Fight Climate Change

Ariel are joining the fight against climate change by encouraging people to save energy by washing their clothes at thirty degrees. The site is at Do a Good Turn and as well as energy saving tips and information about climate change, Ariel are also offering visitors the chance to win a £17777 Toyota Prius car too. Just sign up to do a good turn and you’re in the draw.

As well as the chance to win the Toyota Prius, you’ll also find a tiebreaker competition to win a £6000 eco home makeover and a monthly draw for the chance to win Indesit Moon washing machine. However, the site isn’t just about competitions and visitors are encouraged to understand how they can help fight climate change,

This is a great initiative by Ariel – big brands may well be more effective in getting the message of climate change and energy saving to the public in a simple manner. There’s no doom mongering or the world is going to end angles, just easy to understand information and ways that people can get involved.

For example, Ariel explain that “when washing clothes, 80 per cent of the energy is used to heat the water”. By reducing the temperature of your wash for a year you can save energy equivalent to “boiling enough water to make 2,500 cups of tea”. However the best statistic is that if every household in London reduced washing temperatures the energy saved would be enough to pay for “24,769 families fuel & power bills for a full year!”

The site has a lot of content on this site but make sure you don’t miss Joanna Yarrow’s Blog and Climate Change News! Good work Ariel!

According to NMA a brand new website called Carbon Heroes is soon to be launched. The site, “set up by Mobile Networking founder Craig Barrack” is to be a social network where user’s can work together to reduce their carbon footprints.

The first part of the service that they will launch “will be a national lift sharing scheme, enabling drivers to recoup motoring costs by selling space in their cars online”. The site is currently coming soon, but you register your interest prior to launch.

This is an interesting initiative, and provided it’s managed well, could provide cheap travel alternatives and improved car sharing as well as enabling many to reduce carbon emissions.

ITV have joined The BBC and Sky News and produced their own Climate Change website. The ITV site provides information and news about how individual’s in the UK can do their bit and to encourage you they’re offering you the chance to win a Toyota Prius hybrid car or a £20,000 home makeover from NPower to help you live a more energy-efficient life (closes 22nd June).

By registering with ITV Climate Change you can pledge to take the Climate Challenge in just 10 easy steps! These steps include (1) using low enery light bulbs (2) switching off the TV, PC and other appliances (3) switch your utility bills to a greener tariff (4) insulate your home (5) reuse and recycle (6) use public transport or car share (7) use water wisely (8) walk or cycle to school or the shops (9) buy more local and in season produce and (10) spread the word about energy saving!

For Visitors Looking For The Car Competition

Registering with this site does not enter you into the car competition!

Fight Climate Change is not running this competition. You need to go to ITV Climate Change and register with them.

We also suggest that if you want online competition information that’s accurate go to Loquax – it’s free as well!

Following the higher than average temperatures (The Guardian) in The UK over the Easter period, meterologists are predicting that the UK will “enjoy” a summer heatwave. The predictions suggest that temperatures will be above the average of 22 degrees and the hottest periods will be August and September. The report in the The Daily Express is headlined with “Britain Will Sizzle in 100 Degrees” – Although ironically above that the paper are offering their readers the chance to win 1 of 5 Fridge Freezers!

Staying with the warm weather, teacher’s are demanding that they have the right to walk out of hot classrooms during soaring temperatures. UK schools aren’t well equipped to cope with hot temperatures and teacher’s fear that schools may even be forced to close during hot periods (The BBC).

This report coincides with one that appeared recently in The Telegraph that claims the UK is unprepared for climate change and that the government needs to start spending to help build flood defences and prevent droughts.

Whilst many are enjoying the current warm weather, the climate change debate is going to always linger and leave many hot under the collar about the implications and effects of rising temperatures.

If you want to avoid climate change then don’t live in Birmingham is the message from Dr David Viner, a leading climatologist (The BBC). In a new BBC Inside Out programme Viner reveals the best 10 places and 10 worst places to live in terms of climate change, and sadly for Brummies, Birmingham tops the pile.

According to the program (which aired only in The Midlands on 30th March 2007, but details can be found at Inside Out), Birmingham has the worst air pollution outside London and if temperatures increase this could cause an “urban heat island effect”. The winter would be wetter, summer hotter and they’d be increased possibilities of tornadoes as seen already in the region in recent years.

It’s not just bad news for Birmingham though, as Viner lists London, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester as not ideal places to be if climate change takes hold as he and fellow IPCC scientists predict.

There is some good news though with South and West England including Somerset and South West Devon, The Yorkshire Dales, North Norfolk and even South West Wales being mentioned as good places to live in terms of climate change.