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Off Topic The Environment

Discussion in 'Watford' started by Leo, Nov 29, 2015.

  1. Mexican Hornet

    Mexican Hornet Well-Known Member

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    How could that be done then?
     
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  2. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    I am not a scientist but we already have small scale technology to gather solar energy... I would think that with will we could progress much further down this avenue
     
    #342
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  3. Bolton's Boots

    Bolton's Boots Well-Known Member

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    The same way the Irish planned to land a rocket on the sun?

    Do it at night time...
     
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  4. Leo

    Leo Well-Known Member

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    When we lived in Wales it would have taken two years for the amount of sun needed to generate power for a single lightbulb for 3 minutes.
     
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  5. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    I guess it depends
    a) on how you harness it
    b) where you harness it

    We got so much from our solar panels in Yorks this summer the company queried my reading... and of course the technology is leaping ahead year on years
     
    #345
  6. Leo

    Leo Well-Known Member

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    unfortunately when it is not there you don't harness it :(. When moving to Wales we knew it was no South of Spain but we were not prepared for 360 days of cloud as the norm - only thing is you get used to it.
    We could use it here well enough - we seem to have reversed the sun / cloud percentage.
     
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  7. Mexican Hornet

    Mexican Hornet Well-Known Member

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    Watch out for Fake news stats! ;)

    Sure it could be used more though...
     
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  8. Jsybarry

    Jsybarry Well-Known Member

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    It has been talked in the past about using tidal power here but as it's in the Channel, it would probably result in Condor and Jersey Electricity arguing over who would own it.
     
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  9. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    There is a proposed tidal development in Swansea.. Very high capital cost to build...
     
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  10. Mexican Hornet

    Mexican Hornet Well-Known Member

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    It needs the Roman concrete mind, I thought that was a good point!

    http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38609512
     
    #350

  11. Leo

    Leo Well-Known Member

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    I know it is not seawater or tidal but what concrete was used for the Hoover dam?
     
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  12. Toby

    Toby GC's Life Coach

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    Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes and dingoes - by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billion and eats them. This in turn kills man by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal- health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year, sends out cards praying for Peace on Earth. ~ C. David Coats
     
    #352
  13. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    What a powerful quote Toby......
     
    #353
  14. Toby

    Toby GC's Life Coach

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    Came across it earlier and thought it was brilliant.

    Oops google-fail
     
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  15. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    what do you mean by google-fail?
     
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  16. Toby

    Toby GC's Life Coach

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    I googled the name of the person who the quote is attributed too and didn't read through the link properly :smile:

    Edited it so left the Google fail bit there :smile:
     
    #356
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  17. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    Just arrived BB...I bought it for a penny and paid £2.80 for it to be delivered...from the USA <doh>
     
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  18. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Tonight I tucked into my Sunday dinner and most of it was locally produced. However I did buy and enjoy a raspberry tart, and clearly at this time of year the fruit does not come from France. This is not good for the environment, but should I not buy them? I might grow the fruit and pop them into the freezer, but then the freezer needs power. Before the days of freezers my Mum would pick and bottle all sorts of fruit, but then that required power to sterilize the bottles. This thinking about the planet can get involved, but should I just give up anything that is not produced within a certain number of kilometres of my house?
     
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  19. colognehornet

    colognehornet Well-Known Member

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    I think it's a case of trying to experiment with the positives Frenchie, and see how far it takes you. In principle I like to produce as much of my vegetables and fruit as I can in our garden, and preserve as much as I can over the winter. The rest I would try to buy as locally as possible - but this only gets you so far, and I have nothing against treats every now and then. The same goes for meat - I know it would be better for the environment if I were vegetarian, but I still eat it, and enjoy it. In days gone by people would only have eaten meat maybe once or twice per week - maybe we should be aiming for that, and also cooking for 2-3 days in advance as most people used to. It's also amazing what you can find by roaming the countryside looking for wild herbs, or wild vegetables - ok. you need to know what you're looking for, and be able to identify it - but it can be a lot of fun, and, whatever we do, we should try to make it 'fun'.
     
    #359
  20. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    I think that both you and I are lucky cologne in that we have land to be able to try and produce our own food, but of course many do not. In the same way I can go and gather fruits and mushrooms from the surrounding countryside. Not so easy if you live in the middle of Watford. It worries me when I read a report that says a farmer in the UK was offering a food bank sacks of surplus potatoes, and the offer was refused on the grounds that people would not know how to cook them. My neighbours used to grow a lot of their own vegetables, but gave up as they became older, and found that frozen bags of them could be bought cheaply. On my visit to England a week ago I was struck by the amount of packaged food in the supermarkets, far more than you would find here. Somewhere along the line people have forgotten the art of cooking fresh foods. There must be huge factories somewhere putting meat or vegetables into plastic film. Is it necessary I wonder?
     
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