Allotments 4 All
General => The Shed => Topic started by: paranoid mandroid on December 01, 2005, 10:16:56
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click on the news story below, I believe that this is a much better idea than a carbon tax, because this rewards people who are more energy efficient.
A carbon tax just punishes energy efficient households for the greedy habits of everyone else.
Most poeple i know would have kittens if they thought they would have to watch their consumption habits.
An extension of this idea would make buying local produce rewarding and food which has had to be shipped from thousands of miles away cost 'carbon points'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4479226.stm
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Yes, I remember the energy rationing etc. Sitting in the living room by the glow of the coal fire and one candle. This scheme is worht considering, but I am still concerned about the the role of the big players, eg the US. Without their commitment, any efforts we make are trivial ...
Derekthefox :-\
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i agree about having to get the US on board with schemes like this. apparently australians pollute as much per person its just that there are less people in their country.
it seems that 'high standard of living' translates into 'not very energy efficient'
i suppose it would be hard for everyone to change but its obviously going to be harder for folk who never think about recycling or energy saving.
only since i started the veg gardening have i started to think of the consequences of all that i do. maybe we should make an allotment/garden compulsory :D
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If the gas engineers decide to go ahead with their proposed strike we may well be reliving the 'winter of discontent' in the 70's.
Wasn't that during a Labour Government too?
Derek
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If the gas engineers decide to go ahead with their proposed strike we may well be reliving the 'winter of discontent' in the 70's.
Wasn't that during a Labour Government too?
Derek
Even if it is then the real reason why there are fewer strikes during Tory years is because they curtail rights of the employee in favour of the employer so much that the employee loses their voice and becomes a minimum wage slave.
I enjoyed that programme where families had to cut down and the lady who was advising them gave them info about energy saving etc.
Didn't you think there was a certain amount of cutting down she should have done as well? ;)
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Hmm I get greener as I get older - though it helps when the greener products become available. Just got a batch of low energy bulbs as they're finally small enough to fit in my lampshades - about time!
House is now brighter than it was (replaced 60W bulbs with 100W equivalents) while using 1/3 to 1/5 of the energy.
moonbells
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Me too Moonbells. My husband said last night that he wouldn't be putting the dustbin out again as it's less than half full. I felt dead proud. It's been like this for about a year so just think if everyone's bin was the same ......... :) My ultimate aim is to have nothing in it at all. I'm chivvying like mad at the moment to get my council to recycle plastic milk cartons etc as we have to drive to Sainsburys to recycle them. I don,t as I use mine as weights for my sheet mulch, and measurers for plant food etc on the lotty.
Low energy light bulbs here too :)
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One large windfarm avoids slightly fewer greenhouse gas emissions in a year than are created by ONE jumbo jet flying from Heathrow to Miami and back every day for one year.
When I thought about this fact I realised we can only prepare for the worst now.
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blimey TM, :o not a cheery bunny this morning then?
you're probably right of course!
maybe tho, mother earth is better at healing herself than we give credit for.
well, let's hope eh?
Tara xxx
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I have low energy lamps too. I am toying with the idea of making a little wind powered generator for the shed, to charge an old battery (there is a car battery centre next to the allotments). Even a battery with a failed cell would be ok, the output would just be 10 volts instead of 12 ...
Didn't someone have a link for a DIY wind generator ?
Derekthefox :D
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blimey TM, not a cheery bunny this morning then?
;D Tara. Didn't mean to sound uncheerful. I just don't like to see nice people waste time doing futile stuff. Like paying pension contributions instead of buying solar panels. That sort of thing...
maybe tho, mother earth is better at healing herself than we give credit for.
Hope that doesn't involve extinguishing them pesky humans....
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I suppose on the domestic scale doing a bit of futile stuff is better than nothing but I know what you mean TM. It makes me mad that all the things we should do like recycling is still optional, and tardy local authorities can drag their heels as long as they like, and while they do so our landfills are backing up. The small beer mounts up though but while I;m here saving my tin cans etc the Chinese or Americans are churning out billions of tonnes of crap into the atmos or rivers etc so it's like **ssing in the wind.
I can honestly say though I like recycling and it makes me feel better about me and how I live my life without causing problems for those who come after ;D I've even changed my old man and now instead of having wardrobes filled with clothes he gave them all to the charity shop to save ironing. Now when he needs a shirt to go out he buys one back :) He also enjoys composting as much as I do and making something from nothing. PS I can't afford pension contributions at the moment. I'm having a pension holiday a bit like a gap year ;D
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In the big scheme of things recycling is irrelevant. Some of our carefully sorted waste just ends up dumped in the third world anyway by unscrupulous waste companies. The Chinese economy is indeed booming and burning lots of dirty energy trying to get to where we were forty years ago. Many Americans are fat, selfish so-and-so's who burn even more of the planet than we do...
BUT I reckon the lesson from these depressing facts is that most people don't have it in them to think of their children and save something of the planet for them. I know this because I used to drive big cars, take foreign holidays, buy my food from the supermarket etc. etc. regardless of the real interests of the next generation. The American Dream was a powerful fantasy of happiness that many people have bought into and we can't blame them - especially if we want(ed) it too.
I think we have to accept that sufficent numbers of people are not going to change sufficiently quickly to save our planet from radical change. People can't be forced to give up stuff because it would take some kind of police state just to wean people off their cars...!
I think composting, re-use of waste, and many other skills we use as part of this allotmenting lark are very good. Not because they'll save the world as we know it (too late), but they'll give us, and our children, a fighting chance of survival when it all goes t*ts up...
That thing about pension contributions - I used to be 'in' financial services. What a racket!
Many thousands paid into pensions and lost everything after the .com bubble burst. That was after a blip! How does our way of life survive the end of cheap oil?? Banks, maybe even governments, will fall. I think it's time to start planning for life 'off the grid' now while technologies are still artificially cheap.
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Bit depressed now. Anybody know any good jokes?
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How do you say Chocolate in French? Chocolate in French!! ;D ;D ;D Sorry...probably made you worse.... ::) ;)
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Emphasis was on 'good'... ;) :)
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Powerful stuff Terrace max but probably necessary. I have always tended towards a spartan existence, but have not expected others to follow suit. Unfortunately seeing the big picture can be depressing ... yes, more jokes required I think ...
Derekthefox :D
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And only 54 more years to go...Oh I'm so excited!! ;D ;D ;D Have loads more...
And for what it's worth, I think that the earth will probably end up a right mess, global warming will occur, humans will end up being wiped out, I mean we really haven't been here that long anyway, a small blip in the time line and as already stated the earth will heal itself. So I have to say, though I try and do my little bit, I do think that at the end of the day, in a billion years or so, hopefully, it'll have returned to huge rain forests and all the different ecosystems that were once about with no help from us arrogant humans...
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Did you know that wind tunnel "producers" get 4 times the National Grid price for the electricity they contribute, supposed to encourage something or another ? Never quite figured out what though.
As for wind tunnels, they have been around for hundreds of years, we call them politicians these days ...... ;D
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How can I follow that AD?
What do you call a nun with a washing machine on her head?
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Have been humming and haaing, and am now feeling so proud, cos eldest daughter thinks she knows, remember genes will out.......Holy Washer!!! Sorry is worse than mine, but did chuckle!! ;D ;D ;D ;)
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??? don't get it
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Wrong answer Lottie! ::)
What do you call a nun with a washing machine on her head?
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Sister-Matic??
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Darn it!! Did TM get it right?? Though thought that was a Pop Group... ??? and TM ,don't worry, have all the time in the world to explain it to you.....though will need flip chart..... ;D ;D ;D
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Kerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrect TM ;D
Hope you've cheered up ;)
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Not really. Just heard about Sophie Ellis Bextor :(
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Apparently she's been found dead in a French footballer's bedroom...
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Police suspect it may be murder on Zidane's floor...
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Groaaaaaaaaaaaan ::)
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Now that is a very poor joke that needs to be said out loud.
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You're a critical bunch this evening! Shall we talk about ecological meltdown instead...?
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No, that's inevitable because there just is not the will ot there to do anything about it. You are right in what you say TM in that it is us bunch that will be best prepared. So it will be a process of natural selection - the greedy polluting b*stards will die because they will not be prepared or be able to cope in the new world.
Now that is looking at it optimistically - we will achieve the lives we crave and an end to those we despise.
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the greedy polluting b*stards will die because they will not be prepared or be able to cope in the new world.
But they might repossess my allotments first. I fear the famished hordes...
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You know, it's funny you should say that, I've often wondered how people would cope if they had to really look out for themselves......
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This all doomwatch material ...
Derekthefox :D
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For this, and other reasons, I'd like to live here:
http://www.propertyworld.com/propertyDetails.cfm/propertyID/6958/image/11394#imagepos
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Oh, and biodiesel isn't the answer either:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worse-than-fossil-fuel/
:(
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Will fight you for first one!! It's lovely!!
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Do you know that area at all UP? Seriously wild, pretty bleak in winter but paradise on earth IMO.
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TM is my idea of heaven, no peeps, just space...loads of space....was brought up on farm with no neighbours for 4miles, could quite happily live without shops cos hate them, live without hairdressers cos they screw it up anyway, and just have veg patch, livestock and big fire, so yes, I certainly could...now live in semi, with neighbours I like but have to speak too, and only feel me when at lottie, tending veg and doing the two step!! To be away from the constant intrusion of 21st centruy living?? Yes please!! That answer your question?? LOL! Oh yes, would be in heaven... ;D
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TM Have you ever been to Tan Hill? (kaber Fell)
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Tan hill, isnt that on the Pennine way. or am I lost as usual ...
Derekthefox ;D
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No, you're correct DTF. That's the last time I was at the Tan Hill Inn - doing the Pennine Way in 1981...
Wardy - The house in question must be about 2 or 3 miles from there. I seem to remember the stage of the PW north of Tan Hill was even lonelier...
UP couldn't agree more. Never thought such a life would be good for the kids, though, so remained in suburbia....
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Well, from someone who was a river rat child, and spent days building camps, racing around on bikes, jumping in the mud and generally getting mucky, turning up for tea only to be hosed down outside by me mum, I'd go like a shot! Only wish I could give my kids that childhood.....
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TM I worked for a firm of surveyors and they had to go up there, surveying mine shafts I think, and they were all so struck by it everyone ended making a visit to the pub up there, where they stayed, the Tan Hill Inn. My husband and I paid a visit when we were coming back from Scotland. Apparently it's the highest pub in England and it's on the Pennine Way. We went on a bright afternoon, well it was bright when we got to Kaber Fell but it soon began to get wet and bleak, quite eerie really. It was in the middle of nowhere and I thought we must be lost as there was no sign of a pub but we pressed on and found it eventually. The only chap we saw en route was a shepherd and his dog on a quad bike. When we got to the pub though it was packed out with people :) This was just after the foot and mouth crisis and the pub was on its knees because no-one could use it for the duration. We had a drive round the area and there are some lovely villages. Very hilly though :)
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Yes terracemax, I walked the PW in 1981, or was it 1980, I cannot remember. I do recall, arriving at Tan Hill, in disgusting rain, perhaps not as bad as Wainwrights entry in his book though (sheltering under an umbrella ?), and after a spot of early lunch, the next destination was Keld, a very austere looking youth hostel, with fabulous pasties for tea I remember, and some excellent home made vegetable soup. The warden declared it had 53 ingredients, of which 51 were legal ... ;D Happy days indeed ...
Derekthefox :D
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The warden declared it had 53 ingredients, of which 51 were legal ...
;D ;D
My main memory of that summer was the heat - it was just thundery all the time; exciting when you're on the top of Black Hill with lightning striking the moor around you: but most of the time just sweating along in a grey fug. Or was that the Keld soup ;)
Wardy - when I came out of the Tan Hill Inn, a little worse for wear, I stepped in a swamp up to my groin!
UP - Agree with all you say. My only fear for the kids would have been the isolation from other children. I reckon kids are pack animals. But I can speak in the past tense now because we almost have a pack of our own now...all I need now is £550,000 ...
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Well, what you waiting for!!! ::) ;)
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a rich relative to cark it...oh, don't have any... :(
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Oh TM, really, must I think of everything.....Borrow one.::) ::) ::) ;)
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No Terracemax, it must have been 1980 then, because I remember it rained and rained and rained, everywhere was flooded, the bogs were horrific ... All my gear was wet, I almost had trenchfoot, my feet were terrible, the blisters were just awful. I remember many cold shivery nights, in the middle of summer !!!
Still, it was an experience, and wonderful to look back on now ...
Derekthefox :D
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I seem to havemisse this thread - not sure how!
Interesting read though :)
I too live in a suburban semi but originated from the back of beyond, married a towny and the rest is history. I feel like a fish out of water and in many ways would love to provide my sprogs with a similar upbringing to my own but can also see the advantages of living where we do.
The solution to my problem is to live in MY WORLD, totally oblivious to the eventual destruction of our planet. When reality rears its ugly head I simply turn my back and return to Delilah's Kingdom ;D
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Wayhey, I have been doing that for the past few years !!!
I no longer watch television, or read newspapers ...
I live life on my terms, and feel a lot better for it. Fortunately I am harmless so they leave me alone ... ;D
Derekthefox :D
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Can't remember the last time a bought a newspaper, only watch the news in the morning cos then I am so busy I can forget the bad news ( only watch it then cos I think that perhaps its perhaps a wise idea to an inkling of whats happening around me).
If I watch telly it has to be a nice, feel good sort of programme, or a gardening/wildlife programme. I mainly read and post on A4A for my entertainment :D
We are only here once in our current form and I intend to enjoy my time ;D Easier said than done I know thats why I live in MY WORLD.
Very few peeps understand me, they just think I'm bonkers, maybe I am but like you DtF I'm not doing any harm ;D I actually think I'm quite balanced ;D
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Well, I attempted a spot of tv watching yesterday, sat there, watched, twitched, picked at jeans......general fiddling, til OH got fed up with me jumping about the sofa!! Though did record that Prehistoric Monster thingy for kids, but have to say even they seem to be losing interest in the tv, thank goodness!!!
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I know I am unusual, perhaps even dysfunctional, but I believe there are others out there like me ... I think I know one other person who doesnt watch television ... she prefers sticking seeds on strips of newspaper. Perhaps this could be the start of another social group ... hmmm something to think about there ...
Derekthefox :D