Weird blog this one. I am sitting in a plane on my way to Prague. I have been asked to talk at a conference in Hradec Kralove about what York is doing to reduce energy consumption. I will, of course, be telling the Czechs about the ecoDepot. Do they use straw as a building material in the Czech Republic. I don't know yet. Do they know the story of the Three Little Pigs? I am sure they do. Last week I visited the farm in Easingwold where the pre-fabricated walls of the ecoDepot are being built. In a barn were 650 bales of straw, wood frames and stainless steel wires, rods, and bolts. I am hoping that on my next visit to Easingwold I will be taken to the field where the walls of the ecoDepot were grown! Here's a thought. We are increasingly looking to biomass to replace fossil fuels as a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. (It takes a bit of getting your head round this one. Yes, burning wood or biodiesel releases CO2 into the atmosphere just like fossil fuels but because you're burning something you've grown it doesn't count because it absorbed co2 while it was growing, so it's 'carbon neutral'. Yes, I know that the plants, etc that made coal absorbed CO2 millions of years ago but it doesn't count because it doesn't help us now). Back to my thought. If instead of growing crops to burn for energy we make it into bales of straw and use it to insulate buildings, we reduce energy use and therefore CO2 emissions without releasing anything into the atmosphere. Seems better than biofuels to me! Anyway, I'd better get on with learning 'please' and 'thank you' and 'have you any straw insulated buildings' in Czech. Nashledanou (Bye). Christian, 24/4/06 | 
