Category: Ecology Issues

Energy Co-Operatives For Street Lighting.

I’ve mentioned the idea of powering street lighting by the use of solar and vertical wind turbines before now. There are many different designs to choose from.

What I didn’t mention is just how this might be achieved.

How it might be done.

What I’d also like to encourage are energy workers co-operatives which could operate in our city centres.

The idea being that they would install and run street lighting on behalf of all the local authorities.

This would save us all a lot in terms of local council taxes, provide much needed jobs, and generate wealth via the feed in tariff.

Best of all there would be no power loss over the electricity grid.

Aside from a little imagination all that would be needed is a little start up money, which could be set aside from the amount of money which local authorities currently spend on street lighting, and the political will to do.

It would be really good to know if anyone is interested in developing this idea.

Fly Ash

This is an important news story which we all need to consider.

Concrete shortage looms for major projects.

This all comes down to the fact that there is much less Fly Ash being produced in the UK.

Fly ash is used to ensure the setting of concrete and plaster. It provides concrete with more protection from wet conditions and chemical attack.

There is now much less of the raw material uses to make fly ash. This is due to the declining use of coal by power plants. Thus there might be increasing exports of Fly ash from places like India.

The bottom line being that there will be fewer economic reasons to close the coal power plants in the countries where this material comes from. This in turn is bad news in terms of stopping climate change.

That’s why it is important to develop an alternative to this material.

Mapping The Unknown.

Not Covered.

There is a remark I keep hearing while talking with people about Fukushima and the radioactive pacific:
‘ I’ve not heard about that before now’.

This is no surprise as very little is being published in the worlds media about the ongoing disaster at the plant.

Yet should this come as a surprise to most of us ?

Not Known.

I’ve not seen any reports coming out of North Korea about the issue, and just don’t expect to see any.

Neither have I seen any reports coming out of China, or the Russian Federation.

Logically: –

– If the damaging effects of radioactive exposure are being felt around Alaska, then something similar should be going on along the coasts of Eastern Siberia.

&
– I would also assume that similar biological damage is happening around the earthquake pron coasts of the Kuril Islands.

So where are these reports to be seen?

Mapping it Out.

I’ve been looking at a lot of maps of late.

These are the maps which show the sea currents which goes up though the Bering strait, in to the Chukchi sea, and around the Antarctic Ocean.

Looking at these maps it would seem logical that some of the radioactive material from Fukushima is or has entered in to this region of the world.

This being so: –

Then a part of it will soon start to flow south in to the North Atlantic.

What Comes Next?

We just don’t know.

Yet consider the following: –

The ice in the Antartic is melting as a result of climate change, and many new sea routes are being opened up.

This sea melting might well start to effect ocean currents, and thus the global circulation of radioactivate material from Fukushima.

As to the when and how of this: –

We just don’t know.

What I do know is that there is a lot more which we need to know, both in order to find out just what is going in the North Eastern Pacific, and thus the Antartic Ocean.

All else can only be educated guesses and speculation.

Monitoring The Effects.

Pacific Problems.

The effects of the radiative leaks in to the sea from Fukushima are spreading, and very few people seem to be aware of just how major problem this has become.

Only in a few places such are we finding any attempts to monitor just how this radioactivity is effecting marine life.

Yet think on —-

– Plankton, & Krill.

– Big Fish eat smaller fish.

– Birds and mammals eat fish.

It goes right up the food chain.

Now we are reading about polar bears becoming sick in Alaska.

The Pacific Ocean is dying and very few people seem to be aware of it.

Global Problems.

Think on a little more —-

Just how will this build up of radiation effect seaweed ?

&

How will the death of so much carbon absorbing sea life effect global warming ?

We just don’t know.

– The scientific data does not exist.

– There has never been such global disaster in the whole of human history.

&

It is a much bigger disaster than anything which has gone before now.

A Global Effort.

Thus there is an urgent need to establish a global monitoring and analysis body to study just what is and will happen as a result of the continuing disaster at Fukushima.

The key to this monitoring study will be just how much longer will there be large amounts of radiation flowing in to the Pacific.

In order to do this we will need to monitor the situation with the combined efforts of the following: –

Marine Biologists.
Oceanographers.
Human Biologists.
Ornithologists.
Radiologists.
Climatologists.
Doctors.
Zoologists.
Agrarians.
and
Statisticians.

Then the longer term social effects will need to be looked at by both sociologists and economists.

Only then will we just about start to appreciate the long term problems which we face.

All Along the Coast Line.

Something strange is happening along the pacific coastline.

This has been happening from Alaska southwards to California.

Now we are starting to get the same sort of reports from Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Both fish and marine mammals are being washed up dead, or reported to be suffering from horrific diseases.

Meanwhile: – Fukushima is a major global threat to all living flora and fauna .

All these reports would seem to indicate that life in the Pacific Ocean is dying.

Just read these reports and you will know why many of us are extremely worried about the continuing disaster at Fukushima.

A Little Long Term Thinking

Problems Solved.

I keep hearing people being very pessimistic about our future
prospects due to climate change,
and yet there are still many things which we can all do in order to
stop this ecological disaster from completely destroying us all.

Yet it’s not so long ago that we all faced other ecological
problems which are no longer with us.

– We no longer have cadmium used in plastic toys.

– Tin soldiers are a thing of the past.

– A ‘Pea Souper’ is now just an historical expression.

– Drums of low lever nukiller waste are no longer dumped in to the Atlantic.

– We no longer build our homes with cancer causing asbestos.

– There is now an international ban on the use of  PCBs
[ polychlorinated biphenyl ].

&

– We no longer discharge untreated sewage in to many rivers throughout the world.

Problems Still To Be Solved.

That’s a good record so far, but we still have a lot more to do.

Though the task list might be a short one it could we a while
before we complete these tasks: –

– Reafforestation.

– Stopping over population.

– No longer using climate changing fuels.

&

– Closing  down the Nukiller power industry.

Yet it is the longer term which we really do need to be thinking about.

Starting with the decades and still working on the same issues for centuries to come.

One of the major problems with Nukiller power is that it takes
many decades to decommission these plants.

The current and future problem being that it will take between
100 & 120 years before all the existing fuel rods are cool enough
to move. That’s not my line, but what we have been told by those
who run these plants.

Then all the highly radioactive & chemically complex waste will
need to be stored: –

– Not just centuries, but many thousands of years to come.

So far there have been many ideas put forward about how to deal with this waste,
but no realistic solutions are in sight.

27013

If dealing with this waste was ever to be added to the electricity
fuel bill which we all pay for,
then it would equate to a life after life mortgage for many many
generations to come.

It would be like asking the average taxpayer to contribute to the
building of the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, Stone Henge,
Wells Cathedral, and for that debt to continue until the year 27013.

The year 27013 being based upon the half life of plutonium,
but of course it will still be very dangerous for a lot longer than that.

Now this is were the really scary issue kicks in.

Most current anti-nukiller campaigning centres around stopping new plants being built,
and the current ones closed down.

Yet that is just the start of our long term problems.

We need to be thinking and campaigning upon just what will happen to these plants in the long term.

That is why we will need to all think about a 120 year anti-nukiller campaigning strategy,
and we need to do it now.

Though there are still a lot more nukiller ‘accidents’ waiting to happen.

While we still have the continuing disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima to resolve.

There are very few people who are capable of doing any long term thinking,
never mind thinking in to centuries to come,
yet that is just what we all need to start doing right now.

The Power of Wind Power In Our Cities.

Anyone who has ever held a smiling sun flag or anti-nukiller-power banner will know just what the wind can do.

Here is proof of just what we can do with such a power.

UK windfarms now generate enough power to light and heat more than 3 million homes.

Now if only that power could be used to power vertical windturbines on our city street, and combined it with solar panels , then we would never need to pay for street lighting ever again.

Just think of the savings which would be made on public expenditure this way,  and how that money might be better used for social care or libraries.

Such projects could also kick start local economies,
& be an ideal form of co-operative employment.

Vertical Wind Turbines.

There are a lot of people who do not like wind turbines to be
placed in the countryside.

The real problem is not where they are constructed,
but how to generate electrical power just where it is needed the
most:  –
i.e.  In our cities or urban centres.

I was in centre of Bristol last week, and came upon the site of a
vertical wind turbine which is installed on top of a roof.

It looked very elegant indeed.

There are a lot of very good technical reasons why this type of
vertical turbine in ideal for use within urban areas.

The are many different models to choice from.

Some of them are also being used in offshore wind farms.

There are also a lot of very imaginative designs for windturbines
which have been and are being developed right now.

I look forward to the day in which they become just as common a
sight as the urban fox.

So Called Ecologists.

There is an old saying which likens ‘Fighting for Peace’ to that
of screwing for virginity.

There are co-called ecologists who claim that the problem of
climate change can only be solved by the use of nukiller
power.

They would seem to of forgotten that mining of Uranium,
and every thing else about nukiller power produces Climate
changing damage.

This says nothing of the other long term ecological mess
which nukes produce.

We can stop climate change
– by cutting our energy use,
– by building wind farms,
– by better insulation of our homes,
&
– reverse things by growing more trees.

What we can not do is work out how to safely store the
radioactive sludge which result from the use of nukiller
power,
or
guarantee to safeguard this very toxic waste into the coming
millenniums.

So when the likes of George Monbiot states that Nukes are the
answer to Climate change,
then all I can do is sing the words to that popular old song:
‘and the band played believe it if you can’.