Lets imagine a better future

In my previous Blog I showcased LUSH a company that reminds me that it is possible to act ethically as a company and make money too. Imagine if you owned a company that supplied gas and electricity to customers in the UK. How would you run the company? I know what I would do.

Ethical Energy  Industries

If I owned an energy company what would I do? How could I provide you with the energy you needed to live and thrive? Is is possible to supply your employer with the energy they need to run a growing business without destroying the planet?

I believe that it is possible. I think we are now at a point in human history where we MUST start acting in an ethical way with regard to our future. Future first and profits second.

How would I start?

First I would lower the price of electricity and gas to the every user.

Second I would remove all energy tariffs and just have one price.

Third I would invest profits into building a renewable energy future.

I would start giving my customers every energy improvement available.

Well you think I’m crazy and my business would fail right? I don’t!

Follow me closely now.

If I lower my prices to all customers I will have more customers.

If I simplify my tariffs then more customers will want to use my services.

Giving away energy improvements includes insulating homes and businesses. Insulating homes and businesses lowers their bills and makes them financially better off. Lowering their consumption means I don’t have to produce as much power.

Giving away energy improvements also includes Solar PV. When I give my customers ways to produce energy they need less of mine and enjoy a better life with their extra savings.

If I get to use their extra energy too then I am increasing the number of energy producers. If I get energy from many smaller providers of energy then no one person or company has total control over the means of production or the sale of energy. There are no monopolies. Many produce the energy and many consume it. I become a facilitator of power and make enough profit to continue the expansion of the business model.

I’m not trying to make a year -on-year3%  increase of  profit. I am working to save the planet. I am reducing our energy needs and lowering our carbon footprint. I am creating energy in new and totally sustainable ways. I am, in short, acting in an ethical manner about the sourcing of the goods I sell and the ways I help my suppliers. A kind of Lush power company.

Just like Lush, I will turn a profit. Like Lush, I will help people and supply my customers with a great product that they want and will be happy to buy.

Vote With Your Time, With Your Actions. Vote with your £’s.

So your energy company is not like the one I describe? Go find one that is! I make no suggestions here except to say that there are some companies that are more ethical than others. Find the ones that work for you. Demand that they sponsor free energy saving measures that will lower your bill. Tell you MP that you will not pay any more of your money to rip off merchants that charge highway robber prices for the basic necessities of life. Stop paying your bill totally!

When they ask you why you stopped paying – Tell them your tired of being ripped off and told lies. Demand that they lower your price for energy.

I bet that 1 million customers not paying their bills will get some quick action.

David Cameron said that he would change the ECO targets for the energy companies to help you  save £50/yr – They immediately stopped funding all energy reduction measures.

But Your Bill Hasn’t Gone Down Has IT!!!

Peace Pioneers – What we need !

I do not allow advertising on my blog. I am not against sponsors or adds per say. I just don’t like seeing this sell-out-pop-up bombardment when I visit other sites.

I met a man who works at Lush today. It reminded me that there are good people working for great companies in the world. Companies that treat their sourcing and products with love, care and attention to sustainability and ethics. Companies that make money too!

I truly believe that if more companies around the world began to operate in the way Lush and other companies do our planet would be much better off.

We are facing climate change of epic proportions. I just blogged about the IPCC report and the future we all face. It is not a pretty picture! I want to see all the energy companies of the world acting responsibly about the way they make energy and the methods they use in selling it to you and me.

The Peace Community:

Extraordinary suppliers . . .

The conflict in Colombia, which goes back six decades, has roots in social and economic structural inequality. “In Colombia there is no right to land tenure, there is practically no right to be a home-owner, no right to education, to free healthcare, or any kind of decent healthcare. Education is also very bad,” explains Jesús Emilio. “At the Peace Community we try to ensure that every family has a house, has right to land, to somewhere they can grow crops to feed themselves. Our objective is to create a different world, a different way of living, with love for children, adults and old people.”

By Supporting this community Lush is actually providing people with a chance to live a better life.

We need more companies like Lush to help save this planet and US! Next time we imagine an energy company that does.

We’re led by climate deniers

Excerpts from The Huffington Post:

More than 5,000 properties have been flooded – The army has had to be deployed – clean-up costs could hit £1billion – most exceptional period of rainfall for nearly 250 years AND . . .

The environment secretary is a climate change denier. Yes, Owen Paterson, who was appointed as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs in the “greenest government ever” in September 2012, thinks “we should just accept that the climate has been changing for centuries”. He has said that “the temperature has not changed in the last seventeen years” – despite the fact that 2010 was the hottest year on record, tied with 2005. He once claimed climate change could be positive, too, telling party activities that it “would also lead to longer growing seasons and you could extend growing a little further north into some of the colder areas”.

Our leader is pals with Frackers & Nuclear

David Cameron Likes fracking more than the environment

David Cameron wants to frack here and we are saying NO!

Like Californians, we can see the environmental damage fracking will cause. Earthquakes have already been linked to fracking in the UK. Protests have popped up every where that fracking is considered in England. The Barton-Moss protesters just won a court ruling allowing them to stay and continue their struggle to keep our country free from fracking.

The BBC has published an article which reveals a growing concern over the damage fracking causes to our wildlife:

Fracking has the potential to devastate wildlife habitats across the UK, says research commissioned by leading wildlife and countryside groups.

Which bit of the world are you prepared to lose?

Examination of the IPCC report in The Guardian:

To understand what is happening to the living planet, the great conservationist Aldo Leopold remarked, is to live “in a world of wounds … An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”

The rime to act is NOW!

Write to you MP and tell them to switch to a renewable, green, non-nuclear energy policy Now!

Overwhelming climate change

BBC Today: See the Video

There is overwhelming evidence that humans are experiencing the effects of climate change, says a new report.

Unless serious action is taken, this is likely to get worse, with growing risks of floods, food shortages, and threats to human health, warns the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),

BBC News outlines the report’s key points – in 60 seconds.

The human influence on climate change is clear

BBC Article:

The atmosphere and oceans are warming, the snow cover is shrinking, the Arctic sea-ice is melting, sea levels are rising, the oceans are acidifying, some extreme weather events are on the rise, ecosystems and natural habitats will be upset. Climate change threatens food security and world economies.

We need rapid and substantial cuts in carbon emissions and a move away from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change below two degrees and mitigate these impacts.

Global Warming Can Be Stopped

National Geographic:

In order to stabilize the climate, the transition from fossil fuels like coal and oil needs to occur within decades, according to the final report this year from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

All the Technology is here NOW! Lets make the change Today!

Mexico To Replace Coal Plant: With Solar Farm

In La Paz, where pollution from a dirty thermoelectric plant creates noxious air impacting resident’s lifestyles and well being, the solar plant is a welcomed clean development. The $100 million project, which includes 132,000 solar panel-modules, is the first Mexican private enterprise of such a size to get a development bank loan and an agreement to sell its electricity to the grid. According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, gave the project a $25 million credit line and also helped set up another $50 million in loans from the Mexican development bank Nacional Financiera (Nafin).

Texas wind is challenging gas power as the new top producer:

Wind power set a new record in Texas last Friday, heralding wind’s growing competitiveness with natural gas.

As CleanTechnica reports, instantaneous output from wind hit an all-time high of 10,296 megawatts for Texas’ main grid operator — the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) — at 8:48pm on March 26, 2014. Wind energy generation fluctuates over time, so instantaneous output marks the peaks of the fluctuations rather than the average amount of output that can be expected. As ERCOT’s press release pointed out, at the moment of Friday’s peak, wind energy was contributing almost 29 percent of the 35,768 megawatts being used at the time.

UK needs to step it Up!

Write to your MP now and request a change in policy

NO need for new nuclear plants!

Fukushima reactor blows up

I have been blogging against new nuclear power for some time. One of the comments made regularly about nuclear power is that it provides constant reliable power. Now there is a renewable technology that can provide constant reliable power too! Forever! And it is Green!

Wave energy to replace nuclear power, Now!

In the Orkney Islands there is this company:

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd is the first and only centre of its kind in the world to provide developers of both wave and tidal energy converters – technologies that generate electricity by harnessing the power of waves and tidal streams – with purpose-built, accredited open-sea testing facilities.

In Australia there is this company:

Carnegie Wave Energy Limited is the ASX-listed inventor, owner and developer of the patented CETO wave energy technology that converts ocean swell into zero-emission renewable power and desalinated freshwater.

In the England there are only testing sites as of yet:

Wave Hub is the world’s largest and most technologically advanced site for the testing and development of offshore renewable energy technology.

Located 16km offshore in the eastern extremes of the Atlantic Ocean Wave Hub offers four berths for testing offshore renewable energy technology. Purpose built, pre-installed, grid connected infrastructure is provided with a 30MW export capacity, upgradable to 48MW. With a fully consented site and a 25 year lease The Wave Hub offers water depths ranging from 48m – 58m, one of the best wave climates in Europe, and wave climate monitoring. A full range of baseline data along with proximity to a variety of ports and associated facilities are available. Access to expert academic institutions specializing in offshore renewables, access to funding support, and a dedicated operational team enhances options.

So there are alternatives to nuclear power available NOW!

This is the basic message that eisforenergy.org and my book are making all the time. Why do I want wave energy systems over nuclear? Because it is available now! Because if it fails it may sink to the ocean floor, or drift into shore, or get hit by a ship. When a nuclear plant fails there is radiation poisoning for a thousand years.

UK’s nuclear meltdown future

DECC is working on plans to build 80 New nuclear plants in this country. I don’t want any new nuclear plants here or anywhere. We do not need them.

The future of the UK, Europe and the planet depends on YOU and ME forcing our governments to change their ways. You need to write to your member of parliament and tell them that you prefer wave energy over nuclear energy.

Write to you MP now!

All you have to do is search for your representative using google. Then send them a simple statement about how you feel. I will be here with all the information you need to get the message across.

You can make a difference TODAY

Enter your postcode – stop Fracking

From wrongmove site:

Stop fracking now. It is unlawful for fracking companies to drill under your home without your permission. Search your postcode and join the legal block today to protect your home and community from fracking.

Just click here and enter your post code. The rest is easy!

You can stop fracking under your home now!

Every person who signs up to this postcode list will help reduce the space where fracking can occur. There have been many protests around the world about fracking. Here in the UK people have actually glued themselves to fracking sites to block frackers. This is the quickest way I have Found to express your displeasure about fracking. Of course you can always write to your MP!

During my explorations of the vast data on the net regarding fracking, I found this excellent resource. fracktracker may help you to further your cause in the USA. UK readers can help this website to start mapping in the UK too. They need the raw data about where fracking is happening in the UK. Can you help?

You know that France Banned Fracking forever!

I wrote about the insanity of David Cameron allowing Total, the French oil giant, to frack in the UK. Total has been barred from ever fracking in France. Why you ask? Simple, French people care enough about their environment and the produce they create on the land to stop fracking forever.

Lets do the same here! Sign up to the postcode list on wrongmove.

Tell them to frack off!

We can add the UK to a growing list of places around the world that have already BANNED Fracking.

Artists against fracking – we need your now! Join a list of artists against fracking.

Send this blog link to your friends and get them to join in the FUN!

Ownership Is Democracy

Ownership is democracy here in the UK or anywhere. Who owns the electricity generation plants in the UK? You don’t own them. Major energy companies own them. What effect does this have on the democratic way of life we expect to enjoy?

Video #6 looks at the relationship between the owners of energy production and the power to influence the political process. EDF is working hard to remove democracy from the power industry.

EDF tried to block all protests for new nukes

In 2012 EDF filed a petition with the High Courts to block any protest against the construction of Hinkley C, or other new nuclear build projects. This is undemocratic and illegal under EU laws on human rights. This is the face of corporate ownership of energy. 

This move by EDF created a protest movement to force the courts to allow protests about new nuclear plants. A protest to allow future protests! We really have to work to keep democracy alive! Or we could own the power itself!

Power to the people creates greater democracy

It is actions like this, by the greedy power companies, that are undermining democracy of this country. When we can produce our own energy using community power schemes and roof top solar systems WE own the power of production and control of our government. The only way to achieve this is to take back public ownership of the National Grid and the gas and electricity supply.

Undemocratic deals being done for more nuke plants with Putin

In a previous blog post I exposed the work being done by this government behind closed doors to get Russia to build new nuclear plants in our country. How many of YOU would allow a oligarch like Putin, who has just annexed the Crimea using troops and propaganda, to build nuclear plants here in the UK?

I don’t understand how we can complain about the lack of freedom and democracy in China and Russia and then try to sign deals with these countries to build nuclear plants on our soil. Do you want Russia to build a new nuclear plant here in your back yard? I do not!

Write to your MP now!

You can have your say today by writing to your local and national representatives. Write to your MP now!

See the next video interview.

Don’t Frack California Rally Sends A Message To Governor Brown

I have been blogging for some time now. The subject of fracking is like a red flag to a bull for me. I can’t look the other way while this disastrous and damaging drilling is going on anywhere in the world.

What Fracking does to YOUR environment

I find it appalling that the state of California is even considering fracking for gas in the earthquake state! California has more fault lines than Golden Eagles! Please remember that Fracking causes earthquakes!

From the LiberalsUnite article:

California is in the midst of the second worst drought in the state’s history. Until recently it was the worst, alleviated only slightly by some welcome late winter rains. Fracking is a water intensive procedure and nearly all of the water used is not recoverable to use for other purposes. With water in such short supply and farmers literally begging the state for this most precious resource, it is hard to understand why our governor, who has campaigned on his previous environmental record, would take millions of gallons of water away from the farmers who produce a quarter of the food for this country and allow it to be used by the big oil companies to despoil the environment and contribute to climate change.

David Cameron Likes fracking and so do his rich corporate Friends!

David Cameron wants to frack here and we are saying NO!

Like Californians, we can see the environmental damage fracking will cause. Earthquakes have already been linked to fracking in the UK. Protests have popped up every where that fracking is considered in England. The Barton-Moss protesters just won a court ruling allowing them to stay and continue their struggle to keep our country free from fracking.

The BBC has published an article which reveals a growing concern over the damage fracking causes to our wildlife:

Fracking has the potential to devastate wildlife habitats across the UK, says research commissioned by leading wildlife and countryside groups.

The report ‘Are We Fit to Frack?’ was launched by six organisations including the National Trust and the RSPB. It was reviewed by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and is supported by a cross party group of MPs. It contains proposals to limit the potential impact of fracking on the environment. They include setting up so-called “no frack zones” around the UK’s most sensitive conservation areas. Harry Huyton is head of energy and climate change at the RSPB. He told BBC News: “We have found that there are serious potential risks to the environment from fracking.”

France has BANNED FRACKING FOREVER

We Need to do the same here in the UK!

Write to your MP Now!

Guardian article Tuesday 11 March, while Russian troops invade Crimea our government will invite Russians to build nuclear plants in the UK!

DECC at Edinburgh Uni lecture says..

“I can tell you that, behind closed doors and with microphones switched off, there are interesting debates happening in Whitehall,” he said. “Russia wants to build a nuclear power station in the UK.”

Guardian article: UK indifference to Ukraine

Haye chairs a UK-Russian working group on nuclear power, and was in Russia recently for discussions. Haye regards the Russian VVER reactor proposed for the UK as “perfectly safe”, but he cautioned that there would be problems convincing the public that a deal with Russia was acceptable, especially given the current crisis in the Crimea. “It’s a long road, a very long road,” he said.

Hergen Haye, head of new nuclear development at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), told students at Edinburgh University that active discussions were taking place in London after a memorandum of understanding had been signed with Russia.

Tell David Cameron that you don’t want Russians building nuclear plants in our country!

Write to your MP now!

Finland’s own Hinkley disaster continues

latest news from the Stop Hinkley movement:

AREVA, the majority French state-owned  nuclear giant, has called a halt to the grindingly slow construction of the EPR reactor in Finland.The project, which is already 5 years late and €7,508,209,000 over budget, has been plagued with problems not least of all the as yet unresolved control and instrumentation problems.

AREVA can’t give completion date, and after delaying their completion date early last year to 2016, Finnish newspapers are now citing 2018 as the earliest the reactors could be completed.

 Legal wrangling over delays and layoffs

The Finnish operators TVO and AREVA are locked in litigation which is claimed by Areva to be one of the biggest conflicts in the history of the construction industry. The recent announcements have wiped 10% wiped off Areva’s share value (as at Thursday 27th Feb. 2014) after they announced their 3rd consecutive year of losses. Areva claim that the work is ‘86% done’ and TVO claim that they are ‘still waiting for supplier Areva-Siemens to update its work schedule following a reduction of 400 workers at the site this year’

UK will have technical problems, delays, and cost overruns

Stop Hinkley spokeswoman Nikki Clark said today “These claims and counterclaims conceal a much more fundamental problem still causing delays to the EPR reactors in Finland & France, one which will no doubt be the cause of delays & cost over-runs here in the UK if the British government insist on going ahead with Hinkley Point C. The EPR reactors have been plagued with technical problems unique to generation 3 reactors. The current British fleet of reactors are analogue reactors whilst the proposed generation 3 EPRs are digital, well on paper at least they are. It seems AREVA/EDF are discovering that the differences between theory and practice are greater in practice than in theory.

Regulators criticise control reliability + security from cyber-attack

Regulators in Finland and France have criticised the reliability of software as well as the architecture of the instrumentation and control (I&C) requiring ‘an additional and independent non-computerised backup system’. We believe that this is the source of the on-going delays to the EPR reactors. The architecture of the backup software is too close in design to the main control software of the reactors. These issues remain unresolved and despite the insistence of the Finnish and French regulators, this will not be an easy task as analogue technologies among nuclear equipment suppliers are becoming obsolete. The I&C problems are one of the remaining unresolved issues that the UK regulators Generic Design Assessment (GDA) failed to close out at the end of their evaluation of the EPR reactor designs.”

Greenpeace report cites open door to hacking nuclear plant controls!

In a report produced for Greenpeace in 2010 about the problems with the EPR I&C the authors stated that the digital control systems provide “new possibilities and capabilities can be used in both beneficial and malicious ways…the same mechanisms that allow for greater diagnostic possibilities, and for remote monitoring, controlling and updating, can be potentially exploited by cyber-attacks, as shown by the recent Stuxnet computer virus that targets Simantic programmable logic devices, a kind of industrial computers by Siemens.

In 2010, when Greenpeace produced their report on the I&C problems with EPRs, little was really known about STUXNET as the attack was still fairly recent. However, the American magazine Foreign Policy revealed last year that STUXNET had a secret twin – a far more sophisticated older variant of STUXNET. Between them, the two STUXNET variants have demonstrated the ease with which critical infrastructure can be targeted as many of the systems for operating infrastructure, from nuclear power plants to chemical factories, are standardised – the Nanantz uranium enrichment facility was controlled by Siemens S7-417 industrial controllers.

A false sense of energy security will be UK’s Hinkley legacy -If they decide to build it

Ms Clark added, “The idea of digitally controlled nuclear facilities vulnerable to cyber-warfare being built here in Britain surely has to put an end to the myth that new nuclear will create energy security. Already HPC brings closer the energy gap so many commentators fear. There has been no shortage of offers to produce the same amount of electricity from clean renewable sources for much cheaper than the projected costs of Hinkley. When are the politicians going to wake up?”

Write to your MP now!