2008, more than one in four people cycle to work and in York the number of cyclists has grown by 20% while in Cambridge a fifth of the population regularly travel by bike.

Official figures show that the number of commuter journeys taken by cyclists on the UK Cycle Network, which includes long distance and tourist routes, has risen by 16m to 73m trips a year.

The latest statistics showing the rise in the popularity of cycling come as the Tour de France gives cycling another boost in popularity, with sales of premium models set to soar.

Halfords, the UK’s leading seller of cycles, said the three week event, which features 190 riders covering 3600km, always lead to a rise in demand from customers keen to emulate their heroes.

Last year its limited edition Carrera TDF bike, featuring a lightweight compact aluminum frame and 16 gears, sold out during the Tour De France tournament.

This year sales of premium bikes are already up. Halfords recently launched a brand new range of Carrera road bikes, in line with the start of the TDF. And earlier this year it unveiled the new 2011 Boardman range.

Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, are nightly topping 1m as Britons tune in.

Hopes are high for British success with Mark Cavendish pressing for the coveted green jersey and Geraint Thomas and David Millar in the top teams. Unfortunately Bradley Wiggins crashed out with a broken collarbone.

The London figures for cycling show that on key bridges across the Thames, bicycles make up 27.7% of traffic crossing into the centre of the City between 7am and 10am, compared with 28.2% of private cars. Four years ago cars outnumbered bikes by two to one. In parts of the City of London bikes are outnumbering cars.

The surge in cycling in cities has been encouraged by the Government’s cycle2work scheme, which gives generous tax breaks for commuters buying bikes through their employer.

Halfords said its cycle sales in London are rising and it had opened two new stores in Wimbledon and Kilburn to cater for the urban cyclist.

Halfords Cycling Expert Paul Tomlinson said: “Britain is becoming a far more cycling friendly country and initiatives such as the cycle to work schemes, which offer tax incentives to buy a bike, are helping people to afford the type of bicycle they want and encouraging them to use it regularly.

”At this time of the year the Tour de France means a lot more people catch the cycling bug and we’re helping increasing numbers who want to get on a bike to commute, for sport or leisure.”

As I have, however, said already, I believe that the new uptake in cycling, and we are here talking more of commuting and other journeys, is more down to the increase in the cost of running a car, especially as regards to fuel costs, than to the fact that we have a few Brits in good positions in the Tour de France.

If it would be sports cycling on a serious increase I would concur with the Tour de France suggestion but as it is business travel and leisure travel that has moved from the car to the bicycle I would suggest that other factors play a much bigger role.

In all honesty we do not have much of a choice as oil is going up and up and in the long run will become unaffordable to the ordinary mortal. Thus the bicycle will become, once again, the mode of transportation of choice for many, including, I should think or local deliveries of the greengrocer, the butcher, the baker, etc. and, as far as I cam concerned a good thing that is going to be too.

Do we need a postman?

With Canada Post on strike residents are asking themselves if they really need a postman

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Like postal services around the world, Canada Post has seen a rapid decline in first-class mail. It tried to adjust by cutting wages, prompting a strike that's lasted more than three weeks so far.

When Canadian letter carriers went on strike they hoped to force the national postal service, Canada Post, to back down from a cost-cutting proposal to dramatically reduce wages.

Three weeks later, lawmakers are preparing to legislate them back to work, but Canadians are asking just how much a modern cyber-connected society needs the post office anyway.

“If I get my mail, I get my mail, but if I really have to do something I go on the Internet,” is the attitude of a great many of people, especially those that have taken to the Internet well and that are connected.

True, some businesses say they have had to scramble to try to fill orders and receive payments that would usually be sent by mail, and some charities say that they are missing out on donations. Observers, however, say that by going on strike, Canadian postal workers have likely sealed their own fate by proving it's possible to function without daily mail delivery.

“Many find mail in paper form to be quaint; it no longer plays a central role in society,” an editorial in The Globe and Mail daily newspaper concluded. “The strike will only accelerate that trend by making online converts of those who have hitherto been reluctant.”

A worldwide trend toward e-mail, online banking, electronic bill payments, and communication through social media is causing a dramatic drop in revenue for the postal services around the world.

Canada Post has seen a rapid decline in first-class mail. It says the organization delivered 17 percent fewer letters last year than five years ago – the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says it has dropped by just 6 percent – and anticipates a further 30 percent drop over the next five years. At the same time, it has to deliver to more homes as Canada’s population grows.

The volume of first-class mail has also dropped dramatically in the United States. The US Postal Service is set up to deliver 300 billion pieces of mail a year, but currently handles just 170 billion pieces and predicts that will fall to 150 billion by 2020. The USPS is looking to make reforms such as cutting back to five-day-a-week delivery and closing some of its post offices.

In Britain the cutbacks were made already years ago from a twice daily delivery, one guaranteed before 8am, and the second by 11am, to one delivery a day with not guarantee as to when the mail gets to you, if ever. The latter is especially true if you happen to live in a strange locations, as do I, and a new postman (they seem to change far too often) has no idea where the house is. Quite frequently mail goes missing and no one can explain why it either does not get here at all or seems to take a week or two when it should be here next day.

Personally, I must say, I have not sent a letter by mail for ages now, though I have sent the occasional package and card, as in greetings card. My written communications are, predominately, emails.

Affordability of the postal service is another thing also, with the postage in Britain rising far too often and now an ordinary first class letter costing the best part of 70cents US and for that they won't even guarantee – as they used to – that the letter will be at its destination the next day. Sending a letter to the US, for instance, is more than US$2 for an ordinary very light airmail letter. Is it a wonder that people switch to email?

Struggling to adapt in a new online environment

Canada Post has been struggling for several years to adapt to the new online environment, and Canada Post, I am sure, is not alone in this. While the letter carrying may be, slowly, becoming a thing of the past for postal services all over, they should improve their parcel delivery services, especially to rural areas, have post office counters open outside business hours and have decent post office banking services that could appeal to people who still do not trust the Internet enough to do their banking online.

Instead they keep putting up rates and their workers go on strike and thus give the customer no other choice but to look for alternatives. And then the postal service stands wondering why the amount of letters and parcels they handle have gone down and have gone to the competition, the private carriers.

When faced with the challenge of the Internet and email instead of finding ways of enticing people to send real letters – I still love to receive a real letter and so do many people, I am sure – they increase the postage with the comments that due to the fact that the usage has gone done they need to recoup losses.

Is the Prime Minister's position still tenable?

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

While we all may fall victim to bad judgment every now and then the Coulson affair is beginning to become a serious problem.

Andy Coulson, the prime minister's former director of communications, is being investigated by police for allegedly committing perjury while working for David Cameron in Downing Street.

Coulson, former editor of the now defunct News of the World and later spin doctor at No.10 is becoming more and more and embarrassment to the PM and more.

The development renews pressure on the prime minister over his judgment in hiring the former News of the World editor and in retaining him only until not so long ago.

It also renews the question as to whether David Cameron is a suitable person to lead this country, that is to say, Britain, and whether his position as Prime Minister has not, indeed, become untenable.

I am not a Labor man, as my readers will have noticed from my writings during the Labor years; far from it. But I am not a Tory man either, and neither a Lib-Dem one and thus, I believe, I am places well enough to ask the question as to whether it is not time that we looked at the Con-Dem regime in Britain, or at least at the Prime Minister and his position.

David Cameron has gotten serious egg on his face with his support for Andy Coulson even when it became evident that Mr. Coulson was rather economical with the truth.

Friendship and loyalty to a friend are great attributes but... there comes indeed a time, especially when one is in such high office, to cut all ties and set someone e like Coulson adrift. The problem is that the Prime Minister did not do that soon enough. This has seriously dented and tainted his image.

In addition to Andy Coulson there is his friendship with Rebecca Brooks, another former editor of the paper in question and until recently CEO of Murdoch's empire's UK arm.

It is serious time that David Cameron reconsidered the way he does things and maybe even his position as Prime Minister and whether it would not be for the better of his party, the coalition government and the country if he stepped down as Prime Minister, leader of the Conservative Party and, ideally, even as a Member of Parliament.

How say you, Mr. Cameron? Would you not say that you have been compromised and probably beyond repair?

Has technology and education killed off common sense?

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The more and more I see the use of technology over common sense the more I must conclude that technology has indeed killed off common sense to a great degree.

When it comes to satellite navigation systems, of whichever make, the common excuse for going down the wrong route, such as a private road, when challenged,m is “but the sat nav told me to go this way and I was following that thing and did not look out for any signs.”

In the similar way when they get themselves into trouble by driving into a river – yes, it has indeed happened – with the same excuse of “the sat nav told me to go this way and through the ford.” Fine if and when the river is not running high water but not when it is in flood.

The use or misuse of satellite navigation systems is but one of those examples where it would appear that technology, or better our misuse of it, is supplanting common sense and its use.

Methinks we have gone stupid, at least a great majority of us, for simply relying on technology.

Even worse cases could be mentioned as regards to the inability nowadays of military operations being carried out properly when the GPS systems are down and sat comms are not working properly. It would appear that most soldiers, today, no longer have much of an idea as to how to make use a compass and read a map. Oops, I see trouble ahead.

Ships nowadays, merchant vessels especially, rely entirely for their communications on satellite systems for everything from calling home and base to calling for help. Shortwave radio and with it the maritime radio stations and services disappeared almost altogether.

Morse code went out even before the end of radio telephony for (merchant) ships and it is this that makes me worry about maritime safety and again the lack of common sense.

Any radio operator worth his or her salt does know about the Moebel-Dellinger Effect which can silence radio bands or made voice communications impossible. It is then when code is the only way.

In another way we have also gone daft and no longer use common sense is the way we deal with and believe in everything that is in the “newspapers” (in parenthesis because some do not deserve the “news” part) or in the media, including the Internet. We no longer seem to have any kind of discernment.

Just because it is in the papers or, worse still, on the Internet, on dubious websites, does not make it true.

The adage that common sense is not all that common is becoming more and more true and the word is becoming a bit of a misnomer and one could come to the conclusion that, aside from technology, our education system also has a great to answer for here.

It seems that, because it is not a degree subject at university, common sense is not very common anymore and some people really are being educated beyond their very capacity.

And when it comes to education, in Britain especially, everything is geared to academic achievements, something some people are not actually interested in, and any youngster having different ideas, such as leaving school at sixteen (it was fourteen and before that twelve) and go into training for a trade or such is being discouraged.

It is much for that reason that we have “disaffected” youth who loiter about the streets with nothing to do bar causing havoc.

We must recapture common sense and then we may recapture sanity.

Street verges: Whose responsibility?

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Whose responsibilities should they be, the street verges and the keeping of same: That of the local authority or that of the residents?

In many countries of Europe (and elsewhere) it is the residents' responsibility, legally enforceable, to maintain everything right up to the kerb in good order. This means to sweep the sidewalk and keep it clear of litter and in winter of snow and ice, and to mow any grass verges.
Why not in Britain? Here we hear many at times that it is the council's responsibility as they, the residents, do pay council tax and all that.

Hmm... but people in other countries too pay local taxes which are for refuse collections, maintenance of parks and public woodlands, open spaces, etc., roads and streets and the cleaning of same, including the removal of litter in public areas. And no one moans about “having to do it”.

In some areas residents, individuals, as well as small groups, do like they do in other European countries and keep and maintain nice clean verge areas themselves, and those must be applauded and lauded, and that is on a voluntary basis.

However, in general, when it comes to such kind of actions the British seem to be lacking any kind of public spirit, especially now in the modern austerity age, where they know full well that the councils do not have the funds and resources available.

Still, instead of cutting the little bit of grass that forms the verges in front of their houses when they do their own lawn, they make phone calls, and send letters and emails to the council complaining that it has not been done.

It really does not take much to cut a few feet of grass or to pick up that can or two that have been dropped just in front of the house on the sidewalk. That, however, seems to be far too much to ask of the people. “That's what we pay our taxes for”, they say time and again.

With a little more of public engagement we could all be a community again proper and our villages, towns and cities could be real livable areas, free of littler and, maybe, even vandalism.

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