One becoming more...

Think of an ant colony, as one an ant is meaningless, it is vulnerable and weak, it cannot produce a colony by itself and cannot build a home.

But if there are many ants working together they are strong, they provide themselves protection, food, guidance and most of all cooperation.

They work together to build a colony based on their queen to become not many individuals working alone but many individuals making a single unit to survive.

Now obviously I was just using the ants as an example and maybe what I said in detail wasnt completely correct but I was using them as an analogy.

I think if everyone adopts the attitude to do the right thing then eventually we will be that whole unit together working to make our environment a better place and our 'colony' more sustainable.

If more people think about what they are buying when it comes to extra packaging then the companies will produce goods with less packaging in order to sell more, and the same goes for recycling and other means of transport, if more people use the facilities put in place by thier councils then thier neighbours and others around will see that they are using them and so the knock on effect continues.

I believe this counts to pretty much anything that is in our lives, as individuals we are pretty meaningless and unfortunately stupid, but as a species or civilization we have become an amazing spectacle which has proven we can do amazing things and if we make certain sacrificies now I think we all know we will benefit in the future.

Merry chrismas everyone x

Sustainably debatable.

I found I learnt a fair bit from this exercise, I was particularly impressed with Denmark's attitudes and efforts towards the subject.
Admittedly it was a losing battle when it came to Denmark winning any of the money because they are so up to date with their sustainability but I also thought that the pair who covered Denmark done well to keep the policies in there and show the rest of us how good they were instead of maybe toning it down in an attempt to get some money.

On the other hand I was slightly unimpressed with the United States, to me it felt like there was an undercurrent of greed when it came to the money and that they were more interested in putting the money towards their oil problem and the military instead of helping Africa.

This of course has nothing to do with the people who represented America.

There was quite alot to research when it came to Bulgaria's sustainability, I think the country has along way to go before any of the policies will actually make any sort of effect, and there are other issues which possibly need to be addressed before the sustainability ones will be worthwhile.

I was very surprised with the problems Bulgaria face on the daily and the amount of effort that is needed to live comfortably and sustainably, not only on the economical side but also on the natural side with things such as weather and terrain making it hard for the population to move forward.

The variation of all 14 countries I personally found was abit disgraceful, I personally think its about time the bigger more economically and sustainably developed countries took some responsibility and gave the smaller countries with bigger problems a hand to help make sustainability a worldwide effort.

I found the assignment enjoyable, it was good to work with someone who I usually wouldnt and acheive something from such a small basepoint, having to build a working relationship and then work together to make the assignment work.

I feel as if my partner was better at using the information in the presentation, I find im not very good at presenting in front of a group of people.
If I was to do it again, I would focus on the matters of sustainability more than the background and facts of Bulgaria.

All together I found it was a good assignment to be set, the structure was good and it gave people the opportunity to learn about thier own country as well as others.

Those little green arrows.

People of the next generation have been brought up with the 'little green arrows' the triangle that represents a recycled future and the hope of being the first generation to grab the bull by the horns and realise that something needs to be done when it comes to the amount of waste that we throw away each day, week, month and year.

It has become apparent that within the last eight years district councils from Northamptonshire have at least tried to change the way that recycling is perceived and acted upon so we can become a more environmentally friendly and a more sustainable county.

It seems that most district councils have made sure that at least some change has become priority, this is shown through the ratings, even though some of the district's have not been as successful as others or that some were at a good level in the first place, all have changed for the best. Although another way to view these changes would be to ask whether or not they were making any effort in the beginning to recycle anything at all or was it just because the issue was becoming front page news that maybe councils should do something about it?

Either way it is obvious that there has been a definitive change in attitudes when it come to recycling and that the schemes the council have come up with to ensure that recycling is taken seriously but with ease as to not change peoples lifestyles to much has certainly worked.
Different colour bins for different refuse being collected on different days is not a particularly hard job for your average family to try and stick to, although one downfall I think this plan does have is that many families are going to get through more than just one wheelie bin every two weeks and there may be some overflow.

Of course there is always the point that we could change our entire attitudes to the products we buy and the way we transport them.
Over packaging in plastics and non recyclable packaging is becoming less of a problem but it is still there.

Wrapping goods in plastic, shrink wrapping and then cardboard boxes is all to much, the amount of plastic bags we use is absolutely ridiculous (Did you know there are enough plastic bags made each day to cover the entire worlds surface and they can take up to 500 years to decompose?... you do now.)
It is good that big supermarkets are bringing in the reusable material bags, even using big cardboard boxes for groceries is better than the average carrier bag.
I suppose my point is if there is less usual residual refuse then people will have to just recycle the everyday rubbish because there is nothing else to throw away, making it not a priority in their otherwise scheduled lives but a routine that is already there, doing better for the environment, the economy and us.


http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B63E7599-1BCC-42DF-BF9E-8BC330278515/0/NJMWMSStrategyFINAL.pdf

Personal opinion on national (tabloid) press.

For as long as I can remember someone has always told me that "the news is very important, you need to pay attention to whats going on in the world."
Which is a fair enough statement, to completely ignore current affairs and not know at least an outline of whats going on in the world would be wrong, especially due to all the technology we have which makes it so readily available.

But how can we be sure its true?

When you watch the news on the TV you feel you can believe it because there is a sense of personal connection, your looking straight at someone who is giving you eye contact and stating information which has supposedly come from a very trustworthy source (BBC/Channel 4.)

We believe these companies to be trustworthy because we pay our TV license with the hope that some of the most respectable companies in the UK wouldnt feed us lies, if the thought even entered our heads to begin with.

I may be wrong but I'd say alot of people would take it as gospel.

But what about tabloid newspapers?

If something serious in the world happens eg. War, Terror, Natural disaster etc. why turn to one of the (possibly) most unreliable sources in the world?
Instead of going to the BBC or CNN news website's or buying a broadsheet with a great reputation, some people decide they want thier page three girl to go with thier headline, or thier bingo ticket with the chance of a day trip to France for a £1.

This isnt to say that what the tabloids are saying isnt true, but you have to ask yourself if they're trying to sell they're paper with a topless model and a day trip to france for a quid, how do you know that they arent adding bits of information, putting over the top, pun filled, eye catching headlines to grab attention of all the taxi drivers out there who seem to know everything about nothing when you chat to them.

Possibly because they sit and read these papers?

Who knows.

All I know is that sometimes it seems more important to see what Britney Spears is upto than to focus on poverty and famine because it doesnt sell.
Lies sell.

Obviously though, tabloids wouldnt get away with this if they didnt have enough power.
So when it comes to climate change and there's been a natural disaster in some far corner of the planet, all of a sudden its top news and people want simple facts to read while eating thier fry up.
They can print what they like because bad weather, natural disasters, global warming and climate change all ring the same bells to someone who doesnt know a whole lot about it.

Using fear inducing headlines, blackened backgrounds and black and white pictures with quotes from apparant spokes people is a great use of manipulation to get someones 35p every morning.
And tomorrow morning will have a different headline... Britney Spears maybe?

In a way I think its maybe our own fault these things are printed, we shouldnt be so lazy and let ourselves be manipulated to such a degree, but this is, of course, all purely opinion.

Eco-friendly petrol heads?

One of the biggest growing scenes and interests in the UK is performance cars,

people love to spend huge amounts of money and time on modifying their cars to get maximum performance and make them look as good as possible.

Track days, cruises, road trips and car shows are common place and its needless to say that a bigger engine with more power uses more fuel and therefore produces a higher amount of emissions.

There have been developments in lower emission fuels such as electric cars, autogas and even diesel is better for the environment due to fact we don't use as much of it in comparison to petrol.

None of these developments have had the desired effect when it comes to perfomance though.

One development which has broken the barrier between eco friendly fuels and performance is Bioethanol.

According to bioperformanceuk.com 'bioethanol is made from sugarbeet and is an ecologically correct fuel; it does not affect the ozone layer and is obtained from a renewable source.' The website goes on to say; 'Following specific recommendations, it can be added to diesel and to petrol, and can be also used without additives, without damaging the engine.'

Other facts state that bioethanol is a high octane fuel, its is biodegradeable and low in toxicity.
'Since it is cleaner and drier, the bioethanol will clean the engine parts and components that may build up impurities left by the petrol'.

So bioethanol is a good all round source of a low emission fuel which also keeps its performance factor, but of course there are always going to be problems when it comes to trying to introduce a new fuel into a an multi-billion pound industry.

There is also a problem with advertising bioethanol, unless someone goes out of thier way to find out about a bioethanol by researching on the internet and spending at least £400 on a fuel conversion, it will be hard to find any outside advertising about bioethanol because its fair to say that oil companies will not be supporting the conversion.

This then brings back the point of how people who enjoy driving for a reason and not just to get from A to B will be the people who produce the most emissions, if bioethanol was to become more commercial it could bring a whole new outlook for those people and could change the attitudes they have toward our environment as well as being able to enjoy thier interests.

Other links to more information on bioethanol:

http://www.bioperformanceuk.com/

www.arunautogas.co.uk/E85_ethanol_retro_fit_conversion.htm

http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/1/1/14