An interview with Kate Alexander, Owner of Climate Sight

There are many climate sites out there but apart from mine one of my favourite ones has to be Climate Sight which aims to explore what the public know about the environment and what is actual scientific knowledge. The owner of the blog, Kate Alexander claims on her “About” page that she started writing the blog to keep herself sane. I interviewed Kate to find a bit more out about her blog and why she likes doing it so much. Read below to see my interview with her.

Q:When did you start the blog and why did you become interested in the topic?

A:

“I became interested in climate science when I was about fifteen. I joined the environmental club at my high school, purely as a way to get involved, and subsequently had my name drawn out of a hat for a spot at a one-day youth climate change conference. There were local scientists speaking at this conference, discussing everything from global climate projections to how oxygen isotopes could be used as temperature proxies. I was absolutely fascinated, and began to read more and more about climate change on my spare time. I was particularly influenced by Greg Craven's Manpollo Project.

Before long, I began to get frustrated with all the silly arguments surrounding climate change - carbon dioxide levels lag temperature, global warming stopped in 1998, and so on. There's a very comprehensive list of arguments and rebuttals here. Worst of all, the people spreading them around didn't seem to care less whether or not they were credible and reliable. Here we were, on the brink of what could potentially be humanity's greatest challenge, and people were arguing about GISS's adjustment of the urban heat island effect in YouTube comments. It was absolutely ridiculous.

I needed an outlet for all of these thoughts that were swirling around inside my head. Left to my own devices, I probably would have done no more than start a newsletter for my environmental club, but luckily, I have a very computer-savvy friend who said to me, "Kate, you need to start blogging." He did some research on different options for blogging software, and set me up with a WordPress account.

This was in April of 2009, and I never expected that people would actually be interested in reading and sharing my articles. I just needed to write them all down, and maybe send the link to my friends and family. However, before long, the blog really took off.”

Q: Where do you get your ideas from?

A:"I subscribe to a dozen or so climate blogs, my favourite of which are RealClimate, Only In It For The Gold, and Deltoid. That helps me keep up with current events and publications, and often gives me inspiration for new posts. Discussions with friends and observations of public opinion will also spark new ideas. This year I worked my way through most of the local library's climate change section, which solidified and broadened my knowledge.”

Q: Do you have help with the blog?

A: “I write and manage the blog myself, although there is the occasional guest post, and the idea for one of my most popular posts was thought of by the same friend who set up my blog in the first place.”

That’s the end of the interview as it was done by email although if you want to see her site for yourself visit www.climatesight.org to get to her blog. I want to say thank you to Kate and I promise that I will keep following her blogs. 

The OYA festival goes green

From the tenth to the fourteenth of August this year was the OYA Festival in Oslo. The festival is held in Norway and Oya translated   into English means music. The festival is supposed to be environmentally friendly and I have been looking to find out how. The festival have been certified as an Eco-Lighthouse. They also are working on saving energy, making responsible purchases, reducing waste and are shortening the travel distance of goods to the festival. Other ways they are being green include serving organic food at the restaurant.

Some of the activities on offer include the Ecolabel stand where you can “Find out how to make eco responsible purchases” or you can learn about recycling at the Recyclomat. In 2008 they made a Climate Promise showing where emission cuts could be made. Over the course of 2008 and 2009 the festival cuts emissions by 21%. Also as part of there festival program a debate about “green issues” is held with politicians. On their website they mention that the “biggest green improvement we have done this year is to drop all of our polluting generators.” According to the website the festival is supplied with electricity via “certified greenlandline power” provided by there partner called Hafslund.

The OYA Festival is an opportunity for people in and around Oslo to learn about how they can reduce there carbon footprint and also enjoy themselves at the festival at the same time. The activities and projects mentioned in this article are a small amount of what green things go on. If you would like to know more why not check out there website. Other music festivals aren’t as environmentally friendly although with your help maybe they can be. You never know what might be possible!

Youth Olympics educate kids on the environment

It’s the first ever Youth Olympics this year. There’s a clear message going round about going green. After all the climate will affect the athletes future. Panasonic has been a partner of the Olympics since 1988 and is now also a partner of the Youth Olympics. This is what Mr Goh Kee Nguan, CEO of Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee had to say on the issue “Having been associated with the Olympic Games since 1988, Panasonic has now extended its commitment to the first-ever Youth Olympic Games and will be working closely with us to develop environment initiatives and education programmes for Singapore 2010”. That quote was taken from his speech put up on the Youth Olympic Games website on Earth day on the 22 April 2010.

Some of the initiatives that have been put into place include Living Green @ YOV which is a programme that tries to encourage athletes and officials who live in the village for the duration of the games to “adopt environmentally-friendly habits through interesting activities.” SYOGOC is also working with organizations to reduce littering on the site by “promoting a stronger public sense of social and environmental consciousness, and encouraging people to practice proper waste disposal methods.” The Youth Olympic Games point out there targets for environmental protection on their Framework and Programmes page in the About Us section of their website.

They also point out on a separate page ways that anyone visiting the games can be environmentally-friendly. These include taking public transport to Singapore 2010 events, keeping Singapore litter-free, saving water and energy, practicing the 3 Rs (Reduce, Re-use and Recycle) and to appreciate any plants around you. NParks which is responsible for looking after Garden City or City in a Garden. This is a project that involves growing and maintaining the roadside greenery around Singapore.

The SYOGOC has also partnered up with HortPark which is a 23-hectare park in the south west of Singapore. This is in an attempt to “share green initiatives” and good green habits with athletes. They will have the chance to explore HortParks’s gardens, learn about different plants and find out about the affects of “human intervention on the ecosystem.” All these events will go on in the twelve days the games are on and will hopefully make some of the athletes think twice before doing something harmful to the environment. It would If I was in that position.

My top green camping tips

If your going camping this summer or have already been here are some tips for your next trip about environmentally friendly things to do. Number one is buy a solar charger to charge your devices such as your phone and iPod. I would recommend the Solar Gorilla. I charges small devices like phones in a very short space of time. Although it won't work all that well when the sun isn't out.

Remember to use wood when your having a fire and try to use wood only. This is because wood is carbon zero. Another thing to take is biodegradable products such as some bags and bottles. This way you can dispose of the products without doing any harm to the environment. They normally dissolve or decompose but if they don't do this straight away don't put them on the camp fire. when using food and drinks containers check for the recycling sign. There probably won't be a recycling facility near by but you can take them home and recycle them then.

If the camp site is near where you live you can put everything in a rucksack and cycle to it. If the location isn't near where you live try to share transport with someone which will reduce fuel usage. If there's a bus route near to the place your going you can use that. This saves not only fuel but money and time as well. There are many things you might be able to think of to make your trip more environmentally friendly but here just a few to start you off. Please feel free to suggest any I've missed.

My entire summer cycling: UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany........40 others too... you too?

DARLINGTON!

In England.

Finally, our starting place is clear. And not a moment too soon, as we are cycling in less than a week!!

We're going to be travelling by peddle power and highlight environmental problems for more than two months, from Darlington in northern England to the Towards Carfree conference in York, down through to Wales, to the south coast to Portsmouth with a ferry to Le Havre for the French Climate Camp.... up to Calais, all through Belgium, the Netherlands and to the Klimacamp in Germany. At the end of August we'll finish in Cologne, Germany: The Ecotopia Biketour happens every year, and this is the 20th edition ! So join us for our reunion party at the end of this year's tour, where you can meet past year's participants. See the map here, and more detailed dates & places on our wiki.

Who are we? We are an eco-mobile community: We are students, volunteers, farmers, artists, cyclists, musicians, activists.....

And if you also think we need big change in the way things are going in the world, then that's fantastic: we want you to be a part of the Biketour too.

When? 25th June - 31st August 2010. And every summer in Europe!

Join us, if:

• you can cycle around 50 km per day (probably with a few rainy days!)
• you are interested in environmental and social justice issues and want to take part in actions
• you want to take part in consensus decision-making (communicating!) and
• you want to help with the daily tasks such as preparing meals, pulling trailers, washing up or tidying the sleeping places.

It's a cheap way to travel, you get to have 20 countries: at least, that's about how many nationalities are participating this year. You are very welcome to make it more diverse. The communal language is english, although some of the local organisers and local hosts in places we pass may not speak very much english.

Can't join this year but still like the idea? Maybe you're interested in giving ideas or helping for next year's.

We're an open group, so come and meet us ....or even better, join us!

www.ecotopiabiketour.net

London 2012 teams up with EDF Energy as part of Team Green Britain

 

In two years the Olympics come to the UK in London but what are they doing to make London 2012? There will be a lot of fossil fuels used during the games as transport is needed. Although EDF Energy has teamed up with the Olympics and some of the athletes to help London 2012 do its bit for the environment. EDF Energy is the sustainability partner for the games. Team Green Britain is made up Victoria Pendleton and James Cracknell. They will be putting out the message that if we work as a team we can achieve goals. In this case the goal of tackling Climate Change.

They will show that just like Team GB work together to win medals we can work together to tackle even bigger problems facing our planet. As always there will be some sports such as swimming, running and cycling which do no harm to the environment. None of the sports do any harm to the environment but in some events they will require a lot more electricity to provide lighting and heating. There are also the effects the Olympics could have on the environment before it has started such as the power and fuels used to build the venues.

The Olympics itself won’t be very environmentally friendly but Team Green Britain can at least help encourage people to be more green. For people living in London transport to the venues will be very green. They can use shared transport such as busses and the tube and also many people can cycle to the events. To sum it up the games can be made more environmentally friendly with the athletes and your help. Especially people in London.

Have you been on shoetringmag.com recently? If not, why not?

Have you ever been stuck for cash and don't want to have to get someone to lend you some? Well here's the answer. It's also a good guide for how to go environmentally friendly. Shoestring Magazine is run by Melissa Massello and was started up in 2008. Since then it has had visits from a wide variety of people but is especially popular with university students, who, with all the costs of university, can find themselves looking at the site for cheap buys but what they probably don't think of is that they are saving the planet in their own small way at the same time.


The site gets 140,000 visitors per month. The site includes articles about Lifestyle, Shopping, DIY, Food & Drink, Entertainment and Home and Garden. Other sections include Money, Travel and Kids and Pets. The site has a newsletter called The Gumshoe Files and it also has a writer for each topic and with one million six hundred eighty thousand views a year, it’s a pretty popular site.

Although when you think about it, it comes down to the argument of whether the site itself actually harms the environment. Looking at the site and using the computer to edit things on the site, probably will but the site itself will most likely do no harm to the environment. I’m not trying to criticize the site or its owner but this is an argument that will probably never be resolved. In the meantime while you think that one through, you can go on the site and have a look around. You never know, you might find some useful tips to reduce your carbon footprint and save you money.

Richmond School are at the top of the Environment A-list

A group of Year 10, 11 and 12 students from Richmond School in North Yorkshire are working on raising awareness of the environment in their local area. A lot of Climate change awareness is done on a much larger scale but good things come in small packages. The group has been working together since December 2009. So far they have been working on what environmentally friendly things will be included in their new school and had talks from the Green Party, T.R.Y (Transition Richmond, Yorkshire), and a Swale dale National Park Ranger about what is being done already in their local area.
They are currently working on things to include in a window display in the Ken Warne’s in Finkle Street in Richmond. The display will be about Activism and the arts. They are asking students in their school to create things such as poems, art work, models and creative writing. The theme for the display will be “Our town in 2020”. Group leader Arlene Garnett said “The project is to use the Arts to express environmental concerns. We have been offered the TRY window at Ken Warne’s for a display on Rich in the year 2020.” They are also looking for songs, drama and dance for assemblies in school.
The group has also been doing a site audit of the school in order to get signed up to Action Aid 10:10 – Powerdown. The aim of this will be to cut the schools emissions by 10% over a year. They are now signed up to the project and are working out how they will manage to do it. If they have success with that they can get a visit from the Carbon Trust who will survey the school. They will then be given advice on how to reduce their carbon footprint even more.
A lot of environmentally friendly features are included in the new school that is being built. These should include some sort of environmentally friendly power such as solar panels and the new hall has windows that open and close according to the heat in the room. The group has been for a tour round what is currently being worked on in the new school and have put questions to the builders and planners who are working on it.
The groups work so far shows that work on environmental issues can be worked on in smaller groups and on a smaller scale than some of the deals trying to be reached on reducing CO2 levels. After all it will be our future it will effect.

Newspaper Vs News site: Which is greener?

In the UK alone we buy millions of newspapers every day. Each day the Sun and the Times newspapers are bought by 4.5 million of us, but would reading online newspapers and news websites decrease how much we contribute to Climate Change when reading the news? The Sun's website gets 1.3 million people browsing it per day. If everyone who buys those two newspapers looked on the website for the Sun, surely we would do less harm to the environment, or would we?

We may save a lot of paper but unless we burn all the newspapers, it's not going to do much harm to the environment. The average computer uses up to 500 watts and a CRT or LCD monitor uses a maximum of 150 watts. This will use a lot of fossil fuels but not everyone has access to the internet or even a computer. According to information released in September 2009 by internetsworldstats.com, there are 46,686,900 internet users in the UK. News websites such as BBC News and Sky News get thousands of visits every day.

Producing newspapers isn't all that harmful to the environment, but transporting them is a big problem. According to the Royal Mail, there are at least 12,134 branches of the Post Office in the UK. There are hundreds of post vans delivery news and other private transport firms who collect and deliver to newsagents. How many people then drive to the newsagent to collect their papers is unknown, but at least most local deliveries are by young people on foot or bicycle.

There's no clear winner when deciding which form of news reading is more environmentally friendly, as we don't have all the information to back it up. However, in my opinion, newspapers are more environmentally friendly because of the amount of fossil fuel used in providing the electricity to run a computer. What do you think? Feel free to comment with your views.

Europes energy could be completely renewable by 2050

According to a report released on Monday earlier this week Europe’s energy could be all renewable by 2050 and 40 percent of global energy demands by 2050. A "super-smart" grid that will be powered by solar farms in North Africa, wind farms around Europe and the North Sea, hydro-electric from Scandinavia and the Alps and a mixture of biomass and marine energy could make carbon based fuels such as fossil fuels no longer needed.

About 50 percent of Europe’s fuels are imported fuels. This means using more fuel to import them. According to projections this could increase to 70 percent. in the next few decades. The report said this change in the type of energy we use is needed to stay within the limit of two degrees Celsius to at least limit the effects of Global Warming.

The EU is sticking to it's promises of a goal to supply 20 percent of it's energy needs with renewable energy by 2020. This is what the European Commission reported earlier in March. In my opinion I think that it's a good idea but I wonder where all the solar farms and wind farms will be put without destroying some of the environment first. There’s plenty of land to put them on but they just need to find it. What do you think?

A poem about the environment by Freda Vitty

Who Cares?

Study the environment? 

It’s not so cool. 

They’re just not interested 

The kids at school. 

They don’t seem to realise 

Learning about earth 

Just might make the difference 

And prove its worth. 

It’s now in the present 

We need to act. 

It’s our gift to the future. 

Let’s face the fact 

If we don’t save energy 

What began with a bang 

May fade out with a whimper 

Let’s start a gang 

With science and knowledge 

A gang that’s aware 

A global gang to show the world 

We really do care.

How to make your computer and gadgets more environmentally friendly

We all use PC’s pretty much every day but we don’t realize all the different ways that we can save energy to help stop Climate Change while using computers.  By using sites like Blackle or Ecofree.org you can save at least twenty-five watts. You may think this is nothing and won’t help but if everyone does this it will help quite a lot. Other ways to lower energy usage while browsing the web or just on the computers are to go into the System and Maintenance section in Control Panel and then select Power Options. You can then set this to Balanced, Power saver or High performance (Only on Vista). This will lower the energy usage of your computer. Blackle.com was started in January 2007 by Toby Heap. The Blackle home page shows the number of megawatt-hours that have been saved by using the site.

Darren Yates who is a technology journalist did a test which concluded that when displaying light things on PCs such as Google LCD monitors save more energy than CRT monitors. Just this month Sony has launched an eco-friendly mini laptop. The new Vaio W Series is so green it doesn’t even need an instruction manual. Despite them being eco-friendly the notebooks still have a high definition 10.1 inch screen and a maximum of   250 gigabytes of storage.

Although if you want a computer that will definitely be eco-friendly I would go to Epeat.net which has a list of computers and companies and how green they are. Surprisingly Apple meets all the requirements for EPEATS criteria. Also if you’re wanting something that will be able to do simple tasks like browsing the internet and editing document and you like Apple and Mac operating systems and gadgets then why not try the iPod touch or iPhone because compared to an Apple Mac they use a very small amount of watts. The iPod or iPhone use 0.7 to 2 watts but the Mac Pro uses at least 115 – 263 watts. Plus on January 22nd it was reported that Apple were experimenting with trying to power the iPod and iPhone on solar power. They have been thinking of putting some small solar panels behind the screen. This will be something to look forward to.

On the other hand there are a few new operating systems that look as though they may be an improvement to power usage. These include Windows seven and the iPad but the iPad isn’t released in the UK until March 2010. The new iPad uses about 2.5 watts per hour.

It seems that Apple have found greener ways of using computers but Microsoft and other companies are still catching up with Apple. I’m in favour of Windows as I have Windows Vista myself but Apple is a long way ahead with green technology.

Apple aren't the only ones going for green tech though. In 2007 another American computer company called Lenova released the ThinkCentre A61e which apparently only uses forty-five watts. It's also twenty-five percent smaller than earlier ThinkCentre PCs. It's also compatible with the Solar-PowerPC II which is a solar power charger. The solar panel is one-hundred and ten watts and if the battery of the device being charged is fully drained it will take approximately ten to twelve hours to charge up in direct sunlight.

The PC is made up of approximately ninety percent recyclable and the computer itself is made up of ninety percent reusable materials and its EPEAT rating is Gold. Overall there are many ways to be environmentally friendly when on your computer or portable device and some are still in development. I hope this is some use to you and hope you will start using these tools as well.