This is what one year of plastic looks like

Over the last year because there is no plastic recycling in Inverness we have collected all our plastic, and because there is no milkman that is a lot of plastic bottles, now our attic has a whole years worth, it is quite impressive.
Attention Highland Council, please could we have plastic recycling in Inverness Invergordon is too far away for it to be sensible to take plastic there.

World's biggest offshore wind farm approved for Thames estuary site

From The Guardian
Plans to build the world's largest offshore wind farm off the coast of south-east England were approved by ministers yesterday in a move that could eventually bring 341 turbines to the Thames estuary.

Expansion at Heathrow and Stanstead.

Guardian article
The government has approved expansion of Heathrow and Stanstead. This is bad, air travel needs to be reduced not increased. Hypocrites, *sigh*.
What can I say.
STUPID POLITICIANS PUTTING MONEY BEFORE LIFE.
There now I feel a bit better. :-)

Scottish weather

We have been having some pretty bad weather in Scotland today (26th Oct) flooding in Dingwall (pictured - bbc) cut of the A9 and the railway which cut off much of the far north of Scotland. The worst flooding since 1954 which was worse because the tides we had - highest since then were combinded with a worse storm than we had. no one died this time - many did last time. congratulations to the emergancy services.
We had 3 short power cuts (less than 1 min) power cuts are a definet incentive to put wind turbines up - it was very windy:) the only problem being that since the power available increases to the cube of the windspeed we might make more than we could deal with - but I think they have dealt with that.

‘The most important issue we face’

‘The issue is urgent. If there is one message I would leave with you ..... it is one of urgency.’ PM Tony Blair.*

A while ago I did work experience at BP(Alternative Energy)
I was asked what could stop Global Warming. I went through the list: solar, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal, heat pump, random kinetic, biomass, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, ENERGY EFFICIENCY.
I ran out, many of these technologies are in early stages and cannot be used on large enough scales quickly enough. 300km2 of today’s solar panels could power the world if they were in the Sahara desert – but we don’t need power in the Sahara desert and who would foot the huge bill? It would not be enough anyway of the resistance in wires.
If we really tried, an Apollo program sized push, war production levels, we could do much, enough? No.
That is my conclusion – we cannot save the whole world. Hundreds, perhaps hundreds of thousands of species will be wiped out.
We will get 3 degrees more – even if we stopped now – and we can’t. 1degree is too much for the permafrost, bye bye permafrost. Catastrophic comes to mind, Positive Feedback Loops!
Millions of people will die, for all the efforts of humanity. The whole world will suffer for our folly. All we have left to decide is whether millions die or hundreds of millions. The difference between a major catastrophe and an absolutely massive humongous catastrophe. It will be bad. Do you want your World horribly over cooked or burnt? That is the decision You must make.

*I do not often preface my work with a quote from a fool but here at least he is saying the right thing – even if he does not act upon it.

Munro Club

Recently I went on the Munro club and it was fun.
We climbed up two mountains! A small one and a big one next door. We climbed vertically 1200m (lots of down in between the ups (a computer program calculated this we are not that sad))
For the majority of the time we were climbing through cloud. Which meant we missed the wondrous beauty of the Scottish countryside in terms of the views. “When the weather it good there is nowhere I would rather be” to quote one of the other people. It was still fun even if we were walking through cloud. The pace was faster than I am used to when hill walking with family and we did not stick to the paths so much – more taking a short cut straight up and scrambling along sheep paths. There were some nice bilberries en-route and we were provided with pack lunches which contained a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a bag of crisps, a chocolate bar, a can of fizzy drink (cococola zero is just as disgusting as the diet) and I was given at least 2 snack sized chocolate bars when I ran out of food. I also took 3 chocolate digestive biscuits with me and half of one escaped into the bottom of the bag and was crushed into a paste over stuff that was in the bottom – not nice.
When we had lunch we had it in a nylon shelter thing which is a bit like a large upside down bag that you sit inside – there were five boys in total + one leader (perhaps girls don’t like hill-walking?). It was amazing how much warmer it was inside the shelter with the wind taken out of the equation and 5 people inside (not enough space for the leader to fit in as well).
My trainers are still soggy and I should be using walking boots next time though even people wearing those got soggy feet. It did not really rain but the damp was penetrating.
All in all I enjoyed it – though I hope for better weather next time.

read the sign it says

Paper Only!

I was recycling some paper and look what I saw inside the recycled paper container. If you look carefuly you can se expanded polystyrene sheets. There was also some cardboard which you can just see in the top right of the opening.
We removed the polystyrene sheets and cardboard (with difficulty) but someone is very stupid and rude or cannot read putting polystyrene sheets in the paper recycling could corrupt the whole lot and make it unusable. It is also illegal since someone who did something similar to their concil recycing (we don't have door to door recycling) was charged for corrupting 300 peoples recycling. (recycling in the Highlands is not very good the only place to get paper recyclins is Invergordan there is an industrial estate there where someone does paper recycling.

What will happen if Britain becomes 3C warmer?

And there's more. Last year, the government said that a 3C rise could trigger the melting of the Greenland ice cap, the destabilisation of the Antarctic and "irreversible system disruptions" - basically, out-of-control change. The IPCC says that if emissions are not cut, sea leavels will rise 43cm by 2100, and go on rising after that for 200 more years. Britain, a small island, will become much smaller.

But if losing half the UK doesn't matter, then get used to wild weather. Our drains, houses, underground transport systems and temperaments can barely cope with six inches of snow, winds of more than 55mph or temperatures over 21C, but what is coming could make the great storm of 1987 seem a breeze. There will be no insurance when London is swamped, when your house crumbles into dust or you catch malaria. Yes: 3C is the point when malarial mosquitoes will be able to breed permanently in Britain, cement-eating termites move into your cellars and the green police take over.

In short, 3C will be another world. No more hols in Spain, no seaside jaunts, no short breaks to New York or any of the other world's coastal cities. 3C? It's short for hell.

Source Guardian

Now if you were not worried about Global warming before you should be now.

It is very very very important that we stop it.

It is the most important physical issue the human race has ever faced.

Currently we are messing up.

Lets go renewable. - lets win the war (on global warming).

Max shouts from the mountain top

You who are yet young, on the cold heights build strongholds for your children and go forth to fight the battle for their future. For when London is both Cairo and Atlantis Scotland shall be the new Greece. Build your houses strong on solid rock and give them their own power to last when the world around crumbles. Seed the fields with charcoal to make them last when their goodness would be washed away. Build the hedgerows on the contours and the jetties 11m high for there the water shall ride when the land called the green land is green once more. Build a floating Athens in Inverness and a Cairo of ships in London. For if the battle is lost we must look to the future. Fight to the last drop of blood but if we do not succeed let our children live. But when they see what we have wrought they will cry and though we wish for the world to be as it was when we were born, if we loose then, it shall not be the same for many thousand years 13 degrees is a long way to climb and it will take a long time to come back down again. If we make our own great flood to down in and light the fire to cook ourselves it is our children who will eat the bitter stew. Pray that the one who made us shall save us from our own folly.

The Nuclear option – not an option

Definitely not nuclear and never nuclear.
It can never be safe enough, it can never not produce radioactive waste and it will produce CO2 when being built and throughout its life. Fission power if utilised fully would run out in 15 years.
Fusion looked good and is probably still worth investing in but 50 years is an optimistic estimate for it coming on line - and it is even more prone to melt down - if the magnetic field fails it will melt very quickly - think of the heart of the sun in an eggshell - just kept from touching the sides by a magnetic field - H bombs are much more powerful than A bombs. Therefore a fusion plant melt down will be much worse than a fission plant melt down.
The future is renewables - solar, wind, wave, heat pump, tidal, geothermal, hydro, random kinetic.
The sooner the better the larger the scale the better and mandatory to the greatest possible extent.
Also efficiency and lots of it - efficiency increases year on year for everything possible.
In the civil war on Global Warming failure is not an option.
I would live to see the morrow and like living there.