climate change
Posted by jossc — 12 July 2007 at 5:03pm
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As you've probably guessed by now, we here in the Greenpeace UK web team love our animations, particularly if they're funny. If they're funny and they have something to say that's relevant to our campaigns, we like them even more. If they're funny, relevant and have a surreal twist to them, then we start to get over-excited and have to go and lie down for a while. Which is kind of what happened when we saw the following during Live Earth. Made by our long-time collaborators at Airside, 'a beginners' guide to giving a damn' gently ridicules some of the more excessive aspects of the western lifestyle while pointing out the positive benefits of reining in unnecessary consumption.
Last edited 11 July 2007 at 1:23pm
Responding to Gordon Brown's legislative plans, announced today, Greenpeace director John Sauven said:
"Brown's housing plans need to make zero-carbon houses the norm and not the exception. If such legislation doesn't force new housing projects to be zero-carbon now, it will be a failure.
"As we embark on a major house-building programme, massive projects like that at Thames Gateway, just east of London, are a huge opportunity to tackle rather than inflame global warming."
Sauven continued:
Last edited 11 July 2007 at 1:01pm
Last edited 10 July 2007 at 5:25am
Last edited 10 July 2007 at 5:07am
Energy isn't just wasted in the places that we finally use it; most of the waste in our electricity system happens before it even reaches our homes and businesses.
Our power stations throw away the same amount of heat as is needed to provide hot water and heating for every building in the UK.
How does this happen? Well, generating electricity produces huge amounts of 'waste' heat, which is simply thrown away by our power stations - for example, as steam up the cooling towers.
On average, our large, centralised power stations throw away two thirds of the energy they generate.
Last edited 10 July 2007 at 5:04am
The way we use energy is shockingly wasteful. Every year, we throw away more than eight times the amount of energy supplied by all of the UK's nuclear power stations combined.
Through our inefficient use of energy (gas guzzling vehicles, badly insulated buildings, poorly designed appliances etc) we needlessly throw away almost a third of the energy we use (source).
Posted by jamie — 6 July 2007 at 6:38pm
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With 2 billion pairs of eyes expected to be firmly clamped on the Live Earth concerts tomorrow, the word about climate change will be spread far and wide. Although, as George Marshall argues, perhaps enough people already know and they're just waiting to be forced into doing something about it through new laws introduced by their government.
We don't have to wait, though - in fact, we can't wait. Even the most optimistic predictions about the effects of climate change say that we need to take immediate action. So if watching Madonna cavorting around has spurred you on, what can you do here and now? Funny you should ask...
Posted by bex — 6 July 2007 at 3:01pm
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We've been arguing for a long time that nuclear power can't stop climate change - because replacing our whole fleet of nuclear power stations would only reduce our carbon emissions by four per cent, some time after 2024 (far too little, far too late).
The Oxford Research Group has just published an interesting study on the subject. It says that, for nuclear power to make any significant contribution to a reduction in global carbon emissions in the next two generations, the industry would have to construct nearly 3,000 new reactors globally - about one a week for 60 years.
Last edited 6 July 2007 at 1:26pm
Reacting to the announcement that the operators of Luton Airport have been forced to drop well-advanced plans to build a new runway and terminal, Greenpeace aviation campaigner Emily Armistead said:
"This is great news for the climate. The airlines operating out of Luton have been pushing a binge-flying culture that's deeply damaging to the environment and a second runway would only have made things worse."
She continued:
Last edited 6 July 2007 at 11:34am
NEW PRIME MINISTER Gordon Brown acted unlawfully during his first appearance at the despatch box for Prime Minister's Questions, according to lawyers acting for Greenpeace.
Following a High Court decision earlier this year, no government decision to support new nuclear power stations can lawfully be made before a public consultation has been carried out. However, during PMQs on Wednesday, Gordon Brown ignored the Court's ruling and sabotaged the ongoing consultation by stating that: "We have made the decision to continue with nuclear power."
