Sometimes you find things where you least expect them. Take this forthcoming shop. You might expect the picture to come from the new Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush. Or maybe Bluewater? Well, it wasn’t either of those. I took this picture in a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have to say that this was one of the last places I would expect to find the Megaman brand - which provides about 80% of the bulbs in my London flat, including some impressive dimming compact fluorescent bulbs. Malaysia is far from being an eco-friendly country, and few people, if any, really talk about climate change as an issue at the moment. That said, Malaysians and other people in emerging countries have different concerns from us.
I know a lot of people in Malaysia that use fluorescent lighting at home, yet I hadn’t really thought about it until I saw the store. Shortly after, I noticed that Osram had a big LED factory in Malaysia too. People in Malaysia just don’t seem to mind using fluorescents - unlike here in the UK, where people often complain about the harsh white light of the older lamps (you can now get warmer light from CFLs). Why this might be, I can’t say for sure, but developing/emerging countries think about certain things differently - maybe it’s as simple as thinking of light as a utility rather than a luxury.
I’ve not done any research, but I’m guessing that the cost of energy saving bulbs is lower in Malaysia, because they either ship from countries nearby, or are made at home, making them more appealing to bargain-loving Malaysians. I’m sure the main reason people use them there is for saving money rather than environmental reasons. So maybe that’s all there is to it - people just don’t mind, and it works out cheaper for electricity bills.
I was a little intrigued that Megaman was in Malaysia, so I did a bit of research and found that they have a number of concept stores - and they’re all in Asia. They’re in places like China, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong. I guess we’ll have to wait for one at the Westfield.
Thursday 25 December 2008
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from all at BCSF.
We’ll be back in 2009.
While 2007 seemed like a banner year for electric cars like the G-Wiz and the Nice Mega, it looks like 2008 has been particularly harsh. Green motor website, Clean Green Cars revealed that electric car sales had more than halved from 374 in January to October 2007 to only 154. Although the numbers are extremely small to begin with, a reduction instead of an increase is bad news to the electric vehicle market. The Nice Car Company has also recently gone into administration.
Demand for electric cars in London has evidently been damaged by certain factors: the loss of free parking for electric cars in the City (worth around £4k per year), the subsequently scrapped plans to exempt sub-120g/km emitting cars from congestion charges (a large advantage of the electric cars), and the lower safety standards applied to the G-Wiz and Nice cars being quadricycles rather than cars.
Regardless, hopes for London to move towards electric as a real alternative to regular petrol cars have definitely been pushed back.
On Saturday, environmental campaigners took to the streets to demand that more action be taken to tackle climate change. The march went from outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square to Westminster, ending with a rally in Parliament Square.
It focused on four issues: opposition to plans for a third runway at Heathrow; opposition to new coal-fired power stations; opposition to increased use of agrofuels; and support for a ‘Green New Deal’ to create jobs and further shift our energy supply to renewable sources.
Estimates place turnout for the march at between 5,000 and 10,000. Numbers seemed to dwindle significantly for the rally. Headline speakers at the rally included Nick Clegg, Caronline Lucas and George Monbiot.
In 2005, the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh mobilised an estimated 225,000 people. Whatever one thinks about popular mobilisation, these campaigns surely stand or fall on the scale and diversity of their support (both active and passive).
Perhaps the biggest challenge for organisers and campaigners is to agree on a succinct message that contains a clear and inspiring goal. End apartheid. Votes for women. Equal rights for all Americans. Unlike these social movements, which could point to more concrete targets and grievances, there is much greater uncertainty when it comes to climate change. There is a lack of consensus over the scale of the problem and what needs to be done to face up to it.
Ultimately, things are out of our hands. We cannot be sure that proposals to mitigate global warming will be entirely effective. That is not to question the soundness of action, such as reductions in carbon emissions and moves towards increased use of renewable energy sources. Neither is it to suggest that we should not try at all. But isn’t much of the appeal of direct activism supposed to be the act of standing up and taking back a measure of control?
On Thursday, the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC) presented their Climate Safety report (which can be downloaded here). BFCS was at the well-attended report launch.
The panel of speakers was made up of Caroline Lucas (Green MEP), George Monbiot (journalist and writer), Jeremy Leggett (founder of Solar Century), Kevin Anderson (Tyndall Institute), Tim Helweg-Larsen (PIRC) and Leila Deen (World Development Movement).
The issue of climate change was broken into roughly three segments:
• The State of Play
• Solutions
• Action
Read More »
Sometimes you find things where you least expect them. Take this forthcoming shop. You might expect the picture to come from the new Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush. Or maybe Bluewater? Well, it wasn’t either of those. I took this picture in a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have to say that this was one of the last places I would expect to find the Megaman brand - which provides about 80% of the bulbs in my London flat, including some impressive dimming compact fluorescent bulbs. Malaysia is far from being an eco-friendly country, and few people, if any, really talk about climate change as an issue at the moment. That said, Malaysians and other people in emerging countries have different concerns from us.
