If anything, this summer has been more miserable than last summer here in the UK. Certainly in Malvern we have experienced record rainfall through August and into September, with barely a glimpse of sun or moon through the overcast skies. The plants have put all their energy into growth and not into flower or fruit, and I only saw one bee all summer! Yet some people still insist that global warming/climate change is not happening - and happening rather fast.
I got an e-mail to a list of prominent Greens (although I don't know why I was included) from a man in America who insisted the the Physical Society had changed their opinion (50,000 scientists can't be wrong!) and now thought it was "not proven." He insisted that we Greens had no proof; where were our double blind trials, etc etc. He really ranted, if emails can rant. When I responded that he was clutching at straws he went as far as quoting me and giving out my personal details! Then he ranted again.
I decided to check the Physical Society website where I found that they had not (contrary to an internet rumour) changed their opinion but held fast to their view that the changes were moving fast. I wrote to him quoting the website and politely suggested he should get his facts right. I have not had a reply...
Here in Malvern we are establishing a Transition group, to enable the community to adjust to the new circumstances in their own way in advance of the changes to come.
My contribution, the Rotaire Dryline, is now available in 32 different shapes and sizes to enable people easily to dry their washing without using energy or finding their washing wetter than when it went on the line. It has sold very well through the summer and purchasers have all expressed happiness at finding a solution to a lifelong problem. This summer has been an excellent proving ground, and they will find that it works in winter too. However, I expect that sales will drop off in winter, as the British tend not to think about their gardens until Spring. I hope I am wrong because it would make a significant (4 million tonnes of CO2) contribution if tumble driers weren't used - and that is just in this country.
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Sunday, 17 August 2008
A rainy night in Georgia
You go away for a rew days and what happens? The Russians invade Georgia; honestly, you can't take your eyes of things for a minute without them going wrong!
In 1956 they did something similar to stamp their authority over Hungary, so 50 years on nothing has changed. They are punishing the Georgian government for wanting to join the EU. So what will the West do? While everyone's eyes have been on the Olympics Russia has declared its intentions of being No 1 in Europe and the West will make some pitiful noises; what else can they do? Declare War?
If everyone is going Green to avoid global catastrophy then who is counting the CO2 emissions from all the wars that are currently occurring? I think governments should walk their talk.
In 1956 they did something similar to stamp their authority over Hungary, so 50 years on nothing has changed. They are punishing the Georgian government for wanting to join the EU. So what will the West do? While everyone's eyes have been on the Olympics Russia has declared its intentions of being No 1 in Europe and the West will make some pitiful noises; what else can they do? Declare War?
If everyone is going Green to avoid global catastrophy then who is counting the CO2 emissions from all the wars that are currently occurring? I think governments should walk their talk.
Green Travel isn't so bad
I just looked at my blogging output and found it very sporadic. The trouble, if you can call it that, is that the project is working: I am so busy selling Rotaire Drylines that I haven't got enough time for this recreation. I have just had a great break though. First I went to the Big Chill, mainly to see Leonard Cohen but also because the Big Green Gathering was not taking place and I like a festie now and again. Cohen was spellbinding. It is such a shame that the post-modern soundbite is "Oh, so depressing." If the truth is depressing then you need a counsellor.
Straight afterwards, only pausing to send out Drylines, my wife and I went to Venice and Rome by train. Last year's trip to Crete by air left me with a carbon defecit so we tried something different - and no children either, now that they are grown. The arrival in Venice was a joy, straight off the train, across the forecourt and onto a water taxi, a beautiful launch that took us through the canals to the hotel right near to the Basilica San Marco. The Venetians actually stole St Mark's remains from Jerusalem and set them up here. Marco Polo brought back spaghetti from China too, creating this international cuisine. Rome was fantastic too, but I don't think much can compare with Venice, partly because there isn't a single road, therefore no traffic. Then back on another overnight sleeper, eating dinner while the hills of Italy rolled by. It was so much preferable to air travel, you wonder why more people don't do it.
Straight afterwards, only pausing to send out Drylines, my wife and I went to Venice and Rome by train. Last year's trip to Crete by air left me with a carbon defecit so we tried something different - and no children either, now that they are grown. The arrival in Venice was a joy, straight off the train, across the forecourt and onto a water taxi, a beautiful launch that took us through the canals to the hotel right near to the Basilica San Marco. The Venetians actually stole St Mark's remains from Jerusalem and set them up here. Marco Polo brought back spaghetti from China too, creating this international cuisine. Rome was fantastic too, but I don't think much can compare with Venice, partly because there isn't a single road, therefore no traffic. Then back on another overnight sleeper, eating dinner while the hills of Italy rolled by. It was so much preferable to air travel, you wonder why more people don't do it.
Monday, 28 July 2008
Every Cloud Must Have A Silver Lining
Since May, when we displayed the Rotaire at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show, sales have increased week by week. This is in no small way aided by the weather which as usual has been depressingly cold and damp. It is particularly in the summer when one wakes up and (hope srpings eternal) imagines that the entire day will be just like a summer's day. After putting the washing out and rushing out to work, to shop or to some other place one notices the storm clouds gathering and, yes! it is raining again. Returning home you find the washing wetter than before, and either dries it indoors (a total waste) or leaves it out in hope (risky). Given the consistent rain all through June some people have told me that they knew someone must make such a product and decided to track it down via Google and other search engines. Others have said that they saw it months ago, but didn't realise how much they would need it this year.
Purchasers have been very positive in their feedback, and one purchaser heard about the Dryline on the radio. He said he heard a phone-in programme where they asked for anyone who was doing something for the first time to ring in. A lady called to say that she had just hung her washing out in the rain and was sitting indoors watching it dry. He was so impressed that he tracked the Rotaire office down on the net and bought one. Another excellent place to display them has been at CAT, the Centre for Alternative Technology in Macchynlleth, Wales. Many buyers have seen it on show there and taken our leaflet. The best way is to log into http://www.rotaire.com/ and watch the videos. The new one spells out exactly why it is so efficient and ecologically desirable, while the Dry Humour silent film and the Rotaire Demonstration show how easy it is to erect and use the Dryline washing cover.
ROTAIRE DRYLINE ADVERT
As a result of all this activity, at last the company bank balance is in positive territory, and long may it remain so. The next major hurdle is paying for the International Patent Territories, which is very expensive, and I want to pin down as much as I can, because these rotaries are in widespread use on all five continents. All of them have one flaw - it still rains!
Purchasers have been very positive in their feedback, and one purchaser heard about the Dryline on the radio. He said he heard a phone-in programme where they asked for anyone who was doing something for the first time to ring in. A lady called to say that she had just hung her washing out in the rain and was sitting indoors watching it dry. He was so impressed that he tracked the Rotaire office down on the net and bought one. Another excellent place to display them has been at CAT, the Centre for Alternative Technology in Macchynlleth, Wales. Many buyers have seen it on show there and taken our leaflet. The best way is to log into http://www.rotaire.com/ and watch the videos. The new one spells out exactly why it is so efficient and ecologically desirable, while the Dry Humour silent film and the Rotaire Demonstration show how easy it is to erect and use the Dryline washing cover.
ROTAIRE DRYLINE ADVERT
As a result of all this activity, at last the company bank balance is in positive territory, and long may it remain so. The next major hurdle is paying for the International Patent Territories, which is very expensive, and I want to pin down as much as I can, because these rotaries are in widespread use on all five continents. All of them have one flaw - it still rains!
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Sustain Ability ????
Yesterday I attended a conference in Loughborough called Sustain EM, and I left early and in a very strange mood. The reason I went was because I have tried for two years to secure support for the Rotaire Dryline project, and at last the government has started to address sustainability as an issue. My problem is that a practical consumer item that saves energy is not "sexy" enough to hit their g spot. They like to fund big projects that address leading edge technology and particularly if they tap into the academic and University knowledge network.
As you will have guessed I got no further with my quest. However, I listened to four presenters - Bruce Duguid from the Carbon Trust, Adam Morton of Rolls-Royce, Thomas Bennett of Intelligent Energy and Andrew Haslett of the Energy Technology Institute. When they had finished their presentations there was a Q & A session, and I asked the first question: "Have any of you done a Carbon Audit on your own lifestyle?" None of them had. Another member of the audience asked about Transition Towns, and their faces were blank. They had not heard about transition towns.
I asked the question because it became clear just how new all their initiatives are. Even Rolls Royce has little experience of alternative energy yet now they are actively developing machinery for marine energy generation. ETI was only formally set up in March this year, with seven main partners; Shell, BP and Rolls-Royce among them. These are three of the major energy pirates if you like, posting nearly a billion pounds in profits between them. Their investment is a mere 5 million pounds each, to tap into 1.1 billion pounds of government (our) money! Andrew Haslett talked of tackling energy poverty, not the need to reduce energy consumption.
Bruce Duguid alone referred to the climate change crisis, casually saying that at present trends the CO2 content of the atmosphere in 2050 is likely to be 650 ppm, resulting in a 3-4 degree rise in temperature. A 3-4 degree rise in temperature will be catastrophic. It was clear that he does not understood the problem. Thomas Bennett is involved in developing fuel cells, and was honest enough to say that hydrogen technology was not the magic bullet, and that there was no answer to the problem of clean energy. Despite helping Boeing to power the first fuel cell powered aeroplane and helping Suzuki to develop the first motorcycle he said the power density is not high enough to compete with fossil fuel.
What really troubles me is that the money that is channelled into manufacturing through the governmental Regional Development organisations mainly ends up serving the organisations themselves. This is a common theme in the European Union. Where a simple idea like mine would really benefit from a small (£100k) investment to secure international Intellectual Property they prefer to spend £6 million on new offices for Advantage West Midlands and to pay for the lavish facilities of the conference and perhaps 50 of the delegates who were tied into the system in one way or another.
Beyond this is the fact that these people are new to the whole field. I realised I was almost alone in the building. They have not thought about it for 20 years or more like myself and many of the Green persuasion. They do not understand it, and have not considered the prospect that "Business as Usual" is not an option. Yet these people are the ones empowered to solve the problem. When the population of the earth wakes up it will find itself in a nightmare.
As you will have guessed I got no further with my quest. However, I listened to four presenters - Bruce Duguid from the Carbon Trust, Adam Morton of Rolls-Royce, Thomas Bennett of Intelligent Energy and Andrew Haslett of the Energy Technology Institute. When they had finished their presentations there was a Q & A session, and I asked the first question: "Have any of you done a Carbon Audit on your own lifestyle?" None of them had. Another member of the audience asked about Transition Towns, and their faces were blank. They had not heard about transition towns.
I asked the question because it became clear just how new all their initiatives are. Even Rolls Royce has little experience of alternative energy yet now they are actively developing machinery for marine energy generation. ETI was only formally set up in March this year, with seven main partners; Shell, BP and Rolls-Royce among them. These are three of the major energy pirates if you like, posting nearly a billion pounds in profits between them. Their investment is a mere 5 million pounds each, to tap into 1.1 billion pounds of government (our) money! Andrew Haslett talked of tackling energy poverty, not the need to reduce energy consumption.
Bruce Duguid alone referred to the climate change crisis, casually saying that at present trends the CO2 content of the atmosphere in 2050 is likely to be 650 ppm, resulting in a 3-4 degree rise in temperature. A 3-4 degree rise in temperature will be catastrophic. It was clear that he does not understood the problem. Thomas Bennett is involved in developing fuel cells, and was honest enough to say that hydrogen technology was not the magic bullet, and that there was no answer to the problem of clean energy. Despite helping Boeing to power the first fuel cell powered aeroplane and helping Suzuki to develop the first motorcycle he said the power density is not high enough to compete with fossil fuel.
What really troubles me is that the money that is channelled into manufacturing through the governmental Regional Development organisations mainly ends up serving the organisations themselves. This is a common theme in the European Union. Where a simple idea like mine would really benefit from a small (£100k) investment to secure international Intellectual Property they prefer to spend £6 million on new offices for Advantage West Midlands and to pay for the lavish facilities of the conference and perhaps 50 of the delegates who were tied into the system in one way or another.
Beyond this is the fact that these people are new to the whole field. I realised I was almost alone in the building. They have not thought about it for 20 years or more like myself and many of the Green persuasion. They do not understand it, and have not considered the prospect that "Business as Usual" is not an option. Yet these people are the ones empowered to solve the problem. When the population of the earth wakes up it will find itself in a nightmare.
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Time passes
I have been really busy, which is why I have not written for a while. This is a brief note to explain that sales have been growing steadily. It has been a matter of time making the web presence strong enough to reach the potential customer for the Rotaire Dryline. I think I have now reached that threshold, and with energy prices going through the roof it makes the Dryline a good purchase for next winter.
My partner has taken part in filming for the BBC programme on inventors, Dragon's Den, but there is an embargo until the interview is broadcast and I can't say more. Very exciting. I have had a new video advert made for the Rotaire explaining all the cost benefits - which after all affects more people than the "green" side of the invention, despite the increase in awareness. It also features a beautiful young woman, who is a lot easier on the eye than I am. I showed the product at an Eco Fair in West Bridgford, Nottingham for the lovely Karina Wells of Eco List and received a lot of great feedback (but no sales). I also visited the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth to see it on display in their Eco House garden, where it looked great!
While cash flow is very poor and I can't buy items I want to add to the range the outlook is good as sales are steadily increasing. I will write more soon.
My partner has taken part in filming for the BBC programme on inventors, Dragon's Den, but there is an embargo until the interview is broadcast and I can't say more. Very exciting. I have had a new video advert made for the Rotaire explaining all the cost benefits - which after all affects more people than the "green" side of the invention, despite the increase in awareness. It also features a beautiful young woman, who is a lot easier on the eye than I am. I showed the product at an Eco Fair in West Bridgford, Nottingham for the lovely Karina Wells of Eco List and received a lot of great feedback (but no sales). I also visited the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth to see it on display in their Eco House garden, where it looked great!
While cash flow is very poor and I can't buy items I want to add to the range the outlook is good as sales are steadily increasing. I will write more soon.
Saturday, 24 May 2008
Making Progress
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I am glad I have started a blog about the Rotaire project – there's not much there yet, but it is interesting to do, and it will make an authentic record of how the project worked out. It is also good for building up the web presence – which is all important nowadays. I also use Adwords on Google, though I am not sure of the effectiveness in my case. If a person doesn't know what a rain cover for a washing line is, then they are hardly going to be googling it. .JPG)
The Malvern Spring Gardening Show response was very good, and sales have increased significantly since then. Some sales have come through from visitors to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth and some through the web. An Australian firm selling into this country as http://www.ecowashinglines.co.uk/ has sent me their first order – I set up an agreement with them a month ago and I am looking forward to many more. Their web presence is excellent for laundry products. A distributor called Country Platters who will be selling at 20 large Shows this year will be featuring the Dryline at each one, and taking deposits before passing the customer to me for delivery. As a result the Rotaire Dryline should be seen by a very large number of people over the summer. It was very satisfying to be able to present the distributor with an entire kit - Soil Screw, Airer, Dryline and Storage Cover that she would be able to set up in 5 minutes. Any other way of foundationing the airer would take too long when setting up for a Show.
I had to turn down two good offers of advertising earlier in the week because I simply have to make money before I can spend it, and I felt unhappy about that. However, yesterday I received a call from http://www.naturalcollections.co.uk/ , a firm voted Ethical Retailer of the Year 2007 which seems to be interested in the Dryline. So, all in all the product is live at last, and I hope to be expanding the range to include “bespoke” items, a Rotaire brand airer, soil screw etcetera. Money is still very tight, but a “Business Angel” may get aboard when she sees the project working.
.JPG)
The Malvern Spring Gardening Show response was very good, and sales have increased significantly since then. Some sales have come through from visitors to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth and some through the web. An Australian firm selling into this country as http://www.ecowashinglines.co.uk/ has sent me their first order – I set up an agreement with them a month ago and I am looking forward to many more. Their web presence is excellent for laundry products. A distributor called Country Platters who will be selling at 20 large Shows this year will be featuring the Dryline at each one, and taking deposits before passing the customer to me for delivery. As a result the Rotaire Dryline should be seen by a very large number of people over the summer. It was very satisfying to be able to present the distributor with an entire kit - Soil Screw, Airer, Dryline and Storage Cover that she would be able to set up in 5 minutes. Any other way of foundationing the airer would take too long when setting up for a Show.
I had to turn down two good offers of advertising earlier in the week because I simply have to make money before I can spend it, and I felt unhappy about that. However, yesterday I received a call from http://www.naturalcollections.co.uk/ , a firm voted Ethical Retailer of the Year 2007 which seems to be interested in the Dryline. So, all in all the product is live at last, and I hope to be expanding the range to include “bespoke” items, a Rotaire brand airer, soil screw etcetera. Money is still very tight, but a “Business Angel” may get aboard when she sees the project working.
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