London’s air quality

Air quality is terribly important. There are various ways in which air can be polluted and various ways to test that the air quality is of a sufficiently high standard so as not to present a hazard to human health. One of the most important ways of measuring air quality is to measure pollution particles [...]

Where is the oil price going?

This week one newspaper reported that hydrogen based fuel would be available in a few years, it would be capable of using it in existing cars and would sell for about a third of today’s oil based fuel, provided the fuel was not taxed. If you factor in the tax that all governments now place [...]

Ocean currents from the Arctic are warming

Nature News reports that the ocean water that flows from the Arctic Ocean today is two degrees Celsius warmer than it has been for two thousand years. Fifty or so metres under the Fram Strait, between Greenland and the Svalbard Islands, is a warmer current which in Summer has a water temperature of 6⁰C, significantly [...]

Controlling climate change by opening a betting shop

The European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme remains suspended following revelations that Euros 30 million worth of certificates have been stolen and sold. There is no certain date when spot trading will begin again, so if you have emissions certificates that you wish to sell or certificates that you wish to buy, you cannot do so [...]

Save our forests

When the Romans first set foot in England they found a country that was virtually covered in trees. Apart from marshlands, which were subsequently drained, and grassy chalk down lands, forests were the prime feature of the English countryside. Today if you travel from London to the north along the M1 motorway it can be [...]

The rationale for a renewable heat incentive

Consumers often ask why they should pay for renewable heat. The funds allocated for this over four years may be around £850 million, which is a great deal of money in these hard times. Renewable heat in effect comprises biomass, solar thermal panels for heat and hot water and heat pumps. There are two main [...]

When the wind blows…

Today we are told that about four percent of the United Kingdom’s electricity is supplied by wind farms. We are told this by the Renewable Energy Centre who also tell us that the wind farms supply around 5GW of power; there are another 18GW of wind farms that are in the planning process and that [...]

Closing down the carbon exchange

When I first learned about the proposal to use a system of carbon credits and carbon trading as the main means of defeating climate change I was sceptical. This concept, pushed by the United Kingdom, seemed to me, to use the very devices that brought banking and the economies of many nations to their knees. [...]

Life and death

Human life is a process of attempting to overcome adversity. For a lucky few the adversities are relatively small. We all “need” things. I might “need” a new car, but someone not too far from me may need simply clean water a regular meals. We need to put our economies straight and stop spending money [...]

Gambling with the planet

We are usually happy and impressed when records are broken, because breaking records usually shows us that humans have progressed. We can run faster, fly higher, or even eat more sausages – this is all a measure of progress, but as my geography teacher used to say, progress is merely putting one foot in front [...]