Summer 2008 - Centre for Alternative Technology

The Practical Journal of Sustainable Living
Clean Slate
No 69 Summer 2008 £2.50
editorial Caroline Oakley
4
The Practical Journal of Sustainable Living
contents
CAT
6
22
CAT News – compiled by Alex Randall
2
CAT community – Tegwyn Brickley
3
Roger’s Garden
4
Features
Protecting forest and culture – Dilwyn Jenkins
6
New and inspiring land-use initiative – Grace Crabb
Water for the future – Marcus Zipperlen
2
Life in Zero Carbon Britain – Peter Harper
20
Adapt and thrive – Peter McManners
22
My Green Solution – Dr Iolo ap Gwynn
24
Centres for Change: Denmark Farm – Adam Thoroughgood
26
Practical Solutions
Practical Solutions compiled by Jules Lowe
8
Regulars
Members’ Corner:
Are you an Anarresti? – Martin Parkinson
28
Questions and answers:
Water saving showers – CAT Information department
30
Members’ Letters
3
Reviews
32
26
Cover photo: Grace Crabb
Clean Slate is a member of INK, the independent News Collective,
trade association of the UK alternative press.
www.ink.uk.com
Welcome back…to follow-up articles
from Marcus and Peter on preserving
our drinking water resources and living
in a zero carbon world, an in depth
look at taking the Amazon rainforest
back from the illegal loggers, from
Dilwyn Jenkins, more from Grace on
looking after our own local woodlands
at CAT and a non-CAT view of
sustainable futures from consultant
Peter McManners. We hope all of
them will inspire you to get on to that
next rung of the zero carbon ladder.
The timing couldn’t be better in the
light of the persuasion job that needs
to be done on our political leaders
– with additional coal-fired generation
at Kingsnorth in Kent and planned
new nuclear generation UK-wide, the
renewables message needs to be
shouted loud in every corner of Wales,
the rest of the UK and beyond. Take
Dilwyn’s lead and make some real
changes to your world…
I spent an interesting and encouraging
morning with the Raven Housing Trust
in Redhill, Surrey last week. They are
making great strides in greening up
their act as I’m sure can you, CAT’s
members, in your individual areas
of work and play. Let’s all lead by
example!
Caroline Oakley
CAT Publications
Printed on 100% recycled paper. All four colour inks – Ramaspeed Eco Plus and Pantone® base colours used in the manufacture of this magazine are totally vegetable based
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The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is concerned with
the search for ecologically sustainable technologies and ways of
life. A display and education centre, researcher and information
provider, CAT aims to inspire, inform and enable people to reduce
their impact on the earth. Published by CAT Publications,
CAT Charity Ltd., Centre for Alternative Technology.
Editorial Team Paul Allen, Caroline Oakley, Scott Williams,
Alex Randall, Hester Kapur, Fiona Rowe. Design Graham Preston
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Clean Slate catnews
compiled by Alex Randall
Brimming with biodiversity
In the 50 years since CAT was a working slate quarry, the site has
developed a unique biodiversity. Now silver birch trees grow between
timber buildings, birds nest in fruit trees in the organic gardens, and
the lakes and ponds teem with amphibians and fish.
A number of protected species including dormice, tree pipits, pied fly
catchers, peregrine falcons and lesser horseshoe bats make CAT their
home.
Following the recent acquisition of 15 acres of woodland in the
Snowdonia National Park, CAT is conducting a comprehensive survey
of biodiversity over the whole 40 acre CAT site. This survey is part
of CAT’s Biodiversity Management Plan and will act as an important
benchmark, showing how local activity and the overall effect of climate
change is altering biodiversity levels.
‘If we know more about how plants, birds, animals and people at CAT
impact and interrelate we can make CAT a better home for all of us,’
says Grace Crabb, biodiversity expert. ‘We may also be able to add to
the UK’s body of knowledge on biodiversity.’
To share our knowledge CAT has just finished a series of biodiversity
day courses. The courses ran between May and August and helped
hundreds of people gain a better understanding of the issues and the
unique biodiversity we have at CAT.
The courses were hosted by several local experts. Rob Gritten,
former senior ecologist at the Snowdonia National Park led participants
through the basics of ecology and landscape management. This course
helped farmers and foresters broaden their understanding of the local
environment. The course also looked at zero carbon land use and the
global food crisis.
In June, students joined in with International Bat and Moth night,
trapping moths and listening out for the lesser horseshoe bats. Pauline
Barker from the Countryside Council for Wales and Gwynedd Bat
Group took the group on a tour using bat detectors, giving everyone the
chance to learn about the feeding, mating habits of bats and the habitats
that bats thrive in.
In July, dormouse expert Jack Grasse led us on a tour of CAT’s
mammals, with possible sightings of stoats and polecats.
For more information about CAT’s biodiversity courses have a look at
ww.cat.org.uk/courses
Honeymoon
After a romantic March wedding, Helen and Roger came to the Centre for Alternative
Technology (CAT) and spent their honeymoon learning how to build their dream home.
Roger spent ten days on the Timber Frame Self Build course with CAT’s experts, Duncan
Roberts and Geoff Stowe, while Helen and Archie, their two month old baby, visited the
displays, information team and bookshop. There, Helen swotted up on all the water and energy
issues involved in an environmental building project.
The happy couple also got the opportunity to stay in CAT’s Self Build House, and see for
themselves what their new home might be like. ‘We really enjoyed the peacefulness of the
place, with the lakes and ducks, especially after living in London,’ said Roger. ‘It gave us the
opportunity to stay in and talk together. The food was delicious and not having to cook and
clear up for a week was great too.
‘We enjoyed exchanging ideas with the group and there was a real mix of people with and
without previous building experience. Some were planning to extend their house, others
building a shed – all sorts.
‘Our dream has always been to build our own house and the course has really given us the
confidence and tools to do that. I would thoroughly recommend it,’ said Roger. ‘It is informative
and quite practical, it was like going on a learning holiday.’
CAT offers a variety of short courses all year round in environmental building techniques,
renewable energy and organic gardening.
2 Clean Slate
The CAT Community
Tegwen Brickley
T
here have been people living at CAT since its origins over
30 years ago. In the last three decades, however, CAT’s total
number of staff has increased and there are far more people
living off site than here at the Quarry. The Community is currently
14 residents in eight cottages.
For me, it is the best of all worlds. It’s great living in an old quarry
cottage with my partner and, come September, our baby, in a cosy
nuclear unit. However, I love having so many close neighbours
and sharing domestic decision making with others. It makes life
really interesting. We buy most of our food together, in bulk, share
appliances, eat together twice a week and have monthly meetings
and workdays.
I grew up in a very small Radnorshire village, where everyone
knew each other and was probably related to everybody else to
some degree. Few locked their doors. The community spirit was
strong and residents set up a shop in the front room of the pub
when the shopkeeper of 40 years passed away. We maintained our
near surroundings, even cleaning and painting our own telephone
box red! There was always an up-to-date directory in there. It was an
intimate and trust-filled place to be and helped me develop a healthy
interest in other people’s lives and enjoy a sense of community and
shared business.
Life as one of CAT’s site community recreates many of the
conditions ‘back home’, and goes further; popping in and out of each
other’s houses, knowing each other’s business and feeling part of
a long history, deciding about joint ventures. At the most recent
monthly meeting, we discussed a range of matters, big, small and
somewhere in between, including a progress report and plans for
future workdays on the new community kitchen building; cutting
out delicious, local, organic and therefore expensive cherries from
our weekly veg order and the emptying of the resting chamber
of the compost toilet. Does it need doing? Who will do it? Where
will the compost go? When will all this happen? So many things to
debate...
It is really interesting to think carefully about so many aspects of
domestic living, but it’s best not to take anything too seriously and
to be open to reaching consensus to make a decision, rather than
stubbornly holding on to strong viewpoints. Fridges have always
been a contentious appliance for the Community and have long been
avoided. This was something that, at one point, we just couldn’t
reach consensus on. Last month we decided to have two fridges,
one on each side of the site. This change is not because we no
longer put sustainability first, because although fridges do indeed
use energy, in their manufacture and running, they also reduce food
wastage during the summer months.
Not content with leaving a simple domestic issue at that, in
typical CAT fashion, we have got ourselves two different fridges
and are going to measure the energy consumption of each and
consider the embodied energy of buying a new AAA rated small
fridge versus using a ‘Powersava’ device on an old, free, fridge that
would otherwise have been thrown away. You can rest assured
that we will be keeping measurements and discussing the relative
environmental merits of each fridge.
The next few months will see lots of growth and change, both
personally for my partner and me, and communally. We are
earnestly building our timber-framed straw bale community kitchen
and will have many work days and weekends over the summer. I
will update you on our progress in the next issue, as I wade through
a pile of re-usable nappies and thank my lucky stars for all these
babysitters on my doorstep!
Clean Slate Roger’s garden
S
4 Clean Slate
o, time moves on and it’s
past midsummer already.
May was an interesting
month; we had less than one inch
of rain (22mm)! I resisted the urge
to water everything and lo and
behold most things just waited for the
rain before continuing their growth.
The only watering I did was for the
transplanted stuff, like the brassicas,
lettuce (the early ones to get them past the
ravenous slugs), celery and celeriac and the
courgettes, cucumbers and pumpkins.
We’ve just had our first carrots, courgettes, basil and climbing French beans – all sown
early inside the protection of the polythene tunnel. Outside it’s broad bean and lettuce time,
no stopping them... The sugar snap peas are cropping well; now the rain is here again, the
turnips and calabrese are a bit slower coming. The garlic is safely under cover as are the
early spuds; both cropped well.
Unfortunately it’s mousetrap time again, as we’re about to sow the oriental greens
(in mid-July). The exception to this threat is the important spring cabbage crop;
I’ll sow it in trays and transplant into individual pots later, getting them big before
planting outside.
We’ve just sown some late beetroot (yellow) and early Nantes carrots, for a late crop,
and more lettuce, endive and coriander for a continuous supply. On the ground vacated
recently by the garlic, we’ll sow corn salad and winter purslane at the end of July.
Our volunteer programme has produced a couple of keen diggers, so the runner
beans and the leeks have been treated to some well rotted organic cow manure dug in
trenches a foot deep with the manure 3 inches deep at the bottom. Both are looking well
on it.
Some of the crops that like it rich – celery, celeriac, brassicas, broad beans and
courgettes have been mulched with the muck. Hoeing has been a bit tricky lately, it’s
been raining for days, so we’ve been pulling the weeds out as best we can.
Talking about the weather, April had just over 5 inches of rain. June had 6 and a
half inches (nice after only 1 inch in May). Annoyingly we did have -0.6o frost
on the 16th June! It didn’t kill anything but it slowed some tender crops
down.
The mean maximum temperature for May was 19.2o and in June 18.6o!
In one of the poly tunnels are some bales of straw left in as a seat,
but for a week or so a slow worm has been sunning itself on them. I
know why, now, I found its shed skin and no other sign of the legless
lizard to be seen. I think it used the straw to help it rid its self of its
redundant layer.
The other day, sitting in the garden shed at CAT, I watched
a fox walk past, stop fifteen feet away, find two chicken eggs
and proceed to eat them. Suddenly two magpies appeared
and started to peck him which the fox completely ignored.
And when he’d eaten the eggs he continued on his way
unperturbed by the whole experience!
Anyway, enough rambling, happy double-digging,
or no-digging if you prefer…
Roger McLennan
ask roger
Dear Roger
I like to see wildlife in my garden, but my partner keeps
tidying up. How can we have a garden which suits us
both?
A wildlife-friendly garden doesn’t have to be
messy… Lots of garden wildlife will make homes
in old stems, leaves and sticks, so tidying plant
debris away can mean that wildlife has nowhere
to go. However, you can retain these habitats
while keeping your garden in any style you want.
Old plant stems can be bundled up and stacked
neatly, or even made into sculptures – the insects
don’t mind what their residences look like. Larger
sticks can be made into a ‘dead hedge’ – piled up
between stakes into a hedge shape. We have one
on our display circuit in which some wrens were
nesting, and it hides an unstructured area behind
it.
Many wildlife attractants are also pleasing
to humans e.g. ponds, meadows and flowering
borders. They can be designed to be smart and
formal, or wild and jungly, but none would be right
without birds feeding on berries and butterflies
drinking nectar.
We’re all different, and it’s part of the joy of
growing, to do it in our own way. I must say I like
a garden on the wild side, being a tiger (Chinese
sign) – it’s my jungle.
Dear Roger
I’ve just taken on a new vegetable patch.
What can I sow in late summer or autumn?
If you’re quick you could sow beetroot, chard,
early carrots and coriander. Lots of time to
sow lettuce, endive, winter spinach, corn salad,
winter purslane and spring onion. Then there
are the oriental greens; rocket, mizuna, pak choi,
mustard, green-in-the-snow, Chinese cabbage;
there’s a lot to choose from – perfect for sowing
mid-July to mid-August, but watch out for mice…
Last, but not least, spring cabbage will fill the
gap between the last of this year’s veg and before
next year’s have grown (it’s commonly called the
June gap among gardeners).
Don’t forget hardy annual flowers, too, some of
which can be over-wintered in a greenhouse or
polytunnel. Sow in mid-September/October time.
Clean Slate Dilwyn Jenkins
Protecting forest and culture
I
t’s almost 17 years since I last wrote about Amazonian
‘development’ for Clean Slate. At that time there appeared few
signs of hope for the forest or the people who have lived with it for
millennia. Control over the Amazon was slipping fast from its original
guardians’ hands. Thankfully, things change. Loggers, for instance,
can be stopped. But, if it’s not loggers, then it’s coca growers or oil
companies. There is an ongoing war against the forest and each battle
has to be won, one at a time. If we don’t fight now, it’ll be gone before
we turn around.
‘It doesn’t really make much odds to the Amazon forest if the
sawmills are run on hydro, solar or nuclear power…if the forest is
controlled by logging companies after a quick profit, then the trees
will inevitably disappear. If, on the other hand, the same forest is
controlled by a co-operative of rubber tappers, or a tribe of huntergatherers, it is likely to be sustained on a permanent basis.’ (pages
18-19, Clean Slate, Issue No. 6, Autumn 1991)
In the first decade of the 21st century, the destruction of Amazon
is speeding up. At the same time, fledgling models for sustainability
are rising like bubbles of sanity from the smoking earth. Indigenous
Amazon communities are at the core of these new models, not least
because their traditional culture relates to the forest as a living, giving
system.
It can’t be mere coincidence that the last remaining Amazon tribes
appear to come from a tradition of deep green wisdom. After all, the
fact that they live in the most remote regions of the planet (remote that
is from the heart of our industrial civilisation) is because they have
chosen to live there over the millennia…as the last pockets of traditional
human resistance to Western industrial madness, they have much to
teach us. Ibid.
Forest under attack
A big part of the problem is that as the frontier of global influences
starts to engage Amazon cultures, new generations of semi-
6 Clean Slate
acculturated indigenous leaders emerge, by virtue of their ability to
speak Spanish or Portuguese, and negotiate with representatives
of external economic or cultural forces. Because of their increased
contact with the outside world, many of these new leaders have
already been ‘corrupted’ by non-Ashaninka influences reflecting
regional political and economic forces. Most tribal communities have
also developed needs (steel pots, machetes, sugar, bottled drinks,
shot guns, soap, cloth etc.) that can only be satisfied by somehow
getting hold of paper money or taking on credit.
The Ashaninka tribe is one of the largest surviving Amazon ethnic
groups. What’s left of their territory – in relatively high jungle – is
about the size of Wales; a verdant region dissected by deep forested
valleys and decorated with waterfalls. Traditionally the Ashaninka are
semi-nomadic, living in scattered communities of 50 to 200 people.
Their land has, however, been under pressure from the outside
world for hundreds of years. Six hundred years ago, the Inca armies
failed to dominate the Ashaninka and other neighbouring rainforest
tribes. Instead, they invited them to join the imperial Inca armies as
fearsome bowmen.
Over the last hundred and fifty years, colonists from Europe and
the Andes have stolen most of the original Ashaninka territory. But
even today, the remaining legally titled Ashaninka communities,
along with their culture and forests, are threatened by massive,
uncontrollable and externally generated pressures: loggers, the
army, cocaine smugglers, missionaries, anthropologists and TV
documentary production teams. All manifest real, if quite different,
challenges.
Despite the creation of new community land titles, communal
reserves and a national park in the last 10 years, the spearhead of
the attack against Ashaninka forests is led by logging companies.
Their aim is to cut and remove – usually illegally – community owned
mahogany in return for very little money. Even in the heartlands
of the Ashaninka forests, where the largest remaining traditional
enclave of communities come together, at Cutivireni, the trees are in
imminent danger.
When the cherry picking of SE Asia’s tropical forests was
effectively exhausted in the 1990s, international markets turned
again to the Amazon. Today, legal and illegal loggers are everywhere.
Recent reports from Peru suggest that most indigenous communities
are in the process of selling their trees. Camouflaged stacks of cut
mahogany are guarded by armed and masked young men.
Fighting for the forest
When illegal loggers first arrived at Cutivireni in 2004, some of the
Ashaninka asked me if there was perhaps a way for them to earn
money without having to sell their forest. We discussed the obvious
possibilities: eco-cultural tourism, trade in craft goods like seed
jewellery and cotton bags, exporting cash crops like coffee and
chocolate, rainforest honey and medicines. Within 12 months, I set
up Ecotribal Ltd and we began trying out many of these options.
The idea is that Ecotribal’s direct links to higher value markets might
help the Ashaninka retain control over their forest resources and
consequently their culture.
The easiest strand to get off the ground was an annual small
eco-cultural tour to the Ashaninka. At present, Ecotribal is the only
tour company, endorsed by Survival, that visits tribal peoples at their
request. Taking a well-managed eco-tour with indigenous tribes
can directly preserve biodiversity in the last remote corners of the
planet by offering the host communities a repeatable and significant
income.
ASHANINKA – Culture and Ecology
Location: Peru - Central Amazon Region
Population: 30,000 - 45,000
Language group: Arawak
Culture:
The Ashaninka tribe are one of the largest
indigenous groups living in the Amazon
today. Their home territory is relatively
high jungle region directly east of Lima in
the Gran Pajonal plateau and along the
rivers Apurimac-Ene, Tambo, Perene and
to a lesser extent, the Urubamba. Traditionally the Ashaninka
are semi-nomadic, living in scattered communities of 50 to 200
people in an area a little bit larger than Wales, UK. Despite
fierce resistance to acculturation by the outside world, in the 21st
century there are few communities without at least limited and
sporadic contact and trade with non-Ashaninka people.
The Ashaninka community of Cutivireni is comprised on nine
separate villages and just over 2000 people. Their territory is
comprised of 30,000 hectares, but only 8,000 hectares is titled
to the community, the rest is part of the Ashaninka Communal
Reserve which acts as a buffer to the neighbouring Otishi National
Park, located in the western slope of the Cordillera Vilcabamba
mountain range.
The Reserve’s habitat embraces an altitudinal range of few
other conservation areas in the region and, along with the Otishi
National Park, is designed to protect the whole range of biological
communities of the upper parts of the Vilcabamba Mountain
Range. These isolated habitats are critical for the biodiversity of
wildlife and to protect the dynamics of unique natural processes,
such as frequent avalanches.
Clean Slate As it happened, loggers were active on the
Rio Cutivireni during Ecotribal’s first ecocultural tour to the Ashaninka in July 2005.
Standing on the edge of the forest, beside the
fast flowing river, Geraint, a Welsh hill farmer,
and his young son stared in disbelief as half
a dozen young men eased the downstream
motion of some sixty or so large planks of a
massive deep red Peruvian mahogany tree.
The Ashaninka receive less than 50p per cubic
meter of mahogany – less than they get for
selling one small seed necklace.
A few loggers arrived at one Ashaninka
village to negotiate for mahogany at the same
time as Ecotribal tour participants were buying
some crafts goods. It was clear to everyone
– Ashaninka, loggers and tourists alike – that
there was an essential difference between the
alternatives being negotiated. You can only sell
a tree once. The wallets of eco-cultural tourists,
seed necklaces, cotton bags, chocolate and
coffee can all be harvested for ever if the crop
is properly managed.
Ashaninka craft goods, like seed jewellery,
are produced by women who receive and
control the income directly themselves.
Cash crops such as coffee and chocolate are
produced by men and they control income
and expenditure. Partly with the help of
Ecotribal, the Ashaninka have recently
established chocolate and coffee producers’
associations. Having a hunter-gatherer culture,
the Ashaninka traditionally live and survive
in very independent scattered households. A
more sedentary lifestyle has developed over
the last 35 years or so at Cutivireni. In many ways, the time has come
for greater co-operation between the dispersed settlements spread
around the forest. Their specific locations have been selected over
generations by extended families in relation to strategic resources
like fishing spots on rivers, good soil conditions and access to game
or other forest produce.
Proper management
The concept of ‘proper management’ is vital. First there’s the whole
context of sustainable forest and land management for the Ashaninka.
Then there’s learning to administrate, maximise community
benefits and share new income streams. And all this needs to be
done in a way that maximises community self-determination and
participation, whilst minimising environmental, social, political and
cultural impacts. Traditionally, the Ashaninka have deep rooted and
intricate food-sharing customs and no sense of ownership or material
possession. They have never managed large sums of money or had
bank accounts. From Ecotribal’s perspective, there’s significant
marketing work to be done. Developing a strong branding in this
field requires sensitivity, transparency and an ability to balance
the rhythms and seasons of the Amazon rainforest with the very
particular requirements of Western urban living.
Ecotribal’s long term aims are wider than our work with
the Ashaninka tribe. The bigger vision is to work with many
tribes, eventually in all continents. Most tribes are marginalised
economically and geo-politically. Ecotribal can at least offer a shop
window across the world for sustainable tribal produce. But, it will
take time to build the brand and it won’t be cheap. Certain inevitable
factors, such as the small scale of tribal production and the additional
costs incurred because of the remote nature of producer locations,
Clean Slate
suggest there will always be difficulties competing in an open market
place. Fair Trade has been accused of propping up otherwise noncompetitive producers. This is capitalistic nonsense; Fair Trade’s
success actually demonstrates the importance of awareness-raising,
promotion of benefits and sheer hard work.
Our culture, as well as our technologies, needs to evolve. Ibid.
Fair trade has come a very long way in the last 20 to 30 years.
Market penetration is high because awareness has been built up by
national and local networks and an incredibly successful campaign
in recent years. Despite higher costs, their share of the average
shopping basket and even the supermarket shelves is still growing
fast. From a small-scale producer’s point of view, particularly where
the producer population lives thinly scattered across a forest, they
don’t produce enough (coffee, chocolate, sesame etc.) on their
own to justify additional costs imposed by the certification process.
Well-organised tribal producers can sell their produce to regional cooperatives for a halfway decent price. Most of them, however, still sell
piecemeal to river traders who rip them off on price and weight.
Ecotribal’s small-scale eco-cultural tourism and trade in craft
goods and coffee has helped gain the confidence of some Ashaninka
communities, but it has not been anything like enough to guarantee
a future for their forests or culture. The visit of a single Ecotribal
tour to the Ashaninka will bring the communities involved a total of
a £1,000 over a two week period – for guides, cooks, porters, food,
camping, use of huts and access to special sites, such as Parijaro
waterfall, a stunning single drop of 297m, the fifth highest in the
continent. The Ashaninka producers of green coffee beans for
Ecotribal support each other on crop and processing improvements
through their association and they generally receive around 20 per
cent above conventional market rate.
Background to the Cool Earth project
A report published in May 2007 by the
Peruvian organisation AIDESEP (The
National Association of Amazon Indians in
Peru) reveals extensive illegal logging and
subsequent clear violations of international
(CITES) regulations. It also documents how
the logging and trade in mahogany threatens
the survival of indigenous communities living
in voluntary isolation.
Illegal logging of mahogany is threatening
the survival of indigenous peoples living in
voluntary isolation in the Peruvian Amazon.
Unsustainable logging is also putting the
whole ecosystem in the Amazon at risk, and
must be stopped immediately, says Alberto
Pizango, president of AIDESEP.
Illegally logged mahogany is whitewashed
in Peru and exported to the US, Europe and
other destinations with unjustified CITES
licenses issued by the Peruvian CITES
administration, INRENA (the section of
Peru’s Ministry for Agriculture responsible
for natural resources and protected areas).
At least 20 of the 24 companies exporting
mahogany from Peru exported illegally logged
mahogany in 2005. Peru’s export quota for
mahogany is set by the Peruvian government,
but disregards most advice given to ensure a
sustainable extraction. This is also a violation
of Peru’s obligations under the CITES
convention.
Amazon carbon management services
In the last twelve months, a new player has arrived in the form of
global warming. Climate change is a serious problem we share with
South America. The Amazon is also one of the world’s largest carbon
‘sinks’, the tree mass of the rainforest providing a planet sized store
for CO2 emissions over the last 60 years. If this store is released,
climate change will accelerate much faster than present predictions
and, what’s more, the Amazon forest may well turn into desert. Flying
to exotic destinations like Peru generates tonnes of carbon emissions
per passenger. Tree planting in the Tropics has a greater cooling
influence on the climate than planting in temperate zones. With this
in mind, Ecotribal began exploring carbon offsetting options in 2006.
By September 2007, trees were already being planted by the
Ashaninka tribe to offset carbon emissions from the UK – from air
and road travel to weddings and conferences. Planted as part of an
Ashaninka-led agro-forestry initiative, the project incorporates a
selection of indigenous rainforest trees, like mahogany and cedar,
with cash-crops, forest plant derived medicines, fruit bearing and
other useful tree species. Located in small forest gardens, often on
old abandoned plots, tall trees are planted for eventual shade between
other more low lying productive species like cocoa trees or coffee
bushes. In effect, UK carbon emissions are part-funding the creation
of these small-scale agro-forestry gardens. This is a very useful
mechanism for encouraging regeneration of woodland along the
damaged edges of the Amazon, including alongside the encroaching
road and river tentacles.
The Ashaninka’s main resources are its forests, land and clean
rivers. The forests embody living carbon standing on the land and
nourished by the rain. Existing rainforests perform significant
carbon storage and sequestration functions (in some cases over
800 tons CO2 hectare/year), so it
makes sense to invest carbon offset
money into both keeping intact the
remaining expanses of rainforest
– ‘avoided deforestation’ – while also
re-planting new trees where they will
be most effective. Lacking financial
resources, but surrounded by virgin
forest, the Ashaninka are ideally
positioned to offer environmental
management services, utilising their
carbon resources in a way that allows
Western energy users to at least
mitigate some of our emissions.
A battle won?
Early in February 2008, a logging
company from the nearest town
arrived at Cutivireni to negotiate a
two-year contract to log trees from
community owned forests adjacent
to the more remote forests of the
Ashaninka Communal Reserve and
Peru’s newest protected area, the
Parque Nacional de Otishi.
The Ashaninka contacted Ecotribal
(using the all-important solar powered
satellite public phone now located
at Cutivireni) to inform us of the
loggers’ approach and that several
Ashaninka chiefs were considering
signing a contract. Liaising with Cool
Earth (a major London-based NGO
player in carbon offsetting) and the
Cutivireni community, Ecotribal found
that most of the Ashaninka leaders were really pleased to find a way
to keep their forests intact. On Sunday 10th February, the Ashaninka
community met at Cutivireni. The loggers were present to finalise
their negotiations, but the Ashaninka ejected them and accepted
instead Cool Earth’s proposal for some income to the communities in
return for avoided deforestation. Hopefully this is the beginning of a
long partnership.
Carbon projects offer Ecotribal and the Ashaninka something
practical and tangible to do in mitigation of CO2 emissions. I firmly
believe that in a few year’s time people everywhere will be saying
– Why on earth didn’t we plant more trees, save our forests and
change to clean and renewable energy much earlier? Equally exciting
is the option of installing renewable energy projects in and around the
Amazon frontiers to offset the spread of fossil fuel generators and in
return for carbon offset funding. Working with existing carbon stores,
like trees, or switching to clean energy are among our best options
and both can be funded through carbon offsets.
The timely Cool Earth partnership is an important battle won.
Without it, the Ashaninka forests around Cutivireni would have been
decimated over the next few years. But it’s the whole sustainable
package that Ecotribal will continue to develop and promote.
Handicrafts and agro-forestry are equally important. As long as the
community wants it and feels the benefits, sensitive and low impact
eco-cultural tourism can also continue to play a positive role. There
will undoubtedly be more unforeseen twists and turns as the windows
of opportunity continue to change. The most practical and successful
models can eventually be replicated and unfurled along the frontier of
the western Amazon at the outer edge of the industrial world.
What really matters is the motivating force or principle underlying the
culture which dominates the forest environment. Ibid. CS
Clean Slate Since writing this piece, I have visited the Ashaninka tribe (mid
May) and at end of June (26th June to 4th July) the ‘avoided
deforestation’ NGO came to visit the tribe, along with Sky TV
(who will be doing their first ever live broadcast by satellite
from a remote Amazonian community), The Times and The Sun
newspapers.
When I went in 6 weeks or so ago, I passed 7 trucks heavily
loaded with mahogany and other precious timbers during the
last 2 hours of driver, to the river port along a dirt track. That’s
a lot of timber leaving the valley every hour. I then traveled up
river by canoe with the Ashaninka. This was a 6 hour journey
during which we passed a massive floating raft of some 50
tree trunks , steered by 3 motorised canoes and a gang of
loggers, who gave me a resounding fingers up sign as I went
by. Fearing for my life, I decided not to take what would have
been a brilliant and evocative photograph.
When I arrived at the Indian community – Cutivireni – it
was clear that they were over the moon with the Ecotribal
arrangement. It seems like they are one of very few indigenous
communities in this part of the Amazon that haven’t signed
contracts with loggers.
The chief of Cutivireni spent some time telling me how pleased
he was with Cool Earth project. Back in February this year,
he said, he had been in a really difficult position with both
the loggers and also cocaine smugglers knocking on the
community’s door. The loggers wanted them to sign a 2 year
contract. The smugglers wanted the community to allow them
to use the community’s small grassy airstrip, in return for 5
outboard motors.
With the support of Ecotribal and the Cool earth project they
felt able to say no to both loggers and smugglers.
Dilwyn Jenkins has been in close contact with the tribe for
30 years, since he first visited them as an anthropology
undergraduate – spending 2 months with the Ashaninka in
1978 making an ethnographic documentary for the BBC.
Last year he returned with a Channel 4 film crew to make
‘Medicine Men Go Wild – Jungle Tripping’, which was
broadcast last February 12th
CHRONOLOGY OF RECENT EVENTS
2004 – Illegal loggers arrive at Cutivireni Ashaninka
community and negotiate with some village chiefs
for selected mahogany. Ecotribal donate and install
solar radio communications system for remote
Ashaninka village.
2005 – 1st Ecotribal Tour, August 2005, sees the
first selected mahogany trees, cut into 8ft planks,
stacked along the Cutivireni river, camouflaged from
aerial discovery by cut leaves and branches (see
right). Loggers arrive to negotiate in one village as
Ecotribal tour participants buy seed jewellery and
organic cotton robes from the Ashaninka.
2006 – Logging abated at Cutivireni. 2nd Ecotribal
tour to the Ashaninka.
2007 –Tree planting carbon offset project
established at Cutivieni. Ecotribal donate and install
solar lighting and laptop power system for school at
Cutivireni.
Early February 2008 – Logging company ejected
from Cutivireni. Cool Earth’s ‘avoided deforestation’
proposal accepted.
0 Clean Slate
Photographs by Dilwyn Jenkins and Carlos Montenegro
New and Inspiring Land-use
Initiative
Grace Crabb
T
he Centre for Alternative Technology has always been a
holistic organisation, teaching and disseminating knowledge
on a range of subjects concerned with protecting the
environment and living as harmoniously as possible with rest of the
planet’s systems and inhabitants. However, it is not until recently that
we have focused on the use of the land in a potentially ‘zero carbon’
future.
The biology department at CAT has been leading the way in green
approaches to water treatment and composting for many years, and
has always been keen to teach about biodiversity, but again, it is not
until recently that we have been utilising the wildlife that inhabits the
site as an educational tool.
This new strand of research and activity needs its own identity
within CAT, so that people can find us and know what we are up to.
The Sustainable Land-use Initiative (SLI) will be the umbrella title
under which zero carbon land-use, biodiversity conservation, soil
management, woodland management and crafts, water management,
composting, reconnecting with nature, sustainable agriculture,
horticulture, environmental economics, land rights, and many other
subjects that are related to the way we perceive the land and our
landscape, will fall.
CAT is now the proud owner of a beautiful 15 acre wood across
the road from Llwyngwern Quarry. We have decided to call it Coed
Y Gwern, or Alder Wood, to tie in with the name of the quarry where
CAT is based (Valley of the Alders). It is also distinctly damp and
therefore prime alder territory. The wood is part of the Esgair estate,
once consisting of 466.05 acres of forest and 146.25 acres of hill
grazing, which has now been fragmented. The previous owners have
retained the pasture and buildings, but have sold the majority of the
wooded areas to a forestry operation that is promoting sustainable
techniques, and, of course, have sold 15 of the remaining acres to us.
The old Esgair house is set at the end of a long steep drive off the
Machynlleth to Corris road. In 1828 a Captain Brett lived at ‘Esgir’
(sic), and writer and novelist Berta Ruck (1879-1978) grew up there.
Her husband was the well-known ghost story writer Oliver Onions
(1873-1961). The house was empty for much of the latter part of the
20th Century, but is now occupied again. Coed Y Gwern sits below
the house and is a fairly flat south facing wood.
Clean Slate 11
Our new woodland shows evidence of much natural
regeneration of hazel, birch, oak and alder, and there have
been plantings of beech and cherry by the Esgair estate.
There are a few mature oaks, but the majority are young
trees that have come up since the area was clear-felled
15 years ago. We look forward to planting the area with
a new hedge of native trees of local provenance, such
as blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, ash, rowan and spindle,
and will lay the hedge with standards. The International
Tree Foundation have kindly funded tree planting at CAT
and we are now part of their family tree scheme (www.
internationaltreefoundation.org/). A tree nursery will also
be established with tree seed from the estate.
There is a lovely riparian (river habitat) zone through
the middle of the site, and by damming up some of the
many drainage ditches this can be expanded into an
area of wetland and heath, increasing the biodiversity.
There are some interesting mosses and lichens present
along the riparian zone that will flourish with a little
more habitat regeneration. The rest of the site will be
managed as woodland coppice with standards. There
will be a course on building an ecofriendly space to
teach green woodworking, a roundhouse course using
different methods of roofing and cladding, and plenty of
scope for more wildlife and woodland related courses.
Coed Y Gwern will be a prime site for woodworking and
will host a course on tools and devices for coppice craft,
where participants will make pole lathes, saw horses,
cleaving brakes and will be shown all the tools required
to be a woodworker. There will also be workshops on
spoon carving, hurdle making, willow weaving, the use of
axes and scythes and many more ‘re-skilling the nation’
activities.
CAT would like to open access to the woodland to the
community for events and educational activities, and
there is the possibility of using the site for forest school
programmes. It will also be a space for people to come
and relax or create land art. The possibilities are endless.
But what is most important to us is that its biodiversity
increases and thrives.
We have already spotted some intriguing and unusual
creatures such as the pied flycatcher, spotted flycatcher,
tree pipit, and pole cat. The RSPB have guided bird
walks in the wood, and Snowdonia Mammal Group ran a ‘mammal
detectives’ workshop, which was very exciting. There is evidence
of dormice in the adjacent woodland so we live in hope that they
are in our woodland too. You can identify the presence of dormice
easily from the way that a hazel nut has been opened (see https://
aberdeen.ac.uk/mammal/memapp.shtml). Dormice tend to turn the
nut as they eat it, leaving diagonal toothmarks on the inside of the
nut. Woodmice chew downwards and squirrels will break the nut
clear in half (as will birds such as jays).
But the new focus at CAT is not purely on the woodland. Coed
Y Gwern provides a teaching place and educational tool, but this is
only a small part of the new Susatinable Land Use Initiative. At CAT
we have other exciting programmes and research ongoing. Jessica,
the biology long-term volunteer, is currently researching the use
of biochar in soil. Biochar is becoming increasingly popular as a
potential carbon sequestration material that also has use as a soil
fertiliser. Terra preta, a soil discovered in Bolivia from slash and burn
areas, is known to have amazing properties. At CAT we would like to
show that by coppicing and turning our small wood and off cuts into
charcoal (in a retort – more on that later) we can then dig it into the
ground improving soil fertility and therefore locking up the carbon in
a useful form.
12 Clean Slate
Not only have we been using our woodlands to provide charcoal for
these experiments, but we have also been teaching charcoal making,
and putting together little bundles of charcoal sticks to sell in the
CAT shop. This year, over at Coed Y Gwern, a new retort will be built
during a course run by our local woodsman Bob Shaw. A retort is a
charcoal burner that taps off the methane and re-burns it beneath
the drum, making the burn much faster in duration and expending
greenhouse gases. It is also possible to tap off the methane and
use it to cook with, so hopefully we can make a feast on the course.
Charcoal making adds value to our woodlands. It also has the
potential to sequester carbon and help in the battle against climate
change. We hope in the future to charge the charcoal with nutrients
through the reed beds here. Wonderful stuff…
Continuing the carbon sequestration theme, we are lucky to have a
student placement in the biology department this year and the postholder will be conducting a feasibility study using waste heat from the
new CHP (combined heat and power plant) to heat a greenhouse that
will be enriched with carbon dioxide from the gases expelled from
the flue. We will perhaps bubble these gases through tanks of algae
and then into the greenhouse, where crop trials will be conducted
under different carbon dioxide concentrations. We want to know
more about the ability of soil to sequester carbon through different
methods of planting and soil treatment such as biochar and no-dig.
We hope that students will come to CAT to conduct their MSc or PhD
research. There is, of course, the hope that we can reduce our carbon
emissions more by growing more of our own veg and fruit that we
could not grow on the hot bed.
So as you have read, CAT is keen to explore the future of land-use
in Wales, and the rest of Britain. Rod Gritten, who has worked on
ecology in the Snowdonia National Park for over 30 years, has been
sharing with us his vision for the future of land-use in the Welsh
uplands. We spent a beautiful day walking on Cader Idris exploring
the terrain and becoming familiar with the alpine plants that would
grow with greater abundance if it were not for sheep grazing. We
also discussed climate change and the impact this will have on the
uplands, and what measures should be taken to address that.
It is now time to plan a strategy for land-use and devise the tools
required to make changes. This may come through Transition Town
movements, agricultural policy, consumer behaviour and many other
practices but we need to get ready and start planning now. Wales
is an interesting country in which to attempt to explore potential
land-use methods. The uplands are relatively inhospitable and are
therefore not prime places for arable crops. However the intensity of
sheep farming is creating problems. Within the Sustainable Land-use
Initiative we hope to bring together those from the
academic, farming and conservation communities to
consider the alternatives to the current methods of
land-use.
People’s behaviour within the landscape is
something that has been determined by their way
of life and upbringing. It is essential that culture
and the way that people relate to the land is given
proper attention within this initiative. The farming
community has long farmed sheep on the slopes of
Wales and it might seem impertinent when others
outside that community suggest that such behaviour
is altered. That is why it is imperative that we have
a presence from the farming community within this
initiatve, as it is this community that knows the land
and has shaped the landscape for generations. We
need to know whether the farming community is keen
to diversify and try new methods of farming in order
to lead the way in climate change mitigation.
And one must not forget main economic driving
forces affecting farming, such as the common
agricultural policy (CAP) and single payment scheme
(SPS). The Single Payment Scheme pays farmers for
the land that they manage or own. Now that the SPS
is in effect in the UK, farmers can produce what the
market wants rather than be confined to subsidies
for particular crops as it was under CAP. Consumers
must lead the way in choosing food that has been
reared or grown in a moral way; that is locally
produced, organic and fair to the farmer, and then we
might see some changes. As recently highlighted by
the G8 conclusions, global food shortages, rising oil
prices, altered climate and increased biofuel demand
are only likely to increase pressure on our food
resources.
It is difficult to tease apart the issues that surround
sustainable land-use, from the protection of an
endangered plant to the starvation of a town in Africa,
or the tradition and culture of a Welsh hill farmer.
But they are all interlinked in the way that we must
approach the future of land-use in Britain. Perhaps
it is a case of returning workers to the land, reskilling those workers in agricultural practices, and
increasing the economic importance of sustainable rural activities.
However, it must not be overlooked that those who lived on the land
before the advancement of oil supported agriculture often did so in a
state of grinding indigence. Do rural Arcadias exist chiefly in people’s
imaginations? And when the financial surpluses that allow generous
funding for hedgerow planting, for example, are all generated by
the economic leverage of machinery, how easy will it be to make the
transition? These issues are essential elements of the new Sustainable
Land-use Initiative.
Perhaps it is time, too, to recognise the lack of connection between
most people and the basic processes of nature, such as the growth
of a plant from a seed and the ability to grow food. It is not a case of
regression, taking a sentimental step back into the past, but more a
wish to take the rich and deep knowledge that the nation once had
and use it to improve the future of our land in terms of increased
biodiversity, reduced air miles, getting a better deal for farmers and
encouraging people back into rural communities or connection with
the countryside. We at CAT hope to chip away at theses issues with
our new woodland and SLI.
So, if you are interested in joining us in exploring the future of
policy and practice in the management of the countryside and rural
economies, please write in and let us know. CS
Clean Slate 13
Water for the Future
Marcus Zipperlen
I
n the previous article (CS68) we looked at global water resources,
how they cycle around the planet, how much is available for the
biosphere as a whole and for humanity. We saw that as our human
population expands, urbanises, and grows more wealthy, water
consumption increases, and that if current trends continue unabated
we humans shall be under severe water stress, food security will
be threatened, and we may end up fighting each other for precious
water resources. If you factor in changes to precipitation from
climate change, the picture can look a little bleak. But let’s not get
too despondent. There are ways around many of these problems, and
there are effective actions we can take as individuals to help. In this
article we take a look at a few solutions to our water woes. First we
have a brief look at some necessary changes in how we manage our
water, and then look at what we can do as individuals, from a global
and local perspective.
A few approaches for securing the future of water
There are many areas where we need to mend our ways in order
to manage water sustainably. A few of the major ones are outlined
below.
Food and agriculture
To feed a growing population we shall have to increase the extent of
irrigated land. We shall also have to change our eating habits (see
below). Poorly managed irrigation can damage soils and deplete
water resources. The solution to these problems is part socioeconomic, part technological.
4 Clean Slate
Large-scale irrigation of cash crops for export may not benefit the
local population, especially in developing nations. To ensure local
food-security, micro-irrigation schemes will be important at the level
of a farm or community. Large-scale schemes suffer from problems of
water loss during the storage and transmission of water. Water stored
in reservoirs in hot countries evaporates at considerable rates. Take
for example the Aswan high dam in Egypt where the reservoir looses
10 per cent of its volume each year to evaporation. Open channels
delivering water around regions likewise evaporate precious water.
Drip irrigation is an efficient way of delivering water to plants using
a pipe (often around the size of a garden hose) with small holes along
its length that ‘weep’ water around the base of plants. Water seeps
straight into the soil so losses to evaporation are 20-70 per cent less
than irrigation by spray or surface flow. These systems are more
costly than other irrigation methods, however, which might limit
their application at present.
Other potential solutions are soil and water conservation
techniques. There are various ways of keeping water on the land
for longer, so that we can use it productively. Small banks, dams, or
terraces may be appropriate. Ploughing with the contours rather than
up and down hills reduces run-off. Increasing the organic content
in soil is important because humus rich soils retain far more water,
and support healthier plant growth. The future will probably see
increased use of no-till agriculture where there is no ploughing at all.
Ground cover plants are maintained all the time, reducing water loss
to evaporation, and crops are sown directly through these.
Sanitation
In developed countries, sanitation systems consume large quantities
of water to transport excreta. Water efficient toilets are readily
available and probably require a little more legislative pressure
to increase their use. There are of course entirely dry sanitation
systems, such as composting toilets, although it is hard to see a
widespread adoption of these in the west, and in very dense urban
areas they probably are not appropriate. But, compost toilets are
not just a rural technology. As wealth and urbanisation spread to
developing countries there will be pressure to replicate western
water-hungry models of sanitation. But there is also increasing
implementation of ‘Ecosan’ (or ecological sanitation) systems. China
seems to be taking a lead here, using urine-diverting compost toilets
even in urban settings with multi-storey buildings. Urine is separated
at source through special diverting pedestals and collected for use
as a fertiliser. Solids are composted, and again used in agriculture
(helping to improve moisture retention in soils).
In areas serviced by waterborne sanitation, the wastewater can
be a valuable resource for agriculture or aquaculture. To make
irrigation water, sewage is treated to reduce pathogens and make
it safe to handle. The resulting liquid is rich in the valuable plant
nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which increase
crop yields. Sewage is also extremely valuable as food to fish such
as Carp and Tilapia when they are farmed. Partially treated sewage
is run to ponds where the fish either eat sewage directly, or eat the
algae which the nutrient-rich ponds grow after its application. The
sewage from Calcutta is used in this way.
Restoration of the water cycle
Sustainable water management will only be secured if biological
elements of the water cycle that have been degraded or obliterated
are restored. Forested upper reaches of a river catchment are
important in many areas to ensure sufficient rainfall, and to capture
and infiltrate that rain. In the southern Himalayan foothills, for
example, clear felling of forest has destroyed the natural sponge-like
properties of the area, increasing run-off and erosion. Bangladesh
pays the price in terms of increased flooding and less dependable
river flows. Closer to home we too need to protect our upland
catchments. The mid-Wales uplands provide the catchments for
several important rivers including the Severn and the Wye, both of
which are used for water abstraction, and have been subject recently
to violent flooding. The long-term trend of installing drainage on
upland bogs to improve pasture for grazing sheep has contributed
to the instability of these rivers. Restoring natural bog land is the
answer (and has the added benefit of keeping the massive carbon
sinks in peat safely locked-up).
So much for outlining a few pathways to the sustainability of water
resources: but what can we as individuals, going about our daily
round, do about these global issues? Well, quite a lot, actually, and
here are a few suggestion.
Individual actions with global consequences
First up, you can endeavour to live a low-impact lifestyle and reduce
your emissions of greenhouse gasses and so help to alleviate the
negative effects of climate change on the water cycle. Using less
water in the house, particularly hot water, will be one facet of this,
although you will make far larger carbon savings by using less
energy in the home and minimising your use of car and airplane.
Secondly, consider reducing your consumption of ‘embedded
water’. The average Briton uses around 180 litres of water per
day at home. But if we look at the quantity of water that is used to
produce the goods and services that we depend upon, our actual
daily water use is around 3400 litres per day. This is because all the
food we eat and goods we buy have taken water to grow, process
and manufacture. This hidden water is what is commonly referred
to as ‘embedded water’ (or sometimes ‘virtual water’). A pair of jeans
takes about 11000 litres of water to produce, a car 400,000 litres (or
around 6 years’ worth of domestic consumption), and a cup of coffee
150 litres. In the UK most of this embedded water (70 per cent) is
imported. Our consumption may be draining rivers and aquifers
overseas and diverting scarce resources from local populations.
What can we do lessen this impact? Let’s distinguish between
consumer goods and food. Looking first at goods, consuming less
is the quick answer. The fewer manufactured goods we consume,
the lower our consumption of embedded water. We also gain
additional benefits by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and
environmental pollution associated with manufacture and delivery.
Repairing, re-using and recycling our wares are the ways to go.
Turning to food, eating less may suit some but most of us will
best reduce our impact by changing the type of food we eat. In the
UK most of our embedded water (65 per cent) is in food imports so
individual choices here are important.
Calculating the impact of food production is a complex affair. It
is easy to be misled by the appeal of simply comparing embedded
water values between commodities and invariably seeing the smaller
of the two as more sustainable, but this is not always the case. Take
for example rice, which has a relatively high embedded water value
(five times that of wheat). Rice is not a ‘bad’ thing to eat. In Thailand,
the world’s biggest rice producer, the majority of rice is produced
using run-off water from the monsoon. If it weren’t for the paddies
most monsoon downpours would run-off quickly and be lost, and
could cause ecological damage through erosion and soil loss. So,
in this circumstance the retention and use of large quantities of
Clean Slate 15
drinking water: 0.2%
household use: 4.2%
embedded in
consumer goods:
30,6%
embedded in food: 65%
Real water use in the UK, taking account of ‘embedded water’ in our food, goods and
services
water is a positive thing. Local environmental conditions can further
complicate the assessment. Compare Thai rice to that grown in
the USA. American rice actually has less embedded water per kilo
(2000 litres per kilo compared to 5500 in Thailand), but has a greater
negative impact on local water use. This is because the climate is
mostly unsuitable, so production relies upon intensive irrigation
16 Clean Slate
(not just rainfall) that depletes water reserves that would be more
beneficially deployed elsewhere.
In seeking to reduce our embedded water consumption, we don’t
want our trip to the shop to be any more of a moral minefield than
it already is, adding deliberations over water-use and production
methods to our considerations of Fair Trade versus organic versus
locally produced. Fortunately, there is a simple rule of thumb
to guide our choice. And the remarkable thing is that the ‘right’
choice as far as saving water is concerned is also the right choice
for our health (as the nutritionalists tell us), and furthermore the
‘right’ choice for the environment because it reduces greenhouse
gas emissions (See CAT’s ‘ZeroCarbonBritain’ report). And the
magic formula is…eat less meat and dairy. Simple. Meat has a
much higher embedded water content per calorie than vegetables
and grains. Calorie for calorie beef takes 15 times more water to
produce than grain. The reason for this is that you have to grow the
grain first to feed the animals (using water), energy is lost by the
animal in the process of converting food to body mass, and along the
way the animals need water to drink, too. The most water hungry
meat to produce is beef (16,000 litres of water per kilo) followed by
pork (5000 l/kg ) and chicken (4000 l/kg). For a water conserving
diet then, cut down on your meat intake and eat more grains and
vegetables. Go easy on the burgers and eat a bit more chicken if you
can’t face being a veggie.
Individual actions with local and regional
consequences
How can we reduce our own direct consumption of water? Thinking
primarily of the home, the first thing to do is to install a water meter.
Water companies will do this for free. You’ll start saving water
immediately. On average households use 15 per cent less water once
metered, and your water and sewerage bills will go down as a direct
result. Now take a look at the pie-chart opposite. You can see that
the first place to start
saving water is with
the toilet. If money is
no object then install
a quality low-flush loo.
If you’re on a budget
then you can modify
an existing toilet to
be low-flush for about
twenty pounds with
a minimum of DIY
skill. Next on the list
are the shower and
taps. Flow regulation
and spray or aerator
fittings can be fitted to
both with relative ease
and no noticeable drop
in performance. With
these basics in place,
one might possibly
consider re-using
water in the garden or
house. Unfortunately
there isn’t room
here to go into the
necessary detail, so
the next article in this
series will explain the
practicalities of how
to create a truly water
efficient home.
outside use: 6%
bath: 15%
washbasin: 8%
kitchen sink:
15%
toilet: 35%
Increasingly, water scarcity is a reality impacting on our
daily lives. For the majority-world this scarcity has impacts on
health and well-being that our wealth insulates us from. But
there’s no need to feel paralysed in the face of inexorable global
phenomena because we can directly do something about these
problems on both a local and global level, as we’ve seen. And
interestingly, if altruism won’t motivate us then self interest
might, because saving water at home saves us money, and
purchasing more ecologically sustainable food is good for our
health. It’s a win:win opportunity… CS
shower: 5%
washing machine: 12%
dishwasher: 4%
www.myspace.com/KateEvansCartoons
Hippy Heaven
Clean Slate PRACTICAL solutions
Keeping in touch…
We need to communicate! We need a mobile
phone, for work, to feel connected. Fifteen
years ago mobile phones were the exception.
In some Western cities they still are! Montreal,
a cosmopolitan city and new media and
entertainment hub for Canada, still works without
mobile phones! But globally the demand for
mobile phones and video games consoles, laptop
computers, digital and video cameras just keeps
growing.
This need for electronic goods is fuelling a high
demand for a mineral called coltan. The
price spiked in 2005 with the release of
the Sony PS3 console. Coltan is mined
heavily in Rwanda, amongst other
places. The Rwandan-Ugandan
border is one of the most abused
places on the planet: more people
have died here than anywhere
since the 2nd World War. Life
expectancy in the area is 43 years
and falling. It is also home to the
Virunga National Park, a World
Heritage site of incredible diversity
and the only place in the world to
support mountain gorillas.
The runaway consumption of
electronic goods is directly
endangering the mountain gorillas’
habitat, and funding violent civil
war. A UN Security Council report
has stated that coltan ore is mined
and smuggled illegally and is a
major source of military income.
Do you really need that new
mobile phone now? Still want a PS3
console for Christmas?
Cutting our consumption of these
clearly ‘luxury’ goods would be
the obvious solution, but replacing
them only when necessary and
not on a fashionable whim will also
make a difference. Morally though,
the choice between being effective
in a modern communications
society and disengaging from
these technologies is a personal
one.
Last year, Americans only recycled
10 per cent of their phones and 36
per cent were stored. Recycling
those phones will reduce the
demand for coltan greatly and it is
so easy!
Here’s how to do it. In the UK,
charity shops are the usual drop
off point; almost all high street
charity shops will take unwanted
mobiles, Marie Curé, Cancer
Research, Oxfam and Scope all
run schemes. (www.fonebank.
com will buy your phone and make
a donation to Oxfam). Easiest of
all, just pop your old phone into
the freepost envelope enclosed in
18 Clean Slate
this issue, along with any old printer cartridges,
and send them free to EAH recycling in order to
benefit CAT. For extra envelopes or larger bags,
call 01473 658161.
Climate camps for real change…
Do you feel that your everyday actions to stop
climate change are not enough? Don’t trust the
Government to act effectively in time? Scared that
the scale of the problem is not matched by the
efforts to tackle it?
Feel empowered – go along to Climate Camp
(www.climatecamp.org.uk)! This year it is being
held in North Kent at Kingsnorth Power Station
and is a direct response to the Government’s
policy of burning more fossil fuels by building/
upgrading more coal-fired power stations.
The camp will be an exciting place to meet people
and learn about sustainable solutions and low
impact living. There will be workshops on the
practical steps you can take to make a difference
and you can help out with building compost
toilets and other elements of an ethical
infrastructure. There are also great
speakers, and debates around climate
science and solutions, including
Permaculture systems and the
situation in Bangladesh.
Firmly family friendly, the camp
will be set out in a series of
local neighbourhood groups
– get in touch with your local
group and connect with like
minded people in your area;
there are groups from all over
the UK. See the ‘Get Involved’
section of the website under
‘neighbourhoods’ for contact
details.
Since 2006, Climate Camp
has grown to become a
movement for social change
for those wanting to protest
against climate crimes and
take direct action to put the
issue firmly in the spotlight.
Its aims are education, direct
action, sustainable living and
building a social movement to
find sustainable solutions to the
climate crisis.
The camp is run entirely by
volunteers and donations, and
is very media friendly. One
journalist visiting last year said
he was expecting a ‘crusty’
protest camp and found instead
impressive individuals with
PhDs! Everyone is welcome
and there is dedicated kids’
area. Each neighbourhood will
be cooking its own tasty food.
The camp will be set up and
run entirely on renewable
energy, demonstrating
the effectiveness of
these technologies. The
Government’s plan is to build
six new coal-fired power
stations that will produce 50
million tonnes of CO2 instead of
investing in proven renewable
energy production. If you think
this is madness then make your
voice heard. Visit the excellent
website and get involved. Keep
coal in the ground. Be heard.
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Clean Slate Life in Zero Carbon Britain 2030
Peter Harper
In our report ZeroCarbonBritain (ZCB), we
described a plan to ‘decarbonise’ the British
economy by 2027. Such a rapid transformation
would have a big effect on household life, but we
did not spell out in detail what these effects might
be. Here is an attempt to fill some of the gaps.
T
he background scenario is this. As part of an international
agreement in 2012, the UK commits itself to reduce carbon
emissions to zero by the late 2020s. The government sets
a timetable for yearly reductions and issues Tradable Emissions
Quotas to households, businesses and other organisations. These
quotas act as a kind of parallel currency driving a market-based
‘race out of carbon’. Meanwhile, the government sets the rules,
plans the new infrastructure, and guides a large-scale deployment of
low-carbon technologies, as described in ZCB. But the government
also needs the active collaboration of householders and local
communities, and is prepared to encourage them with a whole
battery of appropriate carrots and sticks.
After two decades of this, what might it be like for householders?
How will they be living in (say) 2030? Of course, there’s going to be
an enormous range of possible choices. But we’ll pick two significant
cases, based on two sorts of households already introduced in Clean
Slate 68. These are two households that want to contribute actively
to the decarbonisation process, but in different ways. One prefers to
do it through changes of technology, the other through changes of
behaviour.
The WOT, or ‘Well-Off Techie’, family have plenty of money are
prepared to use it to reduce their carbon emissions, but are not
prepared to make radical lifestyle changes. They want to live more or
less like other wealthy people do, and in particular they do not want
to abandon the basic ‘non-negotiables’ of modern life such as the
ever-warm house, the family vehicle, the animal-protein-based diet,
holidays abroad, and access to abundant consumer goods.
In contrast the LIL, or ‘Low-Impact Lifestyle’, family are prepared
to challenge the non-negotiables. In fact they are prepared to make
any feasible behavioural change, but they have almost no spare cash
to invest in clever technical measures.
Most other households would be found somewhere between these
two extremes.
Let’s start with the WOTs. What would they be
doing in 2030…?
Two aspects of their life would be relatively easy to decarbonise,
because there exist ‘technical’ solutions: house energy and surface
transport. Their newly-built ecohouse would perhaps be somewhat
out of town, necessitating a personal transport system. It would be
at least net-zero because the UK Government is already committed
to zero-carbon by 2016. Very likely the WOTs will specify a building
that uses carbon-sequestering materials and will already be in
carbon-credit by the time it is built. A large house built after say 2020
will almost certainly be able to incorporate a PV roof at reasonable
cost, with an installed capacity of 25kW. Of course it will have
20 Clean Slate
solar water heating too, and with enough storage to meet 80 per
cent of demand, benefiting from ‘peak-shaving’ top-ups. Electricity
consumption would be modest on account of mandatory EU
standards for appliances, smart controls and metering. The house
itself will be a net generator of electricity. Most of the surplus would
go to the vehicles, and the rest into the grid.
The transport arrangements, too, would interact with the national
electricity system. The household might have two electric cars,
one a large family estate, the other a very light two-seater to be
used for the majority of journeys. Batteries would be modular:
cars would be ‘refueled’ not by charging in-situ batteries (although
that would be possible) but by switching charged for discharged
battery cartridges. The same could happen on long trips: ‘filling
stations’ would be charging stations and simply exchange discharged
batteries for charged ones.
The great benefit of this system is that the millions of batteries
in cars and garages (and garden sheds) would be able to act as an
enormous reservoir of stored energy to help balance the variable
inputs from renewable energy sources. In fact, under certain
circumstances, it could be a nice little earner. A fully decarbonised
national electricity system would deliver zero-carbon private
motoring, but it would be expensive.
The WOTs would find it harder to fully decarbonise other aspects
of their life. Take consumer goods. It needs energy to produce,
deliver and dispose of material goods, and richer people tend to
buy and accumulate more. Some time between now and 2030 the
long historical trend for ‘stuff’ to get cheaper than labour is likely
to reverse itself, and by 2030 stuff will be relatively expensive. The
WOTs are already happy to pay more for good quality goods that
last, but increasingly they will be substituting services for material
goods. Service companies might deal with house cleaning, garden
maintenance, energy management, vehicles. In many cases they will
rent the service rather than the object, and this might well apply
to fridges, washing machines, computers, carpets, furniture, even
vehicles. Nevertheless, the embodied energy (and therefore some
carbon) in their goods, especially those imported from more carbonintensive economies, might amount to several tonnes per year.
Holidays abroad are another carbon-challenge for the WOTs,
because there is no complete technical fix for aviation emissions,
existing or foreseeable. It is possible that aviation emissions per
passenger-km would be less, perhaps even half what they are today,
but if emission-prices are very high it is likely that even wealthy
households will moderate their behaviour rather than pay very high
rates or buy the necessary credits, which by 2030 will be extremely
expensive. Perhaps, we can guess, they will take occasional flights
to the new resorts on the Black Sea belonging to the latest wave of
accessions to the EU; otherwise they might take high speed sleeper
trains to the Mediterranean.
The diet of the WOTs is also a bit problematic, because if they
insist on maintaining a traditional diet based on animal protein, it is
hard to envisage any technical fixes for the non-CO2 greenhouse gas
emissions associated with cows and sheep. Of course, the WOTs
will be in good company because nearly everyone else in Britain will
want this diet as well (not to mention the other 7-8 billion people in
modernising societies also demanding their long-denied pound of
flesh). The effect of these trends is being seen already: a rapid rise
in the price of many foodstuffs. This is as much to do with the sheer
space occupied by animals as with their emissions, but the effects
will be similar. The wealthy, of course, can insist on grains being
used for luxuries such as meat and vehicle fuels, and can outbid
poorer people who must either pay much higher prices or simply
starve. Now, our WOTs are earnest Guardian-reading folk and not
indifferent to the problem, so they would be looking for technical
fixes. There does seem to be some possibility that emissions from
livestock can be reduced through different kinds of feeding regime,
manure management etc., and we can imagine a kind of certification
system for this kind of livestock production, such as ‘organic’ or ‘Fair
Trade’, that the WOTs could buy into. Perhaps equally likely is that
we will be able to develop molecular factories that can efficiently
produce ‘genuine’ muscle and other animal proteins from cheap
inputs such as grass or vegetable processing-waste, without all
the messy business of involving real animals. This kind of animal
protein (plus, no doubt, all sorts of cunning texturing and flavouring
techniques) would be adequate for the kind of anonymous meat used
in burgers, mince, soups, pastes and basic sausages, leaving ‘real
meat’ for Sunday lunch and special occasions.
The overall emissions of the 2030 WOTs might be reduced to a
few tonnes of CO2 equivalent, but still positive in spite of a general
‘background’ decarbonisation. What else could they do? They could
simply buy credits (from the market but ultimately from people
like the LILs) but this would get increasingly expensive. More
effective would be deliberate investments in low, zero or negative
carbon systems. In some respects they have already done this with
their eco-house, and if the house itself is a net emitter, this might
shave a tonne or so off their score. The present cost of saving a
tonne of CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent) varies a huge amount
depending on what it is, ranging from a few pounds for not cutting
down a tropical forest to hundreds for some kinds of sequestration
technologies. In the previous article in Clean Slate 68, it was
suggested that ‘tithing’ (investing 10 per cent of income) would do
the job, but possibly less would do. At £100 a tonne, it only takes
£1000 a year to generate 10 ‘negatonnes’, but by 2030 the price might
be considerably higher. There might even be a world-wide ‘active
carbon capture’ tax that would cost a household money but earn
carbon credits.
Now what about the LILs…?
In many ways their choices are simpler, but they don’t want to
be freaks. Although they are prepared to junk the standard ‘nonnegotiables’, they still want to feel they are bona fide members of
British society.
The two areas that are most problematic for the WOTs, the LILs
solve immediately. Flying – they simply don’t. They argue that
although it’s nice, it’s definitely not a necessity; it’s simply something
we do because we can, because it’s so cheap, and it has become a
cultural norm, so it feels like a necessity.
Food – they have simply asked themselves, ‘What is a sustainable
and universally-deliverable diet?’ and adopted it. It would resemble
what might be called the ‘Tudge diet’, after Colin Tudge, whose
book Feeding People is Easy explains in simple and utterly persuasive
terms what we need to do to give everybody an excellent and
culturally vibrant diet. The LILs are not vegetarians, they just
want to do the sustainable diet, so following Tudge they use small
amounts of wild or sustainably-reared meat for stock, condiments
and feasts. Like so many traditional cuisines, the diet uses animal
products cunningly to exploit their excellent flavours while deriving
most of its nutritional value from plant-based materials, especially
whole grains and pulses. Food is going to be expensive in 2030 so it
is worth the LILs’ while growing as much of their own as they can.
What amateurs can most easily grow is the fruit and vegetable part
of the diet, which nutritionists are always telling us to eat more of.
This could form an important part of the LILs’ economy. They would
therefore choose a house with a large garden, or rent an allotment.
No surprises there, perhaps, but if they are earning at a rate of
around £15 an hour growing vegetables, as they could well do, this
is a serious input for a low-income household of 2030, where food
might otherwise account for 30 per cent of expenditure instead of the
10-15 per cent typical of today.
What else will the LILs do? They cannot match the WOTs on the
environmental credentials of their house, because they cannot afford
a new zero-carbon house. On the other hand, if the UK is really
to achieve zero emissions it will need to embark on a systematic
programme of retrofitting older buildings that cannot be demolished
and replaced. The LILs, of course, would be one of the early adopters
of a retrofit programme, and might even earn money by doing some
of the work themselves. They would be well-insulated and better
draught proofed, possibly with solar water-heating, perhaps heated
by a district-heating system running on bioenergy, or heat pumps
powered by a decarbonised public electricity system. They would, of
course, keep the temperatures low, and in winter keep comfortable
with advanced thermal clothing. Hot water would be partly solar, if
available, or through electrical on-demand heaters.
If the electricity system is decarbonised and electric vehicles are
available, there would be no reason why the LILs should not have a
car of their own. But being LILs, they cannot really see the point of
owning a vehicle if you have to take responsibility for it and it sits
outside the house doing nothing most of the time except cluttering
up the street. No, they would do most journeys on foot, by bike
(with extra fitness benefits) or public transport, all of which would
be rationally priced and cheap, and use a ‘white car’ – or car-share
club car – for occasional awkward journeys. An electric-assist bike
might be used for routine longer distances, ideal for (say) a 5-mile
commute.
As far as holidays are concerned, perhaps the LILs are especially
fond of festivals, where summer camping becomes a pleasant
change. They could get there with friends from their locality, hiring
a van or bus of the right size. Recent statistics from real festivals
suggests that some participants actually reduce their carbon
emissions relative to staying at home! Longer holidays might involve
exchanges with families overseas. What fun to travel by zero-carbon
electric train to, say, the Ukraine for a holiday on the Black Sea,
staying in the house of a local family that at the same time are
staying in the LILs’ house in Britain. Another kind of holiday, oddly
but logically, might involve hunting. Large parts of the uplands in
the UK might be reforested for reasons of ecosystem and watershed
management, then might be licensed for the hunting of ‘pest species’
such as deer, boar, squirrels, and Canada geese. The meat could be
processed in various ways – dried to jerky for example – and would
constitute a principal source of animal protein for the household.
During the early part of the transition phase the LILs would have a
lot of carbon credits to sell, although the prices would be low. Later,
credits would become progressively scarcer and the prices would
rise. Towards the end of the decarbonisation period high emitters
who had been unable to adapt, or had failed to invest appropriately,
would be paying enormous amounts.
Decarbonising Britain is likely to need a dynamic partnership
of the top-down and the bottom-up strategies. Wealthy households
will have the wherewithal to balance their positive emissions by
investments in negative emissions, whereas poorer but shrewd
households could make money by selling carbon credits. Meanwhile
government (and industry) must deal with the infrastructure and
production systems, and set the legal and financial frameworks.
While there is a lot householders can do for themselves, the arts
of collective action – broadly speaking, politics – will be a vital
component of the transition to zero carbon Britain. CS
Clean Slate 21
Adapt and thrive:
the sustainable revolution
Peter McManners
I
n recent years, the debate over the risks humanity is taking
with the environment has migrated from the green fringe to the
mainstream. Issues, which organisations like CAT have been
grappling with for decades, are now discussed by the general public,
politicians and business leaders. This is progress, but there is still a
lack of concerted action to back up the rhetoric.
Our economic aspirations have to be reconciled with the
growing imperative to protect the environment. We are a long
way from achieving this. Development through increased material
consumption has become how we gauge improvement in our lives.
At the same time, negative consequences such as climate change
are becoming more visible and the calls for action louder and
more numerous. Most people are very slow to realise, and then to
accept, the need for real change in response to this. Those people
who choose to make fundamental changes in their lives should be
admired. They set an example to us all. What will be more effective
is when wholesale change across society that applies to us all is
precipitated, whether we choose it or not.
There will be no hiding from the ‘Sustainable Revolution’ when it
finally arrives. Everyone will need to respond. My argument is that
we should prepare for it. Some of us will do so because we believe
22 Clean Slate
it to be right. Others will act from a selfish desire to avoid negative
consequences and to position themselves to be able to prosper in
a sustainable society. Whether it is through self-sacrifice or selfinterest, the outcome will be the same.
Before the revolution can start, our thinking must change. We
need to understand that single-issue solutions have little chance of
success. A classic example is the standard response to traffic jams
and the fumes emitted by the vehicles stuck in them. We build
more roads and increase the capacity of those we already have. The
traffic moves more freely, less time is wasted and the fuel efficiency
per mile travelled is better. This is a logical solution to the problem
observed. If we think a little deeper, it soon becomes apparent that a
better solution is to work on community design, in all its aspects, to
make the car unnecessary for many activities. This is a hugely more
complex challenge than relatively simple decisions such as whether
to build a bypass to counter a particular bottleneck.
Another example of narrow thinking leading us astray is with
regard to fossil fuel. Most people now accept the significance of
climate change and that elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is the prime cause. In response,
we look for carbon reduction measures. Conventional nuclear power
is a rational policy option.
An operating nuclear
power plant has zero
carbon emissions. We
ignore, or play down,
the long-term risks and
liabilities as we focus
on the issue of reducing
carbon emissions. This
deflects effort, attention
and investment away
from finding the real
long-term solution, such
as driving down energy
demand right across the
infrastructure of society.
We will have to learn
to live without energy
from fossil fuel at some
stage, however we do
it. Increasing our use of
nuclear power can delay
the energy crunch but it
won’t prevent it. These
examples show that we
have to think beyond
single issues to coherent
broad based solutions.
It is clear to me that
we need a fundamental
reconfiguration of
society. Eventually the
divergence between our
economic aspirations and
our attempts to conserve
the environment
will become clear to
everyone. This will
then initiate a period of
massive change. If we
delay until we reach
crisis point, then the
Sustainable Revolution
will be hugely difficult
and damaging. It could
even lead to conflict and the collapse of whole societies. If we can
persuade our leaders to act early, then we may initiate a peaceful
revolution. Whatever sets it off, it will bring with it huge disruption.
The irony of the situation is that we already have many of the
solutions. In some cases we have had the solution for decades but
have ignored it. As a young engineering student in the late 1970s, I
designed a solar water heating system. It was a simple design like
the early models deployed at CAT. It consisted of a radiator, painted
black, housed inside a glass panel and a water tank mounted above.
My undergraduate design was far from perfect. I made no allowance
for the risk of freezing in the winter or dangerously hot water in the
summer. A few simple enhancements would be required. From this
experience, I could not understand why solar water heating systems
were not universal.
In the late 1980s, I became a map maker working with global
geographic databases. The pressing need to act to conserve the
Earth was brought home to me. Now, working with business, I
understand the power, capability and sometimes sheer audacity of
business. So I see the world through three lenses. As a geographer,
it is clear that humankind must change its ways.
As an engineer I can see
many of the solutions.
As a management expert
I have a whole range of
business models I can
apply. When I bring my
three views together, I find
that currently they do not
fit one with the other.
I return to the example
of solar water heating
to make my point. Such
systems are now very
efficient, robust and
reliable, with a life of
20 years or more. We
still delay universal
deployment. A few years
back, I compared a
quotation for a solar water
heating system with the
expected savings from
reduced fuel bills. The
payback period worked
out to be 12 years. This
appeared to be a clear cut
case for purchase. Not
so. An estate agent was
consulted. In his view,
house buyers would not
pay more because the
house had such a system.
House builders therefore
do not fit them as standard
because they cannot
increase the building’s
purchase price to match.
Owners looking to improve
their property must be
sure of being resident
for more than 12 years to
recoup their investment.
The same applies to
the decisions made by
landlords. Unless tenants
are willing to pay a higher rent, it is not in the narrow economic
interest of the landlord to make the capital investment. This is
despite the core business case being completely robust.
The Sustainable Revolution will change attitudes. We will then
accept and understand the value of the measures we need to take. It
could then take up to 30 years to change the infrastructure of society
because the alterations required are so deep-rooted. Pessimistically,
we might need a whole generation to educate people to a new way
of thinking. It might not be until the oil runs out, in 20 years or so,
that we start in earnest. It would then be 50 years before we arrive
where we need to be. I do not think anyone could realistically believe
that the Earth’s systems will survive half a century more of industrial
progress without suffering major degradation. If more people really
understood the nature of the problem, then I believe that the attitude
shift could be rapid. We may already be seeing the start, with the
fashion shifting towards low-energy houses and celebrities wanting
to parade their green credentials.
As I campaign for the Sustainable Revolution, I look for ways to
overcome the inertia that afflicts us. One surprising conclusion
I draw is that business can be the primary agent for change.
Clean Slate 23
Governments can drift off course as they strive to maintain popular
support. Individuals have a tendency to procrastinate in the face of
tough choices. However, businesses that behave like this do not
last for long. When business sees that the Sustainable Revolution
is inevitable, and that governments will get the mandate to bring in
the regulations required, business will move quickly to exploit the
opportunities. This will of course be self-fulfilling. When business
understands how to profit from a sustainable world, and sets a
strategy to take advantage of it, then business will make it happen.
Business is taking pioneering solutions, such as those to be
found at CAT, and putting the power of fashionable design, brand
development and marketing to drive sales to consumers. The
unpredictable nature of the Sustainable Revolution will mean that
some opportunities do not fulfil their early promise. This is where
business can carry the risk. Venture capitalists are used to investing
in a range of opportunities. Only a few are expected to succeed.
Others will have to be abandoned. Governments can find it difficult
to tolerate such failure rates but business knows how to handle such
risks.
It is hard to predict the coming changes from within the
unsustainable societies we now have. In 2004, I moved to Finland,
a country that appears at the top of world league tables for both
competitiveness and environmental stewardship. Finland is not
perfect, but its society is much more sustainable than other
developed countries. It is a matter not just of well insulated buildings
or good public transport but a range of co-ordinated policies. For
example, all brands of Finnish beer are sold in identical bottles.
Almost every sales outlet has an automatic machine to accept the
empty bottles and prints a simple bar-code receipt. This can be
exchanged for cash or offset against the shopping bill. The result is
that each bottle is refilled many times over. There is also a countrywide informal army of bottle collectors collecting those bottles that
people abandon. Some of these people are poor and need the money;
some are young people supplementing their pocket money; others
are well dressed retired people out for a walk as well as keeping an
eye open for bottles. These people are not employed or organised;
my green solution
Dr Iolo ap Gwynn, Chair of Board of Trustees, CAT Charity Limited
What is your favourite technological invention and why?
This is a difficult – because technology fascinates me. Imaging
technologies have interested me since I was child, with a Brownie,
processing my own photographs. That is probably why I became an
electron microscopist. That reflects what I most like doing. As to the best
invention, then there is probably only one answer: the Internet.
Here is a revolution in the worldwide availability of information and
communication, with social and political consequences even more far
reaching than the invention of the printing press. It has to take first prize!
What technological invention do you most dislike and why?
Now smoking is illegal in public places, loudspeakers! Not the ordinary
type on hi-fis, but those extremely loud ones used by groups and DJs
at events. They only seem to work flat-out. When everyone is happily
having civilised conversations, some idiot turns the PA fully on. Then
shouting is needed, even to attempt simple conversation, and soon your
voice runs out and your throat is like a bear’s arse! That is how pubs
increase trade. The noise makes conversation impossible, I get bored
and annoyed and go home – because I’m not into dancing!
What piece of technology do you hanker after that has not been
invented?
In the 70s Sir George Porter, then president of The Royal Institution,
said that, with sufficient investment, it is possible to design a panel
that could use solar energy directly and efficiently to split water into
hydrogen and oxygen. This assertion arose from the work of his
24 Clean Slate
they exist because the system exists.
From a social perspective, we get concerned that jobs become
scarce because of the march of automation. Conventional
economists see this as spare capacity in the labour market and
respond by attempting to increase consumption. At the point where
we have automated everything, more consumption will simply be
more robots and more material consumption sucked out of the
planet. This cannot continue. Fortunately, in a sustainable world
this trend is reversed. Material consumption reduces, but the
need for human effort and ingenuity increases, providing ample
employment opportunities, as society operates in a more intelligent
manner.
Building cohesive communities is one aspect of sustainable
society. This improves our quality of life and is also the way to wean
society off fossil fuel. Getting around the immediate vicinity is
possible on foot, or, a little further afield, by bicycle. As we reclaim
land from the car, everything can be closer and more accessible.
Another area of major change is waste. Currently, attempts to
extract useful material from our rubbish are well intentioned but of
limited real value. In a sustainable society, food scraps and other
wet ‘bio’ waste can join with sewage to generate methane (for
burning) before ending up as fertilizer. Dry bio waste can be burnt
in small combined heat and power (CHP) units at building or local
level. All other items will be fully recyclable due to cradle-to-cradle
manufacturing backed up by a residual deposit scheme. Recent
discussion in the UK about the frequency of rubbish collection
would become irrelevant. Looking from inside our throw-away
society it seems incredible, but rubbish really can become obsolete.
It will require a lot of government time and effort to frame the
appropriate regulation, and a lot of businesses changing their
operations. The beauty of such a system is that once set up it is
naturally self-regulating.
The Sustainable Revolution is coming. It will come slowly if we
wait to be pushed, and could then be a painful transition. It would be
far better to force the pace of change now before the crisis hits. CS
http://www.petermcmanners.com/
research group.
Fuel cells can use hydrogen to drive devices efficiently. Internal
combustion engines can also run on it. All we need is hydrogen,
without using electricity to produce it. Rising fossil fuel prices will,
hopefully, drive such a development.
What is the most environmentally sound thing you have ever
done?
Almost by definition, simply existing poses a threat to ‘the environment’.
There are simply too many humans on the planet. It is impossible not to
have some impact. Probably, the most important thing I have done is to
build my own, timber framed, house to have as low an energy budget
as I could afford to build into it at the time (just over 20 years ago). If I
were to do it now I would do some things differently. Increased wisdom
usually comes with hindsight!
What is the most important environmental issue today and why?
How can we change from being hooked on energy-wasting
consumerism to a more sensible way of doing things, relatively
rapidly, without dangerous social unrest? The escalating cost of
fossil fuels is forcing such a change. Centralised systems – political
or commercial – are much less efficient, potentially unstable and
environmentally unfriendly. Living in Switzerland confirmed my views on
this. The fundamental issue is how can we decentralise and have real
empowerment at community level? Small is beautiful. Leopold Kohr was
right!
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Clean Slate 2
centres for change
The Shared Earth Trust, Denmark Farm, Lampeter
Adam Thoroughgood
T
A very barren place, before
A notable nature reserve, after
26 Clean Slate
he Shared Earth Trust is a unique conservation project based
at Denmark Farm and nestled in the rolling hills of mid-Wales,
close to Lampeter. Established back in 1987, the Trust arose
as a response to the catastrophic decline in wildlife and biodiversity in
the farmed countryside.
Years of intensive agricultural practice, beginning with the so-called
Green Revolution of the postwar years had left the land of Denmark
Farm poised to become an embodiment of Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring. The farm, like many others, had been pushed to its productive
limit, to the detriment of local species and ecosystems. The Shared
Earth Trust was established as an attempt to turn around the
ecological impoverishment of agricultural land and create valuable
experiential knowledge in the process. The Trust’s aim was to create
a space for the revival and rejuvenation of natural systems; a practice
of natural restoration that would see the flourishing of habitats and
biodiversity in a previously intensively farmed agricultural landscape.
One of the Trust’s main motives was to ascertain whether the
process of degradation could be reversed without major interventions
or capital expense and to monitor the speed and extent of the return
of wildlife. Reinstating more traditional grazing regimes, haymaking,
reversing drainage, stopping most fertiliser inputs and fencing off
overgrazed hedgerows, streams and ditches were all intended to help
‘kickstart’ natural processes.
Today, the farm is a patchwork of flourishing habitats: grassland,
wetland, woodland and scrub. All of this has been achieved with
minimal human intervention; the principle of observation and
gradual interaction has informed the Shared Earth Trust’s activity
from the early days. Rejuvenation of the farm’s ecosystems has
been achieved without major species introduction and without
prescriptive management. The land has been left to heal itself and
the natural process of succession has resulted in the return of many
species that were absent from the farm. However, management and
human activity have not been completely abandoned. One of the
most notable new habitats is the wetland, achieved by digging a
lake, restoring a farm pond and creating a series of scrapes (shallow
pools of water) that have slowed down the movement of water
through the land. These wetland habitats now support 14 breeding
species of dragonfly and damsel fly. Reversing the drainage has
also retained valuable water, resulting in tussocky, damp grasslands
and meadows full of flowers that are ideal for ground-nesting birds.
The practice of encouraging wetland revival has provided the
Shared Earth Trust with some of their most valuable knowledge,
all condensed into a series of publications that can be purchased
through their website (link below). The fencing off of hedgerows
has also created valuable habitat corridors and increased the
number of breeding bird species by over 300 per cent, from 15
species to an average of 47.
A return to more traditional grazing regimes has benefitted the
grassland habitats of the farm’s environs. For certain months of
the year, a small herd of highland cattle are allowed to graze on the
land – creating just the right conditions for the revival of diverse
meadow habitats. Fields formerly dominated by rye grass are now
rich in traditional flowers, grasses and sedges, with the most diverse
meadow containing well over 100 plant species.
The evident success of the Shared Earth Trust’s work is an
overwhelmingly positive message. We are bombarded daily by news
of environmental degradation and destruction of natural systems
and sometimes it is hard to remain positive. The Shared Earth
Trust’s work at Denmark Farm is a small but significant pocket of
positive change – a beacon of hope that, given the right conditions,
the ecosystem can repair itself and reinstate the diversity that is
the true state of natural systems, a diversity that carries with it
the strength and resilience to respond to change. Denmark Farm
demonstrates that land brought out of intensive management can
return to health within a relatively short space of time. The farm
is an important model for research and study; the template can be
used in other intensively farmed regions to revive the ethic of care
for the Earth.
Recently, the Trust has benefitted from Big Lottery Fund support
for a new programme of events, activities and workshops called
Natural Links. The programme is designed to work with community
groups to help people reconnect with the natural world and help
foster community learning and skills in working with natural
materials. Denmark Farm is an ideal location for such activities
– based in very comfortable farm buildings and surrounded on all
sides by the proof that humans can work in harmony with natural
systems rather than impose their will upon them. To find out more
about the Shared Earth Trust, Denmark Farm and the Natural Links
programme, visit the website at www.shared-earth-trust.org.uk
The return of many species that had disappeared from Denmark
Farm and the blossoming of a once barren mono-cultural landscape,
proves that by slowing down and observing, then letting Nature
lead the way, we can learn valuable lessons – the truths of which are
often already present, just beneath the surface, ready to emerge,
given the right conditions. CS
Clean Slate 2
members’ corner
Are you an Anarresti?
Martin Parkinson
Will being greener make us happier? And are we
truly free to choose? Is ‘poor but happy’ a piece of
sentimental nonsense?
I’m not a pessimist but …
There has been a great deal of interest in the last few years in what
are sometimes called the ‘soft factors of sustainability’ – what I
would call ‘green psychology’. Take transport, for example: there
are umpteen ways to lower the carbon emissions per mile of vehicles
and no shortage of techno-fix ideas for the future. Engineers simply
adore doing this kind of thing, but what they cannot do is to persuade
people to actually take up their good ideas, let alone actually drive
less. That’s a question for us social-science geeks: how on earth could
we persuade people to drive less and buy a battery vehicle? I became
interested in this type of problem because I knew that the answer
to, ‘Why don’t we all respond to the good science that is telling us to
live our lives differently?’ is most certainly not, ‘Because people are
irrational/wicked/stupid/greedy/brainwashed.’ For the most part,
we are none of these things.
Over the last few years, I have done a good deal of reading around
these issues. There are no ‘hard’ answers, no sure fire ways to
change behaviour (economic incentives are not a universal answer
– sometimes things can be too cheap), no magic words, but it is
possible to learn a thing or two about what makes us tick and use
this knowledge to assist with campaigns, communications, legislation
and so on. But I’ve come to think that what we can do in this way is
limited and that green communications can ultimately do no more
than lubricate changes that are being driven by other factors. (Mind
you, if you extend the metaphor and think of a machine that is seized
up, lubrication is not trivial).
I wouldn’t say I’m pessimistic exactly, but certain arguments
have given me pause for thought. Here are three non-technical
‘good reads’, each very different, but which I recommend to anyone
interested in what might or might not be possible for the future.
Happiness: The science behind your smile,
Daniel Nettle, Oxford University Press, 2005,
ISBN 978-0192805591
Will we ever have enough to make us happy? The answer is yes and
no, because certain kinds of happiness fade, while others do not. We
do something that makes us happier – yes, money and possessions
can do this – but the boost they give does not last. We get used to
our new wealth, sag, and start wanting another boost to put us back
where we were before – an effect known as ‘the hedonic treadmill’.
Luckily, this can also work in reverse: events can depress us but we
can bounce back. Unluckily, this effect does not apply to all changes
of fortune – there are some things to which we cannot adapt fully:
28 Clean Slate
‘Basic threats to the safety of the individual – chronic cold, food
shortage, or excessive environmental noise, are things that you
would never get used to. Serious health problems can leave a lasting
mark. The lack of autonomy in life is an enduring negative.’
This distinction between adaptable and non-adaptable changes
parallels the distinction between positional and non-positional goods.
Income is positional: it isn’t the absolute amount that matters; it’s
where it puts us in relation to others. Consumer goods are positional.
So, an increase in personal wealth (positional) will not give me lasting
happiness but an improved environment (non-positional) will.
So why don’t more of us go for the lasting pleasures? Daniel Nettle,
an academic psychologist, is coming from a position of evolutionary
psychology on this:
‘Although we implicitly feel that the things we want in life will make
us happy, this may be a particularly cruel trick played by our evolved
mind to keep us competing.’
Or to put it another way:
‘The psychology of aspiration is not that of satisfaction. We do not
always want what we like or like what we want.’
So, we think that keeping up with the Joneses will make us happy,
but it doesn’t. Whereas, in the long run, the real sources of happiness
are ‘health, autonomy, social embeddedness, and the quality of the
environment.’ I am fond of quoting this paragraph:
‘…the British Government is planning a major expansion of
airports all over the country. However, hedonics predicts that people
will soon adapt to the availability of cheap regional flights in Europe,
and find them just as tiresome as the longer train journeys they
replace. On the other hand, we will never adapt to the increased
noise.’
So there we have it, being green will make you happier, in an
important sense of ‘happy’, but making greener choices means
defying or getting around our evolved psychologies – and you’d have
be very wise to do that.
Can Technology Save Us? John Adams, 1996
We all know what the problems with our present transport system
are: it munches up resources, it’s noisy, it chucks out greenhouse
gases and it kills people in several different ways. But surely we’re
smart enough to house-train our vehicles? Adams, a geographer
with a longstanding interest in sustainable transport, presents a
convincing argument that even if technology could solve these
problems (and talk of the ‘hydrogen economy’ often seems to be
such a dream), there is a problem with what he calls ‘hyper-mobility’.
Our mileage increases but we aren’t taking more trips, we are taking
longer ones and distance makes our lives geographically less dense.
If most of your social interactions take place at a distance from your
home, you will know fewer people in your neighbourhood. If we all
travel too far to work, shop, socialise, we create a world of strangers.
A world of strangers is not a world of safety.
What about the internet? Here distance disappears entirely and
we can create online communities of interest. Surely there’s our
solution? But online relationships and communities are pale things,
insubstantial substitutes for the true satisfaction of meeting our
friends in the flesh. Greater cyber mobility leads to the desire for
more physical travel.
If someone were to offer you (asks Adams), ‘…a car, unlimited
air-miles and all the computers and communications facilities
enjoyed by Bill Gates,’ why should you refuse? ‘In answering, most
people probably imagine the world as it is now but with themselves
having access to the enlarged range of opportunities.’ Yet a world
that attempted to grant these wishes to everyone would become a
world no sane person would vote for (and, argues Adams, amongst
the other hellish features of such a world, democracy would be
impossible).
I was, and am, disturbed by this argument, because I do not see
any cap on our desire for mobility. Obviously it is good to be able to
travel to some extent yet there is no logical point at which we can
say, ‘Well, people are mobile enough now, I think we’ll call a halt.’ If
the technology is there we will use it. If we can travel, we will. Daniel
Nettle’s speculations about our evolved psychologies, which push
us to compete and acquire regardless of diminishing returns, do not
imply any hope that humanity as a whole can call a halt, even if a few
individuals can understand where we are heading.
The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin, Gollancz, 1974,
ISBN 978-0575079038
In this science fiction novel the small planet Anarres has been settled
by a group of dissidents from its twin planet Urras, a world much like
our own. Urras has a rich and luxuriant biosphere and Urrasti culture
has property, shopping, class systems, gross inequalities, violence,
sexism. Anarres is a harsh world by comparison: its biosphere has
evolved little beyond the Devonian and it takes the settlers discipline
and courage to be able to call it home. The Anarresti are anarchists:
their society has no ownership, no hierarchy, very little violence,
complete equality and no shopping. Le Guin pulls off the impressive
trick of making us believe in their society because Anarres is not
Utopia and the Anarresti have believable human psychologies.
They have the normal faults of jealousy, rivalry, egotism, lack of
imagination, fearfulness. The desire for ownership still exists, but
it is not pandered to and cultivated. Self-awareness and the harsh
demands of the planet give a space for the desire for equality and
freedom (needs which are just as ‘innate’ as the urge to dominate) to
flourish.
Le Guin is a true storyteller and does not spell things out or preach,
but I cannot help concluding that if Anarresti culture is believable
it is because they do not have abundance, because their world is
demanding, because there are no easy surpluses. It may be fiction,
but it might be telling the truth.
It is interesting that Le Guin’s anarchists also have advanced,
but realistic, technology: this is not an eco-fantasy about humans
reverting to the hunter-gatherer stage. I liked that very much about
this story, because our technology is us – it’s what human beings do.
It’s our Tao: from spectacles to space probes it springs directly from
our natures.
I read The Dispossessed for the first time about a year ago and it
seemed to echo Daniel Nettle and John Adams. What we think will
make us happy will not in fact do so, and abundance will always be
abused (perhaps). Autonomy, social embeddedness, meaningful
work are sources of satisfaction, which the Anarresti have in
abundance, but that is because of the physical constraints placed on
them by their world (perhaps). You never can ‘have it all’ (more-thanperhaps). Our ‘inner toddler’ cannot accept this: some choices – the
ones that reject superfluous comfort and mobility – are simply too
hard to make, and limits have to be forced upon us by circumstance.
(I’m aware that this argument is easily parodied and I must stress that
I’m certainly not suggesting that absolute poverty can co-exist with
happiness).
I’m not an optimist but …
I’m really not a pessimist! The future is uncertain, though it looks
like we are in for ‘interesting times’ of some sort. We don’t know what
the interaction between peak oil and climate change will be, but one
possible future involves a prolonged worldwide recession. Now I’m
certainly not wishing for it, but as long as we have basic health and
a bit of personal autonomy, there are far worse possibilities. It might
not be all bad to be a bit constrained, to not be able to use the car, to
have to mend things, make things, grow things, be aware of how the
physical world works. We’d moan and feel hard done by of course,
but perhaps it might not be so bad. CS
References
Adams, J (1996) Can technology save us? Journal of World transport
Policy and Practice 2/3 [1996] pp 24-27 available from
www.eco-logica.co.uk/wtpp02.3.pdf
Le Guin, Ursula (2002; 1974) The Dispossessed, Gollancz, London
Nettle, Daniel (2005) Happiness: The science behind your smile,
Oxford University Press, Oxford
A CAT member since 2004, with an interest in ‘green psychology’,
Martin helped with the 2006 report ‘Painting the Town Green’, and
last year studied energy systems with the OU; he is hoping to start the
CAT/UEL MSc this autumn.
members’info
Empty Printer Cartridge & Mobile Phone Recycling
As you may already be aware, CAT is able to benefit from
recycling your old mobile phones and inkjet printer
cartridges in conjunction with EAH recycling.
Since the commencement of the recycling schemes we
have raised £622 towards CAT’s charitable work – so a
huge ‘thank you’ to all our supporters who have taken
part. Please keep up the good work by sending your
empty cartridges and mobile phones to EAH Recycling
in the freepost envelope enclosed in this issue – every
cartridge and mobile phone is much appreciated.
For extra envelopes or larger bags please call EAH
Recycling on 01473 658161 and mention that it is part of
the Centre for Alternative Technology’s appeal.
Clean Slate 29
Q&A
S
Water-saving showers
CAT Information Department
aving water helps protect aquatic environments, reduces
greenhouse gas emissions and can save you money.
Common sense suggests that taking a shower uses less
than a bath, but this is not always so. Although most electric
showers will use less water than a bath, a modern ‘power shower’
can use quite a bit more. To help reduce flows on pumped and
mains-pressure shower-systems, a number of manufacturers are
producing ‘water-saving’ shower heads. This seems like a good
idea in theory, but how do they shape-up in practice, how much
water do they actually save, and do they offer value for money?
of even a modest bath. As to comfort, this aerating showerhead
was less forceful than the three above but nonetheless gave a
pleasant shower with a mildly vigorous feel. On the down side, it
was quite noticeably noisy and a little reminiscent of a distant jet
engine. The most water efficient option tested was the standard
shower fitted with an ‘Aquaflow’ regulator giving a flow of 5 litres
per minute. This gave a similar level of showering comfort to the
Oxygenics head, with good water coverage, but was a slightly
softer experience with no feeling of vigour to the jets. It was less
noisy and considerably cheaper.
We tested 5 shower-heads with a five-minute shower at mains
pressure (at approximately 2 bar) from a ‘combi-boiler’,
measuring water flows and assessing user comfort.
So, which showerhead to choose? Given that there is very little
difference between the standard and ‘Flowpoint’ shower heads on
mains-pressure systems (like a combi-boiler) you might as well
stick with what you already have and save yourself the £20.
The shower with the highest flow rate of 9.9 litres per minute
was the supposedly water-saving ‘Flowpoint HH336’, followed
closely by the standard showerhead (9.5 l/min) and the other
Flowpoint unit (9.4 l/min). All three gave a vigorous and very
comfortable shower, but none could really be termed watersaving.
The other two arrangements did offer significant water savings.
The Oxygenics showerhead came next in the league table with
an average flow of 6.1 litres per minute. Now that is a saving. A
leisurely seven minute shower would use less than half the water
Oxygenics showerhead (£50)
Only the Oxygenics head or the Aquaflow insert offered any
real water savings. At £40 the Oxygenics is relatively expensive,
bearing in mind you can get similar results at a fraction of the cost
using a flow-regulator. Nonetheless, if you want a water efficient
‘luxury’ bathroom you will have to spend if you wish to be
‘invigorated’ by your shower. If you’re not after eco-chic but just
saving water then it needn’t be expensive. Try a 6 litre per minute
regulator for substantial water savings, and if you find this not to
give enough flow for your taste then you could upgrade to 7 litres
or more, as desired.
Flowpoint HH336 (£20)
Aquaflow regulator (£2.50)
Shower head name
Cost (£)
1
Oxygenics
40
6.1
2
Flowpoint HH336
20
9.9
3
Flowpoint HH412
20
9.4
4
Conventional thermostatic mixer
0 (it came with the shower)
9.5
5
Conventional thermostatic mixer
shower fitted with an Aquaflow
regulator
2.50
5.0
30 Clean Slate
Water Used (litres per minute)
Jo Cooper & Sylvie Fabre
letters
Welcome to the Summer edition of Clean
Slate! Whether you’re reading it in your back
garden or your local, sustainable holiday
destination we hope you enjoy it and find
plenty of inspiration, to keep you busy this
summer! We always welcome input from
members, so if you’d like to contribute then
please send your ideas or your feedback to
[email protected] – we’d love to hear
from you!
We recently said a sad farewell to our
membership co-ordinator Scott, who left
these shores for France to start a new, lower
impact life with his family. We wish him all
the best and look forward to hearing about
his adventures!
Thank you to all those who requested
Clean Slate by email – we are pleased to
be able to offer this now. If you would like
to receive Clean Slate by email then please
email [email protected] and you will be
able to read the magazine at your computer
from the next edition.
We have had lot of interest in
ZeroCarbonBritain, the Alternative Energy
Strategy for the UK developed here at
CAT. This summer at the Centre there will
be a specialist guided tour focussing on
ZeroCarbonBritain every Wednesday at 2pm
during the holiday season. Check www.cat.
org.uk for further details. Don’t miss it!
And finally, we hope to be welcoming many
of you to CAT for the annual members’
conference: ‘Transition Time’ from the 29th31st August, which we hope will be a great
opportunity for sharing information about
current projects and ideas. Check out the
membership pages on www.cat.org.uk for
more details!
Membership Team
[email protected]
01654 704956
Next copy deadline: 6th October 2008
Opinions expressed are not necessarily those
held by CAT. We reserve the right to edit letters
where necessary.
Hi
In Grace Crabb’s (CAT Biology) response to Kit’s
query she says they are ‘currently attempting to
find a supplier that provides glyphosate that is
not made by the company “Round-up” so that
we are not supporting Monsanto.’
Nufarm UK Ltd used to produce a glyphosate
based herbicide called Clinic which is a
concentrate form for dilution and application
by farmers. I don’t know for certain that they
are unconnected to Monsanto but you could try
them. Their number was 020 8319 7222. They are
based in Kent somewhere.
All the best,
Elvin Simpson
Hello
I hope that the proposed Talbott BG100 CHP
installation is a great success; but as I read the
article in Clean Slate I became concerned. The
article states that the unit will be heat-led. And
that wood burning appliances operate most
efficiently when they are at full load. But then
we are told that the output can meet the peak
site demand, and that there are several other
heat loads that can be used to ‘fill any gaps’. In
other words it appears that the unit that is being
installed is simply too big.
This seems to be a terrible waste – of money
and resources, and of the opportunity to provide
a useful demonstration project. There are many
examples of this (oversized biomass burning
plant being installed and it leading to problems)
reported in the engineering press: it would be a
tragedy to see CAT reported next.
I would be very interested in any further
information that is available; from the information
given the average load is nearer 56kW (8 hours
at full load, followed by 3 days at 20 per cent or
‘slumber’), with a unit of this output the thermal
store could be used conventionally – to deal
with the peak loads and allowing the burner to
operate continuously (or more so) at near to 100
per cent output.
I wish you good luck.
Regards
Andy List, C.Eng
PS: at the risk of appearing negative (which
is not my intention) in another article on page
24 you advocate using polystyrene sheets for
insulating the hulls of boats. As you may (or
may not) know there are substantial fire risks
associated with polystyrene. It might be a good
idea to warn readers of this and remind them to
ensure that the polystyrene must be protected
with plasterboard or some other suitable finish.
Dear Editor
Congratulations on an excellent Summer edition
of Clean Slate. There was much of interest.
However I will focus on just one point made in
a letter from David Griffiths, stemming from the
article on population by Rosamund McDougall in
the previous edition. Griffiths suggests that ‘we
must avoid aligning environmentalism with the
poisonous debate about immigration.’ I will give
two reasons why, however desirable that may
be, the subject of immigration cannot be avoided
without avoiding the ‘main point’.
1) The USA provides the best demonstration of
why immigration is the essence of the problem.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA)
estimates that electricity demand will grow by
39 per cent between 2005 and 2030. A 248 page
report has just been circulated entitled 20%
Wind Energy by 2030. But note that an increase
to 20 per cent in the contribution of wind to
the likely electricity energy demand in 2030 is
insufficient to meet the demand increase of 39
per cent forecast by the EIA. Note, too, that
the 39 per cent is accounted for by population
growth. Professor Virginia Abernethy estimates
that population growth in the US is between 1.4
per cent and 1.7 per cent per year. The range
is unavoidable because illegal immigration is
necessarily an imponderable. It would only need
a 1.4 per cent expansion to account for the 39
per cent increase in 25 years.
A close study of the wind energy report shows
that the total construction effort required to
provide this 39 per cent increase in electrical
demand would include: (1) building 220 fossil fuel
plants each of 1000MW (nearly 10 per year); (2)
building and installing, on average, 11 turbines
of 4MW every day for 23 years; (3) building and
installing a national transmission system able to
deal with the wind output.
It is clear both that the end result will be an
increase in fossil fuel use, and also that there
is no way that fossil fuel consumption can
be reduced without tackling the immigration
problem, which is the prime reason for
population expansion in the USA, as it is in the
UK.
2) The second reason is the imminence of
fossil fuel scarcity. Professor David Rutledge,
in the Watson Lecture (http://rutledge.caltech.
edu), estimated that by 2021 the world will have
reached the peak of all fossil fuel production,
and by 2076 humans will have extracted 90 per
cent of all the fossil fuel that we will ever extract.
Those estimates may not be accurate, but if they
are in the ball park, the conclusion is much the
same: here in the UK, we need to be reducing
our population steadily over the next century
to a size that might be supportable without the
advantages of fossil fuels. OPT estimates that
figure at around 20 million. There is no way that
the reduction can be achieved without balanced
migration.
Regards to you, and all at CAT
Andrew
Greetings from Ireland
I was most intrigued to see John Cantor’s
reference to the Kiss Test (Piranha – Dynamo
Shaver, CS68). Surely this is the most innovative,
ecological, environmental and sustainable test
ever introduced by CAT. I think we should be
given full details of this test in the next Clean
Slate and instructions on when and how to apply
it!
Keep up the good work.
All the best
Anthony
Clean Slate 3
reviews
A World Without Bees, Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum, Guardian Books, hardback, 256pp,
£9.99, ISBN 978-0852650929
If climate change doesn’t get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will – this is the rather gloomy message of Alison
Benjamin and Brian McCallum’s well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder – a
honeybee ‘plague’ that has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued
existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee, so it’
it’s fair to say that A World Without
Bees is both an important book and a scary prospect. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into
us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world
of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion that lays the blame firmly on our own
shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be…
Allan Shepherd
Surviving Climate Change:, The Struggle to Avert Global Catastrophe,
Ed. David Cromwell and Mark Levene, Pluto Press, paperback, 272pp, £15.99,
ISBN 978-0745325675
This book will definitely help you to survive climate change in the long term. More immediately it will help you to
survive those conversations in which someone asks, ‘But what can we really do to stop climate change?’ or ‘What
will actually happen if we don’t stop climate change?’
If you want to be more confident when discussing the key issues, particularly in terms of the solutions to this allencompassing environmental problem, then this book is for you. Divided into chapters beginning with ‘The Big Picture:
The Case for Contraction and Convergence’, followed by parts 2, 3 and 4, it covers issues ranging from climate refugees
to the mass media coverage of climate change. The book ends with a positive look at what we can do next to avert global
warming and transform society for the better.
There is an inspiring afterword by Mayer Hillman and a very welcome glossary that explains all the jargon that no-one
understands, followed by a list of groups and organisations to get in touch with, such as the Camp for Climate Action.
The editors have chosen the contributions to ensure a useful mix of background information and peripheral climate
change issues, all put together in refreshingly understandable language.
Tanya Hawkes
DVD – The Age of Stupid, Dir. Franny Armstrong
The Age of Stupid tells the story of climate change from the perspective of a future wrecked by temperature rises,
and is in parts moving, entertaining, amusing and terrifying. Perched in a bunker above the melted Arctic ice cap,
the archivist, played by Pete Postlethwaite (Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) looks back to the beginning of the
twenty-first century – our time – and asks why we didn’t choose to save ourselves when we had the chance.
This fictional structure creates a lively film which is built around some amazing (real life) stories of people who
are already affected by the changing climate. From the French mountain guide who laments the disappearance of
his beloved glaciers, to the Nigerian medical student who has seen her country pillaged by oil companies, and via
Iraq, New Orleans, India and Herefordshire, the quality of these human tales shines through.
Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) has made a film that is entertaining and lively, but which also delivers a
powerful cry against over-consumption and human short-sightedness.
Christian Hunt
Images courtesy of Spanner Films, June 2006, www.crudemovie.net
32 Clean Slate
WWW
European Travel – Amy Dartington
www.nationalexpress.com
Design of this site is poor; it’s hard to find local pick-up points, and the map
inviting you to click on your area for more info directs you to a standard
page with very little regional info. Fares are not displayed until the last
minute, prohibiting easy comparison. Also, there appear to be some
glitches with finding locations to travel from and to. However, you can
find cheaper and more environmentally ways to travel around the UK and
also to many European destinations. This includes the joint train and ferry
‘Dutch Flyer’ routes.
www.bahn.co.uk
This German train service website covers journeys all over Europe.
The site can be viewed in English but does take some getting used to.
If you’re stuck you can call and speak to English speaking operators.
This is different to the English phone info service, which is expensive.
Also journeys starting in Europe can be far cheaper than starting in the
UK, booking two returns both starting in Europe can work out cheaper
than one return starting in the UK and using Eurostar.
www.seat61.com
The ‘man in seat 61’ has, among other things, been station manager at
Charing Cross and London Bridge and has travelled by train all over the
world. This site is a collection of his knowledge, hints, tips and experience
– giving advice and info on how to book tickets, where to find cheap fares,
the best routes to take, how to travel with a bike, and how to find a route
from the UK to Russia, Malta, or Tunisia by combining trains and ships.
It is the best website if you want to travel without flying. Visit the site before
you book any tickets anywhere. Fantastic.
CAT Fundraising
A big thank to all our supporters who have
once again shown their amazing backing for
the work we do here at CAT by providing
the funds needed to help complete
the groundbreaking Wales Institute for
Sustainable Education (WISE).
WISE is at its most exciting stage to date – the
building is almost complete and we are preparing
to install all the energy efficient technologies that
will encourage students to research, deploy and understand
sustainable options from energy efficient computer systems to
a solar hot water system, south facing glazing for passive solar
collection to rammed earth lecture theatre walls. These are just a
few of the working examples of sustainable technology that WISE
will demonstrate to the very students it houses.
These students will be taught the skills and knowledge
required in a society that is attempting the switch from fossil
fuels to renewable energy. In order to achieve this monumental
social change, we have to learn new skills and new techniques,
explore new technologies and conduct many investigations into
the details of every level of this global challenge. WISE will
provide guidance, skills, knowledge and support for the great
minds that will engage with and deliver this promise.
Homeowners will learn how to upgrade
their homes to make them more energy
efficient: the best insulation techniques that are
available, green energy suppliers, which green
technologies they can install themselves, and
how. Businesses will learn about environmental
building techniques and materials. Plumbers
will learn how to install solar water systems and
be educated on the various products on the market.
Electricians will learn how to install PV panels.
We really appreciate all the help you have already given; your
participation is greatly valued and really does make a difference.
We will be holding a supporter’s day once WISE opens, in which
everyone who has made a donation to WISE will be invited to
come, look round and celebrate with us. Can I please take this
opportunity to thank once again all those who have donated – for
even the smallest donations we are sincerely grateful.
If you haven’t already, why not become a supporter of this
environmentally groundbreaking project? Please contact Adam
Thorogood, James Cass, Tanya Hawkes or myself on 01654
704951 or visit the website www.cat.org.uk/wise where you will
also be able to find more information.
Thank you.
Chris Moreton
Clean Slate 33
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