Applied Planetary Engineering is pleased......

Applied Planetary Engineering is very pleased to announce that it has been invited to take part in the UK Government's Sustainable Development Research Network conference in London in September.

Sponsored by DEFRA and run by the PSI, the Policy Studies Institute, it will bring together around a 100 of the top advisors to the UK Government on sustainable development, climate change and other aspects to resolve the global environmental challenge.

Applied Planetary Engineering thanks the PSI, DEFRA and the UK Government for it's invitation to the event.

Creating the Future

Well the Trident debate was past by a majority of people in the House of Commons. Nearly said won by the Government, but that would be inaccurate reporting. An underlying message that many MPs who were in favour of a new missile system gave, was they felt it necessary as they couldn't predict the future and we live in an uncertain world. So what do are political leaders actually do?

There are 3 simple stages. We live in the here and now and react to the future as it rushes on to us. We try and predict the future. We try and make a better future, we create the future we want.

So what are our Members of Parliament doing. Surely it is part of their job to lead us us to a better future. If they are admitting they can't do the job, why are they there?

Nigel Griffiths MP Plays Environmental Card in Trident Debate

No sooner than posted the The Trident and Environmental Paradox has to be amended. Nigel Griffiths Edinburgh MP and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons has just made a personal statement in the Trident debate.

In summing up his opposition he strongly played the environmental assessment. Resources being used in the creation of the Trident replacement could be better used in being deployed in the challenge of climate change.

He did not go into such a deep analysis as has been outlined here over the last few months, but the environmental assessment has now been brought out in an important personal statement.

The Great Global Warming Swindle?

Yesterday in Trusting My Life and this Planet to Politicians I expressed my dissatisfaction with Sir Nicholas Stern's report on climate change as "get a red pen mark it and send it back to them with see me on it". Today in the Daily Mail there is an article by Professor Lindzen of the MIT, Global Warming: the bogus religion of our age. He too is critical of Stern and expresses it as:



"I agree with the economist critic who noted: 'If a student of mine were to hand in this report as a masters thesis, perhaps if I were in a good mood, I would give him D for diligence, but more likely I would give him an F for fail".



The one good thing about blogging is you can write things and get them 'out there' even before Professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have got them into print.



Just because I am critical of Stern and Professor Lindzen is critical of Stern doesn't mean I agree with him either. They are both wrong in their own way. The article is a leader to tonight's Channel 4 will broadcast The Great Global Warming Swindle.



Even though my mothers family is Scottish, even though I live and work in Scotland, even though I write about Scotland etc etc. If I ran naked, on fire, through Edinburgh, juggling custard, burst into Holyrood, straight into the chamber and peed in Jack McConnell's ear I would not get any coverage from the Scottish media. One person who does take my comments is Benedict Brogan, Political Editor of the Daily Mail, due to the small number he publishes he seems to be very selective, reciprocating I always try to give him something accurate and analytical. At his blog my concerns over Stern have been running for a while. Brogan's blog is always good as a teaser, very often a snippet of a story will appear there before becoming front page mainstream days or weeks later.



The one thing I do agree with Professor Lindzen is "Politicians love the green agenda, of course, because it means more control, more regulation, more taxes, more summits, and more opportunities for displays of self-important zeal. " The whole environmental issue is one big ******* mess.

7.30pm 28th March Blairgowrie Town Hall

Michael Meacher Labour Leadership: 10 Nil

Having given an early assessment on David Miliband, Miliband v Brown: Just What is it? and his potential bid for the Labour leadership up pops Michael Meacher for a crack at the title.

The only time I have seen Meacher speak in person was at the Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House a few years back when he was still Minister for the Environment, he was part of a panel discussing the UKs follow up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa. Due to a defeat in the Lords over a Foot and Mouth connected matter, Meacher was delayed in Downing Street and the meeting had to start without him.

About 25 minutes late Meacher arrived took his place on the panel and jumped straight in. Without notes or any briefing he was a man at the top of his game and with the command of his subject. Without any notes he was able to comment on the debate he had missed when asked and was completely fluent in any question or topic presented. To say he was impressive would be an understatement.

It was noticeable that when he was later sacked from his Ministerial post there was a current of disenchantment with the decision from within the environmental movement.

Just hearing the news that Meacher was to stand against Gordon Brown was interesting. In any leadership contest with a general move of the agenda putting environment at the centre Meacher would have to be strong influence.

So what of Meacher’s bid. Well his knowledge of the environment is impressive, certainly it would be an environmentally and ecologically better world with Meacher having more control in that area. Nationalisation of the railways? Well personally having been brought in from the ‘outside’ and given a team to set up the site of one of the biggest civil engineering projects in Europe for Network Rail, I suffered from severe culture shock.

There are many things not right with the set-up. These seem to stem from it’s genotype at the birth of Railtrack. The way it’s legal and commercial frame work was constructed has very little to do with efficient delivery of projects and more to do with other agendas. Working within the organisation is a conflict between common sense and institutionalised stupidity. Throwing in a word like nationalisation does not address the situation and more likely to distance people away from the idea of creating a better rail system.

£7.00 minimum wage, well were is this going to come from? OK I can see a situation if somebody is being paid the £5.00 plus while working for a firm paying the massive bonuses in the city or for a supermarket making £ billions in profits. The money is there it is just not being distributed equitably. What about the small corner shop existing on tight margins that has to open 16 hours a day just to survive. They might need to have someone there all the time. Pushing up a wage bill by £2.00 an hour with the extra NI is an extra £225 a week on top of the existing overheads. That is a lot of money. They close, instead of walking to the local shop people drive to the supermarket. A local job lost , you are feeding your climate change inferno and removing a community resource.

So what is all this left of centre politics, just moving side to side on the old political spectrum. If you were making a bid couldn’t you have produced something more imaginative and relevant to the present and future political landscape. I admit you know more than Miliband on the environment, but at least he’s got ‘bold labour not old Labour’.

Don’t try and hide it, I read your 911 conspiracy theory. I have lots of questions about it, at the moment I am on the hypothesis (not yet a theory) that the terrorists (if we are allowed to call them that) got lucky, very lucky. So lucky there may well be some other explanation for it. Having said that I still don’t buy your theories yet. That takes more organisation and opportunities for things going wrong or the plot to be uncovered than the simple, terrorist hijack planes and fly them into buildings.
Michael Meacher has fantastic, awesome and impressive knowledge and insights into the global ecological and environmental challenges. He just seems to keep his intellect in separate little boxes and does allow the connections between them to be made to present a workable whole challenge. Michael Meacher’s political brain is it's own political football match, Environment 10 The Rest 0.

Meacher’s involvement in the leadership adds interest and could be of benefit as he could stir up the environment agenda, but his overall presentation is so disconnected you could drive a bus from a public transport policy through it.

Besides when I wrote to him, despite his PA (Monica) saying he would reply, he didn’t.

YouScotland The Morning After

After yesterdays review of the launch of YouScotland, this morning had a visit to see how they were progressing. With about 20 more general posts on their welcome forum there had been some activity.

Nicely they have apologised for the technical problems they had encountered. Launching a web based democracy movement with a dodgy site may well have resulted in late night arse kicking competition. Other forums have been added for discussion. If you enter the one on Xenophobia it appears compulsory to have a line about warrior princesses, a bit like discussing the MSC Napoli without mentioning it's academic qualifications.

Anyway there are bits on Trident 2, Cash for Peerages etc. I started with a post on the Trident forum and replied to one on environmental concerns for Scotland in the any other ideas part.

The technical problems probably won't affect the site in the long term as they might have not got all that many visitors to notice them. It stuck me this morning that if you are trying to attract people disenchanted with the political establishment, then perhaps the Politics Show, The Herald, Scotsman and Guardian weren't the ideal places to market the site. These are part of the established political set up.

Anyway good fortune may be their way. Not many people visited a technically flawed site. Which is far better than million going there. Now they will have the chance to improve the site in balance with hopefully more visitors. All in all worked out OK for them.

YouScotland

Saw The Politics Show piece about participatory democracy and YouScotland, revolution in cyberspace and thought that was interesting. Somehow was the first to their blog site to post, though didn't know what I was posting to. The subject was only added later, Dragons Den, which is why no ones post made any sense to the subject for those going there now.

Then I found the forum, which took an age to register for. Thought that I would never get a post with the expected rush straight after the TV programme. Then found out when posted I was only about the 20th post having already been in the blog as well. In my post to add support to the cause I had added a hyperlink, unfortunately when it published it turned everything into a hyperlink, so was useless. Tried to edit my post 3 times without success. So posted a brief comment without hyperlink, having to point out the software was dodgy.

There are many deserving projects and initiatives that could and would create a better future that are starved of the publicity they deserve to help them evolve because they do not have friends or contacts in the media. YouScotland got the publicity, but didn't back it up with the heart of a site to match. Only bloggers would have the patience and knowledge to work through it, but they don't need such a site, they have the whole 'blogsphere' to roam, post and discuss in. The non bloggers disenchanted by the present political establishment should have been the target for YouScotland, unfortunately such a user unfriendly site would loose them straight away.

The site was supposed to be accessible for those with the minimum of computer experience. Not so, it was very unintuitive, links did not work, the site was unfinished for a launch and very difficult to navigate. Some posts noted the lack of response re the number of posts. It would be interesting to know how many hits it had, and how many tried to or wanted to make a comment and were put off or failed.

The idea was laudable, but if you are going to try to create a revolution in cyberspace, the first priority should be your site and software is at least basically up to the job. This Google blogger set up was better, as in easier to use for a visitor, than their revolutionary cyberspace offering.

The sad thing is they got so much media coverage, probably due to their connections, on TV and in the papers, then let the whole project down with the most important aspect, a sloppy site set up. It's not even though they can say well you try it. I haven't done it with websites, but with concerts. when you are doing large open air concerts you cannot have a rehearsal. Everything comes together on the day, it is the preplanning that ensures when you have a sea of thousands watching, when it starts, it is perfect and is perfect in every way through the event. You owe that to your audience who have made the effort to turn up.

Part of the proposal to use the Millennium Dome as a global environmental management centre relied very heavily on internet and advanced interactive communications so the YouScotland initiative was very interesting to me as an example of how some of those ideas could be implemented. The difference with the Millennium Dome proposal was though it contained most of the solutions to climate change and many other environmental challenges as well as being able to save many lives and stop the extinctions of lots of animals and plants, and create £billions of revenue per year, the media had no interest in it.

Probably it would have been better for YouScotland to have run the site for a while before having the big media launch, iron out the bugs and got some feedback on how to get it ready for a big hype launch. It will be interesting to see how many do return to the site in spite of the first day let down. I have volunteered to moderate or run their ecology or environment forums, it remains to be seen if they will contact me over that. If they have only a low level of participation though my time is better spent on this site and other projects which will have a bigger impact for a better future than YouScotland will have in it's present form and if it doesn't evolve. At present it is no threat to the political establishment. Even taking the whole of Scotland, it still lost it's deposit. In political terms it is yet not even a Kilroy-Silk.

Miliband v Brown: Just What is It?

Benedict Brogan, Political Editor Daily Mail, asks the question "Just what is Miliband up to?", in his blog of 12th February. As someone caught in the connections of Miliband, Stern, Brown, sustainable development and a few other things as well, the question intrigued me. Brogan seems to be implying that Miliband "harbours persistent doubts about the pm-to-be".

So it was straight off to Environment Minister David Miliband’s DEFRA blog. After a few seconds pondering where to go, familiarity struck. There on the left of his blog was a little section headed "Worth a visit". Only six links and the top one was "What is a sustainable community?" For those that don’t know the number of people who have written more in DEFRAs consultations and reports than myself this century is probably less than the number of fingers of a couple of leaves of Dave’s favourite botanical specimen.

I turned up at a conference a couple of years ago and after the formalities the lads from DEFRA asked my why I hadn’t responded to a consultation paper on sustainable development. Well I had to go on one, my little rant how everything I had done on economic growth had been virtually ignored the last time. I have this thing about DEFRA wanting ‘blue sky thinking’ but prefixing nearly every question or inserting somewhere high and stable levels of economic growth and the need for etc, in some form or another. Now the Treasury was well represented as well. If anyone wants to know who was there, just Google, Roger Thomas Sustainable Development.

Well Miliband tempted me, I clicked his in your face, worth a look top link, What is a sustainable community? I was ready for the usual flawed Defra presentation. The page opened and I read and read. Yes economic was hardly mentioned, even when it was it had words like viable, support, prosperity, integrating or development around or near it. It wasn’t shouting like some lunatic as the basic meaning for the totality of existence, high and stable levels of economic growth every other line. I’d given up with DEFRA and sustainable development. Every time they wrote "high and stable levels of economic growth" I’d write "why", to which the reply would always be "because we need high and stable levels of economic growth".

I could write a book on ‘why’, but in fact I am and that’s going to be part of it. If we have a theoretical economy of £1000 billion per annum, and environmental degradation costs £200 billion of it. If by a change in attitude and action we reduce that to £100 billion. Then the theoretical economy is only £900 billion. The economy has deceased, quality of life could go up, the environment is improved, so why always always always say we need high and stable levels of economic growth.

Miliband had directed me to a vision without the bloody stupid meaningless phrase "high and stable levels of economic growth".

Well Benedict wants the answer to what doubts Miliband has of Brown. To judge like for like, and on a level playing field Gordon Brown should be assessed on his most famous speech on the environment. At the World Bank 20th April 2006.

I gave up counting, Gordon Brown has a type of Tourettes Syndrome, it doesn’t matter what he says, he has an obsession with adding economic growth. At one point after outlining the threat of climate change, he gleefully sees that preventing it could contribute to economic growth

.

OK we could be looking at 5 billion people dying, 40% of the world’s species of animals and plants becoming extinct and Gordon Brown sees it as an opportunity of increasing economic growth. Horse, cart; chicken, egg; armpits, crocodiles, drain swamp: whatever.

Perhaps there is a difference in views, a cleavage in policy. There were mutterings around Davos of a ‘new development model’. Is Gordon Brown going to try and fix today's and tomorrow's challenges with yesterday’s model, which never really worked properly then.

Half a dozen of us stood talking. Someone from the Treasury asked me how I got into ecology and what influenced me. I said I was always into the natural world, I was completely hooked on Jacques Cousteau as a child, so much I got myself to read so I could read his books. All six of us had read the same book at the same age.

Milibands doubts, as a start this v that. An obsession with economic growth and not the whole integrated planetary system. What’s that phrase, one trick pony.

Cameron Smokes Dope

Not a potential future post election tabloid headline should "call me Dave" oust the next Labour leader, but a reference to this mornings reports that Conservative leader smoked cannabis while at Eton.


Dave Cameron later gave a brief statement outside his house not denying the news merely saying politicians have a right to a life before they entered politics. Quite rightly he also made a lot of sense. Bizarrely he then said as a politician the media could stick a camera up his nose, carrying on to say they could even film him cooking the Sunday dinner, then almost did a waffle about why there might be a number of reasons why that might not be a good idea, but somehow lost what he was going to say in an attack of vagueness, seemingly experiencing 'short term memory loss'. Was Dave just having a bit of fun at the expense of the not full awake Sunday morning media?


What is the betting that some of those reporters who wrote the Sunday morning splash of 'Dave's had a spliff', haven't had one themselves at sometime even if not the night before. So what if he has partaken of the wacky baccy, is he going to be held up as an example of failure, only ever so far in his life been elected leader of the Conservative Party. Probably the Tory election machine is now calculating have more people smoked cannabis than voted Labour at the last election.


So why should he have to admit he 'done it' but now 'regretted it'. Do we as a society refuse to listen to records by the Beetles, Pink Floyd, U2 etc because they might have smoked a joint? Do we make sure any author has not taken any form of drug before we read their book? Are films banned because directors or actors may have indulged in the 'erb of the field'? (Song of Solomon, the Bible?). Should Bob Marley's Exodus be removed from the list of 100 all time best albums? Bugger me I've just dropped myself in it realising the Exodus CD is right now in my player. Does society remove from it's memory any great scientific discovery because the researcher might have had a little help from a five leafed friend?


No the spliff is an acceptable part of our culture. So why is politics singled out as the one area where it is unacceptable? Look at the mess the world is in war, terror, ecological destruction, disease and chaos. All the product from the 'mind of man', politicians who have never or refuse to admit they've smoked a joint. One definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Perhaps we should try out only politicians who admit they've sampled the Ganja. Seems to work in the other cultural fields.


Drugs may not be a drug problem, but societies. Why has evolution put receptors in the brain which only respond to cannabis? Evolution tends to be efficient and doesn't do things if they haven't a use or have been in the past, remember Darwin that process of natural selection thing. I looked up the research in Scientific American but you either need a subscription or it's outside of the digital online database. Unfortunately the New Scientist data base has crashed, probably due to all those Sunday morning journos researching. Here are some references from the Cannabis Campaign.


While we're there some confessions from other politicians. The Dave 'roll me another one just like the other one' Cameron story isn't going to go away, so we'll just have to keeping coming back for an update.

Bird Flu 3: Are You Sure

"Well it's been spread by wild birds."

"We think it has been infected by partly processed turkey from Hungary."

"There is no problem with the food chain being contaminated."

"We might have to recall and remove turkey products from the supermarket shelves."

Government aren't really sure what they are doing.

Just to make sure, let's get all the turkey products that might be contaminated. Throw them in the bin. These can be disposed of at the tip. The seagulls can eat the refuse, and then we'll be really certain that the wild bird populations are infected. Problem solved no more Government uncertainty.

Bird Flu 2

This ended up being discussed over at The Slant and very interesting it turned out.
http://www.theslant.co.uk/2007/02/06/bird-flu-outbreak-on-suffolk-turkey-farm/

Also for QED

http://broganblog.dailymail.co.uk/2007/02/bad_news_for_be.html

Millennium Dome/Global Environmental Management Latest: Perthshire MP Writes to Minister

Having obtained the competition criteria for the 2001 Millennium Dome competition from Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Perthshire SNP MP Pete Wishart has now written back on behalf of Millennium Project Two.



The competition criteria would seem to indicate that the competition should have been won by Millennium Project Two, as a global environmental management centre, and not AEG with it's venue, and now failed casino complex.



The call by President Chirac of France for the setting up of a global environmental management body, nearly the same proposal that was submitted for the Millennium Dome, 6 years before, has only reinforced the view that there may have been "oversights" in the running of the competition.

See
Millennium Dome: Isn't it iconic
Millennium Dome: The 2001 Proposal the Government's Consultants Wanted to Support
Millennium Dome Loss in Climate Change Chaos
Perthshire Flood Damage: A Case Against the Government?

The Bird Flu Analysis Part 1: From Prime Minister Tony Blair and Government Approved Source for FMD

MRSA is a hospital Superbug. When you go to the Post Office to tax your car, do you catch MRSA? When you go to the pub or the night club, do you catch MRSA? When you are sitting at home watching Dancing on Ice or whatever floats your boat, do you catch MRSA? The answer is no. How do you know? The answer is because the government does not send out teams of ‘Bio-Security’ personnel to isolate and disinfect all these areas of your life to stop MRSA and all the other life threatening superbugs in our hospitals. Bio-security is ‘highlighted’ in irony because it is one of the buzzwords of the week.

A hospital is a relatively sealed structure, with a high density of living organisms contained within it ie people and a high use of antibiotics and other drugs used there .Unfortunately in a hospital is where you have a potentially higher chance of dying from MRSA or other superbug. This is the reason why you are not warned about the dangers of catching MRSA by the government in a post office, in a pub, or while walking on a Sunday in the countryside is because it doesn’t happen. Outside of a hospital you are in the ‘wild’.

So Bird Flu has occurred in the UK again. Where has it occurred? In a sealed ‘bio-secure’, turkey farm. A intensive poultry unit has high concentrations of living organisms, in a sealed unit and high usage of antibiotics and other drugs. Exactly the same conditions as a hospital.

Yet the ‘scientists’ and government are pointing the finger at wild bird populations for the source of the H51N superbug. Whenever have you heard the NHS or the government point the finger for deaths in hospitals from MRSA to the local post office or pub? Never.

Now I live in Perthshire Scotland. If you don’t know Perthshire it is difficult to explain. Try God made Perthshire, then with the remnants, offcuts and waste he made the rest of the planet. We are on the M25 of migration routes. I probably see in one day more wild birds than many people see in a life time. What I never see is dead unexplained ‘wild birds’. OK I see ones a fox or a cat may have had, I see ones hit by a car, I see young fallen out of a nest. It is not just me. I have a girlfriend doing a degree in environmental and earth sciences, she misses nothing. I have a dog who will tell me if they find anything dead or out of place. Now I watch the news and the ‘pundits’ expect me to believe that a wild bird suffering from Bird Flu, what is the probability of that, flew down a ventilation shaft of an intensive turkey farm, what is the probability of that, and infected a150,000 turkeys. You must be joking, insane or taking far to many drugs to suffer such improbable delusions.

What is an ventilation vent in open surface area, we will measure it in square inches, so the only bird with Flu chose that out of the millions of square miles available, to fly down. Oh really.

So someone having a night out in a pub in Barnsley is reponsible for all the cases of MRSA in the UK. To stop MRSA in hospitals do the government disinfect all post offices and working mens clubs in Yorkshire.

Outside of the turkey farm the wild bird population is happily going about it’s business as it has done for millions of years. Free range chickens are shown are on TV healthily pecking about all day.

So what does the government advise. You get the free range birds and lock them up in intense conditions, inside sealed buildings. Yes take your healthy free range birds and put them in conditions which exactly recreate the conditions the only place where Bird Flu has been found.

Brilliant.

With that I will leave Bird Flu for tonight, but this subject will be back tomorrow. Please if you have any comments, please leave them.

If you are wondering about the title. It was me who sorted out Foot and Mouth for the Prime Minister and the Government. Good of him to send me a letter acknowledging, and for his Ministers to quote word for word from my work. Work which is and has been for a while in the science libraries of the biggest organisations involved with the 2001 FMD epidemic.

Millennium Dome Loss in Climate Change Chaos

The 2001 proposal to give the Millennium Dome ‘iconic status’ as a centre of global environmental management, 30th January, Millennium Dome: The 2001 Proposal the Government's Consultants Wanted To Support has now involved the Dome in a new and perhaps the most bizarre twist so far. Following the publication of the United Nations Environmental Programme report on climate change on Friday 2nd February, President Chirac of France has called for nations to support his idea of a ‘global environmental management’ body.

Exactly the same words and exactly the same concept as the proposal the Government's consultants Jones Lang LaSalle wanted to support to take over the running of the Millennium Dome 6 years ago.

Greenwich Councillor Nigel Fletcher recently referred to the ‘curse of the dome’, if the press reports are true then this is it’s ultimate damnation. If the Government had followed the criteria of the competition for the Dome the winner in 2001 would have been the global environmental management centre.

In 2001 the Labour Government turned down the equivalent sized project as NASA, Microsoft and U2 all moving their centre of operations to Greenwich for the chance of gambling they might get a casino there instead. This latest instalment now moves into the realm of the only imaginable, or unimaginable, depending on how much you can imagine.

Imagine going back a few hundred years. The Government gather Joshia Wedgwood, Abraham Darby, George Stephenson, James Watt, Hargreaves et al all into a room. The Government of the day tells them they have decided they are not going to have an industrial revolution and they must all stop what they are doing. The Government having decided they are going to base the future development and economy of the UK on bear dancing and gin palaces.

Just try to imagine how much of the total economic wealth of the UK has been generated from the last few hundred years of the industrial revolution. Imagine that the Government has decided that they didn’t want that wealth and development creating. Everything the UK had created from the industrial revolution never ever existed.

Well that is what Prime Minister Tony Blair’s New Labour Government has done to Britain's future in the global ecological revolution. David Miliband, Minister for Environment has had the front to make a vacuous and pathetic ‘call to action’ over climate change. Nothing more than a smokescreen for an incompetent Government to hide behind while giving the global ecological revolution away, because they wanted a casino instead. Why don’t they resign, I do not want my life, my family’s life, my friends lives or this planet endangered any longer by their complete and total stupidity.

Climate change is serious, so stop gambling and playing games with our lives!

So now France has taken a 6 years lead straight off the UK. I leave that for Al Murray’s Pub Landlord to comment on. Makes more sense than a New Labour Government.

Millennium Dome: Isn't it iconic

Mild mannered Greenwich Conservative Councillor Nigel Fletcher, when not being Shadow Education Special Advisor, raised the question of whether the AEG casino bid was ‘tainted’, with the connections to Deputy PM John Prescott. A point picked up on by the ever watchful Greenwich Watch.

Meanwhile over at The Business, Fraser Nelson also puts the spotlight on the hapless Prescott.

How ironic.

Tags and memes, tracking information flow through systems. If I had a pound for every journalist and comment that calls the Millennium Dome ‘iconic’, I would buy AEG out with an offer they couldn’t refuse. So where did ‘iconic’ come from. An internet search has so far has revealed no connection between the words ‘iconic’ and ‘Millennium Dome’ prior to Lord Falconers announcement of what was to become AEG winning the bid to take over running the Dome on 18th December 2001. There are plenty of references to that date and speech, for example and at random, this one.

How ‘ironic’ that the new buzz word, ‘iconic’, to describe the Millennium Dome was never used in public in the previous 5 or 6 years. Now why and how did it suddenly appear on Lord Falconer’s lips while announcing the winner of the Dome competition.

Lord Falconer and most since like to use the word in the sense of an ‘iconic building’ Somehow this seems strained. The word hangs unfulfilled by the premier wordmiths of our culture. Marilyn Monroe is iconic.......as a blond Hollywood sex symbol. The Pentagon is iconic........as a world recognised centre of defence. See how iconic likes to be followed by it’s association. Perhaps a definition could help: icon, a symbol resembling or analogous to the thing it represents. Lets add ....ic: relating matters to a particular subject.

Is this why Lord Falconer’s and everybody else's use of the word ‘iconic’ seems false, strained or unfulfilled. To use the word iconic in it’s full beautiful context, should also entail to what it is associated with. The Millennium Dome is iconic, is not enough. Though I have to admit it is a lovely word.

So the word to describe the Dome has only been used in public since 18th December 2001 when Lord Falconer used it in announcing AEG had won the competition, and it has never been used in it’s full context.

Now in the posting of 30th January Millennium Dome: The 2001 Proposal the Government’s Consultant’s Wanted to Support, what appears in this, supplied in April 2001 to Jones Lang LaSalle, 8 months before Lord Falconer announces AEG as the winner of the ‘iconic building’, oh, a little phrase and concept.

‘The Millennium Dome would have ‘iconic status’ as a centre for global environmental management’. Wow. The first time ever the word ‘iconic’ has been used to describe the Dome, and as a bonus in it’s proper full usage.

Anyone with any suspicions over the Governments involvement with AEG might be tempted to consider that the Government supported the AEG proposal by using the marketing strategy from another proposal.

Perhaps the other proposal was so good and was so attention grabbing, that parts may have been lifted from it, that given a proper open competition it may have even won. There again when has an outsider ever won anything connected to the Dome?

Perhaps this was the reason askFT, the advisory arm of the Financial Times called it "a truly exciting and innovative project".

Well who would have wanted an extra £50 billion coming into the UK economy via Greenwich, the problems of climate change more or less sorted, many of those killed in the SE Asia Tsunami, hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters now alive, with it’s one size fits all global environmental monitoring and alert system. Etc Etc, as Yul Brynner may have said.

Well no one when you could have had a bling bling do nothing casino. Well lets put those suspicions aside right now. I mean, while the competition was running, Lord Falconer wouldn’t have been having meetings with one competitor, showing unfair bias, would he? There are no suspicions that somehow Blair's aides may be involved, are there?

See what you could’ve won. ............ Isn't it ironic.

Millennium Dome: The 2001 Proposal The Government's Consultants Wanted To Support

The original one page synopsis of the proposal entered into the competition for the Millennium Dome April 2001. This is the proposal that the Government's own consultants wanted to back. Some formatting has been lost in transfer.

MP2
millennium project two

Introduction

The use of the Millennium Dome and Greenwich Peninsula as a centre of excellence in environmental management, research, consultancy, co-ordination and education.

Status

Pentagon:Defence The City:Finance NASA:Space Dome:Environment
Iconic Definitive Unambiguous

Concepts

Future Sustainable Interactive Progress Locally Relevant Globally Significant

Range

Accessible for a child with a computer, connected to an inner city tree planting scheme, a resource for local and regional authorities, interactive with national governments and international organisations. Applicable to anywhere and everyone in the world. A project that will benefit every single person on the planet. A fusion of ecology and IT interfacing with socio-economic, commercial and political systems

Components

Visitor centre, interactive exhibition and experience, media and IT networked, conference venue, research, education, entertainment, forum and co-ordination for agencies and organisations, consultancy, policy and strategy development.

Mission and Historical Precedent

21st Century Catalyst Millennium Defining Epoch Making
Agrarian Revolution:The Fertile Crescent Industrial Era:North West England The Next Way: The Millennium Dome and Greenwich Peninsula

Project Creation
All ideas, concepts and intellectual property by Roger Thomas 1988,1991/8,2000/1. Creative direction and project management. Simple solutions to complex challenges.

MSC Napoli Part 3

Well the Napoli Incident is moving up the news ratings just as we have reported, and is to be expected. MSC Napoli in Google News is getting an ever increasing number of returns. These range from the local concerns of residents that nothing was done, to the building up of an international incident. Pollution threats to the marine environment, VW car parts to South Africa, French winemakers lost barrels.

Only to be expected, here was a major marine and environmental incident unfolding and what did the world’s media see as the response. Well absolutely nothing from the UK Government or any political party, but plenty of pictures of a rummage free for all.

Devon 24 the collective website of the areas local papers have a place for suggesting stories for follow up, this is what MP2 applied planetary engineering placed:

The situation of why there was no centralised control of the grounding of the Napoli. The decision ended at grounding and then no attempt to follow that up. Did anyone know whether any of the containers washed up contained toxic or dangerous material?

The Napoli should be seen as an indicator of the actual level of attention the environment gets from political parties and the political system in general. None.

The Napoli has shown despite all media attention politics has craved over the environment, the actual political concern and imperative is zero. This maybe due to most politicians are lawyers, accountants, economists or managerial. Their qualification and experience from school until the present are history, art history, politics or subjects that President J F Kennedy would consider from the 'mind of man'. When confronted with a situation that requires some knowledge of the ‘real’ bigger ‘world’ of environment and effective decision making and project management to meet those demands. They prefer to retreat into their 'comfort zone' cocoon of politics, law and commerce, or bury their heads in the sand of the beach. Better to play some political game of law and the Home Office rather than deal with the real world of a ship, a pollution threat and a potentially international environmental incident. That might require some technical knowledge, an actual appraisal of a situation and decision making being actually implemented in full view; instead of the ineffectiveness hidden away in some biased report or evasion of questions when the incident has all but forgotten in the safe place of the future.

"Ship on a beach, perhaps we should stick to what be know let’s carry on with the social, legal and economic consideration of casinos".

Politicians drone on about the importance of democracy. Perhaps they should also let on to the public that democracy is government by the people or their elected representatives. You don’t need politicians to have a democracy. That politicians are increasingly ignoring the important aspects of life on Earth, might mean that their time for some natural extinction is due. You concentrate on your bloody casinos and let the rest of us deal with securing a safer better future for this planet we are part of.

MSC Napoli Part 1 (of many)

First, that is some qualification for a ship to get, OU was it. Right joke's over. Second, this story is going to run and run, so put the Part 1 as we mean to go on. This story is going to keep the media going for weeks or even months, there is so much mileage so many questions, it's about for a while.


Let's start in this article by looking at a previous one from 14 January 2006, The Nuclear Deterrent: An Applied Planetary Engineering Analysis, this contained the line "6) Vast maritime clean ups are required of chemical dumps and dangerous ship wrecks containing cargo and materials which should not be in the oceans". This article referred to the document Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower, sent to all Members of the Scottish Parliament at the beginning of April 2006.This document was produced on the recommendation of Perth Business Gateway as an update for Scotland in 2006 of the proposal for 2001 for the Millennium Dome.


For the start of understanding the MSC Napoli story that with unfold over the next days, weeks, and months, we can only ask or advise for you to read that document. If you do this will give you the grounding and lead to the unfolding Napoli story.


When I saw the beachcombers taking their findings home on the TV news I wondered how these pictures would be viewed around the world. I didn't have long to wait, US main news, ABC, showed them as their 'and finally' slot last night. "Booty and the Beach", "looters" and "hundreds of scavengers" ran the voice over.


It's only by acting 'on the way others see you' that may be the reason suddenly today the beach has been sealed off by coastguards and police. No worries though the MSC Napoli story has got legs to keep running and running, it hasn't even got going yet. Please return for the full implications of the story which will now unfold in the media.

Attitude to the United States: 8 out of 10 Cats........

The press today reported that there is a dissatisfaction with the UKs relationship with the United States. 68% of those questioned thought the US presence in the middle east provoked conflict etc.

Changing Futures was the 2nd in a trilogy of works submitted to UN and Government reports trying to dissuade the UK Government from invading Iraq. "It will all end in tears". Quite simply as your mother would have said.

The 3rd addressed the UK relationship with the US in the build up to war. The UNED-UK summarised them as it as ‘questioning UK response to the USA not agreeing to Kyoto Protocol...... Relationship between north (UK and USA) and south (Ethiopia)........strength and capacity of the UK.

This is the final part of the trilogy dated 8th January 2003

Is the UKs Relationship With America the Cause of Many of Our Society's Problems

The UK was the first country in the world to enter and lead the Industrial Era of global development.
Much of the science, technology, commercial, financial, political and institutional processes that took the world into the industrial age originated in the UK.

At this point in America Davy Crocket hadn't got round to fighting the Mexicans yet.

Much of the model and strategy that America used when it went and entered its industrialised phase of development came from what the UK had already developed and gone through.

The UK had already had a global empire or was in the process of building it up.

Like children countries have to grow up and develop, it is the nature of change.

The UK has finished its secondary education and now needs to go to university.

America is a much younger country it is now leaving primary education and needs to start secondary school.

For some reason the UK wants to hang around with its much younger friend. There is no problem with a 19 year old being friendly and getting on with a 11 year old.

The trouble comes when the 19 year old starts spending all its time with the 11 year old doing the things it wants.

If the 11 year old is a bit of a bully and starts stealing sweets from the other kids in its class and one of them turns round and gives it a slap. A 19 doesn't go into the playground and join in with its friend.

Far better if its worried about 11 year olds to carry on with its education and become a teacher and lead by example.

19 year olds hanging round with 11 year olds stagnate, they stop getting on with their own life. They need to do things a 20 or a 21 year old does, become an adult.

America goes on and on about its economy, well let it. Does Bush ever express his concerns for the environment local or global. Britain has been through that.

Britain needs to continue its development for itself. But in doing that by virtue of its leading edge position in global development it must also be the world leader in post-industrial, third phase, ecological sustainable development. The next step after the industrial era.

British society is bored and listless, because Britain is playing in last centuries back yard with an 11 year old. Waiting for the 11 year old to grow up.

Britain is stagnating and falling apart beacause it has forgotten that it is the leader and where it goes eventually America will follow.

Britain has lost leadership in itself. It has forgotten to be innovative, creative and bold in its journey into the frontier of the future.

The world does then not have a leader, it too stagnates and falls apart in quarrels and bickering. Instead of Britain saying "well we are moving on", it holds itself back joining in.

Britain wastes its time trying to tart up and patch yesterdays ideas. That is what Britain has never been about.

Britain needs to be starting today and building the path to tommorrow, then walk the walk. Once Britain changes and moves the rest will follow, then the world will be dragged out of the mire it's in.

Does anyone else think differently?

Roger Thomas

8th January 2003

Carbon Offsetting: The Gold Standard Part 2

Coincidentally just after putting the post of 20th Jan Carbon Offsetting, a message was received from the Sustainable Development Research Network (SDRN) to take part in the consultation exercise in carbon offsetting the Government has proposed.

It’s going to be a time of calculators, Avogadro’s Number, dry mass and time graphs. We will do our best to ensure the carbon offsetting proposals are of the highest standard. The only problem that occurs with these consultation exercises is sometimes when you get all the science and the strategy correct, everything then seems to defer to some political goal which wasn’t previously part of the plan.

MP2 will offer a carbon offsetting service in the near future. Whether it will be the one the Government decides or one we think will be more effective, we will be literary setting the standard.