We are big fans of herbal teas here in my office. My most recent favorite is the ‘mint garden digestif’ flavor from the dragonfly tea range. Each bag comes with a little saying and todays one was ‘with enough work, anything can be tea and toast’. I really spent too long thinking about this. I dont think I understand it. Is tea and toast something that is associated with an easy life and a reward for hard work? Beyond the physicality of tea and toast what is it and what does it mean?
Obviously, I went straight to Google and didnt get the upbeat answer I was expecting. It turns out ‘Tea and Toast’ is a syndrome that is a form of malnutrition commonly experienced by elderly people who are unable to prepare meals and tend to themselves….. probably one of the most depressing sentences you’ll read today. And just when you thought things couldnt get any sadder I found myself reading about George Orwell’s first book ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ which is a look at the criminalization of the poor. While he was a young journalist, writing ‘Down and Out’ he spent a lot of time living in and out of shelters with the poor and became critical of the housing and diet of the people, the latter being ‘tea-and-two-slices’ (tea and toast). In the book, Orwell’s main character orders tea-and-two-slices with a sort of “welcome nostalgia”. Its a standard 1920s British diner, a mug of tea with milk and sugar, and two slices of toast spread with margarine. But as he gets caught up in the system of cheap lodging houses, workhouses, and prison-like shelters called “spikes,” it is the only food offered to the homeless. “Food. Had come to mean simply bread and margarine, which will cheat hunger for an hour or two,.”
When I made myself sit down and think about how I understood tea and toast I suppose it was more to do with its simplicity, nostalgia, and comfort. It’s a classic combination that you can turn to and never fails. I also understood it to maybe symbolize finding solace or contentment in life’s simple pleasures? But I still dont understand what the tea bag was trying to tell me……but HEEEEEY….. why is no one talking about renewable heat !!!
I know you all probably breathed a sigh of relief when I finished my classes for my master’s as it probably promised fewer niche rants - you were wrong. Because I was such an ‘enthusiastic’ student I was asked if I wanted to audit a class (it just means sit in the back and not do the assessments). The class is on energy and climate change and on Wednesday we had a guest lecturer speaking about renewable heat. It was a beautiful evening and I had been in the park opposite the college catching up with friends and the idea of a 2hr lecture on renewable heat was bottom of the list of things I wanted to do. But Boy oh boy was I wrong! It was one of the most fascinating classes I have attended so far so please indulge me as I do my best retelling.
The U.K has set out its target to be net zero by 2050 (far too late) and decarbonizing heat is the biggest barrier to achieving this. One third of all emissions in the UK are associated with heat ! The UK is completely unique in comparison with our European counterparts, in that, gas makes up 80% of our heat supply, compared to Denmark where they use gas for just 20% of their heat. There are a few different proposed solutions to decarbonizing heat but most of them are stupidly expensive and need space ! For a while solar was hailed as the solution, but a substantial portion of the UK population dont have roofs, let alone a south facing roof. Biomass is another option, but in a time where land to grow crops for food is in limited supply, it is pretty hard to convince people to grow vegetation which will be burned and not eaten….. This is where heat pumps come in ! These use electricity to move heat from the ground/air/water and transfer it to a building. These are what policy makers believe are the key technology to replace gas boilers in most buildings by 2050. There are two types of heat pumps: air source (pulling the air in and heating it up) or ground source (you dig a deeeeeeeep hole and use the heat from the earth) The ones using air as a source are essentially an inside out fridge and there is a lot of misinformation on them out there. Like people really fkn hate them….. there has been a lie spread that they are incredibly loud (they emit the same low hum as a fridge) and therefore you need planning permission to install one. Other people claim they dont work in the cold which is nonsense since the Netherlands predominantly use heat pumps and temps often go below zero. They are also super expensive (like £20,000 for the ground ones) HOWEVER !!! an air source heat pump is around £8,000 and there are government subsidies out there to cover like 70% of the cost bringing the price down to nearer £2,500 which is actually the same as a gas boiler.
Now this is where things get quite interesting…. at a micro economic level. When the government announced this subsidy there was only about a 40-50% increase in the installation of heat pumps, which is quite terrifying. There should have been an 80-90% increase considering about 4,500 gas boilers (which are the same price) are installed every day. The main reason for the lack of change is that humans will always choose comfort and convenience over cost and the environment. Gas boilers are familiar and there are over 130,000 heating engineers registered to install gas boilers, compared with 400 registered heat pump installers in the UK. If your boiler breaks or you need new heating system, odds are youll be sold a gas boiler. There is no incentive for the gas companies in the UK to sell you anything other than the status quo. The UK also has some of the leakiest homes (so many protected buildings etc.) which has meant the gas companies have worked with the boiler manufacturers to ensure successful heating of our homes. These manufacturers have built their entire UK market on boilers for leaky homes. So why is the same not being done for heat pumps? Imagine the market potential for a boiler manufacturer to create a heat pump specifically designed for these leaky buildings - it is a no brainer. But why would gas companies change anything if there is no demand from consumers and why would consumers demand something they may not know about or have been fed misinformation about? The government is too scared to mandate heat pumps in the same way they have mandated electric vehicles because they claim ‘there is not enough evidence’ to support the success of heat pumps - even though heat pumps are the dominant source of heat in the Netherlands.
The UK had planned on decarbonizing heat through the use of hydrogen. In fact, they put all their eggs in this stupid basket. Now in the governments defense, hydrogen makes sense - its renewable ! And as I mentioned already, 80% of the UKs heat comes from gas, hydrogen is produced when natural gas comes into contact with high-temperature steam. So, the thinking was natural gas would be converted to hydrogen to heat homes. Not only would this lock the UK into using natural gas indefinitely, but hydrogen is incredibly volatile and would require all boilers and hobs to be replaced simultaneously across whole regions ! Our bestie king Jacob Rees-Mogg was so sure that hydrogen was the future he gave a speech on why hydrogen was the UKs ‘silver bullet.’ About six days later he was forced to come out and take back the statement after over 30 studies found that hydrogen was much less efficient and more costly than alternatives like sexy heat pumps. Now let us not totally discredit hydrogen. Many energy scientists agree with Rees-Mogg's assessment that hydrogen could play a role in storing energy, for example on a windy or sunny day when renewables are generating more electricity than the grid needs. Many also see it having a future in specialist industries that will prove hard to electrify, like shipping, steel production or aviation. It is just not suitable for our homes and without a sweeping package of policy reform the UK will not achieve net zero by 2050. By then I will be 54 and nowhere near as sexy as I am now which is why I propose we use the below to try and generate a bit of excitement for heat pumps, really get peoples blood pumping……
It has been a while since the last newsletter and since then a lot but not a lot has happened. The main highlight was seeing Olivia Dean in the Hammersmith Apollo. I can safely say it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. The whole mood of the crowd was just electric, and she played all of her songs and some new ones. There was a full band set-up too, from horns to backing vocals, guitars and a piano ! She was and is honestly nothing short of dazzling and I have not stopped thinking about her outfit since
And while were on this red theme I got new red nails and red trousers. So obviously ive been looking at other red things to see what I would like. If anyone feels compelled to spend £970 on me and get me this bedside table in ‘Bamboozle Red’ I would be a very happy gorl
Or perhaps this pomegranates print for £400 is a more reasonable ask
And while were on the subject of red, it would be a missed opportunity to not bring up the new portrait of Chares III. Have you all seen it ? Initially my thoughts were HATE !! WAR !! BLOOD !! TAMPON!! but after a little while and reading about the symbolism and thought process of the artist its grown on me. This does not mean I support the monarchy (but Anna and I will still be front and centre for any royal event) I just really like how the artist Jonathan Yeo approaches a portrait (look at his other ones). He will carry out a “forensic and pedantic study of someones features and then collide this with a free burst of abstract wallpaper”. I think initially its quite easy to laugh at the painting but when you look at it long enough it just strikes me as sad. Im not really sure why
In my humble opinion Yeo managed to beautifully capture his sausage fingers. And speaking of sausages, I think we managed to find one of the cheapest places to get a full english in London. All the girlies came out to help Annie-Mae move flat on one of the hottest days of the year, and in return we were treated to a big fat breakfast. £8.50 for a full english with tea or coffee AND toast - basically free
On Tuesday it was the 148th Westminster (USA) Dog show where a three-year-old minature black poodle from Houston, Texas, named Sage was crowned best in show. Sage was up against 2,500 other dogs and competed over two nights of best-in-breed competitions featuring 200 breeds across seven groups. The crowd erupted in cheers as Sage’s handler, Kaz Hosaka, cried happy tears, briefly burying his face in the dog’s fur before picking her up to accept hugs from his fellow competitors. Vogue sent a photographer out to document the event which is referred to as “the Oscars'“ of dog competitions. I really encourage you to look through the photos here; but these are my faves:
And since carbon emissions seems to be my main rant this week, I read a pretty interesting piece on Biden and what he has done for cliamte change. Im not a huge Biden fan BUT he has done more to mitigate climate change than any other president before him. Now weather or not thats becuase climate change has never been so pressing is hard to say, but he has done so much since taking office to wipe out billions of tons of future greenhouse gas emissions. For decades, environmentalists tried and failed to convince lawmakers to pass even the most marginal climate policies. It wasn’t until Biden took office that this changed and the climate policies flowed. And yet few American voters are hearing this story in an election year of huge consequence (more on this another time I think). If we just look at the past two months, the Biden administration has passed a handful of climate policies that will collectively cut more than 10 billion tons of planet-warming pollution over the next three decades, more than the annual emissions of India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and the entire continent of Europe—combined. Its probably no surprise that one of these policies involves sexy heat pumps. This new rule will reduce the amount of energy that water heaters use by encouraging manufacturers to sell models with more efficient heat pump technology (literally what we were talking about!). The new regulation is expected to save more energy than any federal law in history. Most people give little thought to how the water in their homes is heated, but water heaters are the second-largest consumer of energy in the average American home and one of the largest sources of climate pollution in the country. How amazing !
Now I know I was just singing his praises but this meme really made me lol
Until next time x