Wednesday 8 February 2012

Spring Light

There are definite signs of spring around, even if it's three weeks until the official start of the season. My window sill crocuses have started to flower and I'm enjoying guessing what colour each flower will be. So far there's one purple and a few close to opening. I also saw my first daffodil of the year on Monday, soon they'll be everywhere!

Yesterday I cycled to work in daylight for the first time this year and although it was very frosty it was lovely to see the park lit up, not in shadowy darkness. Not quite light when I cycle home yet but it will be soon. Maybe it's time to start thinking about the Lighter Later campaign again.

If you haven't heard of it this campaign here's the basic idea: We lose lots of sunlight in the mornings when we're asleep in the summer, and turn the lights on when we're awake in the evenings. So if we shift the clocks forward by one hour throughout the entire year we would move an hour of daylight from the morning through to the evening, when more of us are awake to enjoy it.

It's a novel idea and one with lots of support, including David Mitchell, and maybe it will be one of the government's leading environmental policies as they lead as the "greenest government ever". But the week hasn't got off to a great start for new Secretary of State (for Energy and Climate Change) Ed Davey as a report revealed yesterday that the UK's carbon emissions went up for the first time in 7 years in 2010. Probably due to the severely cold winters but it's probably not the headline's he wanted in his first week!


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