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Why Can One Heavy Rainstorm Cause Flooding While Another Barely Raises the River?

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  Why Can One Heavy Rainstorm Cause Flooding While Another Barely Raises the River? Two storms can deliver the same amount of rain—and produce completely different floods. One downpour leaves puddles and a river that barely seems to notice. Another closes roads, fills gardens and sends water towards front doors. Sometimes the river keeps rising after the rain has stopped and the sky has cleared. The difference becomes easier to understand when we look beyond the rainfall total. We need to know where the rain fell, how quickly it arrived, what happened during the preceding weeks and how the landscape moves water. As someone who sails on the Thames, I have a practical interest in the relationship between weather and rivers. It is a useful reminder to look beyond the sky overhead: the water passing a sailing club belongs to a much larger landscape. Flooding depends on how much water reaches a place, how quickly it gets there and how much capacity remains to accommodate it. 1. A River ...
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Why Are Your Windows Wet Every Morning—and What Can You Do About It?

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  Why Are Your Windows Wet Every Morning—and What Can You Do About It? Water on the inside of your windows is trying to tell you something about your house. You pull back the curtains and find droplets running down the glass. The sill is damp again. Perhaps there are small black spots around the frame. It is tempting to wipe it away, turn up the heating and carry on. But if it happens repeatedly, it is worth asking three questions: Where is the moisture coming from? How can it leave? Which surfaces are getting cold? Occasional misting that clears quickly is not necessarily a serious problem. Persistent water, damaged finishes and mould deserve attention.[1] For me, this is a useful Going Green subject because it connects energy saving with something more fundamental: having a comfortable home that works properly. Saving heat matters. So does giving moisture a way out. Why water appears on the glass Water vapour is an invisible part of indoor air. When air next to a surface cools to...
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The £25 Resilience Challenge: What Could You Put Away for an Unexpected Emergency?

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  The £25 Resilience Challenge: What Could You Put Away for an Unexpected Emergency? Preparing for an emergency shouldn't require a garage full of expensive survival equipment. Imagine the electricity goes off just as you are preparing dinner. The kitchen is dark, your phone is running low and the torch is somewhere in a drawer. There is plenty of food in the house, but much of it needs cooking. This is where a modest amount of preparation can make a difference. Can £25 improve a household's ability to cope with a short disruption? Yes—particularly when it fills gaps in what you already own. Can it buy everything every family needs for several days? That is a much bigger claim. The challenge is to spend thoughtfully, using familiar food, useful equipment and a little planning. Start With Your Cupboards, Not Your Shopping Basket My starting point would be a question: what would become difficult in the first few hours? I enjoy technology, but this is one situation where I would b...
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Eco, Natural, Plant-Based: Are You Paying More for Words on a Label?

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  Eco, Natural, Plant-Based: Are You Paying More for Words on a Label? A green label can make a product look environmentally friendly. It doesn't necessarily make it so. Stand in front of a supermarket shelf and you could be forgiven for thinking that buying washing-up liquid now requires an environmental science qualification. One bottle is natural. Another is plant-based. A third promises an eco formula. There are leaves, waterfalls, brown cardboard and reassuring shades of green. Some of these products offer worthwhile improvements. Others leave us with a warm feeling and very little information. The challenge is to tell the difference—and decide whether a higher price buys a benefit that matters. The answer begins with three questions: What exactly is being claimed? What evidence supports it? What does the product cost each time it does its job? The Greenest-Looking Bottle May Have the Least to Tell You Imagine two labels on a household cleaner: “Kind to nature. Inspired by pla...
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Is an Electric Car Still Cheaper to Run If You Can't Charge at Home?

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  Is an Electric Car Still Cheaper to Run If You Can't Charge at Home? Going Green — by Philip M Russell Two people can drive the same electric car and pay very different amounts to keep it moving. One plugs in on the driveway and lets an overnight tariff do the work. The other lives in a flat, parks on the street and relies on public chargers. Same car. Same distance. Very different electricity bills. That matters whenever an advertisement promises motoring for a few pence per mile. The calculation may be perfectly valid for someone with a suitable home charger and tariff. It may tell you very little about the cost of using the same car from a terraced house without off-street parking. An electric car can still be cheaper on energy without home charging. But the advantage depends on the public prices you can actually access, the car's efficiency and the petrol or diesel vehicle you are comparing it with. The useful starting point is a practical question: what would 100 miles c...
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