Announcing the new ‘Which? Investigates’ podcast

I do not have time to read anymore of this sort of stuff.

Extra land is also needed to grow materials for plant-based packaging that is on the increase.

Good point Phil.

There needs to be some real honesty about where all these ‘new’ eco plant products are grown, fed, watered, disease & pest control, processed, transported and packaged.

And also how honest are all the claims of sustainably-resourced. They can’t all be telling the truth.

Bioethanol in petrol has resulted in damage to carburettors in many small petrol engines and biodiesel has caused other problems for diesel engines and with storage of diesel fuel.

Shipping biomass from North America cannot be described as sustainable but on the other had it’s much better than burning coal – certainly for those of us who are affected by sulphur dioxide.

Burning biomass is only less bad then burning coal. It emits a lot of CO2, requires long distance transport, and can only be regarded as carbon neutral if equal amount of plants are grown that can absorb the same amount of CO 2 as that emitted. In the case of trees that can take 20-30 years.

Surely it is far better to simply plant more trees in the first place to absorb CO2, and not burn them at all. That would be a net gain in CO2 absorption to help offset other emitters.

Of course, but we need to generate sufficient electricity and hopefully biomass will be phased out when we have better alternatives. I do not know how practical it would be to increase the number of trees but hopefully this will be explored. There’s plenty of scope to make homes more energy efficient.

”I do not know how practical it would be to increase the number of trees ”.I seems to me very simple – grow small saplings and plant them. But we need governments around the world to buy into increasing permanent vegetation to capture some of the excess CO2.

Resorting to burning wood just puts off the decision to develop more sustainable energy sources. Tidal energy can be used as flow and storage, is predictable and clean. Time we added this to the arsenal. We cannot rely on sun and wind alone; nuclear takes ages to construct and many believe it is far from clean.

Storage of nuclear waste could become a major problem in the future.

We also need to hope a tsunami won’t hit the Bristol Channel and we end up with another Fukushima. It was thought one killed around 2000 people in 1607.

But it is designed to withstand an aircraft crashing into it.

That’s all right then.😖

Malcolm wrote: “Tidal energy can be used as flow and storage, is predictable and clean.” Indeed it is. Projects such as the Severn Barrage have been opposed on good environmental grounds. I had not found similar strong opposition to harnessing offshore tidal power, but recently I was speaking to someone who is working for one of the major energy companies that is involved in trialing hydrogen/natural gas blends. He told me that the cost of offshore tidal power is currently too high. We might have to invest a lot of money to keep the lights on.

Many projects disturb the environment and always have. HS2 is destroying ancient woodlands, habitats and homes, Hinkley Point C occupies around 4 sq km of land and goes down to the bedrock; it will suck in and discharge huge volumes of water from the Bristol Channel for cooling. I expect with tidal storage habitat will adapt; it should not alter the water level significantly, but control it to generate electricity when it is needed.

If we don’t explore all green energy production and the planet continues to degrade, the wildlife will suffer as much, maybe more, than us. I’d suggest it is in their interests to share the initial upset.

Or was it the Swansea barrage? A lot about the shenanigans surrounding that proposal in Private Eye that exposed it as a money-making venture, except for the consumer.

Hi Em, see:-https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-56818538 for one recent example.

”Tidal streams

Unlike wind turbines, tidal turbines have a higher power output potential than equivalent wind energy counterparts. This is because water is 800 times denser than air which means that even at low tidal flow speeds a tidal turbine will still keep on churning, unlike its wind turbine relatives which are more likely to just sit pretty with low wind speeds.”

Supermarket carrots are often heavily scrubbed to make them look nice and clean and orange, but that makes them more vulnerable to deterioration. Keeping carrots in a sealed plastic bag will result in deterioration but in paper they could become limp because a fridge is a very dry environment. It’s a compromise, but one thing that will help is to keep the fridge as cold as possible without anything freezing. I have just used some Morrisons organic carrots dated 28 April and they were fine, but they had not been heavily scrubbed.

Carrots don’t survive home survive home freezing well (blast-freezing is used commercially) but I wonder if you could grate and freeze them, Alfa.

I agree that it would be worth having a discussion about how to avoid food waste.

I have tried freezing grated carrot but it turned into mush when thawed out. Parsnips don’t freeze well either.

Jacket spuds on the other hand freeze really well. I had too many so cooked them in the microwave then froze them. Defrosting in the microwave then finishing off in the oven and they are really good.

Before lockdown, we would just select and buy what we needed, shopping several times a week if required so there was rarely any waste, but have had to adapt to a delivery once a week and buying more than we need simply because smaller packs are unavailable.

I haven’t tried it out yet, but I recently noticed Waitrose are selling loose carrots for home delivery that would greatly cut down on waste.

I will bear it in mind that jacket potatoes can be frozen.

If you can find carrots that have not been heavily scrubbed it would be a help. I suspect the ones with the tops attached would be best but then you need a rabbit to deal with the greenery.

I do agree that we need to tackle food waste.

The carrot tops are going to be ‘wasted’ wherever the preparation takes place – on the grower’s premises, in the cannery or frozen food factory, or in the restaurant or domestic kitchen.

They can be used for compost in each case and are probably more likely to be used that way than if the tops are cut off at home and there is no food waste collection or composting. All vegetables produce an excess of greenery – it’s just that the consumer rarely sees it with potatoes, sprouts, peas, root vegetables, tomatoes and some salad crops. Just look at the amount of waste with sweetcorn! It is likely that the most efficient production and processing systems will make the best use of this vegetable matter and it will be reprocessed for bio-fuel, oils, animal feed, insulation, fabric or fibre, or compost. There should be no landfill or incineration.

The well-prepared soil for root crop production generally gives a very clean crop. Carrots do not need to be scrubbed; that is purely for presentation purposes. They should be washed before eating and boiling will destroy any residual dirt. I don’t think it is necessary to scrape or peel the skins off potatoes.

The customer has to pay considerably more for carrots with their tops attached, but at least they should be fresh, otherwise the greenery would be wilted. It is unlikely that they are scrubbed because that would be difficult with the tops attached.

Of course carrots don’t need to be scrubbed and it’s well established that unwashed ones will last longest.

Hi Rod, I doubt that the electro magnetic fields produced by electric cars will differ from those on electric trains or trams or from those produced by certain home appliances, e.g. hoovers.

If you have seen reports suggesting otherwise, can you post links to them here?

Long ago, I used to design magnets and electric motors, so I’d be keen to have a look.

If there is evidence of electromagnetic fields affecting our health there is scope to reduce these fields but first we need to see evidence that there is a problem.

And there I was hoping that with a powerful electro-magnetic field in an electric motor car we would be able to change the traffic signals to green on our approach and send other vehicles into a tail-spin to clear all the roundabouts on the ring road.

Don’t Mercedes and Audi already offer those as part of their built in right of way options?