The Positive Face : The Negative Face

The second tallest wind turbine in the UK may be built in West Yorkshire.

The 125m tower will be constructed in the car park of Asda's distribution depot in Normanton, if plans are approved.

The turbine would be taller than Big Ben, and only slightly smaller than Blackpool Tower and the London Eye.

Asda who are part of the Walmart group says it may face opposition to the plan, but sees it as part of its eventual aim to become 100% dependent on renewable energy.

"The turbine will completely pay back the energy it takes to build it in just eight months, and then will continue to produce carbon-free electricity for the rest of its life."

As the chair of 'Wakefield's Sustainability Advisory Group' I have got to be excited that one of the biggest companies in the world is taking environmental sustainability seriously.

Do any of you remember last weeks headline?

Supermarkets' sweatshop shame.

The claims in a report, 'Fashion Victims', based on interviews with workers at six factories which employ more than 5,000 people in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

Wages in the factories start at just £8 a month. They can rise to £16 a month for sewing machine operators but workers complain it is still not enough to cover food, housing and medical bills.

The working day is a minimum of ten hours but some staff work every day in the factories, clocking up to 96 hours a week. Some staff work up to 140 hours unpaid overtime a month and are threatened with dismissal if they refuse.
Can a company like Walmart not afford to pay these guys more out of their 11 billion pound profit they made last year? Can a company take responsibility for it's CO2 but not take a responsible view on employment?

The area of 'Emergy' when it comes to supermarkets is huge.

I am not going to start to unpick this now - you can just ponder a company that can do both these things. Over the first months of the new year I will start to unpick this . . . . . . .

Finger lickin-horror!

I was helping some friends with their bussines plan for an 'organic / fairtrade shop'. The decision was that we were going to send out for junk food. I settled for a Bean Burger from Burger King as the best ethical option! (Hold off your hate mail - you may as well hear the whole story - it is only going to get worse).

Unfortunately Burger King had closed so a KFC family bucket was brought back. (Now start the hate mail).

What interested me is that I am not a great fan of the battered variety of chicken so I don't normaly eat it. My presumption was that KFC was an evil company but I actualy didn't have a clue - I have been involved with the old McDonalds campaigns, watched Supersize Me but was KFC all evil? A joke question someone asked me was 'Do they boil there chickens alive?'

The answer is, 'YES' - no really - KFC apparently put live chickens into large pans of boiling water!

I have found a campaign and a half - where famours 'chicks' support humble poultry. You can get this solid source of information from Auntie Pamela. In fact she has made herself very solid over the years!

The poor humble chicken has very few rights. KFC treats 850 million animals a year in ways that would warrant legal action if the animals were cows or your humble pussy.

I think that was my last KFC.

What is worse than my car?

Well a new report tells us that it is meat and milk production. I have been trying to find a trusted source for this information that has been going round. I think the United Nation report on the 29 November is fairly solid evidence.

Livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions, (as measured in CO2), than transport - in fact it is responsible for a whopping 18% of Greenhouse Gases.

The UN say, “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

Perhaps the way rich nations like us: Farm, cut down forests, waste food, eat processed meat etc is the problem rather than the poor humble animals - who spend their lives inside buildings, in factory farm conditions. The lives that they live are often short and painful, without the grace, dignity and enjoyment that all life deserves.

In many poorer nations, people often cannot afford to eat meat. As we know, the wealthier nations of the world consume far more than their share of resources, leaving others with less and with a deteriorating world environment to boot.

The report also says that meat production is leading to deforestation, water pollution and land pollution.

We could provide enough food for everyone if we were not feeding it to livestock - 80% of the corn produced in the USA goes to feed livestock. That is a lot of corn.

Over simplified perhaps? Are you already on your carbon neutral site buying another tree to appease guilt? (Is that a con - another article perhaps).

This is really important though folks. We may be doing our bit with our Fairtrade advent calendar but: poor people starving - biggest contributor to Greenhouse Gases.

Big Story, Big Issue and Big Action Needed

Why Emergy?

'Emergy' can be defined as the total solar equivalent available energy of one form that was used up directly and indirectly in the work of making a product or service.

There is loads of scientific stuff about 'emergy' but that is not what this blog is going to be about. If you want to have a look at that start with Wickepedia and you will find various links.

I want to think through all the energy - physical, emotional and metaphysical that it takes to get a product, project or service in front of me. (You can tell I have an arts degree).

Why am I doing this? Am I a lentil weaving vegetarian Eco warrior who wants to spread my personal propaganda? I don't think so. I am sat here wearing a 'gap' jumper (Some of you have probably already started sending me hate mail. It was a present from a close friend, do I reject hospitality? It is 4 years old - do I buy a new Fairtrade jumper even though I don't need one?) This is contrasted with my Howies jeans - company run by totally cool, ethical surfer dudes - but they have just took a large investment from Timberland. Dave & Claire from Howies say that Timberland are also very cool guys - my extremely cool wife says they are a bit towny, they are definitely a much bigger corporation, who haven't really spread their ethical message thus far.

So Why? I want to treat the people, animals and the earth with care and respect.

So really why? I have a beautiful veggie but very cool wife who over the last 4 years has gradually helped me turn some of my thoughts and ideas into actions.

So . . . . . why? I have a belief, that we should love others, even enemies, (I'm not very good at the enemies bit) and also to look after the earth. The guys who I work and play with talk about 'rebuilding the ruined walls' - whether that is physical regeneration or metaphysical. The way we buy, use, throw away - is a really broken system that needs to change and really fast.

This blog will map my 'emergy footprint' though out 2007 . . . . . wish me luck . . . . .

Prolog

I have been working for a number of months in 2006 on local community projects and hopefully doing some good work. I am trying to make Wakefield a little bit better.

I do a mix of stuff - I spend some time as an advocate helping people speak up, a fair amount of time coordinating Street Angels a bit of time on Fairtrade, lots of meetings and stuff for Wakefield's Sustainability Advisory Group and recently time helping people look at starting a 'chic' Ethical Shop and cafe for 18 to 35s.

A friend and community worker said, "You're going to end up ill if you keep doing all this stuff." Then I was told by a colleague, "After you finish your large advocacy case in early January you will need a few weeks off to recover."

Well. I am fairly tied, probably fed up, don't know what work I am doing in '07 and not too sure anymore what I belive in, 'but the fight is strong in me'.

For 2007 I am going to focus on one word 'Emergy'. Looking at the full cost of what I and others do . . . . . . . . .