Guest blog post for World Development Movement.
Author Archives: Jeremy Williams
Jeremy is an author and activist based in Luton. He writes serious books for adults, less serious books for children. His blog, The Earthbound Report, has been recognised as the best green blog in the UK by Vuelio and the UK Blog Awards.
Climate Change Denial review
Talking tar sands in Germany
An article of mine on Canada’s tar sands, used in a conversational English textbook for German high-schoolers. It’s in a book called Canada – Dreams and Realities, part of the Schwerpunktthema Abitur Englisch series.
Suggestions for using the article include an activity where the class are divided into representatives of either the oil industry, the Canadian government or the Canadian First Nations, for a mock debate.
Local Money review
My review of Peter North’s Local Money in Community Currency Magazine, February 2011.
No need to shiver
10:10 debrief
The Living Planet Index
Get cosy
Get Cosy is an event that is happening on my street next week. It’s been one of my projects for the autumn, working with the partners, doing the promotion, and this week walking the neighbourhood with the resident’s association delivering flyers through all the doors.
The idea is quite simple – it’s to encourage people to insulate their homes. By doing a really local event, organised by and for a specific area, I’m hoping we can get neighbours along and get a bit of a conversation started. Insulating homes saves energy, saves money, and cuts carbon emissions while making our homes warmer and more comfortable. It’s the easiest of easy wins in reducing Britain’s CO2, but the up-front investment makes many people reluctant to spend money on energy efficiency, even if they would save in the longer term. Gas prices went up by 9% this month, and have doubled in the last five years, so it’s a good time to get cosy.
I’m hoping it’ll be fun too. The council climate change team have been great and managed to score some funding for the event, so we have a whole pile of stuff to give away. We’ve also ordered in a bunch of different gadgets and energy-saving appliances, so there’s going to be a ‘gadget test area’. You’ll be able to do a thermal tour of the building, and sign up to have someone do a thermal tour of your home too, through Transition Luton. We’re also collecting cardboard boxes this weekend so we can make radiator reflectors in a workshop, and there will be local insulation companies around to give professional advice.
It’s also something of a pilot project. The Energy Saving Trust have been quite involved, and they were interested in seeing how it worked and if it could be replicated. Unfortunately their funding has been pulled, but Transition Luton might run something similar in other parts of Luton next year if it goes well.
If you’re in Luton, drop by. It’s 7:30 at St Anne’s Church Hall, on the corner of Hart Lane and Crawley Green Road, on wednesday December 1st.
Launching a transition initiative
Transition St Albans began in January, and as it’s my home town, I’ve been helping out. I’ve been tracking our progress in a series of articles, which began here and continues here.
We held our first public meeting last week, which went very well. Here’s my flyer.
Ask not what bees can do for you…
As you may be aware, bee populations across the world have been in freefall over the last couple of years. The West Coast of the US has lost 70% of its bees, the East Coast 60%. British bees succumbed a little later, and last year 1 in 3 bees vanished.
The disappearances are known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and it is a mysterious phenomenon – bees just disappear, sometimes overnight, leaving the queen bee and the larvae alone. The worker bees are gone, and nobody is sure where they go or why.
Jeremy Williams 