Earth Dream Blog

Formula 1 introduces fuel efficiency as a competitive performance differentiator!

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:05:00 +0000

F1 is in shit. At least that's what the doom-mongers are claiming following the sudden exit of Honda recently. With the world being in the grip of an economic recession even the biggest companies are struggling to justify the $200 million annually that it costs to compete.

With this as a backdrop the F1 teams and the ruling body of the sport met last week to agree some radical cost cutting measures. Some of these have the potential to deliver environmental benefit as a nice side effect.

First up there is the general reduction in power hungry and environmentally damaging development work - wind tunnels have been limited and testing is banned during the season. Hardly an environmental benefit but a reduction in harm we'll take at the moment.

But, and here is the biggie, from 2010 refuelling during races will be banned. This means that those teams with efficient engines will be able to run lighter cars and should out-perform their heavier rivals. Think about that, the collective brainpower of formula 1 engineers working towards more efficient engines, no doubt unlocking techniques that can filter down to road cars as F1 has traditionally done in the past. Of course we suggested as much should happen ages ago.

What have we done?

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Amusing headline spotted

Earth Dream not to blame for Honda exit

Yeap, Honda quit F1 motorsport and it's our fault.

Big up our bad selves.

Green Extreme! Police warn of Eco-Terrorists.

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:46:00 +0000

In today's Observer (one of the "quality" UK Sunday newspapers) is an article entitled Police warn of growing threat from eco-terrorists which goes on to describe an organisation called Earth First! which allegedy advocates an 80 percent cut in the global human population in order to save the planet.

Apparently the organisation is being monitored by The National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit who are expecting a 'lone maverick' acting on behalf of Earth First! to "attempt a terrorist attack aimed at killing large numbers of Britons."

Fucking psychos you might think. Especially if you stop reading shortly after the fold. Earth First! is clearly up there with Al Qaeda in the classmates most likely to bring about the end of your life shortlist. Probably all eco warriors are the same too, just like all Muslims probably want to kill you, and living in England in the 80's I'm still not so sure the Irish won't blow me up either. But those eco monkeys. Fuck, this is the worst yet.

Actually the article does work really hard to conjour up images of "climate camps" as terrorist training facilities where you can literally learn to put the warrior into eco-warrior.

The thing is if you carry on reading you find that Earth First! don't actually subscribe to mass culling of the species at all. As an anonymous spokesman suggests "the ecology also includes humans". That is a nod towards balance and actually demonstrates an amount of journalism (see I told you the Observer was a quality paper).

So they probably aren't really encouraging mass slaughter of innocents then, although a quick scan over the Earth First! (sorry, EF!) website seems to indicate that they are far from harmless. They might be non-violent, but they will quite happily publish tales of vandalism perpetrated by members of the organisation. Which does make them a bunch of idiots and an easy scapegoat if there is any value in creating the image of a radicalised dangerous form of eco-terrorist.

You see it all helps to discredit environmental causes in the current financial climate where green/ethical business practices will be unnecessarily expensive maintain and governments have spent all the money they had for dealing with climate change on bailing out the banks. It would be much easier if we all just thought these greenies were a bunch of loonies and didn't really want to associate with their ideals any more. Then we might be less inclined to ask our leaders to do difficult and expensive things like SAVING THE FUCKING PLANET!

So well done mass media, well done activist twats, well done credit crunch, you've given the spin-monkeys everything they need.

As the global recession takes hold...bugger the environment

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:57:00 +0000

In the current issue of Private Eye there is a cartoon in which the EU environment ministers re-assess climate targets. "Great! We can dump these targets that we were never going to meet and blame the banks".

On the same page there is an article about Gordon Brown campaigning to get the price per litre of fuel reduced, yet high fuel prices really were causing people to re-think their driving habits even before the banking system went tits up and people started feeling financially vulnerable.

As we know living in an ethical and environmentally friendly manner can be achieved fairly easily by those who can afford it, but with a recession the number of people who feel that they can afford the luxury of prolonging human existence on the planet beyond their lifetime will surely reduce.

Of course it doesn't need to be expensive to be green, but it takes more effort to do it on the cheap. Let's hope the cause doesn't get forgotten as world governments scramble to find ways to restore the reckless standard of living that their populations have become accustomed.

Shell get their wrists slapped for lying in an advert

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:09:00 +0000

Spotted in this weeks Advertising Standards Authority adjudications was a complaint about a print ad from Shell International. The ad printed in the UK national press stated that "We invest today's profits in tomorrow's solutions". Ignoring for a minute that any corporation actually has to invest today's profits for the future profits of it's shareholders, otherwise it would be doing them a disservice, such is the wanky nature of the modern business model the ad went on to say

Text at the top of the ad, attributed to Shell's Chief Executive, stated "A growing world needs more energy, but at the same time we need to find new ways of managing carbon emissions to limit climate change. Continued investment in technology is one of the key ways we are able to address this challenge, and continue to secure a profitable and sustainable future". Further text at the bottom of the ad stated "The challenge of the 21st century is to meet the growing need for energy in ways that are not only profitable but sustainable. As our 2007 results show, we're investing heavily in new technology and assets to safeguard the interests of our shareholders and future generations. In Canada we're harnessing our global network of technical and financial expertise to unlock the potential of the vast Canadian oil sands deposit. In the USA we're helping to build what will be the nation's largest refinery. And we're exploring a new generation of biofuels made from non-food sources. Difficult yes, impossible no". The ad then directed readers to full details of Shell's 2007 results on their website.

The accuracy of this advertisement was challenged by the World Wildlife Fund UK on 2 fronts, namely whether:

1. by harnessing the potential of the Canadian oil sands deposit, Shell was helping to provide a sustainable future; and

2. by helping to build the largest refinery in the US, Shell was helping sustainable energy production.

As a result the advertisement was investigated under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 49.1 and 49.3 (Environmental claims), in other words they were accused of making shit up in order to hop onto the environmental bandwagon.

To summarise the ruling both complaints were upheld, Shell were playing fast and loose with the facts and particularly by claiming that making a larger oil refinery they would be assisting with sustainable energy production when in fact they would be increasing CO2 emissions overall, and by describing oil sands as sustainable when according to the WWF they are actually one of the dirtiest energy sources.

Unfortunately all the ASA are able to do is instruct Shell not to run the ad again, but the chances are more people saw it than will see the ruling so I doubt that they are that bothered.

The rather lengthy response from Shell, and the full ruling from the ASA can be read here, and the response from the WWF UK is here.

Please don't pick up your dog poo!

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:20:00 +0000

Okay, I'm really not suggesting that if you are a dog owner that you leave it's crap lying around - having a couple of young children and living near a park where they like to play you can imagine that irresponsible dog owners really grind my gears. If you can't be bothered to read the rest of this update PLEASE DO PICK UP YOUR DOG POO.

Now for the rest of you what the hell am I wittering about? Well the title of this update was inspired by a notice I spotted at the entrance to a local area of managed woodland while walking the dogs today. We've become accustomed these days to signs warning us that we will be fined if we don't clean up after our dogs (although I don't think I've ever seen anyone with the authority to issue such a fine while I've been out) so it was interesting to spot one today politely requesting that we do the opposite.

Naturally details were short but the implication seemed to be that due to the eco-nature of the area they would rather you didn't use plastic bags to collect your dog mess and instead leave it for nature to take it's course if it is out of the way of the paths and car parks. Oh the fun trying to find a stick to flick dog crap far enough into the undergrowth when our Labrador opted to squeeze one out right on the edge of the main entrance route to the forest.

Anyway, getting back to the matter in hand seeing this sign reinforced a concern I've had for some time. You see responsible dog owners collect their crap, but it's usually in plastic bags and typically it's then deposited in general waste bins. Not the most environmentally friendly option, and I guess it means that the contents of these bins aren't likely to be sorted for recycling if they are 50% full of bagged dog mess!

There has to be a better option surely? I just can't think of it. It's not practical to carry a shovel round to bury it, and I'm sure the council wouldn't take kindly to legions of dog owners digging up their parks, so apart from buying bio-degradable poo bags which will only do so much good in the land-fill anyway what can the eco conscious dog owner do?

Answers on a post card...or in the comments box ;)

Sustainable Music Festivals?

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:38:00 +0000

Although you might not realise it from the weather if you live in the UK at the moment it's the middle of summer and the festival season is well under way. Here at EarthDream we are partial to a bit of a dance in the sunshine and are encouraged by the number of big events that are taking their environmental impact seriously, particularly in the dance music sphere.

From alternative energy powered stages (although this rarely extends to main stages at big events) to the often poorly received (read accused of cynical money grabbing) "green tax" on parking to encourage car sharing there are all manner of initiatives aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of, let's face it, some potentially pretty environmentally destructive events.

Of all the UK festivals this year though few have gone as far as Waveform claim to with it's policy of prioritising solar and wind power, and even resorting to pedal power. Of course the electronica heavy line-up requires some serious late night amplification so where it's abolutely necessary they will resort to bio-diesel (yes yes we know it's controversial but what are the current alternatives?).

But it's not just the power where the sustainable nature of the festival is apparent, with eco-talks and workshops going on over the weekend and a team of dedicated "eco-rangers" ensuring that traders are furnished with the required information to reduce their envinronmental impact, and that enough information is gathered "on the ground" to help the organisers further improve next year.

Oh and the line-up looks pretty fantastic too!

Max Mosely and the Green F1 Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:40:00 +0000

Even if you aren't into Formula 1 the chances are you have heard of president of the FIA (F1's controlling body) perhaps for all the wrong reasons after details of his whore habit were recently exposed by a tabloid newspaper.

Well having been cleared of having Nazi overtones to his nasty he's started talking about making Formula 1 greener for his remaining term as president. Many might see this as bandwagon jumping but it's important to recognise that when Max puts his mind to something he is able to deliver.

The last comparable crusade was for safety in F1 and by extension we all got safer road cars as a result of the Euro NCap body of which Mosely was chairman from it's inception.

If he can do the same thing for the environment, and making cars greener then surely we can all benefit.

Citizens or Consumers?

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:07:00 +0000

Did you know that in the United Kingdom at the moment you can be arrested for eating a cake in parliament square if it happens to have words iced on it that politicians don't like? And not even words that they legitimately might take offence to either, for example if your icing of choice spelled out "Ruth Kelly is a creepy mad manboy bullshit muncher" you might at least understand why the Government wouldn't be impressed although even so you might find it a bit extreme if the tourettes baker had their collar felt.

So which delicious iced words will get you arrested then? "Freedom of Speech" is one example. It's true. In 2005 a group of "protesters" were arrested in parliament square. Their protest comprised eating politically decorated cakes.

If you are reading the above and thinking "well I already new that and it's a fucking disgrace" then you are either more tuned in to the more sinister activities of the shower of weasel piss that we've given power to for the last 11 years than most of the zombie consumerist drone people that modern Britain has created, or you might have read Dan Kieran's "I Fought The Law" which has recently been released in paperback. If you've not read it, you live in the UK, and you weren't aware that cake is now a crime then you need to get down your local library and borrow a copy because the entire situation is far more bleak than you might expect.

What makes Dan's book stand out is that it started life as another novelty Christmas gift of the type he written in the past (Crap Towns, Crap Jobs, Crap Holidays...etc). This time he was planning to find ridiculous bylaws left on the statue book as a result of lazy legislative housekeeping and break them but as he started his research he found another far more important story, that is the sheer extent to which our freedoms have been eroded as a result of laws passed by the current Government. "Erosion of freedoms you say...change the record...you'll be tin-foiling your hat next" - but because of the way this book came about from someone who was just discovering what the Government had done in his name it's all the more convincing for it.

On his journey Dan explains how we have all become consumers of the country rather than citizens of it, a wide reaching hypothesis that is applied to all manner of shittiness in society. It also demonstrates the extent to which we as UK citizens can no longer be considered "innocent until proven guilty", including the law abiding IT consultant who was arrested for nothing more than failing to make eye contact with a policeman.

Buy a copy of this book for anyone you know who has voted Labour in the last 10 years so you can show them the dark times their X on the paper has plunged us into. Maybe they'll exercise a bit of democratic responsibility next time.

Shark vs. Octopus -- National Geographic

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Who would win in a fight out of Superman and Batman? He-Man and Lion-o? Wonderwoman and Chyna? An Isreali town and an Iranian nuke? A shark and an Octopus?

Well thanks to National Geographic we can at least answer one of these questions, and we've got the video to prove it.

Shark vs. Octopus -- National Geographic

OK it's a small shark, and to be honest the video raises the same sort of ethical questions that the old Italian Mondo cycle of the 70's did as you are left wondering if the whole thing has been staged and the unsuspecting shark has been fed to a greedy Octo just for the camera and the entertainment of desensitised netizens.

Still it's colourful and interesting all the same.

BMW Efficient Dynamics "Thank You" TV Spot

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:05:00 +0000

While Audi still witter on about performance in every part and Mercedes don't seem too bothered about advertising on TV at all here in the UK at the moment BMW has stolen a march on it's German rivals in the environmental stakes with this TV spot thanking hills and stop signs amongst other things for providing opportunities for them to utilise their fuel efficient technologies.

With petrol prices in Blighty increasing at a rate of knots even people who can afford a new beamer are likely to be concerned about their ability to keep a thirsty car running so this campaign promising nearly 70mpg is bound to resonate.

Another Earth Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:48:00 +0000

It isn't just us and Honda F1 who find ourselves having Earth Dreams, oh no. When perusing a free CD from the cover of UK periodical Metal Hammer we noticed a track by Austrian symphonic metal act Edenbridge who had a track featured from their forthcoming (debut?) album MyEarthDream.

The track itself is in the post-Evanescence female fronted classical influenced style popular with mainland European acts at the moment, and having not heard the rest of the album we here at the other earthdream aren't sure if there is any correlation between the message on this concept album and the agenda of our little corner of the web.

What does seem likely however is that with Edenbridge guitarist and keyboard player Lanvall listing Formula 1 motorsport as his hobby there is probably some influence from the Honda positive marketing initiative of the same name.

More from El Camino del Rey (El Caminito del Rey)

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:49:00 +0000

The previous video we posted of the mad pathway through the gorge known as El Camino del Rey proved pretty popular, so here is another.

Check out the girl in the blue T-Shirt who appears to be treating the entire thing like a stroll home from the pub!

Blood, Sweat, T-Shirts, You, Wear, Suffering

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:29:00 +0000

I've not got around to watching this yet but some enlightened and trustworthy colleagues have been telling me about Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts in which a bunch of British fashion-mongers go and work in some typical Indian sweatshops that produce the clothes that we buy for anything between 50p in Primark to £150 in some swanky up itself gitshop for essentially the same article produced in the same hell-hole by the same people for the same horrendous quality of life.

Or as the programme's website says:

Six young fashion addicts experience life as factory workers in India, making clothes for the British high street. In this four-part series, the six work in the mills of India’s cotton belt and stitch clothes in cramped back rooms, sleeping next to their sewing machine. See how it changes their attitudes to cut-price clothing.

Gonna have to iPlayer that one.

Meanwhile with the global credit crunch going on and bills rocketing companies that do try to make things for a fair price and charge a realistic price for them go out of business.

Masdar City - Eco City of the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:38:00 +0000

Maybe Earth Dream is a little late to the party in reporting this one but we've just noticed that the United Arab Emirates are building an eco city of the future, which will house 50,000 people and 1500 businesses and be powered entirely by renewable energy sources and has been designed by Foster and Partners.

It all sounds a bit Walt Disney's Epcot, but the fact that they are committing to having the first phase habitable by 2009 shows that we are talking about more than a giant golf ball and a bunch of audio animatronics, and it's about time a rich nation started doing something like this before it's too late.

So why are they doing it? Sitting on 10% of the worlds oil reserves you might think that they would be the last ones to be bothered about the ever widening gap between supply and demand of the old texas tea? Wrong.

You see the UAE is rich as a result of oil. The energy business is what they do and what they know. They want to make sure that they steal a march on the rest of the developed world who are still pissing about building new fossil fuel powered stations and become the go-to guys for the next generation of global energy supply. Result = big $$$ when the rest of us need to catch up.

So will it work? Well it being the first such project of this scale there will certainly be a lot of lessons to learn on the way. As one grumpy Earth Dream contributor who currently works in a Foster designed monstrosity moaned "the first lesson they'll learn is not to use bloody Fosters. Imagine a whole city of bad recycled air, rubbish quality light and horrid sci-fi nightmares...". Let's hope that with this being the Eco City of the Future he'll at least be wrong about the bad air.

An amazing video - El camino del Rey

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:28:00 +0000

OK so this is a slight deviation from the EarthDream topic but we've just been forwarded this video and felt compelled to share it.

Steal my idea wouldya? About.com I'm callin' you out!

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:33:00 +0000

Whilst mooching around the environmental websites I spotted this article on the About.com Environmental Blog.

What does this have to do with us? Nothing other than it's nice when an apparently Pullitzer prize nominated journalist is ripping off your articles (and your follow up article). Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Larry, but you could at least have the good grace to link back to the old Earth Dream me old mucker jimminy lad barnacle son from the briney!

Of course it could be a coincidence, Larry could have just thought of the exact same idea for an article a month or so after we did and used most of the same categories as us. I mean I doubt the About.com entry in our links page even registers in their referrer logs so I doubt they made it back here via that route. I'm sure Larry, the Pullitzer prize nominee simply had a great idea independently of us and wrote his article. The fact that we did it first just means that we are better than Larry.

So where is my Pullitzer then?

Serj Tankian and Tom Morello "get it".

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:04:00 +0000

Recently popping up on the Earth Dream radar is the Axis of Justice, a non-profit organisation set up by two of rock musics most outstanding talents, namely Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame and Serj Tankian of System of a Down.

The Axis of Justice mission statement give you an idea what they are about.

Axis of Justice is a non-profit organization
formed by Tom Morello and Serj Tankian. Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice.

We aim to build a bridge between fans of
music around the world and local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice.

Serj has also created "Elect the Dead" which aims to reform the frankly messed up democratic system in the United States.

As members of 2 of the most politically charged rock bands of the last 15 years Morello and Tankian are putting their money where their respective mouths (and guitars) have been.

Off-grid, Beer (mmmmm beer) and the Olympic Flame

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:24:00 +0000

Q: What do the 3 things in the title of this update have to do with each other?

A: They all appear in this update.

Firstly and most importantly let's talk Beer. If any of your pub buddies are still sceptical about climate change and need convincing point them to this article Global warming will affect beer production.

Also on the subject of fall down juice be sure to check out Grist's review of organic beers for hippies.

Spent all your utility bill budget on Beer? Never fear. Live off grid.

And finally, the link that isn't beer related. Let's all congratulate China on being so downright lacking in human rights that they have managed to taint an Olympic tradition that has managed to stand proud for decades despite the fact that it was invented by Hitler. Free Tibet, or "how parading something invented by Nazi's is backfiring on commies".

ED out.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Aircraft + Greenest Cars

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:41:00 +0000

Boeing have successfully tested a manned hydrogen fuel cell powered plane in Spain this week.

The plane uses the fuel cells to power an electric motor and was flown to over 3000ft.

Full Story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23936802/

Lets hope this time around that hydrogen powered flight is a little safer...

From the same website I also spotted this nice little chart of the greenest cars of 2007:

Make and Model	Specifications¹	Fuel Econ. City	Fuel Econ. Highway	Green Score
Honda Civic GX	1.8L 4, auto [CNG]²	28	39	57
Toyota Prius	1.5L 4, auto CVT	60	51	55
Honda Civic Hybrid	1.3L 4, auto CVT	49	51	53
Nissan Altima Hybrid	2.5L 4, auto CVT	42	36	48
Toyota Yaris	1.5L 4, manual	34	40	47
Toyota Corolla	1.8L 4, manual	32	41	46
Toyota Camry Hybrid	2.4L 4, auto CVT	40	38	46
Honda Fit	1.5L 4, manual	33	38	45
Kia Rio	1.6L 4, manual	32	35	45
Hyundai Accent	1.6L 4, manual	32	35	45
Hyundai Elantra	2.0L 4, auto	28	36	45
Honda Civic	1.8L 4, auto	30	40	44

And just for balance they also included the least green cars. Note the impressive feat from Mercedes who have made a 3.0l diesel engine less green than a 6.5l Lambo!

Make and Model	Specifications¹	Fuel Econ. City	Fuel Econ. Highway	Green Score
Volkswagen Touareg	5.0L 10, auto stk 4wd [D]	17	22	14
Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI	3.0L 6, auto 4wd [D]	20	25	16
Lamborghini Murcielago	6.5L 12, manual 4wd [P]	9	14	17
Jeep Grand Cherokee	3.0L 6, auto 4wd [D]	20	24	17
Bentley Arnage	6.7L 8, auto stk [P]	10	15	18
Mercedes-Benz R320 CDI	3.0L 6, auto 4wd [D]	21	28	18
Mercedes-Benz ML320 CDI	3.0L 6, auto 4wd [D]	21	27	18
Maybach 57S	6.0L 12, auto [P]	11	17	18
Bentley Azure	6.7L 8, auto stk [P]	11	16	18
Ford F-250³	5.4L 8, auto 4wd	13	17	19
Dodge Ram 2500 Mega Cab³	5.7L 8, auto 4wd	13	18	19
Lincoln Navigator³	5.4L 8, auto 4wd	13	18	20

Britain wants to redefine "Renewable", Earth Hour and more

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:18:00 +0000

It seems that here in the UK hypocrisy when it comes to the environment is rife. On the surface the government seems to be at least trying to come to terms with the issues, not least by taxing the arsehole off of anything that they can get away with in the name of green. But then they go and do something like this.

For those that can't be bothered to read the article basically ministers have realised that meeting our renewable energy objectives will be bothersome and so they are trying to have the rules changed so that British investment in renewable energy anywhere in the world counts towards our quota, and even more ludicrous they are lobbying to get coal fired power stations counted as "renewable".

Just build the fucking windfarms already.

Earth Hour is today
That's right. At 8pm tonight the World Wildlife Fund and others through the Earth Hour campaign are encouraging people to turn off the lights for 1 hour to save the planet. Of course it's entirely symbolic, and designed to raise awareness of climate issues.

We'd like to tell you more but the Earth Hour website appears to have gone offline.

Of course here in the UK we don't appear the have organised anything, which is probably for the best after the UK Energy Saving Day fiasco. Also we couldn't possibly turn out the lights here for fear of binge drinking hooligan teenage gypsy hoards who would steal our children and stab each other up in the streets.

China, Lead and our desire for Cheap Shit.

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:37:00 +0000

It seems that barely a week goes by without us being told of another item that has been manufactured in China for sale in the west which is loaded with dangerous levels of lead.

This week a report from the California based Center for Environmental Health came to my attention, mainly as it focusses on Hannah Montana, and I have a child who is slap bang in the target audience for the popular Disney Channel production.

Anyway CEHCA went out and randomly bought a bunch of Hannah Montana products and found dangerous levels of lead in them.

Recent studies have shown that lead exposure can reduce a childs IQ, cause ADHD and reduce reaction times.

You'd think that with the number of these discoveries occurring in products manufactured in China something would be being done. The problem is China is an economy built and strengthened on human rights abuses. It's not surprising then that they don't give a flying fuck about people and whether they are producing dangerous products to sell overseas. The only thing the Chinese power-mongers seemingly give a toss about at the moment is money and power, and so the solution to the problem of dangerous toys won't come from there. Unless of course it starts to hurt their bottom line, then they might force their manufacturing industry to clean up their act.

Of course this is unlikely to happen as the other link in the chain, the western retailers, want to sell cheap shit at a high price and China is a great source of cheap shit so our retailers will buy it in and sell it on to us no questions asked. The odd bit probably gets picked up and a low key recall is issued but most of it probably won't be returned and the profits are made.

More info here

The shitty economy of stuff we don't need.

Gordon Brown, The Dalai Lama, And the trouble with politicians

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:53:00 +0000

In the UK news over the last day or two there has been occasional mention of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's refusal to meet the Dalai Lama.

This puts the exiled Tibetan leader in the company of such horrendous wastes of flesh and blood as Robert Mugabe as the previous newsworthy Brown non-meeter.

Of course there is absolutely fuck all the Dalai Lama has in common with Mugabe. One is the exiled leader of an occupied country who advocates peaceful action, the other has presided over 3 decades of human rights abuse, corruption and economic mismanagement that has destroyed the quality of life and halved the average life expectancy of the population of an entire country.

Of course you can understand Brown snubbing Mugabe, who is clearly a grade A cock, but why does he want to snub someone who despite intense provocation has refused to stoop to violent conduct in the face of human rights abuse? The very reason Mugabe is off his Christmas card list.

1 reason. Most of the influential countries in the world agree that Mugabe is a plum, therefore Brown feels that he can do what he likes as far as he is concerned. He's like a mid-ranking School bully only picking on the kids that the bigger kids say it's OK to wedgie.

Unfortunately for the Dalai Lama one of these bigger kids in the form of China is his own personal bully so Brown has no choice but to steal Tibets dinner money and flush it's head down the toilet otherwise China might call Brown a soft lad and push him off his bike.

In short Gordon Brown, like the majority of politicians is a 2 faced cock who only gives a shit about the suffering of foreign nationals if the people causing the suffering aren't ever going to be of any (usually economic) benefit or cause any ripples in his power pool. It makes me proud to be British.

And here endeth politics 101.

Earth Hour - March 29th 2008 - Get ready to turn out the lights

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:40:00 +0000

Started in Sydney in 2007 this year Earth Hour, in which entire cities turn out their lights, goes global.

Notably no English cities are listed, probably a good thing after the flop that was Energy Saving Day, but even if you live in a city that hasn't signed up you can still turn your lights off and ask your employer to do the same for an hour at 8pm on March 29th.

Earth Hour 2008 Website

Another "Green" F1 Story

noreply@blogger.com (Earthdream) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:32:00 +0000

Whilst it was never our intention to give so much attention to Formula 1 (despite the coincidental domain name with Honda F1's "positive marketing" campaign) we couldn't pass up the opportunity to report on the latest piece of green waffle from the motor sport governing body the FIA.

With a new season starting in Australia last weekend (incidentally the highest greenhouse emitting nation per capita in the world) the FIA issued a release in which the F1 drivers pledged their support to the "Make Cars Green" campaign.

The aims of the campaign are laudable, to quote the press release

Make Cars Green is a global campaign, aimed at helping to reduce the impact of motoring on the environment.

We can't really argue with that. We won't end mankind's love affair with the automobile, and it's not what Earth Dream is about to argue that we should. And as we commented last week the big brains in the F1 teams have a rich history of pioneering technologies that have made it into modern road cars.

Where we do take a slight issue is the method by which they are doing it. You see F1 engine development is now frozen for a number of years, despite the thirsty nature of the current power units, and additional power can only be delivered by hybrid "Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems", or as the FIA release puts it

The Make Cars Green campaign forms part of the FIA’s ongoing commitment to work with policy makers, industry and motoring consumers to encourage greener motoring. The FIA Formula One World Championship will take a lead in this when in 2009 hybrid devices called KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) will be introduced. These devices can store energy under braking and re-use that energy for acceleration. It is the first in a number of initiatives set to make the sport more road relevant and environmentally sustainable.

All well and good, but why have they shackled the F1 designers? These are incredibly intelligent and inventive engineers. These people don't need to be given the "solution" to investigate by the governing body. By telling them "KERS is the way to make cars greener now go and do it" you miss the possibility that they might be able to concoct better more efficient technologies by being given a wider brief.

What the FIA has done is effectively bet the farm on KERS becoming the hybrid technology of choice, and with the resources F1 teams can put into it and the strong links to many major auto manufacturers the FIA is effectively forcing their pet technology to the fore.

Surely if F1 was serious about "going green" a better approach would be to tell the teams that they were going to limit the amount of fossil fuel available to them over subsequent seasons. If teams were told that their fuel allowance would be progressively lower until in 5 years time they would need to complete the race with a 1 gallon fuel tank and no refuelling stops you would see some radical solutions to the problem of "Green Motoring". With the average F1 race clocking in at around 200 miles and some road cars (such as VW's Blue Motion) claiming 70+ mpg already this must be a realistic target.

Imagine what the boffins could come up with if incentivised like that!

Sadly "Mad Max" has bottled it. Which is bizarre as compared to some of his suggestions over the last few years such as making drivers swap cars for each race it would seem a pretty sensible approach.

Still the headline "Make Cars Green" is nice marketing spin for the most environmentally unfriendly of sports and let's them make comments like this

The Make Cars Green campaign seeks to reduce the impact of motoring on the environment in a number of ways. These include: the promotion of more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient driver behaviour; the introduction of new technologies to help motorists monitor their environmental impact; the improvement of tyre design to help save energy; and by encouraging the global use of unleaded and sulphur free fuels.

For further reading the FIA's press release can be found here and the FIA related Make Cars Green website can be found here which features a 10 points for greener motoring section which bears some remarkable similarities to the motoring part of Earth Dreams own Five Things... article.