Simon Anthony's Blog (11)

A few second's Googling found the following...

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/low-power-desalination-and-purification-technology-brings-clean-water-remote-villages



Impressive. The comments that follow are less so, but raise the issue of who does what rather well. Who's job is it to clean up the world… Continue

Copy of an email sent to



Vigor Renewables after a meeting just now.







Dear Sir or Madam



I am a member of the Lady Bay Community Association, a local residents group which has been successful in protecting the land 'East of Lady Bay' from a multiplicity of damaging developments since 1976. The LBCA s not a NIMBY group - we have always been looking for some way of using the land which will add… Continue

I have just come back from a local residents meeting. For all the time I have lived in Lady Bay the farm land to the East of where we live has been earmarked for development. Almost every year there has been a new attack to fend off, and we have won year after year. One of our best arguments has always been - it's good farm land, it should grow food'.

But, a few years ago, the farmer who worked one of these fields died, and the council did not want another farmer to take up the land, they… Continue

It's a shock when you discover members of your own family have never seen peas in a pod, let alone on a plant. Last year I took a handful of peas, the died brown things that are seeds of a plant, not the florescent green things that make a sludge on a plate, and dropped or 'sowed' them in to our 'Street Furniture'.

We have brick boxes, built at a few places along the roads here, initially intended for flowers, but abandoned by the Council because of funding cuts. Local residents have taken… Continue

In these times of food scares, predictions of eco-holocaust and political upheaval, it would be nice to think there is a way in which

mere individual gardeners could help put matters right. If there were,

then we could all potter around our plots doing what suits us best not

feeling guilty for ignoring the important national disasters by hiding

in the garden. In more than a trivial way I believe gardeners have

already been helping out in some small manner for many…

Continue

The heavy rain of the previous night had filled the roof-tanks and was ready to be let drain through the house's heat pump system and off into the hydroponics tanks in the garden. It's always fun to let the water rush out and watch it push its way through the small gravity turbines, but it's more efficient to do that at night when we want the power, its not much, but its all free !



It's fun too to pull on the many ropes round the house and lift the weights back up to the roof-top… Continue

I saw a TV article about this a few months ago. The idea is that as most of the Sun's energy is in the infrared end of the spectrum - that is radiant heat - it would be great to use that to make electricity. But, standard cell don't manage that task. However, the people at https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1269&mode=2&featurestory=DA_101047… Continue

In 20 years ago I stood for election for the Green Party in the UK. I

did not get in. There had been no chance of being elected, but for a few

weeks - and once very powerfully on stage at the Hustings - I was at

least officially at the same level as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The fall after that rise was dramatic and I stayed 'down' for six

months.



Then I went to a talk given by Satish K**ar. (… Continue

This IS the future. I have been looking forward to this for decades. There are great challenges and great dangers to come, but there always are. 20 years ago I asked ( on a TV show ) how long it would take for the environment to be taken seriously by politicians (the Green Party mostly ). I was told, bu the BBC chief Politics correspondent '60 years'. Well, Greens are still not being elected in Westminster, but we are in Europe and also in Lad Bay (local council). Much more importantly - the… Continue

Today in Lady Bay is the start of our 'Greening' initiative. Navid and I have been at it for years, the people where we live ( Lady Bay in Nottingham ) have been voting Green for a few years too. There are a lot of people trying to do a lot of things all the time, but when it's just you that's not how it feels.



Going from door to door trying to raise awareness is not an easy thing to do, it's so hard that other methods are a better bet - they are less damaging to the soul ! So, today a… Continue

For years (20 or more) I have been working ( very on and off) on the concept of a 'portable window'. The concept uses off the shelf bits of kit - all simple and I hope easy to set up.



I have tried to patent the thing but, I simply don't have the money or the time to put in to ensuring I get a return that can feed the family - so - no prototype exists. However, I have proved the concept and many other part-similar systems do exist which prove the rest of my concept.



The idea is… Continue