The Industrial Global Warmer

Theres been a lot of talk about how the U.K is responsible for such a small percentage of global emmissons that investment in renewables (such as windpower) makes no sense- The savings being in an order of 1% of 1% of global totals. But that is to forget the part that Britain has played in Global warming, because, ITS ALL OUR FAULT.

Oh Yes. Heard of the industrial revolution? That was us. Steam engine? Woops. Actually I blame the Scots for inventing virtually every machine that used coal. Of course, if we hadn’t started it, some other enterprising culture would have. But as a politically stable, properous country that has stripped the world of it’s resources for hundreds of years, we must take the lead in radically altering our attitude.

A short list of Scots Inventors and inventions

• A steam car (steam engine): William Murdoch (1754-1839)
• Macadam roads: John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836)
• Driving on the left: Determined by a Scottish-inspired Act of Parliament in 1772
Civil Engineering Innovations
Bridges
• Bridge design: Thomas Telford (1757-1834) & John Rennie (1761-1821)
• Suspension bridge improvements: Sir Samuel Brown (1776-1852)
• Tubular steel: Sir William Fairbairn (1789-1874)
Canals & Docks
• Canal design: Thomas Telford (1757-1834)
• Dock design: John Rennie (1761-1821)
• The patent slip for docking vessels: Thomas Morton (1781-1832)
• Crane design: James Bremner (1784-1856)
Lighthouses
• Lighthouse design: Robert Stevenson (1772-1850)
• The Drummond Light: Thomas Drummond (1797-1840)
Power Innovations
• Steam engine improvements: James Watt (1736-1819)
• Coal-gas lighting: William Murdock (1754-1839)
• The Stirling heat engine: Rev. Robert Stirling (1790-1878)
Shipbuilding Innovations
• The steamship paddle wheel: Patrick Miller (1731-1815)
• The steam boat: William Symington (1763-1831)
• Europe's first passenger steamboat: Henry Bell (1767-1830)
• The first iron-hulled steamship: Sir William Fairbairn (1789-1874)
Other Scottish shipbuilding firsts:
• The first all-steel ship
• The first steel ship to cross the Atlantic
• The first paddle steamer to cross the Atlantic
• The first ship to cross the Atlantic in less than a week
• The first all-welded ship
• The first merchant ship to run on oil
• The first set of triple-expansion engines for a twin-screw steamer
• The first ship to be fitted with two engines
• The first steam whaler
Heavy Industry Innovations
• The carronade cannon: Robert Melville (1723-1809)
• Making cast steel from wrought iron: David Mushet (1772-1847)
• Wrought iron sash bars for glass houses: John C. Loudon (1783-1865)
• The hot blast oven: James Beaumont Neilson (1792-1865)
• The steam hammer: James Nasmyth (1808-1890)
• Wire rope: Robert Stirling Newall (1812-1889)
• Steam engine improvements: William Mcnaught (1831-1881)
• The Fairlie, a Narrow gauge, double-bogey railway engine: Robert Francis Fairlie (1831-1885)

New Thinking

A letter in ‘The Independent’ today by a climate scientist proposes an interesting idea. They mean to pump seawater into the atmosphere over small areas of three oceans, creating a dense layer of cloud that will reflect the suns rays back into space, thus decreasing the global temperature until mankind has dealt with CO2 levels we are producing. The scientist complained of lack of funding for the project.

Ru says that this is the beginning of an initiative called ‘Global climate Management’. Unless we work together to deal with global warming.. we are going to fry.

Edward de Bono has said that the well known phrase- ‘Those who do not read and understand history are doomed to repeat it’ is not true. We have to prove we are not hidebound by the past. The human race has to prove that we can work together by overcoming this enormous problem we have created.

From tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow

Media interest in Treeflights is growing… A big ‘thankyou’ to the travel section at The Independent for their generous gift. ITV Wales also ran a piece on us this week, which has helped boost sales.

The sun has blessedly re-appeared after days of grey, cold weather- we had to light fires in the evening wood you believe!

Something is munching on our Wild Cherries (!)- and I can’t find the creature responsible, I’ve been into the nursery late at night with my torch, peering about me, vaguely worrying about mad axemen, to no avail.
I’ll have to get up earlier…

Going Native

The vagaries of geology have dictated that the U.K has only roughly 33 native tree species.All these trees are those that re-colonized these islands after the last ice age, some 10.000 years ago, and before rising sea levels cut us off from Europe.

The Pyrenees, running east/west, presented a barrier that stopped trees from ‘migrating’ south as the ice covered the earth, then back north as the ice retreated- as they could in North America- and this is why we have so few native species.

Our native fauna and flora thus depend on a small group of trees, and some of them are threatened;
The red squirrel- endangered by his grey cousin, a serious pest.
Black Poplar – by loss of habitat.

Our native Oak alone provides food and shelter for hundreds of species!

Treeflights only plant native trees, which we grow ourselves, without chemicals or pesticides.