So I will start off by stating the obvious (as has been stated in dozens of newspapers over the last few days) – it obviously was not the end of the world on the 10th September.
That was the day when at 9.30 am local time, 300 feet below ground near Geneva, the most powerful particle accelerator ever built became operational, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Concerns were expressed - in particular by the German chemist Professor Otto Rossler - that black holes created by the LHC will grow uncontrollably and "eat the planet from the inside".
These claims were dismissed by Prof Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University who said that the LHC is "feeble compared with what goes on in the universe. If a disaster was going to happen, it would have happened already."
Either way, these worries about the end of the universe seem to be pounced on as a newsworthy hook, but whatever the headline, I think it is great that a science story has been such a big part of the news coverage over the last week.
The £5 billion machine has been described as a 17-mile racetrack around which two streams of protons - building blocks of matter - run in opposite directions before smashing into one another. The protons will reach 99.99% of the speed of light. At the current time, sub atomic particles have just been fired around the tunnel, the first collisions are expected in a month.
I think the machine is absolutely amazing, and really hope that it will actually help to answer some of those remaining mysteries of the universe. Physicists hope to learn more about the origins of mass by learning about the Higgs boson — known as the “God particle” because it is thought to lend mass to matter. The LHC should also answer difficult questions about gravity and dark matter - the "glue" thought to hold the universe together.
I wonder what will happen if we do actually find the answer to all these questions though….
Friday, 12 September 2008
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Sweat in the City
Catching my breath after running for the train home last night, I started to read one of the free London papers and came across an article about a new campaign to get young women like myself fitter, happier and healthier.
Sweat in the City is a new campaign launched by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) and Fitness Industry Association (FIA) which offers 3,000 young women in London free 12-week gym membership. The scheme is an excellent start to fulfilling the promises of the London 2012 Olympic Legacy which aims to increase nationwide participation in sport.
I’ve been meaning to sign up at my local gym however was deterred by the £43/month fees, so I couldn’t wait to get on line and sign myself up for some freeness. After visiting the Sweat in the City website I became even more excited as I discovered there were no strings attached to this scheme.
As long as you are aged 16 – 24, live in one of the 33 London boroughs, do little or no exercise and not currently a member of a gym – you are eligible for 12-weeks free gym membership worth £180, fortnightly group sessions and exercise tips and advice. All you have to give in return is weekly online feedback on the scheme and commitment to attending the gym at least 3 times a week.
So I have jumped on boarded, registered and selected my three choices for preferred gym club. All I have to do is wait for an email to confirm there are still places available and all being well I will commence my fitter, happier and healthier life on 29 September 2008 – I’ll keep you all updated on my progress.
By Danielle Thomas
Sweat in the City is a new campaign launched by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) and Fitness Industry Association (FIA) which offers 3,000 young women in London free 12-week gym membership. The scheme is an excellent start to fulfilling the promises of the London 2012 Olympic Legacy which aims to increase nationwide participation in sport.
I’ve been meaning to sign up at my local gym however was deterred by the £43/month fees, so I couldn’t wait to get on line and sign myself up for some freeness. After visiting the Sweat in the City website I became even more excited as I discovered there were no strings attached to this scheme.
As long as you are aged 16 – 24, live in one of the 33 London boroughs, do little or no exercise and not currently a member of a gym – you are eligible for 12-weeks free gym membership worth £180, fortnightly group sessions and exercise tips and advice. All you have to give in return is weekly online feedback on the scheme and commitment to attending the gym at least 3 times a week.
So I have jumped on boarded, registered and selected my three choices for preferred gym club. All I have to do is wait for an email to confirm there are still places available and all being well I will commence my fitter, happier and healthier life on 29 September 2008 – I’ll keep you all updated on my progress.
By Danielle Thomas
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Waste Reduction Report
The Science and Technology Committee has published a Waste Reduction report today (20th Aug), which calls for efforts on waste reduction to be extended from individuals to reducing the high waste levels of companies. The report explains that that domestic waste is only 9% of Britain's total waste. Of the remainder, 32 per cent comes from demolition and construction, 30 per cent from mining and quarrying, 13 per cent from industry and 11 per cent from the commercial sector.
Joan Ruddock, Waste Minister, said it was wrong to suggest that the Government had focused disproportionately on domestic waste explaining that the landfill tax escalator specifically targets business and commerce as high waste producers.
Nevertheless, there were some particular focus areas within the report, which I thought made a lot of sense.
The report recommended that Government restructure local authority waste targets and costs which currently focus on decreasing the weight of domestic waste sent to landfill and allow them to address commercial and industrial waste by providing support and disposal facilities to businesses. There was disappointment that funding had been reduced to some of the main environmental support bodies that help both large and small businesses reduce their waste, such as Envirowise, NISP and WRAP. The report also said that the Government should be giving a higher priority to the collection of data for non-domestic waste streams.
Another interesting recommendation in the report was that VAT should be reduced or removed from the cost of repairing televisions, vacuum cleaners and fridges to discourage people from throwing them away as soon as they stop working. This does make sense because at the moment, electronic appliances are getting cheaper and labour more expensive, so it is just not worth getting things repaired. Instead, more and more appliances are being dumped into landfill and replaced by newer designs.
According to the Times Online, repairing a vacuum cleaner costs at least £50, roughly the same price as a new model. Repairs for televisions, computers and cameras are often more than £100 and fewer people now take out warranties to guard against breakdown.
The Lords committee recognises that it may not be in manufacturers' interests to build longer-lasting goods, and suggest an incentive to make sustainable goods more economically valuable. The committee argues that variable VAT should be introduced so that goods that use sustainable materials and fewer virgin resources have reduced VAT or none at all. It recommends that DEFRA work with the Treasury to implement this initiative.
I will be interested to see what happens next as a result of this report.
Joan Ruddock, Waste Minister, said it was wrong to suggest that the Government had focused disproportionately on domestic waste explaining that the landfill tax escalator specifically targets business and commerce as high waste producers.
Nevertheless, there were some particular focus areas within the report, which I thought made a lot of sense.
The report recommended that Government restructure local authority waste targets and costs which currently focus on decreasing the weight of domestic waste sent to landfill and allow them to address commercial and industrial waste by providing support and disposal facilities to businesses. There was disappointment that funding had been reduced to some of the main environmental support bodies that help both large and small businesses reduce their waste, such as Envirowise, NISP and WRAP. The report also said that the Government should be giving a higher priority to the collection of data for non-domestic waste streams.
Another interesting recommendation in the report was that VAT should be reduced or removed from the cost of repairing televisions, vacuum cleaners and fridges to discourage people from throwing them away as soon as they stop working. This does make sense because at the moment, electronic appliances are getting cheaper and labour more expensive, so it is just not worth getting things repaired. Instead, more and more appliances are being dumped into landfill and replaced by newer designs.
According to the Times Online, repairing a vacuum cleaner costs at least £50, roughly the same price as a new model. Repairs for televisions, computers and cameras are often more than £100 and fewer people now take out warranties to guard against breakdown.
The Lords committee recognises that it may not be in manufacturers' interests to build longer-lasting goods, and suggest an incentive to make sustainable goods more economically valuable. The committee argues that variable VAT should be introduced so that goods that use sustainable materials and fewer virgin resources have reduced VAT or none at all. It recommends that DEFRA work with the Treasury to implement this initiative.
I will be interested to see what happens next as a result of this report.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Cycling Britain’s new national sport?
It’s day 11 of the Olympic Games in Beijing and who would have predicted that cycling would dominate the agenda, with Team GB picking up no less than 19 medals in cycling events both in the velodrome and on the road.
Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy have got us hooked on watching a new type of sprint – one on two wheels rather than running spikes.
Forget football and cricket –we should adopt cycling as our new national sport!
It’s something we are actually good at and with the opening of a new £4.5million state of the art Redbridge Cycling Centre today this sport looks set to grow. The Cycling Centre, opened by London Mayor Boris Johnson and Kate Hoey MP, is in the first London borough to benefit from the legacy of the 2012 games, and will be used by the community until the London 2012 Olympic Games when it will become the Olympic Velo Park.
Team GB currently (14.30 GMT) has a total of 32 medals under their belt, the majority gained over the weekend with astounding successes in swimming, rowing, sailing and cycling.
This is a tremendous sporting victory for Great Britain and has been recognised by Mayor Johnson who has announced a heroes parade around London for the Olympians and Paraolympians on 16 October 2008.
However, so far few medals have been gained in athletics. But I am sure this will soon change. As spectators at the Birds Nest Stadium are yet to see great British athletes such 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, long jumper Jade Johnson, and triple jumper Phillips Idowu compete in the finals of their respective events.
…Go Team GB!!
By Danielle Thomas
Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy have got us hooked on watching a new type of sprint – one on two wheels rather than running spikes.
Forget football and cricket –we should adopt cycling as our new national sport!
It’s something we are actually good at and with the opening of a new £4.5million state of the art Redbridge Cycling Centre today this sport looks set to grow. The Cycling Centre, opened by London Mayor Boris Johnson and Kate Hoey MP, is in the first London borough to benefit from the legacy of the 2012 games, and will be used by the community until the London 2012 Olympic Games when it will become the Olympic Velo Park.
Team GB currently (14.30 GMT) has a total of 32 medals under their belt, the majority gained over the weekend with astounding successes in swimming, rowing, sailing and cycling.
This is a tremendous sporting victory for Great Britain and has been recognised by Mayor Johnson who has announced a heroes parade around London for the Olympians and Paraolympians on 16 October 2008.
However, so far few medals have been gained in athletics. But I am sure this will soon change. As spectators at the Birds Nest Stadium are yet to see great British athletes such 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, long jumper Jade Johnson, and triple jumper Phillips Idowu compete in the finals of their respective events.
…Go Team GB!!
By Danielle Thomas
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
50 years of Keep Britain Tidy
Yesterday, 11th August 2008, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Keep Britain Tidy campaign. In 1954, Lady Elisabeth Brunner addressed the AGM of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes about the growing problem of litter in public places. Four years later, in August 1958, the Litter Act was passed due to the pressure from the Keep Britain Tidy Group founded by Lady Brunner and her WI supporters. Under the Act, despoiling the environment with rubbish was made a criminal offence.
However, fifty years on Lady Brunner may well be turning in her grave as it seems that Britain still needs a good old tidy. From fly tipping and illegal dumping to throwing cigarette butts out of car windows – we are still littering heavily. Fly tipping last year cost the tax payer over £120 million to clear up.
Last night, travel writer Bill Bryson reported on Britain’s litter crisis in a documentary for BBC’s Panorama. According to Bryson our standards are slipping. When he first came to the country, in 1972, he was by his own account ‘smitten’ about our ‘orderly, well-manicured society’ but now the honeymoon period is over.
Although it may be hard to believe, Britain has some of the toughest litter laws in Europe. With the introduction of The Cleaner Neighbourhoods and Environment Act in 2005, local authorities have been granted increased powers to penalise those who litter, fly-tip and otherwise deface and damage the local environment. However, penalties are still somewhat of a postcode lottery, as seventy four local authorities in Britain did not issue any penalty fines last year. Furthermore, due to the nature of littering and tipping, offenders are unlikely to get caught.
So are fixed penalty fines really the solution?
It seems whilst we are keen to recycle in the home, with our recycling boxes overflowing on our front paths, we are unable to get to grips with placing our chewing gum and cigarette butts in litter bins whilst out in the street.
So why don’t we place litter in bins? Could a broad national campaign to remind us to Keep Britain Tidy and drop our litter in bins again be the solution?
By Danielle Thomas
However, fifty years on Lady Brunner may well be turning in her grave as it seems that Britain still needs a good old tidy. From fly tipping and illegal dumping to throwing cigarette butts out of car windows – we are still littering heavily. Fly tipping last year cost the tax payer over £120 million to clear up.
Last night, travel writer Bill Bryson reported on Britain’s litter crisis in a documentary for BBC’s Panorama. According to Bryson our standards are slipping. When he first came to the country, in 1972, he was by his own account ‘smitten’ about our ‘orderly, well-manicured society’ but now the honeymoon period is over.
Although it may be hard to believe, Britain has some of the toughest litter laws in Europe. With the introduction of The Cleaner Neighbourhoods and Environment Act in 2005, local authorities have been granted increased powers to penalise those who litter, fly-tip and otherwise deface and damage the local environment. However, penalties are still somewhat of a postcode lottery, as seventy four local authorities in Britain did not issue any penalty fines last year. Furthermore, due to the nature of littering and tipping, offenders are unlikely to get caught.
So are fixed penalty fines really the solution?
It seems whilst we are keen to recycle in the home, with our recycling boxes overflowing on our front paths, we are unable to get to grips with placing our chewing gum and cigarette butts in litter bins whilst out in the street.
So why don’t we place litter in bins? Could a broad national campaign to remind us to Keep Britain Tidy and drop our litter in bins again be the solution?
By Danielle Thomas
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Can we still afford to save the planet during the credit crunch?
The credit crunch has forced nearly all of us to change our consumer habits one way or another over the last year. Soaring food and petrol prices have left our purses and wallets on the lighter side. Consequently we have given up many of life’s little luxuries – the coffees before work, the second car, eating out and the impulse buys – to name a few. Furthermore, as a result of our quest as consumers to get the best deals and seek cheaper alternatives, budget supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl have attracted increased custom.
An article in The Times on 7 August 2008 states that even the organic food market has been credit-crunched. A sector which boomed from 2002 – 2007 due to the trendy, ‘Yummy Mummy - Jamie Oliver following’ movement has now stalled. The article states that this new organic food store on Kensington High Street is so quiet you can nearly hear the cheese breathe.
The results of a MORI poll carried out this month show we are less concerned about the environment than a year ago. The main reason is because our preoccupations have shifted onto the economy and rising prices. Rising commodity prices mean we are less inclined to spend our money going green.
However, paradoxically, this economic downturn has taught us a valuable lesson – we don’t have to pay to go green.
With fewer pounds in our pockets the country is unconsciously becoming greener.
In our bid to conserve money, we are growing our own produce, turning off our central heating, and taking fewer holidays abroad, thus reducing our carbon footprint. Our efforts to become increasingly economical are in fact just as environmentally-friendly. Even I myself have reconsidered the need for a plastic bag in Marks and Spencer since the introduction of their 5 pence charge per carrier.
Well, well, well the credit crunch isn’t such a bad thing after all.
By Danielle Thomas
An article in The Times on 7 August 2008 states that even the organic food market has been credit-crunched. A sector which boomed from 2002 – 2007 due to the trendy, ‘Yummy Mummy - Jamie Oliver following’ movement has now stalled. The article states that this new organic food store on Kensington High Street is so quiet you can nearly hear the cheese breathe.
The results of a MORI poll carried out this month show we are less concerned about the environment than a year ago. The main reason is because our preoccupations have shifted onto the economy and rising prices. Rising commodity prices mean we are less inclined to spend our money going green.
However, paradoxically, this economic downturn has taught us a valuable lesson – we don’t have to pay to go green.
With fewer pounds in our pockets the country is unconsciously becoming greener.
In our bid to conserve money, we are growing our own produce, turning off our central heating, and taking fewer holidays abroad, thus reducing our carbon footprint. Our efforts to become increasingly economical are in fact just as environmentally-friendly. Even I myself have reconsidered the need for a plastic bag in Marks and Spencer since the introduction of their 5 pence charge per carrier.
Well, well, well the credit crunch isn’t such a bad thing after all.
By Danielle Thomas
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Pollution and the Beijing Olympics
There has been a lot of coverage in the news lately about the air pollution in Beijing, and its potential impact on the Olympic Games. I noticed particularly an article in The Sun on the 5th August.
It explained how China has attempted to improve the environment. It has banned cars from the city’s streets, closed local factories and planted trees in an effort to improve the air. However, it just doesn’t seem to have worked that well.
I can’t imagine how athletes from endurance events, such as the Marathon are going to manage. According to the article, the marathon may have to be postponed and many athletes are considering competing in protective masks. If an event is postponed, it will be the first time that it is down to air pollution.
However, we have to be careful about the judgements that we make - a lot of the pollution in China comes from Britain. At a landfill site in Xing Tan, the Sun found Tesco carrier bags and discarded British electrical goods. Experts say that sites like this could responsible for much of Beijing’s smog problems. Under EU Law British waste cannot be dumped abroad, but shipments for recycling are permitted. Recycling is an economically lucrative task in China – the article cites Zhang Guofu, who makes more money as a rubbish dealer than his previous job as a rice farmer. Ironically, the problem is exacerbated because a lot of the products that are sent back for recycling originated in China in the first place. 1.9 million tons of paper, 390,000 tons of metal and 78,000 tons of plastic are sent to China from the UK.
It will be interesting to see what environmental changes will be made in London for 2012, as a result of these problems experienced in China.
It explained how China has attempted to improve the environment. It has banned cars from the city’s streets, closed local factories and planted trees in an effort to improve the air. However, it just doesn’t seem to have worked that well.
I can’t imagine how athletes from endurance events, such as the Marathon are going to manage. According to the article, the marathon may have to be postponed and many athletes are considering competing in protective masks. If an event is postponed, it will be the first time that it is down to air pollution.
However, we have to be careful about the judgements that we make - a lot of the pollution in China comes from Britain. At a landfill site in Xing Tan, the Sun found Tesco carrier bags and discarded British electrical goods. Experts say that sites like this could responsible for much of Beijing’s smog problems. Under EU Law British waste cannot be dumped abroad, but shipments for recycling are permitted. Recycling is an economically lucrative task in China – the article cites Zhang Guofu, who makes more money as a rubbish dealer than his previous job as a rice farmer. Ironically, the problem is exacerbated because a lot of the products that are sent back for recycling originated in China in the first place. 1.9 million tons of paper, 390,000 tons of metal and 78,000 tons of plastic are sent to China from the UK.
It will be interesting to see what environmental changes will be made in London for 2012, as a result of these problems experienced in China.
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