Challenge North Leigh

The North Leigh Guide to Saving Energy in the Home

...Olga...

At the Green Picnic, ‘Olga’ said she had taken the first steps to save energy and asked what she should do next. Here are ideas for all of us to think about.
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“Six Degrees: Our Life on a Hotter Planet” by Mark Lynas

A Three Degree Rise – and beyond? A Summary of Conclusions.

In the “three degree” scenario, Africa will be split between the north, which will see a recovery of rainfall, and the south, which becomes drier and beyond human adaptation. Wind speeds will double leading to serious erosion of the Kalahari desert.

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A Summary of Conclusions from “Six Degrees – Our Life on a Hotter Planet” by Mark Lynas

Book Cover

In his book Mark refers to a vast library of scientific reports and studies in order to outline the effects on the planet of climate change equivalent to global temperature rises of one, two, three, four, five and six degrees. Colin Carritt of Sustainable Woodstock has summarised the conclusions for each degree rise and has kindly given permission for us to publish the summaries on the CNL website. This article covers the one and two degree rise situations.

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Last month I tackled the question “How worried should we be”? Since then I’ve begun to read Mark Lynas’ book “Six Degrees”, subtitled “Our future on a hotter planet”. It’s the best review of the available science, economic and political analyses that I’ve discovered and I’ve allowed myself the indulgence of studying the last chapter before reading all the preceding ones so I can pass on without delay the essence of the exhaustive studies which earned Mark the Royal Society’s medal for Communicating Science.

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How worried should we be about climate change?

A personal commentary for anyone who is interested.

What will happen if we just go on with our lives as if nothing is changing? If we believe we should change our ways, by how much should we change? And if we have to change, how long have we got? (more…)

Remember – the 10th of each month is “Power Down Day”.

Try to reduce your energy consumption. Every little helps and if we reduce our electricty usage by 10% then we qualify for the £20,000 community reward from SSE.

Everyone who wants a Current Cost Meter should now have one (let us know if you haven’t or contact Rob Pritchard at the library). Are you using it to monitor your energy usage?

Has anyone noticed that interesting socket on the bottom of the unit? I’ve been investigating it and it is possible to download energy usage data to your computer! It’s quite technical so not for the feint of heart, but anyone who is interested can contact the group for more details.