Terminal 5, snow and solar systems

At one time flying was rare and glamorous. Now it is a boring chore that you have to undertake with great guilt about the carbon emissions that flying creates assuaging the guilt by remembering that the vapour trials of aircraft diffuse light, probably slowing down the rate of global warming.
 
I went to the new Terminal [...]

An extra day in the leap year - use it to help or harm the environment?

Today is the 29th February a date that is on the calendar every four years (or less frequently in some centuries). Depending on how you do the maths (whether you are paid on an hourly basis, or weekly basis or a monthly basis or a yearly basis), employers might get from the day an extra [...]

The China Argument and using cars less

I watched a television programme about Ms Kris Murrin, a woman who tries to persuade people to use their cars less and walk and cycle more. In the Channel 4 documentary series The Woman Who Stops Traffic, Ms Murrin encounters all sorts of arguments about why people should not give up their cars for a day, [...]

Biofuels in Brazil and the environmental cost of them

In Brazil people are talking about biofuels.  Biofuels were hailed as the solution to fossil fuel carbon emissions, rather like biomass is in the United Kingdom today. Brazil produces large quantities of biofuel, mainly from sugar cane, which is turned into ethanol. This is pumped from what used to be petrol pumps and propels transport [...]

Underground fares- no free ride for London

I find it very hard to understand how we run public transport in Britain. Public transport is very important. It is almost always better (in terms of producing less carbon) to take a train or a bus than it is to take a car, so you would expect that public transport services would operate at [...]

Fines for Network Rail and Fines for People - but no sauce for the gander

It is much better for the environment if you can take a long journey by rail, instead of by air or plane. Unfortunately the rail way system in the United Kingdom has suffered from under investment for decades. The original railway infrastructure was built to high standards; it still needed to be maintained but maintenance [...]