I just looked out the window and the sky looks amazing. The contrast between the blue sky and the white clouds is breathtaking.

Isn't nature wonderful?

So right about now is when I gave up on life.

What the fuck is wrong with the world?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6247371.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6242927.stm

Why the fuck should I carry on doing what I do when the fucking prime minister is a fucking arsehole and fucking big companies are fucking full of fucking wankers?

That was Chris messing around on my computer and trying to make Alex look less evil.

I'm ill.

Someone come round and watch DVD's with me and make me hot chocolate please? I need a hug :(

How can you feel completly on top of the world one minute and then a few hours later the complete opposite?

How come when you first wake up you still think everything is ok then you realise you are lying face down ontop of the bed still fully clothed and still crying. Then you look at that message on your phone which was sent a few minutes into Friday 13th and everything comes flooding back. How appropriate.

Maybe, just maybe, I should listen to my heart and not my head.

Bugger. I've lost all my ethical approval documentation for my research. This is not good :(

My mind has gone blank. Can you name me some renewable energy companies? I can only think of Ecotricity and I know there are more.

Thank you

Today I discovered that I am an adult.

This story really annoyed me:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4968534.stm

I spent about 20 hours of my life, 20 hours I can never get back, analysing Defra's Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse and so I know a fair amount about the different classifications of litter. Litter is litter whether it is a cigarette or a crisp.

The lady in the news story said "I'm always clearing up litter and always telling my children. I just feel so hard done by."

Why does she feel hard done by? The story states "Mrs Buckland said one of the children in her car threw the Wotsit into her lap while she was driving in Leagrave High Street, Luton. She then threw the crisp out of the car window."

If she is always clearing up litter and telling her children how to act did they throw a crisp at her and then why did she throw it out of the car window? What kind of example is that to set to her children? If she is so against litter as she makes out, then what makes a crisp less of litter than a cigarette?

She did something wrong, she was caught, she was fined. How the hell can she call herself hard done by?

I text Dan from work today with the slightly worrying news that the European carbon market is about to collapse. Because of the job I do this is major news for us and it has made everyone very jumpy. Dan couldn't find much on the net and didn't know much about it so I said I would try and explain for all you eco people.

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is very complicated, I know quite a bit but not enough to give you all the detail and so don't expect me to be able to explain it properly....

The ETS is a market based mechanism which came about from the Kyoto Treaty. Basically all the EU countries are allocated permits which allow them to pollute. One permit = one tonne of carbon. This only includes certain sectors though. Transport, public sector and homes are not included. There is a maximum you are given and so if you want to pollute more you have to buy permits off companies/countries who do not pollute as much. This is I guess one example of the polluter pays principle. It encourages people not to pollute as much because they can then sell their permits on if they are a small organisation, or it encourages people not to pollute as much because it is costing them money to do so. We are just finishing Phase I and so in Phase II the amount of permits available will be reduced and so on in Phase III etc. The idea being that eventually there will not be many permits and so industry will have cleaned up their act.

The principle behind emissions trading is that it doesn't matter to the environment where the carbon comes from, it just needs reducing. This means that some companies could reduce their emissions a lot and others would just have to pay for the privilege of polluting. 

This is in theory, I think, a good idea. There are however some problems. As the USA is not a Kyoto country it is not included and we all know what a huge polluter they are. Also, something which has been the subject of much debate recently as we are going into Phase II, aviation is not included. This is a big source of carbon emissions and environmentalists obviously want aviation included. It probably isn't because this would raise the price of flights and get the Government in a twist.

A fortnight ago, the price of carbon was at its highest. This week the price has plummeted and experts are saying the price of carbon may go to £0 in the next few weeks. This is because Phase I of the scheme is ending and countries are submitting how much they have polluted and from the figures in so far, no-one has gone over their allowances. This in effect makes the price of carbon worthless because no-one will want to buy it they haven't gone over their allowances. The only thing that might save it is the fact that not all countries have released their figures, most notably the UK which is the only country expected to go over their allowances. I feel so proud to be a UK citizen right now thats for sure! If countries have gone over their allowance then they will still need to buy carbon and there will still be a market.

There are two ways to look at this. One, it is great that the member states haven't been as polluting as was expected or the scheme has worked and people have reduced their emissions so they didn't have to buy carbon. But the downside is that the ETS was actually doing a good job of making people reduce their emissions and if the scheme fails now (it only started Jan 2005) then it may mean the end of it. Which is bad news for the environment as no-one will want to try something so ambitious again and we are left with an even bigger environmental problem.

Unfortunately, big business are probably running the show really and they may see it as an excuse to pollute more. Why invest in energy efficiency and new technology when you don't have to spend that money because you have a licence to pollute? Some people see the ETS as a cop out for companies, they don't actually have to reduce their emissions because they can buy the right to pollute. I don't agree with that because I think if companies have to spend the money on permits or new technology then they are going to invest in new technology. This is more sustainable for the long term life of the business and it is good for a PR, look at us aren't we environmentally friendly point of view.

I don't know what will happen next but the next couple of days are going to be interesting thats for sure...

I don't know if any of that makes sense or is well written. I'm not an expert so I don't know too much but it gives an idea of what is going on for Mr Dan.

Thanks for your carbon neural views guys. If anyone has any other thoughts can you let me know pretty please? I've don't so much research into it that I can't stand back and take an objective view anymore.

I'm trying to pull off the impossible here! I have 3 days left to do it...

So I guess I won't be buying my toiletries from there anymore. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that Anita Roddick did it, it is an awful lot of money. I guess everyone has a price.

I would like to think that I wouldn't sell out like that but would I if I was offered that much money? She said she is going to give it all away which is good. There is still something awfully uncomfortable about it all though.

I just got a flash of inspiration and I need your help!

What are your thoughts on carbon offsetting? This is when you measure your carbon emissions from travel, electricity use etc and then buy offsets from a company. They will then plant trees/invest in renewable technology in developing countries etc. The idea is to become "carbon neutral" by sequesting your carbon emissions somewhere else.

I need opinions from both environmentally active people and those who aren't as active. I have a few days to pull this off so please help me.

Is it a good or a bad thing? Does it actually make a difference or is it an excuse for people to pollute as much as they want, throw money at someone and then make them feel better for their emissions.

Anything you want related to the subject.

Thank you, presents will be awarded to those who help (I'm desperate!)

Down with supermarkets!

Do you think this probe will actually achieve anything?

One of my proudest moments at university was getting a First on an essay analysing supermarkets planning permission. It was a scary moment when I realised how corrupt it was. Bloody planning gain.

I saw that The Times had an environment supplement last week so bought it. I was just reading one of the articles and something jumped out at me:

"We may end up being the cursed generation - the last generation that had a chance to something and failed."

Do you think thats true? Are we really the last chance?

If so, we need to get a move on.

I hope its my fever making me being attracted to childrens TV presenters. Gethin Jones from Blue Peter? I so would.

Hope I can go back to work soon, daytime TV is turning my brain to mush.

I just realised I use exclamation marks an awful lot when I write. Does this mean that I over use them, I'm happy, or just always exclaiming?

Nuclear power has been all over the news again today with the launch of the Government’s energy review. They have got the HSE to start research on the safety of nuclear power so it seems like they have already mad their minds up and this is just a PR exercise.

I’ve always been against nuclear power without any real reasons to back my opinions up, apart from it just sounds scary. Now I work in the power sector I am even more anti nuclear. There is a huge energy crisis in this country. It is quite a scary prospect thinking about where we are going to get our electricity from soon. People are always complaining about the price of their electricity bills but that is only because it is so expensive! I was watching the trading floor at work today and realised how much work goes into making sure I can go home and switch on my laptop, amazing stuff really. I truly would have thought that the prices would make people be more aware of their energy usage, but the sad fact of the matter is it doesn’t seem that way. I really cannot comprehend how people can live with themselves leaving lights on and everything on stand by. Why do people do this? Is it because they don’t care or they don’t realise the huge wastage that is going on? I really believe that if people stopped wasting electricity, if certain appliances were banned for their inefficiency and if stand by was taken off then we wouldn’t be in the frightening situation we are in today. All of this coupled with renewable energy of course.

I’m lucky enough to have been up close to all sorts of electricity generation. I’ve been round coal and gas fired plants and to wind farms and I know what I prefer. I was with a bunch of 10 year olds in a coach on a trip to a wind farm. As soon as they caught sight of the turbines they stopped shouting and saying they were going to be sick and just sat their mesmerised by them. I can’t explain how graceful, elegant, inspiring and peaceful wind farms are up close. They are such a positive symbol of people trying to do something to help the environment. I still don’t understand why people complain so much about them, why they make it so hard for them to be built.

There are so many alternatives to nuclear power such as wind, solar (my friend has a solar panel on his house and it heats all the water all year round and he lives in Rochdale!), tidal, carbon capture and storage etc. We have the best wind power in Europe but it isn’t harnessed enough because the public cause such up cries about them, it takes years to get the planning permission through. What would people really want to live next to, a nuclear power station or a wind farm? On BBC breakfast last week they went to the community who live next to Sizewell. They showed the tablets they always had to have on them in case of an accident to help stop the radiation. I would hate to live my life like that, always at the back of my mind that something could go wrong and my life would never be the same again. If you live next to a wind farm you have nothing to worry about.

I was reading the debate on this on the BBC website at work. One comment was so ridiculous I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was something along the lines of “nuclear is more carbon free than wind because people don’t take into account all the carbon produced when making wind turbines and the people who work on them and their families travelling etc.” So if an engineer wasn’t working on a wind farm then him and his family wouldn’t exist? He is here just to work on wind farms? What about the people who work on nuclear sites, don’t they exist and have families too? The awful thing was a lot of people had recommended his comment! They will see that and think it’s a good argument and then tell their equally uninformed friends down the pub. The ridiculous arguments people come up with makes me want to pull my hair out. That guy was saying that because he thinks that if we don’t have nuclear then he will have to change his way of life. If we have nuclear then nothing will have to change for him, he can carry on as normal.

Nuclear is far from carbon free, renewables are hell of a lot more carbon free. What about the huge issue of waste? Greenpeace recently had a campaign where they dressed as Romans and said “if Romans used nuclear then we would still be dealing with their waste”. Love or hate Greenpeace, they know how to make a point. There is a Native American saying “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we just borrow it from our children.” Do we really want to leave nuclear waste for our children and their grandchildren etc?

If we don’t go down the nuclear route then people will have to make changes to their lives. Small changes, but still changes. Is this what scares people so much? Are people that narrow minded that they can’t see outside their own lives and the bigger picture? In the grand scheme of things, individually we are all so insignificant yet we are making a huge impact on the earth. People may think I sound like a hippy but don’t we have a responsibility to future generations? Shouldn’t they have the opportunity to experience life and the earth and all the wonderful things in it like we have? Or are they going to be too busy trying to find something to do with our nuclear waste just so we can power all our gadgets, go on holiday leaving the lights on, leave the TV on standby because we are just too lazy to stand up and switch it back on again later? Let alone if an accident happened. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.

Why should I care about future generations? I don’t have children; I can just fuck up the environment as much as the next guy. There is just something in me that can’t do it. The reason I have dedicated my life to try and make a difference. I don’t know what it is and sometimes I wish I didn’t feel this way. It makes my life hard sometimes, I just can’t jump in a car and go somewhere because I refuse to have a car, I can’t just pop into the shops because I refuse to use plastic bags. I often wonder why I still believe that changes can be made and the environment can be saved. I guess I must have faith in people. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t try my hardest to make a difference. I just don’t understand why more don’t feel the same way.