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Gotcha, so those saying it was just as hot here in '76 are correct, but if you don't take the UK as a single source of temp data you see the real difference.
I've got a lot of time for Monbiot - he speaks a lot of painful truths, and gets a lot of hate from farmers.
Bottom line is, we need some serious developments in food technology to save the planet ...
... cos otherwise, this is the progress that will take over ... ? ?
Yay! Some good news !
FT : UK sets new record for wind generation thanks to blustery conditions
Hopefully, electrolysis to create hydrogen will prove to be a viable solution for 'storage'.
This is an interesting and humble read from Monbiot - admitting he was wrong about woodburners, not only for their green credentials but also their literal toxicity in the home.
Every time you open the stove door to refuel, your home is flooded with tiny particulates and toxins (benzene, formaldehyde, PAH) pushing pollution levels way above WHO guidelines.
Though only 8% of households in the UK have a wood-burning stove, they release more dangerous small particulates than all the vehicles on the roads ... a single modern wood burner produces as many fine particulates as 750 heavy goods vehicles (!!)
https://www.monbiot.com/2023/01/12/burning-shame/
Pah ... forgot to include this in the previous post.
Anyway, on top of the revelation about woodburners, guess what ? Even your normal gas hob is spewing out toxins! Sounds like a #fakenews tabloid scare story, but apparently it's true and has been known about for decades ...
“Children living in a home with gas cooking have a 42% increased risk of having current asthma.” (2013)
Note 1 - apparently, the cooker hood/extractor doesn't help much, and neither does opening the windows.
Note 2 - these toxins are from the gas itself. This is in addition to the carcinogens generated whilst cooking meat at high temperatures (fry, roast, grill, bbq) - released into the air, as well as being eaten.
Also - WaPo: Gas stoves in kitchens pose a risk to public health and the planet
This is an interesting 12-post thread >
https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/1612533394109243397
https://www.distilled.earth/p/ventilation-isnt-enough-to-make-gas
We've done some good things, but the majority of our reductions have come from the closure of most of our manufacturing which is now simply done elsewhere. So the pollution happens in other countries, and we then have to pollute more to ship it back to us.
? this
Certainly there is lots of progress, but not enough, and globally things are moving way too slowly - a 1.5C rise is now apparently inevitable, which will be devastating for many parts of the world.
There needs to be sweeping changes, but the political systems make this very difficult to achieve - it's all about getting (re-)elected by promising/making short term micro-adjustments.
And yes in hindsight, especially now cos of Putin, we really should have gone with more nuclear 20+ years ago. But anti-nuclear sentiment was rising ... (googles) ...
1979 Three Mile Island - 1986 Chernobyl - 2011 Fukushima
Not to mention Windscale in 1957.
Not to mention Windscale in 1957.
On the subject on anti-nuclear sentiment, in the eighties there was a sticker that people had on their cars picturing a smiley sun and the slogan: "Nuclear Power - No Thanks".
I loved to point out to anyone I knew who had one of theses the irony of their using a picture of the largest nuclear reactor in trillions of miles to express their dislike of nuclear power.
Funny seeing all the numpties saying it’s staged.
When is a protest not staged?
