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via Real Climate Science
August 7, 2024 at 06:00AM
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
The woke NT are at it again!
A Mediterranean garden stocked with hardier plants designed to survive hotter summers and wetter winters has been unveiled at a National Trust property in Yorkshire.
The new garden at the stately home Beningbrough Hall, near York, features more than 4,000 perennials, grasses, trees and shrubs from the Mediterranean and areas around the world with a similar climate.
The plants in the garden, hailing from places as far afield as South Africa, South Korea, Chile, China and Australia, were selected by award-winning designer Andy Sturgeon for their ability to cope better with hotter, drier summers and wetter winters.
The National Trust said extremes in local weather over the past year have underlined the need to adapt Beningbrough’s garden.
Andy Jasper, the charity’s head of gardens and parklands, said it hoped visitors would enjoy the garden but also “be inspired to future-proof their own gardens”.
“With more intense weather events, including drought and floods, predicted, our gardens need to change to better tolerate extremes,” he said.
Progress to deliver the Mediterranean garden has been held up by the very wet weather in the past year, with rain “almost every day” – an irony which the garden team said was not lost on them.
Created out of an underused grassed area framed by red brick walls, the Mediterranean display has a series of long masonry dividing sections made from local York stone, together with boulders and water bowls featuring miniature lilies
A large tank has been built under the garden to capture excess rainfall and slowly release it to prevent flash flooding, while a rill flowing into a new pond draws on archive photographs and archaeological research showing the likely presence of a series of ponds and a fountain in this area around 1900.
We were promised Mediterranean summers decades ago. And we’re still waiting.
I often cycle around Beningbrough, which is near York, and stop off for a slice of cake! I can assure you that the gardens there are doing just fine.
In fact I was on my bike near Thirsk last week, but apparently missed the climate crisis!
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
August 7, 2024 at 04:35AM
Nick Pope
Contributor
SunPower, a major rooftop solar company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, the company announced.
SunPower filed for bankruptcy in Delaware after a string of corporate struggles, changes to California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and high interest rates weighed down its business, according to Bloomberg News. Before it unraveled, SunPower was among the leading solar companies in the U.S.
SunPower will look to sell some of its assets to Complete Solaria while the company and some of its other subsidiaries file for bankruptcy announced, SunPower said in its Monday announcement. (RELATED: California Solar Companies Hit The Skids After Receiving Huge Handouts From Biden, Dems)
“In light of the challenges SunPower has faced, the proposed transaction offers a significant opportunity for key parts of our business to continue our legacy under new ownership,” Tom Werner, SunPower’s executive chairman, said of the bankruptcy and the Complete Solaria transaction. “We are working to secure long-term solutions for the remaining areas of our business, while maintaining our focus on supporting our valued employees, customers, dealers, builders, and partners.”
In 2023, state policymakers changed California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and weakened the incentive for companies to push rooftop solar by reducing payments to homeowners who sell back excess power the panels generate, according to CalMatters. Those changes negatively affected SunPower’s business, culminating in its bankruptcy filing, according to Bloomberg.
Prior to its bankruptcy, SunPower showed signs of distress. In 2023, the firm defaulted on a credit deal and restated its earnings before getting a new CEO, restructuring and stopping new solar shipments and installations in 2024, according to Bloomberg.
SunPower did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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via Watts Up With That?
August 7, 2024 at 04:05AM
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
An advert for the world’s first transatlantic flight to be 100% powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has been banned, as the advertising watchdog said it was misleading.
The radio ad, which promoted the transatlantic flight, was misleading in its unqualified "100% sustainable aviation fuel" claim, said regulator the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
Money blog: Cadbury’s reacts to call to bring back ‘greatest ever’ bar
Future Virgin Atlantic ads referencing SAF must include information explaining the environmental impact of the fuel, the ASA added.
The decision strikes at airlines’ ability to promote a key plank of their emissions reduction goals.
What did the ad say?
First aired in November, the ad informed listeners about the first long-haul commercial aircraft to fly across the Atlantic using 100% SAF, comprised of sugar from industrial cornstarch and animal fats unsuitable for human consumption.
"On the 28th of November, Virgin Atlantic’s Flight 100 will take to the skies on our unique flight mission from London Heathrow to JFK to become the world’s first commercial airline to fly transatlantic on 100% sustainable aviation fuel," the ad said.
"When they said it was too difficult, we said: ‘challenge accepted.’ Virgin Atlantic Flight 100. See the world differently."
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No commercial passengers were on board for the journey. Previously airlines were only permitted to use fossil fuels and up to 50% SAF to power their flights.
What was the problem?
A significant proportion of listeners would understand that "100% sustainable aviation fuel" meant that the fuel used was 100% sustainable but that was not the case. Some could be led to believe that there were no negative environmental impacts at all, the ASA said.
In fact, Virgin Atlantic confirmed to the ASA that sustainable aviation fuel produced the same level of CO2 emissions during flight as traditional jet fuel.
While the production cycle of SAF produces less carbon than regular aviation fuel, the emissions created in flight are still "significant", the ASA said.
And producing SAF can still have wider environmental costs and trade-offs, the agency added.
"Because of that, it’s important that claims for sustainable aviation fuel spell out what the reality is so consumers aren’t misled into thinking that the flight they are taking is greener than it really is," said the ASA’s director of complaints and investigations Miles Lockwood.
Virgin Atlantic’s response
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: "We’re committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and key to this will be using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is one of the most immediate levers to decarbonising long haul aviation.
"SAF is a term used globally by industry and government for fossil-alternative aviation fuels that adhere to specific sustainability criteria.
"While we are disappointed that the ASA has ruled in favour of a small number of complaints, we remain committed to open, accurate and transparent engagement on the challenge of decarbonisation."
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Virgin’s response is proof that SAF is just virtue signalling as far as they are concerned. They have no interest in actually reducing emissions, only in claiming that they are.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
August 7, 2024 at 03:46AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 