Bin less bus stop

There is no waste bin next to the central Waterlooville bus stop on the Asda side of the street.

So fast food trash just gets dumped around the seats.

At least on this occasion most of it was biodegradeable.

Hampshire County Council to close recycling centres

Hampshire County Council has approved £140 million of cuts that include the closing of half the counties recycling centres unless changes are made by Westminster.

The counties - antiwind turbine - council leader, a Mr Roy Perry, believes that recycling is not a fundemental part of economic prosperity. In other words if we don't recycle then by a miracle, in the future we will still have the same amount of resources to build an economy as we do today. Yep, steel and aluminium will magically appear in the earth, put their I assume by a god, and then we can all carry on as before.

One of the fundemental changes in economics over the last 10 years has been the realisation that the economy must include nature and the fact that we have limited resources when balancing the financial books. It is OUR duty to make sure future generations have access to the same resources as us.

http://www.havantfoe.org.uk/councillors-lament-dark-day-for-hampshire-as-140m-cuts-approved/

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/politics/revealed-devastating-details-of-140m-cuts-to-hampshire-county-council-1-8147210

 

Latest Electric Vehicle News

Robert Llewellyn and his new co-host Jonny discuss the latest news in
renewable energy and electric vehicles, months ahead of the BBC and The Sun:

Excellent visualisation of global warming

Says it all really:

Murray Energy (Coal) sue John Oliver (British comedian)

The dying American coal industry (avid funder of Donald Trump) has decided that one man, John Oliver, and HBO are responsible for their woes, as a result Murray Energy and others are suing John Oliver for defamation.

Amusingly the legal document which Murray Energy is submitting has a lot of ranting in it appealing for the sympathy vote rather than any substantial legal claim.

The sad fact is many wealthy business folk think they are important beyond any reality just because they have wealth. Anyone who has watched John Oliver knows that he has a go at people, nations and businesses in a satirical manor which is very amusing and democratic.

The  reality is that renewable energy employs many times more people in America than the coal industry, it could employ many more including ex-coal workers!

This video posted by a lawyer deconstructs the Murray Energy lawsuit:

 Added 24/06/17...

It should also be noted John Oliver actually defames himself in the same broadcasted show! So maybe he should sue himself as well. Oh, wait a minute John Oliver has a sense of humour.

Note this video may not work for long:

03/07/17
Oh dear. Youtube removed the video. Told you so!


Links:

https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-robert-murray-coal-mining-lawsuit-sued-hbo-a7802266.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/06/22/coal_baron_robert_murray_is_suing_john_oliver_over_his_segment_featuring.html 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/06/22/coal_baron_robert_murray_is_suing_john_oliver_over_his_segment_featuring.html

Upgraded street lamps become EV charging points

A German company has developed street lighting technology that allows Electric Vehicles to be charged at adapted street lamps. When street lighting is upgraded to low energy LED technology, the cables that supply the lamps with power are effectively under used. This is where the EV charging technology comes in. Ubitricity can install the EV charging technology in any style of lamp post, retro or modern.

Once a street lamp is installed all an EV owner has to do is to sign up with Ubitricity, the owner then receives a special cable from Ubitricity which monitors electricity usage of the owner. The user is then debted the cost of the electricity. The cable has an inline small box with buttons and a display, so I presume that it is password protected to prevent possible mis-use. However I assume that if the cable were stolen, it could be reported and the account suspended until a new cable were supplied.

No additional load is put on the local electricity cables because they were originally designed to take a bigger load than the LED lighting puts on the system.

Robert L explains in this video how it works and interviews the local council that has installed the lamps as well as a representative of Ubitricity.



https://www.ubitricity.com/en

June 2017 Election Manifesto Analysis

Lets have a look at the main issue that the manifestos cover:

Liberal Democrats 

The Liberal Democratic manifesto commits to 60% renewable energy by 2030. Similar to Labours commitment (see below). Unlike the Conservatives and Labour, they explicitly commit to restoring onshore wind energy and solar energy to our supported energy mix.
.

Conservatives

The Tories manifesto states that the party does not believe that more onshore wind energy is right for England and oppose large scale onshore wind projects, but supports continued investment in offshore wind energy.
But Hampshire does not have any wind farms, even small ones! Hampshire has land and wind resources, but no wind farms harnessing those resources. Not only that but Hampshires nearest offshore wind energy project was cancelled. So the Conservatives are applying ideological reasons for not pursuing onshore wind as well as putting their wealthy rural supporters before the nation and the planet.
They also commit to low cost energy, which economically and technically must mean more onshore wind and solar energy, so they have contradicting statements in their manifesto

Labour

Labours manifesto is even less detailed than the Conservatives but commits to 60% zero carbon or renewable energy by 2030.
What is zero carbon energy??
All energy has at least a small carbon footprint.
They don't however say what technologies will make up this new commitment, they don't mention onshore wind or solar energy.

Green Party

Like the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party are commited to removing the Conservatives effective ban on onshore wind energy projects. They also want to scale up offshore wind and marine energy projects.

UKIP

The party has a record of denying mainstream climate science so it is not surprising that they wish to remove 'subsidies' from wind and solar energy projects. To be honest in a few years time they won't need such a policy because even in the UK government encouragement won't be needed. Solar and wind are becoming cheaper than the old school fossil fuel sources that we became to dependent on.


Well that's the analysis of the main policies of the locally relevant political parties. Energy and the environment are the key issues.

The future is bright and it's electric

Robert Llewellyn takes a look at 2016 and the future.
Don't mention Brexit or Trump...
2017 will see a huge number of electric vehicles being launched, plus they will get closer to a 300 mile range.

Trump ready to censor Climate Science?

It's been a big worry ever since Trump 'won' the US Presidential election this year. He appears to be siding with the anti-knowledge mob and is heading for the censorship of science and knowledge.

Why is this so?

Well science is basically non-political, it produces knowledge that may or may not be positive and 'beneficial' to humanity, how it is used is up to us. It is just there and may influence political decisions in a positive or negative way.

This BBC report sums up the current views regarding Trumps decisions even before he has taken up the position of US President:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38322594

According to the article:

1. Trumps team asked for all the names of the Department of Energy scientists that had worked on Climate Change issues. Basically this is the equivalent of Hitlers party supporters denouncing un-German science and forcing the likes of Einstein to leave 1930s Germany.
   Is this an extreme view? Well you either believe in the freedom to do any science that may inform government and business decisions or you try and dictate what science can be done based on your ideological preference (censoring it).
   Witch hunting scientists for their work is very, very similar to what the Nazis did in the 1930s.
   Sorry if you disagree, but if you believe in democracy then you have to accept unwelcome scientific knowledge as well as the 'welcome' knowledge.
   
   
2. Anthony Scaramucci one of Trumps team recently made comments on CNN comparing the ancient idea of the flat Earth with Climate Change. There is a big difference between ancient 'science' and modern science. Those that believed in the flat Earth did not try and prove that the theory was correct and did not collect data to prove it was correct.
   Modern science relies on the scientific method which did not develop until the 17th century, by today's standards the flat Earth theory does not stand up to scrutiny. Scaramucci's effectively assumes and bets on the assumption that in the future science will disprove current climate science knowledge. No normal sane decision maker bases political and social decisions by betting on what science might come up with in 100 years. You can only take on board what is known now and assume it is correct because it's based on existing knowledge that is tested and well proven (Infra Red radiation, Green House Effect and basic physics etc) verified by observation (temperature measurments, witnesses like farmers and other ordinary people, melting ice records, various species struggling or doing well, sea level rise etc.).
   
   
3. As the Ex-NASA boss points out in the article both government and businesses depend on truthful and factual climate data. If it is altered or is no longer available, businesses will have a false picture of reality and such holes will be replaced lies, myths, rumour and hearsay. We would have gone back in time to a more primitive period. We would be living a lie.
   
   
4.  On top of the above observations Trump has appointed Rick Perry and Scott Pruitt to positions where they are in charge of departments that they are critical of.

So far it looks like Trump will significant damage in order to achieve his 'dream'. 
Then there is Putin and Trumps love in.

One has to hope that the scientists can save the climate data and keep doing good science in defiance of Trump diktats and censorship.

Tory Government defeated at court twice in one week

Defeat No. 1

Environmental lawyers (ClientEarth) won a battle with the Tories in court over air pollution in our cities and urban areas. The court ruled that the governments plans were inadequate and would not bring down pollution to legal limits. This is frankly a classic Tory case of ignoring a part of government duties and only focusing on duties that fit with their ideology, the part they are ignoring is of couse the environment and long term outcomes.

What have they been doing for the environment?

Closed DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change), basically the department had the words Climate Change in it's title so it had no chance at all with the hypocrites taking over the Tories.

Closed the Energy and Climate Change Committee (because DECC closed).

Cut support for renewable energy and increased support for fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37847787

Defeat No. 2

 The Tories have tried to dictate the way they operate within our democracy and have said that they don't need to consult our elected MP's about the Brexit details. It's bad enough that the referendum vote was marginal across the nation, but the Tories wanted to force their ideas on us and parliament, ideas that would be permanent. Looks like they might have to do the job they are employed to do, that is to slug out the details in a democratic and transparent manor.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37857785

So how long before the government is defeated on their climate change policy?
Today the UN accused governments of failing to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently, missing the 2030 target by 23%.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37849862

I like classic cars, especially when they are electric

A classic car:

National Grid boss gives the thumbs down to old school energy

A few days ago the new energy boss in charge of the nations national electricity grid surprised the Victorian old school (many of whom are probably UKIP supporters) by announcing that the future is distributed energy generation and 'smart' use of electricity (the smart grid).

This idea has long been proposed by this blog and many educated peeps that understand these things.

According to the BBC article Nicola pointed out that more people are generating their own electricity via solar and that technological advances reduce the need for conventional power stations. People and businesses are changing the way they use electricity with the help of software and computers.

Unfortunately unions (yes the 'left') are not helpful. The left bullshit just as much as the right when it comes to facts about cutting carbon emissions and the environment. They put political ideology before the environment. The Farmers Union is just as guilty in this respect when it comes to agricultural practices and food production.

The GMB union wants Hinkley Point C to be built purely on the basis of supporting members jobs and harking back to the 1950s and the great socialist dream of nationalised centralised power generation.

BBC article on the subject:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37220703

Blog posts:
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/p/wind-energy.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/my-electric-avenue.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/big-brother-fridges.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/fareham-based-isentropic-how-their.html 
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/lovedean-solar-farm-installed-and.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/how-national-grid-works.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/tokar-street-eco-house.html

More subsidies for fracking in the pipe line

The media today write about the proposals by Theresa May for additional financial support for fracking on top of existing financial support for fracking drilling operations.
It's not to hard to see the hypocrisy in the governments energy policies fueled by fears that votes will be lost if rural home owners are upset when a wind turbine is built within 100 miles of their home.

The government has cut ROC support for onshore wind farms and solar energy, both of which are crucial in cutting CO2 emissions and reducing energy costs for home owners.

The so called problem of intermittent renewable energy supply is a problem that is being solved by engineers and scientists. This year global energy storage capacity has doubled, it's a market that is growing rapidly and only ignorant Daily Mail writers think it's unsolvable.

World leading Fareham based energy storage company:
http://www.isentropic.co.uk/

As well as this increased support for Fracking (and carbon emissions) Mays government has been quick to scrap the Climate Change cabinet position and close down the Department of Energy and Climate Change as a separate entity.

It seems that Climate Change are forbidden words within government despite it being a costly problem that needs real technology solutions.

Meanwhile global temperatures this year are already close to breaking the limits set by the Paris climate agreement intended to limit temperatures to a 1.5 degrees C increase. Ed Hawkins (University of Reading) has shown that this year temperatures increased by about 1.4 degrees:

http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2016/spiralling-global-temperatures/

Milton Road Roundabout bus stop - has a litter bin!

The Milton Road Roundabout bus stop finally gets a litter bin.
My first post on this subject was in August last year. The council finally did the right thing and there is now a bin. Not only that, it looks like it's being used.

See my previous posts and photos of the Costa cups and packaging that littered the floor.





http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/apparently-havant-borough-council-does.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/a-day-in-life-of-milton-road-bus-stop.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-cost-of-costa.html

Riversimple - now for something completely different

Interesting company rethinking car design and ownership:

A Christmas Message from the Elves

Evidence against Conservative energy policies mount up

Bloomberg said onshore wind is as cheap as fossil fuels, now the governments Climate Change Committee agrees:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34598765

Onshore wind energy now as cheap as chips

Bloomberg say Onshore Wind is now competitive with fossil fuels in the UK:

http://about.bnef.com/press-releases/wind-solar-boost-cost-competitiveness-versus-fossil-fuels/
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/wind-power-now-the-cheapest-source-of-electricity-but-the-government-continues-to-resist-onshore-a6685326.html

Meanwhile the Conservatives Amber Rudd has recently stated that the party isn't ideologically driven when it comes to their climate change skeptic driven energy policies and environment policies.

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/opinion/2428988/amber-rudd-i-am-a-proud-green-conservative

They certainly don't stick to their ideology, but not in the way Rudd suggests. The trouble is Rudd doesn't know what their ideology is or alternatively loves to misinform. Onshore wind energy is cheap, long term, low carbon, British (the winds around the Isles are for us to harness) and well established, but instead the Conservatives want to increase energy bills with experimental fracking, high carbon emissions, high energy bills, subsidised fossil fuels and nuclear power and commiting to short term supplies of finite fuel sources.

If markets are king, then fracking and nuclear energy should need no help. The fact is all Conservative policy is based on corrupt ideology, to say anything else would be a lie.

Opposing wind farms does not fit in with the idea of market driven economics. The Conservatives are a corrupt brand of capitalism and market ideology.

Not that such things should drive policy (science should drive environmental policies), but given that continued carbon emissions will have a negative economic outcome then logically low cost wind energy will have a positive double whammy on our economic future, whilst fossil fuels have a double negative impact.

Conservatives continue to ignore science

The Friends Of the Earth are 100% correct with their attack on the Conservatives. We have all known for a long time that there are many Conservatives that are ignorant or choose to be ignorant of climate science (and other sciences) in order to pursue a political and economic ideology.
Since the election they have put into action extremely damaging policies that will undo many years of excellent work that started to reduce carbon emissions, created new businesses and jobs.

The policies include:

• Onshore Wind farm support cuts.
• Commercial Solar farm support cuts.
• Commercial Biomass energy project support cuts.
• Scrapping of the Green Deal with no replacement.
• Delayed introduction of zero carbon homes.
• Reduced tax on pollution.
• Introduced the Climate Change Levy on the renewable energy industry.
• Removal of tax breaks on low carbon cars including hybrids but excluding electric vehicles.

The Conservatives continued their campaign of lies and misinformation to defend and justify a series of very foolish and potentially law breaking policy changes that will cost future generations not just a lot of money, but also lives.

The Conservatives use the claim that the left have hijacked the climate change cause, but the fact is that is a red herring. Cutting carbon emissions is not linked to ideology, you just have to get on with it and do it, the same policies to do it apply to all political parties. In effect the Conservatives have made it an ideological issue by scrapping all the policies that were essential to cut emissions, they haven't got the guts to continue with emissions cuts because the long term benefits of such cuts can never feature in Conservative ideology and religion which is fundamentally short term.

Conservative ideology is about 'now', it can't cope with looking more than a few years into the future.

But science and nature don't care about politicians, the rules of science are mathematical and ultimately they detemine the future (on this planet at least) based on the actions we take now. So the FACT is, actions taken now can either be good or bad for future outcomes depending on the type of actions taken.

The Conservative sudden cuts in support for renewable energy, low carbon housing, insulation for homes etc is unforgiveable especially when it is known that much of the support can be slowly removed without damaging a flourishing green business sector.

How can democracy be working if political lunatics can do this?
We don't want this pathetic old political battle, we want political decisions about energy and environment based on facts, not lies and politcal fantasies (ideologies).

The AA also join the attack:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33724781

Orkney - future island

UKIP and the Conservatives are trying to kill this future off: