Archive for the ‘Climate Change’ Category
Global Warming – the debate
Friday, July 30th, 2010
My recent visit to Malawi and how you could help stop deforestation
Friday, July 9th, 2010I’ve recently returned from a short visit to Malawi to visit the charity Ripple Africa, which our company has been supporting for a few months. You can read about our partnership with Ripple Africa here.
I was keen to see the work of Ripple Africa and how the small charity was making a difference to the environment and local community around Mwaya Beach.
Upon arriving in Malawi and taking the 4 hour taxi ride to Mwaya it was clear that there is a real problem with deforestation. In the South of the country most of the indigenous forest areas have been cut down for firewood and due to shifting cultivation. The population of Malawi has grown from around 4-5 million in the 1970s to around 14 million today and this is putting major pressure on resources. The following picture is typical of the terrain in much of Malawi:
Occasionally you will see clumps of indigenous trees around burial areas, but mostly the land has become barren. Shem, my taxi driver, was keen to point out that when he was a child all these areas were covered in trees with an abundance of wildlife, but during his lifetime the landscape had changed for the worst. It is shocking to see how humans are having such a devastating effect on the environment in this part of the world.
Where Ripple Africa is based much of the natural forest cover is still in tact as the area is less populated, and much of the hills are still covered by trees but even here there is pressure on this natural environment:
The problem is complex. With an increasing population and the need for firewood for cooking (most of the people have no electricity or gas) and shifting cultivation the need for trees to be cut down is massive.
All over Malawi you will see the locals collecting firewood:
Or chopping down trees for timber for constructing homes:
Geoff Furber from Ripple Africa took me to various sites to help me understand the problem, and show me how they are working with the local community to try ensure that more of the forest areas are protected.
They have around 100 tree nurseries established where they assist local villagers in growing trees from seedlings and then finding suitable sites for planting. Each tree nursery nurtures around 3000 seedlings around the July / August period with Ripple Africa supplying the tubes, pesticides, tools and expertise to these communities.
The focus is on producing fast growing trees which can be used for firewood in 3-5 years and fruit trees which provide much needed food.
By growing thousands of fast growing trees for firewood there will be less need for the people to cut down the nearby forests.
I visited a local primary school where the teachers and children together are planting thousands of trees. Ripple Africa is keen to help educate communities as to the problem of deforestation, and getting children involved in tree planting is crucial:
The children at the primary school were very proud of their wood lot and were keen to show me around the school and performed dancing and peoms for me before I left to visit the next tree planting site:
To put things in perspective, Ripple Africa is the only NGO working in this area on reforestation. The Government of Malawi seems to be doing very little to solve the problem, and when you consider that there could well be virtually no trees left in Malawi in 30-50 years you would think there would be more direct action.
Every family in Malawi gets through around 2 trees per week of firewood for cooking. They use a very simple method of cooking by placing 3 stones together and feeding the wood into the central area as follows:
Ripple Africa have developed a more efficient fuel wood burning stove called an ‘Mbaula’ which uses one third of the amount of wood during cooking.
Also, Geoff has developing an even more efficient system using 17 bricks which might be a better solution for the future as most communities have enough bricks to use, and it works out cheaper than producing the Mbaulas. Here you can see Geoff showing how the bricks can be constructed, and explaining the amount of wood they will save:
Ripple Africa are keen to engage on a major education initiative to local communities and by helping them use this new system of cooking then there will be less pressure on the indigenous trees of Malawi.
I was very impressed with the work of Ripple Africa and they have a management structure and team of co-ordinators whom I met who are visiting all the sites regularly and working with the communities.
I intend to go back to Malawi (possibly in November) to see the beginning of the tree planting season, and also to witness the massive problem at this time of year when farmers burn down forests to create space for cultivation at the beginning of the growing season.
If deforestation continues at its current rate then Malawi will have very little of its natural environment left within 30 years. With climate change and anthropogenic global warming a very real danger for all of humanity then I believe the problem of deforestation in Malawi is also a problem for the people of the UK. (I might add that we should not judge the people of Malawi as we cut most of our forests down hundreds of years ago!)
I’m keen to continue supporting Ripple Africa with its environmental initiative, but to make a real difference in Malawi the operation needs expanding.
I would be keen to talk to anybody from within the UK double glazing industry who is keen to get involved and help financially. It would be great to think that our industry adopted a tree planting and conservation initiative in this part of the world, by helping Ripple Africa in its work.
I would be keen to talk to anyone interested. Email me at matthew@conservatoryoutlet.co.uk
By the way, I took loads of pictures while in Malawi and you can view some of the best ones on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=229274&id=716628351&ref=mf
and:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=229507&id=716628351&ref=mf
I was wrong about climate change. It’s clearly a hoax!!!!
Thursday, June 24th, 2010I had been getting worried about anthropogenic global warming, but this guy has made me realise it’s all just a hoax:
This is the first part of a series of videos from The Ghost of Sabotage, and I look forward to featuring part 2 of the climate change hoax (unless people suggest I shouldn’t).
I agree with Kev
Friday, April 23rd, 2010I don’t know if you’ve been following the leaders debate reaction on Twitter, but there has been a campaign with followers of Nick Clegg (or people swayed by his arguments) using the hashtag #iagreewithnick:
Well, I’d like to propose a double glazing industry version:
#iagreewithkev
As you may have noticed Kevin has been a lone voice campaigning for answers on various forums and websites for the BFRC to come clean about the science behind solar gain in the WER calculations.
In a post on the GlassTalk blog, there was a dialogue between Giles Willson from the BFRC and Kevin Ahern as follows:
Kevin Ahern: I personally believe all this talk of european methodology is all very nice , but the fact remains that when this formula was derived by Dr Robin Kent the resultant index ALWAYS produced a negative value to the index No. After the BFRC got hold of the formula it substantially changed. The solar gain factor increased by around 33% from the project you appear to describe. I have only had one question that I have been asking for quite some time. What is the climate reference source for the solar flux data that you use in your formula ? If you could kindly let me know then we can all evaluate the formula based on it’s scientific merits. If it is proved to be an accurate energy balance formula ,then we can all help to make it work if it is not then we would be entitled to know why the scheme exists.
After all it is the BFRC ‘limitations to use’ that tells us the formula is NOT an accurate energy balance formula. please refer to My GGP article in March edition. I believe that there are significant issues with the implementation of the scheme, but that they all boil down to the exagerrated solar gain in the formula.
One sentence from you may clear the whole thing up , the climate reference source for the solar flux data that you use in your formula .
Giles Willson: Kevin, I can assure you that the formula has NOT changed since BFRC Ltd was established in June 2006. The constants have remained the same which would impact on the solar gain factor. Hope this helps?
Kevin Ahern: In that case would you mind explaining who the custodian of the formula was in 2003, date of publication of the ‘derivation of the A and B constants’. Bearing in mind, of course, that the BFRC logo is all over the 2003 document. Or is the 2006 date your trump card and you will wash your hands of all that went before.
Giles Willson: Sorry I do not understand your comment Kevin. I have just looked at the BFRC report “Deriving A and B factors for the UK climate” dated 22 September 2003. The constants are A = 218.6 and B 68.5.
These are the constants the BFRC scheme use today. So nothing has changed.
Kevin Ahern: Put simply Giles , that report does NOT state the reference source for the climate data that it uses to create the 218.6 solar factor.
Question 1 can you identify that reference source please.
May I quote from Dr Robin Kent, which is likely the result of the government funded, academia and peer review process, that you eluded to in your original answer.
http://www.tangram.co.uk/TI-Glazing-Energy_Rating_for_Facades.html
Paper presented at ‘The whole life performance of facades’ conference at CWCT, Bath 18 April 2001.
From which I will quote ..
“The British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) has produced a Domestic Window Energy Rating Scheme (DWER) to produce a single rating number for window energy efficiency.
The rating number is calculated from the individual values of the major energy transfer mechanisms. These are:
1. The U-value, which measures the overall window U-value and not just the glass component.
2. Solar heat gain coefficient (g), which measures how well a product transmits solar radiation and is a number between 0 and 1. A lower g means less solar heat gain.
3. Air Infiltration (L50), which measures air leakage through the window when it is closed.
These values are applied via the formula:
DWER = (25.9g – 11U – 0.12L50) + 74 (1)
where the correction factor 74 is used to produce a rating number from 1 to 100 for ease of understanding by consumers.”
Now, we see that the BFRC has produced this formula, and while it is produced in a different scale, it is the ratio of gain to heat loss that interests us.
Formula ratios, original formula 25.9 / 11 = 2.35
2003 formula 218.6 / 68.5 = 3.2
So we can see that in 2003, the government funded, academia etc etc etc formula was re written and presented with 36% higher solar gain ratio.
Hence my question, can you identify that reference source of the climate data that was used to re write the formula please?
I have to say , I have just had a thought that you may not be familiar with this work, or the alterations I report , but from the lack of help from some at your organization I was presuming that you (BFRC) were just trying to ignore me and suppress the information. So please forgive me, if I have come across a little ‘forceful’.
I hope this helps to clarify my position and has not confused you further, but just to clarify.. can you identify that reference source of the climate data that was used to re write the formula in 2003 please?
———-
23 Days have elapsed since Kevin made the final request to Giles for the reference source of the climate data that was used to write the formula in 2003.
I have to admit I find the science a bit hard to understand, but the fact that the BFRC are unable to answer Kevin’s question is suspicious to say the least.
The vast majority of people in our industry want to support the WER scheme wholeheartedly but as long as there is a doubt about the fundamental science behind them, I will find it very difficult to get behind the scheme.
So, until this scientific evidence is put forward, I have to say #iagreewithkev.
Let’s pull together and do our bit for the environment
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010I’ve now set things up with Ripple Africa for Conservatory Outlet to fund 24 tree nurseries in Malawi, and you may have seen the press release we’ve sent out to the trade media. For example, this is the release in the Glazine:
http://www.the-glazine.com/WeeklyFolders/glazine13april2010/African_charity_link-up.html.
I’ve also added details on the Conservatory Outlet website with the emphasis on every frame we make (window frame, conservatory frame, composite door) then we plant a tree.
In actual fact, we’re more likely to make around 50,000 frames this year so we’re actually planting more than one tree per frame, but the numbers are not really too important.
What interests me is the idea that other companies in our industry join Conservatory Outlet and support Ripple Africa in planting thousands of trees in this very poor part of the world. This is about alleviating poverty while at the same time absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helping fight climate change.
I’ve spoken to a couple of big players in our industry who are keen to get involved. I’m intending to go over to Malawi in June / July to see the charity in action and visit the various tree nurseries.
Wouldn’t it send out a good message to consumers if as an industry we were planting millions of trees whilst at the same time helping fight poverty in one of the poorest countries of the world….
If you wish to find out more please email me at matthew@conservatoryoutlet.co.uk
Why I’ve decided to plant trees in Africa
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010If you’re a regular reader you’ll know I’ve been grappling with the whole climate change issue for a while now.
Back in January 2009 I tried to set up a tree planting charity with a few other people from the industry, and actually went as far as creating website called Trees4Windows.com. At the time, I lost a bit of enthusiasm when I received negative feedback from some quarters, and then buried myself back into work commitments. But, I never stopped thinking that I would at some point like to get involved with planting trees on a large scale.
Then, more recently I’ve been thinking about climate change a lot more, as a result of the post I wrote about whether humans are responsible for anthropogenic global warming. The debate between John O’Sullivan and Canbanjo allowed me to research both the skeptic and ‘warmist’ points of view, and I’ve read a lot about the science supporting human induced global warming.
I have come to the conclusion that whether or not global warming is happening, the risks associated with not acting are greater than those associated with acting. So, I am going to try cut my own personal CO2 emissions as much as I can, and try to reduce those of my company. (By the way, I decided to order a BMW 318d rather than the Jag or the milk float, as the CO2 emissions are lowish, and fuel economy will save me money).
I then started researching tree planting again. Back in January 2009 I met up with the Woodland Trust to see if we could set up a deal with them for planting trees on a large scale, and with other companies from our industry taking part. The problem for me was that to sponsor a tree is around £15 – which covers the cost of the tree, planting it, purchase of land, maintaining it over the coming years and a contribution towards the overheads of the charity. To me, that’s not good value for money, and not enough trees could be planted.
So, I started researching dorestation and reforestion projects in the Amazon Rainforest. There does seem to be a lot of focus on the Amazon Rainforest, and for very good reasons. I found that the rate of deforestation in the area has slowed over recent years, so I then started researching deforestation in Africa, and found this website:
I was immediately impressed with the website and liked the feel of the charity, probably because it reminded me of Heal. Ripple Africa is run by a husband and wife team, Geoff and Liz Furber, who are based in Buckingham. They set up the charity around five years ago after purchasing a small property next to Lake Malawi and decided to start helping out the local community.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and the charity is involved in education, healthcare and environmental projects. In particular, Geoff and Liz have put a lot of time and effort into setting up tree nurseries.
According to the website:
Trees in Malawi are being cut down at an alarming rate. An area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every 10 minutes. This tree planting project is centred in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi, Africa, an area of 4,000 sq.km which is about the size of Kent. Ultimately, we want to set up 400 community tree nurseries growing a total of 4 million trees per year.
Since 2006, we have helped 176 community tree nurseries to plant over three million trees, and we estimate that 3,000 people are working on this project. We are planting a combination of indigenous, exotic and fruit trees. The main aims of the project are to provide sustainable timber in woodlots for firewood, building, etc., to restore degraded land by planting indigenous trees, and to provide additional food using fruit trees and nitrogen-fixing trees. In addition to tree planting, we are also involved in environmental awareness training.
Trees in Malawi are being cut down at an alarming rate. An area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every 10 minutes. This tree planting project is centred in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi, Africa, an area of 4,000 sq.km which is about the size of Kent. Ultimately, we want to set up 400 community tree nurseries growing a total of 4 million trees per year.
Since 2006, we have helped 176 community tree nurseries to plant over three million trees, and we estimate that 3,000 people are working on this project. We are planting a combination of indigenous, exotic and fruit trees. The main aims of the project are to provide sustainable timber in woodlots for firewood, building, etc., to restore degraded land by planting indigenous trees, and to provide additional food using fruit trees and nitrogen-fixing trees. In addition to tree planting, we are also involved in environmental awareness training.
So, I made contact and went down to meet Geoff and Liz on Monday to find out more, particularly about the environmental side of their work. I have to say, the passion and hard work that they put into this small charity is very inspiring, and they do it for free as volunteers. The vast majority of the money they raise is sent to Malawi where they are now the largest employer in that area of Malawi.
They accept that it has not all been plain sailing, and they are still learning as they go, but they are making a real difference to the lives of very poor people.
I have decided to support the work of Ripple Africa, and particularly help fund their tree nursery projects. We have agreed to fund 24 tree nurseries which will plant in the region of 72,000 trees per year. We will promote the relationship with Ripple Africa through our Conservatory Outlet website. The detail needs sorting out, but we will promote something like ‘For every conservatory we install, we will plant 50 trees in Malawi’.
I hate to use the term ‘carbon offsetting’ as the planting of trees in Malawi is more than just trying to help climate change. Ripple Africa’s primar environmental objectives are to help local communities in Malawi to:
plant trees
reduce deforestation and land degradation
protect and manage the local environment
develop sustainable local livelihoods
alleviate poverty
I’m not for one minute suggesting that by partnering with Ripple Africa I’ll be making a massive contribution to fighting global warming. The problem needs tackling head on by world leaders on a macro scale with a massive change in how we look at energy generation.
For me, I’m happy to be helping a small charity make a big difference. I’ll finish this post by recommending you view the following video:
You can view other videos from Ripple Africa at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/rippleafrica#p/u
If other companies are interested in helping Ripple Africa with their environmental projects, please contact me. There is also the potential to resurrect the Trees4Windows concept with the focus on planting trees in Malawi. I hope to visit Malawi in the Summer and see the tree nurseries in action.
In the meantime, I look forward to hearing your constructive thoughts…
Finally I’ve decided what car to buy
Saturday, March 6th, 2010Back in July I asked for your help in deciding what type of car to buy. To be honest, I’ve been dithering ever since, partly because I’ve been too busy thinking about other things, and partly because I’ve been wrestling with all this environmental stuff.
Anyway, when I flew over to Northern Ireland a month or so ago, on the way back I was browsing the inflight magazine and saw a pretty good write up for a Jaguar XF. For those of you not particularly interested in cars (like me) this is what they look like:
I decided this car looked quite nice, and the emissions were not too bad at 179 g/km. I also quite liked the idea of driving a Jaguar as I am heading rapidly towards middle age.
But, just as I was about to order one, I asked the question on this website about whether humans are responsible for global warming. As I gave the subject more thought, I started to harbour guilty thoughts about buying the Jag.
So, I went back to the drawing board to try find something more environmentally friendly. I searched high and low and found that the best option for me is a Mega Electric Van.
So, I think I’m going to buy this:
At home I use Good Energy as our electricity supplier which is 100% renewable energy. So, by driving an electric vehicle I’ll actually be responsible for no CO2 emissions whatsover. I’m going to get it sign written, and there’s plenty of space in the back for my sample windows.
There are a few disadvantages, such as a top speed of 30 mph and a maximum distance of 40-60 miles before needing a recharge. As I’m keen to generate more dealers in the South of England I’m going to have to start going down the night before if I have a good lead (I don’t want to be late).
Also, I was wondering if any of you would mind me popping in when I need to recharge the battery. I’ll just need to plug it into a standard socket for a couple of hours, then I’ll be on my way.
So what do you think? Have I made the right decision here?
(Nb. I do have one other option I’m looking at as well, though. If this deal doesn’t come off, I might get a BMW 318d Business Edition with far lower emissions than the Jag at 120 g/km).
Is Anthropogenic Global Warming really a hoax?
Sunday, February 28th, 2010When I suggested in a previous post that ‘Humans are responsible for Global Warming’ I wasn’t expecting the degree of debate the issue of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) would generate on my site.
The main debate involves ‘canbanjo’ an architect who stumbled upon my site while searching for information about the Part L requirements for small extensions, and John O’Sullivan, an experienced climate sceptic who believes global warming is history’s biggest scam.
John’s profile on his blogger webpage states that he is a:
British crime writer and legal advocate, John O’Sullivan was born in 1961 in Berkshire, England, the son of immigrant Irish parents. An avid scholar, John taught and lectured for twenty years at various schools and colleges in the east of England. He litigated, with his second wife, a former New York correction officer, in one of America’s longest and most extraordinary sexual harassment cases. He has gleaned a wealth of knowledge and experience in filing court petitions, motions, mandamus and appeals in the New York State Division of Human Rights, mandamus petitions in the New York State Supreme Court, as well as US federal court. John has also prepared analysis and arguments used in UK criminal court that concerned police officer malfeasance. He has written two ‘Cupboard 55′ novels including ‘Summit Shock’ based on his wife’s epic story. Among the author’s other published credits are; ‘The Jimston Journal’, ‘Invisible Ink,’ ‘The Secret Attic,’ ‘Big Ugly Review and’ ‘The Zip Book.’ John is a prolific writer with over 100 publishing credits relating to his analysis of the ‘Climategate’ data fraud scandal involving criminal conduct by an elite clique of climate scientists.
I find it very difficult to take John’s comments seriously, and if you read some of the nonsense on the ClimateGate.com website of which he is a contributor it is very worrying. John contributes to many blogs on climate change – he must have ‘Google Alerts’ (or similar) set for terms like ‘global warming’ which allows him to easily identify relevant content where he can copy and paste from a library of tosh (whilst building links and traffic to the ClimateGate.com website at the same time).
Basically, John believes he’s in a battle against the ‘religion of settled science’. According the the ClimateGate website:
The goal of Climategate.com is to provide a daily dose of information regarding the world’s greatest scam, climategate, and other information and news to help you in your battle against the Religion of Settled Science to dispute their views on Anthropogenic Global Warming, and in addition, to battle the one-world socialist agenda, which is the movement’s leaders’ real goal.
So, Climategate.com publishes material that they hope others will spread across the internet, creating as much confusion as possible so that the normal man or woman in the street is unsure about the real science. I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories, and to suggest that 97.5% of the world’s climate scientists are conspiring to create a one-world socialist government seems so far fetched it sounds laughable.
An example of the desperate measures the ClimateGate.com team undertakes is when they supported Nick Griffin from the BNP stating he ‘tells it like it is’. They later decided to pull the article when even their normally supportive followers pointed out they’d gone a bit too far this time.
John O’ Sullivan states that he is pleased that the BNP have chosen to support the idea that AGW is a hoax. You can see his comment here.
Here’s Mr Griffin in full flow:
Well, I don’t think it was John O’ Sullivan’s intention, but the more I’ve looked at what he and his colleagues have to say, the less respect I have for their arguments.
A rather boring post with little controversy
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010The last few posts I’ve added to the site seem to have ruffled a few feathers at times, and as I’m chilled out and half way through a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon I thought I’d write a few thoughts which are unlikely to cause any controversy whatsoever.
[I guess at this point I've probably lost half of my readers].
6203 steps
This morning I was surprised to receive a gift from the marketing department at Profile 22. I’m not sure what they’re trying to tell me, but they have supplied me with a little device that clips on my belt and counts how many steps I take. Since around 10am this morning I have walked a massive 6203 steps.
Are you impressed? Well, I was really surprised and quite pleased with myself, but then I googled ‘average steps per day’ and found that the guidelines state I should be walking 10,000 steps per day! As I’m now sat on the couch with a glass of red wine, it’s unlikely I’m going to hit my target. (I have to confess also that I have actually fiddled the figures by finishing work early and taking the dogs for a long walk).
PIGS
No, don’t worry my wife has not gone out and bought some pigs to keep our donkeys company. No, I’m talking about the next Publicity in Glazing Society meeting next Thursday in London. The details are on the Glazine at this link.
Any excuse to socialise with industry professionals, I’ve booked train tickets and the hotel and am attending with our kid.
According to the press release:
Everyone who wants to socialise, network and yes, even talk business, is welcome to join editors, advertising, marketing, PR, event organisers and suppliers from the industry on Thursday 4 March.
If you’re going – I’ll see you there!
Huddersfield Town v Leeds United
I’m not sure if you’re aware but I’m a big fan of West Yorkshire’s best football team – Huddersfield Town. On Saturday we host local rivals Leeds United. It’s all set up to be a great game for the following reasons:
Huddersfield are unbeaten in the last 10 games
Huddersfield are the only team unbeaten at home this season
Huddersfield have won their last three games all away from home!
Leeds are in really poor form, although they won on Tuesday night
Of the last 4 times the two teams have played Town have won three and drawn one
With all this in mind, Leeds are bound to win!!! Conservatory Outlet and West Yorkshire Windows share a hospitality box at the Galpharm Stadium and we’ve got 5 town fans and 5 Leeds fans attending on Saturday. A few beers, friendly banter and hopefully a good game. I can’t wait!
Climate Change
I’ve enjoyed the debate on this website about whether climate change is human induced. I accept I need to do a lot more reading up, but at this stage having listened to all the arguments I’m becoming more and more convinced that global warming is happening.
But, if it isn’t then I think the following picture highlights why we should take action anyway:
