Tom Youngman
Co-founder of Green Vision: The Bath Youth Climate Movement, member of the Department for Energy and Climate Change's Youth Advisory Panel and member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition's delegation to the United Nations climate change negotiations. Human being and active citizen. thomas@youngman.me.uk.
DECC Youth Advisory Panel blog: Royal Electricity Surge
I recently wrote the article of which this is an extract about ‘grid balancing’ for the DECC Youth Advisory Panel’s blog.
When the live coverage returned back to the television studio and viewers reached for the kettle, a 2400MW surge in electricity demand was experienced. This is equivalent to boiling nearly one million kettles.
This perfectly demonstrates the problems the National Grid face when dealing with electricity supply. This surge is the same size as the capacity of two a half Hinkley Point B nuclear power stations, nearly two thirds of Drax coal power station (the UK’s largest single emitter of Carbon Dioxide) and 1200 Scroby Sands-size wind turbines at peak output. You can easily imagine how finding this sort of energy for only a few short minutes presents a problem for the grid.
Talking sustainability with 10 year olds
I attended Frome Sustainability Conference with Green Vision on Friday. We were expecting to be presenting to 14 - 17 year olds but arrived to discover it was a somewhat younger audience.
It was an experience unto itself, really. How clued up they were was impressive - climate change is now taught at school from a very young age - but they hadn’t quite got the grasp of how it all ties together. They understood that greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels heat up the earth, they understood that they had to save energy - but they couldn’t quite explain how the two linked together.
I always find it interesting to get perspectives from very young children on this - when pursuing issues with such a grounding in intergenerational equity, we are all in some way attempting to speak up for those younger than us and those not yet born.
When writing the report with DECC’s Youth Advisory Panel I asked for quotations from 6 - 10 year olds on their perceptions of the planet and their future. Jade, aged 7, said: “if people keep using electricity it is going to melt the ice at the North Pole and it’s going to flood’. Sam, also aged 7, said “I’m scared because the air might be polluted”. Isabel, aged 8, said: “Climate change might make our planet like Mars”.
Even if their technical understanding is lacking, the emotional understanding these children have is spot on. My favourite of the quotations was from a 6 year-old in Brighton: “In the future everyone will be friendly.” The ‘adult’ world of today could do well to seek guidance from the basic moral values of its offspring.
The full set of quotations can be found in the introduction to the DECC Youth Advisory Panel’s report: ‘Energy: How fair is it anyway?’
DECC’s Youth Advisory Panel (myself included) officially handing over our report, ‘Energy: How Fair Is It Anyway?’ to Minister for Energy, Charles Hendry.
(2nd Dec 2010 by Department for Energy and Climate Change)
“ Climate change might make our planet like Mars
Isabel, aged 8. Part of the foreword to DECC Youth Advisory Panel’s report: “Energy: How Fair Is It Anyway?”
Wind of change: Youth Survey thumbs up for Renewables
Not my ideal headline, but check out the press release about the launch of the Youth Advisory Panel’s report, entitled: “Energy: How Fair Is It Anyway?”. Launch event today went well, I look forward to seeing how things develop in the next couple of days.
DECC Youth Advisory Panel report launch
While we may not be able to offer a new technological insight, the decision to pursue any particular technology will define our future, and as young people we have the opportunity to view these long-term decisions with a much increased sense of urgency and tangibility. We do not want to inherit a diminished planet, as it often seems we are being asked to, and this is a huge step towards ensuring a sustainable and equitable future for our and subsequent generations.
My quote from the press release about the launch of the DECC Youth Advisory Panel’s report on the future of energy in the UK. Document and live coverage will be up on the DECC homepage from 4pm today.
Shared Planet 2010: My Thoughts
Have put together a post on People & Planet’s ‘Shared Planet’ conference for the DECC Youth Advisory Panel blog. A little less forthright than it may have been in a less public form, but it may be of interest all the same.
Shared Planet is an annual conference, run by student campaigning network, People & Planet, and is the largest of its kind in the UK. People & Planet are behind potent campaigns focusing on climate change and corporate power, translating into tangible success, especially with their ‘Transition Unis’ project, taking positive practical action to make university education more sustainability and their ‘Green League’, ranking universities by their level of sustainability. When the Youth Advisory Panel were invited to run a workshop at Shared Planet, we were therefore quick to take them up on the offer!
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The closing panel was of particular interest. It comprised five accomplished activists, including Aaron Porter, chairman of the National Union of Students and ex-People & Planet members, such as Jess Worth, co-editor of the New Internationalist. The panel spoke powerfully and managed to rally the attendees well - but at times seemed overly negative. To me the environmental movement is a very positive one that can bring much benefit to the world, and the importance of taking positive, practical, sustainable action cannot be over-emphasised. This was not something the panel discussed at all - even when I raised this issue of outlook with them - and it may limit the attraction of the movement to new people….
Been visiting British Gas power station and Llangattock Green Valleys with DECC Youth Panel - exciting stuff!
