Victoria's Green Matters - 5th Nov 2015

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

We have almost got used to hearing good news about renewable energy projects, the move away from fossil fuels and the possibility of a true global agreement at the climate summit in Paris next month but there is bad news as well.

We have been hearing about the terrible conditions in Indonesia, due to the fires that are burning to clear forests for the cultivation of plantations of palm trees. These fires have emitted more than 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide between July and 21 September 2015, according to NASA, and could emit more carbon dioxide than Germany does in a year by the time they are extinguished. Indonesia is the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world but has pledged to the UN to curb emissions by 2030.

The annual burning of forests to ready the land for seed planting has always been a controversial issue because the smoke affects tens of thousands of people in Indonesia and Malaysia, causing respiratory problems and prompting the cancellation of sporting events and the closure of schools.

The fires are also affecting one third of the world’s remaining wild population of orang-utans in Borneo. Several thousand of the fires have penetrated deep into forests and national parks where wild apes and other endangered species, such as the clouded leopard and the hornbill, live.

Peat land forests are naturally resistant to fire but decades of poor management which has drained the peat has made the forests very susceptible to fire.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Victoria's Green Matters - 29th October 2015

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

Coral reefs are home to a multitude of different creatures; just 1% of the ocean’s floor is home to 25% of the world’s marine creatures. The loss of this biodiversity would have a devastating impact on the lives of 500 million people around the world who rely on coral reefs for their food and livelihoods.

Recent reports have shown global bleaching of coral reefs is underway, caused by a huge underwater heat-wave, driven by climate change. By the end of this year, 5% of reefs will have died and 38% will have been affected. But this is not all because there is a very strong El Niño, causing world record global temperatures and a vast patch of hot water in the north-western Pacific which gives great concern for 2016. There were two previous global bleaching events which took place in 1998 and 2010 when every major ocean experienced bleaching.

Since the 1980’s the world has lost about half of its coral reefs. It is not just the extremes of temperatures that affect the coral; it is the length of time that the high temperatures remain. Coral can recover if temperatures return to normal but after one month of high temperatures the animals that build the coral reefs will die.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is already showing signs of bleaching, months before the warm season begins fuelling fears that up to 50% of the reef will be affected.

Strong action on emissions, pollution and overfishing are required to save our coral reefs.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Victoria's Green Matters - 22nd October 2015

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

We may feel that governments around the world are not doing enough to combat climate change but more and more schemes are coming to light where investment in renewable energy systems is taking place.

Some far sighted countries are helping investors put serious money into solar power. For example, Burundi now has a deal for a solar field which will provide 15% of the country’s energy generating capacity and Tanzania has a plan to give a million homes access to solar energy by the end of 2017. Bangladesh aims to extend solar power to every home by 2021 while Morocco plans to build five large solar plants by 2020 with the aim of exporting energy to Europe. Surely, if these minor economies can see the advantages in taking these steps, why on earth can’t we?

Some large economies too are seeing the benefits; in Queensland, Australia, the expansion of solar rooftop installations produced so much electricity that prices crashed and even in the mighty USA rooftop solar is the fastest growing source of power with an increase of 70% year on year. Last month President Obama announced measures to encourage more take up of solar and Hillary Clinton has made solar a large part of her presidential campaign. India, the world’s third biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has promised to produce 40% of its electricity from low carbon sources by 2030; it is the last large economy to submit its plans to the UN before the climate talks in December.

Victoria's Green Matters - 15th October 2015

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

One of the best news stories of recent weeks has to be the one where Shell announced that it will abandon its exploration for oil in the Alaskan Arctic. This has been received with great joy all around the world.

Shell has invested about £4 billion in the search for Arctic oil despite falling oil prices which has always meant that if any oil was discovered it would cost far too much to bring it to the surface, never mind the ever present risk to the pristine environment which is home to many species.

Millions of people around the world have protested in many ways against this operation from signing petitions, writing letters and demonstrating. Environmental group Greenpeace led this protest with its ‘Save the Arctic’ campaign and is now victorious after three years. Let us hope that President Obama will use the last year of his presidency to ban any further drilling operations in the Alaskan Arctic.

Despite the fact that there is a great movement away from fossil fuels and much of the industry realises this, Shell decided to continue with its exploration for yet more oil than the climate can afford for us to burn. Why does the company not invest in renewable technologies and become part of the future instead of staying stuck in the past? Maybe now it will do just that as it has to somehow recover the vast amounts of shareholders money invested in this foolhardy venture.