More, Longer Ideas On How The UK Could Go Carbon Free

Our Facebook competition rules stated that entries should be no more than 50 words long. We just wanted short and sweet ides. However, we said longer entries would be considered if there was good reason to go longer. Some people took that a little too literally...

At just over 100 words, this entry from Howard Fox jumps from fusion power to overhyped "organic" food:

Simple things are best
By: Howard Fox

Many suggested solutions, especially high tech ones do have there own drawbacks. They are expensive to install for limited reward and leave there own carbon footprint. Until the Fusion Energy Project delivers (more nuclear fission reactors anyone ?), it will be hard to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.

One simple thing we could all do is to buy local produce, whenever possible, with minimum packaging, from local suppliers, with the added benefit that it will save loads on your household budget. But, don't be conned by the overhyped "organic" movement, which many retailers use as an excuse to overcharge for average product.

At over 250 words long (5X the recommended length) this entry from Si focused on a variety of good ideas:

One solution, many benefits.
By: Si

Add parabolic mirrors to solar power units and cover the deserts in them so that developing countries can sell a resource to the rest of the work through existing cables. Socioecconic recovery for them, clean power for everyone else.

Put "chains" of hydroelectric screw turbines in water supply pipes, and a filtered version in rivers. They flow all day long, and regenerate instantly with gravity.

Make sure your house plumbing is correct, I fitted a non-return value when I realised that my radiators got hot even when the heating was off. The hot water cylinder was losing all its heat around the circuit. A valve stopped it overnight and dropped my Gas use 80%. The energy was being wasted by previous owners for literally decades.

Fit an accumulation tank, to make your boiler more efficient, once this is done, feed in what ever renewable devices you like. Add Iron to polluted areas of the ocean offshore. It's the growth limiting factor for planktonic algae, more algae means more copepods, which means more fish, which means less famine. Needless to say, it sucks out a lot of polluting Nitrates, Phosphates and CO2 from the water too.

Use water reservoirs as a means to store energy, if you've got solar panels on your roof, why not use the energy you create but don't use, to pump water up to a store, and then automatically have it release to a hydroelectric generation device when the solar panels are maxed out. Not expensive batteries, just water going up in the day, and down in the evening.

Finally at over 400 words, Tryfan Hobbs had many things to say about the media and the earth:

The Media Potential and Earth
By: Tryfan Hobbs Posted

It seems now that there are so many ways in which we can recycle, so many different procedures and approaches we can make to better the world in which we live in. We all want to make it a more environmentally safe and happy place to live in, but the problem is thinking that other people will do it more than ourselves and so it won't be that important if we miss our contribution. This is where the Media now needs to take full force.

The niche market has always shown a gap for recycling, but a gap that does not strictly grab the attention of the general public. This is why we need to form its genre with others. The current trends of the market show how Dramas, Reality TV and Soaps are always doing well in viewer figure lists such as BARB and we need to draw aspects from these and form a product applying to a wider market. A Public Information Film (Government Ad), with a wide spread of genres could apply to reformers, consumers, the general public and even more guaranteeing to have an aspect that they would have interest in. Such an example, is the 2007 film Flood, which involved the Drama Genre with Documentary feel and had success on the market gaining high viewing figures from a wide spread. It left the general public thinking more about the world around them and how they could stop these natural disasters from happening in the future if the problem rose.

And so this is how we can make steps into a carbon free UK, we need to create a media product (In the form of Video released on TV and Online Video Sites, as these shows highest incentive) with a multiple genre structure. From Primary and Secondary research we can find out what will be successful in this product and what to avoid. We can discover from feedback of how facts and figures on recycling, emissions etc, can be used and which ones will have most effect when shown. Not only that, we can test many different ways of making our audience listen and learn (such as sound effects, camera effects and angles, music use) and what will persuade them to take the lead, saving not only their generation, but generations after to come. Our time has come to really step up and help the earth and the media with its ever growing popularity, has enabled us to finally take those steps and have a solid chance at securing a Carbon-Free UK.

Thank you.