A web-cast from Rio+ about sustainability, most of the others available so far are about corporates. As well as the young female who silenced the World when she gave a speech 20 years ago being present. A Mr Supe was on the panel and his message was, ‘Small farm, Small farm, Small farm. He pointed out that $275 Billion of subsidies went into fertilisers and pesticides. While a couple of reports one by Julius Protina and another by the FAO, highlighted how sustainable farming practices using old methods were more productive than intensive farming. And it was through assisting these small farmers not corporations was the only way ahead. His comments come about 50 minutes in.
A very good article pointing out the obvious negative impacts of biomass incineration. A cheap and antiquated technology being pushed by politicians and big business as being ‘green’, it is not.
‘People Will Die’ – The End Of The NHS. Part 1: The Corporate Assault
I thought I would re-blog this article on the dismantling of the National Health Service in the UK. An end to universal care in the UK especially for the poor. We are becoming more like the US, where only those rich enough to have private medical insurance receive appropriate medical care.
‘People Will Die’ – The End Of The NHS. Part 1: The Corporate Assault.
And part two is about the British Broadcasting Company’s lack of news coverage of the privatisation and dismantling of the NHS. How the BBC is no longer an objective news broadcaster, but one that appears to broadcast ‘newspeak’.
‘People Will Die’ – The End Of The NHS. Part 2: Buried by the BBC.
Finding the truth behind Shell’s public relations campaign for Arctic drilling | Climate Connections
I thought I would share this very informative article about Shell.
Finding the truth behind Shell’s public relations campaign for Arctic drilling | Climate Connections.
Manchester City Council to axe head of planning post
This article from Planning, is about the shake of the highly paid jobs in Manchester City Council. It is a pity, this was not done the other year, instead of axing funding for Youth Services and Sure-Start.
Manchester City Council to axe head of planning post.
Manchester City Council is to abolish its £70,002 a year head of planning post, one of a host of high-ranking roles that the local authority says will save more than £1 million a year.
Peter Babb, head of planning and building control, is to take early retirement, the council said. The role will be discontinued.
The council said that further cuts to its planning services would also be made. In a report published last week, the council said it anticipated “further management changes” to its planning services that would result in “further savings”. These proposals are expected to be debated by the council’s personnel committee, made up of six officers and headed by chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein, in June. Further details were not available at the time of writing.
Steve Mycio, the £138,066 a year deputy chief executive (regeneration), is to also leave as part of a shake-up of the local authority’s planning and regeneration services. The post is to be abolished. Responsibility for economic development and regeneration, will fall under the remit of the assistant chief executive (regeneration), who will report directly to the chief executive.
The £120,894 a year post of strategic director of transformation, currently held by Elaine Bowker, is also being discontinued. The strategic director of transformation’s functions will be integrated into the role of deputy chief executive (performance).
The council said that the new “corporate core” of the council, comprised of the chief executive, city treasurer, city solicitor, director of communications and deputy chief executive (performance), would be in place from 12 April. Planning understands that the incumbent deputy chief executive Geoff Little will continue in this role.
Last month the council published its proposed budget for 2011/12, setting out how it intended to make £109 million of cuts over the next financial year, rising to £170 million in 2012/13.
Some of the reason we need a Robin Hood Tax
Our elected leaders, Conservative, Liberal-Democrats and Labour vilify those on benefits, whilst the Green Party campaigns for a ‘people’s wage’ and a ‘Robin Hood Tax’. The three main parties refuse to tackle the real problem, tax-havens and tax avoidance by the rich. Below are some links to more information on the subject of tax-havens and avoidance and the massive loss of revenue to the UK which pales into insignificance ‘benefit fraud’:
Biogas, the Forgotten Free Renewable Energy | ecogreen4us
I have mentioned over the years the benefits of Bio-digesters, the fact they produce methane whilst also providing nitrogen rich fertiliser. Other countries have embraced this technology, even in the poorest parts of South America. There, households are providing themselves with cheap energy from their own organic waste.
But in the UK, they prefer to invest in incineration of waste and biomass (mostly from imported wood), which emits CO2, particulates (dust). Addition waste incineration emits dioxins, furans and other pollutants.
I have put forward several options for bio-digester plants to Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Councillor for the Environment. But, I am always rebuffed with why the council will not invest in bio-digesters. One of the reasons is the Viridor, who took over the waste management services were supposed to incorporate Anaerobic Digester plants at their waste treatment plants for organic waste. But I have not heard or found any evidence that these plants are operational.
I did alert Nigel Murphy to a project in Glasgow where the residents food waste went into In-Vessel composting units. Thus avoiding CO2 from transportation of the waste and providing compost for a community garden. I mentioned that instead of just composting the food waste, use it to produce energy as well. But the Council does not seem to be interested in investing for the long term future, but only in the short term profits of developers.
Growing inequality
The Institute of Fiscal Studies has published a report comparing this year to that of 1977, the Silver Jubilee year. Of course it does not tells us anything anyone with common sense does not already know, that those on a the higher payer bracket are getting considerable more in comparison to the majority.
They highlight the inequality by using the median not average as most politicians and media use, and state:
There are numerous ways of illustrating the way in which the gap between
the rich and the poor has increased. In 1977, the person 90% of the way up
the income distribution had an income 1.7 times as high as the person in
the middle of the distribution and 3.0 times as high as the person just
10% of the way up the distribution. By 2009–10, this person at the 90th
percentile had an income more than twice the median and more than four
times as high as the person at the 10th percentile.
The figures for those at the very top are even more dramatic. The income
share of the richest 1% has nearly trebled. Even after tax, the richest 1% of
households took home nearly 9% of all income in 2009–10 compared with
3% in 1977.
The also mention how the make-up of the workforce has changed with more women in work than men. And of course, the type of work has shifted to banking and public services. Another issue is education, with education leading to more equality. Looking at their figures, the opposite has happened in this country.
In 2011, nearly a quarter of the working-age population – and a third of
those aged 25 to 30 – were in possession of a degree. Only 3% had a
degree back in the late 1970s. The change has been more dramatic for
women than for men. Proportions of men and women with degrees are
now the same. In 1977, only two women in a hundred were educated to
degree level compared with five in a hundred men. At the same time, the
advantage conferred by having a degree in terms of higher earnings has
actually increased. The huge increase in the supply of graduates has been
more than matched by an increase in demand.
At the other end of the educational spectrum in 1977, nearly 80% of
working-age people had left school at 16 or earlier, compared with just
over 40% now.
Though in their summary, they appear to downplay the inequality and state that materially we are better of. Not those at the bottom, who are struggling to heat their homes and have enough nutritional food on the table.
CDP-Cities-2012-Global-Report.pdf (application/pdf Object)
The Carbon Disclosure Project, Cities-2012 has just been published. I have only skim-read it, but one glaring error is the fact it has a report from Greater Manchester not the City of Manchester. Further down in the Appendix, it does have the City of Manchester but the data relates to Greater Manchester. So, how reliable can we believe this document to be. As usual it is mostly about what City Authorities say they are going to do, not what they have actually achieved. With regards to the City of Manchester, basically nothing.
CDP-Cities-2012-Global-Report.pdf (application/pdf Object).
The did issue a report criticising the UK Governments lack of action on making reporting of carbon emissions mandatory.
Lack of UK Government action on mandatory reporting disappointing
Shale Gas (fracking)
On Thursday 31st June, I attended a presentation given by Ed Hough of the British Geological Society at the University of Manchester. As well as giving an insight into the the geology behind shale gas and its history. When was introduced, the person doing the introduction made reference to another lecturer who dismissed what had been reported in the media as being absolute rubbish. Which did cause a few titters amongst some of the audience.
He did give the reasons why companies and some governments are keen to pursue the exploitation of this resource. The UK is expected by 2020 to import 80% of its fuel from overseas. That 40% of primary energy is derived from gas. That the UK has very little storage capacity, together leading to a supply gap. He did mention the fluctuation of gas prices, but made no reference to the future markets and commodity traders causing these large variations in price. He emphasised that the UK was sitting on a potential 20 trillion Cubic Feet of shale gas.
There was a list of all the companies interested in shale gas extraction in the UK. And a chart was produced showing the amount of fluid used and it which was produced from a report from the GWPC. The chart showing the amount of fluids used, is courtesy of the EPA.
Ed Hough, try to play down the amount of chemicals used as of being a small percentage of the amount of total fluids used, 3,000,000 gallons. But it is not the percentages you should be looking at the actual amount in gallons used. For example, Hydrochloric Acid which is a highly corrosive liquid, amounts to 3,690 gallons. These fluids are injecting in at a rate of approximately 45 gallons per minute over the initial drilling and fracking process. Ed Houghs, like All Consultancy: http://www.all-llc.com/publicdownloads/ALLShaleOverviewFINAL
try to play-down the toxic and environmental damaging aspects of these chemicals by stating they are used in domestic processes. Would you drink a thimble of Ethylene Glycol, an anti-freeze which is highly toxic? He also went on to dismiss other concerns reported in the media, groundwater contamination by methane and other pollutants, methane escaping to air, correct treatment of waste water, contamination of water courses, radioactive waste (gamma rays) and earthquakes. That in well maintained and sealed wells most of these issues are improbable or very unlikely. Like the, Fukushima or Deep Water Horizon.
I think Ed Houghs gave himself away when he said he was working with these companies and did say, ‘we’, a few times. Nothing was said of Global Warming or Climate Change as Marc Hudson of Manchester Climate Monthly pointed out to Ed Houghs, during question time. As Lawrence said after the presentation, geologists are there to find resources for companies to exploit.
Figure 6 depicts a horizontal well, which is composed of both vertical and horizontal legs. The depth and length of the well varies with the location and properties of the gas-containing formation. In unconventional cases, the well can extend more than a mile below the ground surface.
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