Pricey Ink Stinks

Natural Gas or just simply ‘gas’ is a fossil fuel found in oil fields, natural gas fields and also coal beds. Methane is the predominant gas but it also contains significant quantities of ethane, propane, butane, pentane and other gases.

It is approximated that the World’s natural gas reserves have a total of 175,400,000,000,000 cubic meters (estimate from January 2008), but numbers could be higher now that the US announced its gas reserves are 35 percent bigger than previously thought.

The UK is the fourth largest natural gas producer with more than 200 offshore fields, the majority of those fields are found in the Southern sector of the North Sea, but Central and Northern North Sea and the Irish fields also produce great volumes. Recent studies reveal that other reserves could lie in the North East Atlantic, West of Shetland.

The first company to discover natural gas in the North Sea was BP back in 1965, since then a total of 2,000 billion cubic meters of gas have been recovered and used in the UK for industrial and domestic needs.

Accounting for over 40 percent of the country’s total energy needs, natural gas is UK’s primary source of energy, it is used to generate electricity, provide heat and power to homes and industries all over the country.

Experts believe that since 2000, the year it peaked production, UK’s gas production is declining even though there some reserves yet to be explored. If it wasn’t for the harsh winter months the UK would be self sufficient in natural gas, which would then mean we would be self sufficient in energy also.

On average during the spring and summer months the consumption varies between 200 and 250 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) while the average in winter is 350 mcm/d with the demand climbing to 400 – 450 mcm/d on very cold winter days, this is when UK’s supplies are supplemented by imports in addition to gas put into storage during the summer.

Oil and gas are often produced or extracted from the same reservoir, this correlation is what ties gas prices and oil prices together. But recently we have seen oil prices drop while gas prices rose which led to an increase in our energy bills.

This happened for two main reasons; firstly, 4 of the 6 biggest gas and electricity firms in the UK are European-owned which raises the question about continental energy companies “picking the pocket” of British consumers. British Gas, which is still UK-owned, was the only company to drop domestic and business gas prices over the past year.

The second reason is a combination of two factors, UK’s reliance on the gas market and the lack of storage capacity which reduces the possibilities of buying and storing gas when it is cheap.

Despite all that, according to the Department for Energy in average domestic and business gas in Britain are cheaper than other European countries, however, electricity in Britain is 15 per cent more expensive that the average in Europe.

The average gas bill in the UK has hit £834 – after increasing nearly 50 per cent during 2008 while joint bills (gas & electricity) climbed from £912 a year ago to £1,303.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/natural-gas-uks-primary-source-of-energy-1000940.html

It’s human nature. We’re always eager to explore the newest product, especially the ones touted to improve our lives. At the same time, we can be skeptical about new product technologies, and it can be hard to decide what, and whether, to buy. This is certainly the case with energy-saving light bulbs. The Energy Independence and Security Act, passed in December of 2007, started the clock ticking on the end of the inexpensive and reliable incandescent light bulb. While it’s true that a few bulb manufacturers have flirted with the idea of nudging the energy efficiency of Mr. Edison’s classic up enough to meet the law’s requirements, it now appears likely that U.S. consumers will need to convert to 21st century green light bulbs for most uses starting in 2012.

The mainstream media has been full of news about the coming light bulb revolution. In the last week of May alone, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran high profile articles addressing emerging trends on CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) and LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulbs.

Since they cost more than traditional bulbs, most people buy energy-saving light bulbs for two main reasons: they save money in the long run and they’re better for the environment. Specifically, because green light bulbs use much less energy to produce the same amount of light, they reduce harmful gas emissions from coal-fired power plants (which generate 50% of the electricity used in the United States).

So consumers should immediately replace all their incandescents with energy-saving light bulbs, right? Well, not so fast. With lighting, quality matters especially in our homes where we gather, read, cook, eat, celebrate and entertain. There’s a perception that green light bulbs require sacrificing light quality. Don’t believe it. Many eco-friendly light bulbs cast soft, beautiful light. And no one should feel guilty about not switching out every fixture containing a regular light bulb. Invest first in replacing the bulbs used most frequently. Savings will be bigger and pay back periods shorter with this approach. And truth be told, there are scenarios where the best bulb is the old-fashioned incandescent.

7 Keys to Choosing the Best Green Light Bulbs for Your Home or Office

Choosing from the many energy-saving light bulbs on the market today can be tricky. Gone are the days when all that mattered was bulb wattage and shape.

By keeping these seven simple guidelines in mind, you’ll be on a path to making smart decisions about what to buy to meet your needs for energy-saving light bulbs in this new green age:

1. Pay more, not less – to save money in the long run, your new green light bulbs should be able to last for several thousand hours. If you buy the cheapest ones you can find, the odds are greater that they won’t.

2. Pick your spots – if a fixture is completely enclosed or is lit for less than 15 minutes at a time and less than two hours a day, CFLs are a poor investment. Low energy, mercury-free halogens are available that are worth a look in these situations. Wait until the existing bulb burns out (or hold onto it for later use – see #6).

3. Nobody likes the blues – the bluish light cast by many fluorescent tubes is not appealing to most homeowners. When buying CFLs and LEDs choose “warm white” or “soft white” labels for color that will look pleasingly familiar. Energy-saving light bulbs labeled “cool white,” “natural light,” or “daylight” are blue-hued and best for targeted applications like reading, task lighting and exterior fixtures, not for living areas, atmosphere or accent lighting.

4. Dimming for dummies – most CFL and LED bulbs can’t be used with dimmer switches. Look for green light bulbs that are boldly labeled “dimmable.” And while the industry has made great strides in recent years, most energy-saving light bulbs do not dim as well as traditional incandescent bulbs. However, the big energy savings are compelling for most homeowners. Making the switch to dimmable CFLs or LEDs in a busy family kitchen can be a real money saver, including reduced cooling costs because neither type generates as much heat as incandescents. Last point: the dimmer switch should be compatible with the green light bulbs you buy.

5. Let’s do the twist – spiral or “twister” CFLs are the least expensive type. If these green light bulbs are hidden behind a shade (though not totally enclosed), buying a spiral lamp will cut the payback period versus glass covered CFLs.

6. Stay out of the closet – most closets need short bursts of instantaneous light. This is usually true of powder rooms, basements, attics and garages. Among energy saving light bulbs, CFLs in particular aren’t suited for this purpose. Traditional bulbs (or again, low energy halogens) are best in these scenarios until something better comes along.

7. Innovative, intriguing, expensive – mercury-free LED bulbs are the future of lighting, case closed. These green light bulbs use less electricity than even CFLs and they last 30,000 hours or more. However, current prices per bulb are as high as $100, which means the payback period for most home-based uses is too long to justify the price. If you are curious about this new technology and live in an area with high retail electricity costs, you might consider LED replacement bulbs for one or two fixtures that get a lot of use (6+ hours per day). Re-read Key #1 before you invest in these types of energy-saving light bulbs.

Ignore the Naysayers – Green Light Bulbs Are Here to Stay

One last point: mercury makes CFLs (and fluorescent tubes for that matter) work. Some serious people, including syndicated columnist George Will, say we should avoid energy-saving light bulbs for this reason. We disagree. Coal-fired electricity generation is the largest contributor of mercury to the environment. Through reduced electricity consumption, a single CFL will keep a lot more mercury out of the environment over its lifetime than it contains. Still, releasing any mercury into the environment is a bad idea, so it’s important to recycle CFLs when they stop working. Recycling your used green light bulbs is getting easier all the time. Visit www.lamprecycle.org for resources.

Green light bulbs are here to stay. This is good news for our wallets and our world because the cheapest, cleanest kilowatt of electricity is the one that is never produced in the first place. Become smart enough to buy the right energy-saving light bulbs and don’t look back.

Peter Ellinwood is the founder and owner of GreenPoma, an online retailer of hard-to-find, best-in-breed, environmentally-friendly lighting options. During the 25 years he spent in the insurance industry in Boston, Baltimore, and Annapolis, he acquired an extensive background in product management and marketing, but decided to use this knowledge for a greater purpose – selling energy-efficient light bulb, LED, halogen, and CFL products along with great advice. To make a purchase or learn more about going green, please visit www.greenpoma.com.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/green-light-know-how-your-guide-to-energysaving-light-bulbs-1001265.html

China secured the right to grow palm oil for biofuel on 2.8m hectares of Congo, which would be the world’s largest palm-oil plantation. It is negotiating to grow biofuels on 2m hectares in Zambia, a country where Chinese farms are said to produce a quarter of the eggs sold in the capital, Lusaka. According to one estimate, 1m Chinese farm labourers will be working in Africa this year, a number one African leader called “catastrophic”.

 If any investor has a long view on world markets, it’s Lord Jacob Rothschild. The 73-year-old scion of the world-famous European banking dynasty need only look to his own family history, which dates back some 200 years to the rise of patriarch Mayer Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt. “We think right now is an excellent point of entry for taking a long-term position in agriculture,” he recently said. Rothschild did just that last year when he invested $36 million for a 24% stake in a venture called Agrifirma Brazil. Agrifirma has already acquired some 100,000 acres in the Brazilian state of Bahia and holds an option on another 60,000. This summer it will produce its first crops of soybeans, cotton, and corn. Rothschild and Watson say they chose Brazil in part because there was a large quantity of scrubland, or cerrado, that could be irrigated and converted to farmland, enhancing the value greatly. They also liked the fact that its economy has been growing robustly. And perhaps most important, Brazil has 14% of the world’s freshwater resources, the most of any country. “The world is fully in a water crisis, and we haven’t realized it yet,” says Watson. “When you’re exporting agriculture, you’re de facto exporting water.”

If Water is becoming the “rate limiting Step”, the the drought in Australia is forcing farmed to decide crop planting based on water efficiency. recently , the Australian govt. passed tradable rights laws which allow Australian farmers to have the right to use a certain amount of water free. They can sell that right (called a “usufructuary right”) to others. But if they want more water themselves, they must buy it from a neighbour. The result of this trading is a market that has done what markets do: allocate resources to more productive use. Australia has endured its worst drought in modern history in the past ten years. Water supplies in some farming areas have fallen by half. Yet farmers have responded to the new market signals by switching to less thirsty crops and kept the value of farm output stable. Water productivity has doubled. Australia’s system overcomes the usual objections because it confirms farmers’ rights to water and lets them have much of it for nothing. Tradable-usage rights have another advantage: they can be used in rough and ready form in huge countries such as China and India that do not have meters to measure usage, or strong legal systems to enforce usage rights.

Instead of sophisticated infrastructure, they depend on local trust and knowledge: farmers sell a share of their time at the village pump. A system like that works in parts of Pakistan’s Punjab. As the adjoining graph shows, India, China have to find ways to combat the unsustainable water withdrawal rates and outsourcing crops and tradable water rights are one water to drive the productive use of water. exporting the entire crop production to Africa, as China is pioneering, is one way to conserve water.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/water-out-sourcing-crops-and-tradable-rights-999226.html

Mitigation is vital in order to limit the effects of water damage. After all, the longer water is allowed to remain in a building, the greater the damage will be. Lack of mitigation services to flooded homes and other buildings can lead to secondary damages to the structure and contents from elevated humidity conditions, as well as potential microbial growth issues. If you’re working in the insurance field and need to deal with a home or business that’s been damaged by flooding, the most important thing you can do is to get emergency services underway immediately. In other words, begin the mitigation process in order prevent the need for remediation. Rapid response limits the overall effects of water damage and mitigation reduces overall claim cost. It doesn’t take long for water to cause serious damage, and that damage gets worse the longer excess water is present. That’s why it’s important to call a quality cleanup company to deal with the problem right away. Professionals will be on site and provide an immediate assessment and begin mitigation services. Services you should look for include extraction of water, removal of saturated building materials, application of EPA registered anti-microbial products, as well as set up of high velocity air movers and dehumidification equipment. Both air movement and dehumidification are essential components required to stabilize the building environment and enable structural drying. Rapid response not only limits Property loss, but it can also reduce the impact to a homeowner’s lifestyle or the amount of interruption to a business. In other words, the family can get back their regular dinner table and the business owner can be back in business that much sooner. DisasterPro.net is a great place to go if you’re dealing with disaster cleanup. They are a professional, IICRC certified company, that utilizes all the necessary steps to stabilize and dry your structure. If upon inspection, mold issues are discovered, they are also a certified and recognized company that can provide mold remediation services. Of course, flood damage isn’t the only field they work in, either. If you’re dealing with a client whose property has suffered fire and smoke damage, or other disasters, they can help. As a Emergency Service Disaster Restoration company, DisasterPro.net is certified and recognized as industry leaders in providing smoke, odor, fire, and trauma clean-up services. They’ll be there fast to keep the situation from getting worse and to save you and the client money. That’s why insurance professionals recommend http://www.DisasterPro.net, and why you should check them out.

ServiceMaster Clean by Disaster Professionals are water damage phoenix area experts. Their superior emergency restoration services far exceed that of the competition.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/clean-up-flood-damage-with-disaster-professionals-999834.html