Hi All

Following on from our last Ask the Expert session on Dumped, our new expert Steve Jones will be answering some of your questions about the the environment, climate change and all things green.

You can ask your question here:

channel4.com/green/ask_the_expert

best wishes

C4 Green Editor

Hi All

Thanks to everyone who asked our expert Steve Jones a question about the environment, climate change and all things green.

You can view a selection of his answers here:

channel4.com/green/ask_the_expert

best wishes

C4 Green Editor

Dear Editor,

I find this green section amazing, the worries some people have, cat-litter? Sorry, but can I add to that what about endless stray cats and dogs? General waste, what are waste bins? Why do you need them, throw stuff on the street, the ground, the water, why worry? All of you living in the EU are SO WELL OFF! I am from the UK and am trying to help here, but it is tough when it gets to waste management! etc.

Just spend a few days here in Macedonia or the Balkan countries, some of them are accession countries for the EU, but they don't know anything about environmental stuff.
Talking about volunteering, yes, but in the real environment where little about nature is sacred, you may think why? They prefer to have something to eat, some food on the table, and yet there it is so beautiful here, so much history, culture, but...

I have recently watched a few TV programs that made passing references to using "Ground Source Heat Pumps", or using/the use of geothermal energy (as the Icelanders and Swedes do); to help power your home.
This got me thinking (for some reason); and leads to my question.
Would it be possible to take disused mines and stick some kind of geothermal/heat exchange power plant at the bottom of them?
My reasoning for this idea goes something like this.
1) The Earth generates a lot of internal heat which we can tap for power.
2) Deep mines are hot places to work (The deepest mines have temps' of 70 degrees C).
3) The use of geothermal/heat exchangers could produce a lot of power.
4) It would hide unsightly power stations underground.
5) Find a new use for very big holes in the ground that no one has a use for anymore.
I should Imagen that the costs/technical know-how, to convert disused mines into power stations, would be enormous but in the longer term the "pay-off", could be cheap, clean and renewable energy.