Eco Friendly House And Garden

Teach Yourself: a practical understanding of the weather system, he says….

Basically this book explains how the weather ‘works’. By looking at the atmosphere and how the rotation of the Earth affects the movement of air, you can find out about cloud formation, severe weather events, weather forecasting and, of course, our changing climate.

And to prove it, he opens up with a very straight forward set of diagrams to show all these things in action in a normal state. Obviously he uses actual weather event examples throughout and there are colour plates in the centre to offer visual guidance.

The Book Itself:
I do love the simple nature of the majority of this book.  The way everything is explained step-by-step and there are usually pictures or diagrams to illustrate every new point he brings up.

Having a previous interest in the weather systems and of course climate change, I was already quite versed in his terminology and found I could work quickly through the facts and descriptions.

This book did base it’s main themes on weather in the area around the UK, but it used examples and weather paterns from across the globe, like monsoon weather and El Nino events. 

The Author helps to explain some of the basic cloud formations as well, which (towards the end of the book) he uses to help you identify the most likely weather to affect you in the next few hours.  By studying the shape and height of the clouds he can virtually guarantee that you will be able to spot when rain is on the way and when it should stay clear - using the very principles of cloud formation that he explained at the beginning.   Which I found quite fun and generally right!

All of this could be very useful if you are small-holding, growing your own crops, collecting rainwater, live by a stream, are out of a long hike or organising an outdoor eco event.  The weather really does affect almost everything that we do - so knowing a little about it can make a difference to our everyday lives.

He tries to avoid bringing climate change into every chapter and reserves a whole section (Chapter 10) to covering a few of the basics.  But he also saved a whole chapter (8) to how actual weather forecasts are made and prediction mathematics - which is where he lost me!  I found this section far too scientific, and if like me you have a brain that just ‘doesn’t listen’ when it finds something to complicated or that it just isn’t ready to understand yet - it gives up.  I didn’t manage to read this section all the way through - but I am sure that once I understand more about the basic weather systems, this information may become more interesting! 

I totally agree that the weather systems will continue to work as they see fit and as part of the negative and positive feedback systems - regardless of what us humans decide to do.  He has a few ‘future’ predictions based on current human activities but noone can know for sure what will happen in the next few hundred years - I’m sure the dinosaurs didn’t think that a meteor would just fall from the sky and affect their happy little lives!

Result: 5/5
Apart from the one technical chapter towards the end - I absolutely loved this book - and the introduction it gave to me about how the worlds weather is currently ‘working’.  This way I can better understand when there are changes - and also make a bit more sense of the weather forecasts on TV and weather events in general.

I loved the way towards the end that he touched on what we are doing to prepare for the future in terms or accepting that things will change.  I mean scientists are already very sure that sea levels will rise at least a few feet minimum, and global temperatures in the north will increase - so what are we going to do about it?

Are we going to carry on as normal and hope that we sort these things out, or should we start making subtle changes today - for example ‘not building any more housing in areas likely to flood from sea-level rises’?  He makes a startling statement about rising temperatures too - that in France during the 2003 heatwave over 10,000 extra deaths were recorded - and that the temperatures they experienced then could become the normal summer temperatures for that region within the next 100 years (or less).  So are we preparing for it now?

I don’t think we are.

ISBN: 978-0-340-96641-9

During the bright sunny weather - there are butterflies everywhere!

But what are they all called, and why does it matter?  Well, it matters because butterflies are very specific feeders and so can tell us what the health of certain plants is like - and therefore which habitats are disappearing and which ones a expanding.  And this information is vital to biodiversity and conservation.

So - how many butterflies can you identify?  Which plants have you introduced or encouraged in your garden to attract butterflies?

Well, now is your chance to learn a few more and actually use this new information to help a national survey tell us about our changing environments.

The Survey:
The Butterfly Conservation Trust and Marks & Spencer have got together to organise a very simple sample survey of your local butterflies.

Basically, all they want you to do is tally up all the butterfly species you see in your garden or on a walk in just 15 minutes.

No need to learn a billion species or any rare butterflies - just the common and most widespread species in the UK.

They have even produced a fantastic, clear and comprehensive visual identification guide to around 15 butterflies - showing both upper and lower wing patterns.  They couldn’t have made it any easier!

So could you spare a few minutes now looking through the species guide and then 15 minutes at the end of July to tally them up?  A pair of binoculars wouldn’t be a bad idea either!

Why Butterflies?
Well, butterflies are very obvious in the environment.  They don’t try to hide - infact they brandish their wings to the sun; they come out during the brightest, clearest days and they are usually brightly coloured too - with some quite striking patterns.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

This means that it would be a lot easier that trying to spot night-flying moths or small mammals etc!

As mentioned before, they only feed on certain plants and only lay their eggs on certain other plants, so you can be very sure that where there are White Admirals there will be Honeysuckle and where there are Silver-Washed Fritillary there will be Dog Violet.

Therefore if there certain plant species dying off or becoming more abundant due to land-use changes or differing weather patterns - the butterflies will have to change their local habitat to make sure they and their young can feed.

And this is where the survey can tell the specialist and awful lot!  The information for just our garden might not really tell us anything - but add that up between all the survey results and the picture will become much clearer.

So the more people who can spare 15 minutes of their time - the more definitive the results will be, and the more action can be taken to make sure we don’t lose butterflies from our gardens - and don’t lose entire habitats because we didn’t care to look!

So, go get your suncream and a pen!

There are a lot of words being used to describe current weather events - but what do they all mean?

Sometimes people use the same word to descibe 2 different events or activities, and other people use completely the wrong one!  Sometimes the sources we use get it wrong too, to fit with a headline or because it gets better effect.

So what I have put together here are a few of the most heard of climate related words and a short explanation of each that follows:

Weather:
The outdoor experience you have on a day to day basis where you live, for example ’sunny’ or ‘heavy rain’  Weather is only local to you, with sunshine and heavy rain sometimes only a few miles apart.  This is also true for events like hailstorms which fall in very specific locations.

Climate:
All the weather experienced in the whole world all summed up in one sweep.  So even if you had a lot of rain local to you, the whole climate could actually becoming drier - as it takes into account all the weather around the whole world.  This is why you might hear that the world is getting warmer, but you then get weeks of snow falling in the winter!

The Atmosphere:
All the air around and above us is termed the ‘atmosphere’ yet it is divided into 4 distinct layers that all have their own specific behaviours.  The lower layer that we are surrounded by rises only about 4 km into the air and contains virtually all the breathable gases out there.  There are 3 more layers above it:

Troposphere - Lowest Layer: Contains breathable gases and gets colder as you move upwards.
Stratosphere - 2nd layer: Contains the Ozone Layer towards the top, so gets warmer as you move up.
Mesosphere- 3rd layer: The coldest part of the atmosphere, falling below -90 centigrade.
Thermosphere - Final Layer:  Over 85km high, this layer is the thinnest and leads out into space.

The atmosphere is held in place by gravity, and is the only reason why there is an abundance of life on Earth.  Without the gases in the sky, the plants and animals would eventually be killed by the heat of the sun and there would be no water at all.

Ozone Layer:
This thin layer of the gas ozone in the upper stratosphere is very important to life on Earth.  Ozone is a very unsteady gas, and this is used to our advantage by the way it reacts to ultra-violet radiation - it basically absorbs it all way up in the sky so it doesn’t fall to earth and cause terrible damage to skin and genetic material hidden inside of us. 

As a result of damage to this layer, a hole appeared in the southern hemisphere and there was a very noticeable rise in radiation related illnesses and deaths.  Ozone, however, is also a greenhouse gas.

Greenhouse Gases (GHG):
These atmospheric gases are all able to trap heat from the surface of the Earth and also to reflect it back down to the ground - both action are raising the temperature of the surface. 

As humans have greatly increased the amount of one of these GHG’s (carbon) in to the atmosphere, this heating effect has been increased and the Earth is now experiencing much warmer temperatures than over previous centuries (and eras) this continued activity that is now referred to as global warming.

Global Warming:
The increased global average temperatures experience today as a result of increased human activity in relation to releasing GHG’s.  The stresses caused to the atmosphere and weather systems by these great and prolonged changes can put pressure and stress on some of the natural systems currently in place. 

For example, changes to rainfall patterns (due to changes in land and ocean temperatures), increased flooding (due to warmer water being ‘bigger’ than cooler water) as well as droughts and other severe weather events.  And all these events added together can be defined as climate change.

Climate Change:
By changing all the local events, there will become a great noticeable event - and this is represented y our changing climate.  Basically, stresses on natural systems have started to change weather patterns across the globe, and following the normal feedback systems in nature - this can only lead to massive change.

If you read about how delicate weather systems already are with regards to rainfall, storms and sea level rises - you will see how easy it is to disrupt them.  And this is just what rising temperatures are doing today. 

Not all severe weather events are purely down to human activity and the climate has changed over the history of the Earth on a massive scale - like ice ages; but never this fast.  There will soon be a change in the frequency and/or location of those events over time - and this will definitely be the effects of human-induced climate change as opposed to a natural change.

Our changing climate and what it means for life on earth - he says….

Basically this book explains some of the facts about the things we hear about in the news - but it does them in a nice way rather than scaremongering!

And to prove it, he opens up nice and early with a simple guide to how the world works at the moment - in terms of climate and atmosphere - and easily explains the difference between all the ‘eco words’ being bandied around at the moment, like global warming and climate change. 

The Book Itself:
Not too intimidating to read, or filled with scientific quotes and jargon, this book is quite an easy read - and it doesn’t display page after page filled with ‘amazing’ statistics and species names. 

It does however, cover all the points that are a global warming advocate favorites - like coral bleaching and coal-fired power stations - but he takes the time to discuss the actual science and facts behind them in really simple terms.  This goes a long way towards getting people to a level where they can form their own opinions.

So rather than saying ‘we are all doomed if the rainforests are cleared’ or ‘we will all drown when sea levels rise 100 meters’ causing panic - he simply explains how nature balances that particular environment at the moment, and what our actions could do to change that along current trends. 

Basically, he details what could biologically be the next step if all things remain the same - for example:  A normal human being needs to eat to stay alive, awake and healthy - but if it starts to eat too much a series of things will start to occur.  These may include weight gain (due to excess calories), tiredness (due to the extra weight being carried), likelihood of skin problems (due to bad circulation), shortness of breath (due to pressure on the lungs and heart), etc, etc. 

Flannery helps to explain how these things come about - not just what the end result might be.  He explains the negative and positive feedback systems that keep our environment alive and functioning as it is today.

He uses the Gaia Theory to put all this in perspective - whereby the whole world and it’s atmosphere are treated as one giant living organism - where an action in one part can have an effect on another part.  A giant version of the saying ‘if a butterfly flaps it’s wings in the Sahara, it can create a cyclone in the Pacific’.

I totally agree that our actions in different parts of the world are having a direct impact on things happening thousands of miles away, and can visualise how a change in the make-up of the atmosphere (more CO2) can change climate and the water cycle! 

Result: 4/5
I would have hoped for an updated version by now - seeing as it is 5 years old now, and science has come a long way since - and we have new world leaders to contend with!

I started to write down some of his short term ‘predictions’ as some of them had passed or were fast approaching - most were on target although a few were not quite as bad as he had thought they would be.

He has written several other books which I will be seeking out, and I will be waiting for the newest edition of this book to arrive!

ISBN: 978-0-141-02627-5

An eco friendly business doesn’t just talk about it - it acts on it!

Depending on the type of business that you run, or the company that you work for, there could be a certain amount of long-distance travel involved.  And long-haul means wasted time, staff not working and carbon emissions!

So Climate Care Day is asking: ‘Why not consider a ‘travel free’ day as part of your current business plan?’  This initiative supported by the WWF is trying to give you the opportunity to look at the alternatives, and make businesses more eco-friendly.

By asking you not to travel as part of your working day, they are trying to get businesses and individuals to think about the impact that their decisions can have on not only their business itself, but also on the wider environment.

What Are They Asking?
Basically, the idea of Climate Care Day is to get businesses to not arrange any long distance travel for that 24 hours.

So, on the 26th of March 2010, they are hoping that corporations will communicate via other means rather than face-to-face.

Whether this means individuals will communicate verbally by telephone, digitally via the internet or virtually with live video conferencing - it doesn’t matter.  As long as they haven’t flown or driven hundreds or thousands of miles to do it in person!

There are plenty of technological alternatives available to businesses today that can eliminate or reduce the need for business travel - and can save a lot of money in the process!

However, a lot of people are not thinking of these alternatives as they plod along doing everything as they have always done it.  Added to this is the problem of the changing market, where something that wasn’t really a viable option a few years ago is now readily and very often cheaply available.

Sometimes things that have always happened a certain way are seen as static - with no real reason to change it - well, if it has always worked like that - why change it?

But we have seen with the impressive speed with which cell phones have morphed into a huge array of handheld mobile technology gadgets that make phone calls, give you directions, display whole journals, film events, take pictures, search the internet and even play games.  Why would you still want to do all these things separately and as slowly as we used to do it?

Would you rather go to a library and scan through the paper index and individual paper journals to find a certain fact, when you could use the internet instead?  And why would you want to carry a camera, your cell and a laptop to review new products for your company, when a smart phone could do all 3 jobs in 1?

The same could be true for your business if you worked smarter - and it makes economic sense.  Save time, save money and reduce carbon emissions - but also create a better work environment and help society change for the better.

Why Do It?
Climate change is said to be the biggest threat to nature and humanity in the 21st century, and has now become a serious business issue.  Ignoring this could have detrimental effects on not only your own business itself, but on the way we work as a planet at the moment.

Coastal cities are having to make 25-year plans to move whole industries away from threatened coastlines.  You can’t just change the country’s infrastructure overnight!

And supplies and raw materials are changing - for example landfill sites are being raided for their raw ingredients which were buried in the past decades, and old computer parts are being harvested for the precious metals they contain.

We also know that in general things that stay the same are left behind.  I mean if you ran a business today that was based on using only dial-up internet- you would not be able to compete with others in the same market.

You don’t always need the newest inventions, or the most expensive - but you need a viable alternative that suits your business needs.

So, even if you can’t take part in this event, consider looking again at some business improvements - and become more eco friendly along the way.

Is Eating Meat Eco Friendly?  Should We Convert To Being Vegetarian Or Even Vegan?

There has long been the argument against eating meat - although it covered many aspects it now has another twist.  Rather than just worrying about the health of the animals, the cruelty of killing them, the risk of diseases from them and the whole ‘is it healthy’ debate - the new angle is about how eco friendly eating meat is.

For the Vegans, it’s just another string to their bow about the all-good angle of veganism, but are they losing a few points as the argument unfolds.  I have just covered a few points from both sides of the fence - so to speak - although I must admit that I lean to one side - but obviously you must decide for yourself.

Cows Verses Corn.
Should we feed our animals with grain that could be feeding humans in the first place?  Basically, there are plenty of people who believe that the grain we grow should be eaten by humans rather than processed into food for livestock. 

There are many figures showing that the energy and protein derived from eating the grain is greater than the energy and protein that you finally get out of the animal - however it has also been shown that the proteins from meat are more easily digested and cause less damage to the teeth than grains and pulses.  You would also need to eat more vegetable matter per unit of protein or energy than meat.

Animals farmed for food have to have large areas of land to roam while alive, therefore reducing even further the amount of land available to grow crops on. Others would argue that many livestock - like sheep and goats - roam in fields that cannot be farmed for anything else so would be ‘wasted’ otherwise. 

In addition many animals are fed on plant materials that are not suitable for human consumption - think of your guinea pig in the garden eating the outer cabbage leaves and the ends of your carrots!  Therefore, are all livestock competing with humans for food?

In contrast - eco-friendly organic animal farming uses more land than factory farming, so can the cute organic lamb we are all crying out for actually be reducing the amount of food available for humans?

Cattle & Carbon:
Every kg of beef sent to the stores has apparently emitted 14kg of carbon dioxide during it’s lifetime.  Even cheese releases around 10kg of carbon per kg!  And even milk has churned out around 1kg of carbon per liter produced!  So gulping down a glass of the white stuff is damagingthe atmosphere! 

These figures are very high, and obviously the intensive farming of lifestock uses a lot of oil in machinery and feeds. The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation has recently been quoted as saying that ‘animal farming is eco-hostile’.

There are around 1.3 billion cows on the earth at the moment and the total number of all farmed animals is expected to double to 40 billion by 2050.  And we all know that rainforests are being destroyed to make way for some of these animals - therefore causing even more carbon to remain in the atmostphere.

Meat = Methane:
It has been calculated that cows and animal farming are responsible for 18% of human climate change - particularly with their methane emissions.  Methane is such a dangerous greenhouse gas in the short term that we should really be reducing the amount of this gas in the atmostphere as it turns into Nitrous Oxide.
 
To put this in perspective, if carbon dioxide = 1, then methane = 23.  Quite a difference!  But what if I told your that using that same scale, nitrous oxide would be 296!!!

Although 18% is quoted - in a weird manipulation of the figures - it’s not that bad?  Most of the nitogen produced by a cow is held within it’s manure which is usually pumped straight back into the soil to fertilise the next crop - reducing the need for chemical intervention.  However, it can also be used for fuel - which can be seen to be reducing the pressures of deforestation to get wood for cooking and heating etc, but the flipside is that burning it actually releases all that stored gas into the sky!

Local Fresh Meat Vs Less Food Miles:
Many vegans eat staple foods like nuts and grains for protein that need to be imported from across the globe.  This increases the total food miles of a particular product. 

Surely the carbon used in the worldwide transportation of their meat-free foods is adding up somewhere.  Don’t forget - the figures given for the energy used to grow a particular crop may not take into account all the fuel, staffing, building and maintenance costs of running a ship or airplane to transport it to your plate.

Packaging for long-distance foods also includes refridgeration techniques, excess protective packaging and ultimately environmental damage.  Why not just eat some home-grown meat un-packaged from a local farm shop you walked to instead and save all that waste?

Vegans say that just refusing to eat meat for one day a week is more environmentally friendly than switching to a completely local diet.  They really think it’s that bad.  Worse than their own food miles.

Opposition would say that reducing our dependance on meat would certainly make a big difference to the global impact of animal farming, but that a totally vegan diet is not as efficient as one containing a small amount of meat and dairy.  And getting rid of all farm animals would have a huge knock-on effect for wildlife, humans and plantlife - and would frankly not be feasible.

Is it just a cow?
And don’t forget, farm animals are not just about meat.  They give us wool, leather, milk, cheese, manure, transport, traction, security and pet food. 

We would have to find substitutes for all of these products - and many if not all of those substitutes will probably involve more oil and plastic - or ironically plant products.  And aren’t they all as bad as the livestock we are trying to eradicate?

Nothing is ever just black and white……

.

Since it’s humble beginnings in Sydney, Australia in 2007 - the Earth Hour has been gaining ground - and fast.

This year - the 3rd Earth Hour - is planning to cover the entire globe in swathes of darkness around it’s width - like a global Mexican Wave. This will convey the huge statement that there are thousands of people in every country joining together in support of making a difference.

People in every country across the globe are signing up to say that they agree with the Earth Hour aim to ’send a message to World Governments that they must take action to help avoid Climate Change’. And they are hoping to unite 1 billion people with this single purpose.

Why So Important?
The UN Climate Change Summit takes place in Copenhagen at the end of the year, and WWF are hoping that this event will have an impact on topics raised and policies discussed by the heads of nations. This Summit is going to decide on future International Climate Policy - so really it is the planets ‘Moment of Truth’.

We have read reports from well known scientists that we are really at a great tipping point with the destruction we are a part of, and that if things are not turned around very quickly with regards to emissions and draining of resources, we may never return to the life we knew. Everything could change.

We are already seeing signs of that change across the world in the flooding and diseases affecting corners of the globe - freak weather, sea-level rises and warming temperatures are all impacting on peoples lives, and it will only get worse.

What Can You Do?
If you plan to take part, make sure you register and get everyone you know to register too. Although just turning out your lights for the entire hour will show others you are involved, you will not count towards the actual recorded movement as the WWF will not know that you took part. There will be no written record of the part you played.

Last year 50 million people signed up, but many more joined in, but went uncounted. If this years Earth Hour is to reach 1 billion, you must sign up and be counted.

Planning an event for the hour will also involve many others - as if they are at your house enjoying a candle-lit dinner, a home movie watching session or a ghost story telling group at the local church hall - then all their lights will be out anyway as they are not at home (but make sure they sign up online first). So by arranging an event - the bigger the better - the more supporters you will be creating - the bigger the impact!

There are national and local events being organised if you’d rather head into town with your friends - and you might get to see a famous landmark plunged into darkness!

There may be outdoor concerts or theatre performances at local stately homes on offer, or walks in the local woods for the more adventurous - and everything will look so different in the true darkness - look up to see the stars where-ever you are as they will certainly be shining more brightly than before!