appliances on standby

I've finally got around to doing something that I should have done a year ago. We've long had the habit of switching the TV off at the wall rather than leaving it on standby, though we have to confess that this virtue originated with the TV having a dodgy capacitor and refusing to work most of the time unless it was switched off at the socket. (using my handy gadget for measuring electicity, I discover that this has probably saved us around a fiver a year).

What we did today was to rearrange plugs and sockets so that other things like the stereo and the DVD player are now easy to switch off at the wall (they're all on the same on the same socket bar now)

In the case of the DVD player, this is saving very little electriticy as it uses next to nothing on standby. However, I was horrified when I measured the stereo. It was drawing 30 watts! That may not sound like much, but taken over a year that's about £26.

How to help the planet and save cash at the same time.

(Sadly, we can't do similar with the satellite box as that has to remain on)

Stern Report chapter 3

I've copied this without comment as I feel it speaks for itself.

Climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food, health, and use of land and the environment. On current trends, average global temperatures could rise by 2 - 3°C within the next fifty years or so,1 leading to many severe impacts, often mediated by water, including more frequent droughts and floods (Table 3.1).

• Melting glaciers will increase flood risk during the wet season and strongly reduce dry-season water supplies to one-sixth of the world’s population, predominantly in the Indian sub-continent, parts of China, and the Andes in South America.

• Declining crop yields, especially in Africa, are likely to leave hundreds of millions without the ability to produce or purchase sufficient food - particularly if the carbon fertilisation effect is weaker than previously thought, as some recent studies suggest. At mid to high latitudes, crop yields may increase for moderate temperature rises (2 – 3°C), but then decline with greater amounts of warming.

• Ocean acidification, a direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels, will have major effects on marine ecosystems, with possible adverse consequences on fish stocks.

• Rising sea levels will result in tens to hundreds of millions more people flooded each year with a warming of 3 or 4°C. There will be serious risks and increasing pressures for coastal protection in South East Asia (Bangladesh and Vietnam), small islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and large coastal cities, such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Calcutta, Karachi, Buenos Aires, St Petersburg, New York, Miami and London.

• Climate change will increase worldwide deaths from malnutrition and heat stress. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever could become more widespread if effective control measures are not in place. In higher latitudes, cold-related deaths will decrease.

• By the middle of the century, 200 million more people may become permanently displaced due to rising sea levels, heavier floods, and more intense droughts, according to one estimate.

• Ecosystems will be particularly vulnerable to climate change, with one study estimating that around 15 – 40% of species face extinction with 2°C of warming. Strong drying over the Amazon, as predicted by some climate models, would result in dieback of the forest with the highest biodiversity on the planet.

The consequences of climate change will become disproportionately more damaging with increased warming. Higher temperatures will increase the chance of triggering abrupt and large-scale changes that lead to regional disruption, migration and conflict.

• Warming may induce sudden shifts in regional weather patterns like the monsoons or the El Niño. Such changes would have severe consequences for water availability and flooding in tropical regions and threaten the livelihoods of billions.

• Melting or collapse of ice sheets would raise sea levels and eventually threaten at least 4 million Km2 of land, which today is home to 5% of the world’s population.



1 All changes in global mean temperature are expressed relative to pre-industrial levels (1750 - 1850). A temperature rise of 1°C represents the range 0.5 – 1.5°C, a temperature rise of 2°C represents the range 1.5 – 2.5°C etc.
STERN REVIEW: The Economics of Climate Change 56


The complete report can be found here: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/stern_review_report.cfm