Marching for COP26

Saturday was the COP26 Coalition Global Day of Action and Transition Cambridge was one of many groups taking part - alongside Carbon Neutral Cambridge, Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Cambridge Sustainable Food, CamCycle and loads of others. Here are some pictures. We assembled on Kings Parade in front of Great St. Mary's Church.

  You can see our banner, and the orange box is a CamCycle trailer. Thanks to Margaret for this picture.

Here you can see our banner better. Thanks to Jerry for this picture.

From there we marched to Parker's Piece, taking in Downing Street on the way. Drummers at the front. 

Marching along on DowningStreet. The banner in the middle is the Imagine banner for the What If shop. Picture by Margaret

Here are some pictures from Elena Moses, showing some of the striking banners and placards people were carrying.

Photo: ElenaMoses@outlook.com

Photo: ElenaMoses@outlook.com

Photo: ElenaMoses@outlook.com

Photo: ElenaMoses@outlook.com

Along the way we handed our these leaflets about Transition Cambridge. (Designed by Nicola)

What are we doing for climate change - results

In the last newsletter we asked you to fill in a poll in what we are doing for climate change. We asked you to tell us what actions you have taken that make you feel you are making a difference. (You can see the poll here.) 

It is so easy these days to despair of ever solving the climate crisis and what we do individually can seem very small - but when there are enough of us taking action it adds up. Even more importantly, doing things and talking about them demonstrates that we care, helps to motivate others and gives our political leaders confidence that when we ask for action we really mean it. I grant you doing things together is more fun, such as working in a community garden or with other repairers at a cafe. However the climate emergency challenges us to reconsider our everyday actions. So that is what we are doing.

What are we doing for climate change - interim results

Last week we started a poll in what we are doing for climate change - here are some interim results. We asked you to tell us what actions you have taken that make you feel you are making a difference. We are impressed by the results - you can judge for yourself. The poll has only been out for a week (and it was in the newsletter only 5 days ago) so this is early days yet. If you haven't filled it in already, please do so. It only takes a couple of minutes. Here is the link.

What are the most popular actions

The top actions so far are these:

1. Eat less meat/eat no meat (combined)
2. Minimise holiday travel (especially by air)
3. Buy less new stuff - repair where possible
4. Buy local/organic food as much as possible
5. Minimise food waste
6. Improved the energy efficiency of my home (for example with insulation)

Saturday in the market square - low carbon heating

Last Saturday I joined Cambridge Carbon Footprint on their stall in the Cambridge market square. Fortunately the weather was kind - not too hot and no rain to speak of. This was the second of CCF's four themed Saturdays covering shopping, energy, transport and food. I was using our new Low Carbon Heating Options materials (advice page here). I also used an updated 'What are we doing for Climate Change' survey while CCF were encouraging people to use their carbon footprint calculator and sign up to the Cambridge Climate Change Charter - when people came to the stall I invited them to do a 'quick' survey (ours) or the 'proper carbon footprint'. Finally, I had some materials on water saving as that is climate related too. So much to say! Here is the new low carbon heating poster.

Facts about our water for World Water Day

Monday 22nd March is World Water Day. To mark this, here are some quick facts about our water supply: where it comes from, how much energy it takes to bring it to us,  how long will it take for our water supply to be zero emissions,  how healthy are our local streams and rivers.

Low Carbon Computing

Do we need to worry about the carbon emissions from all these extra online conferencing we are doing these days? What is the best way to reduce our emissions from use of ICT? The energy group discussed these issues this week. Gareth did most of the research - he works with computers in his job and knows an awful lot about it. Also, Gareth and Nicola both did some tests on home equipment to see how much power was being used. Here are some of the things we learned. You can see the slides here.

Computers are more and more commonplace.

How many computers do you have in the room with your right now? Perhaps you are in your living room. Obviously there is one that you are reading this article on and at least one in the TV, and another in the remote for the TV. Do you have Alexa or a similar device? Do you have remote controlled LED lights? Perhaps you have a security camera on the front door? Do you have a digital watch? Perhaps you have a smart watch that monitors your heartbeat or how far you have walked today? All of these rely on computers of one kind or another. We have them, we use them, and increasingly we rely on them.

Carbon emissions come from making them, then from having them switched on, and then doing actual work.

It is often hard to get information on lifecycle carbon emissions for products. However, Nicola has a newish Mac Mini (bought last year) and Apple publish the lifecycle carbon emissions for their products so we have a clue about that one. Applying a 40% uplift factor to Apple's figures (as recommended by Mike Berners Lee in How Bad are Bananas), and assuming a lifetime of 3 years, the emissions from manufacture and delivery come to 130 g/day. It uses about 14 W when not doing very much, and up to 40 W when working really hard. So in a typical 8 hour day it might use 0.14 kWh - another 18g carbon. The manufacturing emissions far outweigh those from use, and this is not unusual.