5 things I have done today to help the planet… [Day 011 – 25 May ’19]

Another big day for planet work.

School children striking, Zoe's electrifying, and suppliers are changing.

And I have a new project - but it's a secret for the timebeing :-)

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1. Watch this video

I certainly have been aware of the growing movement of school children and students striking for climate change but I must admit I haven't really looked at it in any depth.

The strikes had quite unfairly been lodged in my "well-meaning, great idea but not going to achieve anything" file.

Then today I came across this video from Vice about Greta Thunberg and the school strike movement.

It changed my mind - dramatically.

I had not realised how large and widespread the protests have already become. And I certainly had not appreciated the depth of feeling, passion and purpose behind the movement.

I have great admiration for all those involved in the strikes and I do hope the politicians take notice and act.

The young people have every right to strike as it is their future that has been messed up.

I urge you to watch the video and if you have any way to help the movement in your country, please do.

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2. Today we met Zoe

We took advantage of a trip to Swansea today to visit two more electric car dealers.

First up I popped into the BMW dealer, Sytner, to check out the BMW i3.

Although the sales assistant was sure there was an i3 on site to look at, no one could actually locate it.

This MIA, along with the rather surprisingly low quoted range of only around 140 miles and the premium BMW price tag has knocked the i3 several places down our shortlist.

Next up we headed to the Renault dealer in the north of Swansea to look at their electric Zoe.

A few years ago we had the use of Renault's electric fun car the Twizy for three weeks, so we have some attachment to the Renault electric family.

The dealer had a couple of Zoe's in stock for us to look at.

Unfortunately we were not able to go for a test drive at the time, but the Zoe definitely has considerable appeal for us.

It is just the right size for us as a five door hatchback, it has a decent range around the 170 mile mark and it is several thousand pounds cheaper than the other cars on our electric shortlist.

Hopefully we can get back for a test drive some time this week as the Zoe is definitely leading the pack at the moment.

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3. Ecotricity v Good Energy - any opinions?

Switching to a greener electricty supplier has been one of those things on my list that I have just not got round to doing. Now is the time to act.

There are two main 'green energy' suppliers in the UK which source their electricity solely from renewable generators - Ecotricity and Good Energy.

Both currently offer to donate £30 to the Centre for Alternative Technology if you switch to them and quote the appropriate code.

I can't see a lot between them in terms of eco-credentials and what they are offering.

Their prices are not shown on the site so I will have to contact them to get a quote.

Ecotricity offer a 'Fully Charged Bundle' package that includes half price charging at their network of 300 electic car charging stations around the country.

As we are about to buy an electric car I think this will swing it towards Ecotricity for us.

Has anyone got any experience, good or bad, of using either Ecotricity or Good Energy?

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4. My New Project

WARNING... this is one of those annoying statements people make about their 'next big thing' but then refuse to give any more details.

I'm joining the club. And I am excited about it.

These past few weeks I have been working on the specification document for a new eco/crypto project. That was finalised a few days ago and I also got the development team signed up.

Today the name was finally chosen and the domains all put in place.

In a pre-crypto form this project is something I have wanted to build for years. Now with the added spice of crypto and tokenisation the concept has come together perfectly.

The build will be starting in the next week or so and then I will be devoting a large amount of my time to the project. The aim is to get to a beta launch stage for a special event in November.

I am not quite sure yet how public it will be before then but keep reading here and as I expect I will be dropping a few clues.

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5. The Daily Donation - UK Student Climate Network

After watching the video in #1 there was no contest for today's donation.

The UK Student Climate Network is in the vanguard of the school climate striking movement in Britain.

Any support I can give I will.

£10 has been sent by PayPal to UKSCN.

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Every day I learn something new.

It is exciting. It is rejuvenating. For me. And hopefully for the planet too.

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[ image from @pennsif // video from Vice.com ]