Victoria's Green Matters - 1st April 2017

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column on Green Issues for us: 
 There are many things to worry us about the break away from Europe, not least the possible weakening of environmental legislation which, at present, protects our countryside, waterways and wildlife.

The European Commission has drafted some new regulations to protect bees and other pollinating insects from the use of the controversial insecticides, neonicotinoids.

Neonicotinoids have been in use for more than 20 years but since the number of bees has been declining for decades, due to habitat loss, disease and pesticide use, pressure has been brought to bear on governments to ban their use. A study of Europe’s 2000 bee species, published in 2015, showed that the wild bee population was in serious decline, with one in ten species facing the threat of extinction.

Bees and other pollinating insects are vital for many food crops but there has been a ferocious battle between environmentalists, farmers and pesticide manufacturers. The scientific evidence on the toxicity of the pesticides is significantly high to warrant a campaign by Avaaz, which, to date, has 4.4 million signatures. Farmers and manufacturers continue to argue that food crops need the protection of these insecticides.

The European Union already has a temporary ban on the neonicotinoids but these new proposals are for a complete ban on their use in fields with an exception for crops grown in greenhouses.

There is some hope that our government will go along with the ban because they have rejected repeated requests from UK farmers to authorise an ‘emergency’ use of the pesticides.

While we have stepped into the unknown by triggering Article 50 this week, we must continue to campaign to safeguard our environment in any way we can.

Victoria's Green Matters - 2nd March 2017

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column on Green Issues for us:
Those of you who saw the recent article about the lack of snow in the Alps over this winter will take this as an illustration of the effects of climate change so close to us, just across the water. This is a very real problem for the ski resorts that rely on the winter season to make their living. The French Alps are beautiful at any time of the year, the lower slopes being home to beautiful green pastures carpeted with wild flowers in the summer but with a very different beauty in the winter, usually all covered with snow. But not this winter. Add to this the terrible storms and flooding in the North of England of Christmas 2015 and climate change is very real indeed.

In contrast, it was good to read that electricity generated by renewable energy made up nearly nine-tenths of the power that was added to European electricity grids last year. There was 24.5 GW of capacity built across Europe last year, 86% of which came from wind, solar, biomass and hydro, beating the 2014 record of 79%. For the first time, wind power has overtaken coal to become the EU’s second largest form of power generation after gas.

While this is very much good news for the present; for the long term only seven of the 28 EU countries have clear policies for the years beyond 2020. There seems to be less policy and political ambition for renewables than there was five or even three years ago.

The amount of wind power capacity installed in Europe is 153.7GW but this is a relatively small fraction of the area’s 918.8GW of total power capacity. The industry needs to grow to fill the gap created as governments force the closure of old coal plants to meet climate change goals. The UK has committed to do this by 2025.

There obviously needs to be far more support from governments to help renewable generation if we are to meet the targets set by the Paris agreement. The removal of subsidies for coal production must happen if we are to clean up our act and there must be no encouragement of new open cast coal or fracking in this country.

Victoria's Green Matters 12th February 2017

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column on Green Issues for us:

There has been such a hoo-ha this last couple of weeks over the unavailability of certain vegetables. It is amazing to think that courgettes and lettuces could be such news worthy items!

We have, of course, been brainwashed by the supermarkets into believing that we should be able to buy anything that we want, whether it is in season in the UK or not. We import a huge amount of our fruit and vegetables because our climate just doesn’t allow us to grow lots of things. It seemed that it was the lack of courgettes that was the first thing to be reported and this because of really bad weather in Spain where the courgettes are usually grown.

We were not sorry for the people of southern Spain who were suffering an unusual cold spell, only sorry for ourselves because we were denied our supply of vegetables. We then hear that some supermarkets have actually imported iceberg lettuces from the USA – at great cost to the environment because they were transported by air and at great monetary cost to the consumer if they chose to buy them. How ridiculous this is! Where has seasonal eating gone?

There are many root and leafy vegetables available at this time of year that are grown here and the more local to your area, the better. If you want an interesting salad, try red cabbage and grated carrot with balsamic vinegar. Delicious!

We know that we must import exotic fruits that can’t be grown here – how can we imagine life without bananas? – but we really should not be buying imported items just because they are out of season here.

Victoria's Green Matters 2nd Feb 2017

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column on Green Matters for us.

There is some good news at last on the environmental front from green energy supplier, Ecotricity. This small company supplies electricity only from renewable sources and is going ahead to produce ‘green’ gas from, of all things, grass.

Permission has been granted for them build their first ‘Greengas mill’ and there are more requests for permission in the pipeline, including plans for two gas mills on the site in Lancashire that the government has earmarked for fracking, against the wishes of the local council and community.

Gas will be produced by the anaerobic digestion of grass. This is the decomposition of organic material without the presence of oxygen, resulting in the production of bio-methane gas which will be ‘scrubbed’ to remove some of its carbon dioxide. As this gas is from newly grown grass, carbon dioxide has been sequestered by the crop during its growing time and the carbon dioxide produced when it is burnt will be sequestered by the next crop. It is not like fossil fuels which have been removed from the ground.

The grass will be sourced from marginal land and lower quality arable farmland. The material that is left after the gas has been removed is an excellent natural fertiliser which will be returned to the fields to improve soil quality and to reduce the need for chemical fertilisers.

We already produce green gas from waste food and animal excreta up to about 5% of our needs so making green gas from grass will cut carbon emissions, make the UK energy independent, support food production by improving soils, create wildlife habitats and support farmers.