Sainsburys chop down trees for a petrol station

As Waterlooville is being turned into a building site (thanks to the Conservatives dumping any ideas of being environmentally aware) Sainsburys is duplicating Asdas actions by chopping down green things so that they can build a petrol station. This time it is trees that were originally a part of an old and established hedgerow that ran along the original path of Hambledon Road.

As a part of the plan to build a big store, Sainsburys is 'upgrading' the roundabout, thus allowing more cars to interfere with the pedestrian route into Waterlooville. Both the petrol station and roundabout developments have resulted in numerous trees being felled and ground being laid to waste.

Both Asda and Sainsburys seem to have plans for increasing green house gas emissions in the area, supported by the Brown party, namely The Conservatives.

Robert investigates the oil refining industry

Robert Llewellyn compares energy use in electric cars and fossil fuel powered cars and the oil refining industries use of coal fired power stations:

Asda put fuel sales before plant life

In the race to supply fossil fuels to the public and with the prospect of Sainsburys building a petrol station to compliment their new store, Asda has built a petrol station in the car park near the Asda store.
The car park has had thick vegetation and trees planted around the perimeter to visually hide it from public view and this has worked for many, many years. The West of Waterlooville has been quite green with vegetation for a long time now, but it seems that marketing, bad planning and profiteering is overriding common sense.

The 'hedgerow' that once surrounded the car park has now been thinned out, but not thinned all around the car park, just the bit that was hiding the Petrol station from public view. From the photo you can see the vegetation at the back is thicker than in the forground. To the right you can see the roof of the petrol station, the vegetation has been cleared so that cars approaching Waterlooville along the dual carriageway can see the Petrol station.

It's sad, but this imitates the larger picture we have today, where the environment is not integrated into economic, community and political thinking. A large American corporation is putting petrol sales and the production of green house gas emissions above wider community interests and the environment.

The silly thing is that it is far more noticeable because they only thinned out a section that was clearly blocking drivers views of the Petrol station!

It's a pity that Asda can find the money to chop down bushes and other vegetation, but can't find the money to pick up the garbage dropped by it's shoppers and is a direct result of their operational policies.

But then their corporate mentality and the people they employ at the top are not interested in integrating nature into their business model.

UKIPs dangerous environmental policies

UKIPs election leaflet was delivered recently in my area and apart from the usual rhetoric and misinformation, there is some bullshit about EU 'inspired' green taxes.

The taxes and regulations that UKIP refers to are not inspired by the EU at all, they are inspired by science, so logically if UKIP want to dispose of them, then they are denying the truth that science presents us. That is a very dangerous path to take considering the huge amount of evidence regarding climate change and the fact that we are responsible for the current changes in climate.

As the EU and UK 'green' policies are based on science, then it is a requirement of any political party to put in place verifible policies that will cut Carbon emissions. It doesn't matter whether we are in the EU or not, we will have policies to cut green house gases and they may or may not be expensive.

The question is, why do UKIP continue to deny the truth about climate science?
They have the evidence to read, produced by thousands of scientists, there is also an established history of climate and atmospheric science that started in 1800.

They also have easy access to numerous business reports from companies like Apple and the insurance industry, all of which understand that humans are responsible for current changes in climate.
They can see the damage done by recent flooding, they can see that the Arctic ice is in a downward spiral, they can see that seasons are changing, they can see some species are struggling, they can see the oceans are getting more acidic, they can see the higher frequency in extreme weather.

Despite all these things, they continue to advocate a policy of gambling with peoples lives. Any sane politician would admit that their knowledge of science is minimal and would accept advice from those that know better. Instead, UKIP sell a narrative that is packed with misinformation to suit a political ideology.

Trussel Trust Donations up after attack by The Fail on Sunday

After the Mail on Sunday attacked the Trussel Trust, the number of donations have increased from 250 since January to 4,282 in the last 24 hours!

At the time of writing £50,447.00 has been raised.

http://www.justgiving.com/crack-uk-hunger

A few words from a newspaper driven by political ideology more akin to a foreign country and the British public give their opinion. A big thumbs down for the Mail and a big thumbs up for the Trussel Trust.

Take a look at My Electric Avenue

This is a really interesting video by Robert. He investigates a new project that is looking at how the electricity grid at a local level can handle the increasing use of electric cars, solar panels etc.
The use of Smart Grid technology allows local substations to monitor local use and 'smart' car charging points in homes can be turned off for short periods when demand for cooking and other energy uses is high.
Basically it is energy management that avoids impacting on everyday life and the cars still get their batteries charged, in fact the cars have the potential for storing energy from the grid when there is an excess of supply.

The project involves a number of volunteer 'clusters' around the UK. For example a street of families (a cluster) would all have the use of a Nissan Leaf while the project is running and have the special car charging points installed at their homes.

Here's the video:

Robert test drives the e-Golf

These are such good videos, I just have to post them!
Robert test drives the new electric VW e-Golf: