Wasteminister- A short documentary by Greenpeace - absolutely brilliant, it is very short

 

 

Here is the link:https://youtu.be/6NHiv5zDuZQ 

 

The UK is the 2nd biggest producer of plastic waste per person in the world, behind the USA. And because we’re producing so much plastic, the government is dumping it on other countries who can’t cope with it either. 

It’s hard to get your head around the true scale of the plastic problem, so we worked with the talented animators at Park Village Studios to show what it would look like piled up on Boris Johnson’s doorstep.

he UK is the 2nd biggest producer of plastic waste per person in the world, behind the USA. And because we’re producing so much plastic, the government is dumping it on other countries who can’t cope with it either. 

It’s hard to get your head around the true scale of the plastic problem, so we worked with the talented animators at Park Village Studios to show what it would look like piled up on Boris Johnson’s doorstep.

What you see in the film is the amount of plastic we dump on other countries every single day. That’s on average, 1.8 million kilograms a day – or 688,000 tonnes a year of our plastic waste that is fuelling health and wildlife emergencies around the world. Plastic kills hundreds of thousands of marine birds, sea mammals and turtles every year – but it’s not just harming wildlife and our oceans, it’s harming people too.

Plastic being sent overseas is being dumped or burned in the open air, with local communities in Turkey and Malaysia reporting serious health problems, like respiratory issues, nosebleeds and headaches. We have all lived through a health emergency over the past year in the form of Covid-19. But by dumping our plastic waste on other countries, the government has been fuelling another health emergency for even longer.

Time to take responsibility

It’s illegal for the government to send plastic waste to countries if it’s not going to be recycled. But a new Greenpeace investigation has found more evidence of plastic waste being dumped in Turkey.  Turkey receives over a third (38%) of all of our plastic waste exports. The government must take responsibility. 

The government wants to be seen as a leader in tackling plastic pollution, and every line in the film is an actual quote from Boris Johnson and Michael Gove (brilliantly voiced by Matt Forde and Jon Culshaw). And although they’ve announced positive yet very small steps to reduce the UK’s plastic production, they must take proper action to reduce our plastic pollution – and stop dumping our plastic waste on other countries.

 The blog song for today is: "Little lies" by Fleetwood Mac

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stop new oil and gas licences in the UK

 

 

 

The world’s leading energy industry organisation, IEA, has just said the UK shouldn’t green-light any new oil or gas projects. [1] That’s pretty huge. But the government recently said they will still allow new oil and gas licences and despite thousands of us speaking out, they’re yet to back down. [2] With the industry’s report fresh off the press, it’s time to turn up our volume. 

 

We are closer than ever before to ending the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels. Kwasi Kwarteng is the minister in charge of energy and business and is officially responsible for what the UK does next on this. He supported Boris Johnson in his bid to become Prime Minister and they have a close personal relationship - he can persuade the Prime Minister the UK doesn’t need to rely on fossil fuels. 

Just a few weeks ago Kwasi Kwarteng encouraged people to go vegan to cut carbon emissions. [3] But he’s also accepted fossil fuel donations. [4] As the UK prepares to host the global climate talks, COP26, and Kwasi Kwarteng positions himself as a key power player, it’s time he picked which side of history he wants to be on. The UK should be acting like a climate leader right now, not embarrassing ourselves on the world stage.

 

This week’s news just shows that Johnson and Kwarteng are clinging on to a sinking ship. Even the most ardent supporters of fossil fuels are having to see sense after years of protest and people powered action. It is proof that even when we feel ignored, even when we are tired of campaigning, change is truly possible. A fossil free UK is within reach - if we continue our fight. 

 

Here is a report from the Independent newspaper:

‘Colossal failure’: Government refuses to rule out new oil and gas licences in North Sea deal

Long-awaited deal between government and oil and gas sector a missed opportunity to ‘show climate leadership in the year of Cop26’, say campaigners.

The government has refused to rule out the granting of new oil and gas licences in a deal agreed with the fossil fuel industry.

On Wednesday, ministers announced the details of the North Sea Transition Deal – a long-awaited agreement between the government and the oil and gas sector.

The aim of the deal is to facilitate the country’s transition away from extracting oil and gas from waters surrounding the UK. The extraction process alone accounts for around 3.5 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and much more pollution is caused when the fuels are burned.

The government said that a package of measures agreed through the deal would cut emissions from oil and gas extraction by 15m tonnes by 2030 – the equivalent of the annual emissions of 90 per cent of British homes.

However, it refused to rule out the possibility of new oil and gas licences and instead announced the introduction of a “climate compatibility checkpoint” to ensure that any future licences awarded would be “aligned with wider climate objectives”, including its legal target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

Announcing the deal, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “When it comes to fighting climate change, we must all stand together.

“From the Shetland Isles to Orkney and Peterhead to Falkirk, the oil and gas industry is the economic artery for many communities in Scotland, and we are doing everything possible to ensure that this vitally important sector is not left behind as we transition to a green economy.”

The government added that the full details of how this checkpoint will work are to be set out by the end of 2021.

Previous analysis by Greenpeace found that any new oil and gas licences would not be in line with the world’s climate goals – if emissions from burning the fossil fuels were counted in addition to emissions caused by the extraction process.

Mel Evans, head of Greenpeace UK’s oil campaign, said: “Refusal to rule out new oil and gas licences when the evidence is already clear that they are incompatible with UK climate commitments is a colossal failure in climate leadership in the year of Cop26.

“Instead of finding ways to prop up this volatile and polluting sector, a better proposition for workers and communities would be for the government to confirm a ban on new licences, and put all its energies into a nationwide programme of retraining, reskilling and investment in renewables and green infrastructure.”

The decision comes just months after Denmark announced plans to end all oil and gas offshore activities in the North Sea by 2050.

Ryan Morrison, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said the government’s refusal to rule out new oil and gas licences “exposed the outrageous hypocrisy” in its approach to tackling the climate crisis.

“The science on this is already crystal clear: burning fossil fuels is the key driver of this crisis, so to avoid climate breakdown there can be no new licenses and existing production must be wound down over the next decade – a new ‘climate compatibility checkpoint’ isn’t going to change that reality,” he said.

Dr Jonathan Marshall, head of analysis at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a non-profit based in London, added: “For a government usually so keen to set targets, the absence of an end date for extracting fossil fuels from the North Sea is a glaring omission.

“It is clear that the energy future of our seas is renewable. A bold announcement on ending oil and gas extraction in the North Sea while supporting jobs and workers through the transition would have made waves comparable to plans to stop generating electricity from coal and ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars.”

It seems that unless we all keep on top of the politicians and watch very carefully what they are doing they are undermining everything that people like us are doing, and it´s all in the name of MONEY.

Are we ever going to learn? What is this obsession with more and more, GREED is the worst trait that we humans have.  It really makes me wonder if thoses people who are like this are really from this planet? They can´t take it with them, and can only spend so much of it, to me and a lot people the same it is baffling!

 The blog song for today is: " Here come the Fleas" by White Noise

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Seaspiracy – how can you help save the ocean?

 Here is an interesting article from a really great organisation:

 

 

 

Seaspiracy – how can you help save the ocean? 

The film’s impressive success has drawn much attention to the problems faced by the ocean, but sadly it doesn’t do a great job of exploring solutions, leaving many viewers feeling worried and powerless.

But there are solutions. We know that together we have the power to save the ocean. So we decided to continue the film’s good work and wrote this short blog on the ways we can all get involved: 

The problems facing our ocean are clearly covered in the film. But the solutions… not so much. If you’ve watched Seaspiracy and want to take action to save the ocean, read on!

It’s not just about eating less fish

Sure, eating less or different fish can be a part of the answer to restoring ocean health, but saying we can fix the ocean by simply adapting our diets is like saying switching off the lights when leaving a room is the most effective way to tackle the climate crisis. It’s a good thing to do – but it misses much bigger opportunities that could have real impact. 

If we want systemic, lasting change, we need to think bigger, and to act together. We need to hold our leaders to account. When we campaign together, we can achieve great and positive changes, whether locally, nationally or across continents. And frankly, we need to change the system, not just our individual behaviour, as climate scientist Michael E. Mann has written. 

"Individual efforts to reduce one's carbon footprint are laudable," writes @MichaelEMann in The New Climate War. "But without systemic change, we will not achieve the massive decarbonization of our economy that is necessary to avert catastrophic climate change."

— David Williams (@ddub_news) April 17, 2021

Holding politicians to account

Overfishing is the biggest cause of ocean destruction. By taking out more fish than can be replaced, fish populations are reducing every year. As fish get harder to find, industrial fishing vessels are burning more fuel and using more and more destructive fishing methods to find what’s left. 

EU politicians have the power to end overfishing and protect the ocean. The solutions are so simple – all they’re missing right now is the will to do it. It’s time that we stand up together and demand action.

Get active

Here’s how you can make your voice heard. 

1. Join the movement!

Join a growing movement of passionate ocean protectors by signing the Our Fish petition calling on EU politicians to end overfishing. After joining the campaign we’ll keep you up to date with the latest actions to save the ocean, including participating in a key EU consultation this summer.

Sign the Petition now!

2. Write to your representatives about bottom trawling

Members of the European Parliament will have to make several important decisions this year that will affect the health of the ocean. They represent you in the EU, so they care about what you have to say. Find your MEP(s) here then call or email them to ask for their support to ban bottom trawling, a highly destructive way of fishing that’s doing enormous damage to biodiversity, ecosystems and the climate.

3. Get involved in a local campaign

There are lots of fantastic campaigning groups across Europe. We recommend checking out Ocean Rebellion, who are a part of the wider Extinction Rebellion Movement. Or the youth-led movement Fridays for Future. 

4. Vote. 

Perhaps the most obvious one but never to be overlooked. Vote locally, regionally and nationally. Find out which candidates are demanding real action to protect the ocean and speak to candidates about why this issue matters to you. 

5. Get your friends and family involved! 

There’s strength in numbers so we need as many people as possible fighting for the ocean. Why not host a film night (in person when possible, or remotely when not), attend talks, webinars and workshops. 

On the other side of this fight is the very wealthy international fishing industry, which makes billions of Euros every year exploiting our common ocean. By using big budgets and influence, they pressure politicians to continue their reckless overfishing. To win, we’re going to need to stand together and make our collective voices even more powerful than the fishing industry’s money. Will you join us?

Want to read more?

1. ‘Seaspiracy shows why we must treat fish not as seafood, but as wildlife’ – George Monbiot, The Guardian
2. ‘OP-ED: Seaspiracy or Conspiracy? Truth and Hyperbole Behind the Controversial New Netflix Exposé on Fishing’ Alex Rogers, ECO
3. ‘What Netflix’s Seaspiracy gets wrong about fishing, explained by a marine biologist’ Daniel Pauly
4. Overfishing explained 
   

There are many things that we as individuals can do and continue to do to slow down the destruction of our only home.  Sometimes I really to wonder if some of the people I talk to really get what is happening or do they just prefer to stick their heads in the sand and pretend it is just us environmentalists over-reacting?  There is always a reason why this is happening, nothing at all to do with humans! 

It seems that the more technology that we have, the stupider the species seem to be getting, surely that is the wrong way round? Technology is supposed to assist us.  

The blog song for today is: " Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

TTFN

The way we normally recycle plastics is a downward spiral of waste and degraded materials, but there is another option – turning plastic back into the oil it was made from.

Here is a really great report from the BBC .  It is about my main interest and what I feel really strong about, PLASTIC. When you have read it, see if you reach the same conclusion as I did!  There have been so many of these initiatives before!

There is one man-made material that you can find in the earth, the air and in the deepest ocean trenches. It is so durable that the majority of what has been created is still present in our ecosystem. Having made its way into the food chain, it permeates our bodies, flowing from our blood into our organs, even finding its way into the human placenta.

It is of course plastic, and this durability is also what makes the material so useful. Cables stretching across ocean floors, water pipes under the ground and packaging that keeps food fresh all rely on this property.

Efficiently recycling plastic by conventional means is notoriously difficult, and only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled into new plastics. But what if there was a way to turn plastic back into the stuff it was made from? The "next grand challenge" for polymer chemistry – the field responsible for the creation of plastics – is learning to undo the process by turning plastics back into oil.

Instead of a system where some plastics are rejected because they are the wrong colour or made of composites, chemical recycling could see all types of plastic fed into an "infinite" recycling system

This process – known as chemical recycling – has been explored as a viable alternative to conventional recycling for decades. So far, the stumbling block has been the large amount of energy it requires. This, combined with the volatile price of crude oil sometimes makes it cheaper to produce new plastic products than to recycle existing plastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

plastics that could be recycled end up in landfill because of poor facilities, or confusion about what is and isn't recyclable (Credit: Alamy)

Every year, more than 380 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide. That's about the same as 2,700,000 blue whales – more than 100 times the weight of the entire blue whale population. Just 16% of plastic waste is recycled to make new plastics, while 40% is sent to landfill, 25% to incineration and 19% is dumped.

Much of the plastic that could be recycled – such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used for bottles and other packaging – ends up in landfill. This is often due to confusion about kerbside recycling or contamination with food or other types of waste.

Other plastics – such as salad bags and other food containers – find their way to landfill because they are made up of a combination of different plastics that can't be easily split apart in a recycling plant. Litter dropped in the street and lightweight plastics left in landfill sites or illegally dumped can be carried by the wind or washed into rivers by the rain, ending up in the ocean.

Chemical recycling is an attempt to recycle the unrecyclable. Instead of a system where some plastics are rejected because they are the wrong colour or made of composites, chemical recycling could see all types of plastic fed into an "infinite" recycling system that unmake plastics back into oil, so they can then be used to make plastic again.

The way plastic is currently recycled is more of a downward spiral than an infinite loop. Plastics are usually recycled mechanically: they are sorted, cleaned, shredded, melted and remoulded. Each time plastic is recycled this way, its quality is degraded. When the plastic is melted, the polymer chains are partially broken down, decreasing its tensile strength and viscosity, making it harder to process. The new, lower grade plastic often becomes unsuitable for use in food packaging and most plastic can be recycled a very limited number of times before it is so degraded it becomes unusable.

The emerging industry of chemical recycling aims to avoid this problem by breaking plastic down into its chemical building blocks, which can then be used for fuels or to reincarnate new plastics.

In the UK, Mura Technology has begun construction of the world's first commercial-scale plant able to recycle all kinds of plastic

The most versatile version of chemical recycling is "feedstock recycling". Also known as thermal conversion, feedstock recycling is any process that breaks polymers down into simpler molecules using heat.

The process is fairly simple – take a plastic drinks bottle. You put it out with your recycling for collection. It is taken, along with all the other waste, to a sorting facility. There, the rubbish is sorted, either mechanically or by hand, into different kinds of materials and different kinds of plastics.

Your bottle is washed, shredded and packed into a bale ready for transportation to the recycling centre – so far, the same as the conventional process. Then comes the chemical recycling: the plastic that formerly made up your bottle could be taken to a pyrolysis centre where it is melted down. Next it is fed into the pyrolysis reactor where it is heated to extreme temperatures. This process turns the plastic into a gas which is then cooled to condense into an oil-like liquid, and finally distilled into fractions that can be put to different purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chemical recycling begins the same way as ordinary mechanical recycling, with collecting and crushing plastics and taking them to a plant (Credit: Alamy)

Chemical recycling techniques are being trialled across the world. UK-based Recycling Technologies has developed a pyrolysis machine that turns hard-to-recycle plastic such as films, bags and laminated plastics into Plaxx. This liquid hydrocarbon feedstock can be used to make new virgin quality plastic. The first commercial-scale unit was installed in Perth in Scotland in 2020.

The firm Plastic Energy has two commercial-scale pyrolysis plants in Spain and plans to expand into France, the Netherlands and the UK. These plants transform hard-to-recycle plastic waste, such as confectionery wrappers, dry pet food pouches and breakfast cereal bags into substances called "tacoil". This feedstock can be used to make food-grade plastics.

In the US, the chemical company Ineos has become the first to use a technique called depolymerisation on a commercial scale to produce recycled polyethylene, which goes into carrier bags and shrink film. Ineos also has plans to build several new pyrolysis recycling plants. 

In the UK, Mura Technology has begun construction of the world's first commercial-scale plant able to recycle all kinds of plastic. The plant can handle mixed plastic, coloured plastic, plastic of all composites, all stages of decay, even plastic contaminated with food or other kinds of waste.

Mura's "hydrothermal" technique is a type of feedstock recycling using water inside the reactor chamber to spread heat evenly throughout. Heated to extreme temperatures but pressurised to prevent evaporation, water becomes "supercritical" – not a solid, liquid, nor gas. It is this use of supercritical water, avoiding the need to heat the chambers from the outside, that Mura says makes the technique inherently scalable.

"If you heat the reactor from the outside, keeping an even temperature distribution is really hard. The bigger you go the harder it gets. It's a bit like cooking," explained Mura's chief executive, Steve Mahon. "It's hard to fry a big steak all the way through but if you boil it, it's easy to make sure it's cooked evenly all the way through."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pilot plant has shown that the use of very hot, supercritical water can help chemical recycling scale-up to useful levels (Credit: Licella)

The plastic waste arrives on site in bales – contaminated, multi-layer plastic such as flexible films and rigid trays that would otherwise have gone to incineration or energy-from-waste plants. The bales are fed into the front-end sorting facility to remove any inorganic contaminants such as glass, metal or grit. Organic contaminants such as food residue or soil are able to pass through the process. The plastic is then shredded and cleaned, before being mixed with supercritical water.

Once this high-pressure system is depressurised and the waste exits the reactors, the majority of liquid flashes off as vapour. This vapour is cooled in a distillation column and the condensed liquids are separated on a boiling range to produce four hydrocarbon liquids and oils: naphtha, distillate gas oil, heavy gas oil and heavy wax residue, akin to bitumen. These products are then shipped to the petrochemical industry.

As with other feedstock techniques, there is no down-cycling as the polymer bonds can be formed anew, meaning the plastics can be infinitely recycled. With a conversion rate of more than 99%, nearly all the plastic turns into a useful product.

Mahon said: "The hydrocarbon element of the feedstock will be converted into new, stable hydrocarbon products for use in the manufacture of new plastics and other chemicals." Even the "fillers" used in some plastics – such as chalk, colourants and plasticisers – aren't a problem. "These drop into our heaviest hydrocarbon product, heavy wax residue, which is a bitumen-type binder for use in the construction industry."

The hot, excess gases generated during the process will be used to heat the water, increasing its energy efficiency, and the plant will be powered by 40% renewable energy. "We want to use as much renewable energy as possible and will be seeking, wherever practical, to aim for 100%," says Mahon.

Mura's Teesside plant, due for completion in 2022, aims to process 80,000 tonnes of previously unrecyclable plastic waste every year, as a blueprint for a global rollout, with sites planned in Germany and the US. By 2025, the company plans to provide one million tonnes of recycling capacity in operation or development globally.

"[Our] recycling of waste plastic into virgin-equivalent feedstocks provides the ingredients to create 100% recycled plastics with no limit to the number of times the same material can be recycled – decoupling plastic production from fossil resource and entering plastic into a circular economy," says Mahon.

Scientists such as Sharon George, senior lecturer in environmental science at Keele University, have welcomed Mura's development. "This overcomes the quality challenge by 'unmaking' the plastic polymer to give us the raw chemical building blocks to start again," says George. "This is true circular recycling."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plant that is being constructed at Teesside in the UK aims to process 80,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year (Credit: Mura)

Yet in the past 30 years, chemical recycling has shown serious limits. It is energy-intensive, has faced technical challenges and proved difficult to scale up to industrial levels.

In 2020, a report by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia), a group of organisations and individuals who promote social movements to reduce waste and pollution, concluded that chemical recycling is polluting, energy intensive and prone to technical failures. The report concluded that chemical recycling was not a viable solution to the plastic problem, especially at the pace and scale needed.

Additionally, if the end product of chemical recycling is an oil used for fuel then the process does not reduce the need for virgin plastic, and burning such fuels would release greenhouse gases just as ordinary fossil fuels do.

"Environmental NGOs are keeping a close eye on emerging recycling methods," says Paula Chin, sustainable materials specialist at the conservation organisation WWF. "These technologies are in their infancy and they are by no means the silver bullet solution to the plastic waste problem. We should focus on increasing resource efficiency as a way to minimise waste through greater reuse, refill and repair systems – not relying on recycling to be the saviour."

But Mura argues that their plant will fill a much-needed niche. "[Chemical] recycling is a new sector, but the scale at which it is developing, specifically for Mura, shows both the urgent need for new technology to tackle the rising problem of plastic waste and environmental leakage, and an opportunity to recycle a valuable ready-resource, which is currently going to waste," Mahon says.

Mura's process aims to complement existing mechanical processes and infrastructure, not compete with them, recycling materials that would otherwise go to landfill, incineration or into the environment. All the waste plastic they process will be made new plastics or other materials, none will be burnt for fuel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many chemical recycling plants in the past have gone bust, but Mura believes the supercritical water technique it uses will make it economically viable (Credit: Mura)

Mura hopes its use of supercritical water for efficient heat transfer will allow them to scale-up to industrial levels, lowering energy use and costs. It could be a crucial factor for success where others have failed.

One of the main reasons chemical recycling has failed to take off so far has been financial collapse. In a 2017 report, Gaia noted multiple projects that had failed, including the Thermoselect facility in Germany which lost more than $500m (£350m) over five years, the UK's Interserve which lost £70m ($100m) on various chemical recycling projects, and many other companies that faced bankruptcy.

Financial difficulty is something that has held back not just chemical recycling but all kinds of plastic recycling. "The economics do not stack up. Collecting, sorting and recycling packaging is simply more expensive than producing virgin packaging," says Sara Wingstrand, New Plastics Economy Project Manager at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Wingstrand says the only path to "dedicated, ongoing and sufficient funding at scale" for recycling is through mandatory, fee-based Extended Producer Responsibility schemes. These would see all industries that introduce plastic contributing funding to collect and process their packaging after its use. "Without them, it is very unlikely recycling of packaging will ever scale to the extent required," says Wingstrand.

But Mahon believes a system like Mura's is another way to shift the balance sheets in favour of plastic recycling by producing an oil that can be sold at a profit. Mura has recently announced partnerships with the plastic manufacturers Dow and Igus GmbH, and the construction firm KBR.

"The interesting thing here is that Mura can find value in plastics that aren't usually economically viable to recycle mechanically," says Taylor Uekert, researcher at the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre, University of Cambridge.

Even with the ability to unmake all types of plastic so they can be reused again, it is unlikely to make all of the problems with plastic pollution go away. With so much ending up in landfill and the environment, plastic will continue doing what it was made to do – endure.

The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Find out more about how we calculated this figure here.

I can´t help but wonder if this is just another one of those gimmicks that will gain certain companies a great deal of money, the government some breathing space and in the end not work.  

Why aren´t governments encouraging less use of plastics by giving incentives to those companies trying to do zero waste? Those shops where you take along your empty containers (preferably not plastic) and refill them.  This is the way forward.

I know that a lot of people are saying that the responsibility for reducing plastic waste shouldn´t rest completely on the shoulders of the consumers, but at the end of the day aren´t we all consumers? The companies who make the plastic have employees who buy plastic, the owners buy plastic, the town where the factories are situated is full of people who buy plastic.  WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE and the more time everyone tries to keep passing the blame on to others the more time the only world we have is turning to SHIT.

Reduce the amount of plastic you put in your shopping basket/trolley each day/week, it is really very easy, pick the glass container instead of the plastic one, choose a canned container instead of a plastic one, the difference in price is not that great.

It is really quite bizarre that we all have more free time than ever before but never have any time to cook at home, care for others, recycle or keep our streets and beaches free of litter! Preferring instead to eat take-aways and sit glued to mobile phones, believing everything that is put on the internet.  The older generations have been criticised for not questioning the newspapers and tv news but isn´t this just the same?

The blog song for today is:"People are strange" by the Doors

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What’s the Tea? Brewing a More Sustainable Cuppa

Workers harvesting tea in Vietnam

A standard cup of tea requires one-eighth as much water as a cup of coffee, but tea is no eco-beverage. In fact, the carbon footprints of tea and coffee production are almost identical. But producing tea contributes less to its footprint than how you drink it. Brewing a truly sustainable cuppa might be impossible, but a little education about your tea choices makes it easier to shop your values. Here’s what you need to know about tea.

Farm

The UN FAO launched a project in Kenya last year to support the production of carbon-neutral tea. Another initiative, Tea2030 crosses all sectors of tea production. But for now, most tea is grown on chemical-intensive farms that contribute to deforestation, erosion, and pesticide contamination. Monoculture farms damage soil health and make plants more susceptible to disease, leading to more intensive use of chemical pesticides and fertilizer. Half of the 62 teas tested by the FDA in a 2015 study contained pesticide residues.

Using biological controls instead of fumigants against soil nematodes; site-specific fertilization plans or organic farming; and the introduction of shade trees to plantations are all methods for reducing the impact of tea cultivation.

People

A labor-intensive crop harvested by hand, tea is grown all around the world with China, India, Kenya, and Sri Lanka as the largest producers. China produces half the world’s tea on 15 million small farms where there is little awareness of the dangers of agrochemicals. Two-thirds of Kenyan tea farmers are also smallholders with few employees (some of whom may be children). By contrast, three-quarters of Indian tea (particularly Assam) is still produced on near-feudal plantations with a history of human rights abuses that particularly impact women. But everywhere, low wages, pesticide exposure, and brutal working conditions are rampant.

The vast majority of tea is still purchased in bulk by multinational corporations. Only Sri Lanka has developed much local processing, but this has not led to direct trade options or improved conditions for workers.

With the rise of tea consumption and a higher demand for sustainable products, the tea industry is moving in a greener direction. 

Tea is becoming a sustainable business in terms of the environment, economy and society.

In 2013, Forum for the Future created a campaign called Tea 2030. The project involves companies and individuals across the tea industry, from pickers and packers to producers and purchasers, coming together to solve tea’s sustainability issues by the year 2030.

Fair trade — trade in which fair prices are paid to producers — is being implemented around the world as well. 

Companies partner with independent farmers and, with the fair-trade certification, ensure that workers receive just payment in fair work conditions and use environmentally sound farming methods.

Sustainable Tea Brands 

While Tea 2030 is at work, it’s time for consumers to ditch big-brand brews and invest in sustainable ones. Look for organic, Fair Trade-certified teas in recyclable packaging to maximizesustainability.  Most grocery stores and health food stores carry multiple sustainable tea brands. Here are a few of our favorites: 

 

Honest Tea

This sustainable company is mostly known for their line of iced tea, which is ethically and sustainably produced. 

 

Their tea leaves are certified organic, their company is certified Fair Trade, and they avoid unnecessary pesticides and fertilizers.

 

Arbor Teas

Both human and environmental health is a priority for this tea brand. Arbor Teas farmers usesustainable farming methods, including minimizing their water use. 

 

Their teas are organic and some are Fair Trade, and, best of all, their packaging is compostable.

 

Numi 

Numi successfully balances taste with sustainability, producing flavorful organic and Fair Trade bagged tea. The company is committed to recycling and keeps that in mind when designing packaging. 

Due to their waste-free processing, Numi saves thousands of trees every year.

Due to the severe lack of choice of tea bags here on Menorca, it´s either PG Tips or Typhoo, the spanish tea is not too good! (three bags to get a half decent cup!) and they state that they are environmentally friendly but I am not so sure!

It really is difficult to buy anything these days without wondering how it got to be on the shelf and what damage has been caused along the way to people, animals the environment and of course the sea. 

Saying that, I am doing the very best I can to make a small difference along with many other like-minded people and I do not intend to give up, at all, ever!!

 The blog song for today is: "Astronomy domine" by Pink Floyd

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Will Infinitely Recyclable Plastic Soon Be Available?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an article from Earth911 website which I hope will be as interesting to you as it is to me!  I do however have some doubts as to wether or not it will be possible and what the heck do we do with all the bad plastic that we have already!

Written By Sarah Lozanova May 14, 2021 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many developed countries send their recycling to Southeast Asian countries that are not equipped to process it properly. Photo by Stijn Dijkstra from Pexels

A multidisciplinary team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created a plastic that can be disassembled at a molecular level using an acidic solution. Then, it can be reassembled with a new color, texture, and shape, again and again. Unlike traditional plastic, which can only be recycled two or three times at most, this material, called poly(diketoenamine), or PDK, is infinitely recyclable.

Why is this an important development? Plastics are creating a waste management crisis. Globally, we produce 380 million tons of plastic annually, much of it for single use. Despite the presence of a recycling emblem on many plastic items, less than 9% is recycled. Much of the plastic intended for recycling is shipped to Asia, creating a considerable transportation footprint. At the heart of the issue is that plastic — at least until now — has not been infinitely recyclable and virgin plastic is often cheaper for manufacturers than recycled.

“Most plastics were never made to be recycled,” said lead author Peter Christensen, a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry. “But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective.”

A Financial Incentive for Recycling

A new study from Berkeley Lab indicates that PDK could be commercially viable, making it more likely to hit store shelves sometime soon. The study found that virgin PDK is relatively expensive to make but that recycling costs are similar to those of PET and HDPE. But PDK recycling costs are lower than those of polyurethane, which curbside recycling programs don’t accept. This price difference would make recycling PDK far more appealing than landfilling it.

“We’re talking about materials that are basically not recycled,” said Scown. “So, in terms of appealing to manufacturers, PDKs aren’t competing with recycled plastic – they have to compete with virgin resin. And we were really pleased to see how cheap and how efficient it will be to recycle the material.”

Because virgin plastic is so cheap, manufacturers have little incentive to use recycled plastic. And the cost of recycling has largely fallen on municipalities to shoulder because there is low demand and value for recycled plastic. Manufacturers don’t have much motivation to make plastics more recyclable because they aren’t responsible for end-of-life product disposal. It’s a vicious cycle that encourages waste. Thus, most plastic — recyclable or not — ends up in landfills, at waste incineration plants, or as litter.

 

Introducing PDKs in Products

The Berkeley Lab team has created models to understand the best use of PDKs by manufacturers. They conclude that the ideal applications are ones where the manufacturer takes back the product at the end of life, like electronics and automobile manufacturers. Many of these companies have recycling, trade-in, and take-back programs. This model would allow manufacturers to reap the benefits of next-generation polymers in their products through long-term cost savings and sustainable branding.

After introducing PDKs in durable goods like electronics and cars, Berkeley Lab researchers hope to expand their use into single-use products like packaging. Extended producer responsibility is an approach that involves manufacturers in the entire lifecycle of a product, including end-of-life. This approach helps embrace the circular economy and is a radical shift from the status quo, especially in the United States. Without extended producer responsibility, most manufacturers will opt to use the cheapest materials, regardless of the environmental and social impacts. This is because the waste management costs and environmental issues in the U.S. typically don’t fall on manufacturers.

“Some countries have plans to charge hefty fees on plastic products that rely on non-recycled material,” says Corinne Scown of the Berkeley Lab team. “That shift will provide a strong financial incentive to move away from utilizing virgin resins and should drive a lot of demand for recycled plastics.”

Governmental policies and consumer demand can help fuel the change needed to drive greener business practices. “These days, there is a huge push for adopting circular economy practices in the industry. Everyone is trying to recycle whatever they’re putting out in the market,” said Nemi Vora, a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley Lab. “We started talking to industry about deploying 100% infinitely recycled plastics and have received a lot of interest.”

Creating Recycling Infrastructure

The United States, the EU, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and South Korea lack the infrastructure necessary to recycle waste properly. As a result, many recyclables were being shipped to Asia for processing. In 2018, China instituted a ban on recycling imports.

After China’s bans, many developed countries then diverted their waste to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which lack the infrastructure, knowledge, and policies to handle it properly. Thus, the burden on the developed world’s trash is still ending up on beaches, waterways, and landfills overseas.

Ultimately, if PDKs prove to be the smartest path forward, plastics recycling needs to be reinvented for processing materials that were designed to be recycled. Additionally, domestic recycling infrastructure will need to be created so that the materials are processed far closer to the country of origin. Then we can begin to truly close the loop on plastics recycling.

Sarah Lozanova is an environmental journalist and copywriter and has worked as a consultant to help large corporations become more sustainable. She is the author of Humane Home: Easy Steps for Sustainable & Green Living, and her renewable energy experience includes residential and commercial solar energy installations. She teaches green business classes to graduate students at Unity College and holds an MBA in sustainable management from the Presidio Graduate School.

Hopefully this will be a good thing and will not just be another switch like the energy shambles that we are experiencing at the moment.  We need to buy less plastic where we can, in our everyday lives it is possible to do this, our grandparents used to, then something went horrendously wrong and we are are in a right mess.

The blog song for today is:"Rock the Kasbah" by the Clash

TTFN

 

 

 

Update from some of my favourite sites!

 

This is the latest update from "onlyone."

 

Coming up in The Wave this week, a First Nations chief predicts a violent clash over lobster fishing on Canada’s east coast will reach a boiling point, the Biden Administration introduces its “America the Beautiful” plan, and a new study says Antarctica’s ice could cross a scary threshold within 40 years.

But first, in honor of Mother Ocean Day, we’re celebrating the Hawaiian Islands, where the ocean has been both life-giving and life-affirming for thousands of years.

In this Pacific archipelago of eight main islands, several coral-studded atolls, and more than 100 rocky islets, the cultural and the marine are one. Corals are considered by Hawaiian people to represent Kāne, an akua (“deity”) giving life to both the people and the islands. The living reef ecosystem in Hawaii houses more than 7,000 marine plant and animal species, with a quarter of these found only in this part of the world. Green sea turtles soar through the deep blue waters or bask in the sun on the shoreline, while endangered Hawaiian monk seals forage for fish, spin lobsters, octopuses, and eels. Hawaiian tradition regards all these creatures as our relatives, in no way lesser beings than humans.

When U.S. troops overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom 130 years ago, without just cause, its Indigenous people were forcibly distanced from their traditional interactions with the ocean. Now, the people of Hawaii are fighting for tomorrow, creating hope by passing maritime knowledge down to the youngr generations and by raising awareness of the need to protect natural resources. 

We’ve created a collection of stories to shine light on the ocean history and future of Hawaii, from pulling renaissance of the art of voyaging from the edge of extinction, to reviving unique fishponds after a time when Native Hawaiian people were prevented from fishing for subsistence. There is much we can learn from “the worldview of the Hawaiian” when it comes to how we approach protecting the global ocean in years to come.

From Earthday.org

April 29, 2021

Washington, D.C. — EARTHDAY.ORG, the global organizer of Earth Day, today announced initial results of Earth Day 2021: Exponential growth and the addition of hundreds of millions of new activists to the movement, united around a set of clear and concise demands presented to the Biden administration and world leaders.

Among Earth Day’s demands are that countries aggressively reduce their carbon emissions, that corporations be held accountable and set ambitious paths to net zero emissions by 2040 or sooner, that all primary and secondary schools globally adopt comprehensive climate literacy and civic skill building to prepare students for a global transition to green jobs, and that global leaders train existing and future workers for the green economy.

Despite year two of the coronavirus pandemic, the Earth Day movement surged ahead. Concurrent with the Biden climate summit, millions participated in three parallel summits representing vast networks of youth, social justice organizations, and educators. In partnership with EARTHDAY.ORG, Education International, representing 32.5 million members, organized the “Teach for the Planet: Global Education Summit.”

“This Earth Day, we experienced a cultural shift comparable to the first Earth Day in 1970,” said Kathleen Rogers, President of EARTHDAY.ORG. “Millions around the world, angry and frustrated with the pace of change, raised their voices and demanded comprehensive climate action from governments and corporations around the world. The environmental movement of 1970 has been reborn. We’ve entered into a new phase of progress, a new barometer of sustainability requirements, and a new chapter of activism. We must continue this momentum.”

Building on its position as the world’s most inclusive instrument to drive the movement forward, Earth Day 2021 boldly staked out its leadership. As the world’s environmental systems continue to collapse, leaving a badly damaged planet, civil society is no longer agreeing to be on the periphery of decision making, but rather is demanding a seat at the table with governments and international institutions to deliver solutions proportionate to the urgency of the climate crisis.

Speaking to Denis Hayes, organizer of the first Earth Day, on the Earth Day Live digital stage, John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate said, “We have to make 2020 to 2030 a critical decade of real decisions and real actions…The urgency of what we need to do cannot be overstated.”

His Holiness Pope Francis reflected that the challenges we are experiencing with the pandemic that are also manifesting in climate change must drive us toward innovation and invention and to seek new paths. “We become more resilient when we work together instead of doing it alone,” Pope Francis affirmed, adding that there is still time to act even though it is difficult to stop the destruction of nature when it has been triggered.

Around the world, Earth Day 2021 brought massive action.

Over a dozen countries including Italy, Mexico and most recently Peru, Argentina and Brazil committed to climate literacy. 

As of Earth Day 2021, over 500 signatories representing over 100 countries around the world joined EARTHDAY.ORG’s Climate Literacy campaign including groups such as International Labour Organization, Education International and International Trades Union Confederation.

In its second year, Schools for the Earth, an EARTHDAY.ORG partnership with EDUCA, Educación Ambiental Mundial EAM, enrolled nearly 4,000 schools across Mexico and 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The program involves over 800,000 teachers and students in rural communities, urban areas and indigenous intercultural schools.

In the Middle East and North Africa, women’s participation in Earth Day this year increased to 60%. 

Millions of people took part in volunteer activities including planting trees, reforestation projects and The Great Global Cleanup.

Earth Day’s 2021 theme, Restore Our Earth generated thousands of policy commitments and billions of dollars in financial commitments around reforestation, regenerative agriculture and investment in green carbon removal and decarbonization technology. 

Thousands of local government officials from across the planet committed to environmental action for Earth Day. 

Reflecting the power of Earth Day on social media, Earth Day hashtags including #EarthDay, #RestoreOurEarth, #EarthDayLive and #ClimateLiteracy reached over 400 million.

Millions tuned in to Earth Day Live and committed to personal climate and environmental action. Among the speakers were Prince Albert II of Monaco; Alexandria Villaseñor, Founder of Earth Uprising; Mayor Frank Cownie of Des Moines, Iowa and President of ICLEI; Gabriel Quijandría, Minister of the Environment, Peru; Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Advisor; Greta Thunberg, Youth Climate Activist; Haldis Holst, Deputy General Secretary of Education International; John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate; Dame Karen Pierce, British Ambassador to the United States; Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta, Georgia; Kevin O’Leary, Venture Capitalist; Mary Steenburgen, Actor and Musician; Michael S. Regan, United States EPA Administrator; Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Patrizio Bianchi, Minister of Public Education, Italy; His Holiness Pope Francis; Ricky Kej, Grammy® Award Winner; Tom Lovejoy, “Godfather of Biodiversity” and Tom Steyer, NextGen America Founder.

On Earth Day, EARTHDAY.ORG launched the “Earth Definition” campaign aimed at encouraging individuals around the world to learn more about their digital footprint and choose Earth Definition, otherwise known as standard definition, while streaming to reduce emissions. The campaign film has been chosen as a Vimeo Staff Pick.

As a part of the partnership between EARTHDAY.ORG and Facebook, Facebook Watch premiered “Earth Day! The Musical!” on April 22 at 12PM ET which garnered nearly 5 million views. The special featured appearances from Bill Nye, Alexia Akbay, Ben Platt, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, Chloe Lukasiak, CNCO, Cody Simpson, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, Fortune Feimster, Gaten Matarazzo, Idina Menzel, Jack Harlow, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Jerome Foster II, Justin Bieber, Karamo, Maluma, Nick Kroll, Phoebe Robinson, Retta, Steve Aoki, Tori Kelly, Xiye Bastida, Zac Efron and more.

For more information on EARTHDAY.ORG’s year-round campaigns and programs, please visit: https://www.earthday.org

 

From Change.org - Lion Aid update

10 de may. de 2021 — 

For over ten years LionAid has campaigned, lobbied, pushed the UK Government to end lion trophy hunting imports. We covered lion statues with black cloths, arranged marches on the streets of London, met with an endless array of politicians, managed to get three debates in UK Parliament, sat around many “round table” discussions with MPs, sat with ministers, sat with committees, provided endless information, sat with African wildlife departments and ministers, funded a seminal conference among African lion range states urging lion conservation, met with local communities in Africa, arranged virtual classrooms across the globe to educate children about lion conservation, challenged major universities and professors and international institutions on their stand in trying to equate lion hunting as “conservation”, delivered well over 700,000 signatures to appeal to the UK government to end lion trophy imports….

Not too bad for a small charity?

A few days ago we received an email from the UK Department of Environment informing us that change was hopefully coming.

Today, the UK media announced that in the upcoming Queen’s Speech, the UK Government will enact a number of animal welfare bills – including something called an “Animals Abroad” bill that will end some trophy hunting products imports into the UK.

 For those who might be puzzled about a “Queen’s Speech” – this is used by the current UK Government to announce future directions.

The fact that this Animals Abroad bill will be introduced is positive but not a “done deal”. It remains an intention?

Nevertheless, hope prevails.

We will update you all further in the days following the delivery of the Queen's Speech, once we find out a bit more detail on what might be developing.

The blog song for today is:"Uncle Sam" by Madness

TTFN

 

 

 

PETA Victories for animals in April 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought that after all the recent thought provoking stuff it would be nice to give some uplifting news and to show that we can make a difference!

HUGE NEWS: New Zealand Announces Total Live-Export Ban! 

Posted on 14 April 2021 at 10:45AM by PETA Australia

It’s the news we’ve all been waiting for: New Zealand will finally end its live-export trade.

The country – which currently sends around 3 million live farmed animals every year on horrific voyages around the world to be used as “breeding stock” – will phase out the practice over the next two years.

News reports suggest the New Zealand government delivered a letter to the Chinese Embassy on 31 March signalling the end of the trade.

Tragedy After Tragedy

PETA has written to the New Zealand government several times over the years urging it to ban live export. Just last month, we wrote when a blockage in the Suez Canal trapped at least 20 ships carrying cows and sheep, putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals at risk.

We also wrote in September 2020, when the vessel Gulf Livestock 1 went missing in the East China Sea after leaving Napier in New Zealand. Forty-one crew members on board died, alongside nearly 6,000 cattle.

Countless investigations have shown the ghastly conditions in which animals spend weeks travelling at sea, enduring seasickness, crowding, and exposure to all weather conditions.

 

Animals Exported as ‘Breeding Stock’ Still Suffer and Die

Unlike Australia, New Zealand opted to end live-animal exports for slaughter in 2008. However, just because New Zealand’s animals aren’t headed straight to slaughterhouses doesn’t mean they’re any less susceptible to illness and death on board vessels, and if they survive, it certainly doesn’t mean they’ll lead happy lives elsewhere.

In 2020, New Zealand exported almost 3 million live farmed animals, including 110,00 cows who will spend their short lives being forcibly impregnated on intensive dairy farms in China.

Day-old chicks make up the vast majority of exported animals. They’re torn away from their mothers and crammed into boxes by the thousands for transport overseas.

The animals tossed about on rough seas, trampled by their shipmates, suffocated by their own faeces, and dying of dehydration, starvation, and illness aboard these ships don’t care that New Zealand “only” exports “breeding stock”. They still endure gruelling journeys – and face unacceptable risks – only to give birth over and over on depressing factory farms, before being killed in ways which would be illegal in New Zealand.

The New Zealand government has made a historic and compassionate move. With this decision, the Ardern administration said “no more” to sending millions of animals – and many humans – on horrible journeys fraught with injury, dehydration, starvation, illness, and death.

Now, all eyes are on Australia to follow suit. Please join us in calling on Agriculture Minister David Littleproud to end this disgusting, dangerous trade at last:

 

Victory! Australian Surgeons to Stop Mutilating Live Animals

Following an extensive, nearly four-year campaign by PETA and PETA Australia, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has announced that it will stop forcing civilian and military surgeons to cut holes into the throats, chests, and limbs of live pigs and sheep during the Early Management of Severe Trauma (EMST) program. Instead, EMST participants will now learn how to treat traumatic injuries in this course using advanced human-simulation technology. RACS’ announcement comes after more than 100,000 people wrote to RACS officials through PETA’s online action alert, a PETA Australia petition with thousands of signatures, and thought-provoking ads and protests.

Taiwan FDA Finalizes Regulation, Ends Drowning and Electroshock Tests on Animals After PETA Pressure

The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration has finalized a regulation and removed animal-testing recommendations and requirements for companies wanting to make anti-fatigue health marketing claims about their food and beverage products. It will now require only safe and effective human tests. This follows pressure from PETA that included the submission of a detailed scientific critique at the agency’s request and e-mails to agency officials from more than 73,000 supporters opposing animal experiments.

Prior to the agency’s announcement, thousands of animals were tormented and killed in efforts to establish anti-fatigue health claims for marketing food and beverage products. Experimenters fed mice or rats large quantities of the test foods, starved them for up to 24 hours, dropped them into individual beakers filled with water, and observed how long they struggled before drowning or remaining underwater for eight consecutive seconds. Experimenters also fed rats large quantities of the test foods and then put the animals on treadmills equipped with electrified plates to measure how long it took for them to choose repeated electroshocks over continuing to run at increasing speeds and steeper inclines.

 Great news for our animal companions!

The blog song for today is: "Mr Blue Sky" By the ELO

TTFN

 

Bright Green Lies - A documentary that we all should see or read the book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently watched a documentary called Bright Green Lies (here is the official website - https://derrickjensen.org/bright-green-lies) but there is also a book available. (Picture above)

It was a real wake up call to everyone who is fighting for our world and it made me think!

I have copied some of the information on the website commenting on it:

Here are some parts from the book:

Once, environmentalism was about saving wild beings and wild places. “The beauty of the living world I was trying to save has always been uppermost in my mind,” Rachel Carson wrote to a friend. “That, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done.” Silent Spring, which inspired the formation of the modern environmental movement, was more than a critique of pesticides—it was a clarion call against industrialized society’s destruction of the natural world.

That destruction has put us in peril. Like all animals, we need a home: a blanket of air, a cradle of soil, and a vast assemblage of creatures who make both. We can’t create oxygen, but others—from tiny plankton to towering redwoods—can. We can’t build soil, but the slow circling of bacteria, bison, and sweetgrass do.

All of them are bleeding out, species by species, like Noah in reverse, while the carbon swells and the heat burns on. Five decades of environmental activism haven’t stopped the destruction. We haven’t even slowed it. Instead, the beings and biomes who were once the center of our concern have disappeared from the conversation and the goal of environmentalism has been transformed to a singular question: “How can we save industrial civilization?”

Those who concern themselves with this question are known as bright green environmentalists and they are very much on the ascent. They believe that technology and design can render industrial civilization sustainable, and that so-called “green technologies” are good for the planet. Some bright green environmentalists are well-known and beloved politicians and writers like Al Gore, Naomi Klein, and Bill McKibben. The group also includes big, established organizations who are dedicated to fighting climate change like the Sierra Club, Greenpeace International, Audubon, and the Rockefeller Foundation

These committed activists have helped to bring the emergency of climate change into broad consciousness, and that’s a huge win as the glaciers melt and the tundra burns. But we believe the bright greens are solving for the wrong variable. All of the solutions to global warming they present take our current way of living as a given, and the health of the planet as the dependent variable. That is backwards: the health of the planet must be more important than our way of life because without a healthy planet you don’t have any way of life whatsoever.

The only way to build the bright green narrative is to erase every awareness of the creatures and communities being consumed. They simply don’t exist, and if they do exist, they don’t matter. Take, for example, the Florida yew whose home is one single 15-mile stretch, now under threat from biomass production. Or the Scottish wildcat who number a grim 35, all at risk from a proposed wind installation.

“Progress,” Chickasaw writer Linda Hogan reminds us, “is a sort of madness that is a god to people. Decent people commit horrible crimes that are acceptable because of progress.” And so our culture hurtles towards are new industrial paradigm, and the wildcats are consigned to history.

The true facts about supposedly renewable energy are hard, and worse than inconvenient. The first truth is that industrial civilization requires industrial levels of energy. The second is that fossil fuel—especially oil— is functionally irreplaceable. Scaling the current renewable energy technology, like solar, wind, hydro, and biomass, would be tantamount to ecocide. Consider that 12 percent of the continental United States would have to be covered in windfarms to meet current electricity demands. But electricity is only one-sixth of the nation’s energy consumption. To provide for the U.S.A.’s total energy consumption, fully 72 percent of the continent would have to be devoted to wind farms. In reality, solar and wind development threaten to destroy as much land globally as expansion of urban sprawl, oil and gas, coal, and mining combined by 2050.

Third, solar, wind, and battery technology are, in their own right, assaults against the living world. From beginning to end, they require industrial-scale devastation: open-pit mining, deforestation, soil toxification that’s permanent on anything but a geologic timescale, extirpation and extinction of vulnerable species, and use of fossil fuels. In reality, so-called “green” technologies are some of the most destructive industrial processes every invented. They will not save the earth. They will only hasten its demise.

There are solutions once we confront the actual problem. Simply put, we have to stop destroying the planet and let the world come back. A recent study published in Nature found that we could cut the amount of carbon emissions built up in atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution by half by reverting some 30% of the world’s farmland to its natural state. This would have the added benefit of preserving some 70% of endangered animals and plants. This is the lowest of low hanging fruit when it comes to combating climate change and healing our planet. Everywhere we can see examples of when the wounded are healed, the missing appear, and the exiled return. Forests repair, grasses take root, and soil sequesters carbon. It’s not too late.

If environmentalism is going to help save the planet—and if it is going to respond to global warming in any way commensurate with the threat—it needs to return to its roots, remember the love that founders like Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold had for the land. We need to pledge our loyalty to this planet, the planet that is home to the only life we know of in the universe. Jack D. Forbes wrote that “the universe is our holy book, the earth our genesis, the sky our sacred scroll.” This world is our only home, and to desecrate it is a deep evil. To repair and protect is our calling.

There’s no time for despair. We have to take back our movement and defend our beloved. How can we do less? The yew and the wildcats need us now.

Dr. Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya and the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology; author of Earth Democracy and Making Peace with the Earth

“Bright Green Lies exposes the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of leading environmental groups and their most prominent cheerleaders. The best known environmentalists, he illustrates, are not in the business of speaking truth, or even holding up rational solutions to blunt the impending ecocide, but a mendacious and self-serving illusion that provides comfort at the expense of reality. They fail to state the obvious. We cannot continue to wallow in hedonistic consumption and industrial expansion and survive as a species. The environmental debate, Jensen argues, is, because of them, distorted by hubris and the childish desire by those in industrialized nations to sustain the unsustainable. All debates about environmental policy needs to begin with honoring and protecting, not the desires of the human species, but the sanctity of the earth itself. We refuse to ask the right questions because these questions expose a stark truth—we cannot continue to live as we are living. To do so is suicidal folly.

‘Tell me how you seek and I will tell you what you are seeking,’ the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said. This is the power of Bright Green Lies. It asks the questions most refuse to ask and in that questioning, that seeking, uncovers profound truths we ignore at our peril.”

—Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of America: The Farewell Tour

“Bright Green Lies dismantles the illusion of ‘green’ technology in breathtaking, comprehensive detail, revealing a fantasy that must perish if there is to be any hope of preserving what remains of life on Earth. From solar panels to wind turbines, from LED light bulbs to electric cars, no green fantasy escapes Jensen, Keith, and Wilberts revealing peek behind the green curtain. Bright Green Lies is a must-read for all who cherish life on Earth.”

—Jeff Gibbs, writer, director, and producer of the film Planet of the Humans

“This disturbing but very important book makes clear we must dig deeper than the normal solutions we are offered.”

—Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia

 So for all these years we have been led to believe that natural energy (green) is the answer to all our problems when it seems to be the exact opposite.

There was a piece in the film about agriculture and that is playing a very big part in the destruction of our wonderful planet.  There was also interviews with one of the experts trying to put all this green energy across the USA and elsewhere and his reply to the question about the amount of birds and insects that the solar sites were killing, was positively mind blowing.

 To all the people who for years have been championing the "green energy" revolution, my heart goes out to you because I can imagine how you must be feeling about how all this has turned out.

We cannot give up. As you are all aware, we are the first generation to fully know that we are all doing to the Earth.  

The blog song for today is " Out of time" by the Rolling Stones.  

TTFN