Christmas cards are wasteful (Jan10)
The Jeremy Vine Show wanted me to have a pair of scissors ready for my interview. The idea was to record me, Blue Peter style, cutting up my Christmas cards so I could use them again. Listening to the programme afterwards, I don’t think the scissor cutting was audible! But the message about re-using Christmas […]
BBC 3 Counties Radio – plastic bag rant from presenter (Jan10)
Jonathan Vernon Smith from BBC 3 Counties Radio rants to Julia about why he doesn’t thing people should be charged for plastic bags. Julia gives a robust response and explains that he shouldn’t be complaining about something so trivial. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4C0WkuoiZs&&width=200&height=125[/embedyt]
Radio 4 – Costing the Earth (Dec09)
This half hour programme looks at how some people are responding the the threat of climate change as we approach the Copenhagen summit in December 2009. It includes interviews with school children participating in the Generation Green youth tank, including comments from Julia, as their expert green guide. BBC Radio 4 Costing the Earth
The Age of Stupid film (Oct09)
I’ve just watched this film at a screening in the nearby village of South Petherton. The village hall was jam packed, although I was one of the few who had taken along my children. At the beginning we were warned of bad language in the film but actually all that I noticed was someone swearing […]
Radio 2 – Jeremy Vine show (May09)
Fierce debate about food waste and the merits of ‘slop bins’ or garbage pages as I prefer to call them. I’m being challenged by a chap who didn’t impress me much with with his views on food waste, recycling and climate change. Link?
M&S Plan A (Mar09)
M&S launched their Plan A scheme in 2006. CEO, Stuart Rose heads the team and they have a very impressive list of actions and initiatives covering issues across the board from transport, packaging and re-usable hangers to food waste, refrigeration and laundry labels in their clothes. I’ve been to the progress reports for Plan since […]
Snow crash (Feb09)
I would have abandoned the idea of school if I hadn’t run out of oil. I’ve been lasting a year on one tank – and I lasted a bit too long. Of course it ran out over the weekend before the snow hit. Actually the house wasn’t that much colder than normal. During the day […]
Chilling facts about supermarket refrigeration (Feb09)
I’ve been working with the Environmental Investigation Agency on a campaign to highlight the climate change impacts of supermarket refrigeration. The HFC cooling gases used have a global warming impact that is about 4,000 times worse than CO2, so this is a huge issue. Here’s an article that I’ve written on the results of […]
Bee in my bonnet about fuel efficiency (Jan09)
Green expert Julia Hailes tries out an ‘environmentally friendly’ BMW. How does the new BMW perform as a green family car? I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the fuel efficiency of cars. I can’t understand why they’re not a whole lot better than they are. Article originally written for Telegraph online.
Wasting heat through open doors (Nov08)
This week I had a meeting with the Carbon Trust, a government-funded organisation that helps businesses move towards a low carbon economy. They offer advice on saving energy, so I thought it was rather ironic that the doors of the large office block where I went were wide open – letting the heat out and […]
Quantumly awful (Nov08)
I’m not planning see a James Bond film again unless it’s radically different from Quantum of Solace. It was awful from beginning to end, starting with a car chase that was impossible to fathom. Which car was Bond in? Who was chasing him? What was happening? Nothing was clear. Part of the problem was the […]
Turning on the heat… (Nov08)
My eldest son sent me a text ‘demanding’ that I put on the heating for half term. I resisted because I’d decided to hold out until November – and even then only when it was really needed……….. Five-and-a-half per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions comes from home heating. I don’t recommend that everyone […]