Author: Jo

Categories
Renewable Gas

Renewable Gas : Metallic Academy

The maximum potential for the production of Renewable Gas depends a great deal on efficient, cheap methods of producing Renewable Hydrogen.

This is because increasing the fraction of hydrogen in a carbon-rich gas mix opens the way to a gas stream with a higher energy density – either with or without chemical reaction, heat treatment or refinery.


Although hydrogen gas is often considered as a replacement for hydrocarbon fuels, a mix of carbon-rich Renewable Gas resources with hydrogen offer a wider scope. For example, gas grid networks can certainly take around 5% hydrogen, and maybe even more, without altering gas distribution infrastructure or gas-burning appliances.

A number of materials are currently under investigation as catalysts for the electrolysis of water, which would mean inexpensive high volume production of hydrogen – these materials need to be plentiful in the Earth’s crust and relatively cheap.

A combination of computer modelling and physical experiment is pointing the way to several classes of chemical compounds and molecular compositions – such as nano-structures on substrates and metallo-organic matrixes (or should I say “matrices” ?)

Expect more of this kind of research.

Categories
Bad Science

The Inverter in My Closet

My neighbour Dot, who is approximately 90 years in age, was trudging carefully along the road with her shopping trolley-come-walking aid, in the March rain. I brought my big umbrella to bear on the situation, to preserve her snowbird coiffure from the ravages of nature, and walked her, weatherised, to her door.

As we slow-stepped past my house, she stopped, pointed up and asked me quizzically, “What are those things on your roof ?” “They’re solar panels”, I enunciated very loudly, for Dot is almost completely deaf. I mimed the description, “They take in the sunlight and turn it into electricity”. “I say !”, said Dot, not entirely convinced, and just a little perplexed.

I thought back to a couple of days ago. I was doing a little Spring clean and tidy at the front of the house, and my neighbour DD called out a hoy as he walked past. After exchanging pleasantries and enquiries he admitted, “We never did get those solar panels.” He had seen my photovoltaics and had called round to ask about the installation about a month ago.

I asked him why he decided against the solar revolution in his own home. Apparently his wife had done some research on the Internet and decided that she didn’t like the sound of all those electronics in her home – “electrosmog”, Wi-Fi radiation, mobile phone mast “sudden death syndrome”, whatever it was, she was suspicious.

But all I have in the cupboard under my stairs is an inverter – it transforms Direct Current from the solar juice into Alternating Current to feed into the National Grid. It doesn’t radiate anything. Yes, the microinverters that I chose specially for some of the panels on the roof are communicating wirelessly with the Internet, but the main inverter for the rest of the panels is not transmitting anything by radio or microwave. He wouldn’t need to have Wi-Fi anything to have a solar system – but his “better half” was just plain dubious.

I said to DD, “It’s just crazy people on the Internet. Don’t believe it”. But it was a lost cause. You can’t argue against a person’s spouse, however much you know – the sanctity of their negotiated relationship, their union, has to guard their democratic decision-making against any outside opinion.

How come people know so little about electromagnetic radiation ? Why do they fear so much ? Why is there so much disinformation ? I mean, if we shouldn’t have wireless fidelity communiations networks and radio and microwave appliances and electronics at home, because of some perceived but ultimately spurious concern, we should have cause to throw out all our television and radio sets, and ban all radio and television airwave broadcasting, for it is pervasive – as I am wont to say “You have BBC Radio 2 passing through you quite safely all the time !”

I remember I was shocked when I found out that there are people who won’t use microwave ovens because of the “radiation”. Yes, microwave ovens leak a bit, but it’s non-ionising electromagnetic (EM) radiation, so the worst thing it could do is interfere with your wi-fi or possibly set off a car alarm. It’s not going to give you cancer. You would need ionising EM radiation to cause DNA mutation and cell damage and create the pre-conditions for oncogenesis, and a microwave oven doesn’t produce that – although sunlight does – which is why we are advised to use suncream (although there is an ongoing debate about whether the risk of skin cancer needs to be offset against the health problems resulting from a reduction in natural Vitamin D production from the lowered exposure to natural sunlight).

My elderly neighbour’s fear of 21st Century technology, and my other neighbour’s female partner are a worry – they are symptomatic. The lack of education about basic Physics, Chemistry and Biology extends even to really smart people I consider wise. I had an interesting conversation with a friend visiting recently, who was reluctant to have wi-fi Internet at home because of potential health risks – even though all the studies ever done have never concluded that radio communication could ever cause biological damage. Shampoo and toothpaste are more dangerous than the side-effects of a little brain warming from a mobile phone next to your ear.

My friend was gracious enough to allow me to walk her through some of the basics of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the interaction of radiation with matter, and although she didn’t find me utterly convincing, at least she is intelligent and curious enough to read a little more, and I’m sure she will shift her views based on factual evidence.

Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases. The lack of scientific understanding is widespread, and continually present in the media – journalists and reporters often relay meta-narrative about science – the political debates, the accusations of malpractice – rather than actual progress in science.

A lot of the people I meet get their opinions and knowledge of science from newspapers, TV and the radio, but the broadcasters, journalists and news editors often have a very poor grounding in science. If we are to throw our TVs out of the window, we should do it because science correspondents are so misguided, not because of stray electromagnetic radiation. How on Earth can people know what’s real and what’s dross when the sources of information they rely on are warped or unfactual ?

Reflecting on the implications of these situations leaves me in despair. I just cannot believe that people have such little science in their mental framework, despite top quality education services.

Without knowledge, the people perish. They cannot make the right decisions as a social democracy, and they can be forced to accept things that don’t work by elite technocrats, who are often financed by special interests.

Everybody that works in public life, with duties of service to the peoples’ common administration, should have adequate science education.

And if they don’t know something, they should know somebody who does.

Categories
Delay and Deny

Another potential timewaster, but this time thankfully polite

Matt appears to be somewhat behind the times in his scientific interests in tree ring dataset disparities and the Urban Heat Island effect, and Michael Mann has done more research since MBH98 in 1998, but at least Matt is being polite.

It’s such a relief to have correspondents avoid swearing and not making entirely unfounded accusations.

But to engage in an e-mail exchange with him would waste my time, so no, I won’t be using my valuable time replying or starting a conversation with him.

Sorry if the rest of you, my dear readers and critics, were hoping for a dialogue or a debate.

There is no debate.

The science is clear.

The evidence is in.

The consensus is settled.

Climate change is already really serious, and getting progressively worse.

Continue reading “Another potential timewaster, but this time thankfully polite”
Categories
Climate Change Global Warming The Data The War on Error

Tee-Shirt Thursday

So, as I’m sitting on the train, a man called Mick from my local London village gets on.

We’ve both been out, enjoying “Tee-Shirt Thursday”, a day of warming, bright sunshine and Spring-like temperatures – in the middle of Winter.

“This is highly unusual”, I say, “it is unseasonably warm.” Mick agrees.I say, “You know what this means, don’t you ? I mean, globally, January was the 19th warmest January since records began, and February is going to turn out to be a warm one too.”

“What about Eastern Europe ?”, he asked, “They’ve had incredibly cold and snowy weather.” “I know. You get these cold snaps”, I agreed, “Hundreds of people have died. But this is what you should expect with climate change, all the normal weather patterns have been disturbed.”

“It’s not a snap”, Mick said, “it’s been going on for weeks.” “Yes”, I said, “these areas of high and low temperatures have been locking into place. It’s all because of global warming.”

“But there hasn’t been any global warming for fifteen years”, said Mick. “Which newspaper do you read ?” I asked him, taken aback. “I don’t read any newspapers”, he clarified, “I read it in the library, somewhere.”

Continue reading “Tee-Shirt Thursday”
Categories
Advancing Africa Advertise Freely Alchemical Animal Kingdoom Bee Prepared Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Big Society Biofools Climate Damages Corporate Pressure Dead Zone Demoticratica Direction of Travel Droughtbowl Eating & Drinking Emissions Impossible Environmental Howzat Extreme Weather Faithful God Feed the World Feel Gooder Food Insecurity Foreign Investment Forestkillers Fossilised Fuels Freemarketeering Freshwater Stress Genetic Muddyfixation Geogingerneering Growth Paradigm Health Impacts Human Nurture Low Carbon Life Major Shift Marvellous Wonderful Media Nudge & Budge Oil Change Paradigm Shapeshifter Peak Emissions Peak Energy Peak Natural Gas Public Relations Social Change Solution City Sustainable Deferment Technological Fallacy Technological Sideshow Technomess Toxic Hazard Tree Family Ungreen Development Virtually Vegan Water Wars

Living Life and LOAFing It

CHRISTIAN ECOLOGY LINK
PRESS RELEASE

Living Life and LOAFing It – Green Christians ask churches to “Use your LOAF !” on sourcing sustainable food

In the run up to Easter, Christian Ecology Link is asking supporters to think and act on how they source food for their church communities, with the aim of reducing the impact of unsustainable agriculture on their local area, and the wider world.

CEL have launched a new colour leaflet on the LOAF programme principles in time for Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras), or Pancake Day, on 21st February 2012.

Continue reading “Living Life and LOAFing It”
Categories
Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Chaos Conflict of Interest Corporate Pressure Delay and Deny Divide & Rule Evil Opposition Fair Balance Freak Science Global Singeing Global Warming Hide the Incline Human Nurture Libertarian Liberalism Mass Propaganda Media Non-Science Paradigm Shapeshifter Policy Warfare Public Relations Scientific Fallacy Social Chaos Sustainable Deferment The War on Error Unqualified Opinion

What Does GWPF Really Stand For ?

Image Credit : Global Warming Policy Foundation

 This article was written by M. A. Rodger and was originally posted at DeSmogBlog and is syndicated by an informal agreement and with the express permission of both the author and DeSmogBlog, without payment or charge. The author’s original artwork here was not initially included over at DeSmogBlog.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a UK-based climate-sceptic think-tank founded in November 2009 by Lord Lawson. Within two years of its launch, a survey of scepticism in the global media by Oxford University’s RISJ had added a final chapter showing the GWPF had gained success in “inserting itself into the (UK) national discourse” and that its founder and its director had become “the two most quoted sceptics by far” within the UK national press.

The GWPF believes it has made a difference, saying of itself “The key to the success of the GWPF is the trust and credibility that we have earned in the eyes of a growing number of policy makers, journalists and the interested public.” Yet the GWPF has also been criticised for being secretive, misinformed, wrong and perverse.

Continue reading “What Does GWPF Really Stand For ?”
Categories
Assets not Liabilities Be Prepared Big Number Big Picture Burning Money Conflict of Interest Corporate Pressure Demoticratica Direction of Travel Disturbing Trends Divide & Rule Economic Implosion Electrificandum Energy Autonomy Energy Change Energy Insecurity Energy Revival Engineering Marvel Financiers of the Apocalypse Fossilised Fuels Fuel Poverty Green Investment Green Power Growth Paradigm Hydrocarbon Hegemony Incalculable Disaster Major Shift National Energy National Power Neverending Disaster Nuclear Nuisance Nuclear Shambles Optimistic Generation Paradigm Shapeshifter Peak Natural Gas Peak Oil Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Regulatory Ultimatum Renewable Resource Shale Game Social Democracy Solar Sunrise Solution City Sustainable Deferment Technological Fallacy Technological Sideshow The Myth of Innovation The Price of Gas The Price of Oil The War on Error Ungreen Development Unnatural Gas

The UK’s Energy Crisis

What annoys me most about the Solar Power Feed-in Tariff saga is not that the UK Government suddenly pulled the plug on the full rate for household-sized systems, or that they set the cut-off date before they finished their consultation, or even that that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) dragged out a legal appeal process.

Despite the truly pitiful sight of a Minister of State being sent out to bat with a miniaturised teaspoon to defend the indefensible decision, and despite the energy industry stooges that have placements inside DECC and are clearly affecting policy, no, the thing that really gets me is the focus on budgets instead of targets.

Here’s a summary from the Government’s own “long term trend” figures for energy consumption in Great Britain :-

Nobody can swear to me that the last few years are not just a glitch caused by economic instabilities, and that the re-localisation of manufacture in future in a recovering economy will not push this demand continually higher according to the trendline.

What are we using to supply this energy ? Here’s a summary :-

Despite the near exponential rise in renewable energy, it’s starting from a small base. The increase in energy consumption is being satisfied by a sharp rise in the supply of Natural Gas – something which the UK is producing increasingly less of these days. And for those who think that shale gas production would help, no, only a few percent of demand could be satisfied. This is an import-led energy supply, and the trend should ring alarm bells, but clearly doesn’t even tickle the ears of the average person in the street.

Electricity demand growth remains healthy, despite problems with unreliable supply from nuclear electricity (refered to as “outages” in the DECC Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) reports) :-

Now, in the future, with an envisioned massive rise in renewable energy, higher electricity use would be reasonable, as long as other energy consumption reduced. But the growth in electricity consumption charted here is not people driving more electric cars or using electric heating instead of Natural Gas-fired comfort. This is higher consumption, pure and simple, not “energy switching” over to electricity.

As an aside – the sum total of these figures indicates that the nation as a whole is not engaged in significant energy conservation, despite decades of campaigning.

All these trends add up to a very slight loss in dependency on fossil fuels for the UK’s energy :-

This is the critical trend. North Sea oil and Natural Gas production is falling like a large rock, and no amount of technological advancement and re-stimulating the drilling sector is turning this around. This means that without a rapid decrease in fossil fuel dependency, the United Kingdom is going to start haemorrhaging wealth.

Goodbye, First World.

This is why is it essential to ramp up renewable energy deployment by whatever means at our disposal.

Greg Barker MP bleating about keeping to budgets is not helping.

Categories
Advertise Freely Assets not Liabilities Be Prepared Behaviour Changeling Big Society Burning Money Carbon Army Contraction & Convergence Cost Effective Demoticratica Direction of Travel Eating & Drinking Efficiency is King Energy Autonomy Energy Change Faithful God Feel Gooder Fossilised Fuels Gamechanger Green Investment Human Nurture Low Carbon Life Major Shift Marvellous Wonderful Media Money Sings National Power Nudge & Budge Paradigm Shapeshifter Peak Emissions Peak Energy Price Control Public Relations Social Capital Solution City Stirring Stuff The Power of Intention Voluntary Behaviour Change Wasted Resource

Carbon Detox 2012

PRESS RELEASE

Carbon Detox 2012 : Shed Unwanted Pounds With Our Unique Formulation

George Marshall, well-known sustainable living guru, will be asking us to challenge ourselves, our routines and bad habits, and make a 2012 all-year resolution to shed the excess carbon from our lives.

On 21st January 2012 at a convenient central London location, he will ask us to take action to get control of our personal energy, and add vitality to our lives with new aims and goals.

The aim of the event is to help us acquire the psychological tools we need to lead slimmer, healthier and more ethically satisfying lifestyles.

Speaking from the experience gained from his decades of research and practice in the field, and giving tips and tricks from his bestseller “Carbon Detox“, George will be guiding us expertly through the carbon counting maze.

One of our leaner life activities group said : “Cutting down has been hard work, but has become much more fun now I am involved in my local group. I am looking forward to meeting my buddies on Saturday.”

Tony Emerson, the coordinator for the ecocell 2 programme said : “In three years our household has managed to halve the amount of greenhouse gases we produce – by topping up loft insulation, converting to double glazing, installing a wood stove and learning how to best use it, new heavier curtains, wall insulation, changing to a green electricity supplier, continued monitoring of timings and temperature of the central heating – and of course taking part in the ecocell 2 programme. However we still have further to go and I am looking forward to hear what George Marshall has to say. One way we are encouraging people in ecocell 2 is to have a buddy system, whereby people pair up, or group up, by phone, so that people with similar houses can support each other.”

To register for this free, all day event, including a selection of facilitated workshops and to receive your take-home worksheet pack, please email Tony at ecocell@christian-ecology.org.uk

For photographs of the day’s events, and feedback from the workshops, please contact Jo on 0845 45 98 46 0

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS

a. Climate change activist and author George Marshall will be addressing green Christians during an all-day conference on Saturday 21st January 2012 in Central London.

b. The Christian Ecology Link ecocell project team will facilitate workshops on “living the truly sustainable life” at the Magdalen Centre, St Mary’s Church, Eversholt Street near Euston train station between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm [1]

c. George Marshall, author of the easy-to-read book “Carbon Detox : Your step-by-step guide to getting real about climate change” will be offering his fact-packed and lighthearted insights into action on climate change, drawn from his experience of over a decade of community and policy work. [2]

d. The event will be suitable for anybody already taking part in the ecocell project, or anybody interested in starting. The workshops on the day will be pitched at several levels.

e. The ecocell-1 workshop group will look at the introductory programme to help your family or church group take their first steps to reducing their impact on the environment. [3]

f. The ecocell-2 workshop will look at the more in-depth project, to provide mutual support for those who want to reduce their carbon emissions to sustainable levels within five years. [4]

REFERENCES

[1] The Magdalen Centre, St Mary’s Church, Eversholt Street, London NW1 1BN is located about 7 minutes’ walk north of Euston train station.

[2] https://www.carbondetox.org/

[3] https://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ecocell
https://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ecocell/ecocell-1

[4] https://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ecocell
https://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ecocell/ecocell-2
https://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ecocell/ecocell2-materials

[5] https://www.greenchristian.org.uk/archives/1537
https://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/ecocell-day-21-jan-2012.htm

CONTACT

For details of Christian Ecology Link, please phone Jo on 0845 45 98 46 0 or email info@christian-ecology.org.uk

Categories
Solar Sunrise

George Monbiot’s Parochial Frame

Image Credit : joabbess.com

George Monbiot is rightly fearful that the UK Government’s new Green Deal won’t amount to much, but he’s in danger of losing the bigger picture.

He dismisses the feed-in tariff for domestic scale solar photovoltaic electricity generation as being a “middle-class subsidy”, and being regressive – favouring the rich and adding to the poor man’s tax and energy bill burden.

Yet while he is lambasting entrepreneurs and pioneers, he ignores the valuable contribution that renewable energy makes to society at large.

Without the development of a multitude of smallscale renewable energy installations, the country will have to pay for increasingly expensive Natural Gas imports, and subsidise a whole new fleet of nuclear power plants – because, let’s face it, nuclear power never came cheap.

It’s true that the feed-in tariff rewards people who have savings when they invest those savings in renewable energy – but it also provides valuable cashflow and employment to the economy, and the tax revenue that comes with that.

I don’t see how having some savings that you invest in renewable energy makes a person “middle-class”, however, unless class is defined by savings.

And I don’t see how investing in renewable energy makes a body “middle-class”, either. If having savings means you are rich, when somebody has spent those savings on renewable energy, they become poor.

Putting ones savings into renewable energy could be viewed as investment in the future wealth of the nation – it is a highly patriotic act. I am personally ensuring that everybody, both rich and poor, does not have to financially support, through taxation and energy bills, the wasteful and costly power generation of the past, for decades into the future.

The small compensation from the feed-in tariff is what somebody should expect from selflessly contributing to the nation’s low carbon power supply.

The sale of the renewable solar power to the National Grid is the remuneration that one should expect of any power generation. Solar power may be free, but it hasn’t been free for me to put up solar panels to capture it.

The solar photovoltaic feed-in tariff is not regressive – it’s powerfully progressive, and it should not be abolished.

Categories
Peace not War

War Gaming Iran (3) : “Wretched tyrant” : David Cameron calls out Bashar al-Assad

I was doing my regular trawl of news, and happened upon the latest accusation against Iran. According to the intelligence community in several countries, Iran has been supplying weapons to the Syrian government, to use in its violent “crackdown” on the “peaceful” protestor-rebels.

I have no in-depth insider knowledge of arms trafficking, so I couldn’t say for certain whether this claim was accurate – but when I found that David Cameron had called out Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, as a “wretched tyrant”, I knew I was looking at war propaganda.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9023322/David-Cameron-accuses-Iran-of-supplying-Syria-weapons.html

“David Cameron accuses Iran of supplying Syria weapons : David Cameron accused the Iranian regime of supplying weapons for the Syrian onslaught on democracy protests yesterday as Russia’s foreign minister warned that the West was set on a path to war with Tehran : By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent : 18 January 2012 : The Prime Minister revealed that British officials had been told that weapons shipments from Iran to Syria had been intercepted by Turkey and that intelligence reports confirmed that Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement, was actively involved in the slaughter of Syria. “There is now growing evidence that Iran is providing a huge amount of support,” he told the House of Commons. “There have been interceptions of some shipments by Turkey which are particularly interesting. People should also know that Hizbollah is an organisation standing up and supporting this wretched tyrant who is killing so many of his own people.” Mounting frustration in Whitehall over the role of foreign support for the Syrian regime to suppress the uprising has seen the Government, along with other Western powers, switch tactics in recent days. After deferring to an Arab League initiative to send in monitoring teams to defuse violence, diplomats now want a UN Security Council resolution condemning the regime…”

Damien McElroy. Hasn’t he been awarded tassels and gongs for his replication of the narratives of State in the past ? Has he just re-gurgitated something emailed to him, or off the telly, or has he checked his facts about the flow of armaments in the Middle East ?

He’s not the only one to mirror the Establishment narrative, however :-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16609789

“18 January 2012…Meanwhile, the UK has accused Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement of helping the Syrian government suppress dissent…”People should also know that Hezbollah is an organisation standing up and supporting this wretched tyrant who is killing so many of his own people,” he added, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad…”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088452/Cameron-calls-Assad-wretched-tyrant-calls-tougher-sanctions-Syria.html

“18th January 2012 : David Cameron branded President Bashar al-Assad a ‘wretched tyrant’ as he told Parliament that Britain should play a leading role in urging the international community to step up sanctions against Syria. The Prime Minister claimed there was growing evidence that both Iran and militant group Hezbollah were helping to prop up the Syrian leader. He said: ‘Britain needs to lead the way in making sure we tighten the sanctions, the travel bans, the asset freezes, on Syria. ‘In terms of who is actually helping the Syrian government to oppress their people, there is now growing evidence that Iran is providing a huge amount of support. ‘People should also know that Hezbollah is also an organisation that is standing up and supporting this wretched tyrant who is killing so many of his own people.’ ”

Who started this rumour ? Why, the Americans of course :-

https://news.yahoo.com/iran-supplying-weapons-syria-crackdown-us-officials-051958520.html

“Iran supplying weapons to Syria crackdown: US officials : By Stephen Collinson : Sat, Jan 14, 2012 : The United States believes Iran is supplying munitions to aid Syria’s bloody protest crackdown in an initiative spearheaded by Tehran’s revolutionary guard supremo, according to senior US officials. Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps elite Quds force, was in the Syrian capital this month, one official said on Friday, in what Washington sees as the most concrete sign yet that Iranian aid to Syria includes military hardware. “We are confident that he was received at the highest levels of the Syrian government, including by President Assad,” the official said on condition of anonymity. We think this relates to Iranian support for the Syrian government’s attempts to suppress its people.” The official said Washington has reason to believe that Iran is supplying security-related equipment “including munitions” to Syrian forces. “The US government believes Iran has supplied Syria with munitions” for use in the military crackdown, he said. The United States has long suspected that Iran has been aiding Syria’s purge against protesters as Assad tries to cling to power and avoid the fate of other Arab dictators felled by the Arab Spring uprisings…”

What has Iran to say of this slur ?

https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/26836-iran-rejects-french-charge-of-arms-to-syria

“17 January 2012 : Iran on Tuesday denied an allegation from France that it was sending weapons to its ally Syria in violation of a U.N. embargo. “The declarations from French officials are incorrect,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in a regular weekly briefing. “Unfortunately we often see political positions by officials from some European countries, this time by France, that are baseless and not backed by proof,” he said. France’s foreign ministry said on Monday that Iran has repeatedly violated a U.N. arms embargo by exporting weapons to Syria, which is roiled by internal strife. French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said a U.N. panel of experts had informed the U.N. Security Council of “illegal and deeply shocking” violations of the embargo by Iran. “We condemn these violations and call on Iran and Syria to comply with Security Council resolutions,” Nadal said…”

Well, whether or not there’s any truth in this latest anti-Iran meme, nobody has accused anybody in Russia of being wretched or tyrannical in supplying arms to Syria :-

https://en.rian.ru/world/20111201/169209507.html

“01/12/2011 : MOSCOW, December 1 (RIA Novosti) : EU sanctions against Syria do not prohibit Russian arms supplies to the Arab country, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Thursday. Asked whether Russia would supply weapons to Syria despite EU sanctions, he said: “Are they banned or what?” “Russia will do whatever is not prohibited by any regulations, rules or agreements,” he said. Moscow is against an arms embargo on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. The United States and European Union have already banned arms supplies to Damascus, and the Arab League proposed to follow suit during its meeting on Syria on Sunday. Russia is Syria’s major arms supplier, with contracts worth at least $4 billion as of 2011. International pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has mounted in the past few weeks over his intensified crackdown on dissent.”

https://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-18/russia-rejects-u-s-criticism-over-munitions-delivery-to-syria.html

“Russia Rejects U.S. Criticism Over Munitions Delivery to Syria : January 18, 2012 : Russia rejected U.S. criticism over a Russian arms shipment to Syria, saying it’s not acting illegally by supplying weapons to the Middle Eastern country. “We don’t consider it necessary to explain or justify ourselves because we aren’t breaking any international agreements or UN Security Council resolutions,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow today. Russia accuses western countries of seeking to overthrow Assad and has blocked sanctions against Syria at the Security Council. The U.S. and European Union have both imposed an arms embargo against Syria, where more than 5,000 people have died in a crackdown on unrest that began in March, according to the United Nations. The U.S. has “very grave concern” about arms reaching Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said yesterday after news reports that a Russian shipment of ammunition arrived in Syria. Chariot, a Russian-owned ship carrying bullets, was detained by Cypriot authorities last week and allowed to proceed after agreeing to change its destination to Turkey. The ship stopped transmitting its automatic-recognition signal and went to the Syrian port of Tartus instead, the Cypriot national broadcaster CyBC reported, without saying where it got the information. : ‘Overdue’ Embargo : “Unfortunately there is not an arms embargo against Syria, which we certainly think is overdue, in part because as you well know some members of the council including Russia have indicated opposition to any form of sanctions,” Rice said in New York yesterday. Russia has weapons contracts with Syria of at least $3 billion, according to the Moscow-based Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. The orders include Yakhont anti- ship cruise missiles, MiG-29 fighter jets and Pantsir short- range air-defense systems. The port of Tartus is the only Russian base outside the former Soviet republics. Lavrov said Russia only trades with Syria what is legal under international law. “Unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU and some other countries can’t be regarded as legitimate as far as Russia’s actions are concerned,” he said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/thawing-cold-war-russia-found-be-supplying-syria-weapons-us-not-amused

“Thawing The Cold War: Russia Found To Be Supplying Syria With Weapons, US Not Amused : Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/13/2012 13:47 : Remember the cold war: evil Empire, 5 year plans, Lada cars, etc? It may very well be back, this time over the simple matter of a few million barrels of crude per day, after Russia was found to be quietly supplying an embargoed Syria with ammunition, in violation of a weapons embargo. Reuters reports: “A Russian-operated ship carrying a cargo of ammunition has reached conflict-torn Syria after being temporarily halted during a refuelling stop in Cyprus, sources in Russia and Cyprus said on Friday. A source in Cyprus, where the ship made an unscheduled stop for refuelling late on Tuesday, said the ship had given written assurances to authorities its destination would not be Syria but Turkey. It was allowed to sail a day later, whereupon it dropped off conventional tracking systems, switched course and reached Syria on Thursday. “It had bullets. There were four containers on board,” a Cypriot official told Reuters.” And here the plot thickens: we now have some war mongering deepthroat somewhere in Leningrad, pardon, St. Petersburg: “The ship was carrying a dangerous cargo,” the source at St. Petersburg-based Westberg Ltd. said by telephone on condition of anonymity. “It reached Syria on Jan. 11th.” Needless to say, the US is not very happy that Russia is doing precisely what it warned a few months ago it would do: namely protect its sphere of influence especially in light of the ever-encroaching NATO aspirations (yes, provocations go both ways as Ron Paul has long been warning): “The United States said on Friday it had raised concerns with Moscow over a Russian-operated ship that has arrived in Syria and which sources said contained a cargo of bullets. “With regard to the ship we have raised our concerns about this both with Russia and with Cyprus, which was the last port of call for the ship, and we are continuing to seek clarification as to what went down here,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.” Looks like the escalation in the Straits of Hormuz is about to shift to the backburner as we finally go back to where the real tension is and always has been: between West and East…”

This is a bit rich, you would have thought, for Russia to be arming the Syrian regime when it is also playing the “no foreign military interference” card :-

https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghmByi9H13AEjOI7Bwo1cT5FAPKg?docId=a2ce450b256f4fe1b2e60832841cea7d

“Russia vows to block Western intervention in Syria : By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press – 18 January 2012 : BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s powerful allies in Russia vowed Wednesday to block any Western attempts to intervene militarily in Syria as Damascus fights off an increasingly chaotic 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad. The support came as Assad was showing fresh confidence that he can ride out the uprising with the help of a small — but influential — set of friends in Russia, China and Iran. Iran also gave Syria another boost Wednesday. According to Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency, with the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Brig. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, said Assad’s government enjoys public support and won’t collapse…”

And Iran is also condemning foreign interference :-

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/riad-al-asaar-syria-intervention_n_1209950.html

“17 January 2012 : Iran condemned what it called foreign interference in the affairs of its closest Arab ally, Syria, and praised reforms President Assad has promised as “problem-solving”. “We are fundamentally against interfering in the affairs of other countries. We think it does not solve the problems but will only make them more complicated,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference. Assad, while proffering reform, has vowed to crush his opponents with an “iron fist”, but Syrians braving bullets and torture chambers appear equally determined to add him to the list of the past year’s toppled Arab leaders…”

And then, there’s the delicate question of who’s arming the Syrian rebels ?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8917265/Libyas-new-rulers-offer-weapons-to-Syrian-rebels.html

“25 November 2011 : Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels : Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya’s new authorities on Friday, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, The Daily Telegraph has learned. By Ruth Sherlock, in Misurata GMT 25 Nov 2011 : At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested “assistance” from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers. “There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see.” The Telegraph has also learned that preliminary discussions about arms supplies took place when members of the Syrian National Council [SNC] – the country’s main opposition movement – visited Libya earlier this month. “The Libyans are offering money, training and weapons to the Syrian National Council,” added Wisam Taris, a human rights campaigner with links to the SNC…”

https://www.yourmiddleeast.com/news/syria-accuses-qatar-of-arming-rebels_4205

“Syria accuses Qatar of arming rebels : AFP : Last updated: January 18, 2012 : Syria’s state-owned media on Wednesday accused Qatar of arming and financing opponents of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Qatar’s call to send Arab troops to the country “falls within the framework of the negative role played by Qatar since the start of this crisis… through the financing of armed groups,” the Tishrin newspaper charged. The Gulf state “can help Syria get out of its crisis… by stopping its financing of armed (groups) and the trafficking of weapons” to insurgents, wrote the daily. Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa al-Thani, said in an interview aired at the weekend that he backs sending Arab troops to Syria, where the regime has been trying to crush a democracy protest movement with brutal force for the past 10 months. Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said the idea could come up for discussion at the next meeting of the pan-Arab body at its Cairo headquarters on Saturday and Sunday. The Arab bloc is expected to discuss the future of its widely criticised observer mission to Syria, where the United Nations says the regime’s crackdown on protests has cost more than 5,400 lives since March…”

https://www.yalibnan.com/2012/01/11/hezbollah-amal-baath-members-are-arming-syrian-rebels-report/

“Hezbollah, Amal, Baath members are arming Syrian rebels, report : JANUARY 11, 2012 : Lebanese security sources have confirmed that “dozens of members of Shiite Hezbollah and Amal movement are involved in smuggling arms across the Syrian border to the Syrian rebels.” These elements buy the weapons in Lebanon and Libya and smuggle them to the “Free Syrian Army”, mainly to Damascus countryside and Homs. The sources pointed out that “the leaders of Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa, arrested a number of these cadres and seized some of the arms shipments.” According to the sources, the smugglers use the same illegal border crossings used by Hezbollah for the past 10 years to smuggle Iranian arms from the Syrian regime. The sources noted that officers of the regime’s Syrian army have been facilitating the entry of the smuggled arms to the rebels in return bribes by the Hezbollah smugglers. Lebanese security sources revealed also that “military units loyal to the Syrian government killed over the recent period a number of smugglers trying to deliver arms to the rebels in the town of Zabadani, close to the Syrian Lebanese border. In one case near Lebanon’s northern border, a number of Hezbollah members were arrested and a truck loaded with weapons was seized. In addition, Syrian forces arrested several Syrian officers, including one colonel, who were involved in the operation.

Then there’s the report of a well-informed eye-witness :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/11/inside-syria-rebels-call-arms

“Inside Syria: the rebel call for arms and ammunition : Exclusive: With Syrian rebels desperate for arms, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad finds smugglers doing a roaring trade selling guns and bullets : In his second exclusive report, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad crosses the border with the smugglers supplying weapons to Syria’s fighters : guardian.co.uk, Sunday 11 December 2011 15.11 GMT : The route across the Syrian border was marked by a single shining piece of string. It stretched from the road on the Turkish side for a few hundred metres to the steel and razor-wire fence that ran along the boundary. The smugglers followed it silently and quickly, jumping from one stone to another in the moonlight. Each man carried a thick, plastic-wrapped load on his back. The plastic bundles rattled and clinked as they ran along. Beyond the fence the shadows of men and animals moved. “Do you have money?” asked a Turkish voice. “Next shipment,” the Syrian replied. A man with a scarf wrapped around his face held the coils of barbed wire flat while the cargo was passed across and loaded on to the backs of the waiting mules. Then the men hurried the animals away from the border and up into the mountains of northern Syria. The smugglers paused on a cliff to examine the cargo. Inside the plastic packages were small boxes filled with pistols and bullets of different calibres. One of the men broke off to answer his mobile phone. It was one of several lookouts keeping watch for Syrian security forces. There was a government patrol on the mountain: the men had to split up and move quickly. “Grab the mule’s reins and run along next to it,” a smuggler hissed. In this fashion we climbed further into the mountains, playing cat and mouse with the Syrian patrol. At the edge of a small village we lay in a ditch and waited. A man whistled and a white truck appeared. It had come to collect the cargo. After eight months of vicious crackdowns by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s revolution is sliding towards civil war. Many in the opposition who have seen their friends and family members disappeared, tortured or shot by the Syrian security forces are looking for ways to fight back. The smugglers, sensing a business opportunity, have been quick to respond. In the south the weapons come from Lebanon. Here in the north, they are flowing in from Turkey and Iraq. “We used to smuggle cigarettes coming from Lebanon via Syria,” a portly man told me the night before in Turkey as he channel-hopped between Egyptian chatshows. Since the Syrian uprising began new business opportunities had opened up. “Now we only do weapons,” he said. “Three shipments per day.”

The group Stratfor claims that the United States of America has been arming the Syrian rebels :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZzEyJxRmc8
https://rt.com/news/russian-syria-opposition-usa-319/

“21 December 2011 : Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan administration official, told RT he believes Washington is doing more than simply backing the rebels diplomatically. “The United States is bold in stirring up the opposition and in arming it. They used the cover of the Arab Spring and Arab protests as they did in Libya,” he said. “These are not spontaneous protests, and certainly in an authoritarian state like Syria you wouldn’t find people in opposition able to readily supply themselves with arms, with military weapons.”…”

What seems most likely is that several groups and countries outside Syria are arming both/all sides in the country’s conflict.

So why is David Cameron singling out Iran ?

Maybe it has to do with the reputation of countries, carefully constructed in the media for us over the course of decades. Russia is a superpower. The United States of America is a superpoewr. Iran is just an undeveloped minnow. Yet we have been taught to fear Iran. And Iran is under propaganda onslaught currently. So it’s Iran that becomes the “lupus in fabulam” – the wolf in the story.

The tension between Iran and the Western Axis of Arrogance may be deflating a little – but you will see the pressure growing on the United Nations Security Council to declare that the Opthalmologist from Neasden is virtually the Devil incarnate, and that Syria needs some kind of violent aggression from NATO, or something.

Categories
Peace not War

War Gaming Iran (2)

There is evidence – plenty of evidence – that the leadership of Iran have swallowed whole the sales pitch of the Nuclear Power marketing men. They have not diverted from their openly stated aim – to establish a civilian nuclear power capability, to aid in the economic development of a nation with a very low standard of living.

By contrast, there is no evidence, despite the propaganda spin based on the IAEA site inspection reports, that Iran has taken any steps to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

Given the strongly voiced antipathy of the world at large to even just the concept of Iran having atomic weapons, why would Iran ever consider building any ? It just doesn’t make any sense. Iran’s constant public demands to be permitted to develop nuclear-powered electricity generation – despite widespread accusations that their nuclear programme is a cover for building nuclear warheads – just goes to show they mean what they say.

Iran is not interested in atomic weaponry, and yet the Americans continue to accuse them of going down that path.

Why do the Americans continue to accuse Iran of progressing towards the production of weapons grade fissile material ?

Behind the scenes, lurking in the shadows, there are several key players – including Saudi Arabia – and there are several important playgrounds – including Iraq and Iran.

Saudi Arabia, as we all should know from our schoolroom textbooks, is the sandy kingdom of petroleum oil, with a the ruling class rich beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. The United States of America is economically tied to Saudi Arabia. The USA has a habit of offering things other than money in exchange for imported goods and commodities. It exchanges massive containers of imported Chinese goods for reserve currency dollars that they know will never get spent. It makes private companies operating in Africa wealthy in order to import commodities at rock bottom prices through its “markets”. In exchange for clement trading conditions with Saudi Arabia, the USA exchanges investment in American private corporations. Saudi Arabia effectively owns trillions of dollars of American real estate and corporate infrastructure. Saudi interests are therefore American interests, by definition.

Saudi Arabia also faces a huge problem – oil depletion. Yet, under the rocks of nearby Iraq and Iran, lie a significant proportion of the world’s untapped petroleum oil and Natural Gas.

Kjell Aleklett and his colleagues at the University of Uppsala are researching this :-

https://www4.tsl.uu.se/~aleklett/ppt/20090305_aleklett_aberdeen.pdf

https://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2012/jan/17/guardian-weekly-letters-20-january

“The Iranian navy has warned it could close the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes (Iran: “We’ll close the strait of Hormuz”, 13 January). This would not be good for anyone, least of all the Iranians, but it may help us to prepare for what is to come as global oil supplies begin to decline, perhaps as early as 2015…The international president for the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, Kjell Aleklett, once suggested that nations adopt an oil depletion protocol so that remaining supplies are shared out rationally. The alternative is hardly pleasant. There are many precedents for countries going to war over diminishing resources. Until we develop alternatives, if indeed there are any, oil remains a critical resource.”, Jenny Goldie, Michelago, NSW, Australia

The Assault on Iraq in 2003, a kind of bizarre one-sided war of aggression, seemed to have no logical basis, and the world is now recognising it didn’t have a legal standing either. What it did do was destroy the nation’s stability, wreck its infrastructure, impoverish the people, and make it easy for the world’s large oil and gas companies to set up shop – exporting Iraq’s precious hydrocarbon reserves to the world at rock-bottom prices.

Can it be that somebody, or somebodies, maybe Saudi Arabian somebodies, want to cut a deal over Iran ? That various parties want Team America, the World Police, to blast and shoot their way into Iran, so that they can take part in the looting of Iranian energy resources ?

I think, under that scenario, that Iran is quite within its rights to say thus far, no farther. I’m not surprised that they have claimed they can close the Strait of Hormuz. Until the contingency pipelines have been built over the desert, that one waterway is the way that something like 40% of the world’s hydrocarbon fuels are taken to market.

Categories
Peace not War

War Gaming Iran

You may by now have heard the story that Iran has “threatened”, or rather “warned”, that they will close the Strait of Hormuz should an embargo against trade in Iranian oil come into force.

What you may not have heard is why Iran issued such a warning.

Regardless of the way it is portrayed, it didn’t come out of the blue.


I want to take you back to 13th December 2011. In an article entitled “Oil: Iran’s Hormuz Strait Threats Could Wreak Global Economic Havoc”, by Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes.com reported Iranian MP Parviz Sorouri of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee saying this, “Currently, the Middle East region supplies 70 percent of the world’s energy needs, (most of) which are transported through the Strait of Hormuz. We will hold an exercise to close the Strait of Hormuz in the near future. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.”

Earlier in the article was written, “Crude oil prices surged on Tuesday on reports that Iran was set to begin war games in the Strait of Hormuz to practice closing down the key chokepoint which concentrates 30% of global seaborne oil shipments.”

War games ? Why on Earth would Iran want to conduct strategic manoeuvres ? Clearly, Iran was responding to something. What could that have been ?

Helpfully, the Daily Mail collated a few of the provocations, in an article entitled “‘If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure’: Iran threatens to shut Strait of Hormuz with military exercise” by the Daily Mail Reporter on 14th December 2011 :-

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073769/Iran-threatens-shut-Straits-Hormuz-military-manoeuvre.html

“…Yesterday former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney said President Obama should have ordered an airstrike over Iran after their refusal to hand back the unmanned spyplane [drone] that crashed last week…Mr Cheney told CNN: ‘The right response would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it…”

“…General Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, said on state television that the violation of Iran’s airspace by the U.S. drone was a ‘hostile act’ and warned of a ‘bigger’ response. Officials in Iran even believe they can ‘mass produce’ the captured bat-winged stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel and build a ‘superior’ version following its crash on December 4…”

“…It also emerged today that Iran has lodged a complaint with Interpol following calls made during U.S. congressional hearings to assassinate members of Tehran’s security agency. Former U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jack Keane and former CIA operative Reuel Marc Gerecht, now a senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the subcommittee hearing on ‘Iranian Terror Operations on American Soil,’ that they were in favour of carrying out covert operations against members of Qods, a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. In his speech, Keane suggested sanctions against Tehran were not sufficient and suggested cyberattacks, covert actions and assassination would be more effective…”

“…Iran’s national prosecutor general, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told Iranian television that a case had been opened and that the judiciary was ‘providing more documents to the Interpol, so that the two Americans, who have threatened the Iranian commander with assassination, would be prosecuted.’…”

“…The [U. S. congressional] hearing which took place on October 26, was held in response to an alleged plot by Qods to assassinate of the Saudi ambassador in Washington and carry out a string of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil…”

“…Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi claims the remarks were part of a ‘devilish triangle of terrorism, human rights violation and use of WMDs’ by the U.S..’…”

“…The Iranians have also highlighted a letter to President Obama from House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Peter King and two subcommittee chairs urging ‘significant covert action against the Iranian regime, including against facilities and personnel responsible for killing our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.’…”

Now, cast your mind back a little further to the completely unbelieveable plot that sparked the U. S. congressional hearings that got the Iranians so worked up :-

https://security.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11/assassination-plot-the-quds-force-connection/

As Wikipedia records, “The allegations of an Iranian plot met with a stream of disbelief from a number of foreign officials and analysts. Senior U.S. officials struggled to explain why the Quds Force would attempt such a delicate plot in such an unskilled style. No evidence was presented implicating Iran’s most senior leaders.”

So now let’s return to the question of why Iran should make a clear statement that they can close the Straits of Hormuz. As Press TV spells out, “On Saturday, December 24, [2011] Iran’s Navy launched a massive 10-day Velayat 90 naval exercise, covering an area stretching from the east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden…“The [Iranian] Navy’s military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman indicate the power and dominance of Iran’s Navy in regional waters,” member of the Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Zohreh Elahian said Monday. The lawmaker stated that military drills also aim to increase Iran’s deterrence power and prove its regional dominance. “The exercises send an important message to the whole world, especially the colonialist powers…and also show the power of [Iran’s] armed forces, particularly [the country’s] Navy,” she noted.”

Message received and understood.

However, the message is being used by certain people to imply that Iran is the belligerent, provocative party.

Consider the treatment of this interview with Iran’s navy chief Habibollah Sayyari :-

https://www.presstv.ir/detail/218133.html
“‘Closing Strait of Hormuz easy for Iran’ : Wed Dec 28, 2011 : Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari has reiterated that the country’s naval forces can readily block the strategic Strait of Hormuz if need be, Press TV reports…”

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45805706/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/us-navy-warns-iran-hormuz-disruption-will-not-be-tolerated/#.TxS1JaXKDBY

Like the Western mainstream media, Press TV omits to talk about the historical rationale behind Iran’s statements. Why should Press TV broadcast something that could be misinterpreted ? Could it be partly related to a deal brokered between the UK press regulator Ofcom and Press TV ?

https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/30/ofcom-iran-press-tv

And now the story has been whipped up out of all proportion, consider the stance taken by the mainstream media, all peddling fear of Iran. For example, Google this Financial Times article, “Military warns gas imports at risk”, published 16th January 2012 :-

https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b52cdf90-3f8b-11e1-ad6a-00144feab49a.html

“…Since December, Iran has repeatedly threatened it would block the critical shipping lane at the mouth of the Gulf if its oil exports were blocked. One-fifth of the world’s oil and one-third of its LNG passes through the strait. Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy and security adviser to Gordon Brown when the latter was prime minister, told the Financial Times that, if the strait were blockaded, the sharp fall in the UK’s gas supplies would be the country’s single most critical issue. “I have no doubt at all that this would be the biggest problem for us,” Lord West told the Financial Times, adding that the UK would also have to weather the economic fall-out from higher global oil and gas energy prices if shipping through the strait was interrupted. The risk has risen as refiners have stopped buying Iranian oil ahead of the expected decision to enforce sanctions in response to Tehran’s attempts to develop a nuclear arms programme…”

Anyway, Saudi Arabia has tried to step in to defuse the scare :-

https://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/16/uk-iran-idUKTRE80E0OK20120116

“Saudi Arabia doubts Iran oil blockade claim : By Ramin Mostafavi : TEHRAN : Mon Jan 16, 2012 : Saudi Arabia on Monday expressed doubts over Iran’s claim it could block the main oil shipping route out of the Gulf and made clear it was ready to pump more oil after sanctions threatened to cut Iranian sales of crude…”

Categories
Babykillers Climate Change Climate Damages Coal Hell Conflict of Interest Corporate Pressure Dead Zone Demoticratica Divide & Rule Dreamworld Economics Droughtbowl Eating & Drinking Emissions Impossible Energy Autonomy Energy Change Energy Denial Energy Insecurity Energy Revival Evil Opposition Extreme Weather Faithful God Feed the World Financiers of the Apocalypse Floodstorm Food Insecurity Fossilised Fuels Freemarketeering Human Nurture Hydrocarbon Hegemony Incalculable Disaster Major Shift Military Invention Money Sings National Energy National Power Neverending Disaster No Blood For Oil Not In My Name Paradigm Shapeshifter Peace not War Peak Coal Peak Emissions Peak Energy Peak Natural Gas Peak Oil Stop War Wasted Resource Western Hedge

The Last Battle

The “Statue of Liberty” or Saint John’s Lamb of God ?

Britain’s real enemy is not Iran.

The real enemy is the mismanagement of the Earth’s energy resources.

The last battle is to overcome the misdeeds of those who have commandeered and wasted the Earth’s energy resources – and that includes ourselves.

It should not be a violent dispute, for aggression and the use of weapons are morally unjustifiable. But all the same, it will be a genuine, Titanic, struggle.

As C. S. Lewis portrays with so much resonance, it matters little under which flag or title we serve or belong – what matters is our allegiance to the precepts of divine honour, holy devotion and right dealings with other people :-

“Why did the faithful Taarkan end up getting to come into Narnia ? Usually Lewis writes allegorically so is he trying to tell us something when a worshipper of Tash is allowed to enter the new Narnia ? Any thoughts ? …It wasn’t the name that mattered, but rather the conduct of the Taarkan and how he chose to see and do things. He didn’t believe in the cruelty and underhanded ways his countryman were doing things, but rather in honour and a code of conduct. So even though the Taarkan thought he was worshipping Tash, the whole time he was actually worshipping Aslan [Turkish for “Lion”] through his thoughts and deeds. So when the time came for the end of the world and judgement, he was placed where his heart had always led him.”

For those who recognise the twin threats from climate change and energy depletion, we realise that there is hard work ahead. Our natural aim is to protect ourselves; and the moral consequence is that we are obliged to protect the other – because both climate change and energy depletion are global problems.

Climate change hits the poorest the hardest – already, significant changes in rainfall and weather patterns have created long-term drought, encroaching coastal and inland inundation, crop losses and enforced migration. And it’s only going to get worse. It’s so terrible we could not even wish it on our enemies – it teaches us that nobody is an enemy.

To solve climate change, we need to change our energy systems. Some hail the depletion of hydrocarbon and coal energy resources as a gift that will help us resolve the emissions problem and prevent dangerous climate change, by making a virtue of necessity – but the situation is not that simple.

The reaction of the world’s authorities, wealth controllers and corporate proprietors to the winding down of fossil fuel energy resources has so far been complex, and there are many indications that warfare, both military and economic, has been conducted in order to secure access to energy.

This may be the way of the lion in us all, but it is not the way of The Lamb. The Lamb sacrifices all that others value so that he is qualified to bring about a new universal regime of peace and responsible autonomy – a kingdom of priests, pastors with mutual respect.

We are called to become good stewards of each other and the Earth. The gentle Lamb of God will judge our hearts.

The Book of the Revelation to Saint John the Divine, Chapter 4 :-

“…I looked and saw a door that opened into heaven. Then the voice that had spoken to me at first and that sounded like a trumpet said, “Come up here ! I will show you what must happen next.” Right then the Spirit took control of me, and there in heaven I saw a throne and someone sitting on it. The one who was sitting there sparkled like precious stones of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow that looked like an emerald surrounded the throne. Twenty-four other thrones were in a circle around that throne. And on each of these thrones there was an elder dressed in white clothes and wearing a gold crown. Flashes of lightning and roars of thunder came out from the throne in the center of the circle. Seven torches, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning in front of the throne. Also in front of the throne was something that looked like a glass sea, clear as crystal…And as they worshiped the one who lives forever, they placed their crowns in front of the throne and said, “Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory, honour, and power. You created all things, and by your decision [and for your pleasure] they are and were created…”

The Book of the Revelation to Saint John the Devine, Chapter 5

“In the right hand of the one sitting on the throne I saw a scroll that had writing on the inside and on the outside. And it was sealed in seven places. I saw a mighty angel ask with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals ?” No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or see inside it. I cried hard because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or see inside it. Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop crying and look ! The one who is called both the `Lion from the Tribe of Judah’ and `King David’s Great Descendant’ has won the victory. He will open the book and its seven seals.” Then I looked and saw a Lamb standing in the center of the throne…The Lamb looked as if it had once been killed. It had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out to all the earth. The Lamb went over and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. After he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders knelt down before him. Each of them had a harp and a gold bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. Then they sang a new song, “You are worthy to receive the scroll and open its seals, because you were killed. And with your own blood you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You let them become kings and serve God as priests, and they will rule on earth.””

Leaders of the powerful nations – put aside your death-hastening technology.

Let there be a low carbon energy peace on a climate-stable Earth.

Additional Readings

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203:7-9&version=NIV

“…Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles [non-Jewish people] by faith, and announced the gospel [good news of God’s love and forgiveness] in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith…”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203:26-29&version=NIV

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized [ritual bathing] into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile [non-Jewish person], neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Thou_My_Vision

“Thy love in my soul and in my heart –
Grant this to me, O King of the seven heavens.

O King of the seven heavens grant me this –
Thy love to be in my heart and in my soul.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Spirits_of_God

[ UPDATE : No, I have not taken leave of any of my senses. I was in church, All Saints in Highams Park, London E4, and many thoughts arose as I contemplated the stained glass window, with its Suffering Servant Messenger King/Lord/Master, rainbow, Alpha, Omega, Noah’s dove with the sprig of olive; and listened to the reading from Revelations 4; and sang “Be Thou My Vision” with the congregation; and considered what Epiphany the world needs at this time of intense war propaganda. There are those who declare themselves as Christian who claim that war with Iran is prophesied. This may be a fringe view, but the narrative infects major political discussion in the United States of America : “The problem, of course, is that rhetoric can have political effects that narrow the options available to decisionmakers. If you’ve publicly declared Iran’s nuclear program sufficiently threatening to warrant initiating a potentially catastrophic war and then sanctions fail to achieve their defined goal, you may have a hard time walking back from that threat.” ]

Categories
Assets not Liabilities Bad Science Bait & Switch Big Number Climate Change Conflict of Interest Corporate Pressure Cost Effective Delay and Deny Divide & Rule Dreamworld Economics Efficiency is King Energy Change Energy Denial Energy Insecurity Energy Revival Engineering Marvel Financiers of the Apocalypse Freak Science Green Investment Green Power Growth Paradigm Hydrocarbon Hegemony Libertarian Liberalism Major Shift Mass Propaganda Media Money Sings National Energy National Power Non-Science Optimistic Generation Paradigm Shapeshifter Peak Energy Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Price Control Public Relations Science Rules Scientific Fallacy Solution City Sustainable Deferment Technological Fallacy The Data The War on Error Unqualified Opinion Wind of Fortune

Wind Powers #1 : Civitas Fictitious ?

[ An extract from the online Christian Ecology Link discussion forum : 11th January 2012 ]

The Civitas report on wind farms.

A couple of days ago, Civitas published a report entitled, “Electricity costs: the folly of wind-power” : https://www.civitas.org.uk/press/prleaelectricityprices.htm [ Download report PDF ]

This report was produced by the Civitas economist, Ruth Lea. The report attracted a fair bit of publicity and even more antagonism from those within the renewables industry. Sadly, as usual the media have done rather less research than they should have; in particular they failed to check the background of the authorities quoted, though the Guardian did point to Lea’s views on climate change.

The following YouTube link leads to Ruth Lea denying the significance of anthropogenic climate change and the ‘flaws’ in Britain’s expensive climate change legislation. She uses all the same sad old errors and, in so doing, limits her credibility as an effective researcher : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvmgUYGgqwU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcFfxUIRbyo

Her comments seem to be straight out of the Chicago School mythology that economics overrides nature – the view of many scientifically illiterates.

But it gets better, she quotes, as an authority, Dr Kees le Pair, but fails to mention that he is a member of the ‘Committee of Recommendation’ of the Fusion Energy Foundation. The development of nuclear fusion, if it happens, will require very significant investment, investment that could, perhaps, otherwise be made in wind farms and other renewables so there is an important conflict of interest that has been wholly ignored : https://www.fusionenergyfoundation.org/about-us

This matters to all of us because it shows the dangerous level of uncritical evaluation that is made of so called scientific reports and information sources. I still remember the days past when research involved trips to libraries and hours of reading and, unless, the library had an academic connection, new information would not have been easily available.

Perhaps it was the more difficult nature of research that made the media, and much of its audience, that much more careful. The advent of the Internet has provided for rapid transmission of information, straight to your computer or even your smartphone, but apparently at the cost of critical evaluation. So much information is available that even report writers seem to fail to check the background of their sources or the veracity of the information given by that source. Yet, that same Internet provides the means of checking and it’s far less tedious than back in the days of library visits.

Careful use of a search engine can throw up evidence of partiality and YouTube can often confirm background beliefs that have overridden scientific evidence if not common sense. It’s not just
in reports such as this one from Civitas but also within so many anti this, that and the other environmental groups that plague the Internet.

Look carefully at Occupy, for example, and dig deeply enough, you will find some truly amazing YouTube material on the way in which the City of London is a part of worldwide Zionism that is somehow linked with the Vatican and Knights Templar ! Did you know that the Bank of England is owned by the Rothschilds ? The Internet, as well as giving freer voice to information also gives voice to conspiracy theorists and to the murk of prejudice. Just as it is both wrong and dangerous to spread unfounded rumours so it is to spread disinformation, so please use your search engine, take a little time and then critically assess whether this information that you have been given is likely to be both accurate and honest.

RT

Categories
Bait & Switch Delay and Deny Disturbing Trends Divide & Rule Energy Autonomy Energy Disenfranchisement Energy Insecurity Evil Opposition Foreign Interference Foreign Investment Fossilised Fuels Hydrocarbon Hegemony Marine Gas Mass Propaganda Media Military Invention National Energy National Power No Blood For Oil Not In My Name Nuclear Nuisance Nuclear Shambles Obamawatch Peace not War Petrolheads Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Price Control Resource Curse Resource Wards Stop War The Price of Gas The Price of Oil Western Hedge

Energy Sovereignty for Iran

Here’s the prime time television where the U. S. Army chief admits that the American military know Iran is engineering at sea – although the General deliberately gets the purpose wrong.

[For an uncorrected transcript of the piece, see below at the end of this post].

He claims that Iran is going to use their engineering to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a major artery of oil transport from the Middle East to the world.

Whereas, in actual fact, Iran has been constructing facilities to mine marine, sub-sea Natural Gas in its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and wants to use it to generate electricity to export.

Iran is sitting on Natural Gas – a lot of Natural Gas. And a lot of it is at sea. There have been marine seismic surveys for sub-sea Natural Gas in the Persian Gulf over the last few years, and it seems, other countries have been spying on the Iranian offshore activities.

Clearly, with Iran’s intent to exploit its marine gas, there have been and will be construction ships and construction going on in the Persian Gulf and around the Strait of Hormuz, especially the islands of Kish and Qeshm. This should not be mistaken as a risk to oil shipping. It should not be claimed as indications of Iran seeking to close the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for economic sanctions.

What is at stake here is no less than Iran’s energy sovereignty – its sovereign right to enjoy the wealth from exploiting its own energy resources.

The international pressure for an end to fossil fuel subsidies would hurt Iranian internal economic development (much like it’s hurting Nigeria, currently), and it would be forced to export oil and Natural Gas – no doubt at low market prices. Iran may end up no better off for trading.

The Iranians bought myths about nuclear power hook, line and sinker, and they believe they have a right to develop civilian atomic energy. Other countries, the United States of America in particular, keep pushing this button and claiming that Iran is heading for developing nuclear weapon capability. This is the most unbelievable accusation since…oh, I don’t know, since the USA accused Iran of a plot for a used car salesman and a Mexican, or something, to kill a Saudi ambassador, which was unadulterated nonsense.

America’s insistence that Iran is a threat because they claim that Iran is working towards constructing nuclear weapons, is so ridiculous, that few seem to have realised it is “deflection” – a propaganda technique to divert you from the real source of tension between the USA and Iran.

What America really doesn’t seem to like is countries like Iran (and Venezuela) making autonomous energy decisions, and creating their own wealth by using their own energy resources in their own way.

Maybe the American war hawks think “Why cannot Iran be more like Iraq, with western oil and Natural Gas companies with discount contracts, crawling over new resources and selling it all abroad ?”

Anyway, what is clear is that the spat between Iran and the USA has nothing to do with nuclear power or idle brinkmanship about controlling the flow of oil as a retaliation against economic sanctions.


NEWS BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT

https://www.bloomberg.com/video/83880880/

Bloomberg : 9 January 2012 : Lara Setrakian reports on the outlook for Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz as Europe prepares to follow tougher U. S. sanctions on the country over its nuclear program and the status of a pipeline that would allow oil from the United Arab Emirates to bypass the waterway. The pipeline has been delayed because of construction difficulties, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Setrakian speaks with Linzie Janis on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.”

[Ticker tape reads “AHMADINEJAD TURNS TO CHAVEZ FOR SUPPORT”]

[Linzie Janis] “The Persian Gulf could be closed off to ships altogether, that’s if tensions continue to escalate between Iran and the West. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to meet with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez later on today as part of a tour of Latin America. He is seeking s”upport” as Iran faces tighter U. S. sanctions over its nuclear program.

[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in translation] We will discuss the intentions of the arrogant system interfering and having a military presence in other countries. We shall coordinate with our friends in Latin America to address this matter.

[Linzie Janis] Well with the very latest Lara Setrakian joins us with from Dubai

Lara itell it looks like the U. S. and Iran could be on a – – collision course here.

[Lara Setrakian] Well moving closer towards it, as Iran inches towards what the U. S. has called “two red lines” – advanced nuclear enrichment at the underground Fordow facility, and shutting the Strait of Hormuz – something that Iran told the A. P. [Associated Press] they’ll do if the E. U. oil embargo goes through later this month. The highest level U. S. assessment to date – that Iran could shut the Strait that would effectively trigger a military confrontation in the Persian Gulf.

General Martin Dempsey, American Department of Defense, United States Army Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman] They’ve invested in capabilities that could [scratches nose – a classic sign of lying] in fact for a period of time block the Straits of Hormuz. We’ve invested in capabilities [rocking body slightly from side to side – a classic sign of swagger] to ensure that if that happens [giving a hard, fixed stare] we can, er, defeat that. [Looks down briefly – meaning that this information was a significant reveal] And so, the simple answer [shrugs shoulders to dimiss the concept] is yes, they can block it. Er… [ Looks down and to his right, our left, indicating a recall of something] And of course that is as well…[blinks to conceal the fact that he’s cut something out] we’ve described that as an intolerable act [shrugs shoulders as if to say, those Iranians have got it coming to them] and it’s not just intolerable for us [shakes head from side to side] it’s intolerable to the world [rubs one hand over another, which is a sign of nervousness]. But we would take action and re-open the Straits [shuts lips in beefburger bun clench and nodding as a sign that no more useful information will be forthcoming].

[ Ticker Tape reads : THREATS TO STRAIT OF HORMUZ SHIPPING ]

[Lara Setrakian] Meanwhile it could disrupt the biggest sea lane for the world’s shipped oil, what one analyst called “the ultimate fear in the oil market – it would spike prices”.

[Linzie Janis] So what kind of preparation are you seeing to counter that risk ?

[Lara Setrakian] Well, one of the biggest contigency plans so far has floundered – a pipeline here in the U. A. E. that would run from Abu Dhabi to the Port of Fujairah. It would avoid the Strait. It’s a $3.3 billion dollar project but it’s been delayed – not ready until April at the soonest. And it’s meant to move 1.5 million barrels per day, most of Abu Dhabi’s output, say two days at sea, but the pipeline has been delayed repeatedly by construction issues – one energy analyst Robin Mills pointing also to a pipeline in Saudi Arabia that’s meant to be another backup system [ Ticker Tape reads “FURTHER CONTINGENCY PIPELINES PLANNED”] that could take oil to the Red Sea after 5 million barrels of oil a day capacity and it could be expanded – again, all contigency planning – to keep oil free from any Iranian chokehold in the Persian Gulf.

Linzie.

[Linzie Janis] Lara, thank you very much.

Categories
Advancing Africa Assets not Liabilities Bad Science Bait & Switch Big Number Big Picture Big Society British Sea Power Burning Money Climate Change Coal Hell Delay and Deny Design Matters Direction of Travel Divide & Rule Efficiency is King Electrificandum Energy Change Energy Denial Energy Insecurity Energy Nix Energy Revival Energy Socialism Engineering Marvel Foreign Interference Fossilised Fuels Fuel Poverty Global Warming Green Investment Green Power Growth Paradigm Health Impacts Hide the Incline Human Nurture Hydrocarbon Hegemony Major Shift Money Sings National Energy National Power National Socialism No Blood For Oil Not In My Name Nuclear Nuisance Nuclear Shambles Oil Change Optimistic Generation Paradigm Shapeshifter Peace not War Peak Coal Peak Emissions Petrolheads Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Renewable Resource Resource Wards Science Rules Social Capital Social Democracy Solar Sunrise Solution City Stirring Stuff Stop War Sustainable Deferment Technofix The Data The Power of Intention The War on Error Toxic Hazard Wasted Resource Western Hedge Wind of Fortune

Open Letter to Renewable Energy Deniers

To all Renewable Energy Deniers,

Things are getting so much better with renewable energy engineering and deployment – why do you continue to think it’s useless ?

We admit that, at the start, energy conversion efficiencies were low, wind turbine noise was significant, kit was expensive. Not now. Wind and solar farms have been built, data collected and research published. Design modifications have improved performance.

Modelling has helped integrate renewable energy into the grids. As renewable energy technologies have been deployed at scale, and improvements and adjustments have been made, and electricity grid networks have adapted to respond to the variable nature of the wind and the sunshine, we know, and we can show you, that renewable energy is working.

It’s not really clear what motivates you to dismiss renewable energy. Maybe it’s because you’re instinctively opposed to anything that looks like it comes from an “envionmentalist” perspective.

Maybe because renewable energy is mandated to mitigate against climate change, and you have a persistent view that climate change is a hoax. Why you mistrust the science on global warming when you accept the science on everything else is a continuing mystery to me.

But if that’s where you’re coming from when you scorn developments in renewable energy, you’re making a vital mistake. You see, renewable energy is sustainable energy. Despite any collapse in the globalised economy, or disruption to fossil fuel production, wind turbines will keep spinning, and solar panels will keep glowing.

Climate change has been hard to communicate effectively – it’s a huge volume of research, it frequently appears esoteric, or vague, or written by boffins with their heads in the clouds. Some very intelligent people are still not sure about the finer points of the effects of global warming, and so you’re keeping good company if you reserve judgement on some of the more fringe research.

But attacking renewable energy is your final stand. With evidence from the engineering, it is rapidly becoming clear that renewable energy works. The facts are proving you wrong.

And when people realise you’re wrong about renewable energy, they’ll never believe you again. They won’t listen to you when you express doubts about climate change, because you deny the facts of renewable energy.

Those poor fools who have been duped into thinking they are acting on behalf of the environment to campaign against wind farms ! Wind energy will be part of the backbone of the energy grids of the future.

We don’t want and we can’t afford the concrete bunkers of deadly radioactive kettles and their nasty waste. We don’t want and we can’t afford the slag heaps, dirty air and melting Arctic that comes from burning coal for power. We don’t want and we can’t afford to keep oil and Natural Gas producing countries sweet – or wage war against them to keep the taps open.

Instead we want tall and graceful spinners, their gentle arms waving electricity from the breeze. We want silent and dark photovoltaic cladding on every roof.

Burning things should only be done to cover for intermittency in wind and sunshine. Combustion is very inefficient, yet you support combustion when you oppose renewable energy.

We must fight waste in energy, and the rising cost of energy, and yet you don’t support the energy resources where there is no charge for fuel. Some would say that’s curmudgeonly.

When you oppose renewable energy, what is it you’re fighting for ? The old, inefficient and poisonous behemoths of coal hell ? We who support renewable, sustainable energy, we exchange clunky for sleek, toxic for clean. We provide light and comfort to all, rich and poor.

When you oppose renewable energy, you are being unbelievably gullible – you have swallowed an argument that can ruin our economy, by locking us into dependency on energy imports. You are passing up the chance to break our political obedience to other countries, all because wind turbines clutter up your panoramic view when you’re on holiday.

You can question the net energy gain from wind power, but the evidence shows you to be incorrect.

If you criticise the amount of investment and subsidy going into renewable energy, you clearly haven’t understood the net effect of incentivisation in new technology deployment.

Renewable energy has a positive Net Present Value. Wind turbines and solar panels are genuine assets, unlike the liabilities that are coal-fired power stations and nuclear reactors.

Renewable energy deployment will create meaningful, sustainable employment and is already creating wealth, not only in financial terms, but in social welfare terms too.

Renewable energy will save this country, so why do you knock it ?

Quizzically yours,

Categories
Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Price Control Solar Sunrise

Solar FIT to Bust #11

This one diagram proves that the UK Government almost destroyed the solar electric industry by suddenly cutting the feed-in tariff (FIT) for domestic photovoltaic installations late last year.

Stop-go-stop policies on renewable energy are inefficient and ineffective.

Britain needs an energy engineering revival – to manufacture and deploy low carbon technology – anywhere and everywhere.

Those who finance this energy revolution, who invest in industry and the workforce, need confidence and consistent conditions in which to operate.

Someone in the solar electric industry sent me these comments today by e-mail :-

“OK – the FIT money was running out and the price of solar in the UK is reducing faster than any one ever dreamed of. On the other hand, premature cuts by the Government have prevented thousands of social houses, schools and communities from getting clean renewable energy this spring and have ruined the careful plans of solar companies preparing to install in the run up to April 2012. Clearly the budget for the FIT needs to be increased. The argument for not expanding the FIT is that it will raise the cost of electricity for consumers. The counter argument is that doing nothing will mean that energy prices rise even faster as we increasingly rely on dwindling fossil fuels from unstable regions. Invest in new energy now… a stitch in time, saves nine!”

“PS I think that sometime this year the cost of electricity from solar will become cheaper than buying from the grid. The only problem is that the cost of solar is all upfront compared to cheap start-up costs for fossil fuels and continuing (and increasing) running costs for the latter.”

Categories
Big Number Big Picture China Syndrome Climate Change Climate Chaos Climate Damages Coal Hell Contraction & Convergence Cool Poverty Demoticratica Direction of Travel Disturbing Trends Emissions Impossible Fossilised Fuels Global Heating Global Warming Health Impacts Incalculable Disaster Meltdown Methane Madness Methane Management Nudge & Budge Paradigm Shapeshifter Peak Coal Peak Emissions Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Realistic Models Science Rules Screaming Panic The Data Zero Net

Methane Concentrations : Losing Control

Every once in a while, it’s good to remind myself of the data – to help me focus once again on why I do what I do.

Yesterday evening, I decided to catch up on exactly how out of control atmospheric methane concentrations are in the region around the Arctic :-

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov

When reviewing the charts, the secondmost important thing to see is the high point measurements, the peaks, rising over time.

The most vital thing to observe, however, is the inexorable rise of the minimum measurements since around 2007 – which implies a higher overall background atmospheric methane concentration.

Much of this methane explosion can probably be blamed on global warming from excessive carbon dioxide emissions – which showed signs of coming under control between 1990 and 2000, but after that lifted off once more.

People dispute why carbon dioxide emissions have risen consistently and sharply since the turn of the millenium – but one of the answers is to be found in the rapid deployment of coal-burning for power generation. Stronger environmental controls on air quality have reduced the health impacts of coal-burning, but mean that the net effect is stronger global warming.

So much could be done to alleviate the strong warming of the Arctic, and prevent dangerous instabilities. It is time to say it – and keep on saying it – and not relent – every measure to keep the Arctic cool is urgent.

Categories
Advancing Africa Bioeffigy Biofools Breathe Easy Burning Money Coal Hell Corporate Pressure Cost Effective Demoticratica Direction of Travel Disturbing Trends Divide & Rule Eating & Drinking Efficiency is King Electrificandum Energy Insecurity Feed the World Food Insecurity Foreign Interference Foreign Investment Forestkillers Freemarketeering Green Power Health Impacts Money Sings National Energy National Power Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Protest & Survive The War on Error Tree Family Wasted Resource

Biomassacre : Agrofuels Aggro

Stop Biomassacre Subsidies from You and I Films on Vimeo.

The UK Government has a neat plan – meet a considerable proportion of the nation’s electricity needs by burning biomass and biofuels : wood, waste wood, agricultural residues, palm oil, maize ethanol and such-like.

They are even considering setting up a generous subsidy, the kind of subsidy that would encourage massive imports of biomass and bioliquids.

Without care and regulatory checks and balances, the net effect will almost certainly be rainforest deforestation, land grabbing in under-developed nations, and economic problems for the growing biomass heat movement in the UK.

Most people probably think burning wood, wood waste and plant-derived fuels to make power sounds like a good energy idea – stop burning coal and start burning trees – has to be better for the planet, surely ?

There are a number of really deep problems with this agenda. Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch told me this weekend that burning biomass for electricity generation is incredibly inefficient.

She said the UK Government has apparently heard concerns about the burning of bioliquids such as the biofuel bioethanol for power generation, and it shouldn’t be included in the subsidy arrangement.

However, biomass-fired power generation is still set to receive support – although it is still being depicted as making use of agroforestry residues, and all sourced within the country – judging by a recent permission for a biomass burning plant in Yorkshire.

Generous subsidies for burning biofuels to generate electricity will encourage the combustion of food-quality oils, imported from across the world, exacerbating the existing problems with the destruction of tropical rainforest for commercial gain.

Offering significant subsidies for burning biomass for power generation will most probably trigger further logging of virgin rainforest, as it would be cheap to produce and export to Britain.

Even if biomass were sourced in the United Kingdom – with restrictions on imports from areas of the world where there is extensive land grabbing and deforestation occurring – the subsidy would encourage the burning of wood products for generating power instead of being used in the most efficient way – to heat homes.

Almuth Ernsting said, “the big energy companies are going to burn that much wood, small heat providers won’t be able to compete.” The same would be true of street-scale biomass combined heat and power (CHP) proposals.

Almuth Ernsting and others have pointed out that the UK Government public consultation on the subsidy ends on 12th January 2012, but that even after that date, people are being encouraged to write to their Member of Parliament to express views.

Another group, nope, is also calling for citizen action :-

https://nope.org.uk/

In an e-mail to joabbess.com, Almuth Ernsting offered extra resources :-

“All the materials related to our campaign against subsidies for biomass and biofuel electricity can be found here :-”

https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/uk-campaign/rocs_overview/”

“A briefing about the impacts of ROCs for biomass, biofuels and waste incineration :-”
https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2011/rocs_impacts/

“A briefing to hand or send to MPs :-”
https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2011/rocs_mps/

“A guide to lobbying MPs on this :-” https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2011/mp_guidance_rocs/

“We have got two email alerts on one page just now (https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2011/rocs-alerts/), though we will take down the one to respond to the DECC Consultation when that closes next Thursday, while keeping the one to MPs. However, we very much encourage people to write personal letters or, even better, visit their MPs, which will have much more impact than taking part in a standard email alert.”

Categories
Contraction & Convergence

Ask Aubrey #1 : An Optimistic Riff for Revkin

[ Guest Post from Aubrey Meyer, Director of the Global Commons Institute. ]

An optimistic response – and a riff – to Andy Revkin’s “A Post Pollution Path to Global Climate and Energy Progress”

It has always made sense to focus on ‘collaborative work’ and innovation’.

These are the very pulling together and pushing ahead of our development as a species. Our history of ‘success’ [if only just, we’re still here!] has been intricately woven within the complementarity of this ‘energy-field’. It is like a ‘musical riff’. Using this framework https://www.gci.org.uk/music.html musicians, in-time and in-tune with each other, have always done this.

Andy Revkin rightly draws attention to the work of Elizabeth Burleson and William Moomaw, again recognizing and advocating those very points in response to more bathos at COP-17. William and Elizabeth, doing what you say makes complete sense as across all time, none of us could have proceeded anywhere without those values and that intent.

But this ‘common sense’ and ‘innovation success’ are now so seriously challenged by global climate change that worst case scenarios suggest most of us may not be here much longer, if the well-established trends in the growth of consumption, pollution and changing climate continue much further unchecked: – https://www.gci.org.uk/COP-17.html

We will no longer have a creative riff so much as a destructive rift, where the ‘pulling-together’ has all but been over-whelmed by a manic will to ‘push-ahead’. The monetary-unit is now what measures this blind momentum as ‘success no matter what the cost’, and it is now amplified through the runaway off-shore growth of deregulated money from the financial sector: – https://www.gci.org.uk/Shaxson.html

Since growing [Greenhouse Gas] GHG pollution is the other side of the coin, the possibility of runaway climate change is now real and both sides of this coin invite conflict as societal and environmental limits are snapped. As is, the ever-widening gap created in these global trends of ‘expansion and divergence’ is heart-breaking: – https://vimeo.com/32629132

As damages are running at twice the rate of growth, it is also becoming explosive and making confrontation impossible to avoid: – https://www.gci.org.uk/Expansion_and_Divergence.html

What this says is that we can’t just look away and proceed as if that wasn’t an issue. It is a structural crisis with a massive international confrontation over it already and we have to address it as such. Rational people see this as a ‘fast-breeder-reaction’ and for the sake of our civilization, not-to-mention all the children, want to change these trends away from the disaster that looms and turn instead towards a recovery that is inclusive, rational, structurally resilient and in some sense at equilibrium.

So, since the question is now ‘global’, how do we get push-and-pull back into that equilibrium at some level? Well we certainly won’t do it – as still happens at the COPs – by picking yet more numbers out of half a hat and yelling at each other, anymore than fiddle players try and play on broken strings and then, with blame attached, smash instruments over each other’s heads. It means ‘jihad’ in the pure and original sense that means bringing ‘truth and reconciliation’ to bear at the UNFCCC, noting this entails ‘climate-justice’ but ‘withoutvengeance’ and bearing witness to that. That is what the riff or the framework of the C&C principle brought to the UNFCCC negotiation. It is rational, structured, just and inclusive and it separates what must be limited to achieve ‘post-pollution’ from what is not. Naomi Klein’s forensic and brilliant analysis with the Shock Doctrine opens the curtain on this proscenium for equity and survival.

C&C makes UNFCCC-compliance [a] possible [b] negotiable [c] communicable and [d] achievable https://www.gci.org.uk/public/COP_15_C&C.swf

The key is noting that while the UNFCCC Executive say C&C is ‘inevitably required’ for UNFCCC-compliance: – https://www.gci.org.uk/Pasztor.png the ‘market’ for renewables is vast and proportional to how fast we embed the transition we must make to survive in this framework: – https://www.gci.org.uk/images/C1_C2_C3.pdf

C&C is not a ‘prescription’, it is a simple principle that, like the start of the US Constitution, has a core structure in equality and gives rise to a pragmatic negotiating framework: – https://www.candcfoundation.com/pages/whatis.html where the Parties to the UNFCCC can settle the differences rationally.

C&C has much support: – https://www.gci.org.uk/endorsements.html

It is just a musical riff and is no more prescriptive than the musical ‘overtone-series’. It is just rational sub-divisions of the whole: – https://www.gci.org.uk/animations/vibrating-strings.swf

Being in-tune with each other and, at much slower Herz, in time together, all music is possible because of that ‘constant’ and not in spite of it. All creativity flows from this. It is proportionality and as around any centre of gravity, like the Higgs boson, it is an attractor, or an energy-field or a concept-constitution. It ‘pulls together’ so that the ‘push’ is energetic, innovative durable and prosperous.

This is collaboration; it’s in the programme. Look at the Helio-Centric, the Geo-Centric and the Venus-Centric orbiting and see – just like music – constant Pythagorean proportionality regardless of the ‘point of view’ where 8 Earth years, equals 13 Venus years, with 5 Apogee moments, manifesting like music, perfect Pentagramatic proportionality of the Golden Section in each of the 8 year cycles, just at it has done and will yet do for millions of years. Had you ever seen that? That is literally true – the pull and the push are not just at equilibrium, they are at equilibrium in a beautifully structured way: – https://www.gci.org.uk/Animations/ThreeDifferentOrbits.swf

Music, like our common future avoiding climate change, is impossible without proportionality. First recognized and articulated by Pythagoras nearly three millennia ago with a length of string vibrating at a constant tension, it precedes the inverse-square law. If you halve the length you double the frequency and if you third the length you treble the frequency and so on. That simple mathematical formula is now rightly described by Stephen Hawking as, “the first instance of what we now know as theoretical physics” https://www.gci.org.uk/music.html

In other words it is not just ‘a string at constant tension’. As an organising principle, it is ‘stringularity’, a universal constant, and there is nowhere on any scale that you can go in time or space where it isn’t true. That is helpful. That is why Bach, Mozart, Revkin https://www.myspace.com/andyrevkin have ‘legs’ and why C&C has too. Here’s a Well-Tempered Climate Accord: – https://www.richardellismedia.com/candc/candc-cube-web-edit.html

Cooperation, innovation, the very fibre of success and so much else, are the very children of this. Accepting the C&C principle underwrites and enables the very success of the ‘Path to Post-Pollution’ Andy Revkin articulates and that we all so much want. You might think, seeing the umpteenth routine, stupid but lethal confrontation at COP-17 to the UN Climate Treaty, that the COP-UNFCCC process doesn’t yet demonstrate that understanding: – https://www.gci.org.uk/index.html and you’d be right. But, as all life aspires to the condition of music, we’ll see to that and push and pull so that it does, won’t we.

Aubrey Meyer, Director GCI

Categories
Advancing Africa Big Number Big Picture Burning Money China Syndrome Conflict of Interest Corporate Pressure Cost Effective Deal Breakers Delay and Deny Demoticratica Direction of Travel Disturbing Trends Divide & Rule Economic Implosion Efficiency is King Energy Change Energy Insecurity Energy Revival Energy Socialism Financiers of the Apocalypse Foreign Investment Freemarketeering Green Investment Green Power Growth Paradigm Hydrocarbon Hegemony Low Carbon Life Major Shift Money Sings National Energy National Power National Socialism Paradigm Shapeshifter Peak Natural Gas Peak Oil Policy Warfare Political Nightmare Price Control Regulatory Ultimatum Renewable Resource Resource Wards Solar Sunrise Solution City Sustainable Deferment The Power of Intention The Price of Gas The Price of Oil The War on Error Transport of Delight Wind of Fortune

Eco-Socialism #1 : Public Service, Private Profit

Public infrastructure and utilities are the skeleton of the national economy; the spokes of the wheel; the walls of the house.

Private corporations can in many cases put muscle on the body, a tyre on the bike, and furnish the rooms, but without the basic public provision, private enterprise cannot thrive.

Without taxes being raised – asking everybody for their appropriate contribution – there would be no guaranteed health service, education system, roads, water supplies, power networks.

Federal or central government spending is essential, and often goes without question or inspection – including subsidies, cheap government loans, tax breaks and even rule-bending and regulatory exemption for specific sectors of the economy. This policy lenience also applies to private companies that take on the provision of public utilities.

This explicit, but often glossed-over, support for public services means that private business can rely on this national infrastructure. Small businesses can rely on a power supply and waste disposal services, for example. Large businesses can rely on a functioning postal service and road network.

It is questionable whether for-profit enterprise would be able to survive without the basic taxation-funded provision of public services and utilities.

I can understand why governments feel the need to get public spending off the balance sheet, and outsource public utilities to the private sector.

There is a lingering belief that private enterprise makes public services more efficient; makes manufacturing more reliable; makes construction better quality.

In some cases, this belief in privatisation is justified. Where companies can genuinely compete with each other, there can be efficiencies at scale. However, the success of privatisation is not universal.

Many parts of a developed economy are monolithic – there is no real competition possible. You get electricity through your power socket from a variety of production companies – you cannot choose. The road between your house and your office is always the same road – you don’t choose between different tarmac suppliers. Your local hospital is your local hospital, regardless of who owns and runs it – you have no choice about who that is – and the government contract tendering process is not something open to a public vote.

Added to this lack of competition, in some cases, it is impossible to make a profit by operating a public service by a private concern.

There should be no rock under which private business can hide when it claims to be operating profitable train and bus services – without public subsidies, public transport cannot be run at a profit.

Liability for daily operations may have been outsourced to the British private train companies, but not the full cost of the services. Costs for locally-sourced services cannot be driven down because they cannot be made fully open to global competition.

By contrast, the globalisation of labour has been making manufacturing industry significantly cheaper for decades.

In order for globalised trade to work, finance has to be liberated from its nation-bound shackles, and so along with the globalisation of labour to nations where it’s cheapest, there has been the globalisation of finance, to the tax regimes less punitive.

The globalisation of trade is a two-way bargain between those that want to see the development of primitive economies and those who want to create wealth for their companies and their shareholders.

Globalisation has created a booming China, for example, and filled the pockets of any Western company that imports from China.

However, the tide of globalisation has reached the shore, and the power of the waves is being stilled by solid earth realities. Labour costs in previously under-developed economies are starting to rise significantly, as those economies start to operate internal markets as well as maintain export-led growth.

It could soon be cheaper to have manufacturing labour in the United States of America than China. But when that happens a curious problem will arise. Manufacturing industry has been closed down in the so-called industrialised countries – as companies have taken their factories to the places with the cheapest labour and the most lax tax.

Wealth creation potential in developed countries has been destroyed. And it is for this reason that Western governments feel the urgent need to privatise everything, because their economies are collapsing internally, and public budgets may no longer be able to sustain current government spending.

However, privatisation doesn’t work for everything. It doesn’t work for health, education, water, public transport. The European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a vehicle to compensate for agricultural sectors than cannot make a profit. I would contend privatisation doesn’t work for the energy supply and distribution sector either – but for a special reason.

Normally, it is possible to run energy stations at a profit. The privatised sector inherited power stations and grid networks that were fully functioning, and the sales of power and Natural Gas were almost pure profit.

However, much energy plant needs to be lifecycled after decades of use – replacements are in order, and this demands heavy public investment, in the form of subsidies, or pricing controls, or tax breaks or some such financial aid, in order to avoid crippling the private companies.

Like the rail network, there is direct public investment in the power grids. This is to support new access for new energy plant. However, I think this doesn’t go far enough. I would argue that much more public tax-and-spend is required in the energy sector.

In future, most electricity generation needs to become low carbon and indigenous. The primary reason for this is the volatility of the globalised economy – it will no longer be possible to assume that imports of coal, Natural Gas and oil for power station combustion can be afforded – especially in economies like the United Kingdom, where much wealth creation has been destroyed by de-industrialisation.

It used to be easy to ignore this – as the North Sea was so productive in oil and Natural Gas that the UK was a net energy exporter. This is no longer the case.

To avoid the risk of national impoverishment, energy independence is dictated, spelled out by a deflating British economy and by the depleting North Sea reserves.

The easiest and fastest way to a power supply that is low carbon is by healthy investment in wind power and solar power. Yet with the turbulence in the global economy, spending on renewable energy has also been rocky.

Now is the time for the UK Government to stop tickling corporate underbellies to get them to invest in British energy, and to start collected tax revenues to spend explicitly on the energy revival.

It can be “matched” funding – the Renewables Obligation, for example, has drawn in massive levels of private investment into wind power. And the feed-in tariff scheme for solar photovoltaics had, until recently, been pulling in high levels of personal individual and private company investment.

This is the kind of public-private financing that works – create a slightly tilted playing field to tip the flow of money towards new energy investment, and watch the river flow.

Without public money ploughed into public infrastructure in non-profitable areas such as public transport and energy, private enterprise will not be able to make a contribution – they would quickly bankrupt themselves.

The result of capping public subsidies for renewable energy is a halt to renewable energy deployment. Those who resist wind farms are in effect destroying the country. Those who cap public subsidies for solar power want to break the nation.

We need socalist financing of new energy technology deployment, for the future wealth of our country.

Categories
Burning Money Carbon Rationing Cost Effective Design Matters Direction of Travel Eating & Drinking Emissions Impossible Low Carbon Life Nudge & Budge The Data Virtually Vegan Voluntary Behaviour Change

Whittling away at energy consumption

Throughout 2011, I changed a number of things in my domestic arrangements in order to reduce energy consumption at home.

I have been working with an ecocell small study and action group in North London – each member of whom has an interesting story to tell of their own eco-pilgrimage.

What I found was that in order to make progress I needed to measure more things and be more organised. I also needed to acquire more equipment.

This is rather ironic, since there are embedded emissions in all manufactured products. However, with careful use and maintenance, they should last a long time.

The daily electricity and gas consumption I was personally responsible for at home dropped fairly significantly (approximate figures) :-

Natural Gas use per day (Btu)Electricity use per day (kWh)
January 20115.003.00
February 20114.212.94
March 20113.653.15
April 20111.933.11
May 20111.692.98
June 20111.602.95
July 20111.422.84
August 20111.262.82
September 20111.142.81
October 20111.042.76
November 20111.072.84
December 20111.182.83

Based on the average of the monthly daily averages, I should have consumed 766 Btu (8,094 kWh) of Natural Gas over the whole year, and 1,065 kWh of electricity for 2011. However, due to dropping demand, I actually used only 433 Btu (4,572 kWh) of Natural Gas and 1,034 kWh of electricity.

This compares to Ofgem’s analysis of medium household consumption figures of 16,500 kWh of Natural Gas and 3,300 kWh of electricity.

This puts my consumption at 28% of the medium in Natural Gas and 31% in electricity. It’s going to be hard to reduce both of these figures.

I came up with a number of personal solutions for reducing space heating in 2011, which enabled the use of Natural Gas to drop.

I had already come up with a number of changes in power consumption in 2010, which explains why the electricity use did not drop so fast or so far in 2011.

However, I’m still working on cutting my domestic power consumption.

One of those ways is trying to adopt a more vegetarian diet. You see, when you eat vegan or virtually vegan, you don’t need so much refrigeration. Frequently over the last year the only things in the fridge have been milk, spread, yoghurt and green vegetables (plus a couple of half-used jars of pesto or mayonnaise, the regulation bottle of lemon juice and a jar of Marmite). The freezer has been off for months.

So I thought to myself, after checking the power consumption of the fridge – does the house need a smaller fridge ? I mean, the large fridge is useful when there are guests or someone throws a party, but it’s not fully used all the time. I could keep the green vegetables in the coldest, unheated room of the house, and buy fresh more regularly. What if I get hold of a mini fridge to use on a day-to-day basis ? And so, into my life has come the Mobicool W35.

Technically, it’s not a refrigerator – it’s a “cooler box”. A thermolectric one. And despite the E energy rating on the packaging – at 290 kWh a year, it will have less than half the power consumption of the Big Fridge. Plus, since I don’t need to run it all the time, I can cut power use further by only having it on 18 hours a day (or less, as dictated by the weather), controlled by a timer.

The next adaptations to my energy use will entail significant expense. Here are some options :-

a. Upgrading the windows
b. Installing a biomass burner (and optionally a boiler)
c. Cladding the external walls

I will need to save up to replace the windows completely, so I am looking for intermediate solutions.

For the biomass option, I have found a tree surgeon in North East London with whom a win-win arrangement could be developed – with me offering to take unseasoned wood from the loads of sawn waste that otherwise would cost money to dispose of.

In the meantime, I need to address draughtproofing. The sudden cold spell has shown me that there are still opportunities in this regard.

Categories
Solar Sunrise

Twitter solar storm

@joabbess
#EnvironmentalTaliban ? If don’t know what this is about, Google “Minister rounds on ‘environmental Taliban’” @GregBarkerMP @JeremyLeggett
19 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP May I politely point you to the fact that without rapid increase in solar power we will fail our renewable energy commitments
18 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP And, that without subsidies, no new deployment of technology can lift itself off the ground by its bootstraps
17 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP Hence, we are obliged, under our carbon emissions commitments, to either obtain private or public financing of solar power
16 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP It is of no help at such a time to refer to limits to allocation of financial budgets. Need I remind you that in World War II
15 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP (for we need a wartime analogy in all arguments) that if the Treasury had said the cupboard was bare we could not have played
14 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP our dutiful part in the levelisation and humiliation and genocide in Germany that was our “divine calling”. But leaving the
13 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP delicate matter of whether warfare is a moral, sanctionable collection of acts of inhuman violence completely aside, we do
13 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP need to address the question of inter-generational climate damages – we are bequeathing to our descendents, both political and
12 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP physical a world of untold and chaotic disaster if we do not pitch in with the effort to deploy renewable energy at speed
11 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP A stop-go-stop approach, as cheered on by your right-wing-budget-control-freak allies does not assist with the general rollout
10 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP What we need, dear fellow, at this time of intense crisis, is to commit ourselves fully to industry for zero carbon energy
10 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP Our duty to develop and deploy renewable energy technologies and extreme conservation measures will require the use of funds
9 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP The most cost-efficient way to fund renewable and sustainable energy is, as ever, through public revenue collection
8 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP Sharing the cost burden is what has made this country great – the National Insurance scheme costs each of us mere pennies
8 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP We have publicly-funded roads, schools, hospitals. We have, in fact, learned that socialist expenditure is a good bargain
7 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP Far from being religious fundamentalists, those who urge public tax and spend to support sustainable energy revival are
6 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP in fact the political children of people who want to tread lightly, through peaceful means, not violent. And so we turn again
4 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP to the question of the military budget. This is large, and unwarranted if we were to abandon following the USA into war
3 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP And so I propose that we shave a tad from the nation’s publicly-funded search and destroy mission and put up solar farms.
2 minutes ago

@joabbess
@GregBarkerMP As a man of peace, I know you will accept my recommendations with grace.
1 minute ago

Categories
Advancing Africa Alchemical Be Prepared Behaviour Changeling Climate Change Dead End Design Matters Direction of Travel Disturbing Trends Feel Gooder Human Nurture Low Carbon Life Major Shift Marvellous Wonderful Optimistic Generation Paradigm Shapeshifter Public Relations Solution City Transport of Delight Tree Family Voluntary Behaviour Change

Feet in first

My lovely friends.

I received a wonderful gift over Christmas – bamboo socks.

The gift of socks is a massive present cliche – often a “faux pas”.

Describing a gift of foot socks as a “faux pas” is highly amusing, because that expression is French for “false step(s)”.

But this particular present of footwear was not embarrassing or laughable in the slightest.

It was extremely well thought out – inspiring, Zeitgeistian, educational, novel and fun – it even came in a bright orange pouch.

In Summer, by chance I was at an event where I heard the outlines and some conclusions of Lucy Siegle’s research into clothing fabrics.

Essentially, cotton is under threat worldwide – if you buy anything made from cotton, you should perhaps consider it an investment and hold onto it as long as you can. It could become quite irreplaceable.

There are solutions, even in a climate changed world – bamboo and hemp being two avenues for sourcing sustainable clothing fibres.

Fabric made from bamboo is soft and comforting, and in this particular case, quite, quite funky.

I have the obvious criticism of the use of retail – that we cannot expect to green up our lives purely through shopping – because consumerism is part of the climate change and energy crisis.

But I think that something functional like organic and recycled clothing can come into the category of truly green spending – after all, we do need to replace our clothes from time to time.

To cap it all, the socks had green stripes !

So top marks to my clever friend for cracking a superb seasonal joke and demonstrating the future of fabrics at the same time.

Raising a toast to a Sustainable 2012.

Categories
Virtually Vegan

Castagne forestiere

Image Credit : Wikimedia Commons

Marrons, sweet chestnuts, kastanje…made into a sauce and served with pasta.

The vegetarian equivalent of beef steak mince, without the greasy, sour, nauseating aftertaste of dead cow.

Here’s one way to prepare it.

First, wait for late Autumn or Winter, then find a market trader selling uncooked sweet chestnuts. Buy some.

Come home and boil them in water for about ten minutes.

Remove the shell and inner skin of the nuts. Grind or chop.

Roughly chop some kind of onions and garlic and fry these in some olive oil.

Add a cup or so of some red wine, preferably a reasonably good one that got opened when a friend came over, but never got finished and sat re-corked and forlorn in the back of the cupboard, slowly starting to vinegarise, but still very palatable in a cooking sauce.

Stir the sauce and keep the heat under it until the alcohol starts to evaporate.

Add the ground or chopped sweet chestnuts.

Turn the heat down a bit on the sauce.

Boil a separate pan of water and throw in some pasta to cook.

Meanwhile, clean and chop a few other green vegetables, and if you have them, some kind of mushrooms.

When the pasta is nearly done, throw the chopped vegetables (and mushrooms if you have them) into the sweet chestnut and wine sauce.

Add a dash of sunflower oil, salt and pepper.

Just wait another five minutes.

By the magic of food chemistry you will end up with a sauce that looks rather like beef steak mince. And tastes as rich as beef steak mince. And yet it’s entirely vegan. And it’s amazing.

Serve the sauce on top of the pasta.

Eat.

Savour.

Enjoy your virtually vegan 2012 !