Transition Island Blog

The UK’s thirst for bottled water appears to be drying up.

New figures show that sales are falling for the first time in years.

Shop sales of bottled water fell by 9 per cent to £284m in the year to March, according to independent retail analysts. Also, water cooler sales have also fallen, although not as dramatically.

environmental costs

Green groups said they hoped the figures suggested the public was turning away from bottled water because of the environmental costs of packaging and transportation. Some of it travels to the UK from the Fijian islands in the Pacific!

Production of a litre bottle of Evian or Volvic generates up to 600 times more CO2 than a litre of tap water.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Irish and Polish Governments have both decided to prohibit the use of GMOs across the entire country.

Ireland won’t go so far as to ban GM animal feed, it is advising farmers to reject it “voluntarily”. Poland has gone the further step, by banning the whole lot, feed included.

GMO distrust

At a time when public demand for organic food has never been higher, there is still deep distrust of GM - reflected by the fact that M&S now guarantees all its eggs, milk and meat is produced without GM feeds, as do Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s on their frozen chickens and turkeys.

It’s still confusing though. A free-range label does not mean GM free and most imported meat and dairy products will contain it by default unless they are organic.

Greenpeace petition

Read the rest of this entry »

A new scientific study in the British Nutrition journal shows that children benefit from organic milk.

Those who eat organic dairy products are 36% less likely to suffer from eczema than children who are fed conventional dairy products.

But, it is not yet clear how it works against eczema.

 beneficial nutrients

While experts now agree that organic food contains higher levels of beneficial nutrients than non-organic foods Organic dairy food has increased levels of the beneficial (anti carcinogenic, anti diabetic and good for the immune system); “conjugated linoleic acid isomers”.

Another study has shown higher levels are also found in the breast milk of women who drink organic milk.

Read the rest of this entry »

One day, we may need toy models to remind us of what farm animals looked like.

It’s not just wild animals that are disappearing. Domesticated farm animals are also being lost according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

More than 20 per cent of the 7,600 breeds of farm animal and poultry breeds are at risk of extinction.

We’re losing around one breed a month.

The animals that developing countries rely on are fading away the fastest. Often these are the hardier breeds most suited to the poorer conditions that are being replaced by less suitable breeds from Europe and the US.

Read the rest of this entry »

This article was written by Jonathan Porritt

“I sometimes wonder if BERR is a Department with a death wish - the death in question being its reputation when it comes to addressing climate change, fuel poverty, energy efficiency and other key sustainability issues. There’s some kind of fundamental perversity in the way it sets about dealing with these issues that it is almost impossible to account for. Even in the small things - like smart meters and real time displays (RTDs).

In both Energy White Paper and in its Climate Change Programme Report to Parliament, the Government unambiguously pledged that it would mandate all energy supply companies to provide RTDs for electricity to any customer who asked for one. The policy was expected to result in around 2.5 million customers asking for an RTD, at a cost of around £37 million. Available evidence suggests that energy savings of between 5% to 15% could be achieved by customers who acquire an RTD, especially as these are likely to be the most energy-conscious consumers.

Indeed, the Climate Change Programme confidently identified savings of 0.2 MtC to come from “improved billing and metering by 2010″. But there’s no other policy in place to achieve this apart from the “free RTD on request” policy.

All clear so far. But this is where it starts to go wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Rice and Wheat shortages are due - at least in part - to droughts running right around the globe and conflict is following…

Spain

Spain is suffering its worst drought in more than four decades, pitting the country’s regions against each other in a fierce battle over water resources.

There has been 40 per cent less rain than usual since October 1 across the nation as a whole, according to the Meteorology Institute, although in some regions the impact has been far worse. Mediterranean regions such as Catalonia and Valencia have been the worst affected - they have had less rain than at any time since 1912.

Farmers in Catalonia fear they could lose their crops altogether if it does not rain in coming weeks, and Britons with homes on the coast could soon face restrictions on water.

The situation in Barcelona - Catalonia’s capital and top tourist centre - could soon become critical. Water reserves there are at 19 per cent of capacity - they must be shut down when they reach 15 per cent because there is too much sediment near the bottom. Jose Montilla, president of Catalonia, said: “We must prepare for the worst.”

Ironically, other regions along the “green” northern edge of Spain, such as the Basque Country, have recently had to release water from their reservoirs as rivers threatened to burst their banks. [more]

China

Northeastern China is facing its worst drought in 57 years. The areas of Hebei, from which Beijing intends to take water for the Olympics, have also grown parched.

Meanwhile, the drought is already affecting about 19.4 million hectares of crops. 6 million of these are in Heilongjiang, 51% of the farmland of the province that is the true “breadbasket” of the country, providing wheat, soyabeans, rice, and maize.

The news agency Xinhua foresees a shortage of drinking water for 5.82 million people. Meanwhile, is expected that during the Olympics Beijing, a city of 16 million residents, will require 2.75 million cubic metres of water a day, 30% more than normal. The city wants to bring it in from Hebei, in part through a new canal about 309 kilometres long, which draws from four basins.

But the water is low and “stagnant” in many of the reservoirs, there is not enough for the crops, and at least 500,000 inhabitants are suffering from a shortage of drinking water. The aquifers in Hebei have dropped by one to two metres in a year, and 50,000 wells have gone dry. [more]

Australia

Australia’s first known case of murder due to “water rage,” a dispute over a suburban man’s water usage led to him being beaten to death in front of his home.

According to police, 66-year-old Ken Proctor was watering the lawn in front of his home in Sydney on October 31 at approximately 5:30 p.m. when a passerby made a comment to him about wasting water. Proctor then turned his hose on the other man, who knocked him to the ground and began to punch and kick him. The attacker was tackled by two bystanders, including an off-duty policeman, and an ambulance came for Proctor. Proctor later died in the hospital after experiencing a massive heart attack.

Due to a severe, nearly eight-year drought, intensive water restrictions are in place across most of Australia. Nearly all states have banned garden sprinklers and the use of hoses on cars or sidewalks. [more]

food shortages

A global rice shortage that has seen prices of one of the world’s most important staple foods increase by 50 per cent in the past two weeks alone is triggering an international crisis, with countries banning export and threatening serious punishment for hoarders.

After America, Australia is normally the second largest exporter of grain, but the country remains in the grip of the worst drought in a century, which is why the 2006 crop yielded less than half the usual amount.

conflict

Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN’s top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world. [more]

Prices have risen 40% on average globally since last summer: the rising cost and scarcity of food has been blamed for:

· Riots in Haiti last week that killed four people

· Violent protests in Ivory Coast

· Price riots in Cameroon in February that left 40 people dead

· Heated demonstrations in Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal

· Protests in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia

See also:
Famine will get us first
Global food crisis looms
Food shortage predicted
Glaciers melting away 

Plastic litter on Britain’s beaches has reached record levels, endangering whales, dolphins and seabirds.

The Marine Conservation Society, which campaigns for cleaner beaches and seas, said plastic litter has increased by 126 percent since its first survey in 1994.

Scores of marine wildlife species, including seals and turtles, have died after eating plastic or drowning after getting tangled in debris or old fishing nets, it said.

“The results are truly shocking,” said Emma Snowden, the society’s litter projects coordinator. “Plastics are of particular concern as they could persist in the marine environment for centuries with fatal consequences for marine wildlife.”

In the last decade, the amount of plastic drinks bottles has risen by 67 percent, plastic bags by 54 percent and cigarette butts by 44 percent.

Read the rest of this entry »

Driving less miles, converting to smaller cars, and using more public transport - they are going in the right direction!

Having delayed on the Kyoto Agreement for so many years, the USA is now driving in a different direction.

Less miles

Americans cut back on their driving for the first time in more than 20 years, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Total travel fell 0.4 percent to 3.00 trillion miles from 3.01 trillion miles in 2006.

That might not seem much, but subway and public bus use is at the highest level in more than 50 years.

Read the rest of this entry »

Environmental concerns can be triggers to technical improvements.

In 1957, the first aluminium cans were used for drinks. Originally, they were punctured at the top to create an opening to pour the drink out.

Then in 1962, the pull-ring tab first marketed by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. This was a great innovation that helped canned drinks take over from bottled, and massively increased the market in America and then throughout the world.

Pull-tabs became a common form of litter.

They wound up on beaches, where children cut their feet on them. They littered roadsides and damaged garbage disposals.

Douglas Adams put a picture of the ring-pull on the front of “Life, the Universe and Everything” to show (his opinion) of the worst pollutant in the Universe.

They also caused injuries to lips, cheeks, noses and throats (when accidentally swallowed).

Pets and wildlife died from swallowing them.

And gossip has it that “more than a few people” also died, having dropped them into a can of beer and then accidentally choked on them.

The stay-on tab invented in 1974 and all these problems went away.

opinion
            We CAN do it!

There are better ways to make biofuels than cutting down forests to plant palm oil trees.

Actually, there are many, many ways.
All you need is a relatively concentrated source of carbon and some new technology…

And the technology is constantly being improved. 

The newest breakthrough involves cellulose being rapidly heated in the presence of solid catalysts, and then rapidly cooled to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.

The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used “as is” for a high octane gasoline blend. Once in production, this should all take much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce.

Meanwhile other sources of carbon include:

Read the rest of this entry »