Ed Dowding

Category: Energy

Fossil fuel vs Renewable subsidies

I this I has time to do more research on this, but I don’t, so this will have to do. From a quick Google and news review: A crude but indicative total fossil fuel subsidy in the UK of somewhere between £9bn and £12bn per year. In 2011 just over £3bn was spent on renewable energy ...

Which fossil fuel companies are most responsible for climate change?

This is the best thing on the internet today. Which fossil fuel companies are most responsible for climate change?. Top 90ProducersInvestorownedAlpha Natura…Fuel & cementOwn footprintMethane leaksAnadarkoFuel & cementOwn footprintMethane leaksAnglo Americ…Fuel & cementOwn footprintMethane leaksApacheFuel & cementOwn footprintMethane leaksArch CoalFuel & cementOwn footprintMethane leaksBG GroupFuel & cementOwn footprintMethane leaksBHP BillitonFuel & cementOwn footprintMethane leaksBPFuel & ...

Government ideologically supports nuclear power.

If you happen to be making a list of “Milestones where people made bad decisions which held back Civilisation”, be sure to add this to it. The Government has agreed to pay twice the market rate for nuclear power to please the French builders and Chinese investors. This means that the owners of Hinkley Point ...

Why doesn’t Monsanto fix energy?

There’s a very simple way we can tell that GMO companies (a) don’t understand genetic modification very well, and (b) aren’t interested in solving humanity’s biggest challenges. Ask yourself what you would do if you ran Monsanto. If it was me, I’d look at the reasons people don’t like my work: it’s tampering with complex ...

A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales to the Future for Food Conference, Georgetown University, Washington DC

“President de Gioia, Ladies and Gentlemen. Having such fond memories of my last visit, it is a great joy to be invited back to Georgetown to speak at this conference. It certainly makes a change from making embarrassing speeches about my eldest son during wedding receptions…!” Source: https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/media/speeches/speech-hrh-the-prince-of-wales-the-future-food-conference-georgetown-university

The social tipping point is 8%

Someone told me recently that the tipping point for lasting social change is 8%. I don’t know where they got that number from but it seems believable. Especially if there’s no reason to resist the change. (A quick google turned up affirmation, so let’s go with it.) So if it’s true, this report from Germany ...

Dark Skies

This is cool. I didn’t know this even existed! Exmoor National Park has been designated the first International Dark Sky Reserve in Europe! A view of the stars is a view of our natural heritage and a spectacular quality of Exmoor’s night time landscape. Dark night skies are a declining resource, threatened by development and ...

Have you quit your stupid job yet?

This is a copy of a letter I’ve just written to a chap who works as a “Finance Analyst – Environmental” for BP. I post it here for reference. — Hi James I promised to send you some bits and pieces about how there *is* a real alternative to the tiresomely immoral, impractical, unnecessary, well-paid ...

Flying windturbines

The higher up you go, the stronger the wind. So if you fly a wind turbine at 400m it should generate a lot of energy, right? Right.

And this is only talking about cars

Watch from the 30 minute marker for about 10 minutes. The average American car uses 100 times its weight in ancient plants (converted to oil). 7/8th of the energy never gets to the weheel is lost in engine, idling, driveline, etc 1/2 of the remaining 1/8th heats tyres, road, air Only 1/20th of the mass ...

Energy trends per country

    http://energy.publicdata.eu/ee/vis.html

Permaculture principles

It seems this list can bring wisdom and insight to pretty much everything we do. Apart from the more specific ones (like ‘keep water high on the land’, but maybe just try to metaphor these as taoist haikus to trigger bewildering insights.) Relative Location Components placed in a system are viewed relatively, not in isolation. ...

How we feed ourselves

You may have seen a recent report saying that going meat free one day per week saves more greenhouse gas emissions than eating a fully local diet. It seems kind of dubious, doesn’t it? You’re telling me that shipping grains and fruit half way around the world has less environmental impact than raising it locally? ...

Visualising an economy of plenty

New Dream Mini-Views: Visualizing a Plenitude Economy from Center for a New American Dream on Vimeo. via Visualizing a Plenitude Economy on Vimeo.

Solar is Ready Now

Notes from a great article at ThinkProgress: Solar is Ready Now: ‘Ferocious Cost Reductions’ Make Solar PV Competitive. The 17 GW which was installed in 2010 is the equivalent of 17 nuclear power plants – manufactured, shipped and installed in one year. Manufacturing costs have come down from $60 a watt in the mid-1970’s to ...

Link round-up

£3m Community energy fund divesting funds British Gas is committed to distributing £3m via the energyshare fund to community renewable projects over the next 3 years. energyshare really wants to hear from all types of communities across Britain. A registered community group can apply for up to £100,000, and all they ask is that projects: ...