Thursday, July 29, 2010

Caring about biodiversity

I don't write about ecology often enough, especially given that our Ecology Department is the biggest part of the company. I spend all my time thinking about management systems and waste disposal options and somehow forget the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is that ecology and biodiversity are central to our quality of life and, in some cases, much more than that. In the light of this I was fascinated to read George Monbiots blog this morning about 'Naming the Nameless'. His contention was that people generally do not connect or sympathise with the plight of a species whose name they cannot pronounce or remember. He suggested a competition to name some endangered species currently labouring under the burden of latin names alone. As he points out, latin names are essential for scientific purposes but common names are more meaningful to those of us not steeped in binomial nomenclature. Following this competition the obscure Stenus longitarsis, a beetle that escapes predators using natural 'jet skis' receives the rather spiffy and appropriate common name of skeetle. The full list of these new names can be found on the Natural England website here. Have a look.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Water. Too little, too much.

I've been thinking about water a lot recently. There have been a number of reasons for this. I have been working with a couple of organisations that have recently realised that managing their water use could save money, and we've been working with a water company to provide environmental training. I guess that we tend to forget water, both use and pollution, as an issue because we don't see where it comes from or where the sewage goes to. It doesn't cost nearly as much as energy and the Government is not running an advertising campaign to remind you all the time.

Where I live we've had a a lovely warm dry spring and summer and recently my water butt reached completely empty. I had to (briefly) use tap water to keep my poor wilting plants alive in my garden, with all the inconvenience and cost that implies.

My boyfriend lives in Scotland and scoffs when I do my bit to save water. He notes that his water is not metered and anyway, Scotland has more water than it knows what to do with; it is resource rich. And then he lets the water run as he cleans his teeth! Are you regarding me strangely? Do you fail to see why that winds me up? I'll try to analyse it on a personal level and then look at it from the point of view of a large organisation.

Water is essential to life. It's also something that is aesthetically pleasing to most of us. Unpolluted water, that is. There are two main environmental impacts linked to water use; water use and water pollution.

Water use requires that we abstract water from the environment. The more we take the less remains. In a very soggy area, of course, there may still be plenty of water left in the environment and over-abstraction may not be an issue, but there are still reasons to minimise use of this valuable resource. One is that turning raw water into potable (drinking) water requires the use of energy and some dangerous chemicals. Even if the basic resource will not be affected by excessive use, wasting energy and chemicals (with their own embodied energy) should be avoided. The other is that all the excessive water going down the drain needs to be treated before sending the cleaned water back into the environment, with more use of energy and somewhat less noxious chemicals. And then, of course, there's the energy required to move all this water around. Some is moved by gravity but a great deal needs to be pumped. More energy use! To be quite honest, though, it just offends my puritan soul to waste anything.

The other issue is water pollution. To some extent, again, my feelings about this are aesthetic as much as economic. I hate to see an ecosystem or an amenity vandalised thoughtlessly and this is really how I regard water pollution; as vandalism. As a child I spent many hours paddling in our local brook, finding sticklebacks, water boatmen and caddisfly larvae. Streams and ponds act like a magnet to children, full of fascinating life and wonder. The very few species that live in oxygen depleted water may be interesting in their own right but paddling though stagnant water is not so much fun. So what causes water pollution? Sewage, oils, chemicals, excess nutrients (run-off from over fertilised fields), litter and even heat and invasive species can all result in depleted ecosystems and a general degradation of the environment. Related to this is that water is a very mobile pollution pathway. Water can move quantities of noxious emissions many miles to where they can do harm, even if your facility is located far away from sensitive receptors. Also, that your facility is nowhere near a watercourse doesn't mean that your emissions will cause no harm as surface water drains will feed, sooner or later, into a watercourse.

Personally I am more concerned about my water use rather than the water pollution I cause. For many years I lived with a septic tank and I developed the habit of being very careful about what went down the drains. If your sewage works is in your back garden you do your best to keep it as healthy as possible or it stinks. Once you've done that for 15 years you've got out of the habit of pouring pollution into the sewer. Similarly, if your septic tank has a limited capacity you develop habits of minimising water use because otherwise you end up with a boggy sewage contaminated area in the garden. Now that I live in an urban terrace, as well as my embedded good habits, I have a water meter. It's cut my monthly bill from over £30 to £12 but it does mean that I've got to keep my eye on things so that usage doesn't suddenly increase. My habit of only turning the tap on to rinse my toothbrush at the end or turning the tap off whilst I soap my hands stands me in good stead for minimising water use but I also save the water discharged as my shower warms up and use it to water my indoor tomato plants. Care with water is not embedded in modern UK culture and people tend to think I am rather strange to do what I do. It would be easier if I could retrofit grey-water use into my home but it would be expensive and, whilst I am careful, probably not really worth it. I've contented myself with fitting water saving fittings in my kitchen and bathroom and buying a washing machine with low water use.

Some sectors in the UK have already looked seriously at water minimisation. As you can imagine, I stay in hotels often and these have really spent a lot of money on water minimisation. I can only guess that this is because it makes good economic sense. Many hotels seem to have dispensed with baths altogether and use aerators on taps and shower heads. This is not just new-builds but refurbishments too, and in both economy hotels and more expensive ones.

Other organisations have not looked at this opportunity closely yet. From industry to local authorities, there are savings to be made. Old fashioned toilets and urinals abound and although it is unlikely that anyone is going to be spending quantities of money replacing these with modern units at the moment there are many cheap fixes available from Hippos to urinal water managers. There is a lot of help available. WRAP are providing Rippleffect, a free water efficiency initiatives for all businesses. It's well worth having a look at the site to see if you could benefit. The registration deadline is 15th October 2010 and will run from October to December. If you don't want to sign up to something, water tools can be found at this page.

I must just say that my water butt could have refilled five times over with the weather we've had this last fortnight, which is great, but I'm thinking about where I can fit another water butt. It's the storage that's the problem. At this time of year two or three weeks without rain means that I'm running short again.