1. Tax them or let them fight it out amongst themselves

    Environmental or Carbon taxes are never popular as people cannot see CO2, nor the environment, a bit like the wood for the trees on this one, and no tax is ever popular anyhow. So, governments shy away from this type where they can. Britain in the rich world has been particularly shy, reducing its percentage of tax income from environmental taxes by 1.68% 1996-20071. This has been despite a labour (new) government who sings the environment song fairly often these days.

    The best the new budget of the year could do was to talk about plastic/carrier bags and how they must be reduced, and the government might want to tax them. This is somewhat lame, but even if they did come down and put a proper tax on this, the government must ring fence such a tax for use in tackling climate change. It cannot simply add it to a pool of tax it collects, and then spend it on say a war or nuclear power stations (esp. when it ignored its own white paper on renewable energy).

    Most people will not care about this when (if) they vote in the next election, as the downturn in the economy will be far hotter a topic then. But, climate change is not going to go away and is far more serious. People need to think about these matters and demand the right course of action from governments.

    In fact, it is down to people to also request it from the private sector. If consumers exercise their choice and pay their hard-earned cash only for green products and think about their use of energy and contribution to climate change, we would be in a different world.

    1The Economist - 8th March 2008 – Hot air

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    Labels: carbon tax Climate change and energy
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  2. Good old water

    Old ideas sometimes are very good: get your running water to turn the turbine you use to make electricity/flour, etc. Of course, not everywhere is this possible, but we can build up the water and then use its and gravity's force. Not bad, let us do more where we can and it does NOT ruin existing environment. Let us do this and not flood people's villages and farms or disturb local ecosystems.

    Free standing turbines could then be the answer. There is at least one recently mentioned as built by OpenHydro, let us look at this more and more. Use the rivers, seas and oceans, why not, as long as they are not blocked up or the wildlife or ecosystem inhibited by the engineering.

    The answer to climate change is of course not this alone, but it is convenient in helping on the way to tackling it properly.

    (This topic will definitely be revisited.)

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    Labels: Climate change and energy hydro
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  3. Free energy anyone?

    Whoever heard of anything for free? Well, let us see. As hunter gatherers, we had everything for free, it was all just there and we either hunted or gathered it. As for housing, well, there were caves or trees to provide shelter, in the worst case scenario, we could make tools to cut the wood from the trees to make things. Simple, was it not? When man invented the concept of money, then things changed. “Ah, yes, let me dig up this black liquid from the ground and sell it to you so you can burn it. No, don't worry, the free source of energy doesn't exist.”

    We fell for this, and thought burning oil (gas, coal or of course wood before that) was the best thing man ever could do, we forgot all about the most obvious, the big yellow dot staring down at us, yes the sun's energy.

    Yes, silicon's efficiency at turning the sun's rays into electricity is not so high, but the sun shines freely all day long! Perhaps, the key is to make politicians see this, just as once Winston Churchill saw the advantage of oil over coal and therefore his ships ran faster than the German ones, we should open the eyes of the next American president. Hey, Mr/Ms Mc ClinOba, did you know you could make a difference to the world, but in a good way this time? How is about you stop supporting your oil companies at any cost? There is plenty of energy for everyone, let us use that, and you can support other businesses in your country. Let us face it, your economy could hardly get worse than it is today.

    In a more serious and calmer tone, one must insist on the sun's energy becoming a serious player. One knows of climate change, the damage digging up oil/gas/coal does to our landscapes, not to mention the problems this causes politically the world over. There are other resources we cannot replace, such as water, iron or aluminium, then why not try to make our own lives easier and use energy, which is there for everyone all the time? We have the technology to do this, be it using silicone or carbon panel, or simply by heating water or air directly by the sun.

    Recently, an article in the Economist magazine (March 8th 2008 – Technology quarterly) caught my eye: “A bag full of sunshine”. Attach solar cells to LED, and voila, you capture light in the day to release at night, and a couple of nifty companies have managed to incorporate these into all kinds of soft materials. Could it be easier? How does this not capture the imagination?

    How can one make a difference? Simple, when opportunity arises, switch to solar – through choosing the right electricity company on the grid, adding panels to the roof of one's house/block of flats, and spreading the word.

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    Labels: Climate change and energy sunny
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  4. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), an answer?

    So, the UK is running out of oil AND gas. It has seen decline in its production since 1999. A country that hugely benefited from this (but I must add did nothing like Norway to save its heritage for its future generations – at least something for the Scots whose seas were being dug up) in the way of coming out of its post-war depression and poverty is now facing choices about its energy future.

    To make it a little more fun climate change has to be a focus when considering this topic, so here comes an idea to kill several trees with an axe! Capture your CO2 and store it in empty gas and oil holes. Wait, no, nobody said, let's reduce or totally stop our CO2 production, no indeed that's the right impression, the suggestion is to sweep the dust under the carpet. Maybe the carpet will never move – or it will be somebody else's problem, and one earns merit and money for having cleaned it all up...

    I will agree that yes, if there is a power station running on coal still today (many are still being built), then its pollution should be cleaned up. However, in no way is CCS an answer to stopping climate change's catastrophic effects. It goes back to the potato pan, putting an oven hood to take the chips fumes away does not yield more potatoes.

    An article in The Economist (Filling all back up again) on 8th March 2008 points out that the UK government could support this initiative better as a way of reducing climate change. The article points out that other countries such as Germany have already won the race to develop renewable energy technologies ahead of Britain. The author argues CCS could be worth green energy handouts.

    I do wish to point out that while CCS could be part of a temporary solution (not an infallible one) to climate change, it is NOT a green energy source. Its fallibilities may yet come to surface. Who know how porous the rocks around the old gas fields are? Is there any guarantee that the CO2 will not simply find its way into the sea water? Or will the author then propose fizzy water production in the British north sea. Perrier is far more expensive than oil after all.

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  5. Introduction

    Indeed this is about the sort that we use to make our machines work, in all sorts of ways, to make our lives easier. This is a most fascinating topic and of dire and great consequence in human life. It encompasses so much and touches on so much else around it, that one could say it is as important as food or water (human energy indeed).

    The world of money, power, politics and military might would actually be nothing without this source. Our civilisation would be back at its beginnings and we would be hunter gatherers. At the same time, somehow, the ordinary citizen (in developed countries) barely ever has a conscious thought about this topic, how she can best use it and save it – for it is NOT eternal, at least not in the forms that we are currently using it. Anyone can do the calculations – we have say 5 potatoes in the whole world, and decide to eat them all without saving any of the eyes, we will leave none for anyone else, even if we do really really enjoy the chips we just ate. What would we do with all the ketchup then?

    Add to the above potato situation that every time we eat a chip, the pan they're fried in gets hotter, such that we risk it melting and pouring molten unforgiving metal onto our skin. But, hey, let's enjoy the chips. Maybe the chef will get burned first, and some clever person elsewhere will find a way of reproducing potatoes synthetically. Or wait, we can then eat our last 5 sweet potatoes in the world in the same way and leave the problem for after that. We may not be around then anyway and our children will not know what onions and potatoes tasted like, so can't possibly miss them.

    Granted, I am drawing a silly picture of the entangled web of energy and climate change, but it is about as silly to me that citizens and their leaders are not actually taking any of it really seriously. It takes no genius to work out that if I walk the 3.6 kilometers to work, I save money on fuel and wear and tear to my vehicle, and do not get stuck in traffic and arrive at work fuming myself. At the same time, it again takes no genius to work out that the policy of turning soya beans or maize into fuels for cars is not long term sustainable, what will we and the animals we feed on then eat?

    Many questions and topics touch on this, and I intend to not labour them all right here and now, but over a series on this blog site.

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  6. On Leipzig

    So many questions... Penned 2.4.08

    The city of Göthe's Faust, the book and trade fairs, not to mention where Napoleon, the emperor the French hold as the symbol of their power finally lost to the Russians and Prussians.

    Her streets are wide, her old houses beautiful. The trams roll up and down the main roads, while the side ones sit conjoined looking on.

    I wonder what I would hear if bricks and stones could talk. Although they don't all go back 200 years ago, the granite slabs in the pavements have seen so many feet step on them, while the houses have seen builders, occupants, defenders, destroyers, bombs, occupiers, neglect, renovation and new occupants. Of the last 70 years, only 20 have let Leipzig improve, while the others stifled and ruined her and her people.

    So far, all I have done is to be an eyewitness of today's Leipzig for a short period of time. She is indeed “not finished”, as my sister-in-law put it to me. Yet, there is much to be discovered by this humble passerby in a city of much history. Whether I will live here 3 or 30 years, my impact will be a small part of the lives and times of the city.

    I do wonder at how it might have been 200 years ago here, with its bustling fairs and university. The brain power that stormed through here then was amazing, even if it saw war then. What happened to the people of this city when the Nazis and the Communists clashed to take hold of Germany's reins? Did the Leipzigers also shiver in fear when ally bombs fell, whether from the west of east? Did they celebrate the end of the 2nd world war, and then wake up to what I always think of a grey and dreary GDR? How did they cope with Stasi agents and lack of plentiful food? When did they decide to not repair their houses? How did they feel when their Monday protests finally bore fruit and took Soviet hold off GDR? How did they feel about their richer cousins in the west? How do they feel now when a whole multi-cultural society has sprouted and many westerners are investing in their town? Are they still leaving here in droves? Will the ones who left return?

    Oh, so much I would like to know, but this is just the beginning of my life here, so bear with me.


    Good things so far. Penned 7.4.08

    Not pretending to know much about this city, but she is fine. Public transport aplenty, it runs 24 hours, and the trams are quick and frequent. Wow, what a relief this is. Although, we won't need it much as we can WALK to the centre in around 10 minutes.

    To my relief, there are plenty of things to do other than shopping. When baby comes, she's too little for a zoo, but it's within walking distance, so she can enjoy seeing the animals a little later on. Although in principle I don't feel good about seeing giraffes outside of Africa, and have never willingly gone to zoos, I feel maybe I should give baby a chance to decide if she likes animals. I'm used them mostly on TV, and had a couple of pet cats...

    Anyhow, the city has some museums, old churches and other heritage that I can get to know. This is good news. I already visited the two big central churches, Nikolai & Thomas. Their decors and so on are pretty good, and some rich history. Seeing Bach's grave in Thomas Kirche is something. However, I can't actually tell which division of Christianity these might belong to. I guess something else for my long Wikipedia list!

    I now need to find a public library or two, so I can have my supply of reading material for the coming months, and make sure my German improves. So far, in a month that I've been in the country, it has improved, but starting on a low speaking basis. Understanding is always easier and comes first.

    p.s. It awoke my senses and saddened me at the same time as I walked past Leipzig Tafel. Yes, we must help poor people, but heck I hadn't seen this sort of thing before. I shall have to reflect and respond to this later...

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    Labels: als auslander as a foreigner Life in Leipzig
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