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7 comments on Today's Photo

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Euan Mearns on April 24, 2007 - 2:45am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Chris - I've been driving the Aberdeen to Perth (Scotland) road a lot recently and it seems the fertile Strathmore valley has been given over to rape and polly tunnels. The latter of course provide Marks and Spencer with environmentlally sound strawberies for 6 months of the year.

I'd be interested in figures showing changes in rape and other diesel acreage in the UK / EU.

I also recived two emails a couple of days ago pointing to wheat prices rising, this in part related to Australian drought.

With inflation rising in the UK, I believe rising food (energy) prices may stoke the flames. We are of course lucky - we may have to pay a bit more, but there are many who will go hungry.

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bunyonhead on April 24, 2007 - 5:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I was down in Kent the other weekend, it was a sea of yellow.

With regards poly tunnels, I have often wonderd why we don't surround power stations with poly-covered fields, pump the CO2 into the tunnels and grow stuff all year round.

I heard anecdotally a few ywars ago of a small CHP power sttaion which pumped its CO2 into a big greenhouse (growing tomatoes) and thus became a net zero emission power station.

is it just the sheer scale of the required land that precludes such an idea, or am I missing other (obvious) problems? Certainly seems cheaper to me than sequestering in depleted offshore fields.....

With regards wheat, there has also been a problem with plantings in the US. Early mild weather encouraged growth and then a very cold snap couped with a lot of rain has killed off a large swathe of crop. Wheat futures up 13% so far this month...

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Valuethinker on April 24, 2007 - 9:07am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You have to take the CO2 out of the exhaust stream.

The plants won't, unless the acreage is truly vast, absorb a meaningful proportion of the CO2.

There is some work being done with genetically engineered algae on this one, but all kinds of reasons to think why it wouldn't work that well (eg photosynthesis only takes place during the day; the concentration of algae would have to be truly huge, etc.).

On your tomatoes CHP there are certainly a number of CHP units associated with hothouse fruit and vegetable operations, however they work because those need a constant supply of *heat*. I've never heard of one just for the CO2.

By and large, plants find enough CO2 in the existing atmosphere. Increase the CO2 concentration, and their uptake is *less*.

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