Friday 26th October 2007

BLACKOUT NEW YORK STATE
New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer is not only putting in place to tax high power plant emissions, and not only seeking to put in place controls on car manufacturers to regulate vehicle emissions, and not only working with more than a dozen American states to sue the United States Federal Government for holding up efforts to regulate for emissions, he is also asking for a BLACKOUT : 15 x 15, that's 15% cuts in electricity use by 2015, through a combination of efficiency and limitation. He's a BLACKOUT STAR :-

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/nyregion/24emissions.html?ref=nyregion
http://www.nyserda.org/lifenynews/pdfs/Newsletter/2007Q3LifeNL.pdf
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2007/2007-08-31-094.asp

BLACKOUT GAZA
A possible enforced BLACKOUT in Gaza has been proposed by Israeli officials as Gaza has been identified by them as a "hostile entity". Electricity and fuel supplies could be cut in order quell attacks. Sounds like an abuse of civil rights, according to BLACKOUT BRITAIN. If the people of Gaza want to BLACKOUT with us in protest, they are more than welcome :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2172691,00.html

BLACKOUT BLOOMBERG
New York, like London, is strong on the BLACKOUTing, and the mayors have both issued city plans for energy control and efficiency :-

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20071015/200/2319

Bloomberg, we salute you !

BLACKOUT SQUIRREL
Yes, a squirrel is the latest animal activist to shut off the lights. He's probably toast by now, but he shall be remembered with pride :-

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/competitions.var.1789431.0.0.php

BLACKOUT SOUTH AFRICA
All across Southern Africa there have been problems with electricity generation through "unplanned outages" and the governments and power companies have been calling for demand restraint :-

http://allafrica.com/stories/200710260554.html
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=584940

For some, power has been cut off deliberately because of difficulties with paying bills. Civil punishment of the highest order :-

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=595387

BLACKOUT HALLOWEED
Someone growing cannabis was using a large amount of power, and when their weed farm was disconnected, it brought down the local area electricity supply :-

http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/display.var.1785327.0.dodgy_wiring_causes_power_cut.php

BLACKOUT ZIMBABWE
In addition to the enforced BLACKOUTs because of water being diverted from hydroelectric generation to crop irrigation, now Zimbabwe is facing power cuts due to engineering faults :-

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=nw20071026130749315C950739

BLACKOUT ISRAEL
The Israel Electric Corporation is going for energy efficiency :-

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/916764.html

Tuesday 23rd October 2007

PUMPKIN PARTIES : SAVE THE PUMPKIN

Here's an idea for your BLACKOUT : a Pumpkin Party.

Get together with some close friends, turn out all the lights for the BLACKOUT HALLOWEEN and light some candles and sit around the pumpkin and share spooky, fun stories. Maybe sing some songs and eat some raw food salad.

Owing to the bad global pumpkin harvests, we recommend you make your own pumpkin out of old bits of cardboard.

BLACKOUT WINTER ? NUCLEAR FALLOUT
There could be BLACKOUTS this winter because several British nuclear power stations are nearing the end of their useful lives, and are shut down because of repairs, and not much has been planned to replace their generating capacity :-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/23/nuclear123.xml

"Britain is facing the prospect of blackouts this winter as almost half of the country's nuclear power stations have been shut down for repairs. Seven out of the 16 stations are currently inactive, following the announcement of closures of plants in Hartlepool and Heysham after problems were detected during inspections. Professor Ian Fells, an energy specialist from Newcastle University, said this could mean power cuts if the winter is cold."

BLACKOUT SAN FRANSISCO : HIPSTER ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNITE
It wasn't quite a total BLACKOUT, but it was a heartfelt start along the Energy Conservation trail to Power Sanity :-

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/21/BA5ISTN8T.DTL

BLACKOUT GORDON : SWITCH OFF COAL ENERGY : DEMAND RENEWABLE
We're wasting time looking at Carbon Sequestration (Carbon Capture and Storage) and Nuclear Power. Too late, too never. What we need are proven renewable energy installations and Combined Heat and Power in all city centres :-

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/2007/10/rippoff_britain.html

"At the centre of Britain's efforts to tackle climate change are targets for renewable energy, energy efficiency and ultra-efficient combined heat and power (CHP) plants. Yet as warnings about the impact of global warming grow more severe, every single one of those targets is projected to be missed or has already been abandoned. With the agreement in March of a vital new European deal to generate 20% of our energy use (not just electricity, but heat and transport as well) from renewable sources by 2020, signed in a final flourish by Tony Blair, the UK's shortfall is even more acute. But instead of urgently correcting these failures, Brown wants to work in an unholy alliance with the nuclear-obsessed French and climate-change denying Polish presidents to do to this agreement what Bush tried to do to Kyoto. Meanwhile, here at home the government is pouring huge resources into pursuing a nuclear 'solution' that can only address around 4% of the CO2 problem and will take at least 20 years to deliver."

TURN OFF THE COAL BURN
The world has not been planning for the future : apart from burning more and more coal :-
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-20408862.htm
"The proliferation of coal-burning power plants around the world may pose 'the single greatest challenge' to averting dangerous climate change, an international panel of scientists reported Monday. Governments and the private sector are spending too little on research into a partial solution -- technology to capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions from such plants, the group said. The study by 15 scientists from 13 nations, 'Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future,' was commissioned by the governments of China and Brazil and is the product of two years of workshops organized by the InterAcademy Council, the Netherlands-based network of national academies of science. 'The first thing it says, really, is that conservation and energy efficiency will remain for the next couple of decades the most important thing the world can do to get on a sustainable path,' said co-chairman Steven Chu, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and director of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The report took note of the growing role of coal-fired power plants in some countries, 'despite increased scientific certainty and growing concern about climate change.' China expects to open one new coal-fired plant per week over the next five years. In the United States, plans for more than 150 new coal plants have been announced since the late 1990s, although some recently have been scrapped or delayed because of climate and other concerns."

BLACKOUT GERMANY
German engineers move an entire village church so they can mine the coal underneath it :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7058366.stm

"An entire stone church is being lifted and rolled to another location, 12km (7.5 miles) away from its original home in the German village of Heuersdorf. The 660-tonne church, built 750 years ago, is being moved so that coal deposits beneath it can be mined. Heuersdorf's residents are also being relocated to make way for the mine."

BLACKOUT WORLD : THE CARBON SINKS ARE STUFFED
We can forget about trying to stabilise the Climate if we let this carry on :-

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleId=C92C3262-E7F2-99DF-30FA22A938862F9A&chanId=sa003
"The world may finally acknowledge that global warming is a major environmental hazard. But new research shows that reducing the main greenhouse gas behind it may be even more difficult than previously believed. The reason: the world's oceans and forests, which scientists were counting on to help hold off catastrophic rises in carbon dioxide, are already so full of CO2 that they are losing their ability to absorb this climate change culprit. "For every ton of CO2 emitted [into] the atmosphere, the natural sinks are removing less carbon than before," says biologist Josep "Pep" Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project—an Australia–based research consortium devoted to analyzing the pollution behind global warming. "This trend will continue into the future.""

Monday 22nd October 2007

Yo Climate Changers !

BLACKOUT HALLOWEEN : SIGN UP
Let us know you're taking part in BLACKOUT BRITAIN this coming month by e-mailing us. We'll send a few e-mails monthly, to keep you updated and inspired to keep cutting the carbon :-
http://www.blackoutbritain.org.uk/html/signup.html

BLACKOUT AMERICA
October is Energy Awareness Month :-
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/10/19/135936/58
"I encourage Americans to take steps to conserve energy and develop responsible habits that will reduce energy consumption in their everyday lives."
George W. Bush 12th October 2006

BLACKOUT OIL
Oil Price : Going Up. Oil Supply : Going Down :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html

LIGHT PARTY
A positive, wholesome alternative to Halloween :-
http://www.lightparty.org

CALIFORNIA BURNING
Yep ! This could be far, far worse than a few years ago :-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7055721.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2196759,00.html

UK ABANDONS EU RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGETS
Does Gordon Brown deserve a BLACKOUT ?
Or is that a BROWNOUT, actually ? :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/23/renewableenergy.energy
"Ministers are planning a U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change that "effectively abolishes" its targets to rapidly expand the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Gordon Brown will be advised today that the target Tony Blair signed up to this year for 20% of all European energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 is expensive and faces "severe practical difficulties"...The revelations came as scientists announced that carbon emissions were accumulating in the atmosphere far more quickly than predicted..."