A collection of nearly nothing but something to someone

A random assortment of everything that I find worthwhile to post about.

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my way or the highway

I’m never happier than when people agree with my opinion. Having 12 upvotes for a comment I’ve made on a piece on the Guardian website has made my day.

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Not quite affordable housing

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I hate this. Why is our global economy so linked and dependent on a commodity which is volatile and unsustainable. How have we allowed those who control the oil have such dangerous grip on the world markets?

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The ‘Loony Left’ in the 1980s

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Fancy dress has gone too far this time

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Solar - when do we need it (now), why do we want it (because we do)

This is a short couple of paragraphs I wrote for a much longer speech but they had to be cut. I was quite proud of them, so made this blog to put them here for future use or just other people to admire:

The UK Government is committed to meeting our renewable energy targets, which are set out in national policy through the Climate Change Act of 2008. The Bank of England Governor Mark Carney announced in a speech last Tuesday that “The challenges currently posed by climate change pale in significance compared with what might come”, and that it is likely the vast remaining reserves of oil, gas and coal will soon be un-burnable without exceeding the temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius agreed at the previous UN climate talks. Shell last week announced they were ending their Arctic drilling programme, despite spending 7 billion dollars so far on this, due to it being unviable and uneconomical. This shows the need for alternative and renewable energy.

The technologies already exist to make the UK self-sufficient for its energy needs, removing us from the volatility of the global energy market. However there is significant opposition and obstacles towards some of these technologies, for example, the current UK government are showing their strong opposition to on-shore wind, the public are showing very strong opposition toward Fracking, and further delays and increases in costs means Hinkley C nuclear power station is unlikely to be built until 2023 at the earliest. Solar power has the highest support rate of any of the renewable or alternative energy options in the UK, the most recent DECC data showed that 37% of people strongly supported solar and 44% supported solar, while only 6% oppose or strongly oppose the technology. In the current circumstances, with storage technologies in their infancy, solar alone will not be the sole solution the UK’s energy dependencies, but coupled together with other generation methods, it can provide a significant step towards a renewable future.