Low Carbon Ringmer

Animals at Christmas

2011-12-30T07:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve: uses for an iPad #77: sitting on.

Christmas Day.

Boxing Day. No hounds loose up this road.

Jaguar can't curl his tail so well, but he can tell the time. You can adopt a jaguar at the World Wildlife Fund Adopt A Jaguar page.

How to give the wrong impression by telling the truth

2011-12-29T10:01:00.000-08:00

The Telegraph pulls off the trick beloved of tabloids today of giving a completely false impression by telling the truth. The headline reads "Greener energy will cost £4,600 each a year". The sub heading says: "The Coalition's plans to convert Britain to green energy would cost the country the equivalent of £4,600 per person a year, according to official forecasts."

And the first paragraph goes on: "Reducing dependence on fossil fuels and moving to renewable and nuclear energy would cost an additional £60 billion every year until 2050, the officials said."

Now the figure that's quoted is true. The country would spend the equivalent of £4600 per person on a plan to produce energy from renewable sources. But only later on do they make it clear that estimates show that other options, such as continuing to produce our energy the same way we do now would actually be more expensive even than that.

It's that little word "additional" that really gets to me, because if you stop reading there, you leave with the impression that you're going to be spending money you would not otherwise have spent.

But then they quote Professor David MacKay "doing nothing to reduce carbon emissions would prove even more expensive because of rising energy prices".

So the headline says green energy will cost us more. The figures in the article make clear that green energy will cost us less than going on the way we are.

The Guardian is more accurate, though it hedges its bets slightly: "UK switch to low-carbon energy 'no dearer than doing nothing'". Well, if it's no dearer and it saves on carbon emissions, let's do it.

Update: 7 p.m.
I'm indebted to Anne H for this: "Sunday Times bury wind farm survey after it reveals majority support". The statement by Yougov notes that there was a majority in favour of expanding wind farms even among Conservative supporters.

It's amazing what you can find locally

2011-12-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

Local produce:

from the predictable:

to the pretty amazing:

All of those available at Ringmer Wine Store.

And this terrorist teapot is on sale at Potts in Lewes:

Blimey, I hope this doesn't happen here

2011-12-08T12:17:00.001-08:00

From the BBC:

"Stuart MacMahon sent in this stunning image of a turbine at Ardrossan Windfarm bursting into flames during severe weather." (It's the last in the slideshow, click along to the right to see it.)

Road fatalities

2011-12-07T16:28:00.001-08:00

This is a map of the road fatalities that have occurred near Ringmer in the last ten years. It comes from a BBC interactive site which has mapped all of the UK road fatalities for that period.

Our concern with the way people drive is primarily environmental, but there is a deep connection between environmental concerns and those of road safety. All of the sixty incidents mapped here were unnecessary. Sixty people have died, sixty families and sixty sets of friends have mourned unnecessarily. In every case someone was driving badly, driving in a way that was not suitable for the road, weather and traffic conditions. In many cases that means they were driving too fast, not necessarily exceeding the speed limit, but driving too fast to be able to stop the vehicle safely when something unexpected happened. Driving in a way that respects the environment also saves lives.

Arlington reservoir in the rain

2011-12-01T09:09:00.001-08:00

With Arlington reportedly at around 20% of its capacity, and Ardingly even worse at around 12%, South East Water has applied for permission to take more water from the Ouse. It's quite an irony that the day this was announced was one of the wettest days of the year.

Arlington - low but wet

Really wet

Not Arlington but very, very wet.

Food for thought

2011-11-27T06:18:00.001-08:00

Christmas is coming and the business of shopping for it is not too far away.

Christmas is a time of cheer, feasting, and usually lots of leftovers. It's estimated that we in the UK will throw away around 230,000 tonnes of food this Christmas. Low Carbon Ringmer's handy guide to Christmas eating will help you save waste and save money.

1) Be realistic. Conquer the fear of not having enough which makes you put far too much on the table.
2) Plan ahead. Use a shopping list and resist the temptation to buy extras.
3) Smaller portions. At mealtime you don't need to pile each plate high. People can always go back for a second portion. And a third.
4) Self service. If your guests fill their own plates, they're likely to take as much as they want, not more.
5) Store leftovers safely. Two hours is enough for hot food to cool before going into the fridge; then it's available for other meals.
6) Compost everything you safely can. Vegetable and fruit peelings, leftover veg that isn't going to be used - in the compost bin, not the waste bin.
7) Create new meals. If you're anything like us, you end up with a chunk of turkey, some mashed potatoes, and a bowl of tomato and courgette salad. That makes a meal. "Turkey on a bed of mash with tomato and courgette trimmings."

There's more at: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

November

2011-11-27T06:13:00.001-08:00

Duckboard at the Pells

Ringmer - it's a gorgeous day

Still gorgeous - fantastic clouds

But still stuck.

Views of the turbine

2011-10-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

Mostly minute.

From Laughton Road

From Moor Lane

From Potato Lane

From Barcombe.

It is there, honestly. You have to look hard to see it.

Turbine technology

2011-10-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Nineteenth and twenty-first century technology

Twentieth and twenty first century technology

And it's up

2011-10-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

The wind turbine is up. Not working yet, that will take a few days.

The blades are up, but still held in place by the crane.

Now the crane has let go.

Dusk falls and there are still people working up in the hub.

Wind turbine goes up

2011-10-14T01:34:00.000-07:00

After some delays - German suppliers, who'd have thought it ;-) - the parts of Glyndebourne's wind turbine have been delivered and are being erected. Thursday 13th October the first part of the tower was put in place, grouted and bolted and left overnight to harden.

On the ground. Blades and the first section of the tower.

Blades assembled.

Two cranes start the lift of the first section.

The larger crane now takes the weight.

In position.

The view from Gote Lane. You can see it if you look hard.

Ringmer Low Carbon Fair

2011-10-14T01:15:00.000-07:00

We held our latest Low Carbon Fair on October 8th. The theme was healthy living.

The cycle doctor.

"Hutch".

Ringmer U3A.

Navarin of lamb

2011-06-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

We tried the lamb navarin recipe featured in the Low Carbon Ringmer wiki recipe pages.

The ingredients were:
600g - 1kg middle neck of lamb, trimmed: we use stewing lamb from a local butcher
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1” lengths : bought locally
2 medium sized onions, quartered : bought locally
1 small turnip : no turnips. No swedes either. Used a butternut squash, locally sourced. Not even a close relative of a turnip but the flesh looks vaguely like a turnip
1 tsp sugar : country of origin not specified, but I suspect it was a long way away
1 tbsp flour: used Doves Farm flour - can't verify the origin, but Dove s' policy is to source locally where possible
1-2 tbsp dripping: missed that out, used sunflower oil instead; no indication of country of origin
500ml water or stock : used water. Stock tends to make things taste salty, even when there's no salt in the stock
bouquet garni : used mixed herbs instead, oh the ignominy
chopped parsley: from our garden, can't get more local than that.

So I give myself about 95/100 for local sourcing for this one.

The recipe says give it about 40 minutes; I usually find recipe timing for meat very short. I gave it an hour and a half and it still wasn't quite ready. But the overall effect of the vegetables, flour, sugar and liquid was a stew at just the right consistency, thick but smooth, and the squash was a passable alternative for the turnip.

Local suppliers

2011-05-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

The Low Carbon Ringmer wiki has some new pages on which residents are welcome to contribute to and expand upon.

Firstly there is a recipe page, designed to highlight recipes that use local ingredients.

And secondly there is a page on Shops and other suppliers that highlights where you can get those ingredients.

Both are only sketched out at the moment, but will be populated over time.

Low Carbon Ringmer

2011-02-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Low Carbon Ringmer is a community initiative launched by the Ouse Valley and Ringmer Liberal Democrats. Ringmer’s LibDem councillors have recognised the need to offer leadership and practical help in encouraging residents to do their bit for the environment, but they are keen to play down the party political element, so the campaign becomes seen as a community rather than a political initiative.

During the debate on Glyndebourne’s application for a wind turbine, it became clear that the village as a whole could do more to combat global warming. This added fuel to the arguments in favour of the turbine, which had its independent advantages and disadvantages. Without taking sides on that debate, there appears little doubt that the arguments against the turbine would have been morally stronger if the village had been able to point to greater efforts of its own to combat climate change.

The prime mover behind Low Carbon Ringmer is Ringmer’s district councillor Chris Bowers. He has been involved in the environmental movement for over 20 years, and in 1990 founded the Environmental Transport Association, a service and campaigning organisation set up to counteract the road lobbying activities of the AA and RAC. Over the past 16 years he has worked as a communications consultant to the European Federation for Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based umbrella organisation of national and regional lobby groups. Chris chairs the Low Carbon Ringmer working group.

Also heavily involved is another Ringmer district councillor, Peter Gardiner. A retired professor of engineering from Brighton University, he has earned considerable respect in his 14 months on the council, and is now lead councillor for planning on Lewes District Council.

Peter was Head of the School of Environment at Brighton University, which gained a considerable reputation from a wide range of work including structural use of timber as a green material, containment of radioactive deposits in soils, investigating harmful microbiological distributions in rivers, air pollution and a series of habitat studies including South Downs grasslands using GIS methods. He was also a Director of the Brighton Environmental Body, a company set up to carry out green research on pyrolysis, recycling cars and waste.

Among other people who have played a leading role on the Low Carbon Ringmer steering committee are Julie Carr (former lead councillor for the environment on Lewes District Council and now mayor of Newhaven), Rob Parsons (who played a major role in Ringmer getting broadband internet access), and Rosalyn St Pierre (county councillor for Ringmer, Barcombe and eastern Lewes).

To contact Low Carbon Ringmer, please email lowcarbonringmer - at - gmail.com. To contact either Chris Bowers or Peter Gardiner, please email chris.bowers - at - lewes.gov.uk or peter.gardiner - at - lewes.gov.uk.