Victoria's Green Matters - 21st April 2016

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

The use of plastic is part of our daily lives – where would we be without it? Many items have become indispensible and they are cheap to produce but the big drawback is the fact that plastic does not fully biodegrade and therefore hangs around on land and in the seas for many years.

The use of plastic microbeads in exfoliant toiletries has been of great concern for some time and recently the USA banned their use, with Canada set to follow suit. Several European Union countries want a legal ban but so far the UK has made no moves to do so. Now a recent poll carried out in the UK has revealed that 90% of those questioned believe that microbeads should be banned in the UK.

Microbeads are particles of plastic used in facial washes, toothpastes and abrasive cleaners among lots of other things; because they are small enough to go down the plughole they easily pass through water filtration systems. As many as 100,000 microbeads may be used during one application. They are readily mistaken as food particles by marine animals and also attract toxins in the seawater which can be passed into the food chain and eventually end up on our dining tables.

Many firms have taken action to remove microbeads from their production lines as there are safe alternatives already available such as salt and ground nut shells. It is also up to consumers to make sure that the products we buy do not contain these beads.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Victoria's Green Matters - 14th April 2016

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

It is of no matter that the world has agreed to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses to avoid catastrophic climate change because human made carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere at a rate ten times faster than at any point in the last 66 million years.

New research from the World Meteorological Organisation has shown that the world has entered an unprecedented phase and the consequences for life are likely to be more serious than anything since the extinction of the dinosaurs.

In its ‘Statement of the Climate Report’ the organisation has warned of the alarming rate of climate change as result of greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide levels in 2014 reached a record level of almost 400 parts per million which is 43% above pre-industrial levels. Many researchers look upon this as a new geological era and name it the ‘Anthropocene’ but so new is this era that there are no geological records that may be able to predict the impacts of the present climate change.

2015 was the hottest year on record, driven by long term climate change. As a result, devastating heat waves occurred in many places; in the southern Indian states 2,000 people were killed. In contrast, many areas saw record rainfall – 11months’ worth of rain fell in one day in Libya and Marrakech in Morocco saw 13 months of rain in one hour last August. Scientists are already alarmed by the high temperatures recorded in the early months of 2016 when records were shattered.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Dover Transition film show 'Trashed' 27th April 7pm

Our sister organisation, Transition Dover invites you to watch the award winning documentary 'Trashed', following Jeremy Irons as he investigates the scale and impact of our waste. 

The film show starts at 7pm

Join us for Fairtrade refreshments (provided by Co-op, Dover) beforehand and find out more about Transition Dover. 

They look forward to seeing you there.

Venue:

Maison Dieu Baptist Church

CT16 1 Dover, Kent

Grow Wild in Deal

 
We have a few GrowWild wild flower meadow kits left for schools & Community groups in Deal. 

This is a national campaign run by Grow Wild and supported by Kew, to encourge as many as possible mini meadows

Each pack comes with
- Getting started guide
- 5 packets of UK native wild flowers
- Site Markers
- DIY bee house

Should see flowers June-July depending what the weather is like - does not need daily watering or the best compost.

We do have a couple of meadow experts in the group (not me:) if you need some further advice/support

It would be great to get some pics of the results of your efforts - we have a few  schools locally doing this and would like to give something back to GrowWild who are organising the kits

Let us know if you school is interested by emailing info@dealwithit.org.uk

New DWI Beach Clean banners

Massive thank you to Deal Folk by the Sea (collective?) of buskers who have donated two new flags for our beach cleans. 

They will be in full use at our next Deal Beach Clean on Bank Holiday Monday 2nd May - 10am @ Sandown Castle of of the Beach.

We will need to keep a weather eye on the DDC/Environment Agency's work on the beach so the start point may move

Deal Folk by the Sea are made up of local performers and bands in the Deal area. They organise monthly busks in Deal High Street and Sunday Playalongs at the Landmark. They have a Singing workshop at the Landmark on Sat 16th April please see their website or FB details for details.

We are always looking for people/organisations to sponsor or donate for beach cleaning equipment. Please drop us a line to info@dealwithit.org.uk if you can help

Victoria's Green Matters - 7th April 2016

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

Unbelievable though it may seem, there are still some people who fail to recognise the reality of global climate change despite reports of temperature increases from such august bodies as NASA.

Last week NASA released global temperature records for February this year which show that the average global surface temperature was 1.35°C warmer than the average for the same month between 1951 and 1980, a much larger margin than ever before.

This result has shocked everyone and is a reminder of the unremitting long term rise in global temperature resulting from the continual production of greenhouse gasses by the human population.

For anyone still doubting that climate change is real, maybe a visit to the Arctic would cool their scepticism. Last month’s temperatures were up to 16°C above normal for some parts of the Arctic. In Fort Yukon, the very unusual warm weather has forced people off the rivers which are not frozen hard enough for them to use their snowmobiles and has caused trees to come into bud already.

Winter was almost over by early March without it ever getting cold enough to create the conditions the Arctic villagers rely on for their way of life. Ice, which is usually 34 to 36 inches thick to take the weight of heavy equipment for hauling timber, has not been thicker than 20 inches.

In the face of these figures, the UN climate summit in Paris, where it was agreed in principle to limit climate warming to 1.5°C seems particularly inadequate.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.