Alamy stock photography

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Permalink Comments (56)2 February 2007 at 12:42 by James West - CEO
Posted under Rambling CEO

© David Hoffman Photo LibraryLike many others I have been thinking about how to reduce my domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Here are some of the things I have tried (in vague order of effort required). I’d be interested to hear your comments and any stories from your own experiences.

Get motivated

Admittedly I was already motivated before seeing former US Vice President Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, but it gave me a greater sense for both the need for immediate action as well as some grounds for optimism.

If you haven’t already seen the movie, then I have 45 copies to give away (region 2, pal format). Send us an email with your name and address if you would like to receive a DVD (first come first served). Please pass it on to someone else once you have finished with it.
Switch off electrical equipment when not in use

I turn off everything that can be turned off without causing major disruption! This includes mobile phone chargers (even without the phone plugged in they consume power) and any appliances that have a "standby" mode.
Replace filament light bulbs

I recently replaced all the filament bulbs in my house with low energy ones. Contrary to popular opinion, these lights have a much warmer light than they used to have (you know the ones - installed for ten minutes then removed and stuck in a cupboard somewhere). These new lights consume one fifth of the energy of the old lights without compromising on the quality of the light. I recommend that you try out a few types before you replace the lot as some are better than others.

My next goal is to replace all the 25 Watt halogen spotlights (every kitchen in the UK seems to use these energy-greedy little lights) with 3-5 Watt LED lamps. These are in the "nearly but not quite there" category, but I"m hopeful that the new warm white LED lamps I received recently will do the trick. I will keep you posted.
Change electricity supplier to a renewable energy one

I use Good Energy. It costs 11.19 pence GBP (21.9 cents USD approx.) per kilowatt hour. The cost is another incentive to reduce my electricity consumption.
Fly less

Last year I drove or took the train on holiday rather than flew whenever practical, but I still flew twice. This year I’m only flying for business.
Hassle employers and trade organisations to do more

OK, I’m the boss, so it’s easy for me to say this, but greenhouse gas reduction strategies now feature in the responsibilities of our department heads. It’s also a great marketing tool. Do it and your customers will reward you for it.
Modify vehicles

Last year I converted my VW diesel van to run on vegetable oil. The idea is that carbon dioxide absorbed during the plant growth is released back into the atmosphere during combustion. This means that the over the lifespan of the fuel crop (from growth to combustion), no additional greenhouse gases are produced.

Renewable energy transportation links:
- Overview of the biofuels debate (PDF)
- Tesla Motors
- Green Car Congress
- EV World
- SmartVeg
- Biodiesel - whacky, but lots of info.

Add your own commentComments (56)

02 February 2007 at 12:51 Thyrsis

Good for you James! We've avoided low energy Bulbs because of their cold light but if they're now 'a much warmer light than they used to be' I shall get some.
My mantra is the same as 30 years ago - refuse, re-use, recycle....
02 February 2007 at 14:43 Pedro Luz Cunha

James,

I have an alcohol fuel car, but now we have seen the arrival dual fuel (flex-fuels) cars in Brazil (alcohol/gasoline in any proportion). And also biodiesel and soon tri-fuel cars using sugar cane alcohol/gasoline/natural gas.
02 February 2007 at 14:49 Peter Dean

Hi James
Good topic.
My puffing petrol mower finally packed up. I did some research on the web and found the Brill Lexus 38 mower (hand push). Brill by name and brill by nature! No fuel and no electricity needed. It also does exactly what it says on the tin and works beautifully. Even on wet grass. I used it today.

I drive a diesel Clio doing 60 miles to the gallon and looking for a reliable source of biodiesel. Shelagh drives a truck to cart her horses about. It should be the other way around as the horses should pull her but its a crazy world.

I have installed two raised vegetable beds in the garden (soon to be three). Planted carrots under a bell cloche this morning. No food miles (only seed miles)

We have a wormery to digest all we don't. They like a few handfulls of porridge oats every now and then to boost population and size. In the summer keep the wormery in the shade. Heat may stress them. We keep them under a mulberry bush.

If you go camping (or you get a power cut) buy a Kelly Kettle. Works with any available biomass and will boil 2 pints in five minutes. Works a treat and will last a lifetime.

Talking of lifetime we installed a Rayburn Royal 20 years ago. It was second hand then and cost us only 25 pounds. Its a dream for cooking heating and hot water. We fired it totally with logs one year but coal is easier. Logs do need to be seasoned or the flue will gum up.

If you buy organic food don't buy from supermarkets as their quality control will throw out too much edible food in the quest for visible perfection. Buy direct from a farmer if you can.

Best wishes
Pete
02 February 2007 at 15:01 Pat Lam

James,

Everyone should CONSUME LESS. Be a vegetarian. Or at least eat less meat, so we don´t need more cattle, less greenhouse effect.

Ciao

Pat
02 February 2007 at 15:29 Kathy deWitt

Hi James:

After my car was vandalized once too often, tired of the expense, I've stopped driving; everyone was saying I couldn't live in rural Wales and not have a car. This was a real challenge. Now, partly thanks to putting my work on Alamy, I do. So many journeys were just unnecessary and timewasting.

Needless to say, I walk a lot now and take the train. But the 4 mile walk to the train station seems easy now. And it's brilliant having time to read on the train.

When the need arises, which won't be often, I will either join a car club recently highlighted in the Guardian Money page or hire a car for a few days.

This should free up space for an air trip or two this year.

Thankyou for bringing up this unavoidable topic and for making it possible to work at home.

Kathy de Witt
02 February 2007 at 15:50 ialbert

Here are my ways:
1.Reuse the supermarket polythene bags.
I generally use the bags to cover my lunch box or use for my gym kit or use as dustbin covers.

2.If possible grow fresh herbs like corainder, mint leaves, rosemary.
Quite handy when ever needed and the fresh herbs adds more flavour to the food.

3.Don't throw the onion skins and vegetable waste in dustbin.If possible bury the waste in the herb garden which will become manure for the herbs otherwise use the effective composte approach.

4.Don't throw the postal envelopes, use them as shopping list for buying items.

5.Use your local produce and seasonal fruits and veg.

6.Use car sharing with your colleagues living near by you, this way you can join the gossips or learn what's going around in office and the local area.This kills the boredom when you are stuck in the traffic.

Putting the above points in practice requires patience and that will come just by putting effort. Anyways we all have our daily routine to fall back to, just give a thought and try let me know your comments.I am ready to absorb any new thoughts from other readers.
02 February 2007 at 15:55 idmurray

Working at home, living on less ( not always by choice!), living more slowly.

Quite inspiring and thought provoking to have this thread and a reminder about what matters.

Mind you, as an artist friend who lives in a van says:

'There's nothing quite as complicated as trying to live simply.'
02 February 2007 at 16:14 Tim McGuire

James,

I have two things that might interest you.

Have read this book?
"Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman" by Yvon Chouinard, owner of Patagonia Clothing Stores.

Something else to look at:
http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org
My business is a member and at minimum 1% of my business gross revenues goes back to conservation groups to help preserve our natural Earth.

Cheers,

Tim
02 February 2007 at 21:06 philip scalia

This augurs well, it's heartening to see management out in front on this.

We hang-dry our clothes on racks.

A friend of mine is a well-respected organic farmer in New Hampshire USA. He maintains that ethanol is not a viable solution, that the energy required to process the corn, the chemicals used in the corn agribusiness, along with the depletion of soil as a bi-product of a long-season nitrogen-hungry crop, negate the savings in petrol.

Unforunately, not driving is not an option in most if the USA.

Elizabeth Kolbert's book would be worth checking out, she's filed trenchant reports on these issues in the New Yorker for several years.
02 February 2007 at 22:29 Bettina

Other countries are much more advanced than the UK. In Germany, glass and plastic bottles are taken back to the shops - otherwise you will lose (deposit) money if you don't. Suppose it helps to have a Green Party pulling strings ... but the Germans already did that before they got into Parliament. And you have to pay for your plastic bags in the shops.

TBH, I'm very much confused with the UK recycling system. We do get some green boxes - alongside our normal bins - but we've never seen the do's and don'ts ... at least, I haven't. But, living in a block of flats, they're usually full and the only alternative is a black bin liner.

I seem to remember that one country (Japan?) had a scheme whereby you had to use translucent bin liners. Now, that's a thought!!!
03 February 2007 at 01:12 Stephen Oliver

Right on, James. I've been using organic, bio-degradeable, carbon-neutral tobacco for years.

But you are absolutely right, every little helps. I'm all for not shopping at supermarkets and I hate all that unecessary packaging. Love the idea of motoring on vegetable oil not just because it upsets the goverment.

I cannot help feeling though that the solution is to develop new technologies and harness old ones like renewables. Not a million miles from you the guys at Culham reckon they are 3 years away from demonstrating practical fusion energy. http://www.fusion.org.uk/ They've been working on it for nearly half a century.

Oh, and I've got some more snaps of windmills for you.
03 February 2007 at 02:07 Jeff Greenberg

Put new carpet on top of ceramic tile floor instead of ripping up tile that would have gone to city dump

Pick up litter on street whenever I see trash can ahead

Donated car, rely more on public transportation

If using car or public transportation, almost always multitask

Grow own tomatoes, salad, on what was once a vacant littered lot
03 February 2007 at 09:15 Peter Forsberg

The rambling CEO has done some good things, but he mentions nothing about his eating habits. Someone here mentioned "less meat" and that will help more than most things. Bringing one cow to the market, after all, consumes as much oil as driving a car for 4000 kilometres. And producing one kilogram of beef uses up to 100,000 litres of water. So there is a lot to be said for less meat and more vegetarian far -- and that not only causes less pollution but is definitely healthier (there are a lot of hormones in meat these days). Oil and water, they seem to be projected as ever-growing problems -- is there any sense in eating them up as steaks full of antibiotics?

I live in Prague and here it is quite easy to recycle. Everything has it's recycling box near-by(except, for some reason, tins and aluminium in general). There is less packaging and still a lot of little shops that wrap things up in paper. Plastic bags are rarely given away. One would be ill-advised to use a car, public transportation is the number one choice. Looking back at life in London, it seems extremely wasteful and all that litter all over the place from cans, wrappings, and whatnot seems like a different world.
03 February 2007 at 09:57 Pat Lam

Peter,

That´s exactly what I mean. Policians are always making definitions of this and that to protect his or her own interests (or their lobbies). Consumers should use our own power to protect our health and continuous grow future.
03 February 2007 at 15:01 RAbboud

As for eating habits, I have pledged to my wife that I will cut down on onions and beans to reduce my own emissions.

The saying goes: an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but an onion a day keeps everybody away.

My brother has taken to wraping his family gifts with old newspapers. I'm not sure if we should consider this a selfless, genius environment-conscious act as it has strangely coincided with him making a huge financial commitment on a new condo. I think he simply doesn't have any money left to buy proper wrapping paper.

My wife has, for years, helped reduce municipal dump site volumes by keeping a lot of junk right in our minivan. I don't think she ever visited a carwash in her life. We have a collection of empty windshield fluid plastic containers, old bedsheets, little balls of used Kleenexes, empty boxes of Kleenexes, and organic waste composting in the form of loose sesame seeds that fell off bagels and crumbs of sandwiches from old car trips mashed into the winter slush.

As for my son, the last time I removed his car seat, it was obvious he was running his own composting initiative under there.

I'm proud that, as a family, we're helping the world in our own way.

Best regards,

Rubens.
03 February 2007 at 17:28 Martin Shields

I drive a Honda Civic hybrid and average 44mpg. Am looking forward to better mileage in the next geberation of hybrids. Or, hopefully, plug-in hybrids which would rarely burn gas.

As for the plugging in part - that would be covered by electricity from our 27 photovoltaic roof panels. On sunny days the power company, by law here in New Jersey, pays us market rate for our surplus.

And the Alamy gods have rewarded our green karma with 2 sales, so far, of images of our solar panels.

Education though is my primary contribution. As a science teacher I emphasize issues such as warming. Last week I showed Inconvenient Truth to my classes. The teenagers are receptive, which is encouraging, but it is depressing how much cynicism there is in this country (US) in general. People are so wedded to overconsumption that they write off sensible ideas as extremist.

Regards,
Martin Shields
04 February 2007 at 12:01 Simon

I run my car on Biodiesel from www.goldenfuels.com. They re-cycle veg oil from the food industry. So it had double usage!

We replaced all the light bulbs in our flat to low energy ones. They not only save power but have a 5year warranty so last longer than standard filament bulbs.

We re-cycle and re-use everthing we can. The council doesn't take glass so we save it up and drop it to the local bottle bank.

We use 'eco-balls' for our washing from www.carbonneutral.com and always wash on 30c when possible.

We unplug the DVD, Digi box and make sure the TV is off when not in use.

When we eventually buy a house the plan is to budget for solar pannels to heat the hot water system, wind turbines and the best insulation possible.

If you have to fly, carbon offset the flight as part of the trip.

We do our bit, but want to do alot more!
Also visit http://www.lowimpact.org/
04 February 2007 at 12:58 David Kilpatrick

I would love to be able to claim to be even a bit green, but I can't. We do recycle the cans and papers and all plastic bags are used or reused. Our decision has been to live, always, within walking distance of all facilities. Most people moving to our part of the country (Scottish Borders) yearn to have a house in the middle of countryside, keep a horse etc. We live right in the centre of a town, which means the car may go unused for weeks at a time. After years as a typical photographer running Land Rover with roof platform, big Jeep, Merc, Outback, etc and two or three cars we cut down to a Merc A140 which does about 45mpg. Peculiar fuels are not an option as we have only two (very expensive) filling stations in town and distances from one to the next out of town can be 25-50 miles (and no motorways, and only a few yards of dual carriageway except a bit of the A1). We just don't do much. The decoration and carpets are mainly 50-60 years old, the house is 200 years old, the main expense is heating and there's not a lot that can be done about that. Fortunately they built houses then which were amazingly efficient (no double glazing or anything, just massive stone walls, wooden sarking under slates, lathe and plaster with an airgap to the stone, window shutters, deeply recessed windows - etc) so heating isn't needed from May to October.

The biggest green thing I did was to withdraw from newsagent magazine sales as a publisher. In the mid 1990s we learned that even than Reed (IPC) was putting 7.5 million tonnes of paper into landfill from one division alone. Our own sales of magazines had enjoyed 80-90 per cent sales under a chain of independent distributors who boxed them in assortments sent to tiny newsagents and corner shops all round the country. Then WHSmith and others moved in with goverment 'help' to outlaw this as an unfair trade practice (unrequested goods being supplied). The small distributors all were bakrupted or bought out; Smiths demanded thousands per edition for 'shelf space' to display magazines. Returns increased gradually until only 40 per cent of delivered copies were selling. If you've ever seen what even 4,000 magazines looks like, and are aware that this material unlike newsprint can not be recycled, you'll realise why we withdrew from news trade sales and went subscription only so that nearly 100 per cent of all printed copies eventually find a home. Very few are sent for landfill, just a few hundred a year because I haven't the space to store them.

In the meantime, the boom in magazines despite internet is busy fuelling what keeps Alamy going - stock photography depends on an industry which, globally, is doing an enormous amount of harm - publishing. I'm currently printing (I think) on Russian paper sourced via Holland. Why is Russian paper currently undercutting everyone? Easy - they can clear the forests without great concern over replacing tree for tree, or the timescale. After all, it's a huge place, and it will take many years before.

If anyone (clients, advertisers, readers) would pay me to publish electronically and not on paper, I would do. I tried to in 1995 with brief success, but it only worked because of connections to a printed edition. As a publisher I am forced to be far from carbon neutral and that's just how it is. As a photographer I suspect much the same applies; I'm dealing with industries which are not innately friendly to the environment, and don't care much. Most source their components in China now and that says it all.

In the next few years we'll probably move and build, and we would be using the normal tripleglazed, heat exchanger, solar panel, wind turbine, private water etc model which is most popular in this area for anyone with half a brain. Sadly the government has decided we need 10,000 more inefficiently built conventional commuter houses so the Borders can become the Home Counties of Edinburgh, and Fjordhus etc will continue to be the choice of a very small minority.

David
04 February 2007 at 20:44 Sharon Lowe

James - thanks for bringing this up. Some of the things I do.

1 - Vegan and only buy organic; buy locally produced products when available
2 - Walk don't drive whenever possible (meaning, I will do an 8 mile walk that includes going to bank, post office, coffee shop and grocery store filling up my backpack with what I need) - my 3 year old car purchased new has less than 15000 miles on it; my son's 6 year old car just 30000 miles and my husband just shares with me
3 - Redeem the cans and bottles the Commonwealth of MA makes us pay 5 cents extra for
4- Use low energy lightbulbs, even flood lights
5 - Live in a town with one of the best recycling facilities in the country and recycle everything they let us recycle including batteries, books (the best free library around), flourescent lights, and many other products most places don't accept; compost what I can
6 - husband walks to commuter rail station and rides the train to work
7 - use my laptop rather than the desktop whenever possible since it uses less electricity
8 - Only organic treatments for our lawn and garden
9 - Filter our drinking water rather than buying bottled water
10 - Read as many publications as possible rather than purchase paper versions of them
04 February 2007 at 20:47 Sharon Lowe

That last one on my list was to read as much online as possible
05 February 2007 at 00:43 Lee

Everyone can do something towards becoming environmentally benign. From your clothes, to your diet, to which bank you decide let play with your money.

Publics worldwive hold enormous power: If the demand for something stops, so will the production. If we all stopped eating beef, there would be less cows to make methane (a greenhouse gas 1000 times more insulatory than CO2, and at current levels 21 times more damaging).

But that kind of change simply won't ever happen on a mass scale without Government encouragement. And the 1st and 2nd worlds rely on fossil fuels too much to ever do that.

So while everyone should do as much as possible to reduce their personal emissions and contributions to damaging practices, that can never be the extent of the solution.

Spreading education is undoubtedly more effective, and the path to true change. The problem is too abstract for Governments to treat with the necessary urgency. Short-term gain will always triuph over long-term sustainability within the current political system.

Lifestyle changes are to be applauded; They prove that it's possible. But it's only the first step.

Read James Martin's 'The Meaning of the 21st Century' - A difinitive blueprint for the future.

Lee
05 February 2007 at 04:33 Pete Blog

Al Gore doesn't claim to tell the whole truth.

Seems he stops exactly where it would start getting truly inconvenient...

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/lomborg6

ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20061121_gore.pdf

And for a more humorous take, this just in:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steyn/241518,CST-EDT-STEYN04.article

Hope the links work.
05 February 2007 at 09:34 Neil Overy

`I am not myself an expert as regards environmental problems.' Lomborg.

Need we say more?
05 February 2007 at 11:21 Pete Blog

If only others commenting on environmental problems were half as modest.

Those wondering what this Lomborg guy actually considers himself expert in, can find it here:
http://www.lomborg.com/biograph.htm
05 February 2007 at 12:19 Neil Overy

Or as an alternative, point your browser to:

http://www.mylinkspage.com/lomborg.html

or

http://www.lomborg-errors.dk/
05 February 2007 at 22:10 Pete Blog

He sure made himself some enemies, didn't he?
(What happend with the original "anti-lomborg" site?)

Why not check out the arguments on both sides, and then decide who you agree with more on which question.
06 February 2007 at 06:50 Neil Overy

The first link actually takes you to the anti-Lomborg site.

I will leave it to E.O. Wilson (who IS a peer reviewed, double Pulitzer prize winning, scientist) to sum up the case of those who remain anti-Lomborg

"My greatest regret about the Lomborg scam is the extraordinary amount of scientific talent that has to be expended to combat it in the media. We will always have contrarians like Lomborg whose sallies are characterized by willful ignorance, selective quotations, disregard for communication with genuine experts, and destructive campaigning to attract the attention of the media rather than scientists. They are the parasite load on scholars who earn success through the slow process of peer review and approval." (2001).
06 February 2007 at 09:52 Pete Blog

I happen to have read around half of Wilson's numerous books as a biology student (and even cited some of them in my Master's thesis!). - When I read Wilson's and other ecologists' attacks of Lomborg's first book, I didn't bother to read what Lomborg had to say. Wilson, Ehrlich, Myers, Diamond, and other eminent environmentalists criticised by Lomborg, were my heroes after all. (And I also had a rather favorable opinion of Al Gore, whose first environment book at the time was recommended by my ecology professor.)

Only years later, after seeing him in a TV interview, did I start to pay attention to Lomborg's arguments and reasoning.

I still admire Edward Wilson as a scientist (and have read another one of his books), but I'm afraid he's wrong on the question of species extinction rates (which was the issue leading to his angry ad hominem on Lomborg).

Sorry to have brought such a sombre mood to the party. - Hey, I still think it's good to save energy! (And donate some of your savings to make a real contribution to a better world...)
06 February 2007 at 10:18 Neil Overy

No worries from me about sombre moods - debate is always healthy - it's the lack of it that is dangerous!

As for me, I am not convinced by Lomborg's thesis, but lets hope he is right for all our sakes...
07 February 2007 at 08:49 Richard Wareham

On a bike seen here in Amsterdam:
"Veni, vidi, fietsie."
I came, I saw, I cycled.
(Re) Cycling. Good for the environment, good for wallet and stops fat bums.
07 February 2007 at 18:45 Gary Were

We use low energy bulbs where we can. However, the style of many of the bulbs are not compatible with that of the light fittings, or they simply don't fit those which they would occupy. The 'folded' tube style and the spiral ones are not pretty, they look a bit 'technical' and don't suit the grace (lol) of our front room!

We're having cavity wall insulation installed next week however, so that'll make some impact on our usage. Some progress then.

Finally, recycling is good, but re-using is far better! Whatever happened to the deposit system on beer and pop bottles, refunded when the bottles were returned. (You might not remember this.)This was great for supplementing my pocket money years ago. Come to think of it, wouldn't be bad now since my Alamy sales are somewhat lacking of late.

Thanks for helping to make this issue part of our daily life and not something remote seen in the media.
08 February 2007 at 12:59 doug Steley

Here in Australia the government has just caught the greenhouse vote bug.

Sadly they believe big power and energy will save the day with clean coal and nuclear power.

We have changed my lightbulbs, we use less power we drive economical small cars and are working to change the government :-)

I am old enough to remember people looking forward and imagining a bright future for the world where poverty disease and war were things of the past and energy and climate were not a problem.
08 February 2007 at 17:26 cols

As many of us will now be shooting digital, think of the savings on chemical pollution.
09 February 2007 at 15:35 Robert Estall

Thanks for the offer of the film James, but the Estall family has been. Looked very impressive on the big screen! I'm not sure the teen-age son is putting theory into action, but we're working on it.

The output from the new generation of bulbs is agreably warm now, but it does take a few minutes to get up to full brightness. That's OK in most situations.

There used to be a time when a baywindow VW van was the standard mode of transport for many photographers. I bought one in 1972 which lasted 'til 89 and the 89 fuel-injected replacement is still going strong. I can't claim the van is very environmentaly friendly although the fuel injection is quite efficient. But getting 35 years driving out of just two motor vehicles is a pretty green concept.

As James has found, there should be no problem finding the space for an extra fuel tank in a van, but I am am at a loss to understand why manufacturers have been so slow to pursue dual fuel/hybrid drive solutions. All delivery vans this size are designed to do huge annual milleages and one would have thought the perfect target for developement. I was an investor in Zetek which was a fuel cell developer. They had a couple of prototypes running arround London before they went bust, How they manegd to pin the blame for their demise on the horrors of 9/11 always escaped me.

Every time I approach a van seller at a showroom or trade fair I ask about what they are doing about new technologies. They just tut-tut and say "you wouldn't want one of those" . If they thought we really wanted them and would buy them by the shipload, they might make them.

In the mean time what VW, Mercedes,Renault et al are doing is offering 170 horsepower and air conditioning options. Jeremy Clarkson did a little piece on Vans a couple of months ago declaring " This isn't just fast for a Van, It's just FAST"

If that's what they think we want,that's what we are going to get.

VW is investing in high tech battery developement so maybe they have something up their sleeve the aren't telling us about.

and then there's thermal underwear. God, have I come to this? How sad! I resisted the idea for years thinking an extra tee-shirt would do the same job. They don't! With the price of heating oil going through the roof, I just can't afford to heat this medieval pile much above 60 degrees.

Extra layers of glass on the windows, knee-deep insulation in the loft, heavy curtains on the doors, dampers on the chimneys, we still freeze! Flog it and build new I suppose............
10 February 2007 at 14:42 Pat Lam

VW did had a 3 liter POLO for a short time. And now in their museum.
Two year ago VW had a ONE liter light test car. It is just for the company image, they were never really pushing it into the market. Those make no money for them. Only luxurious limosine make big Dollar. Too many auto lobbbies in our government, Environment is just very good to TALK about. Our government just too kind to let the auto companies to develope environmental friendly automobiles. For almost ten years they did NOTHING.
Europe parliament has to make clear law.
10 February 2007 at 14:54 Pat Lam

Sorry it was a VW Lupo.
10 February 2007 at 22:37 Jacques Jangoux

Hello,
I know for sure you all stock photographers have a lot of extra money you don´t know what to do with. Well, you can invest it in a green investment fund (example: the New Alternative Fund, NALFX). Or you can donate all that money to NGOs that plant trees in the tropics (I understand tropical trees are better at carbon capture than temperate trees). One example is the Arbor Day Foundation (but I wasn´t able to find any information, pro or con, on the internet). Better known ones are The Nature Conservancy, The Rainforest Alliance etc. There is a list of environmental groups at < http://www.
grinningplanet.com/5005/
environmental-groups-ngos.htm >. A Google search will give you many more.
11 February 2007 at 22:17 Garry DeLong

For me, one very good way to cut greenhouse gases has been to have a greenhouse! Our little greenhouse, is packed with mostly orchids as flower/orchid photography is a specialty of mine. I don't have to even start my vehicle to do a shoot. BTW, horticultural photography, despite current and usual wisdom, has always out-earned my imagery in other categories, probably because of very specific keywording. Not only is it an orchid, it's a ladyslipper orchid as for which the formal name is Paphiopedilum. Not only a Paphiopedilum but a Paphiopedilum maudiae. When a commercial orchid grower comes looking for photo of Paphiopedilum maudiae for his catalog, a keyword of "orchid" ain't gonna cut it.
Garry DeLong
14 February 2007 at 17:33 Lourens Smak

I found a movie by Al Gore in the mail today! I am especially happy because it has been on TV already overhere, but I didn't have time to watch it then. Thanks Alamy, excellent!
16 February 2007 at 02:36 Ei Katsumata

This is in response to the suggestion to replace filament light bulbs.

If switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, one can save lots of energy due to their higher efficiency, which can result in less carbon emissions. However, many of the compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, which can be harmful to the environment in other ways (e.g. groundwater contamination). There was an interesting report on NPR today, for those who might be interested:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198

And yes, I agree that compact fluorescent bulbs have come a long way. I use several of these in my home, and they are indistinguishable from incandescent bulbs.
16 February 2007 at 12:28 Chris Gloag

Climate change. Hellooo Yes it does, it always has, it's always changing!!

Perspective:

10,000 years ago the average temperature of the UK was MINUS 8 degrees C. Ice covered Britain all the way down to the Midlands and sea levels were low enough to walk to France.

The rainforests in the Amazon didn't even exist as we know it. They were grasslands with islands of trees At Best.

Ice ages come and go and have done for 10's of millions of years. They happen every 100,000 years and we are coming out of one ;-). Go type Ice age into wikipedia and have a look at the temperature over time graph for your self if you are skeptical. The earth is a big boy and can look after itself. It takes it's lead from BIG things like the SUN (A Kazillion nukes going off everyday!!), not from us.

We cannot prevent global warming - Thats impossible - There may even be some advantages to it.. We can now live in Scotland!! ;-)

What I think should be the motivation for reducing our carbon footprint as individuals is 2 fold. The social/political implications for oil providing countries. i.e. Invasion of Iraq to provide "stability" in the oil producing area. If we reduce our energy needs and become sustainable through renewables we wouldn't need to stabilise any more countries!

Secondly: pollution of our environment.. the air that we breathe! The diseases we get from pollution like asthma. The air the Chinese people breathe next to the factory that makes all our plastic things. We should turn off our car engines in jams because we are breathing in the fumes! Not because of the CO2 going into the air. Give up commuting 3 hours a day because it's depressing and a complete waste of your life, not because of the CO2.

So Lets not worry about Mother earth and the future temperature - The planet is in control here - Lets worry about us now. Reducing your carbon footprint is a political act and helps protect Human rights. This should be our motivation for doing it, not some vague idea about it getting warmer in the greenhouse over the next 50 years.

I think they should be called Human Rights Gases, not greenhouse ones.

Well done James. The changes you have made are awesome.
16 February 2007 at 13:00 Pat Lam

Very good point !
17 February 2007 at 11:59 EkA

#41-Chris
Are you the science advisor for the Bush administration?

Climate fluctations are a natural phenomenon. The greenhouse effect is not.

The points you raise about air pollution are important, but to completely disregard carbon emissions as a concern is simply dangerous. By your logic, driving natural gas vehicles would not have an impact on the environment. Silly.
17 February 2007 at 17:25 Chris Gloag

EkA - The Green house effect is an Utterly and Unequivocally natural phenomenon!!!! You are typically missinformed.
The anthropogenic influences on the greenhouse effect are what is in debate by all the scientists.
I am 100% behind cutting CO2 emmissions and reducing our energy consumption from nonrenewables, but my point is that our reason for doing it should be geopolitical.
19 February 2007 at 07:27 Stig O'Tracy

Try 'Enhanced Greenhouse effect'- of more interest would be stock photo ops to inform/educate?
20 February 2007 at 10:12 geof

There will not be much to do if the following happens.

Dr Jenny Whiting
Picture Editor
Medical Photographic Library
Wellcome Trust

'The UK Govt are about to propose restrictions on photography in public
places which could make street photography and documentary photography
against the law. There's a petition on the Downing St website against
the Government's proposals to restrict the use of photography in
public areas.

Sign up to the petition now

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Photography/
20 February 2007 at 11:33 Tony Lilley

Thanks for the warning. I have signed the petition and emailed this to all in my address book.

I have now seen former US Vice President Al Gore’s movie. It's an excellent, well presented film and well worth seeing.
21 February 2007 at 01:09 Pete Blog

As in excellent political propaganda?

“The glossy production is replete with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, and appeals to public fear as shamelessly as any other political statement that hopes to unite the public behind a particular ideology.”

Climate change and environmental analysis expert Bob Giegengack, Penn professor of geology (who voted for Gore in 2000)

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/science_al_gore_is_a_greenhouse_gasbag
25 February 2007 at 23:34 Richard Sheppard

Climate change is the new religion for the western democracies. The whole idea of it is just an outlet for middle class angst over our comfortable lives and our need for something to worry/feel guilty about. It is also a very good corperate marketing strategy to show concern over global warming because it doesn't actually need a company to do anything apart from make statements of goodwill. Humankind in the wealthier counties should be putting more effort into preventing pollution, the destruction of the environment and to stop the exploitation of people in poorer countries. Climate change has occoured since the earth formed and there is nothing we can do to influence it. Greedy profiteers will make money from climate change but non would do so by paying people a living wage and preserving the planet in a more tangible way.

Richard Sheppard
25 February 2007 at 23:40 Elena Ray

It's great that Alamy is promoting green. Small actions taken by the many may just yet prove to be where the real power is.
Thank you! Looking forward to live upload. Now, think I'll turn the computer off for the rest of the day...and unplug that finished battery charger.
Elena
27 February 2007 at 16:59 Ben Plewes

I'd just like to say thanks for the copy of 'an inconvenient truth'. It's very informative and much appreciated.
24 March 2007 at 15:40 Dennis

Appreciate that in this age of almost-carbon free and cheap telecommunications (voice, sound, data, images ...), there are little justifiable reasons for business travel, especially air travel.
01 April 2007 at 18:22 Chuck

Alamy's policy of blanket rejection of entire submissions, when one portion doesn't pass, is not helping reduce green house gases. In fact, it's blatantly wasteful! Just think of the fossil fuel it took to make the thousands of bundled plastic CD's that are rejected and not even viewed by QC. Other considerations include the additional paper envelopes used to mail the additional CD's, the jet fuel required to transport another batch of CD's from overseas, the gasoline for another round trip to the post office, the electricity used to burn additional unnecessary CD's. All this when many times the 2nd part of the submission, not being viewed and simply discarded, is a "Corrected CD" being sent in for its second attempt at passing QC. This policy is out of the stone ages and needs to be reconsidered. We all understand the motivation behind such a policy but it's wrong headed. It only fosters fear of including 2 or 3 CD's in one submission.
13 June 2007 at 12:36 John rocha

Something that surprised me is that there's not much mention of rechargeable batteries. Perhaps photographers just use them all the time.

Another point is cutting down spam. I've enabled Gishpuppy on my website and given links to organizations that help to get rid of spam.

Another idea is to look at changes in lifestyle. My nephew Fergus Drennan is a leader in this and you can see his site at http://www.wildmanwildfood.co.uk/

I'm going to try out the uploading soon so maybe this will get rid of the the CDs and packaging.

I'm not that happy at being connected to the internet all the time but as I am I try to use it for everything I can. I'm especially happy at using the internet for international calls.

I've tried to be a bit geekish so that I can upgrade my computer and not just jump into new equipment all the time

By the way as I live in Bulgaria, it's only recently that some of the 'bad' habits are coming. The shops are now newly full of foreign products i.e. Italian apples with all the carbon cost.

Anyway, keep up the good work

John

Anyway, keep up the good work

John
17 January 2008 at 08:25 Robert estall

an associate has just sent me an e-mail change of address which is powered by an interesting-sounding web hosting operation.They seem to have beaten James West in the race to build a zero-emmission data centre

http://www.ecologicalhosting.com
28 February 2008 at 07:15 岡崎市　不動産

exellent
http://www.okazakifudousan.com/loan.html

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28 February 2008 at 07:15 岡崎市 不動産

28 February 2008 at 07:15 岡崎市　不動産