Eleanor Dangerfield

ED

I am a retired teacher. I am interested in wildlife and do volunteer conservation work. I am keen to reduce my carbon footprint and to campaign for change on a national level.

Location Oxfordshire, U.K.

Achievements

Activity

  • This was an interesting and stimulating course, as was the previous one on Climate Change, the Science. It was also great to hear from students around the world and learn more about problems and possible solutions in other countries.

  • Sustainable cities need an integrated transport system, which is low carbon, frequent, reliable and cheap (or even free, why not?), an electric car or van hire system, when people need to transport heavy or bulky loads, safe cycle routes and secure cycle parking.
    They need good waste management and recycling facilities and plenty of green space. Supermarkets...

  • It is very important to engage local people, who have very particular knowledge of the local area and know far better which areas have flooded in the past, where water collects in heavy rainfall events and how fast it drains away.
    A one in a hundred year flood event is now a one in ten year event or less.
    There was a major flood event in my area in 2007....

  • I have tried to use less plastic for several years now and am still thinking of more ways to reduce it.
    I bought a self charging hybrid car a year ago and am saving up to buy an electric one in two or three years time.
    I'm having solar panels installed on my roof in a few weeks' time. It's a shame the feed in tariff was dropped. People need more government...

  • Developing countries can, hopefully, "leapfrog" the dirty fuel stage. Solar energy can bring electricity to rural communities. This will help with education and health facilities.
    Education for girls is really important. More educated girls have fewer children.
    If people have access to clean water, girls won't have to trudge miles every day to fetch it and...

  • I think we need a bit of them all - state, community and individual. Communities need funding from the state to implement schemes such as flood resilience. They also need the cooperation of individuals in that community e.g. people willing to sit on committees, apply for funding etc. Then, governments tend to overrule communities e.g. new build housing...

  • The link didn't work. This is no doubt because the project stopped receiving funding from the Rockefeller foundation in 2019. (I was directed to this information by another student - Thank you.) You'd think the course organisers would update the information.
    According to the introduction, New York plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and,...

  • It is shocking to realise how much water we use if we count goods, clothes and food we buy.
    Smart meters for water are a good idea, but, as another student pointed out, huge amounts of water are wasted every day through leaking pipes.
    Water butts in gardens to collect water off the roof and water gardens in Summer are a good idea as using bath and shower...

  • I was interested to read about Curitiba. It clearly has plenty of green space and trees. I think that incentivising people to recycle is an excellent idea. I wish supermarkets here would pay people, perhaps with exchangeable tokens, to return cans and bottles. This could lead to a lot less litter all over the place.

  • A sustainable city needs plenty of green space with water, trees, pleasant squares where people can sit, some shelter for wet weather - it rains here in the U.K! electrified, affordable public transport, cycle lanes and plenty of parking for bikes. Any cars/taxis, delivery vehicles allowed in should be electric. "Car clubs" for when people need a car, so they...

  • I've often wondered about this during Summer heatwaves. As far as I know, batteries you can have installed when you get solar panels can only store energy to be used at night, not kept until Winter.
    Can anybody help answer ths question?

  • Peachcroft Christian Centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire having a ground source heat pump installed. Energy from the ground under the building will be pumped through 2 boreholes 150 m deep. It will heat the building and supply hot water and will replace the old gas boiler. Payback time will be about 14 years. The centre is not only used as a church, but is hired...

  • Thousands of new houses are being built where I live (Oxfordshire). I doubt if they're designed to be energy efficient. Solar panels are never included on new builds.
    Let's face it, cold and damp are far more of a problem in this country than heatwaves. They may be becoming hotter and more frequent, but they seldom last more than a week at a time. Close your...

  • I had heard of Passivhaus and was hoping for more detail about how they worked.
    In my area thousands of new houses are being built but I doubt if they are being built to anything approaching Passivhaus standards. What a wasted opportunity.

  • We surely don't want to emulate the U.S.A. with their ferocious air con systems, which mean you have to put on a sweater indoors to keep warm.
    After the 2003 heatwave, where so many elderly people in apartment blocks died, there were suggestions such as having plants growing on the outside of buildings to help with cooling.
    The way Arab countries used to...

  • Are you a fellow pedant? Did you notice the transcript said hypothermia instead of hyperthermia?

  • I learnt a lot about ocean acidification and the word "artecology", which was new to me.
    I will make further efforts to minimise microfibres escaping from my washing machine.
    I will research further more ecofriendly cleaning products.

  • I think the video was a bit "more of the same". I don't think it told me anything that environmentally conscious people didn't know or do already.
    Also, like other learners, I'd like to know more detail about the harmful chemicals to avoid putting down the sink.

  • I think I will try a Cora ball as well as buying more natural fibres. I've tried a guppy bag but - too small for a full load of washing, doesn't spin well, hence soggier washing and eventually the zip broke.

  • We should eat sustainably caught fish wherever possible. Also, wearing natural fibres would reduce the problem of microplastics getting into the oceans. Unfortunately both these options are expensive. I tried a "guppy bag". you put your washing into it and it's supposed to catch the microfibres, but the washing doesn't spin very well, the bag is too small for...

  • This is the first time I had heard about Artecology, though I had heard about green roofs and walls and "swift bricks" built into the structure of new build houses, to provide nesting sites for swifts and reverse their alarming decline.
    I'd be interested to see a TV programme on this topic.

  • We need international agreements to phase out industrialised fishing and nets dragged across the sea bed. Would this ever work? Marine conservation areas are important and bans on fishing when stocks of particular species are low.
    The problem with sustainably caught fish is that they will be expensive and out of reach of many people's budget. As for getting...

  • @ErinSmith I also read that farmed salmon flesh would be greyish. They have to feed them on special pellets to make the flesh pink.

  • The trouble is, the tourists no doubt arrive in Thailand by air and air travel is a major contributor to climate change. Does she take them out to see the coral in a motor boat? Maybe eco tourism should be encouraged, (though this still involves air travel, of course.) More expensive holidays but less impact on the environment, eco friendly hotels banning...

  • I've read quite a bit about the problem of plastics being dumped into the oceans. I get the impression that some people think that every minute an actual garbage truck is driven to the ocean and it's contents tipped in. It is people going to the beach and leaving their rubbish behind that's part of the problem. I remember seeing in the news the state of...

  • I am old enough to (just about) remember a time before plastic bags, bottles and food containers existed. We managed then, though admittedly, it did involve "housewives" going out shopping every day and being served over the counter by the butcher/baker/grocer/greengrocer.
    I think shops are beginning to catch on to the idea that many people don't want plastic...

  • These options seem very expensive, especially the last one mentioned. I think adding limestone or olivine would be the best ones, but who would pay in international waters?

  • I had heard of Marine Protected Areas, but did not realise why mangrove forests were so important.
    It is rather shocking that the UNFCCC document only mentions the oceans once. Let's hope this will change.

  • English is a continuously evolving language. It borrows and adapts freely. The U.K. has no equivalent of the Academie Francaise to attempt to rein it in. This accounts for its richness and variety and the fact that it has more words than any other language in the world.
    Yes, I admit that some recent borrowings and turns of phrase drive me mad, for example,...

  • Also I will add plastic waste which gets eaten by sea creatures and birds or which traps and kills them, pollution from oil spills and other chemicals and noise pollution affecting the navigation systems of whales and dolphins.

  • I think the main threats are: acidification, coral bleaching and overfishing, particularly with methods that result in a massive by catch. The first two are directly caused by climate change. The third will result in extinction of some species and a breakdown in the food chain.

  • This week was very interesting, I learnt about the United Nations REDDS+ scheme. Also about pyrolysis and carbon capture and storage. The statistics on food wastage are really shocking. How can we stop people wasting food? I think it would be a good idea to include avoiding waste in school cookery lessons which all children should have. Food is also being...

  • I have been involved in tree planting in a riverside area in my town and am very keen that the right trees should be planted on the right terrain at the right time of year and cared for after planting.
    I have also worked on wetlands (calcareous fen) and wild flower meadows, which are important habitats.
    I try to avoid palm oil and have largely succeeded with...

  • Eleanor Dangerfield replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]

    I wouldn't say that these activities are "worse than useless" but I agree that action must be taken on a national and international scale to combat the climate emergency. At least these "low impact" activities capture people's interest and direct them towards the bigger picture.

  • I totally agree. I worry about the current "Let's plant trees everywhere" trend in U.K. Some areas don't need trees as they have their own important eco systems e.g. wetlands and wild flower meadows. Also, as you say projects must be coordinated with local authorities and trees must be properly planted and cared for afterwards.

  • I really hope the United Nations REDD+ scheme is successful. Deforestation in the Amazon seems unstoppable, especially when the government of Brazil seems to actively encourage it. I don't see the demand for palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia decreasing either.
    In UK it's ironic that, while the government is saying we need to plant loads more trees, they're...

  • Problem is, palm oil is cheap. I try to avoid palm oil if at all possible in foods and toiletries. With toiletries and cosmetics it's relatively easy as long as you are prepared to pay more, and many people can't afford that. With food, it's an absolute minefield. A previous respondent has given some examples. And how many people are prepared to pore over the...

  • If we can stop deforestation in the tropics that would be a great step forward. Of course, land is needed for agriculture, but a lot of deforestation is to grow food for cattle, as in the Amazon or for oil palm in Malaysia and Indonesia, which is also extremely detrimental to wildlife.
    I was glad to see the point being made that you can't plant trees just...

  • I think both methods could be useful as long as the whole process does not emit more carbon than it captures. There are many pitfalls, such as transporting biomass to the power station. Also there is the problem of using land to grow biomass instead of food. Land could be used which is unsuitable for food production but often such land has valuable eco...

  • We seem to be coming to realise that the "old fashioned ways" - crop rotation, use of animal manure as fertiliser, hedgerows or dry stone walls, dew ponds, free range animals are best after all. And how about hay meadows? The hay feeds the animals in winter and the meadow in the summer supports a diverse variety of flora and fauna.
    The modern idea I like is...

  • I'll be interested to hear about the sustainable agricultural practices and whether they can produce enough food for the world, even if the current population were to remain stable..
    Pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilisers have done a great deal of co-lateral damage.
    How do we get people to eat less meat. should it be taxed?

  • I think you mean coal gas to natural (i.e. North Sea) gas. I remember the gas fitters had to come round to all the houses in the country to change the systems. But it shows that such changes can be made.

  • Eleanor Dangerfield replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]

    I think that, by" food surpluses supported the development of more complex societies", it simply means that, people were able to specialise - builders, weavers, potters and ultimately traders and a governing class. In a hunter gatherer society, everyone must be involved in the hunting and gathering in order to survive.
    The statement is not making a value...

  • There were some good ideas there. I'm surprised home composting wasn't mentioned.
    I'm always surprised how little common sense people show when throwing out food that's past its "best before" date or even its "use by" date. Most food is fine after its "use by" date (not shellfish!). Look at it, smell it, think what sort of food it is and whether you are going...

  • Eleanor Dangerfield replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]

    @DennisStepan My late mother-in-law had a mini version of this. When her milkman retired, she employed him to come and do her gardening once a week. She also gave him part of her garden as a vegetable patch. There is quite a bit of scope for people to do gardening for an elderly person in exchange for having part of the garden to grow vegetables.

  • Eleanor Dangerfield replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]

    There are some local schemes with their own currencies. I've heard of "the Brixton pound" and "the Totnes pound". Of course, these take a lot of organising and depend on dedicated volunteers!

  • I think it would be great to have a cooperative shop selling only local food - say from within a 30 or 40 mile radius. Every month in my town there's a farmers' market but it's on a weekday and therefore only patronised by the retired middle classes. So much local food is produced - bread, eggs, meat cheese, fruit, veg, honey, that a shop could easily be...

  • Eating less meat or avoiding it altogether is a powerful solution. Forty years ago in U.K., vegetarianism and veganism were still seen as eccentricities. At my school, 60 years ago, there was just one vegetarian girl who got a lump of cheese instead of meat at school dinner. Her nickname was- guess what? - Veggie! Now vegetarianism and veganism are far more...

  • We can't solve all our food security problems with allotments and community gardens, though they are great in their own small way. There have been many initiatives to curb food waste such as community fridges and supermarkets giving surplus food to charities. Many people in U.K. no longer know how to cook. We no longer eat according to the seasons. They've...

  • Community gardens are great, not just for food production but for improving mental and physical health of participants. HOWEVER, someone has to organise and supervise them. As with allotments, they are very time consuming and can be heart as well as back breaking. Something ate all my runner bean plants last summer!

  • 2021 will be my year of climate action.

  • This was an interesting introductory week. I think we could do far more as a country in the way of mitigation. There is enormous scope for renewables in this country as there is for more efficient use of energy. We will need adaptation, too, There has been yet more flooding in U.K. in this last part of December.

  • I think we should use a combination of renewables, depending on the climate and geography of the country. Solar is ideally suited to sunny countries, but has some value in U.K. especially solar panels on roofs. Wind power is a good source of energy here, as is tidal power, but useless for Mediterranean and landlocked countries, of course. Mountainous countries...

  • Wind energy is a good option for U.K. Solar power has potential although this isn't a sunny country. Large public buildings could make much more use of solar panels. What about tidal power? The tides keep going, unlike wind and sun. What we need is a combination of renewables, whatever suits a particular country. Also, rich countries should help poorer...

  • I am against fracking as it's just another way of extracting fossil fuel and we should be concentrating on producing renewable energy and improving energy efficiency. Besides it can cause release of methane and contamination of water supplies as well as minor earth tremors. As shale gas deposits in U.K. are close to major population centres, it is a bad idea.

  • I thought the website was useful with its brief explanation of nuclear fission (though I didn't need the "fun fact" that helium was named after the sun god Helios - a bit patronising), and the for and against arguments set out clearly.
    I'm still not comfortable about nuclear fission. There's a saying that if something can go wrong, it eventually will and...

  • I live in Oxfordshire and my area is on Thames flood plain. Thirteen years ago there was serious flooding and subsequently some mitigation work was done, such as clearing "pinch points" in the river. Since then, I think the councils have just been hoping for the best! A big problem is the amount of new housing being built. I know people have to live somewhere...

  • Mitigation is what we need most of all. Adaptation will become necessary. So far, I'm not impressed with geo engineering, particularly the Alberta Trunk Line one. Seems they were only doing it so they could extract oil more easily! Anyway, as another student has suggested, surely the stored CO2 is going to pop back up at some point in the future.

  • @RichardWright Palm oil production in Indonesia is destroying the habitat of orang utans.

  • This was a very interesting video. I had heard of carbon capture and storage but had no idea how it could be done. I hadn't heard of solar radiation management. However, neither of these techniques is the answer and pumping sulphur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to form droplets of sulphuric acid sounds positively dangerous.
    It seems to me that the only...

  • I'm glad you did this step, which I will skip as I did the previous course. It is important to understand the basics before you can start thinking about the solutions.

  • Poorer countries are going to be hardest hit by climate change. Unfortunately, they will also be hit if rich countries give up their greedy, consumerist habits. If we give up buying cheap, throwaway fashion, the people who make it in countries like Bangladesh will lose their jobs. Tourism has taken a big hit due to Covid and fewer tourists from rich countries...

  • Your question "What are Greenhouse gas emissions?" - That's why it would have been a good idea to have done the Climate Change - The Science course first. Hopefully Future Learn will make it available again.

  • Hi, I'm Eleanor. I live in England, in Oxfordshire. I'm 73 years old and have four young grandchildren, two of whom are adopted. I realise that they may see the year 2100. What will our planet be like then? Will it still be habitable? For some years I have been a member of a naturalists society, a group working to reduce our carbon footprint and an...

  • The main threats as I see them are: sea level rise affecting a large proportion of the population, desertification, mass extinction of wildlife, food shortages, parts of the planet becoming uninhabitable leading to mass migration and social unrest. Thawing of permafrost worries me as it would lead to release of tonnes of methane and runaway climate...

  • I think my 3 new words will be - concerning, challenging, inspiring. I have learnt a great deal on this course and will be enrolling in Climate Change - the Solutions.

  • This has been a very interesting and challenging course. I shall certainly join the next one. Today the British government announced its targets to tackle climate change. We must hold them to these pledges.
    I feel I've been trying to reduce my carbon footprint for years. I eat much less meat. I've bought a hybrid car. Fortunately I don't feel the need to...

  • Who will pay for these adaptations in poor countries? Surely it should be the rich countries, who are, after all, the most responsible for climate change. Today I heard the U.K. government is reducing its international aid budget, to help cope with the economic downturn as a result of Covid.
    It's understandable that the people of the Mekong delta would find...

  • I won't be directly affected by sea level rise as I live well inland. River flooding is more of a problem here due to more extreme rain events. In the Summer of 2007, the river flooded and 200 houses near me were flooded. I was lucky because my house is just a few metres higher. However, the flooded houses were still standing and the residents were eventually...

  • I think it's somewhat arrogant to call this era "The Anthropocene", let alone waste time arguing about when it began. The other geological epochs were only named by humans in recent centuries. Are we expecting humans in future millennia to discover geological strata and say, "Ah, this was the Anthropocene"? If there are any humans left, that is.

  • An interesting if frightening predictive video. I followed the link to "More on the Anthropocene" and was really interested to follow the timeline and see how humans have changed the environment throughout human history. As for the major volcanic eruptions of the past, clearly there will be more in the future and there isn't anything we can do about that.

  • I think that the main limits to climate modelling are unpredictable human behaviour, unforeseen events (the Covid 19 pandemic being an obvious example) and the world leaders people elect. If Trump had been elected for another 4 years, we could have kissed any chance of reducing CO2 emissions goodbye. Now there's Brazil and Australia (the former is chopping and...

  • I found the Dept. of Energy and Climate Change modelling interesting to do and, as a non scientist, think it is accessible to many people.
    I honestly can't see most of the population reducing their home temperatures to 16 degrees C! Besides which, life is full of surprises, events that we cannot possibly foresee. This past year, for example.

  • The information about tipping points is very frightening. How can we get world leaders to recognise the seriousness of the situation?

  • The government told people to avoid public transport if possible after the first lockdown ended. This was not helpful. Also, the Covid guidelines for my volunteer conservation group tell us not to share lifts. We do, otherwise non drivers could not get to some of our sites.

  • It's interesting to learn about how climate modelling is done. Even the most optimistic predictions are that we may manage to limit future warming to 2 degrees. The prospect of 6 degrees is truly frightening. The problem with governments is short termism. They are only looking towards the next election. And anyway, big business is more powerful than...

  • @MickKrupa Why can't you just stick to the point? This course is about climate change, not Covid. We are meant to be learning about climate change, not the wisdom or otherwise of government spending.

  • 1)Thawing of ice sheets and glaciers leading to sea level rise. less ice - more heat absorbed - positive feedback. Thawing of permafrost leading to release of methane and carbon dioxide - positive feedback.
    2) Coastal communities, small islands, especially low lying ones. Eventually, all of us. Most of the world's major cities are on the coast.
    3)Ocean...

  • Reading an account from someone whose country is so directly affected brings home the reality of the effects of climate change. It is the a global responsibility to help these countries. Let's hope the leaders of the most powerful countries in the world (naming no names, of course!) take this seriously.

  • Thank you for directing me to this article. Worrying stuff!

  • It won't affect me directly as I don't live on the coast. River flooding is more of a problem here. However, Britain is an island and many major towns and cities are on the coast as they are throughout the world.

  • I chose ocean warming.
    1) this causes coral bleaching and affects all marine organisms from phytoplankton upwards and also therefore marine birds and mammals.
    2) massive economic impacts on coastal communities which rely on fishing. Fish will die, fail to reproduce or migrate to cooler waters. Sea level rise will swamp coastal communities and ruin...

  • How can humans be so stupid as to let this happen? It's always too little too late. Phasing out of plastic microbeads, straws and cotton bud stems is not enough.

  • A very comprehensive video and I certainly had to revise my school science. It is alarming to realise what could have happened to the oceans by 2100. I won't be alive but my grandchildren very likely will.

  • Very worrying that some energy companies are looking to methane hydrates as potential fuels.
    Will greed always win over common sense?

  • This is a striking example of a glacier in retreat. I also read about a glacier in the Himalayas, Gangotri, which has been retreating since 1780. but has speeded up since 1971 and is retreating even faster now. Most glaciers in the world are retreating. I also read on the NASA website that the Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland grew between 2016 and 2019, but...

  • Warmer atmospheric temperatures cause ice sheets to spread and move more quickly towards the margins where they calve as icebergs. The ocean will absorb more solar radiation and there will be a positive feedback.

  • I am enjoying leaning all the terminology.
    It is amazing that we can use such advanced technology to measure not only the health of glaciers, but desertification, changes in tree cover etc. but world governments seem unwilling to use it to combat climate change.

  • I too visited the Franz Josef glacier about 12 years ago and wonder how much it has retreated since then.

  • 1) The earth's orbit around the sun, tilting on its axis, variations in solar radiation, the formation of and weathering of rocks.
    2) No, because previous changes in the climate took place over thousands of years, whereas present climate change has taken place over the past 150 years at the same time as industrialisation.
    3) Warming of the Arctic, hotter...

  • More frequent cyclones and sea level rise could flood padi fields and ruin crops. This would mean greater food insecurity for locals and the country unable to export so much rice.

  • The NASA website is really interesting. It's a pity that Trump doesn't appear to have accessed it.

  • There was severe flooding where I live in July 2007. 200 houses near me were flooded. Since then, there have been reports of flooding every year in various parts of the U.K. I cannot be certain that this is due to climate change. However, Spring is definitely arriving earlier. When I was a child (I am 73), may (hawthorn) blossom was never out on 1st May. It...

  • It is an interesting point that we can't really say that the apparent increase in extreme weather events is due to climate change or natural fluctuations.
    In 1900 the world population was about 1.6 billion. Now it is over 7 billion. This leads to building on floodplain, deforestation, urbanisation= more concrete and tarmac, pressure to intensify farming,...

  • It is clear from what we have studied that past climate change was caused by fluctuations in solar activity, changes in the earth's orbit and tilt, volcanic activity, changes taking place over 1000s of years. It seems indisputable that the present rise in CO2 correlates with the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

  • Challenging stuff for non scientists like me, but it's good to be challenged. It was a very interesting article and I feel I'm gaining a deeper understanding of climate change. I am looking forward to using "varve" next time I play Scrabble!

  • This was a very interesting and informative video and I learned a lot.

  • By studying climate change in the distant past, we can learn about the mechanisms that caused it, positive and negative feedbacks and tipping points. Knowing the timescale over which these changes occurred makes us realise the speed at which humans are changing the climate now with their own actions and the urgency with which we must act.

  • This is fascinating but frightening. World leaders should be made to study this. We cannot prevent volcanoes from erupting but we can stop burning fossil fuels and chopping down forests.

  • Ice core samples and the study of geological strata?