Biodiesel

I recently went to a Cornish organic farmers and growers' low carbon farming event at Cusgarne Organics near Truro. The farm is beautiful, set in a secluded valley away from main roads, producing veg boxes, beef, eggs and chickens. They've also planted up more orchards and some nut trees including sweet chestnuts and almonds.

One really interesting project was Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil from the surrounding area. "Biodiesel Dave" from Cleaner Combustion produces this stuff in a workshop on the farm to a high standard - i.e. that can be run in modern cars, not just dirty old Land Rovers and tractors.

It certainly gave me a further jolt of inspiration for use of waste oils to power machinery. The photo (above) on the side of his car, whilst going against the ethos of healthy organic food, gave everyone a laugh!

In Transition video

Transition Network have recently released a film about Transition initiatives - the principles and practices, featuring ideas and people from different parts of the world.

The first part is available free below

In Transition 1.0 from Transition Towns on Vimeo.

Climate change impacts

Now we have come to learn of the outcomes of the Copenhagen climate change talks, it seems an awful lot less was achieved than was hoped for, or indeed necessary. Of course it was always going to be incredibly difficult to get 192 countries to agree to the same bit of paperwork, but the lack of political will and flexibility has resulted in a very watered down document that is not nearly good enough for the current predicament the human race is in.

Meanwhile, carbon emissions continue to rise, warming of the planet continues and its impacts are becoming evident everywhere. Recently the Met Office and UK Government produced a very useful map detailing global impacts of a changing climate if average temperatures rose by 4C.

It's very good to understand the impacts visually, and remind ourselves of the very serious situation that runaway climate change could bring about.

The Transition Scilly website has some free downloads to help you understand climate change better and do something by reducing your carbon footprint.

Population: the taboo subject

Human population levels are the one big environmental and social problem that are not given the degree of thought and coverage that they should be.

In this BBC Horizon program, David Attenborough presents a highly thought-provoking documentary about past, current and future population levels, and their impact on the world's resources.

It's available on the iPlayer until Dec 18th and is really worth watching:
http://bbc.co.uk/i/pdjmk/

The Wave

On Saturday 5th December thousands of people are expected to come together in central London to make a show of support for the UK Government to make every effort to secure a deal at the forthcoming climate change talks in Copenhagen.

This is a critical time in human history where the leaders from every nation in the world have a chance to come to an agreement that may just avert runaway climate change.

To show our support here on the Islands, Transition Scilly have organised an event running parallel to the London event. It will be on Saturday 5th December and start at 15.00 on Porthmellon beach, St Mary's (weather permitting). The only stipulation is that you wear something blue!

A vivid description of oil in society

Rob Hopkins is an eloquent speaker and this video, from the TED talks in Oxford earlier this year, vividly describes the role oil plays ion our society, how oil will become less available and what impact this has on climate change. It's encapsulating:

Carteret Islands

As part of E-Day, Matt Prescott organised Earth Summit, where people from around the world (as well as more locally) were invited to talk about the impacts of climate change on their part of the world.

One of the most moving and profound had to be from Ursula Rakova from the Carteret Islands. The archipelago were she was born and lives is incredibly low lying in the Pacific Ocean, with a maximum height of just 1.2m above sea level.

Rising sea levels and increased storms, caused by climate change, has hit them badly. In this video she explains what life is like for Carteret Islanders in 2009.

The rainforests must not be lost

Tropical rainforests are the single most important habitat on planet Earth. Besides the tens of thousands of species for whom the rainforests are home, these forests regulate the climate of the planet and lock up billions of tonnes of carbon.

Destruction of this habitat cannot continue any longer. A Greenpeace campaign, Slaughtering the Amazon has had positive impacts already as multinational companies have signed up to not buying meat and leather products from cattle raised on pasture that used to be rainforest.

Now the Prince's Rainforest Project is pushing for the importance of rainforests to be included in the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in 5 weeks time. Add your voice to this campaign through the application below:

Energy Saving Day

On Tuesday 6th October, the focus will be very much on Scilly for E-Day, short for Energy Saving Day. The event has been the brainchild of Dr Matt Prescott, who has done most of the organisation and has 'got the show on the road'.

E-Day is about everyone on Scilly joining in the effort to reduce electricity demand as much as possible, by witching off all unnecessary electrical items. By all of us concentrating our efforts on just one day, the E-Day team (by some clever gadgetry) can measure how much electricity has been saved over a 'normal' day.

The E-Day website is fantastic, featuring live energy feeds from the National Grid, videos of people who live on Scilly, advice and much more. It's a great resource with so much to look at, so do spend some time on it. Most importantly, we can monitor the drop in electricity demand next Tuesday as it happens.

On Saturday and Sunday is the Earth Summit in the Town Hall. It's a free event and is on from 12-6 each day. With a line up of speakers from all over the world, this is a must-go-to event as it doesn't happen on Scilly very often!

Home - a masterpiece

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a French photographer who specialises in aerial photography. His first book, The Earth from the Air, is a beautiful collection of photographs from around the world, portraying the natural environment with and without humans.

His latest project is called "Home"; again a stunning array of aerial photos, but this time with a very strong environmental and social message. Sub-titled a hymn to the planet and humanity, this book looks at man's impact on the planet. It combines photos with very accessible text and portrays a clear message.

A book, simply called "Home" was published just a couple of months ago and is available from most online book retailers. The author also has set up an organisation called Good Planet Foundation, to promote the messages in the book...and film.

Yes, there's a film. It's an hour and a half long, has stunning visuals and costs...nothing. The entire film is available on YouTube. It's an incredible piece of work, documenting the formation of the Earth (in geologicalm time), diversity of life and Man's impact on the planet. A complete joy to watch; here's the trailer, from which there's a link to the full film:


As a bonus, here is a link to a video of the author giving a recent talk in Oxford. Very inspirational stuff:
Watch it here