Interesting and thought provoking. Something for me to look into if ever I find the time. Thanks!
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I think, based on my own backyard observations is that weāre moving to a 2 season climate; dry and wet. Summer ended here in North Wales around the beginning of October, quite abruptly and it basically hasnāt stopped raining since. Autumn hasnāt really happened, trees held onto their leaves pretty much until now, they then started turning and of course the winds have started and have stripped most of the trees before we really got a chance to admire the colours. Iām hoping for a last gasp effort to see something this weekend.
Only yesterday I was given quite a sad work mission. I was asked to look at a retaining wall in a social housing estate that the client was extremely concerned about. Iāve instructed them to evacuate the properties, itās going to collapse. Iām quite angered by it to be honest. Thereās a small river at the base of the wall and the design took no account of river and is one of these cheap off the shelf timber crib walls. Zero internal strength. Theyāve then gone and built houses and flats within the zone of influence of the wall. These people are now being moved to a hotel and are likely to be there over Christmas at least. The small river has basically scoured all the material from under the foundation leaving a 15m or so section pretty much hanging in the air. The material under the foundation is a sandy material. Basically a result of the increased frequency of storm conditions. The wall and the houses are probably only 5 years old.
yes Iāve seen these models. Not sure how I can insulate the house further to be honest. 100+ years old with stone walls. I could possibly look at the loft / attic room but I know thatās done to a level already. Weāve just had a energy assessment undertaken by the Welsh government and they decided that a new boiler was the most appropriate method of improving the houses energy rating. We got that free of charge which is fantastic, but some solar panels would have been nice as well. Other houses have had that. Theyāve really turned against external insulation now due to problems with condensation etc.
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That is one of the major problems - huge amounts of building stock that simply cannot be effectively altered to be more efficient or better suited to the changing climate. Similarly, and particularly in North American, there are cities that are fundamentally not designed for people to live without their own automobile - which locks in significant emissions.
That is shocking. Do building regulations not cover these things?
What are these problems? Iām slowly planning for an escape to the country, probably eventually want to build my own place, funding permitting of course. The ideal would be something thatās almost Passivhaus-grade, but perhaps not as extreme.
yes and no. Building regulations only cover the building fabric. The planning process addresses the site as whole so perhaps there should have been questions asked at that point. Iām sure if the small river had been a larger one the NRW (Welsh Environment Agency equivalent) would have been all over it.
Itās a bit difficult to speculate what was actually covered at planning but Iām personally appalled that permission was given to siting buildings that close to a wall of that type, position and height. Or looking from the other angle, the wrong wall in the wrong place.
Thereās been a lot of properties that have had insulation retro fitted to the outside and itās created condensation, damp etc. inside. Basically the walls cant breathe so it needs to be approached with caution I think.
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Thankfully thereās enough mass in the walls to ensure that they arenāt 100% useless.
RE the automobile issue is a massive one in the UK. So many rural communities with very little public transport and the problem is complicated by numerous factors such as:
- Beeching cuts, which decommissioned a large number of rail routes in the 1960ās and 1970ās
- decline in the High St as people move wider for their shopping etc.
- movement of workplaces into more heavily populated areas forcing people to travel further to work.
My own town is a particular example. The High St is a shadow of its former self. Thereās very little local work since the decline of the local slate quarries, so people travel further and wider to work. Rail access is pretty poor, and has been hugely affected by flooding in recent years. The rail line was also cut. We used to be a town on a route that used to circulate North Wales carrying people and freight, weāre now end of the line with miles and miles of line decommissioned under Beeching and construction of the very controversial reservoir that drowned Trywerin.
North American infrastructure is a climate disaster. In Canada, our building stock is somewhat better on average than the Americans (cold versus hot), but it still locks in an enormous energy footprint. Taking transport and buildings together, about 40% of total emissions are extremely difficult to address.
I had never heard of that before. Bewildering that a city council could have the authority to do something like that at all, let alone outside their immediate jurisdiction.
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Actually, who should do more to save the world? What is ok or what is not ok? Boris Johnson taking a private plane just for a dinner, its definitely stupid and unnecessary especially when taking a train is such an easy option to take. But for example, is playing a football match at night ok? The amount of lights that would be needed to light up the stadium plus all the other other energy needed. Imagine the emission for 60000 people for one match to get to and fro the stadium, the transport etc. I know leaders need to be an example. I know governments need to make policies to lead the way, to legislate where consensus cannot be reached, to change behaviors where self initiative is lacking. But honestly, I find alot of hypocrisy everywhere when it comes to climate change. We put all the onus on governments and leaders as if we are all saying āwe cannot do anythingā¦see this government is not doing this, they are not doing thatā¦so I gonna waitā¦I will continue using my air condition, I will continue using my incandescent lamps, I will continue using my car as and when I like, I will leave my TV on while I sleep and many moreā¦ā
Honestly I donāt really care. Leaders and governments are just paying lip service when it comes to all these policies. People will just blame the governments and insist they should do something first when there are plenty we can do ourselves without legislation. So its either my life ends first or the world ends first. Either way, I donāt have to care anyway when it comes.
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Thatās not true, the big saves can be made by industry yet āourā governments tend to put the onus on us. If you are well off itās a lot more easy, buy an electric car but by no means not fly round the world for a holiday. Buy ālocalā even if that entails prices upto and above 3 times what comes half way round the world.
Us on minimum wage can not afford that shit, once again the onus should fall on governments and business however instead the pressure (financial) is piled up on us dregs of society because we donāt deserve our benefits and are stealing our living (this must stop horrible poor people). Then again give us a choice and perhaps we could change our behaviour (then perhaps many of us would try and catch up and go off on holidays half way round the world).
Who knows but I wonder where the well off would be if us dregs werenāt working in and for the stuff they buy.
It isnāt as complicated as people think though itās just that noone wants to go where the difference could be made, just look at transport of good by cargo ships and cargo planes. Itās cheaper and quicker for me to order a suit from Hong Kong that arrives in a week than order one from a local outlet where the suit is made in Hong Kong.
What I am saying is large portions of society havenāt the room for manouver where as governments and business have.
Tornado in Vancouver yesterday.
There is apparently no word for tornado in Halkomlem, the language of the Coast Salish people indigenous to the region.
Thickos.
You are not wrong. The majority of emissions come from industries. If I take Singapore a small urbanized nation, 60% emissions are from industries and only around 20% from consumers household is 20%. But this is actually still a huge percentage that individuals can control. And @Bekloppt article he posted is exactly the kind of mentality I am seeing. The āI am already doing alotā¦so not my problemā
the first paragraph summarize what I am saying āCitizens are alarmed by the climate crisis, but most believe they are already doing more to preserve the planet than anyone else, including their government, and few are willing to make significant lifestyle changes, an international survey has found.ā
For so long I use my aircon at 27 degrees because the recommendation is 25 degrees to be efficient but I have friends who oh care so much about the environment but fucking on the aircon through the night at 20 degrees. 1 degree on the aircon on one unit can reduce emissions from that one unit around 12% from one unit. That will be alot if you multiply the millions of units in households. But no I deserve to use the aircon anyhow because I done enough, not my problem.
So I agree with you, industries and governments need to do alot more but the reality is that normal human beings like us can do alot on our own small ways but we are not.
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Try reading the article again and youāll see that the majority havenāt a clue what is creating the problem. So yeah, ignorance will lead to such claims.
The people are ignorant because the governments and media are not doing their jobs on this issue, in fact they are doing the opposite with concentrating on the economy.
No way. I am not talking about some rocket science. At least in Singapore, I donāt know for how long the government has been telling us about the aircon thing. But people donāt care. This is probably one of the easiest things we can do. I am not absolving the governments from responsibility. They have the biggest and majority responsibility. But there are so many day to day small things we can do but do not, letās stop pretending that we normal people have done what we can. We are not.
Whatās normal, I know Iām not!
Heating and cooling is a problem I wonder what percentage is domestic usage?
Australia have announced, theyāre going to continue selling coal as long as there are countries willing to buy it??
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Doesnāt that actually make sense? As the highest drivers of emissions isnāt this the most important industry to include? Imagine the outcry if any large corporation from the fossil fuel industry didnāt turn up?