Lockdown Day 49 - Road to Recovery Part 5

This post is the fifth and final post in my essay looking at different aspects of how the recovery from Covid-19 should be done in order to tackle climate change, environmental destruction and help fix some of the inequalities in our society. 

Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here

Part 3 can be found here

Part 4 can be found here

In this part I look at I look at the political reforms needed to help make our governance fairer, less open to abuse and for the benefit of all, not just a privileged few.

In order to achieve many of the things I have talked about in the previous four sections, political will and political reform are urgently needed. 

In order to restore trust, transparency and ensure free and fair elections we should ensure publication as soon as possible into the Arcuri report, Russia report, Met Police Investigation into the referendum and fully reform our political and electoral systems. Proper proportional representation should be brought in, a semi or fully elected second chamber, more devolution to regions, and even within Parliament, electronic voting. It will also be interesting to see how the video-conferenced Parliament operates over the next few weeks. If you can make MP's time use more efficient then you will get greater scrutiny of legislation, more accountability, and better outcomes for constituents. Talking out of bills should be prohibited. Funding of political parties should be fully reformed, possibly curtailed and be open and transparent and the various "donations" that are made to MPs and groupings within Parliament should have more transparency and indeed limits set on these. Think tanks such as those operating from 55 Tufton Street - GWPF, Taxpayers Alliance etc should be forced to declare their funders and the revolving door that seems to exist between these places, the TV studios and advisors needs a thorough investigation and limits put on the influence such groups have on policy, especially when many have overseas "dark money" funding. "False equivalence" in debate on settled science needs to be dealt with as climate change denial is now an existential threat to getting the changes we need. DeSmog blog and many other individuals and independent media have covered a lot of these money trails and who influences what, and our MPs should be accountable to their constituents not engaged in a merry go round of lobbying, donations and directorships. Certain "Downing Street sources" and SPADs (Special Advisors) need urgent curbing if our democracy is not to be eroded further.

In our electoral processes, issues such as micro-targeted and politically paid for advertising on social media needs urgent attention, as do the bot/troll farms often used as part of political messaging. It is so obvious sometimes how either "praising" bots/trolls are used to support incumbent politicians tweets and "attack" bots/trolls used to aggressively and often offensively message the opposition (and not just political figures). We should listen to those who have called out all of the above things and thoroughly clean up our politics, Parliament and elections. Encouragement - either overtly or tacitly - of discrimination or hate against minorities or by social class or race or religion whether by those in public positions or in the media should be clamped down on and it should be the norm to call this out and marginalise such activities, not use it for political advantage.

We also urgently need to take responsibility and clean up the opaque nature of banking and taxation on our overseas territories. Business here should be taxed here and if as much effort was put in to retrieving the tax due here in this country as is spend chasing a relatively small number of benefit frauds we would be in a lot better place financially.

This above is a big ask especially when those in power currently in both the US and UK are symbiotically linked with a network of opaque and often offshore individuals, think tanks and other organisations that have  goals in mind such as deregulation of environmental regulations, deleting regulations that protect our societies and workplaces, privatisation and asset stripping of public services and avoiding scrutiny. 

In this essay, I hope I have been able to not just answer the questions posed at the start ( here ) but also show a vision of a better future that could be possible with the recovery from the Covid-19 virus, if the political, economic, social and personal will is there to make the changes necessary and achieve it. There are many who just want the status quo, indeed those who will actively fight against anything that stops them from raking in millions and avoiding taxation and scrutiny and responsibility. 
We have this one last chance - and I do mean one last chance - to stop the harm being done to our environment and all the species that live on this special planet otherwise the harm to come will dwarf the already devastating effects of this virus and indeed make more such diseases, viruses and detrimental health conditions from environmental factors such as pollution, more likely in the future. 

Please, use this essay as a guide, you will all have your own ideas, your own insights, your own experiences, contacts and social networks to be able to help put into effect positive change for your communities, your environment, your societies as a whole and indeed yourselves and your families. For some of you, please don't feel discouraged that you can only afford or be able to manage through practical reasons just one or two changes, that is still a contribution and if you have access to email, the internet or a pen and paper you can still make your voice heard through writing to those that have more opportunity to make changes or by joining campaigns to collectively highlight or lobby for positive change. 

You can also find lots more information about nature and growing your own food on the rest of my blog http://www.cashandcarrots.com

I am happy to receive feedback via the blog, and lots of new ideas for change. 

Wish very best wishes and good luck!
Michelle

Lockdown Day 48 - Lavender

The weather has changed dramatically compared to yesterday which was warm enough to be out in light clothes even when cycling. Today a cold north-easterly wind has got up, it is overcast and there's been spots of rain.

The visit to the allotment this morning was fairly brief, just enough to put in a few potatoes I found in the spare room still chitting which I had forgotten about and do a little watering as even though there's been a small amount of rain it has been barely enough to wet the ground and certainly not enough to make up for the drought we seem to be having.

The lavender plant we have in the allotment is wearing out. I have cut out all the dead wood just leaving those parts that are still growing and flowering but it is time to replace it or at least start another one off. The lavender attracts lots of bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths and it is good to help pollinators.

One late summer evening I found two dozen moths all feeding on the lavender flowers. I have bought a couple of new plants, one of them for the allotment and one to keep either in the garden or in the back yard in a pot. Various flowers in the allotment act as 'distraction' plants so that insects such as this white butterfly feed on the blooms rather than laying eggs on cabbages, and blackflies are attracted to poppies rather than the broad beans. We have marigolds to help protect against nematodes. In the summer we also have nasturtiums that are also good as a ground cover in the winter as the leaves and stems rot down. They need taming though as they will try and take over the top section of the plot if left to their own devices!

Lockdown Day 47 - The vegetables waiting to go out

In contrast to the many unthinking and selfish people that mingled yesterday for street parties with the lame excuse of VE Day, we are still making sure we keep to the Coronavirus lockdown rules here. Don't get me wrong, VE Day should be commemorated, and we should remember those who gave so much for our freedom seventy-five years ago, but other countries have managed to do this in a dignified way without putting others at risk.

We are only going out for shopping for ourselves and my parents, exercise and working in the allotment (the latter has been allowed here in the UK, in contrast to the Republic of Ireland) . We are making sure we stay well apart from other people as far as we can which is easier said than done when other people don't think and push past you in the supermarket....

With a cold spell approaching the lean-to greenhouse is getting full as we put our seedlings and some of the summer loving plants under lockdown to avoid harm from any potential frost. Looking at the forecast it will get down to about 3 deg C here but at the moment the nights look too cloudy and windy to get a damaging frost. Fingers crossed!

In the greenhouse we have peas, purple sprouting broccoli. cabbages, gherkins, pumpkins, courgettes all germinated. There's a tray of leeks and a tray of swede that haven't yet come up and in the house there is a tray of minipop sweetcorn that have almost all germinated so that will be around forty-eight plants each with two or three mini sweetcorn on them! These have been reliable almost every year and we freeze them in batches of about nine or ten for use with stir-fried Chinese dishes. 

I am though a little worried that I am not able to tell the pumpkins and courgettes apart though as they grow things will become more obvious I hope! Better labelling next time! 

We eat a lot of beetroot, there's already some in the allotment and I may well put more in to germinate. Delicious fresh and also we pickle some for the winter months. 

All being well by the back end of next week all risk of frost will have passed and I will be able to start putting some of these plants into the allotment and into pots in the garden and the yard. We want to grow courgettes and beans up the old swing in the garden if we can. In the allotment we have another old swing frame that is great for beans to climb up. We have had really large crops of runner beans and french beans in the past but nowadays we grow borlotti and kidney beans and sometimes ying-yang beans for drying and storing. 

Lockdown Day 46 - Road to Recovery Part 4

This post is the fourth in my essay looking at different aspects of how the recovery from Covid-19 should be done in order to tackle climate change, environmental destruction and help fix some of the inequalities in our society. 

Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here
Part 3 can be found here

In this part I look at I look at how investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency can play a part in powering the recovery from this virus. 

Over the past ten years or so, the strategic investment in renewable energy here in the UK has been one of start and stop. The UK Government virtually halted the construction of onshore wind farms with withdrawing subsidies in 2016 after believing that their supporters were "fed up with them". 

It has though has recently lifted this ban - albeit with conditions - with onshore wind being the cheapest form of renewable energy from wind, after internal polling amongst Conservative membership shows overwhelming support for the technology.

The withdrawal of funding for feed-in tariffs where householders received a subsidy for energy their solar panels were providing to the National Grid back in 2015-16 also was a significant setback, and many companies installing these in what was quite a successful industry were affected.

However, the good news is that renewable power generation here in the UK overall has been increasing, now at 43% (and indeed the generation of power from coal is now often zero for days at a time.) Much of this power is provided by offshore wind farms and indeed there's vast arrays of them now out in the North Sea off the east coast of England and in other areas too. Many of these can be seen from the coast on a clear day including this one (pictured) off Hornsea, East Yorkshire which is 1.2GW and currently the largest operational wind farm project.


Many more are under construction offshore  . In the recovery from Covid-19, the ongoing development of these, perhaps speeding up the go-ahead and contruction of these both on and offshore can help secure jobs in what is one the UK's leading sectors in green energy generation.

In terms of solar power, it would be sensible to have solar panels (or even solar tiles when they become available and more cost effective) incorporated into every new build property, in fact the whole build and design standards for new properties need overhauling to ensure that energy efficiency and eco-friendly materials are built into the specification from day one. For council properties, one way of helping low income households with energy bills will be to have the council fund solar panels and other energy efficiency improvements such as home insulation, better windows etc although for such as rollout, central government funding will have to be in place. However, this again will create lots of jobs in the rollout and improve the housing stock and the lives of many tenants as the quality of their home improves.

A question that gets asked by some is what happens when it is not windy or sunny. Many photovoltaic panels will generate some power even when it is cloudy and efficiency of these is improving all the time, around 28-30% efficient in the newest models. Battery technology is also improving and being able to store the energy provided by the sun or the wind for use at night or on days when generation is low is something that is being incorporated into home installations (for instance via the Tesla Powerwall) and moves are afoot to start putting these into the UK powergrid.

Alongside the generation of electricity, the rollout of electric vehicle charging points should take place at scale, with street level - to the household - infrastructure being brought into use across the UK. One of the problems many households (including ours) have is that we don't have a driveway and as it is illegal to trail an unattended electricity cable across a public footpath or road it would be impossible to charge an electric car or van. There would be synergy I think with the rollout of fibre broadband in some places, i.e. dig up the pavement or road once for more than one job and both would create lots of skilled jobs. The cost of electric cars is, at the moment, out of my reach even with finance options and indeed down the line you have a significant cost of replacement batteries after a few years - don't get me wrong the technology is good but if you want mass adoption you need to have options for the many millions who can only afford a cheap secondhand car.

Electric bicycles are starting to increase their range and become an option. I have seen a lot of use of these in the Netherlands and these also get over the problem of where to charge them as they can be charged indoors or in an outbuilding. However, the range isn't that great on them currently and there are regulatory issues around the speed at which they can travel on electric power. Retro-conversion kits are available for un-powered bikes.


We all - whether we can afford high value items or not - can play a part in improving our energy efficiency. LED light bulbs are cheap nowadays and when replacing an appliance such as a fridge, washing machine or vacuum or indeed a consumer electronic item, go for the most energy efficient that can be afforded. Try and get a sense of the longevity of the item - the longer the item lasts the more chance that the embedded emissions - those caused by the manufacture and distribution of the  item - will be outweighed by the energy saving from the use of the item compared to the item it replaces.

There is now a movement for "repair cafes" (obviously before lockdown and once it finishes!) so that electrical and other items can be repaired rather than scrapped and replaced. Thanks to various YouTube videos I have managed to resurrect a hoover by learning how to fault find then replace a component. Being mindful of energy use within the home, whether switching off appliances and lights when not in use or investing in a secure smart meter (there have been issues with the network security of some in the past) and simple things like only boiling the water you need all help.


Maybe a public information campaign to help instill "good" behaviours in various ways and help lock in the unexpected environmental benefits from this period of lockdown would be useful.

My final post will look at the political reforms needed to help make our governance fairer, less open to abuse and for the benefit of all, not just a privileged few.

Lockdown Day 45 - allotment tasks

Another nice day today, with early cloud clearing to a lovely warm Spring day! Today's tasks were mundane but necessary - watering and weeding as well as earthing up the potatoes. 

The forecast is for a lot colder weather from Sunday onwards with the possibility of night frosts. This really isn't what you want at this time of year and I have had the damson blossom and potato foliage affected by a late frost in the past. So, by earthing up the potatoes which involves covering up most of the foliage with earth, I have made them more protected - if needs be I can now quickly cover up the foliage that remains above ground on Saturday evening to protect them completely. If potato foliage gets affected by frost it shows up as looking like the leaves have been burnt. In general I have found that the potatoes recover but are set back a bit. 

I have plenty of plastic sheeting in the shed and in the corner of the allotment so things like the peas and borlotti beans as well as the Meyer lemon tree, blueberries and the spinach and beetroot seedlings can be quickly covered up as well. 

I also weeded the strawberries, some of them are now setting fruit. The onions and garlic are doing well and to be honest these are pretty hardy especially the ones that overwintered. It is very dry still and there's a lot to water, luckily we have access to a tap and so it isn't a problem - for a couple of years at the start of our allotment rental there wasn't one and so I had to carry water up from the house (about three minutes walk luckily but still a long way with water!) or rely on the water butts. All in all things are going well and hopefully we can escape the frost!

Lockdown Day 44 - quick allotment update

There will be more from the allotment tomorrow, but there's plenty going on right now.

The strawberries are starting to produce fruit and so are the blackcurrants, damson, pears and blueberries. The pea patch has been extended with some in situ sown peas (as compared to plants started off at home) and a few borlotti beans are now in from plants started indoors. Plenty of spinach, spinach beet, beetroot and radishes have been sown and there's still more cabbages and broccoli to go in. I've made some rhubarb compote which is great in porridge and on crumpets!

There's a frost predicted from the weekend onwards despite it being May - this is not unknown in this part of the world at this time but it could be quite damaging - will need to earth up the potatoes, and protect various fruit bushes and young plants with plastic coverings, as well as making sure seedlings are in the greenhouse or house.

Lockdown Day 43 - Remembering birds in Iceland Part 2

This is the second half of a piece about some of the birds we saw on our trips to Iceland back in 2009 and 2010, the first bit of which can be found here

By the last houses opposite the road to the airport from the town centre of Akureyri are some lagoons and, despite being overlooked by what was essentially suburbia, had some lovely birds to see. These are a pair of Red-Breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator) from a family of ducks known as "sawbills" as they have serrated edges to their bills for gripping fish, their main prey. They are related to Goosanders which are more commonly found on rivers in upland Britain although Red-Breasted Mergansers are found in parts of Scotland all year round and along coasts in winter. These type of ducks dive a lot and I have found when trying to photograph them that they usually dive just as you have focused the camera on them!

On the same lagoon, at the airport end, were a group of Red-Necked Phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus). These beautiful birds feed on insects and spin around catching them which makes them look as if they are performing a pirouette dance on water. 

These birds are a bit more common in Iceland than in the UK, in fact you have to go to the Shetland Islands to see breeding pairs of these birds and there are, according to the RSPB, only 22 breeding pairs there, and it takes considerable effort to see them. All we did was go for a walk one evening about twenty minutes from the house we had rented in Akureyri and there they were!

This isn't a great photo unfortunately of a Slavonian Grebe (Podiceps auritus) as I was facing into the light on the northern shore of Myvatn, a large lake surrounded by volcanic activity, hot springs and mud pools. These birds, again only rare breeders in Scotland, are easily recognisable by the golden stripes on each side of the head. Also on Myvatn were Great Northern Divers, Whimbrel, Barrow's Goldeneye and at the Laxa river which feeds the lake Harlequin Ducks flew over. The latter two species are more typically from North America and Iceland is the furthest east they breed. One or two accidentally end up in the UK from time to time, typically in the west and north of Scotland.

Finally in this section is the Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis). These little birds are, at least in Iceland, reasonably unafraid of people, and feed on seeds and invertebrates. This one was on Grímsey, an island off the north coast of Iceland that is the only bit of Icelandic territory that is on the Arctic Circle (which, incidentally, is gradually moving up the island and will be to the north of the island by 2050!). Also here were a large number of very aggressive Arctic Terns, one of which hit my head and I felt the soft feathers of the underwing brush along my hair!

Part One of this piece can be found here