If you think about it, and as the article talks about, this is a fiendishly difficult question. If you really want to answer it, you’ll need to know the carbon cost of obtaining all the raw materials required to make all the components of the TV, what it costs to make the components, what it costs to ship the components to where they will be assembled, what the cost of assembly, testing and packaging is, what the cost of shipping the TV to the wholesaler is, what the cost of storing the TVs until they are sold is, the cost of shipping and installation of the TVs, and then, finally, the cost of running and maintaining them after they have been installed — and then you’ll need a similar calculation to figure out the carbon cost of posters.

For most people, including me, that seems like a question that you simply can’t answer. There’s just no way you could actually sit down and figure all these things out. Sure, I could probably figure out the carbon cost of the electricity to run the TVs vs. the carbon cost of some guys driving about with posters, but calculating the whole supply chain cost from beginning to end? It all seems too hard.

All of which is a very round-about way of saying that yesterday was my last day at Imagini, and that come Monday morning, I’ll be working for AMEE. I’m incredibly excited to be joining AMEE, because I believe that answering fiendishly difficult questions like the one above are vital, because everyone in the world should have a way of being able to calculate the total carbon footprint of everything.

Is there anything that can’t be made better by doing it with lego?

Hopefully, everything was migrated across correctly, and all of the RSS feeds still work. Apologies in advance if this post ends up anywhere it should not — please let me know if that’s the case and I’ll be happy to fix it!

Oh well, next weekend!

So, congratulations, mate! I am sure you will have a blast — hopefully, we can catch up for a beer soon…

Update: Since everyone keeps asking… 4 minutes.

“Kiva’s stated mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. The anti-U.S. lenders claim that lending to U.S. entrepreneurs doesn’t alleviate poverty because Americans aren’t living in true poverty, compared to people in underdeveloped countries.”

While I totally agree that in real terms, you can hardly say that there would be many (if indeed, any) people living in the US that are in poverty when compared to people elsewhere in the world, I don’t think it’s that simple.

I’d suggest that anyone that thinks that it is should read Paul Farmer’s Infections and Inequalities before making any judgment.

(Kiva was kind enough to give me $100 credit a number of years ago, so I’m an active user.)

Nothing. No one has turned up, and I can’t get either on the phone, despite having been calling them both for an over hour now.

Grand. Just. Grand.

Update: Just heard from one of them, fortunately, so the loft should still get insulated today, at least!

Update: The loft is mostly insulated. I’m now off to the hardware store to buy things, so that I can finish the job properly. Shame the company is dodgy, and it turns out the surveyor will happily say “yes” to whatever you want, and when the guy comes to do the work, he says “You’re kidding, right? We don’t do that…”

“Good morning! This is *mumble mumble* from British Gas here. Could I please speak to the person responsible for the gas and electricity payments?”

“Speaking.”

“Well sir, I’m phoning you today to let you know that we have some great offers for households that used to be with British Gas, if they would like to switch back to us again. Could I please ask who currently provides your gas and electricity?”

“Certainly, it’s British Gas.”

“What? Oh, ummm. Our records show that your household isn’t with British Gas. Maybe they are not correct. Could I please have your full address and postcode please?”

“Yeah, I don’t think so. You phone up claiming to be from British Gas, but you don’t know that you already supply us? Why don’t you tell me the address and postcode of the property you *think* you are phoning, and I’ll tell you if you’re right?”

“I’m sorry sir, but the Data Protection Act prevents me from doing that.”

“Right. So the Data Protection Act prevents you from talking to me about what is supposedly *my* data.”

“Yes.”

“Well, either you’re not really from British Gas, or that’s just daft. Have a nice day.” *click*