Yesterday I found myself examining where the blackberries in the SM came from. Having discounted non-UK berries, I was left with West Sussex or Perthshire. My UK geography isn't bad but I struggled to work out which of those large areas would involve travelling a smaller distance to east Lancs
My wife has a packet of strawberries here. Grown in Somerset, packed in Leeds, probably then sent to a central distribution hub to be shipped out to our local shop, before being delivered to our door. Bloody things have done more travelling than I have in the last month.
This is from a Chris Packham tweet where he says:
"It’s broken isn’t it ? We’ve broken what we do with food . Pears grow in the U.K. They could grow in our gardens . We could walk out and pick them , wipe them and eat them. No chemicals , no processing , no plastic , no planes , no sell by dates . Just fresh fruit. God help us":
.... and then consumed in the UK
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
The Wright brothers' first flight was in 1903. 66 years later we had the first moon landing. If we can achieve that in such a short period of time we should be able to sort out the mess we have created since that first moon landing.
Aviation advanced rapidly as a result of conflict - WW1, Spanish Civil War, WW2, Korea, Vietnam etc etc..sad, but nothing accelerates technology more then the desire kill each other in ever increasing numbers.
@wild edges thats why the fruit in Supermarkets is almost inedible, all the fruit is picked under ripe so it lasts the travel time, ripen at home it’s says, that doesn’t work. I have heard, but don’t know it to be true, but they keep fruit for up to a year before sending it out.
Frozen fish from supermarkets, caught in English waters, packed off to China for preparing and freezing, then back to us. These things will never change. There are a lot of people who can’t afford to buy fresh fish so this will continue.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Heat pumps have been in use for decades - the technology they rely on has been in extensive use for more than a century. It is well understood, including what the problems are (and there are some). The inertia created by the argument is a far greater problem - I don't want to get a heat pump in case it turns out I could have got a better one had I waited a year - right, in the meantime you are burning a flammable toxic gas that is causing vast problems right across the world. Stop hivvering. Do some proper research. GET ON WITH IT. Stop letting perfect be the enemy of good.
I'm pricing this up at the moment to hopefully take advantage of the grant. It's a lot more complicated than just getting a new combi boiler though and gas is still around 1/5th the price of electricty per KWH. I might do a thread about what I find out though just to help others who are thinking of switching too.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I've mentioned infrared panel heaters before. I have one and I like it. It's one option of using green electric rather gas for heating. They have their limitations, but might be part of a mix in looking for solutions.
@steveTu It might feel now that things are moving fast but some people having been banging this particular drum for a lifetime and it feels that suddenly that some of the main stream in the UK is catching up with the science. These problems have been on the table for a very long time. Scientists have been frantically waving flags for decades, writers trying everything to get the attention of the public and the policy makers; and generally failing. We've been roundly dimissed as hysterical. Some of us were hysterical, which doesn't help.
Panic, frenzy, personal attacks, fatalistic thinking, black and white models - none of these help (though I do sometimes fall into these myself and find them exhausting).
The social media commentariat response seems to fall along set lines:
- it's all pointless - humanity and life on earth is doomed, we've done too far. So just give up now.
- it's all the fault of some demogogic govt or corporation who isn't listening. So we're screwed. Give up now. I can't do anything. I have no influence.
- the plebs of the world breed too much - it's their fault. I'm doing nothing as the problem is nothing to do with me.
- mass extinction events have happened before. Everything that lives dies, so who cares?
- crisis? What crisis?
- it's all someone else's fault - China, the US, rich people, poor people, fat people, black people, farmers - so I refuse to think about it.
- the crisis will come hundreds of years from now. New technology not yet invented will save us. Humans are great like that. So there's no point in thinking about it now or paying now to mitigate problems.
- -
It seems to me that the more people, countries, govts, social media and groups busy themselves with finger pointing the less they do in resolving the problems.
We are at a similar point to you with going down the heat pump route ..... just waiting for the detailed quote to come for the ground source pump so we can compare to the air source one. Some good grants here in Scotland ... but we need to get a wriggle on and have it fully commissioned and all paperwork sorted before 31/3/22. We currently use oil ... no chance of gas here .... and the price of oil is only going in one direction. We have the Octopus Go tariff for electricity, and are looking into the possibility of battery storage to take advantage of the 5p overnight rate.
Be interested to hear of your progress.
Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
@wild edges@Bee witched you may find some useful guidance here Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide | LETI Ignore the 'London' part of the LETI title - they are London based but the advice is not specific to the city. LETI are a group of 100 or so industry professionals who don't think the Government regulations are helping, so have been producing guidance on net zero, etc in buildings based on the best available information It's not a business so this is not a plug. I am tangentially connected to them but don't profit from you reading their info or following (or not) their advice
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I'll have a good look through this. We've had really good support so far from the people at Home Energy Scotland. It is a condition for one of the grants that they come and do an assessment of the suitability of your home for a heat pump. They've been super helpful guiding us through the application process and giving independent advice.
Just a bit nervous about having it installed during the winter .... but needs must.
Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Posts
This is from a Chris Packham tweet where he says:
"It’s broken isn’t it ? We’ve broken what we do with food . Pears grow in the U.K. They could grow in our gardens . We could walk out and pick them , wipe them and eat them. No chemicals , no processing , no plastic , no planes , no sell by dates . Just fresh fruit. God help us":
.... and then consumed in the UK
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I have heard, but don’t know it to be true, but they keep fruit for up to a year before sending it out.
Frozen fish from supermarkets, caught in English waters, packed off to China for preparing and freezing, then back to us.
These things will never change. There are a lot of people who can’t afford to buy fresh fish so this will continue.
We are at a similar point to you with going down the heat pump route ..... just waiting for the detailed quote to come for the ground source pump so we can compare to the air source one.
Some good grants here in Scotland ... but we need to get a wriggle on and have it fully commissioned and all paperwork sorted before 31/3/22.
We currently use oil ... no chance of gas here .... and the price of oil is only going in one direction.
We have the Octopus Go tariff for electricity, and are looking into the possibility of battery storage to take advantage of the 5p overnight rate.
Be interested to hear of your progress.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
It's not a business so this is not a plug. I am tangentially connected to them but don't profit from you reading their info or following (or not) their advice
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I'll have a good look through this.
We've had really good support so far from the people at Home Energy Scotland.
It is a condition for one of the grants that they come and do an assessment of the suitability of your home for a heat pump.
They've been super helpful guiding us through the application process and giving independent advice.
Just a bit nervous about having it installed during the winter .... but needs must.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime