There’s an environmental cost attached to maintaining a winter sports season in a snowless environment. … a reliance on fake snow will expand the carbon footprint of ski resorts and strain freshwater sources.
https://theconversation.com/four-ways-winter-heatwaves-affect-humans-and-nature-197365
Give the canary in the coal mine a gas mask and keep digging.
Over millions of years, Britain’s landmass has been buried, lifted back up, buried again and eroded. This complex geological history has provided many opportunities for gas to leak away through the country’s many faults and cracks so that only the dregs remain. If the UK wants to develop a major US-style fracking industry, it is 280 million years too late.
Fracking: a portmanteau of faults and cracks, much like the UK government.
Boris Johnson has hinted Saudi Arabia could speed up oil production to help calm spiralling energy prices for Britons, as he praised the country for improving its human rights record despite three more people being executed during his visit.
Diligent as ever, Boris brings new meaning to ‘getting blood out of a stone’.
The UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is a state-owned body that was set up to “maximise economic recovery” of oil and gas resources. This mandate is enshrined in legislation, specifically the Petroleum Act.
By not including the significant tax breaks that oil and gas companies receive in its definition of “economic recoverability”, we are arguing that the OGA’s new Strategy, adopted in February, is unlawful and will encourage more oil and gas to be extracted, endangering our climate targets and the Government’s commitment to net zero emissions.
The spirit of the law here is petroleum vapour.
“About 100 solar panels at the trackside site will supply renewable electricity to power the signalling and lights on Network Rail’s Wessex route.” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/22/rail-line-in-hampshire-is-worlds-first-to-be-powered-by-solar-farm
Network Rail adds a new conker to its armoury of pitiful excuses for delays: ‘cloud’.
“There is also scope for solar trams in Edinburgh, Glasgow…”
Scope is what you’ll need to magnify the one photon of sunlight in Scotland.
“The Moorside [nuclear] Power plant is slated to be completed in Cumbria’s rural landscape in 2024. A creative design competition, sponsored by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Landscape Institute, called on designers to submit creative landscape proposals for the project. … The cherry on top of [one top five] design is clearly the massive man-made rainbow that would arch over the landscape. Two large glass prismatic towers would be placed on opposite sides of the project and would use light and mist to create a continual rainbow, … ‘helping the power station blend in with the stunning scenery in the region, whilst providing a place for people to visit and learn about NuGen’s advancement of safe nuclear science and power.'” http://inhabitat.com/upcoming-nuclear-power-plant-in-the-uk-may-shoot-giant-rainbows-into-the-sky/
The plant is expected to become a top destination for tourists, who can look forward to being guided around the showcase site by a unicorn with liberal sprinkles of magic dust.
“Earth Hour was first unveiled by an Australian ad agency in 2007, when global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide had reached 385 parts per million, their highest level in some four million years. Since then, CO2 levels have broken through the symbolic 400ppm barrier and continue to rise sharply.
The impact has been stark. Eight of the 10 hottest years ever recorded have all occurred since 2007. Last year smashed all previous records, pushing Earth systems into what the World Meteorological Organisation this week called ‘truly uncharted territory’.
If homo sapiens really has the wit and ambition to survive this century, from here on every hour has to be Earth Hour.” https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/lights-out-at-earth-hour-don-t-waste-your-energy-1.3022129
Blogging on battery power seems a decent analogy for stealing resources from our future selves.
“Offline [nuclear] reactors could lead to a ‘tense situation’ for energy supply in France, in the event of a cold snap this winter.
The situation is likely to be exacerbated by damage during Storm Angus to the main cable that carries electricity back and forth between the UK and France. It is believed a boat dropping anchor during the storm may have been responsible but National Grid is investigating the cause and working to repair the Interconnexion France-Angleterre, which is buried in the seabed and heavily armoured.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/29/french-nuclear-power-worst-situation-ever-former-edf-director
‘Brexit means Brexit’ means severing all connections to the continent.
“An independent report … for the government stated smart meters would not be cost effective as they would bring a £4 billion net present value cost – the civil service, in contrast, inflated this figure by £8 billion, claiming there would be a £4 billion net present value benefit instead. … How will the shoddy testing impact on our health and our privacy as well as our wallets? Who will be liable – landlords, energy companies or taxpayers when it all goes wrong?” (http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2983240/stop_the_11_billion_smart_meter_ripoff.html; emphasis added)
Create an electronic system that costs more to install and run than it saves, falsely inflates bills, collects unnecessary personal data about households, and emits unhealthy levels of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation in homes. Label it ‘smart’. Job’s a good ‘un.
Plus, in the case of Scottish & Southern Energy / Scottish Hydro Electric, issue identical advertising letters and leaflets to customers three times in one month to overwhelm any concern about unnecessary costs.
Scottish Hydro Electric smart meter mailshot – in triplicate
“The Chancellor has just effectively put a carbon tax on carbon free electricity, which will mean fewer renewables and more uncertainty for the industry.” (http://www.foe.co.uk/blog/like-making-apple-juice-pay-alcohol-tax-clean-energy-faces-carbon-tax)
Snappy name: car-bon, like ‘good car’. Have I stumbled upon the fossils fuelling this oxymoron? Or am I just another fool who’ll be paying it?
Ecomical 