Green science & Technology for a sustainable world

Green Science & technology are key to ensuring Africa’s long term economic growth and to do this in a way which minimises damage to the environment. Science, technology and innovation will play pivotal roles in ensuring that our next generation of chemicals, energy and manufactured goods are made in a more sustainable way than is currently the case. Certain critical advantages will enable Africa to capitalise on new and sustainable manufacturing technologies include: valuable energy source

A wealth of

local expertise in natural product chemistry

Talented young scientists

A large and motivated workforce, which is enthusiastic about education.

　

these advantages and to develop world-leading technologies based on the principles of green manufacturing. Making value-added products in Africa, where possible, rather than exporting the raw materials, will contribute to the economic growth of the continent. Wealth Not Wealth not Waste: Green science and engineering for sustainable growth in Africa report discusses how science and engineering are fundamental to meeting these needs in a sustainable way. The principles of Green Chemistry and sustainable manufacturing are discussed and shown to be crucial if Africa is to enjoy economic growth by using, and at the same time preserving, its unique resources and biological diversity.Key Recommendations decade driven by export-led industries. The future growth of Africa’s industries will only be sustained through the application of green science and technology.: water, food, medicines, energy, manufactured goods and transport, must be made and delivered in ways which do not damage the environment, enabling the creation of wealth for future generations to enjoy.and developing industries.valuable expertise in the chemistry of natural products, and innovation in these technologies presents a tremendous opportunity for Africa.food, health and personal care products derived from natural products, and much interest in plant-based pharmaceuticals. African industries have a competitive advantage in these areas because of the wealth of available plant resources and local expertise. The manufacture of natural products requires solvents to extract the active ingredients from plant material. Conventional processes use solvents that contribute to the production of toxic waste and the cost of their disposal is a significant proportion of the manufacturing cost. and set of circumstances. , the wealth and the size of the population of each country. There needs to be a focus on recycling to preserve resources, for instance, by increasing the use of compost from agricultural waste to improve soil fertility.of talented individuals going into science and engineering. The scientists they train need to participate in international networks to allow optimal utilisation of equipment and to enable people with different skills and capabilities to work together. Collaboration between academia and business is the key to driving innovation and unlocking the potential of green manufacturing. 1. Africa has enjoyed robust economic growth over the past
2. Africa has an abundance of sustainable natural resources which can be used as raw materials in new
3. The use of solvents with a relatively low environmental impact, such as water, ethanol and carbon dioxide, is essential in the sustainable manufacture of plant-based products.
4. A focus on recycling will benefit all Africans. There is no single best method of waste management. This will be different for each country
5. For Africa to meet these challenges it must tap into local expertise, expand the skills base through education and develop effective networks.
6. African leaders must have the vision to capitalise on innovation in green science and technology and to learn from the past mistakes of the economically developed world. Policies should be developed and implemented across government to ensure the adoption of the principles of green science and technology. Strong, enlightened governance is vital if the people of Africa are to benefit from export-led growth whilst dealing with the challenges of a growing population and the need to improve the standard of living.It is vital that there is a trained cadre of scientists ready to develop and apply green science and technology across Africa. Schools and universities must be able to increase the supply The type and amount of waste produced depends on the consumer habits There is growing demand for Products based on the principles of green science and technology have a growing market worldwide, and the local manufacture of high value products from sustainably produced raw materials will contribute to the growing economy of the continent. African scientists have Sustaining this growth is essential if African people and investors are to benefit. For this to be achieved over the long term, the basic requirements of society is a report on the 1^{st Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN) Green Chemistry Congress, held on 15-17 November, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This}

An abundance of sustainable natural resources which can be used as raw materials for new and growing industries

An abundance of sunlight as a

Chemical and manufacturing industries which are in their infancy and therefore have no legacy of non-sustainable manufacturing practices

Africa is well placed to capitalise on

　

The basic requirements of society include water, food, shelter, medicines, energy, chemicals, transport and manufactured goods.
The findings and recommendations in this report represent the views of the 190 scientists and practitioners that attended this conference from 11 different countries in Africa, as well as from Europe, the USA and Brazil, and from the delegates who participated in the discussion forum at the post-conference workshop held at the RSC in London on 7th March 2011.

http://www.rsc.org/images/WealthNotWaste%20Annual%20Review_tcm18-201490.pdf

Brass Toffs

Music is one of my passions.  I love brass bands and have played in them for years.  Here is a daft photo and a youtube clip from a recent event - the 2011 Whit Friday contest around Saddleworth moore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wocQhG5K1U

Flying turds and JCB wheels

I mentioned our idyllic summers as kids at 3 Edderthorpe Lane in Darfield.  Well, after 11 great years there, with great neighbours and fantastic walks down by the River Dearne and in the local woods, a terrible thing happened. Mike and I gained a sister!  Because of this, we emigrated to the other side of Darfield! 

By now, our little sister, Rachel was on the scene, although she doesn’t feature in the stories.  Yet!  I don’t think dad ever settled in the new street, which was populated by people much posher than we were. I am sure he felt a bit inferior every morning as he free wheeled his motorbike to the bottom of the street (so as not to wake the posh neighbours) before kicking it into life as he went off for his early morning shift down t’ pit.

We lived next door to the village policeman – who was not a bad sort really.  In fact, later on in my adolescent years he did me a few favours by pretending not to notice me in the local pubs.  On the other side was man with company Morris Marina.  One evening having just got home from school I heard a terrible commotion and for the first time in my life heard my dad using language which he could only have learned down t’pit.  I did not get the full story until a bit later, but the gist of this violent exchange of ideas included flying shit, posting said item through letter boxes and finally, rubbing Morris man’s nose in it.  It transpired that Morris man had been walking some posh guests to their car – they must have been terribly important because they had a Granada - and found a dog turd on his drive!  He jumped to the conclusion that this turd had been deposited by our dog and promptly tried to impress Granada man by scooping it onto a shovel and slinging it over our garden fence.  This, just as my dad was walking up the drive.  Anyway, Morris man quickly learned that motor bike man did not take well to this kind of behaviour!  Suffice to say the final resting place for the shit was not on our drive!

There was one chap at the top of the street – let’s call him Roderick Stuart to avoid any chance of litigation!  He really was weird.  At least to 12 and 9 year old lads he was.  He had a son who we believed was kept shackled in a locked bedroom and only came out occasionally.  To Mike and I the really interesting thing about this guy was his comings and goings.  He had a Ford Granada and his house was bigger than almost anyone else’s on the street. We spent many a happy Saturday afternoon watching him going out in his car and coming back literally 7 or 8 minutes later.   He would often return with tires screeching, parking hastily and running into his house, accompanied by the hacking sound of his smoker’s cough brought on by a combination of excitement and exertion. This behaviour also extended into the small hours of the mornings which we found really interesting.  We pleaded with dad to following him on his motorbike to see what he was up to.  Sadly this never happened.  These comings and goings culminated one Saturday afternoon with Roderick’s car being absolutely caned up the street to be parked outside his house with steam pouring from beneath the bonnet and brown stains of expelled antifreeze all over the paintwork.  Shortly after this, Mrs Stuart appeared with a bucket and threw water over it to remove the stains - the car that is, not Roderick.  On closer inspection, we found that both front headlights and both rear light clusters were smashed! We really did (and still do) think that this was the strangest thing but never did get to the bottom of it. Literally days after that the Stuart family vanished and a For Sale sign appeared outside the house.

At the very top of the street was a millionaire.  This man had made his fortune in scaffolding.  He had a lovely Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, a Jenson Interceptor FF, a V12 Jag and numerous other cars.  This feast of expensive automotive equipment kept us drooling.  He was also the first person I ever saw to have a new fangled LED quartz watch, which also fascinated us.  We never had anything much to do with him until one day the 6 feet high fence outside his house was freshly painted with new white paint.  It looked immaculate.  Anyway, we decided it would look better if we threw mud at it, so spent the next 10 minutes doing just that.  Finally Joe (think I can get away with divulging his first name) came out.  We thought we were dead.  What did Joe do?  He engaged us in very pleasant conversation.  He showed us his new LED watch and even opened up his Rolls for us to sit in.  We never did throw mud at his fence again!

Shortly after that we found our way onto an area where they were building some new houses and decided to play with a JCB wheel which we found there.  We spend ages rolling it around.  Eventually, we got bored with this and decided to roll it further up the hill, above the houses.  This wheel was very heavy but 4 of us managed to push it up a mud path into the woods at the top of the hill.  Just before we got it to the top, someone slipped and we all relinquished our grip on the wheel, which set off rolling back down the path.  The last we saw of this wheel was it crashing through a garden fence.  A second after that there was a sickening sound of shattering plate glass as the wheel disappeared through the patio window of the unfortunate residents.

Big birds and little 'ens

Easter Monday the weather in St Ives was fantastic.  In fact, the entire Easter weekend was blessed with good weather. 

As one who is passionate about biodiversity and spend quite a bit of time working to preserve endangered birds (See my vulture post), I went with my wife and daughter to visit a nearby raptor centre.  Here are a few photos of raptors of various kinds.

Walking the otter

Lovely weather in St Ives now that Spring is here.  Max the dog enjoys swimming in our local lake.

Down by the river after a pint.  The beer in the South is not as bad as I had anticipated!

Is nothing sacred?

Walking though St Ives yesterday, I was dismayed to see poor old Oliver Cromwell hideously disfigured.

Is nothing sacred in this country anymore?

Long summer evenings in Darfield

When we were very young, my brother Mike and I went through a phase where we were rather interested in engineering.  Purely in the interest of advancing our scientific knowledge, we decided to investigate the strength of various materials which could have possible use in some as yet unknown construction project.

After giving this idea much thought, we decided to devise an experiment.  We used a very large sheet of plywood which our dad had stored in the shed.  Looking back, this piece of wood was roughly square and I guess the dimension must have been about 1.5 square meters.  It was also thin, probably no more than a centimetre in thickness.   First we needed to see whether it would support the weight of an adult so we set about devising a cunning plan.

We had observed over a number of months that our mother had struck up a warm and, as it turned out, enduring friendship with Mrs Murial Bletcher, our next door neighbour.  Mother used to stand on the garden and partake of long and boring (at least to 7 and 10 year old boys with far too much curiosity and energy) conversations with Mrs Bletcher over the garden fence. 

During the long and warm summer evenings on Edderthorpe land in Darfield, which I remember with a good deal of nostalgia, we set about digging a large man trap in the area where mother often stood in conversation with Mrs Bletcher.  This project was undertaken when the Bletchers were on holiday, so there was plenty of time for our work to proceed undisturbed.  When it was finished, the pit was of a slightly smaller area than the ply wood and about 1 meter deep.  As it had been raining for a week it was half full with water the day before the Bletchers arrived home.  We then placed the plywood over the pit and covered it with soil so that mother would not be suspicious. 

We waited with agonising anticipation.  We waited and waited, but our mother never did walk on that carefully disguised man trap.  The disappointment was palpable!   Now, looking back, I have to say that I have no idea why we devised this trap for our mother.  She was and still is a wonderful mother who we love dearly!  But I can’t help thinking that we would have been over the moon to see her up to her waist in muddy water and the imagined look of horror on Mrs Bletcher’s face as our mother descended into the pit swearing and cursing still causes me amusement.

All was not lost, however.  During the time of the construction project the rain kept coming.  We noticed that Max the milkman was having a lot of trouble driving his three wheeled electric milk float around the back of the houses. This was a mud track, which got progressively muddier as the week passed.  The mud track along the back of number 3 merged into two more paths to make a y-shaped track, with one path going to the right and emerging on the main Doncaster – Barnsley road, and one to the left, back down a bit of a hill to Edderthopre lane.  Every morning on his milk round, Max drove his three wheeled milk truck along the path and stopped where the three paths merged.  This was by now exceptionally wet and muddy and another plan was fermenting in my evil little mind.  One night we went out with Dad’s spade and dug another pit.  This time it was in the middle of the turning place in the track and really deep.  We placed our plywood over the hole and once again we covered it with mud.  We woke early the next morning to wait for Max.  Sure enough, at around 7 in the morning Max arrived with the milk.  After delivering to our house he proceeded according to our plan and stopped with his single front wheel right in the middle of the plywood.  Before the poor man knew what was happening his little milk float descended with dream like slow motion into the carefully laid trap.  We watched with great interest from behind our garden wall as Max attempted to retrieve intact milk bottles from the mud and later, as an Express Dairies van came and pulled the little milk float out of the hole.  For days the mud in that area was milk coloured due to the spilt milk.