Courtesy of Babbel
I’m learning French, a journey which started when I was seven at St Saviours School, Oxton. Aside from the challenge of learning, my small investment has revealed a great story of hope and support for Ukrainian citizens (see bottom).
Brands behaving badly
Semafor
Semafor is a good name for a news outlet. The English spelling of the word, semaphore, describes a method of visual signaling using flags or lights.
This Semafor, is a new US online publication, brought to my attention by Heated and Emily Atkin.
Semafor’s focus is climate change and technology with a difference. Their edge, aside from being founded by two industry names called Smith, one a New York Times columnist and Buzzfeed editor, the other ex Bloomberg Media, is their determination to fight bias and misinformation. They’re in touch with the very real frustration that readers have with news and what to trust. Apparently brands and advertisers are fed-up too and are looking for ways to help solve it. This would explain the $25 million already raised from eight sponsors, all determined to go into battle with the news outlet, ensuring the right kind of news is published.
There is surely a question to be answered then, when one of the sponsors is Chevron, the second largest global polluter?
Chevron
Courtesy of Emily Atkin
Chevron’s ad appeared in Semafor’s first climate change newsletter published recently. It’s great to hear that they’re, working towards a lower carbon future.
It’s also an excellent example of paltering; the act of using selective truths to deliberately mislead.
Is Chevron really tackling climate change? Working towards a lower carbon future might be true, but it’s virtually meaningless when you’re the second biggest carbon polluter in the world. A lower carbon future isn’t going to be good enough anyway. But given that they were part of a coalition which spread climate science denial back in the 1980s and campaigned to block climate policies, it’s hardly surprising that they’re now exploiting other opportunities to preserve their business for as long as possible.
Why would Chevron ever be interested in renewable energy? Once the solar panels are installed and paid for with some sort of distribution fee, the sun does the rest on a free of charge basis. Their highly profitable business model is based on selling every ounce of fossil fuel energy they can possibly produce.
A shining white knight like Semafor, dumb enough to think there is no conflict of interest with their editorial content, is a perfect conduit for the self-serving financial targets of an oil company and its shareholders.
Green discovery
Solar car parks and a music festival?
Courtesy of BRE
The picture tells the story. The space above a car park, multi-storey or ground floor, is an unexploited opportunity, perfect for generating renewable energy, constructing a protective roof from solar panels.
A great example of what can be done where you least expect it, is the Lowlands 3-day music festival on the outskirts of Amsterdam. It attracts 50,000 music lovers every year and now has a new show-stopping solar car park.
It contains 90,000 solar panels with space for over 15,000 vehicles. While the festival-goers party, the solar carport generates enough energy (peak output) for 10,000 houses or 100 festivals at the same time.
Courtesy of the Lowlands Festival
The solar panels are bifacial, which means the cell is capable of permitting light to pass through it. Light reflected from the ground can be used to generate electricity and it means the local sheep can continue to graze on the grass for the rest of the year.
Building Research Establishment (BRE)
Solar carparks was kindly forwarded by a reader - thanks John, a guide produced by the BRE. The organisation has a history dating back 100 years, with a brief as meaningful today as it was then.
Their first research was on building materials and methods of construction suitable for new housing post the First World War. They started looking at reinforced concrete for floors and the development of the British standard brick.
During the Second World War they created a 1/50th scale model of the Mohne Dam in Germany which Barnes Wallis used in his early research, leading to the development of the bouncing bomb and the breaching of the dam.
They continue today, a group of researchers and scientists who focus on ensuring that the built environment is better for all. They refer to themselves as a profit-for-purpose organisation. Any profits go to their trust which invests in research for the public’s benefit and upgrading their research facilities.
Their independence and scientific rigour with a focus on the built world, makes them incredibly important for meeting the challenges of climate change. Millions of buildings globally are registered to work towards BREEAM, their suite of validation and certification systems for a sustainable built environment.
Be happy
Chris Kleponis/Pool/CNP/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News
Lula beats Bolsonaro
The international press are surprised by the 1.8 percentage point win for Lula, the leftwing, former Brazilian President. It’s great news, but will it be enough to see off the incumbent, Bolsonaro, who’s bezzie mates with the Donald?
Notably refusing to recognise Joe Biden’s win for 6 weeks after the last US presidential elections, will the trumped up, former army captain, consider this latest result to be fair and democratic in his own country?
It was depressing reading in Open Democracy recently, to hear that the odious Steve Bannon and his cronies, fighting for their kind of democracy, were spewing out unsupported electoral fraud rumours, after Lula had won the first round with 6 million more votes. Perhaps his attempt to mobilise US right win support ahead of the Brazilian runoff didn’t succeed because of distractions closer to home and a pending prison sentence?
Lest we forget. Bolsonaro and his radical antics, presided over the death of nearly 700,000 Brazilians from Covid, second only to the United States.
This September, 1,455 sq. km. of rainforest was cleared, beating the old record set in 2019. He’s an ally of Brazil’s agribusiness sector, which has seen massive swaths of forest set on fire, aided and abetted by ranchers and loggers.
By comparison, Lula is a breath of fresh air. The former shoe-shine boy and steel worker, launched his first, unsuccessful bid to be president in 1989. He lost two more before his first historic victory in 2002.
He was jailed in 2018 on bribery allegations, backhanders from companies looking for state-owned Petrobras contracts. He was a popular president, having left power in 2010 with a 90% approval rating. He was also freed 18 months into his sentence on appeal.
The lead judge on Lula’s conviction, Sergio Moro was accused of being biased. Difficult for the judge to deny, when he’d accepted the post of justice minister in Bolsonaro’s 2018 government. The prison term conveniently prevented Lula from standing for re-election at the time.
Babbel helps Ukrainians learn a language
400,000 Ukrainians have started to learn a second language with Babbel’s help. Most have chosen English, followed by German and Polish. The learners are scattered all over Europe, many have reached the United States and Canada. Even more are displaced within the Ukraine or have recently returned.
Babbel, based in Berlin, was the first language app to launch full courses, free for Ukrainian speakers across the three languages.
Their immediate efforts were quick guides, bespoke for Ukrainian refugees who were in transit to Germany and Poland. Guides were also published on the basics of Ukrainian, to help volunteers who wanted to communicate with incoming refugees.
After this initial response, editors, translators, project managers and engineers came together to build the complete courses which are now freely available. An 8 minute video explains this practical story of giving.