Items of Interest

Professor Dave Elliott of the OU, at a talk to the Blackheath Scientific Society on 16 -11-07, said:

The proposed Severn Barrage is not considered the best way of harnessing Tidal Power. Sea-bed machines around the coast could be connected to produce far more, continuous power at a lower cost per unit of energy. They would not damage the environment as badly as a barrage.

He brought copies of REWEW, the newsletter of the Network for Alternative Technology and Technology Assessment (NATTA) – which he edits. NATTA can be accessed at:

http://eeru.open.ac.uk/natta/rol.html

The carbon footprint was 1 ton/year/person in Victorian times, now it is 12 (USA 22).

Sea Level is now rising at 3mm per year, a rate that is expected to rise.

Southern England is sinking 3mm a year, so the water level in London is rising at 6mm per year, about 1/4 inch.

Methane, a 20 times more potent gas than CO2, is begining to escape from the Siberian continental shelf, with warmer Arctic waters. The total amount of methane there and in the Siberian tundra is said to be equivalent to the word's coal reserves!

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has said that more London rivers should be opened up in the way that the River Quaggy has in our area - to provide a better and cooler environment.

On 20^th May 2005 Mr Matthew Blumler of the Quaggy Waterways Action Group gave the Society a talk on: The Restoration of the River Quaggy

The Quaggy Waterways Action Group had been set up as a charity in 1992, with the aim of using natural means to control its flow, instead of ever more concrete which still failed to prevent flooding.

Mr Blumler previously spoke to us about restoring the River Quaggy in 1996, when he made a strong case for such action, though the outlook for it was then bleak.

He told us how the scheme has been implemented so far, what it has cost, and of the great environmental gains. There was a brief discussion afterwards about its economic value: even without increased local property values (which are likely) the control of flooding would save future expense, which he told us was being monitored by DEFRA who are looking for a 40 year payback.

Visit to Sutcliffe Park

To complete the picture June Mackenzie wrote about the Visit which followed the talk: nine members met up with members of the London Wildlife Trust for a tour of Sutcliffe Park on 23 June 2005 led by Antonia Scarr, a Conservation Officer of the Environment Agency.

The policy of the Environment Agency is to allow plants to colonise the riverside in a natural fashion. The high bank which would contain a severe flood was seeded as a wild flower meadow; and some riverside plants, which had been planted sparsely were spreading naturally. The flat areas near the river, which were not seeded, are still largely bare. Invasive weeds such as Himalayan Balsam were removed last year before seeding, and the same will be done this year. We saw Dragon flies, Damsel flies, small fish in the river, and duck on the lake.

While we were there a group from ‘ Thames 21’ were engaged in removing litter from the river – though there was relatively little. There had been a certain amount of vandalism when the park was first re-opened, but not much since.