While tens of thousands of politicians and activists gathered hopefully in Copenhagen last Friday, a minor success was scored by eight men in wellingtons, standing on a barge beside the Afsluitdijk – the dyke that stops the North Sea from flooding the Netherlands.
The focus of attention was a small, two-bladed tidal Tocardo turbine which has been spinning in one of the sluice channels between the freshwater IJsselmeer and the saltwater North Sea for the past 18 months.
A sensor in the turbine was dislodged
during repairs to the sluice gates, and watching the massive effort needed to reconnect that single wire, the extra costs associated with marine energy became crystal clear.
Continue reading "Dutch have a simple answer to energy crisis – working together" »
If a country had a star sign, Britain would be an infuriating Libran.
Pathologically unable to hear just one side of the argument, the
tolerant (or contrarian) Brit starts to sympathise with the minority
view even when the case for the prosecution seems complete.
Take Copenhagen. Just as the developed world is ready to tackle global
warming, climate change deniers are attracting considerable public
support. Just as bankers are hit with Alistair Darling’s tax on cash
bonuses, opinion columns suggest the men and women of the City are
merely scapegoats for our shared, national obsession with cash. And
despite the presence of a bell tower in the latest set of MPs
expenses, papers are starting to spotlight the plight of non-
free-loading MPs, some of whom will stand down next year, demoralised
and depressed at their collective and undeserved fall from grace.
Continue reading "Time to stop seeing both sides of the argument" »
Scottish children record the lowest feelings of wellbeing in Europe.
Never mind literacy, class size or the Curriculum for Excellence – we have bigger problems. Some of our children are doing fine – others are obese and disengaged. Some – in hopeless, drug-filled estates – are semi-feral. Others in leafy suburbs are over-parented. There is one common denominator though – guilty working mothers who dare not demand the massive change that would remedy educational problems and improve adult and child wellbeing -- kindergarten care on the Scandinavian model from the age of 1.
I can hear the objections already. Too expensive. Alright for them. A luxurious irrelevance when essential school services are being cut. Destruction of the “mother-at-home” parenting that has worked well for generations.
Let me ask one thing straight away.
Continue reading "Scottish Children and Eurpoe" »