helenczerski

helenczerski, 1 year ago to climate

I keep thinking back to this Microlino at Fully Charged Live. Reusable water bottles became acceptable, being vegan is now cool, and so is wearing vintage clothes. So who is going to step up to the critical task of making small cars fashionable? The trend towards giant SUVs is ludicrous, incredibly wasteful and dangerous, and bad for our cities. If you must use a car, it should be as small as possible. Where are the micro-car visionaries/influencers? WE NEED YOU. #cars #SUV #climate

helenczerski, 6 months ago to climate

It is completely ludicrous that anyone is still talking about hydrogen for home heating - it’s far less efficient, less safe, more expensive and less flexible than heat pumps. This report is the last nail in a coffin that is already more nail than coffin.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/21/hydrogen-boiler-home-heating-uk?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#climate #hydrogen

helenczerski, 9 months ago to random

The evidence that cars don’t work as primary mass transport in cities is everywhere: traffic jams, air pollution, accident rates, the shocking fraction of city space taken up by parking spaces, safety barriers/bollards etc. This 100 year experiment should be declared over, and we should put proper effort into the systems that HAVE been shown to work and scale: walking, cycling, e-cargo bikes, cheap/accessible/reliable public transport. This “argument” about LTNs is just lazy delay. #LTN #cities

helenczerski, 8 months ago to Trains

Listen up, UK. THIS is how you do bikes on trains. Well done Germany.
#bikes #train

helenczerski, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago) to climate

In the late 1800s, when steam ships were replacing sailing cargo ships, one of the last roles for the sailing ships was to carry coal around the world to supply ports where steamships wanted to go. A clean technology was essential to enable the growth of a dirty technology. And even today, fossil fuels aren’t magically just everywhere. A gigantic *** 40% *** of global shipping is just moving fossil fuels. So eliminating fossil fuel also drastically cuts global shipping emissions. #climate #ships

helenczerski, 10 months ago to ocean

One of the biggest habits that humanity has to kick is that of seeing a human-free space and assuming it’s worthless/empty unless we fill it up with something. It’s happening with plans for the ocean, deforestation for “development”, talk of delivery drones filling the future sky, cube sats that will hide the stars. This “space” is the planetary engine, and it’s incredibly valuable NOW. doing all sorts of things that keep us alive & enrich our lives. We should protect it. #ocean #climate #Earth

helenczerski, 9 months ago to random

ARGHHH.

helenczerski, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

Favourite summary of the current situation, from the Guardian and @firstdogonthemoon : https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/07/twitter-is-burning-bluesky-is-smug-where-is-the-best-place-to-do-your-pathetic-doomscrolling?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

helenczerski, 7 months ago to climate

I think I'm still in recovery from learning a few weeks ago that Canadian fossil fuel companies tell people that because it's "natural" gas that they produce, burning it can't hurt the environment. And people believe them. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, remember that and 🤯🤯🤯🤯

#climate #oil #gas #natural

helenczerski, 1 month ago to climate

I have just discovered that those odd waste/recycling bins that are all over the oldest bits of Bergen, Norway, link to an UNDERGROUND PNEUMATIC WASTE TRANSPORT SYSTEM. The waste collects for a bit and then WHOOSH... it's off to the recycling centre. All underground. No bin lorries (garbage trucks), fewer road vehicles, less noise... amazing. @davidho says that my (considerable) excitement about this is entirely unreasonable. I disagree.
https://www.envacgroup.com/how-it-works/the-envac-system/

#climate #waste #Norway

helenczerski, 9 months ago to science

Today’s reminder that we are still very far from knowing everything: I have just found an odd gap in the scientific literature: the specific mechanisms of generating root pressure in trees and how this relates to the force that tree roots can exert on their surroundings (eg pavements/sidewalks), and what those forces actually are. As far as I can see, having done an extensive literature search, nothing has been done on this since the 1970s. Zilch. Not a sausage. Frustrating! #science #trees

helenczerski, 6 months ago to mastodon

Maybe you all knew about this, but @davidho has just introduced me to this useful tool for expanding your Mastondon world:

https://followgraph.vercel.app/#searchForm

It looks at the people you follow and the people they follow and ranks them by the number of follows from your followed. Hopefully you will find some people who were on here all along but who you hadn't found yet - I did.

#mastodon #network

helenczerski, 8 months ago to cars

The solution to “autobesity” is NOT to change car parking spaces. It’s to fix the root of the problem and get rid of these over-sized, wasteful, dangerous and unnecessary vehicles.

“More than 150 car models are now too big to fit in average car parking spaces, according to analysis conducted by Which?.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/26/more-than-150-car-models-too-big-for-regular-uk-parking-spaces?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#cars #cities #SUV

helenczerski, 9 months ago to climate

“By announcing hundreds of new oil and gas licences, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has become a “dangerous radical” pursuing “moral and economic madness”.

That is not the judgment of Just Stop Oil, or any other environmental campaign group, but the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/31/new-oil-gas-licences-rishi-sunak-un-climate-crisis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#climate #oil

helenczerski, 10 months ago to random

It’s not “a car” though, is it? It’s an SUV - a two tonne lump of metal with an incredibly powerful engine that is completely unnecessary in an urban environment.

“Eight-year-old girl dies after car hits London primary school”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/06/car-crashes-into-primary-school-in-south-london-wimbledon?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

helenczerski, 9 months ago to random

I was not expecting Sellotape to make me ponder the definition of “plastic” today. But my departmental stationary cupboard has “zero plastic sellotape” (similar to Scotch tape, if you’re from the USA).

Plant-based things can be made non-biodegradable, bamboo fabric being the obvious eg - it’s rayon, which contribute to plastic marine waste & doesn’t decompose. And this “zero-plastic” tape will only compost in an industrial composter.

If it looks like plastic and quacks like plastic…
#plastic

helenczerski, 9 months ago to science

Well. "Open sesame" is actually a thing.

Just googled where sesame seeds come from (it never occurred to me to ask before) and found that they grow in pods that are hung upside down to ripen until they burst open and release their seeds. The treasure is revealed.

https://awkwardbotany.com/2022/03/30/dispersal-by-open-sesame/

#seeds #science #OpenSesame

helenczerski, 1 year ago to climate

When it comes to energy, wind and solar are the only sensible bet. Nuclear and CCS just aren’t going to cut it, and the evidence is substantial. We need the simple options that work WITH our environment, not the complex & expensive technologies that reflect the same extractive/exploitative attitudes as fossil fuels. There’s a huge amount of helpful information in this IPCC graphic (full version here: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/figures/summary-for-policymakers/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_FigureSPM7.png , Guardian article here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/20/down-to-earth-ipcc-emissions?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other ). #energy #climate

helenczerski, 9 months ago to climate

Don’t tick the “next day delivery” box without really needing it. Urgent delivery means that delivery vehicles go out only partly full and travel further to get to delivery sites that are more spaced out. It basically chops off a large part of the energy, human and cost efficiency of mass parcel delivery, but it’s ooooh, soo seductive. Please don’t fall for it (it’s a marketing ploy), unless the sky is going to fall in if you don’t get widget A by tomorrow. #climate #Mail #Delivery

helenczerski, 7 months ago to liveaboard

Science/coastal hivemind, I need your help. We’re working on the underwater acoustics of small all-electric boats (almost certainly far less underwater noise pollution than engines). We would like to do some trials - just measuring the sound near an electric boat - but we’re struggling to find someone in (or very near) the UK who has an electric boat we could use/hire. Has anyone got any ideas or know anyone who owns an electric boat?

#boats #electric #sea

helenczerski, 10 months ago to ocean

It still blows my mind that the last “Bovril Boats” didn’t stop operating in the Thames until 1998. 1998 ! Their job was to take Lordon’s sewage down the Thames from Beckton and to dump it into the North Sea (but oh, on the ebb tide, so that was ok). Dumping anything in the ocean is an admission that our systems on land have failed, but in this case it was failure by design. We cannot continue to treat the ocean like this. #ocean #sewage

helenczerski, 11 months ago to random

Public service announcement, just in case anyone had forgotten: Covid is still out there and getting it still sucks. I didn’t wear a mask on a busy ferry last week and I am absolutely paying for it now by being stuck inside/sick/frustrated and having to cancel and rearrange all sorts of fun things this week. If you’re in a crowded space, FFP2 or N95 masks are definitely still worth wearing! #Covid #masks #LearnFromMyMistakes

helenczerski, 1 year ago to climate

There should just be a rule that all profits from any fossil fuel extraction must either be invested in renewables or must go towards paying for adaptation for the poorest. Profits from renewables can be kept, so the shareholders get returns IF they vote for the company to do the right thing. #climate #BPProfits #Oil

Because this is obscene:

“The energy company said its underlying profits reached $5bn (£4bn) in the first three months of the year, outstripping analysts’ forecasts of $4.3bn.”

helenczerski, 8 months ago to cars

In the years to come, all Londoners are going to be proud that it led the way on low-emissions policies and reducing lethal air pollution. We will look back on the argument about the newly extended Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) like we do on past rule changes to outlaw child labour, betting on animal fights & defecation in public places.

Of course highly polluting vehicles have to go. You can argue about the mechanisms for managing it, but not the principle behind it all.

#cars #ULEZ #London

helenczerski, 2 months ago to mastodon

University College London shoutout! UCL is unwilling to set up a Mastodon account now, but they say that if there's lots of UCL presence here already it will nudge them in this direction. If you're at UCL or know someone who is, and you're on here, please reply to this to let us know! Current chief plotters: @sellathechemist , me and maybe more)

#UCL #Mastodon #Universities