Gove-themed streetart, Brighton. Our energy minister John Hayes seems to enjoy the word “bourgeois”. I don’t blame him, it’s a fun word to say. Back in October, he described the idea of onshore wind farms as “a bourgeois left article of faith based on some academic perspective”, arguing that “We need to understand communities’ genuine … Continue reading »
Tagged with energy …
Energy and Climate Change: Some Good Reads
This post originally appeared on the New Left Project. A friend recently asked me for book recommendations on energy and climate change. “I want books” they stressed, “not policy briefing papers or essays or scientific reports. Something to curl up on the sofa with, something that digests and explains the issues and spins a few good yarns … Continue reading »
The Portslade “Gassie”
In Scotland, it’s traditional to give people coal when first greeting them in the new year. It’s meant to symbolise hope for warmth and light for the future, rather different from the tradition of giving naughty children nothing but coal in their Christmas stocking (from other parts of Northern Europe, I think). I don’t have any … Continue reading »
Information, advertising and the fracking debate
For a while this autumn, one of the first things I’d see from my train as it approached London was a giant advertising billboard celebrating British reliance on Norwegian gas, perhaps placed for commuters en route to Westminister via Victoria. This was balanced by a rather less slick “Frack Off” banner which greeted us on … Continue reading »
1958 advert for Shell nature studies guides
You know when you pick up an old book and there’s something tucked inside a previous owner was using as a bookmark? And it’s amazing? This weekend’s find: An advert torn from a 1958 edition of Punch, for the Shell guide to “Life in the Corn”. If you can’t make out the blurb of text, … Continue reading »
NERC’s great “de” risking strategy
Every time I walk past these posters outside BIS a bit of me dies. On Sunday afternoon someone forwarded me a story from the Guardian saying top UK environmental scientists were being told to use their skills to help “de-risk” oil firms drilling in polar regions. I was a bit shocked. And sceptical. Reading a … Continue reading »
Public engagement with (climate) security?
Last month, Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, gave a speech about “climate security” (full text on DECC site) Climate change is about increased risk: of extreme events, of natural disasters, of changes in weather patterns. As our understanding of the climate grows, so does our understanding of what those risks … Continue reading »
