Fast forward to the End of the Earth?

I enjoyed reading an article by Martin Wolf in the FT (Wednesday 22/5/2013) entitled 'Climate sceptics have already won'.

Not content with just complaining about it Mr Wolf went so far as to offer a number of solutions with a view to buying time so that humanity can get its act together and so avoid catastrophe.

So far so good.

The solutions proposed were, in a nutshell:

• Tax carbon emissions
• Go nuclear
• Impose really tough emissions standards on cars
• Create secure global trading regime in lower-carbon fuels
• Develop ways to finance technology transfer
• Invest in research
• Invest in adaptation
• Think through geo-engineering.

You can be for or against any of these proposals, each of which has its merits.

Cars makers are already doing a lot to reduce emissions from their vehicles, for example. Geo-engineering seems a bit risky to me. Well-managed nuclear energy goes a long way to decarbonising the economy. Etcetera.

Many, or in fact all of the solutions, involve government action, not just regionally but globally. This is no doubt the greatest obstacle to any meaningful action being possible.

Our governments do not appear to be capable of formulating effective policies liable to affect GHG emissions, let alone habitat loss, mass extinction and other threats to the Earth System, Gaia or however you wish to call or planetary home.

The feeble way in which they are managing the depression/recession illustrates how incapable they seem to be.

The mantra of our leaders sounds like 'markets and the economy cannot be managed or controlled, we are helpless and will just have to wait for growth or whatever to come along'.

Woe betide us if climate change is viewed in the same way.

You can do only so much on a personal level (live an a low energy home, use public transport or stay put, grow your own food, recycle everything, only acquire things which have been recycled, support local businesses and produce etc).

What does it take for a governments to do something similar on a national, regional, global level?

The stark fact remains that it may already be far too late to avoid cataclysmic climate change induced by human activity. The only solution will be the sort of adaptation proposed by James Lovelock in order to preserve what can be preserved.

Things, such as Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets, are moving faster than we can imagine.

Nuclear subs (2)

The recent news (BBC and elsewhere 29th March) that two large energy companies RWE npower and E.ON have withdrawn plans to build new nuclear power stations comes as no surprise. There is not enough money in it for private investors. The enormous risks involved are clearly putting them off.

The only organisation which can possibly undertake this type of very long term nuclear power investment is the state. No private company will ever make sufficient returns for it to be viable for them and they may not be in existence long enough either (some states appear to be a bit shaky too). They will wait until the government decides to make the initial investment and allow them to make the returns from the captive customer base of the energy consumer (similar pattern to the railways, water and even more favourable than the current privatised energy supply industry).

These companies can clearly see more profits and less risk in oil, gas and coal. I would expect that gas obtained via fracking will soon be the next big thing, as this country appear to have large reserves of it. The government appears to be intent on burning fossil fuels for as long as they are available and are offering £1bn to anyone who can come up with a viable carbon capture scheme (3rd April in case you were thinking April Fool)).

There is already a viable carbon capture scheme in existence: is it known as the Earth system, Gaia, Nature or whatever you care to call it. It has been doing this free of charge for billions of years, but we seem to be intent on destroying it.

Natural Wine, China, the Universe and Everything

It is customary to make a list of things one would like to do or which one would like to see in the year ahead (world peace and harmony etc). I will not be doing this, as all this would amount to would be a litany of 'voeux pieux' as the French say - pious wishes which will never come to pass, made only to give oneself a warm feeling and show others how caring one is. I would like to set out some things I might be glad to see or which may have special significance over the next year. Here are a few of them.

With a spot of good fortune the 'debate' on Natural Wine will calm down and surpass the for or against, disgusting or delicious level; proponents of biodynamic or organic production will be looked upon as rational beings who have made an important choice rather than silly romantics or much worse. One day all of this will be the norm, at least among reasonable people. Let us get on with it. After all, what makes wine interesting, both from an organoleptic and philosophical standpoint, is it's diversity and ability to move the human spirit, to sooth the savage breast.

It would be great if instead of subsidising the middle class obsession with 'solar panels' aka photovoltaics our government could spend money on raising the abysmal standard of this country's existing housing stock, allowing the poorest people to benefit from warm, dry, comfortable homes, low energy costs and all the other benefits bestowed by living in a pleasant environment. It is a much more efficient use of resources to invest in energy conservation than spending on producing more and more appliances to produce more and more energy at a very high subsidised cost.

I would like Kevin McCloud to be successful in bringing more of his well insulated luminous homes to market and that George Clark will bring more empty houses into use. George's campaign is especially efficient as the buildings already exist;  only limited resources are required to produce a great living environment unlike the dreaded lookalike new builds.

The (human) world will change utterly. I do not know whether a 'terrible beauty is born' but the 27th December 2011 headline (Le Figaro) that China and Japan will use the Yuan directly without converting to US Dollars seems to me to be particularly significant. It marks the end of European/American domination of the world.  News that the Chinese have established an organisation similar to NASA and plan exploration of the Moon and perhaps Mars, as well as a space station, spell the end of serious manned space exploration by the USA and Russia. In future we will all be passengers of the Chinese or privatised space tourism outfits. This could all be good news for the Earth system, as the Chinese are well aware of the destruction caused to the environment by our species (they have extremely direct experience of this) and intend to do something about it (eventually-after they have achieved crushing economic dominance first, as they seem destined to do).

It will soon be possible to observe the atmospheric signature of small earth-sized planets orbiting neighbouring stars and identify the presence of oxygen, that sign of life only found where precious photosynthesis takes place and where life has formed its world, such as here on Earth. Or perhaps we will never find such signs, no matter how hard we try, and come to realise how precious Gaia is and change our ways. Whatever happens, may we realise that we must protect life wherever we find it and rejoice in it whether on this planet or on some distant body.

There. I think that will do for now. I can think of lots more but will not bore you with them today.

The New Curriculum

School books ?

I read recently that someone gaining an A grade at A Level today would have achieved a D a number of years ago. There has been much debate surrounding the phenomenon of grade inflation in recent times, and it does seem to have become easier to stand out in exams today than it used to be in the past. This is not surprising, given the improvement in teaching standards (or perhaps more precisely the concentration on teaching for results), the plethora of resources available to pupils to research their subjects, specialised coaching and a myriad other things never available to students in times gone by. All we had when I was at school were the text books such as they were and any other background matter one could dig out in a library or come by with an enquiring mind. Well done to all those who can achieve excellent grades in today's A Levels; they will need all the help they can get when they start looking for a job or finding a place in university.

Rather than fearing this debasement of grading, I am more concerned by the subjects taught in schools - or rather the subjects not taught, or taught sufficiently or with enough force. Is any time given to James Lovelock's work and inventions, or even Charles Darwin, beyond a cursory mention ? Evolution and its true meaning and significance ? The Gaia theory ? Or the Medean hypothesis ? Or the inexorable rise of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, or the origin and evolution of life, the soil and their future ? Are humans placed in their context - one species among many, gifted with intelligence and self reflection perhaps, but no more equal or worthy than earthworms or plants. What books are studied other than the same tired 'classics' ? In this country, we are not exposed to a wide range of knowledge during our education and many subjects are ignored unless one makes a conscious decision to study them. Hence generations of young people (and I was one a long time ago) who have little knowledge of science, history and many other areas of learning, ill prepared for the grave challenges facing our world.

I myself, after stumbling beginnings many years ago when I dabbled in protests and being at least mildly radical and vaguely realising that all was not well with the world have finally seen the light as it were. I have at long last rejected the silly notions that economic growth ad infinitum is either possible or desirable, and the notion that humans are somehow on the Earth but not of the Earth, divorced from the natural world. I have read the works of Lovelock and made the effort to understand Darwin, learned about the soil, the biology of plants, been impressed by Tim Flannery, been a subscriber to the Ecologist, grow food, don't fly any more etc. I want desperately to learn more about this planet and our duty to it. But how many people are exposed to these wonders and given this same hunger for knowledge unless they have had the good fortune to have come across, say, Lovelock in the course of their reading. Very few I would say.

Everyone should be given the chance to learn about our planet. Youngsters should be given the opportunity to travel to the poles and to the tropics and to the different habitats of our own country, to see and feel for themselves, to realise that science is liberating. Education can save us and all the species we share the world with. A New Curriculum is needed to do this in which the works of the great scientists and ecologists are to the fore; a massive investment in education. What is not needed is 'academies' financed through PPP extortion schemes, grade inflation, league tables and the division of children into those who can access a good (i.e. in this country private) education and those who can not. Before you vote again ask your prospective candidate if he or she or their party are prepared to do the right thing; and take a keen interest in what your children are being taught in school. If they are not being taught about the real world, make sure you fill in the blanks yourself. There is hope.

Pre-Mature

This was very frightening. Goose pimples and hair standing up on the back of the neck frightening. If you have any idea what phtalates and bisphenol A are, then you will no doubt already be aware of the disquieting effects of these substances.

Just picture this scene: a young girl, only six years old who is starting her puberty; her breasts are starting to swell and she is developing pilosity in all the places which in a young child should be pristine and baby-smooth. Her schoolmates have begun to notice. She has no idea what is happening to her and her parents are at their wits' end. Tests and examinations by specialists follow and reveal that her body prematurely initiated the changes usually associated with puberty (at the usual age of puberty) and if this is not halted by a series of regular injections for a number of years, may cause her to stop growing altogether. Further investigations reveal that various substances present in plastics and, through migration, in cosmetics, food and drink may be responsible for this disruption of the endocrinian system. Far from being a rare phenomenon it is becoming more and more common. It affects girls - sometimes as young as 4 years - more than boys, although they are also concerned. The consequences of premature puberty in girls and infertility in boys can hardly be exaggerated. Experiments carried out in a closed lake on a species of small fish (unfortunately I cannot remember the name) particularly sensitive to this class of chemical showed that within 3 years no fish were left because they were unable to reproduce.

We have all heard stories about the harmful effects of chemicals, but this report on Envoyé Spécial (an investigative programme on France 2 Television shown on TV5 last Friday) was truly horrific. There was the added and significant fact that the little girl and her parents lived near vineyards. Now you may or may not know that French vineyards are among the most avid users of chemicals of all sorts - sprayed on vines to control fungal, insect and other pests - in potentially dangerous cocktails with unknown effects. There have been many instances over the years of vineyard workers dying young of mysterious illnesses, often associated with the use or misuse of these chemicals over the years. Not much publicity is ever given to these deaths and few are keen to investigate, such is the power and influence of the proponents of 'conventional' or 'traditional' agriculture and viticulture. When I lived in Kent, surrounded by wheat and salad growers I often noticed the whiff of chemicals in the air when various sprays were applied in the fields. I now feel rather safer here in the great metropolis, although there is much to worried about here as well (perhaps for another time). What other hitherto unknown effects are stalking us as a consequence of the use of these substances ?

All of the above lead me to favour, even more than I already do, growing my own food as much as possible, seeking out wines made using organic or biodynamic practices, although not yet throwing out all plastic food containers (as one mother in the France 2 report did). Even if you care little for the environment, our fellow creatures of the Earth, Gaia or any other tree-hugging you should take heed of this and try to change what you eat and do, for your own sake, and for the sake of your children.

My very first blog

This is my very first blog and my very first post on it.


So down to business.

The garden element: metaphorical in the sense of Voltaire's injunction to 'cultiver son jardin' (cultivate one's garden) that is to know one's self and perfect it whenever possible, and literal in the sense of cultivating; that is, digging, forking, sowing, planting and generally tending to one's very real garden. Metaphorical in the sense that the garden is the microcosm and the symbol of man's relationship with the earth, the Earth and Gaia, and his dependence on them (literally).

The vine element: metaphorical in the sense that this plant symbolise's man's transformation of the natural into something super-natural - grapes into wine and spirit; and literal as a fascinating plant which is present in practically all literature and about which more has no doubt been written than any other plant (although this is just a supposition).


There it is. I have set out more or less what this blog will be about and hope it will make sense. But will it be gardening and wine ? Or philosophy and ecology ? No doubt this will become clearer when I have posted a few times and have myself a clearer understanding of where I am going.