UK Land 'Row': How Can We Feed, Power & House Everyone? | Fully Charged Show Podcast with Tom Heap

[@johnford3825]

Building regulations should be updated to include PV panels on every new build, especially warehouses or industrial buildings. Battery packs where practical too.

[@JohnnyMotel99]

There is right now a potential 11 year wait to get large PV installs connected to the grid. This having an impact on companies with large roof areas (car makers, warehousing etc) in their plans to go 'solar'.

[@MrPutman]

@@JohnnyMotel99 Then we really should be taking the fight to them by making as many of these connections NA by making them off-grid. Certainly for residential. They would soon speed up their connections backlog processing then. Never wait. Always be proactive.

[@JohnnyMotel99]

@@MrPutmanTotally agree, going off grid is ideal solution. There is the extra cost which can double the install. Companies cite the extra cost of storage as reasons for scaling back their PV plans. Vacuums create opportunities, the 11 year wait could enable much cheaper storage to erode Lion battery tech.

[@andrewharris3900]

Can't you just leave people alone and stop pressing your ideology on them? Forcing them to install something they don't want or need.

[@garrettosullivan8830]

@@andrewharris3900this change is essential

[@robcooper5813]

Fertiliser, farmers have a big opportunity with renewable energy systems. In Australia one farm is experimenting with a system to produce fertiliser and fuel on farm from the surplus energy from a solar system. It solves 2 problems, firstly for the farm to be totally energy independent and secondly a way to utilise any surplus solar engegy turned into fertiliser and fuel, don't have the problem of selling back into the grid. There is an exciting future for farming combining this with new technologies, monitoring and autonomous vehicles, to reduce chemical inputs and better produce.

[@darwinsfish]

No problems with solar farms - they are not permanent structures unlike housing development trashing the countryside forever. Also sheep can graze and free-range hens can roam amongst the panels.

[@TheWoodlandOrchard]

I'd be interested to see real world examples of livestock being grazed under solar panels. It's a compelling narrative that I've heard before, but every solar farm I've seen has very poor grass growth due to shade.

[@quillo2747]

Not they way theybare built, maximise solar pannel cover and thers too much shade for the field to be used to graze, never mind sheep damaging electrics so all cables need to be buried which makes it not economical viable unless it's 100% solar and no grazing.

[@BobSmith-zm9fk]

I saw a solar farm with a sheep grazing, you have to start somewhere I suppose.

[@AsphaltAntelope]

@@TheWoodlandOrchard Agrivolatics is the word to search for :) There are real world examples of it.

[@TheWoodlandOrchard]

@@AsphaltAntelope Thank you. I'll try to find a UK site and see if I can put together a video on it.

[@vlarhellar]

My understanding is that there would be more agri-voltaics -- i.e. mixed food production combined with solar panels -- if the farmers did not loose all of their CAP (or it's replacement). Sheep grazing under raised panels, or some covering over soft fruit production. Before that happens, we should ensure that solar panels are on all warehouses, carparks (ground level, and on the top floor of multi-storey), and homes (especially new homes!).

[@quillo2747]

Fir a solar field to be economically viable it needs so much cover that thers too much shade for grazing or other crops

[@spankeyfish]

@@quillo2747 There's potential for self-consumption on the farm. Can't remember which sparky's yt channel it was but there was one who did a solar installation on a dairy farm barn a few years ago and that place had an annual leccy bill of about £25k

[@SigFigNewton]

Vertical panels are also viable. Leaves almost all of the land for grazing or crops and produces most of the electricity that the same panels in the same location would produce if facing upward like normal

[@MrAdopado]

@@quillo2747 Grazing under/between solar panels is already happening in some UK locations. There normally has to be a surprising amount of space between lines of panels to prevent shading so there is more open space than you imagine. There is bound to be some degree of impact on the grass growth but even if you had a reduced capacity compared with a fully exposed field you are getting some extra value from the area of the solar farm. (You don't get that opportunity at a gas/oil/coal/nuclear power station!)

[@juleshoodlord7623]

@@quillo2747not true the Coop graze sheep under their solar panels

[@pinkelephants1421]

Human waste with wood shavings or dried shredded straw added to it and left for about 12 - 18mths to fully decompose is perfectly fine to use on the garden. Some permaculture projects do it this way & in some places in Africa, there are communities that have integrated this into projects that NGO's helping communities to improve their sanitation/toilet access have been involved with. Use of human waste in the food production cycle is a practice that's certainly hundreds at a minimum, and probably many thousands of years old. There is nothing new here. It's just in our modern sensibilities that we've become overly squeamish about such things relating to the land. When our septic tank was emptied annually on the farm, Dad used to get the tanker driver to go spread it out on the hay paddock opposite the house. It was a running family joke that that was why it used to grow some of the best grass on the farm. The tanker driver was always thrilled at not having to drive back to a regulated disposal point because it saved on time and it meant that he could carry on to another farm, getting more done in a day. Many but not all farmers took the same approach if the weather meant the tanker not getting stuck in the mud; it saved on the disposal part of the bill.

[@garysmith5025]

The problem we currently have with human waste, is we dilute it with vast amounts of water thereby making it far more difficult to process into a useful product. Composting toilets with swappable receptacles and kerbside collection would be a far more efficient use of resources.

[@DeanLee1]

Within 5km of our small dairy farm there are plans for three solar farms with a combined area of about 7000 acres. Add this to the thousands of acres of maize grown in the same area for biodigesters and there soon won't be any farmers producing food left! Maybe that's what the government want though - remove the inheritance tax relief for farms so they all have to sell big chunks of the farm to pay the taxes and the only people who can afford to buy that land are those using it to produce electricity. But don't worry about food security - we'll just import all the food we need!

[@pmac6584]

I feel old saying this but when I was a lad growing up in the 60s and 70s we had meat on Sunday and fish on Friday. Sometimes chops on a Wednesday if we were lucky. Meat every meal wasn’t expected and I didn’t even think about it until recently.

[@SigFigNewton]

Hey look at those heart disease rates rising

[@peteinwisconsin2496]

The biggest waste of land is using it to grow corn to make ethanol to feed our cars. 1/3 of the corn grown in the USA is used to make ethanol. The stated goal of this is vehicle-miles without harming the environment. PV to charge EVs provides far more vehicle-miles per acre and does not require water that depletes our aquifers and no fertilizers that have been finding their way to the Gulf of Mexico. Different studies show that PV for EVs will provide 14-80 times as many vehicle-miles per acre per year. This means that if all the corn for ethanol fields were converted to PV for EVs, that we could power all the vehicles with many acres to spare.

[@malcolmbennett4325]

That podcast was brilliant. I do hope the new government is listening to Tom such common sense thinking . As Del Boy would say “Rodney, some people have more degrees than a compass others have common sense”

[@veronicathecow]

Not normally one for podcasts, but you are both brilliant and passionate, thank you.

[@urbanstrencan]

Fully Charged team keep up with great work bringing us podcasts like this ❤❤

[@Chrislayeruk1]

We have a new Solar Farm near us near Colchester in Essex… I am bemused why the panels are not over car parks at supermarkets etc…

[@evilutionltd]

Agreed, there are plenty of roofs. The only complaint is cleaning. Ground fixed can be cleaned easily, roof mounted requires a specialist and costs extra.

[@gordonmackenzie4512]

That is Law in France. Any car park with more than 80 bays must be 50% covered with solar.

[@gordonmackenzie4512]

@@evilutionltd I’ve never seen solar panels on a domestic property being cleaned. Every house I can see out of my front windows has solar panels. I got some 6 weeks ago. The installer told me not to clean them, except if absolutely necessary.

[@housechurchuk]

Longleat Forest in England, has used selective forestry, where particular trees are selected for felling, and taught others, for, literally, decades.

[@sarcasmo57]

Great chat. Thanks.

[@nigelgarvey2046]

Thanks for yet another fascinating discussion with an interesting guest. I wish Tom all the best with his book, but my cynical relative's only getting socks for Christmas this year after the complete lack of interest he showed in the book I gave him last year!

[@AJM-GariochQuine]

@37 min We were gradually moving from white meat to pescatarian in 2019 for health reasons. When the pandemic hit I decided my lockdown challenge would be a vegan diet. Confession - I was a wholefood vegetarian throughout the 70s (it was really trendy then... and cheap when you're a student)... Getting in tow with my carnivore husband set me back a lot but my millennial son reintroduced me to the joys of being meat free. Compared to the limited diet I had 50 years ago it's so easy to be vegan now. 4 years and counting. No desire to eat animal flesh. I'm lucky to live in Edinburgh which vies with Glasgow and Brighton to be the most vegan friendly city in the UK!

[@frejaresund3770]

I have been enjoyed, so thank you for sharing.

[@Sidewinder1009oli]

I really have no idea how builders get away without fitting - EV chargers, solar, home battery & heat pumps as standard. It seems crazy.

[@ralpharmsby8040]

It is crazy, has been for years and looking new houses being built now, will continue to be so.

[@gordonmackenzie4512]

They don’t in Scotland. Building Regulations are very different. Solar has been compulsory for nearly 20 years. Heat Pumps are everywhere. Wiring for EV Chargers is put in, ready, some with external blanks. Not many have battery though. Passive House standard is coming in from January 2025.

[@ralpharmsby8040]

Rest of UK needs to keep up with Scotland then.​@@gordonmackenzie4512

[@johndonovan7897]

In the US some companies have been mixing the residential processed sewage waste with industrial waste which turns out to have been full of PFAS contaminants. They pushed farmers to use this stuff and now it turns out they've made the soil unusable for growing crops. Hope that's not the case in the UK!

[@djmorris103]

Really interesting, thanks.

[@smthB4]

I am a big fan of solar. I understand why the feed in tariff was eventually ended (at the time, 38p per KWH generated, whether you used it or not) because it was a lost leader, but now any surplus you make the grid buy it from you for about 3p per kWh, which is a disincentive unless you have a battery.

[@sarcasmo57]

I'm in Brisbane and I have an electric drill. No big deal, but it is rechargeable. Working class.

[@matthewbrown435]

I bought the last book, it was a good read. Hey Bobby, We need an Everything Electric Show in Auckland New Zealand! just a jump across the ditch if you're going to be in Melbourne! 😁 Ps i do think that we have to be realistic regarding the "condemnation" of animal farming for meat. I totally agree regarding flat land that is suitable for arable farming as an alternative, but there's huge areas of land across the world that's totally unsuitable for arable crops and large machinery. We have a small farm with steep land full of gullies that wouldn't be any good for growing anything for example but we have raised cows for our family and sheep as they have no issues with the terrain. There's also been new studies shown that returning graizing animals to areas of desertification has transformed those areas back to fertile grass lands again. It's all about the way it's managed though, let nature do it's work and avoid Intensification.

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

When I travel around, I just point out, ooh, that would be a great space for solar panels

[@danielmadar9938]

Thanks

[@johnsmith-ds9ni]

Please bring Everything Electric to Western Australia. Perfect for EVs as 6.6kV solar is under $3000 installed, 300 days of sunshine a year!

[@DavidRains-j4u]

At last a look at the issues in some depth. As said and we all know that the approach for solar should be on “roofs first” basis and the barrier to that happening is connecting to the local low voltage system why are we not solving that that problem first rather than blighting the countryside with massive solar farms and miles of pylons? The billions ££ we are spending on those projects could be better spent on facilitating getting solar / battery systems on consumers roofs, directly reducing their bills, cutting demand from the grid, enabling the creation of VPP’s etc…. The direction the government is going is not consumer focused and frankly looks out of date with the technological advances that are happening. There is a place for big and centralised in utilising offshore wind but solar is best suited to the micro and small projects. Come to Lincolnshire Robert and do an in depth piece on the effects of the transition to green energy is having on our county, the governments aims are noble and a transition is necessary but the implementation looks all wrong to me.

[@peteinwisconsin2496]

>--“roofs first” --< Yes, but there is no need to connect the panels to the grid because the PV-generated electricity can most easily be used to power water heaters and space heaters. No grid connection, no inverter and no batteries needed. Heating water and space takes a fair bit of energy that can be cheaply provided by PV on-site.

[@davebway6371]

Fixing the climate & making fresh water So Australia has excess power - and some problems with lack of water, and declining coral on the barrier reef - partly due to acidification. Here’s a solution - Sodium Carbonate: Sodium Hydroxide can be produced by the electrolysis of salt water - ie Sea Water. It takes 2,500 kWh to produce 1 tonne of Sodium Hydroxide. 2(NaCl)+H2O = 2NaOH + Cl2 + H2 So by products are Chlorine and Hydrogen. You can separate these, sell the Chlorine as a chemical product and burn the Hydrogen to create fresh, slightly chlorinated, water - or combine them to produce Hydrochloric acid - used in many products and chemical processes. You then take your Sodium Hydroxide and bubble air through it to extract the CO2 and create Sodium Carbonate and water: 2(NaOH)+CO2=Na2CO3+H2O Sodium Carbonate is used in cooking, soaps, detergents and other processes. It is also a means of making water more alkali and adding Carbon in a form that shelled creatures and coral can use to create shells and more coral. ie it can offset the problems of acidification that we are seeing from a higher level of CO2 in the atmosphere. Producing 1 tonne of Sodium Hydroxide ultimately results in the absorption of 1.13 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere - plus providing a number of products and chemicals with value to sell and acting as a desalination plant. Australia is clearly moving to a point where coastal plants of this nature could be extraordinarily profitable with low cost energy providing the driving force. They could be even more profitable, and push the growth of renewables in third world countries if governments ruled that you should buy one tonne of Sodium Carbonate for every tonne of CO2 your activities release into the atmosphere. Other than initial investment, it’s hard to see a downside as excess Sodium Carbonate can be used to de-acidify lakes, rivers, and coastal areas.

[@matthewlloyd956]

looking forward to the EES in Melbourne next year

[@MrAdopado]

There must be plenty of scope for a fair proportion of farm vehicles being transitioned to electric/battery power. The range of on-farm utility vehicles and quad bikes in addition to actual tractors is extensive these days. Current battery technology is well capable of powering for full days of work. Many farms also have the potential for solar power on outbuildings and barns, thereby cutting the diesel bill and the farm electricity bill.

[@LadAussie]

Australia is big, and we need all the help we can get to gain momentum on EV uptake.

[@williamarmstrong7199]

My Grandfather 1890 to 1976 used to keep a pig in his back garden and an earth closet. One side of his garden had the human poo buried in it. The otherside got the pig muck. The human poo side grew much better than the pig poo side. They ate all the food from the pig side inside the hourlse. The human poo side he gave away to realtives (he disliked) and exchanged with vilagers for other goods like pork Beef and chickens they swapped with him for fresh veg. He was a crusty guy of the kind you will not find today. He walked from Alexandria (Egypt ) to Cape town when fighting in a volenteer detachment of the British Army (Beor Wars) and right through the 1st world war too.

[@RichardCro]

potentially the issue is more around having the available connecting infrastructure that can move whats generated to where its needed. ideally a property / business should have built in at least 70% of its energy consumption as PV or alike. we are currently trying to install as much PV as possible on existing industrial structures but the biggest blocker is the grid it connects to not being able to export the excess generation. if we can sort that out we dont need fields.

[@kevindruce8915]

I see the book is in the local library, so I will get it from there.

[@adam-g7crq]

Maybe some tax incentives for commercial buildings to have solar panels might help.

[@waynecartwright-js8tw]

just Energy efficiency requirements would do that. The building where i work doesn't even have insulation. while they re roof it the can add PV. Its rented so needs to be legislation.

[@richardbrice6535]

Most commercial buildings weren't designed to support the additional weight of solar panels. It would be nice if Robert's debunking campaign also included an educational map of which existing buildings could have solar on them without planning permission or the need to be connected to the grid. These installations could be used to charge BEVS.

[@richardbrice6535]

Most commercial buildings weren't designed to support the additional weight of solar panels. It would be nice if Robert's debunking campaign also included an educational map of which existing buildings could have solar on them without planning permission or the need to be connected to the grid. These installations could be used to charge BEVS.

[@garysmith5025]

@@richardbrice6535 I hear that excuse a lot but I'm not convinced by it. Even if a roof were 100% covered in solar panels, the increase in weight would equate to only about 20% of the snowloading requirement. In reality you'd probably only cover a maximum of 25% of a roof, so the additional loading is pretty much insignificant

[@ralpharmsby8040]

I think your points on the effects of 'blocks' of weather are telling: wetter sowing and harvesting conditions are making it very difficult for a lot of farmers to break even let alone make a profit. Can't blame them for going for solar panels on a few fields.

[@gordonmackenzie4512]

I drove from the sea on the West Coast, to the sea on the East Coast today, and hardly saw any humans, vehicles or farms. Mostly just empty wild land. One wind farm in the distance. One hydro generation plant from the 1960s. A few Sheep and Red Deer.

[@neilmcghee1016]

A good mix. Tx gents

[@chrisjeanneret5091]

Now you just need to add an event in Toronto!

[@adam-g7crq]

cultured meat and dairy, with the use of renewable energy could free up a lot of arable land for human food production or other things set aside for nature or rotation of crops.

[@jonevansauthor]

Potentially but I would put that in the same box as nuclear fusion. It's ten years away, and has been for a long time. Meanwhile, The Netherlands has a much more efficient farming system just using greenhouses, plus agri-voltaics already work. There's also the obesity epidemic - we would save an enormous amount of energy and reduce pollution if even the majority of Brits ate the diet their doctor wants them to which is to say 'less' ;)

[@adam-g7crq]

@jonevansauthor yes I agree, I suppose only time will tell, it's a big topic to cover with what's available and practical to use today.

[@chrisblunt7627]

How many homes could be fitted 4kW PV + 10kWh of battery storage for the cost of building, running and decommissioning Hinckley Point C?

[@Smidge204]

Biofuels are a part of *a* solution. I'm opposed to it being grown on arable land since that reduces food growing ability while depleting local resources, but I still think there is potential for algae based biofuel to be scaled up to meaningful numbers. Not everything, but enough to make a difference.

[@theunknownunknowns256]

Mike Casey's "electric cherry" farm in Cromwell Aotearoa has two electric tractors, on conversion and one new.

[@andrewradford3953]

Almost 50kW on 20acres, house and shed. 1/7 = 1ha devoted to land fof wildlife. Qld Australia

[@jeremytaylor3312]

Even if agriculture keeps on with current fertiliser type and use, it could be used far more efficiently. Properly implemented precision farming can reduce fertiliser input per kg of product output by at least 20%.

[@CHIEF_420]

"Black Myth: Wukong" es "GOTY" en 2024 (en mí opinión)🏆

[@eamonquinn5188]

If we have excess power production we should be building storage and generating hydrogen which actually could be used to fly aeroplanes, Australia could become a net exporter. Talking about gas being a "greener" fuel source, have a look at Northern Irelaand, moving to mains gas from burning oil.

[@conradharcourt8263]

Robert: Stop burning wood. Your admission was dangerously close to being a 'Ratner' moment!

[@richardbrice6535]

If you use Black Soldier Fly Larvae (Hermetia illucens) to dispose of feces and food waist, the larvea can be used to replace soya in the diet of animals who would have originally eaten bugs (chickens for example).

[@Smidge204]

Here in the US we used to use the soil ("cake") generated from wastewater treatment plants for farms. After the wastewater goes through all the clarifying and digesting steps, you are left with a damp clumpy material that looks exactly like the potting soil you'd by from a home center except is reeks unbelievably of ammonia... which is a potent fertilizer. We used to ship thousands of tons of this stuff from the cities to the heartlands for farmers to till into their fields. We stopped doing that because it was too polluted, especially with pharmaceuticals. If someone can come up with a process to destroy or remove the drug residues and "forever chemicals" from this waste stream it would be a great way to close the loop again, reduce the need for fossil fuel fertilizers and solve a waste disposal problem.

[@highlanderapparel]

I’m coming to realize that one of the beauties of the United States We are 50 different countries, one state may say no Solar. The other state may say 100% Solar.😊 the Highlander

[@darwinsfish]

In my neck of the woods (Norfolk), I’m surrounded by farmland. Most of it is sugar beet or barley. Hardly producing nutritious food for the nation. The sugar beet growing is subsidised yet successive governments talk about a sugar tax so that seems a bit bonkers? The barley, I assume is for the brewing industry.

[@bonamyg]

Sugar beet production is not subsidised. The industry operates without production quotas or sales restrictions, allowing it to compete effectively in both domestic and international markets. So you would advocate increasing imports of sugar cane?

[@darwinsfish]

⁠@@bonamygapologies - got that wrong as confused the guaranteed prices paid as subsidies.

[@spamhead]

@@bonamygMaybe stop growing so much sugar beet and consuming so much sugar. Neonicotinoid exemptions aren’t helping the bee and general insect population. Found to have prolonged residual effect.

[@tivvy-xf4kz]

If I could go back 20 yrs or so I would be looking at going off grid in my normal urban semi. Unfortunately I'm long retired and don't have the income any more to set it all up. Yes there is no legal reason why you can't disconnect from the utilities. You don't have to have gas/electricity. With modern panels and battery packs along with low voltage appliances that have been developed for the caravan industry and led's etc it's completely possible. My view is if it was all incorporated on NEW properties the cost would be cheaper and more affordable as it would be spread over a number of years on the mortgage. I do draw the line with solar on farmland. It's not all about grazing animals what about crops? That field is now lost. I'm all for solar on warehouses and new houses as standard where the cost would be minimal and spread over a number of years. Whether you go completely off grid or connect to the utilities is up to you. Either way it would keep the cost down.

[@peteinwisconsin2496]

>-With modern panels and battery packs along with low voltage appliances that have been developed for the caravan industry and LEDs etc it's completely possible.-< You forgot about modern inverters. Even RVs in the USA now have AC appliances because the 12 volt DC appliances were so expensive and really were junk.

[@jonathanwalters4630]

More people need more space and resources, no addressing the elephant in the room, less than 3.5 billion when I was born now over 8 billion who now need more space more resource, make efficient use of existing yes but there are limits to it.

[@AJM-GariochQuine]

Here in the UK if we want vegan mince/sausages/meatballs we should look for pea protein products rather than soya based stuff. Much better for the planet

[@SigFigNewton]

But also protein deficiency is nearly nonexistent. We don’t need to look like Thor to be extremely healthy.

[@treehugger3971]

What about Toronto??

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

I want to build a windmill, like Windy Miller's, but use it to generate electricity

[@neilmarshall2315]

They generally don’t stack up unless they are big, wind power is related to the the square of the blade length.

[@steverichmond7142]

Fertiliser can be produced from animal waste efficiently without any chemicals using nano technology.

[@SigFigNewton]

Organic fertilizer -preserves soil health more long term. Less loss of topsoil per decade than chemical fertilizers -is a better carbon sink than chemical fertilizers. Absorbs more greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere -tends to be more locally sourced -does not succeed in producing as much crop per acre. (At least not in the first decades. Beyond that, superior preservation of topsoil might cause organic fertilizers to be better even in this respect)

[@davidwilkie9551]

The most immersed in Actual Intelligence activity in/of QM-TIME Completeness, ie First Principle Observation of Actuality, is playing Peek-a-Boo with a baby, transferring the elemental e-Pi-i sync-duration resonance bonding conscious awareness to the next person's era of wound-up being here-now-forever and reflecting potential positioning possibilities integration in the navigational map of living existence. (Tell that to your hippie mates then)

[@solartime8983]

🌅 We have Food Farms with Solar Power systems that have no grid, but electricity for all operations...inc. Winery & Livestock. Many of Amish Communities (U.S.) are solar PV powered now...one county, Holmes, is 80%. They can use electricity if Not from the 'World' & must Not have to pay 'the english sytem' for it!!🎉🧑‍🌾🌞

[@davidwebb4904]

There is one tidal energy project that could literally power the entire nation, such is the scale of the project. Estimated cost £40 Billion. So for about the cost of 1x Hinckley C, you could have 4X the capacity of Hinckley C. All Green. Replacing every “burning” power station, and having vast amounts to export to the dirty countries of Germany and Poland. Bringing money IN to our economy, instead of losing money when we buy in power from France, and others. So how do I get traction on this project?

[@garysmith5025]

I assume you're referring to the Pentland Firth?

[@davidwebb4904]

@garysmith5025 Nope. But I will look that up...

[@garysmith5025]

@@davidwebb4904 Which are you referring to?

[@tihomirbrkic9354]

Ola

[@johndonovan7897]

Farmers need to lease space for wind power and "fuel" their tools (bought with that wind lease money) with that wind power.

[@thegreatauk01]

I have a wood burner and yes it pollutes but it is a modern efficient and very clean burning type called DEFRA (government) approved standard, which is 2 or 3 times more efficient and clean than normal wood burners. I only use local waste wood, no fossil fuels used in transport as I use an EV powered by green energy. The ash from my fire goes on my organic veg garden cutting transport of veg and me to shops. The wood, waste wood if left to rot wood release its carbon anyway (with no benefit) and this would bond in the atmosphere to form carbon dioxide. Is it the cleanest, no, is it worse than other fossil fuels, no, not if done right. Clear felling US forests and shipping over using ships powered by 'bunker' fuel and diesel trains to burn in Drax (subsidesed by millions a year to do so) is the wrong way to do it.

[@garysmith5025]

My business manufactures and operates environmental monitoring systems around the UK and Scandinavia. The so called clean wood burning stoves were developed to reduce PM2.5 particulates, they do that very well if well seasoned wood is used, but the result is greatly increased PM0.1 emissions. Typically a "very clean burning" stove as you describe it emits 30 - 80 times more PM0.1 particulates than a Euro 6 diesel engine per KG of fuel consumed. It's also relatively easy to differentiate between the sources of PM0.1 particulates as those from wood burning are mainly silica, not exactly noted for its health benefits when deep in the lungs.

[@snowstrobe]

Bristol council has been trying to whack up the fees on allotments. Look into Rocket burners... no smog.

[@wotireckon]

Robert , I fully share your views on Clarkson. He's massively fostered climate denial and petro masculinity and no amount of pious farmery will remotely compensate for that.

[@bknesheim]

ref: 24:18 Many warehouses is not constructed to have the weight of solar panels on the roof.

[@MrAdopado]

... and that's where appropriate building regs can help! The warehouses should be built to an appropriate standard so that solar can be added. Any added cost would be repaid by the energy production.

[@bryanlewens2068]

I retired from farming over 20 years ago and feel sorry for today’s farmers who are being pulled in so many directions. We want them to produce food, look after the environment and cut carbon emissions. On a typical soil the carbon in each square metre of soil holds 3x the carbon in the atmosphere above it. Where soils are continuously cropped the organic matter in the soil is depleted reducing the carbon. Economics has resulted in livestock units being increased in size and because livestock are inherently inefficient in utilising nutrients the dung and urine can easily result in nutrient buildup up in soils around these units. This was not a problem in the days of mixed farming. We live in a world of growing human population and reducing farmable area. Add to that problems of climate change and there are monumental challenges in front of us. I do wonder if the future may be to reduce livestock production in favour of protein from developing cellular technology which is currently in its infancy. Eventually it will be both efficient, cost effective and acceptable as a meat and milk replacement for a large part of the food industry. A few years ago I attended a conference where it was convincingly demonstrated that nitrogen fertiliser was responsible for a 50% increase in crop yields. New technology is going to play a big part in solving the problems of the future. When I studied agriculture at university some 60 years ago the environment didn’t feature. It is a lot more complicated now 14:07

[@SJ-xg1uf]

"biofuel production for airline companies are not the way to go" Ok. To that I would ask, what would YOU suggest then? And I can hear right now people saying "take trains!" Except here's the thing, most of the US and Canada do NOT have any rail infrastructure, let alone high speed infrastructure.

[@stijn2644]

I don't know what they would propose but the only viable option for aviation and long haul ships is e-fuels. As i understand it, current e-fuels source their carbon from biomass which is not sustainable but it's a first gen. Eventually with demand growing they should go to CO2 capture for the carbon content in the e-fuel.

[@SigFigNewton]

Batteries. We’ll have battery powered planes by mid century.

[@SigFigNewton]

The battery advancements really are rapid. We’ll probably be powering cities at night with solar.

[@stijn2644]

​@@SigFigNewton Yes battery advancement goes really fast but electric planes by mid century is a bit of a stretch. 26 years to increase the energy density by a factor of 10 is not a long time. Sure small planes can go electric (they already excist to some extend) but large intercontinental flights, i'm not convinced. Not only this but grid infrastructure to actually supply the electrical energy is going to be challenging. I'd like to be proven wrong, but currently i don't see any sign to this actually happening

[@MrAdopado]

No country had any rail infrastructure until they built it!

[@robcooper5813]

Remember not all land can produce crops. In the UK and other countries there are many areas that are only suitable for grazing, so ruminants can turn the grasses into protein. These areas can not be farmed and many can not grow trees.. It is all about balance and not over eating meat, in moderation. On cropping farms, farmers make the decision based on return and demand from consumers. As a dairy farmer on my farm it is most suitable and profitable to produce milk. If I produced crops I would go broke.

[@liztaiNCAD]

I've heard that it is possible to grow crops under solar panels - even to graze animals - I wonder that is true?

[@IslaSprollie]

Human overpopulation is the root cause, do something about it! Think about habitat loss for the other species. ALL humans want to improve themselves but too many humans equals almost every environmental problem.

[@Leo99929]

Yeah, you touch on it and you're right: The problem isn't the economics or the technology. It's the slow rate at which legislation and regulation is catching up to enable and encourage people to use the right technologies... And the "ludite" contingent who don't like change.

[@peterjol]

All around me there is rich farmland that has been sold off for housing development, and they will soon start building thousands of one and two-story individual homes.... Instead of using up valuable farmland, I just don't understand why we don't start building (decent quality) skyscrapers.

[@MrAdopado]

Not surprisingly 95% of people have no desire to live in a skyscraper, no matter what the quality! The truth is that even in the UK there is a lot of land in small patches that is not suited to agriculture but could have a house or two built on it. The problem is that large scale developers only want large areas of open accessible land where they can rapidly throw together a bunch of barely adequate houses to make the most profit. They rarely want to build on a site for just one or two houses or that have a non-standard non-rectangular shape ... creative DIY individuals sometimes prove that you can get on and do it. There are thousands of these disconnected patches around the country but developers aren't interested, they would rather have a large field on the edge of town.

[@glengosling5636]

👍👍👍👍

[@davebway6371]

Every car park should have solar panel covers and charging.

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

Tom Heap likes Pingu 😊

[@carolinebray82]

Impossible burger!? Keep science out of my food.! 43:14 it’s time for you to watch “common ground” and support real farmers !!

[@SigFigNewton]

An impossible burger does support real farmers. It’s not lab grown meat. It’s various plantstuff smushed together in a particular way. Plants grown by farmers.

[@peterjol]

I can't reverse a trailer for the life of me..I even had an instructor give up trying to teach me.

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

Yep, we became a consumerist society, I hope we can shift back to manufacturing and innovating

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

When I travel around, I just point out, ooh, that would be a great space for solar panels my roof faces north/east/west, But I'm an end of the road semi detached, I just need someone to reshape my roof, and I'd be happy to have a flat roof.

[@MrAdopado]

It always "depends" of course but east/west can work well for solar in the UK. You end up getting a longer productive day length than a set of panels only facing due south. Optimal east/west can make best use of a few extra panels.

[@markgt894]

Problem with living on an overcrowded island

[@johndonovan7897]

My understanding is that Impossible burger is a larger carbon emitter than just a beef burger that is pasture raised. And don't forget all the fossil fuel inputs for pesticides and herbicides and fertilizer for mono cropped grain proteins.

[@SigFigNewton]

In practice almost every human eating beef is eating beef that was raised at least partly on alfalfa or other such crops. So there’s all the land, water, and pesticide use of the stuff fed to the cattle

[@johndonovan7897]

@@SigFigNewton Yes, that is why I said "pasture raised". And if that land is not suitable for crops (a lot of land isn't), it can still be used for grazing. Read the book "Sacred Cow".

[@SigFigNewton]

@@johndonovan7897 no. Watch the show Andor.

[@johndonovan7897]

@@SigFigNewton Ok. Don’t read the book Sacred Cow.

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

I sooooo want a small electric tractor 🚜

[@SigFigNewton]

I’m sure they’ll be around in less than a decade. At the moment EVs seem to be somewhere between bus and semi truck in terms of how much weight the batteries can reasonably handle

[@SigFigNewton]

Advancements in batteries haven’t slowed down. I’m guessing that by mid century we have some cities completely powered at night by solar.

[@dropshot1967]

using human waste as part of your compost is ok as long as the donors of said waste do not use medicines/anti biotics as these tend to persist in the compost and in the food grown from that compost.

[@SigFigNewton]

Nitrogen content of the soil in some places in Colorado is affected by hiker pee.

[@johndonovan7897]

Factory farming of meat is clearly a massive carbon emitter, but regenerative pasturing can produce carbon neutral meat. And there is enough marginal land that is not suitable for crops but can support grazing animal and that also builds top soil through dung droppings. Think of the great plains in the US. That top soil was produced by generations of bison. See the book Sacred Cow.

[@highlanderapparel]

We still have plenty of room in the islands of Scotland for plenty of Highland Coos 😊 the Highlander❤

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

Nuclear has 247 cashflow demand. The GRID has a bigger cashflow demand. When the sunshines and sets, the rooftop PV and EVs v2g oversized battery stops all the customers grid electricity demand. Stops customers cashflow. "WTF do we do now" ? 😮 Said the nuclear owners and the grid owners. But the grid owner's screamed loudest.

[@corradoalamanni179]

I guess they will provide to big cities and industry

[@dombenson2571]

Get smarter

[@SigFigNewton]

Solar gets less investment than it deserves given how good panels and batteries are getting. It’s too good for the person who buys the solar panels and not good enough for the investor… because they can charge for fuel every single month, but they cannot charge for sunlight.

[@J-R-H82]

FFS, leave our meat alone🤬 Establishing the crop or heard would have the same impact, animals make more meat for free, you could say they are a renewable food source. And I was under the impression that many vitamins and minerals found in meat are only found in meat at the levels our bodies require.

[@snowstrobe]

We need to end the concept of owning land. Whilst the commons (the bits we use to provide for needs and wants) needs to be 'looked after', but the religious idea of being 'stewards' of the planet just perpetutes the mistaken concept that we are somehow in charge, that the earth belongs to us... It's a really unhealthy attitude, and frankly is part of why we're in this mess.

[@TerryHickey-xt4mf]

fascinating stuff, I am glad he burst the bio-fuel bubble, it was always a red herring.

[@SigFigNewton]

I’m surprised that the hydrogen car bubble hasn’t finished bursting. EVs have already won…

[@SigFigNewton]

In China EVs are already less expensive than ICE

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

Just stick solar panels on every roof where it's reasonable to do so FULL STOP

[@MaxDigby-q1t]

A little simplistic. What is reasonable, private owned property? I would love legislation to make that law. But I would also love the same to stop people flying 1000’s of miles to sit on a beach to get sand in every crack. Would you agree to that? People can’t even accept trying to reduce ICE cars in urban area’s. Just put solar on every golf course that would be enough x 3. That’s not effecting farming.

[@stanleytolle416]

Land and material is an argument for nuclear. 1/17 the material and 1/54 the land area compaired to renewables. It is also possible to make liquid fuels with nuclear too. Of course there is the issue of cost. Costs should come down with further development.

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

It's a little bit fun, because, you both have glasses, you have T-Shirt, and collared top over the top.

[@Leo99929]

I think the idea that vegetarian/veganism is only purely completely meat/animal product free is (fair but) harmful to the cause, because if everyone dropped 99% of animal products then the world would probably be a much better place, but we would all still not be vegan. And that's okay too. There is a sustainable amount of animal products to consume that is greater than zero. Holding yourself to perfection only makes the concept very unapproachable for "most" people. So they don't even reduce how much they consume, which is almost all of the potential benefit.

[@evilutionltd]

If we want bigger and better plants, we need more CO2 in the atmosphere. The Earth had 10x as much CO2 during the time of the dinosaurs. It allowed bigger and better plants, enough to feed massive plant eaters for millions of years and the carnivores had plenty of plant eating dinosaurs to eat. Doubling the CO2 PPM would increase crops for us and our meat supply to eat.

[@smthB4]

I would prefer to eat less meat that if it is humanely produced, eg grass fed rotational grazing than for meat to disappear completely, but I don’t believe, what some claim, that all global warming would be solved simply by the whole world becoming vegan. If all ruminants disappeared tomorrow (without decomposing, with all that methane and CO2 that a rotting body produces!) reduced global warming effect would be about 5%. I also dislike the biased anti meat ‘science’ which tries to make us believe that red meat is a class 1 carcinogen, or that it is a major contributor to the rise in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Anyone interested in looking into the papers supporting this will see how badly designed the papers are, and how questionable the interpretation of the data. By all means persuade me with good science, I respect that, but don’t try to get me to eat less meat because it is ‘bad’ for me, when you have no evidence.

[@bollard49]

Buy land. They don't make it anymore

[@petermizon4344]

CANT YOU ORGANISE A COMEDY SKETCH SHOWING TODAY'S TRANSFER FROM PETROL CARS TO EVs ONLY THE SAME ARGUMENT OVER 100 YEARS AGO FROM HORSES AND CARTS TO PETROL CARS 😊😊

[@raidengl]

The only problem with plant based burgers is that they are often made with pesticide drenched plants.

[@80y3r9]

Pumping concrete into the ground in our fields should be a crime, they'll declare them all brownfield, that's the problem

[@rogerphelps9939]

Very little concrete used. Very straightforward to return to agriculture if so desired.