Off Topic The Environmental & Pollution Thread

Greener petrol at the pumps?

BBC News - Greener petrol at UK pumps to target emissions
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51731757

(Sigh)... Yes, it is a better idea. But let's not think we can drive around oblivious to the damage we cause.
Simply put, while we burn things we create Climate Change and pollution. There is no upside, other than doing it slightly more slowly with "greener" petrol.

Bring forward the zero emission date and I will get properly enthusiastic.

 

Which unfortunately means the next fire season is only a third of a year away. Sad. Same here in the USA. Fire season is much longer than it used to be with a lot more burning than in the last century.

 

Make that zero emission date achievable and I will do somersaults, well as best as I can at my age.
In all seriousness an ongoing campaign to reduce car use should be in place locally and nationally.

 

Indeed.

 

Here's a quiet one. The rebate on Red Diesel is expected to end. Most people know that red diesel is the same as ordinary diesel, just that it has a red dye in it to quickly distinguish from the other. The tax exemption has been around since 1928 and these days accounts for around 15% of diesel use in the UK. It means that operators, like the construction industry and farmers, will have to pay around 47p extra per litre. But, while the subsidy to the consumer ends, the massive subsidies to the fossil fuel industries continue. The UK government, or more accurately You and Me, subsidises billions every year so that fossil fuel industries can go and explore for more. More that ought to stay in the ground or under the seabed.
Anyway, it should be announced in the next Budget.

 

To put it bluntly, ****, this is big: https://www.independent.co.uk/envir...l-island-dogger-bank-wind-farms-a9127596.html

An artificial island is to be built upon Dogger Bank in the North Sea and the biggest wind turbines currently in existence will be "land" constructed on it. And it will provide 5% of the total power needs of the UK, as well as providing power for other nearby European countries like Netherlands.

 

Just Have A Think returns with a thoughtful video on billionaires like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. What is their impact on the Climate Crisis?:

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Nice summary article from The Guardian's George Monbiot, and a call to pressure our government at every weak point in its environmental policy and every time it deflects attention from the Climate Crisis:
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-fossil-fuel-power-projects-heathrow-judgment

 

yes that’s true........ but would you believe last week some yobs were caught trying to start another one!!!

 

My first reaction is "bloody hell".
Sadly, I have a second reaction that is hard on the heels of the first, which is the opposite, a lack of surprise, and plus despair.

 

The message seems to be getting across:

 

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I think i have solved an 18 month riddle.

For the last 18 months or so I have noticed a low electrical hum at night when I go to bed - both me and MrsNo7 hear it, as we always have the bedroom window ajar. For months I thought it was our heating, a computer etc.

It is our neighbour who lives behind us...his solar panels!! He had them put up about 18 months ago!

Anyway, thought I'd share

 

What song is it humming to, and why doesn't it know the words?

Is it this one? warning naughty language

 

You sure it's not those humming fish?
And solar panels don't hum. The transformer and inverter might, but even they shouldn't at night. Chilco and Davecq should be able to tell you from personal experience.

 

I've never heard anything from my set-up, other than a really quiet hum from the inverter, and you have to be in my loft fairly close to the equipment even then.
I wonder if it could be wind noise as it passes over/under the panels...could potentially cause a droning noise?

 

Yep it dawned on me today what it could be - and after a bit of google i have found it is reasonably common - I know nothing about Solar Panels but the consensus seems to be the invertors? It isn't a massive noise, just a low hum. I was just paranoid it was from my house.

 

If they have a battery storage system and they are running things like the dishwasher or washing machine off the stored electricity overnight the invertor would be working then. Only thing I can think of anyway.

 

Yep not 100% but I have checked by going outside to listen and it is definitely from behind my house and I am near no power lines etc. We have two neighbours with solar panels, both behind us.

It bothers Mrs No7 more as I am partially deaf in one ear so all I do is sleep on my good ear

...also can’t hear Mrs No7 moaning ....

 

You may be interested to know that although it is early-mid March, just under one quarter of UK's power grid production contains CO2. And that through Natural Gas only:


Indeed, I read recently that the UK is emitting less CO2 these days than during Victorian times. Which, in any way you look at it, is something to be hopeful for the future about. Now to get the rest of the major CO2 emitting world to do similar (except France, of course).