Carbon Footprint Of The Day

Somehow I managed to get on The Eden Project's* mailing list, and the special offer on today's selection of Environmentally Friendly And Sustainably Overpriced Tat is a Reclaimed Teak Candle, yours for a modest £39.50 (down from £49.50).
They have a burn time of 40-50 hours, allegedly, and are imported from Indonesia.

Go figure.

* Who are of course a fig leaf for the French nuclear industry.

Just because it's in The Daily Mail doesn't necessarily mean it's not true...

Call me gullible, but this story very much has a ring of truth about it:

Brussels has fined Britain more than £150million for failing to display the EU flag on a string of projects part-funded by Europe. Several schemes were also penalised for failing to use the flag on their letterheads.

The fines relate to £3.8billion given to the UK by the European Regional Development Fund over a seven-year period. The fund has contributed to dozens of projects including the Eden Project, in Cornwall, the Millennium Bridge, in Gateshead, and the redevelopment of Liverpool’s King’s Dock.

Funding from the ERDF usually has to be matched pound for pound by Government cash. Britain is a net contributor to the EU budget and critics have long complained that ERDF funding is essentially recycled taxpayers’ money. This year the UK will contribute £6.4billion more to Brussels than it receives back.

UK Independence Party MEP Nigel Farage called the fines an ‘outrage’. He said: ‘The ERDF is using British taxpayers’ money to tell us what a great job the EU is doing. It is a rotten deal for Britain – and in return we have to plaster the country in horrible blue flags.’

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles condemned the ‘over-bureaucratic rules’ surrounding ERDF money.He said he would be pressing the European Commission to cut back on ‘needless bureaucracy’.

The ERDF lays down strict rules on the display of the EU flag. Any project accepting cash has to display the flag on a permanent plaque in a prominent position.

Via Independence Home.

Your kids are going to love these!

These Christmas crackers, handmade in Dorset, are environmentally friendly and the perfect accessory for any table this Christmas. The packaging also doubles up as a postage box so you can send them through the post as an alternative gift. Each cracker contains a packet of Seeds, a hat made from recycled paper, an environmental message about the planet and of course a bang!

£12.50 for six.

Hypocrites Of The Week

I received an email from the caring face of the French nuclear industry inviting me to "Enter the enchanting world of Eden's Time of Gifts. We hope you'll join us in celebrating, sharing and giving thanks during this special time of year. Bring family and friends and share the gift of memories, laughter, love and just spending time with each other. Take part in skating, singing, lantern processions and storytelling - it's all happening."

Not to be confused with that horrible consumption fest also known as "Christmas", of course. Further down the email is a link to this:

For several years now the Pepsi Pool in the Mediterranean Biome has been in hiding behind dense clumps of restios that have thrived in the boggy conditions around the pool's edge..

You may be wondering why it is called the Pepsi Pool – well, the Cape mountain streams and pools in the Fynbos, a species-rich area forming part of the Cape Floral Kingdom of South Africa, are dark brown in colour due to natural tannins that leach into the water making it resemble a famous soft drink.

So that allays any suspicions that the pool might be sponsored by said drinks manufacturer.

*Disclaimer, I like Pepsi Max a lot, and bear PepsiCo no ill will. I don't care whom or what they choose to sponsor.*

Aha, so that's why John Hutton resigned ...

From The Times:

John Hutton, the former Business Secretary who was the architect of Britain’s plans to build a series of nuclear power stations, is in talks with EDF about joining the group as a senior adviser, The Times has learnt.

I had developed a sort of residual respect for John Hutton as the least-bad of a terrible bunch, but it now turns out he's a trougher like the rest of them. Reading on ...

EDF Energy set up a Stakeholder Advisory Panel in 2006. A spokesman said that its role was to allow the company’s senior management “to draw on the experience of eminent and diverse senior advisers outside of EDF Energy to discuss key strategic issues and their impact on our business”. Other members of the panel are Will Hutton, Diane Coyle, John Roberts and Simon Robertson.

So they're getting their propaganda team in place.

Will Hutton is currently 'Chief Executive of the Work Foundation', which is a Quango From Hell, see footnote here.

Diane Coyle's Wiki Page says she's "a freelance economist, and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission, and a member of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

I can't track down anything on John Roberts, but Simon Robertson's background is even murkier:

THE Eden Project has been criticised by environmentalists over its links with French nuclear energy giant EDF and its UK subsidiary EDF Energy.

The Cornish environmental attraction supported EDF Energy's Green Britain Day, launched yesterday by athletes including Olympian Victoria Pendleton and Paralympian Eleanor Simmonds, which urges people to reduce their carbon footprint...

Two of Eden's trustees, Sir John Rose and Simon Robertson, are senior figures within Rolls-Royce, a firm known to be keen on nuclear development in the UK.

Been there, done that, bought the fridge magnet

Yesterday we did Land's End and St Michael's Mount.

Land's End is what it is, it's the most westerly part of England (but not of the island of Great Britain, allegedly). What irks is the claim in the leaflet that the 'First And Last House' is the most south-westerly part of England, which must be bollocks as it's a hundred yards to the north of the main complex. Ah well.

The castle on St Michael's Mount is stupendously well built, to say it's balanced on top of not very much at all. Complete and utter extravagance, and the gun emplacements don't face out to sea (to beat back the French), they face inland (to beat back the peasants, should they ever decide to revolt). As I like to say, "Land Value Tax will sort them out".

Today, the Eden Project. In architectural, horticultural or engineering terms it is a triumph. The rainforest/tropical jungle dome is even more awesome that the famous greenhouse in Kew Gardens (which I warmly recommend), but what spoils it is the hectoring tone about 'climate change' and sustainable this that and the other, despite the fact that they serve the same drinks in the same plastic cups as McDonalds. And at least ten million people can access Kew Gardens using the humble train, but the ten million visitors of which the Eden Project boasts have all had to undertake a long-ish car journey ...