Ippoippo

BBC4 has just started running a Japan Series, which looks pretty interesting. On Monday night, we had a program about Wabi Sabi. Yuko and I finally got around to watching it last night. It was quite amusing as Yuko, like many Japanese, seem to be unable to explain exactly what Wabi Sabi is. In the end, you just come to the conclusion that there’s Wabi Sabi in Japan, there’s Wabi Sabi in the UK, there’s Wabi Sabi in [insert country/culture here]. There are all similar, but different and experience in different ways.
When we get to Japan next month, the first thing I’ll ask my father-in-law is “what is Wabi Sabi?”. I expect I’ll get the same reaction as many of the people asked the same question on the program.

One thing caught my attention was the difference in attitude towards Autumn. The theory was that for Western (Christian?) thinking is that Autumn is the temporary end of a current life cycle, but hey, don’t worry… it’s all reborn in Spring.
The Japanese attitude is more somber and fatalistic in that the change in colours are sad, because it signals the oncoming moment of death in winter.

Madness

Talking of being fatalistic, it seems our government and large business seem to keen to driving us to destruction.
Shell announced today that they are dumping Wind and Solar research to focus on Bio-Fuels. While there is a place for some bio-fuel usage in specialist applications, we still need to throw Solar and Wind into the energy mix.

It was also recently reported that the government is halting grants for installation of solar equipment.

Paul King, head of the UK Green Building Council, said: “The prime minister has talked of the need to both invest in low-carbon infrastructure and to stimulate the economy. [This grant system] did just that, so it seems absurd that government has now suspended grant applications for solar PV. This emerging industry needs to be confident of government’s commitment – which this decision seriously calls into question.”

If one were being cynical, you would think that these big corporations and government didn’t like these technologies, because they in their ideal usage some of the power generating process for some applications is decentralised and localised. In other words, it reduces our need for ‘them’. So, rather looking at the greater good, in seems they want to carry on BAU because it’s more in it for them.

There were two articles recently in the Guardian, both talking about a German scheme being set up where you get £2000 cashback if you scrap your old car and buy a nice new one. It’s being marketed as being green as well as being good to help the car industry. The links are here and here.
To summarise, both authors came to the conclusion that, from a ‘green point of view’, it was a load of bollocks.

Now it turns out, by coincidence, I’d been considering buying a new car. Honda had announced the new Insight (a smaller, cheaper, more driver friendly version of the Toyota Prius). Turns out that Honda had also brought a new ’09 model of the Jazz out too, which looks a bit more smart and edgy compared to the older model.
Anyway, the petrol head that has been dormant for a little while started to shout!

So, what better way to shut it up than to start being a complete geek and create a spreadsheet full of numbers and graphs.
Again, all this seemed to be a bit of coincidence because at the same time, I was already doing a cut down version of this exercise as part of a report into my travel patterns past and present and what should I do in the future to be more eco-friendly. This report was for the Open University course I’m studying for.

So, I plugged in the numbers for Honda Insight, Honda Jazz, the Toyota Prius (current Mark 2 version, there is a Mark 3 on the way), Mazda 2 and the new 2009 spec Toyota Yaris. All this was against my current 2000 model Toyota Yaris.

Conclusion: The cold, hard facts pretty much agree with what the two Guardian articles said. There is absolutely no point in getting a new car.

From a cost point of view, the savings that would be made on petrol costs (assuming the worst cast scenario of me driving myself to work to my current employer 44 miles away, at 200p a litre… currently, I drive two days a week, with my car share colleagues driving the other three days) and car tax (lower tax bands, or the same as current) would still not have paid off the actual cost of buying the car in the first place even after 15 years!

From a CO2 point of view, at most it would I would be saving 1 tonne of CO2 a year (current verses Insight) to 0.4/0.6 tonnes of CO2 a year (current verses Jazz/new Yaris).
Now, the question is, what is the imbedded energy in the new car. The Insight is certainly higher, especially with regards to all that exotic nickel in the battery. If we go with the figure in the Guardian article of 5 tonnes of CO2, it wouldn’t be until 2014 before I starting ‘saving’ CO2.

Ahh well. At least I controlled the consumer in me, and saved my cash for something else. Ahh bugger, I flying to Japan to see the in-laws. That’s f**ked up the footprint reduction exercise.

Well done to the BBC for actually showing this.

Not so well done for not making this available again on DVD. Ahh, well, it’s out there now.
During one of my tutorial meetings for one of the Open University courses I’m doing, the tutor and I were discussing that this video is a pretty good bit of material that should now be included in the courses as a good discussion point.