At last, something worth telling you about.  What’s more it’s the FT with Hewlett Packard who are organising a competition to find themost promising new approach to tackling climate change. The Article appeared in the FT on 12th November. There are more details about the competition, including how to enter, related articles  and terms and conditions, can be found at www.ft.com/climatechallenge

Perhaps I should enter PowertuneEnergySaver for this competition.

Somehow a whole month’s posts have disappeared into cyberspace.  Maybe there is a world shortage of pixels or electrons and these have been sent for recycling!  I can only apologise and see if I can find the backup copy.

HOW A QUICK SNOOZE CAN SAVE THE PLANET 

An extremely sesitive and well written article from Down Under.  Well worth a read.

COMPUTERS are bad. No sooner have they flung open the doors of our homes to rampaging hordes of Nigerian conmen and Viagra salesmen than they are on the scrap heap because they were obsolete by the time you had prised the staples off the box.

Naturally, to reduce a computer’s footprint, Dilemmas readers will bend these staples back into shape using only their teeth and reinsert into an appropriate staple gun. However, we can go further. Firstly, by choosing a laptop. They use as little as 12 per cent of the energy of a desktop.

A laptop will use 20 to 50 watts, says Paul Osmond, manager of the Environment Unit at the University of NSW. A desktop with an old-style cathode ray tube monitor will draw 120 to 170 watts and a desktop with an LCD screen 65 to 100 watts.

Sleep is crucial. The energy use of a desktop with an LCD can drop to seven watts in sleep mode.

Most modern computers are set up to go to sleep after 15 to 20 minutes of inactivity. By changing the power-saving options that can be reduced to a couple of minutes. (In Windows go to Start-Control Panel-Power Options; on a Mac go to System Preferences-Energy Saver.) After all, if you nod off while reading Dilemmas online, it seems only fair your hard drive should get a snooze too.

If your monitor starts showing pictures of fish or psychedelic whirly things, it is not helping. “Screen savers save pixels, not energy,” Osmond says.

Choose a smaller monitor size and dim your screen’s brightness settings to further reduce the guzzling.

Computers are on their best behaviour when switched off and, contrary to popular belief, shutting down does not harm them. They use only a couple of watts if turned off on the box and nothing if switched off at the wall.

Shutting down at home is one thing; getting everyone at work to do it is another.

“Audit data from a number of countries indicates that up to half of office computers are typically left on all night, with close to half left on all weekend,” Osmond says.

Maybe your IT department could set up some system that shuts down everything automatically.

Where do computers go when they die? Worldwide, e-waste (unwanted electronic equipment) weighs in at about 40 million tonnes a year, the United Nations says. Much of that ends up in toxic heaps in Asia and Africa, where children scavenge scrap metal.

That equipment has often been given up in good faith for recycling in the West or as a donation to Third World schools.

Greenpeace is campaigning for an end to what it calls “poisoning the poor”. It wants companies to stop using dangerous chemicals in the manufacture of computers and to take responsibility for the life cycle of their gizmos by introducing global recycling programs.

It rates manufacturers in its annual Guide to Greener Electronics. The 2008 edition puts Nokia, Samsung and Fujitsu top of the charts, with Sharp, Microsoft and the woeful Nintendo (rated zero on most criteria) at the bottom.

Lists of companies that recycle computer equipment can be found at the Total Environment Centre website www.tec.org.au and the Planet Ark website www.recyclingnearyou.com.au.

Some charge and some do not, though residents of most metropolitan areas should have access to at least one free recycler, says the media manager of Planet Ark, Karen Billington. It is worth checking what they are going to do with your machine. “Most companies should explain their recycling process openly on their website,” Billington says. “If in doubt, make a phone call and ask whether the components will stay in Australia or go overseas.”

Simon Webster  

The Sidney Morning Herald

Having had so many problems with I Power web I am changing Hosting for this blog.? being technically challenged I hope that this blog will be here when you next visit!

When you use ‘plastic’ you don’t FEEL the money going.

Instead of putting everything on your credit/debit card, get a sensible sum out each week, on a Monday and make it last the week.? If you can’t be strong, get someone else to hold the kitty and give you a daily allowance.

I know this sounds dreadful, but this credit squeeze will hurt even more if we don’t make the effort to help ourselves.? Try it, it works!

Such natural beauty is about to be lost for ever.? The geology of these Islands gives them their beauty. It’s debatable whether hydrangea hedges and Japanese trees enhance the Azores or not.? Before the Victorian plant hunters introduced some 3000+ new plant species to the Azores there were only 60 local species.? Not surprising so far out into the Atlantic.? Originally these plants were for the gardens of the rich.? But the plants liked the climate as well and escaped wholesale.

The long silence has been because I have been on a transatlantic cruise.? On the way across the Pond we called in at Santa Cruz which has a brand new cruise port courtesy of the EC and new roads and infrastructure thanks to the EC.? And McDonalds, no thanks to the USA.? Prices in the shops are considerably lower than in mainland Portugal.? Agriculture is the main employer.

The Azores are on every cruise itinerary that can possibly be wangled next year.? I’m glad I saw the beauty before they become another Tenerife.? Now I shall go nurse my cold,? the worst in years, contract via the ship’s air conditioning.? I had pills with me for everything except a cold!

A great tip for you today.? Have individual personal style in your kitchen.? A row of identical canisters may look fine but is a recipe for disaster to many.? By many I mean all those who are visually impaired or just in a hurry.

When you buy instant coffee, buy large jars and don’t buy the same one twice until you have a sufficient selection for your needs.? Once you start looking you will see that branded coffees all have different shaped jars or lids and the lids vary in colour.? Not just that but if you are craft minded you could paint the jars as well.? Personalisation will always be the envy of the less adventurous.

You don’t need to be adventurous to invest in a Powertune Energy Saver.? Ideal for you and your Granny at a time when energy prices are soaring.? Just think what you can do with all the money you save.

Rain is pouring down,? had to make a dash to put out the recycling wheelie-bin,? the car has now been rinsed - that’s another story.

As rain dripped off the clothes line I thought of clothes pegs and another quick saving tip.? Do you use plastic clips to close poly bags for the fridge?? I don’t, I use plastic clothes pegs.? They are just as good, a fraction of the price and very versatile.? Try it your self.

For even bigger savings try Powertune Energy Saver and be amazed.

Somehow I never seem to be able to find one of those plastic lids you? put on opened cans that you need to put in the fridge. I don’t expect I’m alone here.

I’ve found an answer.? Most families have a tube of Pringles or similar from time to time.? Next time you finish a tube, keep the lid and recycle or bin the tube.

Those plastic lids are ideal as tin can covers.? No need even to recycle, just repurpose!

To save even more there’s always Powertune, the UK’s only proven plugin electricity saver.

First, an apology for the silence.? My ADSL link has been down.? Yes thanks, it’s back again now but the main phone is out!

Anyway, back to the point of today’s post.? Concerning the choice of ‘Super Nanny’ from Alaska who has been installed as the? ? running mate for? the Republicans.? Great I thought, what a woman!? Then I remembered a news release I read the other day.? Now I? wonder if all is what it appears, or is this laudable act really smoothing the path to purchase the rape of “The Last Wilderness” for oil.? If anyone wants to start a “FREE ALASKA” campaign, I’ll join because I have seen her true beauty.? At least if PowerTune was adopted worldwide, Alaska? might stand more of a chance.? A copy of the press release follows.? It’s quite long, but worth taking time to read.

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE
RAN Sells-Out Canadian Boreal Forests

- Rainforest Action Network greenwashes destruction of half of
Ontario, Canada’s boreal forests; despite lack of any detail
regarding vague promised protections, and without scientific
findings that doing so is ecologically sufficient

August 28, 2008
By Earth News, a project of Ecological Internet
Dr. Glen Barry, +1 (920) 776-1075

(Earth) — Rainforest Action Network (RAN) of San Francisco
has long been one of America’s leading rainforest campaign
organizations. Yet in July their campaign to protect Ontario,
Canada’s boreal forests doomed half this vital global
ecological system to industrial destruction. In return, RAN
and other proponents received vague promises of protections
over a decade from now, but no protected area boundaries or
protection plans.

Canada’s boreal forests are home to hundreds of sensitive
species of animals including polar bears, caribou and
wolverines. Boreal forests are some of the world’s largest
carbon storehouses, with holdings equal to decades of global
emissions from fossil fuels, while continually absorbing new
emissions. The boreal region is also the world’s largest
reservoir of clean fresh water.

“Just how much longer do you think environmentalists can
strike deals that give up half of large wilderness ecosystems
to industrial development for vague promises of protection?
Simply, more ecologically attuned folks know no more natural
habitats can be lost and expect to survive climate change,”
explains Ecological Internet’s President, Dr. Glen Barry.

Neither RAN, WWF or even Greenpeace realize that there is no
longer any acceptable reason to industrially destroy or
diminish an intact natural ecosystem — not if falsely FSC
certified, not to briefly alleviate poverty, and not because
indigenous people are in favor. The state of the Earth is so
grim, and the needs to protect and restore natural ecosystem
so large, that only sufficient campaigns seeking to end
industrial cutting and burning are worthwhile any longer. The
rest is greenwash.

It is unknown if 50 percent protection — of unknown strength
and placement — will be enough to fully sustain Ontario’s
biodiversity and ecosystem services. Future protections will
likely center on the sparsely populated and largely
unthreatened northern boreal, while with its promotion and
endorsement of the vague plan, RAN has greenwashed intensified
forestry and mining in the already heavily fragmented southern
boreal.

“The only meaningful forest protection is to work to keep all
ancient primary forests standing, and to meet needs for forest
products from secondary forests regenerating into old-growth.
There is no chance of achieving global ecological
sustainability until ecological destruction ends, what remains
is fully protected, and restoration begins,” explains Dr.
Barry.

in recent history — the other being
in British Columbia, Canada’s priceless Great Bear temperate
rainforest — that RAN has been a driving force in continuing
industrial loss of the world’s most important remaining large,
intact forest wildernesses. Greenwashing millions of acres of
industrial wilderness destruction in the name of indigenous
rights is not doing these people or the environment any
favors. Thankfully, RAN now does little tropical rainforest
campaigning, so they may be safe. With more victories like
this, soon there will be no ancient forests or an operable
climate.

RAN’s slide from a force for forest good to a force for forest
greenwash must not go unchallenged. This is particularly
difficult for Ecological Internet, as President Dr. Glen Barry
is a RAN rainforest award recipient, and has worked
collaboratively with them for decades. Yet RAN’s string of
blunders — also including occupying campaign offices of Al
Gore to protest oil investments (which Nader also had),
possibly swinging the 2000 election — cannot be forgotten nor
forgiven, particularly while ill-informed appeasement
continues. RAN has censored those questioning these policies
on their blog.

Dr. Barry laments, “You can’t present yourselves as cutting
edge, selfless and knowledgeable forest protestors and be
routinely cutting deals to turn over millions of acres of
ancient forests to fatcat loggers and minders. We need to
focus on how many ecosystems are necessary to maintain the
Earth’s habitability, and reaching these levels of protection
and restoration, not upon what can be indelicately and easily
negotiated.

RAN is called upon to get on board protecting all ancient
forests and working to restore mature, old-growth forests; or
they, like so much of the mainstream environmental movement,
are part of the climate and biodiversity crises. “Giving up on
half of Canada’s boreal forests for a pocket full is mumbles
is not the role of the Rainforest Action Network, members or
donors. They have no authority or expertise to be pursuing
such deals.”

###ENDS###

Dr. Glen Barry is a leading global spokesperson on global
forest and climate policy. Ecological Internet provides the
world’s leading climate and forest web portals at
http://www.climateark.org/ and http://forests.org/.