Saturday 12 July 2014

More on waste disposal and climate change

Here's a bit more on climate change and methane from landfill and those rubbish mountains:
I cycled past one of these at Frampton, Glos., UK the other day and dropped in on it to see how the capture of methane generated from all that food and packaging thrown away by the good people of Gloucestershire was getting on.
Bad News.
A site inspector informed me that:

  1. the initial biogas-fired generator which had been installed there had been deemed "too big" for this site and had been re-deployed elsewhere;
  2. that the three parties involved - landowner, dump management, and the power company - could not agree on how to share the revenue from the sale of electricity so generated;
  3. that consequently no smaller replacement unit had been installed, leaving
  4. all the biogas to be flared off so that
  5. one third of a megawatt of power was being used to heat the atmosphere and add yet more carbon dioxide to it.  (Better than methane, admittedly)
Big Biz once again does a bit more for climate change...

Wednesday 9 July 2014

Soil organic matter content and the future of climate

Attended an informal talk by Dr Robin Chadwick of the Hadley Centre (Met office, Exeter), at Cafe Scientifique on Monday, 7th April - "The Future of our Climate". He is an optimist so it won't be too bad. But in reviewing the carbon balance of earth:atmosphere, which will be the future climate's main determinant, he was not aware of the key role arable farming can have on the positive side. See my post on my "Farm Walk" on Tony Reynolds's farm in Lincolnshire on 29th March where he reported an increase in soil organic matter (SOM) from 2% to 6% over 10 years: such an increase represents

Microfarms' website updated at last

themicrofarm website has now been completely overhauled and updated. The basic practical work has been done and it is now time to draw some conclusions, look at their broad implications for Sustainability, Climate Change, Global Food Supplies, Health and the New Economic Disorder. So have a look at it here. And then please post your comments below.  Or you can email me here.