The Royal Society of Arts hosted a lecture yesterday evening in London, discussing the recent book ‘Fixing Climate’ with the authors and a panel of eminent climate scientists. An excellent debate ensued, centred around the premise that ’scrubbing’ carbon from the exhaust of coal-fired power stations is going to be one of the very most significant industrial solutions to man-made CO2 emissions. The panel preferred the term ‘anthropogenic’ to man-made, which I found reassuringly science-y.

The authors were kind enough to sign the copies which my colleague and I bought. I began reading mine over my porridge this morning and, like the oats, it’s fairly heavy going but I feel it’s probably worth it. I’ll post a review when I finish it but I want to share an interesting comment made by Lord Oxburgh on the panel yesterday, answering a question from the BBC’s David Shukman about higher energy costs and the people who don’t like them (that’s everyone).
Read more »

Here’s a link to Home-air-purifier-expert.com, a site which goes some way towards explaining the reason why Pli adds no formaldehyde to any of our products, in glues, binders, fillers, coatings or paints… (via Treehugger). Exposure times to industrial emissions of formaldehyde are limited by law. Prolonged exposure even to small quantities of formaldehyde is thought to cause health problems.

Read more »

Recently I have found the joys of riding to work, it saves me about 1 hour a day in commuting and I get a free workout (so thats probably another 30 minutes as well). Not only that I am doing my little bit for the planet (and my wallet) at the same time.

I got my bike through the ‘Ride to work’ scheme at Evans Cycles. (Check it out, you can save up to 50% on the cost of a bike) Once I got my beautiful new matte-black ‘Scott’ I immediately reverted back to my 10 year-old days of skids and wheelies. Now I go everywhere on it, walking now seems pointless, and driving or catching the bus is just too time consuming and expensive.

So if you can handle a bead of sweat on your forehead when you get to work, and want to save time, money and keep trim, get a bike. If your not yet convinced read this article from Treehugger, and then try and get your car to do 600mpg.

Anyone who has worked with MDF as a building material knows it probably isn’t that good for you. Memories of coughing up a wood-paste after doing all night workshop sessions at design school are all too vivid for me. Then it was off to a furniture factory where my old friend MDF literally made my skin crawl. It is a very functional material, you can make almost anything from it, but at what cost? It isn’t just the poor people who have to build your cabinets and shelves from MDF on a day to day basis. Once those products become part of your home the chemicals slowly leach out into your atmosphere and find their way into your lungs.

In 1987, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified formaldehyde as a probable human carcinogen under conditions of unusually high or prolonged exposure (1). Since that time, some studies of industrial workers have suggested that formaldehyde exposure is associated with nasal cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer, and possibly with leukemia. In 1995, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that formaldehyde is a probable human carcinogen. However, in a reevaluation of existing data in June 2004, the IARC reclassified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen (2).

Read more »

I only ever thought it was a dusty/damp home that could be bad for my lungs, but now I realise that the sweet smell of “home” could be having a real big effect on my health.(see this article in Treehugger ) Everything from furniture to cleaning products or even not opening the window regularly can lead to a scarily high level of pollutants floating around in the air I breath.

Pollution from power plants, cars, and other transportation is a well-known contributor to outdoor air pollution, but indoor air pollution is often worse; it can be up to 10 times worse for you than the air outside. Microbial pollutants like mold, pet dander and plant pollen can combine with chemicals like radon and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to create a pretty toxic environment in your home; since we spend an average of 90% of our time indoors and 65% of our time inside our homes, according to the National Safety Council that can add up to allergies, asthma and worse.

Read more »