Marine energy sites named...

The seven pilot sites for the UK's first major venture into marine energy have been announced today in Orkneys/NW Coast Scotland. The plan is produce 1.2Gw of power - enough power for 750k homes by 2020.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/marine-energy-projects-approved-for-scotland-1922370.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/16/wave-and-tidal-power-scotland 

http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/newscontent/92-pentland-firth-developers.htm

Take the Trains4Deal Survey....

From our colleagues in Trains4Deal - As you might have seen in this week's Mercury, Transport Minister Chris Mole is actively looking at stopping 4 High Speed trains at Deal each weekday morning, and also 4 in the evenings (the 1740 and 1840 from St Pancras plus the last two at night).

We need to give some up-to-date evidence of potential demand, so we're doing a survey on the morning of TUESDAY next, 16th March.
Can you help:

    - at Deal or Walmer stations, on the platform? (up to 9.15am)
    - if you'll be on a train that morning, giving out surveys to other passengers on the train?
    - and of course, fill it in yourself!

The survey questions are on the website - http://www.trains4deal.com - along with details of what was discussed with the Minister.

Victoria's Green Matters - 14th March

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

What is your view of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’? Do you see a pattern of fields, divided by hedges and walls, where animals peacefully graze? Do you think all animals have a good and natural life when they produce meat and other products for us to eat and drink? It would be wonderful if this were so but, unfortunately, providing the human population with food and drink relies mostly on big business these days.

There is a lot of opposition to the latest plan to farm 8,000 dairy cows in what amounts to battery conditions in Lincolnshire. Animal rights groups call the proposal an environmental disaster which will condemn animals to dark sheds for most of their lives. Does this feel the right thing to do to other sentient beings whose natural habitat is a field with grass?

Of course, we protest at such treatment and are told that if we want cheap food, this is the way it has to be produced. But do we want or need cheap food? It is a fact that one third of all food bought in this country is thrown away as waste. Consider this. It is shameful to think that we in the rich West waste so much when people in the developing world are hardly surviving.

Don’t forget that we have condemned chickens, ducks and turkeys to lives in concrete sheds and ourselves to eating meat often contaminated with deadly organisms that thrive in such conditions. Can this really be the way forward? Of course not. We must not encourage the production of milk to go any further towards big business and sentence cows to the same lives as factory farmed poultry.

We must endeavour to buy locally produced and free range produce whenever we can. Look for the local label, try to find out where food comes from and if it’s very cheap, ask yourself why?
 

Transition Towns Film on Tues 23rd March

DealWithIT's next monthly meeting on Tuesday 23rd March, 7:30pm at Dealability, 43 Victoria Road, Deal CT14 7AY will have a showing of the film 'In Transition 1.0' followed by a discussion on what next for Deal.

'IN TRANSITION 1.0 From oil dependence to local resilience'
'In Transition 1.0' was compiled from footage sent in by Transition initiatives around the world. Over 100 tapes were received and this film is edited from them. Transition is a movement of communities around the world responding creatively and productively to peak oil and climate change, seeing them as an historic opportunity to build the world anew.
All Welcome

Micro Generation from our rivers....

Environment Agency maps hydropower hotspots Report identifies thousands of potential small-scale hydropower sites in English and Welsh rivers that could power 850,000 homes

report at  : http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/GEHO0310BRYF-E-E.pdf

interactive map: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2010/mar/09/map-hydropower-hotspots-uk

Ian McEwan on climate change and his new book 'Solar'

Failure at Copenhagen climate talks prompted novel rewrite
Author's forthcoming novel, Solar, is about a scientist working on a technology to address global warming .... This is his FOE video interview


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/05/ian-mcewan-climate-copenhagen-solar

Visit a Old Home, SuperHome in Faversham....

Home Super Home scheme. We will be offering tours to show what
can be done to improve the energy efficiency of an old house on Sunday 28th
March between 11 and 3. Tours will take about 20 minutes. To book a place,
use the link below...

There are 4.3 million houses built before 1919, which equals 17% of the
building stock across the country. Old Home SuperHome is a campaign to
transform the energy efficiency of this existing housing stock. The project
aims to provide a network of exemplar dwellings which are locally
accessible. By showing how to replicate the techniques the project seeks to
inspire others to undertake similar renovations.
http://www.sustainable-energyacademy.org.uk/superhomes/st-annes-road-faversham-kent

Sign on & Switch off - 27th March Earth Hour 8:30pm

WWF have organised another Earth Hour on Saturday 27th March 8:30pm check out their website at http://www.earthhour.org

Recycle batteries at Deal Library

KCC are now recycling batteries at all Kent Libraries - You should find a special battery box inside the Library http://ow.ly/1ftwq 

You can also recycle at the following:

• Coop Mill Hill
• Boots High St
• Sainsburys
• Somerfield
• SouthWall depot
• St Margaret's Parish Council have also organised collection points

Happy International Women's Day! - 8th March 2010

Great video from ActionAid! http://www.actionaid.org.uk -
'The Girl Effect'

Keeping the Lights on - 20th April - CPRE Kent Pines Calyx

The Kent area of the Campiagn to Protect Rural England have a conference event 'On Keepting the Lights On' on the Tuesday 20th April at the Pines Calyx centre in St Margarets10:30-1:45pm. £20 for CPRE members.
Speakers included:  Peter Harper (CAT), Alastair Gould (Carbon Free Group) and Sir Crispin Tickell.
http://www.cprekent.org.uk/read-event.php?id=3

Warm Homes, Greener Homes....

The Government announced its Household Energy Strategy - 'Warm Homes, Greener Homes' on Tuesday at EcoBuild


Its three key points are:

• 'Pay as you Save' - Loan scheme from 2012. This tied to the property rather the current owner.
• More powers to Local Authority's working with energy companies to deliver local energy plans
• More regulation on energy standards, especially on private landlords

The overall aim is to reduce emissions from homes by 29 per cent by 2020.

For more info check the Dept of Energy & Climate Change website or comment at Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/02/ed-miliband-loans-green-home

Victoria's Green Matters - 28th Feb

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

Is spring really just around the corner? It is difficult to believe that we are ever going to be able to do any gardening again with ground so sodden after all the rain. If you have any vegetables over wintering in your garden, they will be looking very sorry for themselves as they try to overcome all the water around them.

It is a delight to see the snowdrops, their pretty white and green flowers dancing in the wind and rain.  They may look delicate and fragile but were able to reappear from under a thick blanket of snow to cheer us up. Most years they seem to bring the spring with them but this time we are still waiting despite the crocuses and miniature iris bringing us some colour.

If you have been able to find a couple of hours to spend in the garden during the few fine days we have had, it is the time of year to be tidying up after the winter. If you have clematis that flower in late spring and early summer, now is the time to prune them lightly. Cut out thin and overcrowded stems as low down on the plant as possible and tie in the remaining stems to the plant’s support for a good display later on in the year. Buddleias and other summer flowering shrubs can also be pruned now so be brave and cut them down so that new shoots will bear flowers and the bush will be the shape you prefer.

If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse, you will already be thinking about the vegetables that you can start off now. You can go a long way towards your ‘5 a day’ by sowing lots of seed to plant out later. It is heart warming to look forward to growing your own fruit and vegetables, however small your space, with the added bonus of cutting your carbon footprint.

Trains4DeaL - 'The Deal footplate men'

Train4Deal who are campaigning to get the High Speed Trains that trundle past Deal to stop have launched a protest song against SouthEast Trains. Rebadged local band 'Cary, Rathbone and Bell' as the Deal Footplate Men. Next meeting is on Thursday at the Alma - more details at http://trains4deal.com/

Time for Plan Bee....

The Cooperative are running a brilliant campaign on urban bee keeping in 2010. They have a petition against pesticides and are funding training & equipment to get you going as a bee keeper. As well as this they are putting another £160k in research projects on the demise of the honeybee. They even do discounted bee boxs for solitary bees!

Please sign the petition and get more info at http://www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/takeaction/planbee/

Victoria's Green Matters - 21st Feb

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

What does renewable energy mean to you? Many people think only of power from the wind, either on or offshore, when renewable energy is mentioned. Wind turbines have a huge place in the mix of energy forms for the future and they can also cause great controversy if there are plans to site them in sensitive areas where communities or wild life will be affected.

There are several other forms of renewable energy, some of which can be installed in homes and can benefit the population directly. These include solar water heating and photovoltaic panels, the latter generating electricity directly from light.

At the beginning of February the Government introduced new feed-in tariffs for domestic renewable energy, which means that anyone installing photovoltaic panels, a hydro-electric scheme or their own wind turbine, will be paid for the electricity they produce. Sounds too good to be true? Not at all – and this is only bringing us into line with other European countries, e.g. Germany, where feed-in tariffs have been operating for ten years.

In actual fact, the benefits are threefold: the householder will be paid 41p per unit of electricity generated; they will not have to buy electricity from their provider and should they have any electricity unused, they can sell that back to the National Grid at 3p per unit. There is, of course, an initial outlay but at present there is also a Government Grant of £2,500, which can help with this.

This represents an excellent investment of 8-10% on money put into the scheme that you choose. It also represents a certain amount of independence from the energy companies that rule our lives at present and as fossil fuels become rarer will have increasing difficulty giving us a continuous supply.

If you are lucky enough to be able to fit both solar thermal and photovoltaic panels, you will have a supply of hot water and generate electricity, too. You will have made a very good investment and reduced your carbon footprint into the bargain. Worth thinking about?

For more information go to the Energy Saving Trust at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

DWI: Deal Home energy audits ends this week....

The joint campaign between Deal With IT and the Energy Savings Trust for Home Energy Audits in Deal has had a great response. The campaign has been focussed in Mill Hill area and on homes built post-ww2. It has used state of the art GIS mapping (Geographic Information Systems) and thermal imaging techniques to help identify homes that it would be beneficial to.

Those taking part will be getting a full survey report in the next few weeks with recommendations on how to slash their heating & power bills

 If you missed out on survey contact the Energy Savings Trust on 0800 512 012 or get an online assessment at www.energysavingstrust.org.uk

Call of the Wild - What Kent's wildlife tell us about climate change

Deal With IT are holding a joint event with RSPB Kent on Friday 16th April - 7pm Landmark Centre Deal High Street on 'The Call of the Wild: What Kent's wildlife & countryside tell us about climate change'.

We have two speakers Michael Walter of Blean Woods National Nature Reserve and Geoff Meaden Canterbury Christchurch University. All Welcome.


Michael Water has been the RSPB site manger of Blean Woods reserve since 1982. The Blean woods National Nature Reserve is a partnership reserve, owned by RSPB, Natural England, Woodland Trust, Canterbury City Council, Swale Borough Council and Kent County Council, with day-to-day management entrusted to RSPB.

Dr Geoff Meaden has just retired as Principal lecturer in Geography from Canterbury Christ Church University and also does research on fisheries for the UN. Geoff is also the PPC for the Green Party in Canterbury & Whistable.

FairTrade Fortnight: 22nd Feb - 7th March

FairTrade Fortnight has started - what are you going to swap? Make sure you add your pledge at  http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/

Publish Post

thebigswap/

Celebrating our third birthday....

Deal With It held its third AGM on Saturday 13th February 2010. Rosemary Rechter, Deal With It co-ordinator said: “We have had a really successful year; both in the number & variety of events we have organised and in getting the message on climate change out to the people of Deal”.

The highlights in the past year have been:

• The very popular ‘Celebrate Your Deal’ event headlining local produce & green issues
• The packed meetings with Caroline Lucas, MEP and Michael Meacher MP
• Film showings of the ‘Age of Stupid’ at the Pines Calyx
• The groups involvement in the district council’s Local Development Strategy
• Working with the Energy Saving Trust to get local home energy audits.

The meeting agreed the following priorities for the Group in 2010:

• To become a supporter of Fair Trade
• To work towards Deal gaining ‘transition town’ status
• To support and extend the campaigns on transport and especially local train provision
• Establishing more local links with villages and other local organisations
• Re-run the ‘Celebrate Your Deal’ in October
• Organise meetings on Home energy in March and the impact of Climate change on wildlife (with the RSPB) in April.

This year’s committee is:
· Rosemary Rechter (Co-ordinator), Victoria Nicholls (Secretary), Helen Reeve (Treasurer)
· Becky Lythgoe, Sue Delling, Sarah Gleave & Steve Wakeford (Publicity)