Friday 30 March 2007

Have a baby and lost two months sleep

According to the BBC News web site, new parents can lose up to two months sleep in the first year of life and I, or should I say may wife Meagan can certainly agree with that.

We've been really lucky with Emily and she only wakes once in the night. We've got friends who babys still regularly wake four times in the night and I'm not sure how they manage to actually keep going apart from a lot of coffee.

Wednesday 28 March 2007

How green is hydroelectic power?

You'd hope that hydroelectric power would be fairly sound way of producing electricity and one that had a fairly low carbon footprint once you've constructed the dam.

However interesting new research indicates that the flooding of valleys to create the reservoirs are increasing the amount of methane emissions due to the trees and vegatations rotting under the water. The problem isn't too bad in cold climates such as the UK, but is proving to be a major problem in countries such as Brazil who have heavily invested in hydroelectic.

The Guardian covers this in more detail in a story called Hidden Dangers

Sunday 25 March 2007

Eco Kettles

When Meagan, Emily and I moved house, we realised that we didn't actually own a kettle, which gave me the opportunity to buy the Eco Kettle I had been coveting for a while. Meagans initial skepticsm that I was purchasing another gadget, has disappeared now that she has found out that she can boil just enough water for one cup of coffee.

If you're feeing really flush, try the Electrisave Electricity Monitor which will tell you how much electricity your house is consuming at one one time. Two of my friends have them and spend hours wandering around the house, turning items on and off and watching the consumption rise and fall.

I've linked to both items at the Ethical Superstore as that had the best price on the kettle but plently of other places have them.

All together now

Todays Observer has a story called Village that's saving the world. All the residents of Ashton Hayes in Cheshire have agreed to live a carbon neutral lifestyle and this ranges from doing simple things such as turning off chargers when they are not being used, to building a community grid for generating electricty.

The Guardian covered the story back in February in a piece called Village on the road to a carbon-neutral future and made the very good point that once the whole community became involved it became easier for people to become involved. Previously, people had said that while they had wanted to try the lifestyle, they hadn't wanted to be viewed as cranky.