Victoria's Green Matters - 3rd Oct 2010

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:  
How is your 10:10 campaign going? Are you still trying to reduce your energy use by 10% during 2010? There always seems to be opportunities to try and use less energy throughout daily life. By now most of us will have low energy light bulbs around the home and will have realised that the early ones with their slow acting, dim glow have given way to much more user friendly and brighter globes. Even halogen lamps have environmentally friendly versions and soon, LED bulbs will be available with even lower energy use.

But you have to buy bulbs (don’t be tricked into buying the very cheap ones from the supermarket, they are useless) and there are lots of other ways to reduce your energy use without buying anything at all. It is very easy to get into the habit of switching off lights and appliances when you have finished using them. It is pointless, both from an energy and a cost perspective, to leave things switched on when no one is using them. It is very easy to walk away and leave ‘phone chargers still connected – and still using energy – when your ‘phone is fully charged. Why leave the television switched on when no one is looking at it? Are there lights on in rooms in your house when the rooms are empty? Even low energy bulbs use some energy!

A good way to check your energy use is to fit an energy monitor in your home. This is quite simple to do and energy companies are giving the monitors away.  It is quite a shock to see just how much electricity your halogen lamps in the kitchen are using and quite an incentive to switch them off.

There are lots more ways to save energy and money so why not join the campaign today? For more information go to www.1010.org.uk

We got some 10:10 tags....

We have got some very trendy 10:10 tags for sale for £5 for DWI funds.

Made of recycled 747 airplanes and worn by vicars... if you dont know what a 'tag' is you probably do not need one...

Be at the DWI meeting on Tuesday 27th July, at the stalls during August or email Steve to get one!

10:10:10 ... do something local on the global day

On October 10, 2010, thousands of individuals, families, schools, businesses and other organisations will take simple steps to save energy and reduce emissions. These ordinary actions, combined with a series of bold, iconic stunts, will make an extraordinary difference. Not only will they cut carbon directly; they will also send a powerful message to world leaders that people and organisations everywhere are ready to tackle climate change. ... what can you do ? click here for some tips from 10:10

Rebecca Harris MP tables '10:10 Lighter Later' bill

NEWS: New Essex MP Rebecca Harris has tabled a bill supporting the 'Lighter Later' campaign .... more details here

Victoria's Green Matters - 8th July

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: 

It was great news to hear that our new government had signed up to the 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions by 10% during 2010. Many individuals, companies, councils and other organisations have also signed up.

How has your campaign been going? If you can’t relate to carbon emissions – let’s face it, it is difficult to visualise the invisible – remember that cutting emissions means also cutting cost and saving money!

Many small actions add up to quite a lot if we go around our homes and look at all the electrical gadgets that we have and take for granted – and switch them off when we are not using them. It is good policy to make sure that energy is not being wasted on any appliance that may be plugged in but is not being used e.g. phone and camera chargers. Televisions and related gadgets such as DVD players/recorders and the various digiboxes that are attached should be switched off, if possible, rather than left on standby.

Our kitchens are a major source of energy use and waste and there are lots of ways that we can minimise this. Small actions like choosing the right size of ring for your saucepan so that you are not heating the air around the edge and always using the saucepan lid. Make sure that you do not always fill the kettle – modern kettles are designed to boil exactly the amount of water you need. Conversely, you do need to fill the oven and the dishwasher to use them efficiently.

Remember, also, to do your shopping efficiently. Taking the car to the shops several times a week uses energy so make sure that you do your shopping for the week in one trip, using local shops where you can and only buying locally sourced produce whenever possible. 

To join the campaign go to www.1010uk.org

10:10 Lighter later .... Campaign Video

The 10:10 Lighter Later campaign launch on the 21st June in parliament ...


Lighter Later update from 10:10 on Vimeo.

10:10 Lighter later .... petition online

WHAT A DIFFERENCE AN HOUR MAKES...

Everybody loves the sunshine. But every year we set our clocks so that we get less of it in our lives, sleeping through the sunlit mornings while we use expensive, polluting electric lights to keep out the dark nights. Lighter Later is a campaign to brighten all of our days, by changing the clocks so we are awake when the sun is out.

The idea is simple: we shift the clocks forward by one hour throughout the entire year. We would still put the clocks forward in spring and back in autumn, but we would have moved an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening, when more of us are awake to enjoy it.

Lighter Later is also the best proof yet of 10:10’s bright idea – that cutting carbon and making life better can and should go hand in hand.

Add your voice today - http://www.lighterlater.org/

Join the 10:10 campaign today!

10:10 is a campaign to reduce UK emissions by 10% in 2010. Any person, school, business or organisation can get involved - so far over 60,000 individuals have registered. It is a simple 'pledge' system to reduce your carbon emissions by 10% this year with lots of good ideas how you can achieve this. 10:10 website is at http://www.1010global.org/uk

Good article in the Telegraph on the 10:10 campaign http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/6223936/1010-why-I-have-decided-to-sign-up-and-save-the-planet.html

Victoria's Green Matters - 23rd April

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: 
How would an extra hour of daylight in the evenings suit you? Now the weather is improving you could use the time for more gardening, a game of football with the children, evening walks by the sea and lots more.

The ‘Lighter Later Campaign’ wants the clocks moved forward an hour so that we can enjoy an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, all year round. This means moving to Greenwich Mean Time plus one hour – GMT+1 in the winter and GMT+2 in the summer. Summer days would feel much the same in the mornings but have that extra daylight in the evenings while winter mornings will be darker but evenings lighter for another hour when most people are about and able to take advantage of it.

There are several benefits, not least the saving in carbon dioxide (C02) emissions with the use of less energy for lighting.  At least 447,000 tonnes of C02 pollution could be cut, equivalent to more than 50,000 cars driving all around the world each year. Lower electricity bills would obviously follow the lower use of artificial light.

In winter, children’s journeys home from school would be in daylight and therefore much safer from a traffic accident point of view. 100 lives could be saved each year and hundreds of injuries could be prevented. Longer daylight hours make us all feel safer and fewer hours of darkness can reduce crime and the fear of crime.

Previous attempts to bring in the time change have been unsuccessful because of opposition from both the Scots and the farmers but recent polls have shown the Scots to be in favour of change now and the farmers have raised no further opposition.

There needs to be a successful popular movement to secure the time change so if you want to see lighter evenings join the campaign now and go to www.lighterlater.org