January meeting report

For those who didn't make it we had a film show as planned.

I was out voted and we watched "Who killled the electric car" which was very well presented using the story of the GM EV1 to illustrate the broader issues surrounding the attempts by California to try and reduce the environmental and human damage caused by the car.

The issues were well presented and although a lot of the technical problems with electric vehicles were glossed over the case was made for why the EV experiment ended.

Basically it came down to there being just too many groups with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. I prefer this explanation to some of the more hysterical "tin foil hat" conspiracy theories, it demonstrates you don't need dark figures in smoke filled rooms plotting, you just need a good financial incentive to carry on with business as usual. The tactics used by the motor industry, the oil industry and the fuel cell business interests all just came together and did for the EV.

Whether EV can really be a solution is a bigger question, in a world where we drive less perhaps electric vehicles can provide a technical solution for our reduced transport needs.

The general consensus at the meeting seemed to be the film missed the bigger issue but did demonstrate the obstacles which will be put in place to those fighting climate change, preparing for peak oil, or both. We have already seen Bush offering technical solutions with Hydrogen, biofuels and most recently with carrying out experiments with our atmosphere, all to carry on with business as usual.

In response to a lovely optimistic post on another forum I sketched out the following. The original idea was we would all make Hydrogen from electricity generated from wind power at night. I need to fact check this but post it for information anyway.

I'm not convinced that would work a little back of the beer mat math gives you an idea of the scale of the problem.

Petrol has an energy density of over 30MJ / Litre, it's actually a bit more that that but I'll use 30 to keep the numbers simple (they are going to be huge).

Lets say cars get an average of 45 mpg (excuse the mixed units) that works out around 10 miles per litre giving an energy usage of 3MJ / mile (30/10).

Hydrogen cell advocates typically claim that cells are three times more efficient than heat engines (internal combustion engine), I'm skeptical but lets use take it as a fact, so our new exciting FCV will run at around 1MJ per mile.

A typical car in the Uk does 10,000 miles a year, that's 10,000 MJ or 10GJ per year.

I have a figure in my head of 25,000,000 cars on the road, I think that's a couple of year old but it'll do for now.

That makes the energy demand assuming all cars were converted to hydrogen fuel cells around 250,000,000 Gj per year

Current UK electrcity production is around 1,224,000 Gj per year again this is based on a number in my head (340,000 GWh = 1,224,000 GJ again this is old so may need checking).

Now that's unfair because some traffic will move over to alternatives such as bio-diesel, so if we half the demand figure and say we need 125,000,000 GJ then we only need to generate one hundred times as much electricity as we do now just to fuel cars, this is based on carrying on with current driving patterns.

It's not all bad news, there are some experimental FCV that run as low as 0.333MJ per mile but the numbers still don't add up.

On bio-diesel there was an interesting story at the tail end of last week, tortillas in south america have shot up in price due to increased demand for corn for conversion into bio-fuel in the states.

Anyone for a bike?

January meeting

The first FoE Falkirk meeting of the year will be at the usual venue but on Monday and not the usual Wednesday. The group will now meet on the last MONDAY of the month at the Christian Centre, Glebe Street, Falkirk 7.30 to 9.30.

There will be a showing of either "Crude Impact" or "Who Killed the Electric Car"

All welcome.

Vote with your Feet - the 2007 everyone election campaign

The Falkirk meeting is coming up at the end of the month. Before that Foe Edinburgh are holding a meeting that sounds very interesting.

Date: Thursday 25th January 2007, at 7.30pm

Venue: Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

Speaker: Ylva Haglund, Campaign Coordinator, everyone campaign

Vote with your Feet - the 2007 everyone election campaign

Ylva Haglund will explain how the latest campaign was put together to focus on the Holyrood elections in May, and what you can do to support this.

How can we persuade politicians that unless they change the way we treat the planet, we will change them - by voting for somebody else?

Top issues in this campaign include:

- Climate change
- Loss of our wildlife and habitats
- Destruction of our landscape
- Pollution of our seas
- Our health and wellbeing

The everyone campaign, an initiative of Scottish Environment LINK, is a network of Scottish environment charities which campaigns to establish the environment as a serious mainstream
issue in Scotland.
Charities involved include Friends of the Earth Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, Ramblers' Association, RSPB, Scottish Wildlife Trust and WWF Scotland.

See www.everyonecan.org for more details.

Going green with DEFRA

The end of December saw the official lauch of the DEFRA greener living website.

Most of it is commonsense advice and is available elsewhere but it's nice to see a government site promoting it. Unusually the section on air travel is reasonable, recommending a reduction in air travel, only flying as a last resort and even covers the problems with offsetting.

If only the rest of governments policies reflected the actions and choices they would like us to make.

Next meeting Wednesday 29th November

This month the speaker will be Catherine Wilson, Litter Strategy Officer with Falkirk Council. Litter is one of the local group's priority campaigns and the meeting is open to any one interested in finding out more.

Litter line: 01324 504433

www.falkirk.gov.uk/litterzone

The meeting will be held at the Christian Centre, Glebe Street, Falkirk at 7.30.

FoE Scotland Christmas Cards will also be on sale at the meeting for £3 for a pack of 10 cards plus cotton shopping bags at £3 each.

Contract and Convergence Petition

There is a .gov.uk site allowing the creation of petitions, these are reviewed listed publicly and can be signed online. There are issues over the validity of any petition and probably greater issues over whether these are ever really taken into account. However for those interested there are a number of environmental issues which have already been listed.

One of which is related to our discussion on the practicalities of contraction and convergence.

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Adopt Carbon Rationing and Contraction and Convergence...."

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Carbon-Rationing/

Ash Pits at Longannet

Longannet Power Station (just over the Forth from Grangemouth) is the biggest pollutor in our area (and in Scotland). Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for Europe) most of the air-bourne pollution goes into the high atmosphere to be carried away for a few hundred miles. However I have heard tell of falls of mysterious dust in Culross.
A couple of years ago on Doors Open Day I went to see an old salt panning building which is just past Culross on the coast. It is on Scottish Power land which has been reclaimed from the Forth. The salt panning buildings used to be on an island, but now its part of this reclaimed land. Basically what happens is that the ash from the power station is washed away by water drawn in from the Forth, and then pumped along the sea front past Culross and into ash pits at the other side. The water then drains away and leaves the ash in giant pits. Once the pits are full the top is capped with earth and made into a place where you can walk your dog.
I suppose I am posting this to let you know the consequences of our power station, and also because I wanted to show a link to the programme "Flash Earth" which shows an ariel view of the site. (You need the Flash to show it- once you open it, read the instructions, click on the black box and you will see the pits).
Is there anything we can do about it? I'm not sure. It was being presented by Scottish Power as a good environmental management option. But...

A.G.M Update

As you will tell from the masthead of this newsletter the AGM made a decision about the local group’s name and decided to change it to Friends of the Earth Falkirk. This reflects the current membership better and gives the group a clearer identity and locate it at the heart of the environment in Falkirk.
The AGM gave the group an opportunity to reflect on where we would like to place our energy over the coming year. Many of the usual suspect came up again such as recycling, litter, public transport and local food with the hope that we can build in previous campaigns. New campaigns which reflect some of the current interest in the group include congestion and promoting biodiversity. As always the local group will also continue to support the priority campaigns of Friends of the Earth Scotland in the Falkirk area.

Local IS best

Proved on the street We couldn’t have planned it better. At the Eat the Street event in Callender Riggs Falkirk in September we conducted a taste test between carrots bought at a supermarket and carrots grown on the temporary allotments on the street. Overwhelmingly the home grown carrot was preferred by the visitors to the event.
Friends of the Earth Forth Valley supported the event organized by Forth Valley Food Links to promote the environmental benefits of local food and to promote interest in allotments. The stall gave information on the issue of foodmiles and promoted the Friends of the Earth Campaign

Freecycle

Changing the world one gift at a time

The Freecycle network was established to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. In under four years it has grown from a community project based in Tucson to a worldwide network of nearly three thousand eight hundred locally organised groups with over two and a half million members. It works by providing a mailing list in which members can offer unwanted items, other members or groups can then arrange to take these. As well as reducing waste it can save you money both in items found on the list and in special waste collection fees it also provides a network for building local communities.

The essential rule for all Freecycle groups is that everything offered has to be given freely.

Once you’ve joined the list the mechanics are simple. When you have something you no longer want, check the guidance notes that it’s acceptable to your local group then post an OFFER to the list. If you see something offered you want then contact the offerer and if it’s still available arrange collection. Once the arrangement is made the offerer posts a TAKEN note back to the list. It requires no more knowledge than the ability to read and respond to an email and that simplicity and it’s locality is what makes it all work.

Joining the list couldn’t be easier, point your web browser at the uk network home uk.freecycle.org or at www.freecycle.org and follow the links to find your local freecycle group.

Alternatively for those in the forth valley area the following groups are available.
Falkirk – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FalkirkReCycle
Stirling – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stirlingcityfreecycle/
Edinburgh – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreecycleEdinburgh/
Glasgow – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/glasgow-freecycle/

Just go to the website and select Join, you can then choose to receive messages by email, as a convenient daily digest or just read them on the web. The rules of each group may vary a little, these are local groups run by local moderators, giving there own time to make freecycle work. Read through the welcome emails and the rules and jump in.