It has come time for sailors to stop saying that all ’stink pots’ aka motorboats pollute the seas with their fuel guzzling engines.
It is all about the environment and conserving the world’s seas and oceans for boat designing company J&J Design. Brothers Jernej and Japec Jakopin have designed over 250 boats both power and sail for manufacturers all over the world and have won over 30 Boat of the Year Awards in several different countries.
J&J Design have teamed up with VW Marine and renowed boat builders Seawayto bring their ideas for the future of motor boating into being in the form of the Greenline 33 (pic left)
The Greenline 33 is dedicated to efficiency producing four times less fossil fuels in a year than any other planing powerboat and is completely emission-free in the electric mode. These great features of the Greenline 33 means that for a boating family they are hugely reducing their carbon footprint by going green out at sea.
Not only for people out using the Greenline but for others enjoying the seas and boating areas there will be the added bonus of no smoke, no wake and no noise. The lithium batteries can have up to a 10 year life expectancy and the solar panelled roof will keep batteries charged and provide additional energy supply to the electric drives on board. This is all encompassed in a beautifully designed layout with comfortable and attractive features to appeal to any boating family, couple etc.
The mission is to preserve the world and its top boating areas for future generations. There is no reason why a motorboat cannot be enjoyed out on the water without it causing any damage to the environment or the water it is in. Already exceeding expectations, the Greenline 33 has gained J&J Design another Boat of the Year Award by winning the title at the HISWA (Dutch Boat Show) 2010. For all information and the design behind this new green creation go to www.greenlinehybrid.com
A housing development plan that has been put forward to be placed at Talbot Heath has been condemned by the RSPB.
The housing project application is said to be for 450 student flats and 378 homes and is to sit alongside the heathlands in Poole. A protest has been lodged to the Poole Borough Council and they along with other Dorset councils have committed to safeguard the heaths from any residential development within 400 metres, under a planning framework.
The RSPB have fears that this huge development will do a lot of damage to the unique wildlife that live on the heath. It is going to cause a huge disturbance and put immense pressure on the heathlands and the inhabitants it supports like the Dartford Warblers and the rare sand lizards. Not only is it going to have an enormous effect on the heathlands and wildlife, this development is only going to add to the already traffic congested Wallisdown Road.
Did you know that according to The Campaign for Better Transport, airplane fuel is not taxed at all in the UK?
There is no VAT on air travel or even new aircraft when they are bought. Amazingly the Treasury estimates that this subsidises the UK airline industry by a staggering £10 billion every year! It’s incredible that despite all this help the airlines are still plagued by strikes and raising prices.
Headlines have been dominated this week by British Airways again cancelling flights. This is now becoming an old story with talks, strikes and flight disruptions having been head-line news for the last 5 months.
The strikes that occurred at Christmas last year clearly didn’t get them what they wanted and now the cabin crew are unhappy with pay and staffing levels on long-haul flights.This set of strikes is just another notch on the already marked line of disagreement s between BA officials and staff over changes to pay and working conditions. Even with Brendan Barber, head of TUC (Trades Union Congress) communicating with union officials from Unite and British Airways, it seems to be fruitless as the BA cabin crew are threatening to strike for yet another four days starting on Saturday 27th March. A total of 200 BA flights have been cancelled and more are expected over the following days in expectation of the next set of strikes. The striking and cancellations have meant a loss of £21m for BA, a total of £7m per day and these costs are not likely to end here.
BA’s chief executive Willie Walsh has so far shown no signs of backing down, but BA are coming to a point where they have nowhere else to turn and if they don’t find ways to cut their losses they are going to struggle to survive.
For BA passengers hoping to travel over the weekend, it is not looking too promising with London Heathrow having the most flights cancelled. However, BA has announced that there will be no severe disruption to passengers and the majority of the services will operate normally in the next coming days. For all flight and BA information find out here.
However, if you have no regard for your carbon footprint whatsoever, but would like to take full advantage of the loopholes in UK aviation taxation laws, then the best thing to do would be to charter your own plane. Last year more than 67,000 flights in private jets avoided paying any tax at all, despite emitting up to 30 times more carbon dioxide per passenger.
At least commercial passengers pay £11 for short haul and up to £110 for long haul flights in a shallow nod towards compensation for the carbon footprint of their journey, but it seems very small aircraft, used almost exclusively by the rich and famous are exempt! The Campaign for Better Transport have been spearheading the campaign to tax aviation fairly for years. Visit their website to find out more.
March 3rd, US President Barack Obama urged congress to consider his Homestar Program to promote greener homes in the US.
Now being nicknamed “Cash for Caulkers”, the Homestar program outlines plans for a government rebate to US businesses and homeowners who refit their homes to become more energy efficient. This includes replacing windows, doors, insulation and using other resourceful materials from an approved list.
Obama believes this initiative is going to revitalise the US construction industry, creating more jobs and lowering household energy bills. It could cost $6 billion to put into place but will pay back rebates to some 3 million homeowners direct from hardware stores or contractors. The incentives are attracting attention already with promised instant payouts of up to $1500 for an upgrade and up to $3000 for a home refit.
However, this is still being discussed by congress and has not yet been passed as law, but the Homestar Coalition have put in to place some strategies to help senators and congressional representatives to see the light.
A 60 mile long iceberg, known as B9B, has smashed into the Mertz Glacier tongue in Antarctica. The Mertz Glacier is a 100-mile long tongue of ice which the B9B iceberg broke away from in 1987.
Over a period of nearly 8 weeks, the B9B iceberg approached the glacier and with tide and current slowly hammered into the tongue of ice.
On the 26th February, the Mertz Glacier tongue broke off creating a new iceberg measuring 50 miles by 25 miles. This iceberg could now disrupt weather patterns for years to come.
Both icebergs are now floating 90 miles off the northern coast in the Antarctic Continental Shelf and combined, they are weighing in at over 1000 billion tons. The Mertz Tongue Iceberg contains a year’s supply of fresh water for 1/5 of the world’s population and could potentially block the ‘bottom water’ which powers the oceans circulation system. ‘Bottom water’ is the lowest layer of ocean, cold-salt water and Antarctica produces bottom water for the South Pacific, Southern Indian Ocean, South Atlantic and portions of the North Atlantic.
Changes in these waters and currents could influence weather patterns around the world and would make Britain colder as we would not have the mild sea temperatures brought in by the Atlantic drift.
With such a mass floating in the ocean it could also reduce the amount of oxygen in the oceans jeopardising marine wildlife. Emperor penguins, bird life and seals could be under threat.
Experts say that ‘iceberg calving’- which occurs when these icebergs break off, does happen from time to time and that this occurrance is by no means a record large iceberg.
The icebergs are expected to head west along the Antarctic coastline.
Ever feel ashamed of living in the UK? On the whole I feel highly privileged to live in this country, but just sometimes I’m forced to publically blush at the petty minded bureaucracy which plagues us. Case in point is a story I first came across on a US blog UK Barber Banned from Composting. It’s also been covered by The Telegraph. I had to read both articles twice because I simply couldn’t believe what I was reading.
It seems that a local barber, Jeff Stone from Blackburn in Lancashire, has been banned from taking hair clippings and salon newspapers home to compost: Why I hear you ask?
Is he stealing from the people whose head it once belonged?
They left it behind happily so apparently not.
Is human hair somehow toxic to our delicate eco-structure?
No, in fact quite the reverse, apparently all environmental agencies recognise human hair as fantastic, highly biodegradable compostable material, perfect for adding nitrogen to the soil.
Perhaps he’s taking home so much of it, it’s upsetting the neighbours?
Nope – only one small swing bin every two or three weeks.
Well then, obviously it’s because Blackburn and Darwen Councils have invested heavily in establishing domestic and retail recycling programs and by taking the hair home Mr. Stone is somehow confusing the system?
Absolutely not, documentation received by Mr. Stone confirms that the waste will be emptied at landfill sites at Whinney Hill, near Accrington, and Withnell just outside Blackburn.
Well then, what could possibly be the problem…? Surely it would have nothing to do with money? Surely no council would stoop so low as to force Mr. Stone to buy one hundred Council issued waste sacks, which he doesn’t need and which cost £100, in order to ‘comply’ with their guideline?
Apparently so.
Reassuring isn’t it that Councils have so little to do; that crime levels are so low, housing so abundant, local facilities so immaculate, that they have nothing better so spend our council tax on than paying people to search through our dustbins checking for people who might be ‘illegally’ trying to save the planet…
The conference provided a program on the first global agreement to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support adaptation for the most vulnerable and help establish environmentally sustainable growth.
Countries have agreed to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius. Developed countries are implementing targets for greenhouse gas emissions and financially supporting the developing countries.
Also, the most vulnerable will be identified and protected – taught to adapt to the changes brought on by global warming. In addition, discussions regarding the subject of reducing carbon emissions due to deforestation were initiated.
After 2 years of negotiations leading up to this UN Copenhagen conference, the above all appears rather vague and in fact a spokesperson from Greenpeace has been quoted as saying, ‘It’s so weak as to be meaningless’. Not quite the positive, inspirational outcome we were hoping for.
The UN Climate Change Conference was always going to be controversial and yesterdays disturbances have certainly come as no surprise. With news of demonstrators arrested and cars set on fire we can be forgiven for thinking things of already gotten out of hand. However, when reports confirm that one man was hurt by a stone and another injured by a firework you can’t help feeling that there’s more damage done on an average Friday night out. Therefore, nearly 1,000 arrests under contentious anti-hooligan laws seem somewhat excessive.
With tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators flooding into Copenhagen, it can clearly only be a highly impassioned, more violent minority who are causing the trouble. Obviously this can’t be helping, but then people do feel incredibly strongly on this issue and with so much riding on Copenhagen it’s understandable that frustration levels are risings.
There seems to be mixed reactions to yesterday’s events with many people feeling that all the fuss in the news is purely a distraction from the real issues. There is also a school of thought that far more harmful to the climate struggle than the demonstrators, are secret closed door negotiations and the false hope the conference is giving, especially given the high profile delegates, without any actual definitive action agreed upon as yet. The conference continues until next Friday 18th December.
Is it only me, or is it massively suspicious that this week, of all weeks we hear that the validity of 160 years worth of Met Office temperature data is under question?
Apparently, we are led to believe, that this controversy was started due to leaked emails. It appears that it will take 3 years for the re-examination of the findings, so only by 2012 will the information have any perceivable credibility. The Met Office database is one of three main sources used by the UN to analyze climate change and was to be the foundation of the talks in Copenhagen this week
The timing plays straight into the hands of countries such as America and Australia, who are concerned that unrealistic CO2 emission cuts will be introduced at the summit.
Following the diary posting on Greenmomentum for 24th October – International Day of Climate Action, I urge you to check out the 350.org website. The photographs are truly awesome and inspiring
It is all about the environment and conserving the world’s seas and oceans for boat designing company J&J Design. Brothers Jernej and Japec Jakopin have designed over 250 boats both power and sail for manufacturers all over the world and have won over 30 Boat of the Year Awards in several different countries.