Victoria's Green Matters - 17th March 2016

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

US President Barack Obama has steadily worked throughout his presidency to bring in measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions regardless of the conflicting arrangements made by his predecessors. He has now joined forces with new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to wage war on emissions of methane – the most dangerous of all the greenhouse gases. The two countries have committed to cut emissions from the oil and gas sector by up to 45% below 2012 levels by 2025 through promoting carbon markets, capping emissions from hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells and protecting indigenous communities where warming is beyond the point of no return.

They have also agreed to rally the G20 nations behind the Paris climate change accord in time for the ratification ceremony due to take place on 22 April 2016. This agreement must be ratified by at least 55 countries, representing 55% of global emissions.

Regarding the Arctic, the US and Canada have pledged to convene a high level summit in August to act with regard to highest recorded temperatures, sea ice loss, permafrost thaws and wildfires that are creating a dangerous and irreversible impact on the polar regions leading to sea level rise and changing patterns of weather. This is all well and good but environmentalists have been quick to demand an immediate end to Arctic drilling for oil and have put pressure on Prime Minister Trudeau to call a halt to pipeline projects from the Alberta tar sands.

Walmer Beach Clean 13th March

Thank you to our 19 volunteers on the Walmer Beach Clean today - we collected over 91kgs of rubbish.

Next Deal With It Beach clean will be on Monday 2nd May starting at Sandown Castle at 10am.

We will also be encouraging people to support the Kingsdown Beach Clean on the 3rd April organised by the parish council.

Deal Seedy Saturday 12th March

Lovely day for our first Seedy Saturday of 2016 - lots of donations of seed and few plants. Many thanks to the Landmark Ukulele Club (who meet every Friday morning at the Landmark from 10am) who entertained us and much of Deal walking up and down the High st!

Thanks to all our volunteers today - Sonja, Pat, Vicky, Charles, Sarah, Imogen and Steve and also to Sue & Ruth at AnSugan for the cakes!

The Landmark Garden is part of the town's plans for SE in Bloom and Britain in Bloom plus we are a official NGS site in July .

The next Deal Seedy Saturday will be in May - this one will be a plant & seed swap.

All our pics are here

Walmer Beach Clean - Sunday 13th March

Our next beach clean will be at Walmer on Sunday 13th March meeting at the Sea Cafe on the Green at 10am. 

All welcome - this will be a one our pop-up ones. As usual pickers, bags and gloves all supplied.

We will be supporting Kingsdown & Ringwould Parish Council's beach clean at Kingsdown Beach on Sunday 3rd April meet at the Zeltland Arms 10am

Victoria's Green Matters - 10th March 2016

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

It is relatively easy to generate electricity but where it is easy to store water in the event of a drought, we have not been able to store electricity on a large scale until recently.

We have had ‘hydroelectric pumped storage’ systems in the UK for a long time where water is held in a lake at the top of a mountain. When there is a high demand for electricity from the National Grid, the water is released to drive turbines situated at the foot of the mountain and the resulting electricity is fed into the grid. When demand is low, the water is pumped back up to the lake until the next time it is required. We have four of these sites around the UK but the big disadvantage is that a mountain is required!

A new system that is due to come into operation this month is called ‘compressed air energy storage’. This uses off peak electricity to compress air into an underground cavern. When electricity is needed, the high pressure gas is released to turn a turbine and the electricity produced delivered to the grid. The benefit of this system is that it can be sited where it is needed – the first one is in Manchester.

The UK’s largest energy storage system is an £18 million plant in Leighton Buzzard. This is a 6 MW lithium ion battery installation which supplies power to the town and balances power to the grid, for which the company earns money. There is also a 10MW lithium ion installation in Northern Ireland while the Scottish island of Gigha has a 1.68 MW vanadium flow battery system which supports the island’s wind turbines and a limited grid connection from an aging sea cable.

What is of more interest to people who generate their own electricity from solar roof panels is the possibility of storing the energy generated for use when the sun is not shining. The ‘home battery system’ is a briefcase sized lithium ion battery, costing about £2,000 which can store surplus energy from solar panels and can also earn money as part of a smart network of home batteries which can help balance the National Grid. Much criticism is levelled at renewable energy systems because they are reliant on natural phenomena which are not always available. With the development of these various storage systems, energy will be available on demand.

Deal Seedy Saturday 12th March

Deal’s next Seedy Saturday Seed Swap will be on Saturday 12^th March in the Landmark Garden on Deal High st.

The Swap will start at 11am and finish around 1pm.  

The Seedy Saturday is one of four that Deal With IT (Deal’s local community Green group) runs over the year.

It is a great opportunity for people to get growing some of their own food and share knowledge & experience.

Please bring Seeds to swap – they should be fairly recent (last growing season), labelled and tell us a story how you got on with them.

There will also be stalls from AnSugan (recycled and re imagined clothes) as well as local raw chocolatier Chocolution

We also hope to have an mass  Ukulele  busk via the Ukulele Club members based at the Landmark centre to entertain us.

So why bring a Ukulele (as well as some seeds) to join in !

More info from info@dealwithit.org.uk 

Victoria's Green Matters - 3rd Match 2016

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

There has been a disturbing report this week about dangerous air pollution. We all know about outdoor air pollution which is so damaging to health but most of us would not consider that we are polluting our homes. Official government figures show that some 40,000 people per year die prematurely from air pollution caused by particle emissions from vehicles, central heating systems, dust and the nitrous oxide (NO2) emissions from diesel vehicles.

Indoor air pollution comes from all the general things we have in the home such as gas cookers and heaters, faulty boilers, irritant chemicals from new furniture, air fresheners and household cleaning products. A major pollutant comes, of course, from smoking; house-dust mites, mould and dander from pets all add to the mix.

The unborn and young children are particularly susceptible to pollution. The developing heart, lung, brain, hormone systems and immunity are all harmed. There are effects on growth, intelligence, brain development and co-ordination and, of course, this harm to babies and young children impacts on the future.

Air pollution has substantial impact on many chronic, long term medical conditions, increasing the incidence of stroke and heart attacks. Reducing pollution will reduce pain and suffering and, consequently, costs to the NHS.

Many people in the UK are currently exposed to illegal levels of pollution. Our government lost a Supreme Court battle in 2015 and had to produce a pollution reduction plan, cutting levels of air pollution to legal levels by 2020 in most cities and by 2025 in London