Are All London’s Central Bus Routes Going Hybrid?
I was talking to a bus driver today and he said that all routes through the city would be using hybrid buses. Did he mean the actual City or Central London?
It’s all good progress either way, as they are quieter, emit less pollution, are better to ride on and create less carbon-dioxide emissions. At present we have 225 hybrid buses in London, with new ones on routes 43 and 149 having been introduced recently. There’s more about London’s hybrid buses here.
In some ways though to put the new buses in the central parts of London is a good idea, as that is where the pollution is worst. It also may have a secondary effect, in that it impresses visitors, either through clean air or though curiosity about the technology. It certainly wouldn’t hurt this country, if we became world leaders in the technology.
Scots Put Wind Up Donald Trump
I can’t say I warm to Donald Trump and I don’t think, that I’d want to be anywhere near his golf development, as it will probably attract a lot of the sort of people, that I find odious.
So I read the report about his spat with the Scottish Parliament with interest and a small bit of pleasure. I’m not really in favour of wind turbines and especially those onshore, but offshore ones, if the economic case is there are a much better option. Let’s hope he gets a nice line of pylons across his golf course.
The Proliferation of Hybrid Buses
Whilst I was sitting in the window in Starbucks eating my sandwich, I noticed that a lot of the newer buses were labelled as hybrids, with the green logo on the side.
So I counted for a few minutes and found that out of 15 buses under three years old, 20 % were hybrid.
Tilbury Burns
One of the news stories today, is one about a fire at Tilbury power station.
It would appear that the wood pellet storage used to fuel the power station has caught fire. The wood pellets come all the way from Georgia in the USA by ship.
Surely, there must be more efficient ways of generating electricity.
Rocks and Climate Change: How We Can Stop Pulling the Carbon Trigger
Today, I went to another lecture at the Geological Society of London, the title of which is the title of this post.
The entertaining lecture was given by Bryan Lovell, who is Senior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences at Cambridge University. He talked about how 55 million years ago a rapid global warming effect called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum changed the world forever and led to the creation of the first apes. Some of the proof of this is believed to be the unusual puddingstone found in places like Hertfordshire, which was created at the time. As he said the rocks tell us what happens if you don’t control global warming and that the earth can cope with it, but animals can’t.
One point he then said was that the oil industry can store safely underground the carbon dioxide captured from a coal-fired power station at a reasonable price.
He then said that although the scientific case has been established beyond doubt and even Shell accepts there is man made global warning, but we haven’t convinced ourselves of the need to act. He said that now is the time to tell the story written in the rocks – in verse, in film and in song. He was at Harvard in the 1960s and no-one got anywhere about convincing the Americans about the wrongness of the Vietnam War, until Joan Baez got involved. We need another Joan. And unfortunately someone, who could have written and performed something eloquent; Dory Previn, died on Tuesday.
Miners Have a Go at the Iron Lady
The BBC has reported that the Iron Lady film has had protests in Chesterfield, which lost their coal mines, when she was Prime Minister.
My view is straightforward. Coal is a dirty fuel, that causes lots of ill health and is a major cause of global warming. Even with the small number of pits we have now, the death of miners is not unknown.
Mrs. Thatcher may have been the Prime Minister, who actually shut the mines, but in my view it was done about twenty years at least too late.
North Sea oil and gas, gave us the opportunity to abandon coal production and it should have been done in a managed and gradual way. I’d love to know, whether Prime Ministers before Mrs. Thatcher had thought of shutting the mines. After all, when the railways abandoned steam engines, a lot of coal wasn’t needed any more. So do those who want more mining jobs, want steam trains as well? And domestic coal fires, which created the smog of the sixties? Many days, I had to walk home from school in thick pea soup.
I should also say, that I’ve met quite a few people, from mining families and all were advised to get an education and avoid going down the pits.
How have other countries weaned themselves off coal? I found this article about the rise and fall of the German coal industry. It seems that German industry has managed to survive the loss of its prime energy source.
I suspect they have managed the run down of their industry much better. I can remember a proposal in The Guardian to use redundant miners to insulate our rather poor housing stock. Nothing happened, as far as I know!
We don’t learn either! Most of our vehicles are powered by fossil fuel, which don’t help the stopping of global warming. So when we bring forward proposals to help like wind, wave and tidal power, new electricity networks and rail lines, the Nimbys come out in force.
We can’t have it both ways, even if the Americans and the Chinese think they can.
I think I’ll prefer to go to hell on my two legs, a bicycle or a New Bus for London, rather than a fossil-fuel powered handcart.
Roof Clutter
This house is near to where I live.
Roof Clutter
There has been a lot of controversy about whether the solar panels they have installed should be allowed. You can just about see them. But surely the real eyesores are the television aerials, satellite dish and the overhead wires to bring in the phone lines!
The Anonymous Widower 