The Netherlands have a great history of inventions in their struggle to prevent the sea encroaching onto their coastal areas. Simple solutions can often aid huge and expensive projects like the Sand Machine (mentioned in the Guardian piece below). Not surprising the idea of preventing Arctic ice from melting comes from the Dutch inventor group – Ice Reflections. They proposed …
Don’t look up
It is always easier to believe that there are no problems, and we are safe to enjoy our way of life without undesired consequences. And as our news is filled with world catastrophes and political conflicts, there is a great need for positive news. Positive news however is not pretending there’s no crisis (as brilliantly exposed in Adam McKay’s 2021 film …
The Great Rift Valley – green energy source
One of if the most stunning places in Africa – the Great Rift Valley, with its beautiful savannah habitat provides also geothermal energy for Kenya. Kenya is a world leader in green energy sources – 90% of it’s energy supply come from sustainable reserves with 47% from the geothermal energy harnessed by KenGen at Olkaria. The hopes are that Kenya will …
Environmental law in the UK post BREXIT
Over seven years of BREXIT have changed dramatically the country we live in. One of important implications of that is a drift from the EU environmental legislation. Strong supporters of BREXIT openly voiced their discontent with “EU laws that limited our rights”. This article presents a good summary of differences between EU and UK environmental legislation and how this will …
Climate change adaptation at community level
Human-induced climate change is undeniably affecting communities all over the world and, although we know the reasons behind it, the scale of its effect on our future is still unknown. One of the researched effects is sea level rise which, if not dealt with, can wipe out entire islands and coastal communities. Despite technological advances we cannot halt sea level …
How will we grow food in the future?
Agriculture sustains our humanity, but it is also responsible for around 30% of carbon emissions linked with direct greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land, transport of food, processing and preparation, and finally food waste. There has been progress at COP28 with a Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture signed by 150 countries agreeing to “integrate agriculture” in their climate change mitigation plans. …
Fairphone – our first sustainable mobile
We live in consumer society, we are not able to repair many everyday items we use, but instead buy more new and trendy ones every year while old things end up on a landfill. Many of us do not even know the concept of repairing. This is why waste has become one of the many major environmental problems that we …
Flight100 – new hope for air travel
Yesterday the news about the first transatlantic flight by Virgin Atlantic from London to New York fuelled entirely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) “flew around” the world. There is hope of considerably reducing carbon emissions from air travel that is responsible for at least 3% of all human sources (this might be underestimated due to exclusion of contrails – white …
Heating pumps are taking Norway by storm
It is freezing outside and a gas meter is clicking making holes in our pockets larger. With the knowledge that the Scottish Government is currently subsidising a switch from gas to heat pumps by £7500 – is it a time to move our households to this sustainable energy source? What are the risks? Mainly financial. It is not only the …
