Posts

The Summer Heat Survival Guide: Keeping Cool Without Cooking the Climate

Image
  The Summer Heat Survival Guide: Keeping Cool Without Cooking the Climate A Well-Insulated House Is Not Just a Winter Jumper “A well-insulated house is not just a winter jumper. In summer, it can become a cool box.” That sounds slightly odd at first. We tend to think of insulation as something that keeps warmth in during winter. We imagine loft insulation, draught excluders, thick walls, woolly jumpers, hot drinks and trying not to look too closely at the heating bill. But insulation works both ways. In winter, it slows heat escaping from the house. In summer, it slows heat getting into the house. The same principle that keeps a flask of tea hot can also keep a bottle of water cold. The trick is not just having the insulation, but learning how to manage the house as temperatures rise. As UK summers become hotter, this is going to matter more. We are not quite a Mediterranean country, however much the garden furniture catalogues would like to pretend otherwise. Many British homes w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Can a Summer Garden Become a Wildlife Service Station?

Image
  Can a Summer Garden Become a Wildlife Service Station? Your Garden May Be Busier Than You Think Your garden may look like a patch of grass to you, but to a tired bee in July it could be a motorway service station. There it is, wings slightly frayed, fuel running low, having fought its way across a landscape of patios, fences, driveways, mown lawns, artificial grass, decking, gravel and the occasional terrifying conservatory roof. Then suddenly it finds your lavender, your flowering thyme, your slightly untidy border, or that clump of clover you forgot to remove. To us, it may look like mild gardening failure. To wildlife, it may be the difference between carrying on and giving up. Summer gardens are not just decorative spaces. They are refuelling points, watering holes, cooling stations, nurseries, hunting grounds, hiding places and, occasionally, badger restaurants. If we start looking at our gardens through the eyes of wildlife, the whole place changes. The messy corner stops b...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Greener Summer Holiday: Can We Relax Without Wrecking the Planet?

Image
  The Greener Summer Holiday: Can We Relax Without Wrecking the Planet? Perhaps the greenest summer holiday is not the one where we do less, but the one where we notice more. Summer holidays are supposed to restore us. They are meant to get us away from the daily routine, away from the inbox, away from the washing machine that appears to generate laundry even when nobody has worn anything. But modern holidays can also come with a rather large environmental shadow. Flights, long car journeys, hotel air conditioning, disposable beach gear, new clothes, plastic bottles, imported food, overfilled suitcases and the mysterious holiday habit of buying things we would never dream of buying at home can all add up. The question is not whether we should stop having holidays. That would be joyless, unrealistic and deeply unpopular with anyone who has survived a British winter. The better question is this: Can we have summer holidays that refresh us without quietly wrecking the very places we a...
Post a Comment
Read more

What If Every School Became a Sustainability Lab?

Image
  What If Every School Became a Sustainability Lab? Children Learn Far More From a Working Solar Panel Than a Worksheet About One There is something slightly tragic about teaching children about climate change from a laminated worksheet under fluorescent lights in an overheated classroom, while the school roof above them sits empty, doing absolutely nothing except keeping out the rain. We tell pupils that renewable energy matters. We teach them about biodiversity, water conservation, recycling, carbon footprints, food miles and the importance of careful measurement. Then, at the end of the lesson, they close their books, put away their pens and walk past a building that could itself be teaching the same lesson far more powerfully. What if the school was not just the place where sustainability was discussed? What if the school became the experiment? What if every school became a sustainability lab? Not in the vague, glossy-brochure sense. Not a poster in the corridor with a smiling ...
Post a Comment
Read more