miscellaneous

What we learned this week

Portugal had a goal of ending coal power by 2030, but this month it closed its last coal power station, nine years ahead of schedule. It’s the fourth European country to stop using coal, joining Sweden, Austria and Belgium.

Can you raise Christmas turkeys through regenerative farming practices? This company in California is claiming that by using native grasses rather than farmed feeds, their turkey farms are a net gain for nature.

Credit Suisse have been fined £147 million for fraudulent loans to Mozambique, which have cost the country billions. But since it was the London branch of Credit Suisse, the fine will be collected by the FSA and given to the UK Treasury to spend as they like. Sign the petition from the Jubilee Debt Campaign to send the money to Mozambique where it belongs.

“We need to be alert to context and not ask ‘what will work, generically?’ but ‘what will work and be right for this place and contribute to the bigger picture?’ – because population size, landscape, climate, skills, identity and culture all hold opportunities and barriers for change.” Josie Warden at the RSA asks questions about making global change in specific places, something I often consider here in Luton.

An upcoming talk for this week – in conversation about climate and race with Greta Arena, for the Festival for Change, on Youtube at 9:50am on Wednesday 1st of December.

Picturing where microplastics come from

Here’s an image I came across on social media recently that I found useful. Yes really, something useful on social media. That doesn’t happen often anymore, though I should point out that it was LinkedIn, which used to be the most boring and staid of all social media platforms and now feels like the only…

Osmosis, the other other renewable energy

I’ve been writing about renewable energy for twenty years, and just this week discovered that there’s a whole other kind that I didn’t know about. This is the climate nerd equivalent of my daughter finding a new Pokemon. Usually when we’re talking about renewable energy, it’s wind and solar that come to mind. Biomass is…

Easy energy comparisons

Back when the climate movement was young, we got a lot of tips for cutting carbon with very little context around them. My personal favourite was at LiveEarth, where celebrities offered their favourite eco actions. One of them was to switch off your phone charger at the wall when you’re done. This was recommended to…

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