Runways, white paint and the carbon cost of a google search: this week’s round up
• The biggest story this week has been Thursday’s Government announcement that Heathrow’s third run way has got the go-ahead. Despite the three environmental conditions (modern efficient planes, lower capacity than planned, and emissions reduction targets for UK aviation), and a high speed rail link, protestors, opposition parties and the planet are not impressed.
• Not all the solutions to global warming are expensive. A Californian scientist is suggesting making our cities more reflective, with white roofs and lighter road surfaces to reflect some of the sun’s heat away from the earth and buy us some time as we work to curb the real culprit carbon emissions. In the same vein, British scientists are suggesting growing crop varieties with more reflective properties.
• There’s been quite a hoo-ha over an article in the Times revealing research that performing two Google searches emits 7g of CO2, as much as boiling a kettle. Maybe the figures are wrong (others suggest 0.02g is the actual figure), and indeed Google does do some very good work funding low energy tech research and lobbying on clean energy, but here’s is a reminder that the global growth in IT use has a big footprint.
• A new font has been launched to help save the planet. The Ecofont, which full of holes, saves ink used when printing. Seventeen switched some time ago to printing in grey instead of black, which has much the same effect.
• George Monbiot has ruffled a few feathers with an attack on the Aga in a provocative article on class and environmentalism. Aga are doing their bit to communicate some green credentials to their fuel-guzzling machines, pointing out their longevity, British manufacture, use of recycled iron, and work on renewable fuels, but is this enough?
“So where is the campaign against Agas? There isn’t one. I’ve lost count of the number of aspirational middle-class greens I know who own one of these monsters and believe that they are somehow compatible (perhaps because they look good in a country kitchen) with a green lifestyle. The campaign against Agas – which starts here – will divide rich greens down the middle.”
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