Blairgowrie Town Hall 7.30pm Wednesday 28th March Scotland:Ecological Superpower?

SCOTLAND: THE MAKING OF AN ECOLOGICAL SUPERPOWER



Wednesday 28th March 2007
7.30pm Blairgowrie Town Hall



£3.00 inc resources and refreshments



A talk and discussion with Roger Thomas, the Godfather of modern environmental culture. "Climate change is a greater threat than terrorism" is a phrase many people have heard and most environmental organisations use. Though the media attribute it to the Government's Chief Scientist, Sir David King, the original author was Roger Thomas.



The leaders of the G8 met in Perthshire at the Gleneagles Summit to discuss an agenda of climate change and Africa. An agenda prioritised by Roger Thomas 3 years before in a contribution to a UN report commissioned by the UK Government.



These world changing ideas derived from the 2001 proposal to use the Millennium Dome London as a £50 billion per year centre of global environmental management. This is the proposal the Governments own consultants wanted to support for the Dome.




Al Gore, politicians and many other 'celebrity campaigners' appear in the global media talking about climate change and the environmental challenges the planet faces. This is the opportunity to find out the source of some of their work and most importantly discuss the solutions they cannot give.



Changes in the Common Agricultural Policy, the solutions to Foot and Mouth used by the Government, Greenpeace's involvement in the Glastonbury festival, reversal of Government policy on older cars, flood prevention in Perthshire and why did Gordon Brown and David Cameron come up with similar environmental policies at the same time. All connected.



The future is the most important commodity we all share. Without the future you would not be able to read this sentence after the last one. Roger Thomas is the most influential and least known global authority on creating that better safer future for this planet. Join him, take part in a master class and make tomorrow better than today.

An Ecology of Independence

The development of human civilisation is going to be more dependent on ecological and environmental factors influencing it's political, social and economic components. Will Patterson writes a very concise but to me very accurate assessment of a benefit of independence for Scotland at J Arthur MacNumpty.



His conclusion or summation almost halfway through the post. Answer: when trouble does come, an independent government will be better equipped to respond to it than under the present system.



Ecological and environmental factors will now start to affect human civilisation at an increasing exponential rate. Whoever can best respond to these will 1) have the best chance for survival, and 2) be in the best position to take advantage of them. My reasoning is accurate predictions of human systems can best be done using the ecological tools, used to assess the ecological systems which we must now increasingly have to respond to.



One of these assessments is r and k selection. This covers a wide spectrum of applications, here let us just concentrate on the ability to respond to change. Imagine a bare area of ground is suddenly made available. One of the first species to colonise or make use of it will be something like an ant colony. They are straight in, they can multiply quickly, are small and can take advantage or respond to the new situation rapidly. They are an example of a r selected species.



A cow, oak tree, or lion cannot immediately respond, they are k selected. They are slow to reproduce, large have more long terms needs. It is the dinosaur concept. Conditions change. The dinosaurs cannot adapt quickly to the new conditions, they become extinct. The small pre mammals did. They responded quickly and took advantage of the changing conditions. It applies to many things. A small sporty car can respond quicker to the fast bends of a minor country road than an HGV.



The world is now going to change very rapidly, this is the opening of the global ecological revolution. Perhaps the world may not respond effectively or quick enough. There may well be upwards of 5 billion deaths and those that remain live in the 'Mad Max' scenario of the collapse of civilisation and society run by marauding war lords. Or society could respond and sort out the mess the planet is in and there could be some continuation of life as we know it on Earth.



An independent Scotland not slowed down by the clinging inertia of a great clunking UK, could respond quicker and take advantage of the essential global ecological revolution. Both for the advantage of Scotland and of the planet of which it is part.



The question is do the SNP have the policies to implement after independence. Or will they be the political party equivalent of Tony Blair. Great at getting elected, but in retrospect should have handed the running of the party to someone else with at the simplest, thought out long term workable policies.



At present the SNP seem to want to gain independence but then just do the same that has been tried before and also compete with all the other countries of the world. They seem to lack the vision and practical implementation to put Scotland at the front centre and leading edge of the global ecological revolution.




Will The SNP squander the one over riding benefit of independence. The ability of Scotland to respond quickly and effectively to whatever the future throws at it. Squandering that asset like Governments before squandered North Sea oil. A resource that could have been the foundation for the future frittered away on champagne, Porsches and rows of cheap consumer electrical shops in our towns. A billion year old legacy, here today gone tomorrow.



Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower?

Flooding in Perthshire 'Retrospective' Update

The Courier has reported that the WWF has recommended that alternative methods be used to ease flood problems in Perthshire other than the building of concrete flood defenses. These include restoring flood plains and wetlands, going for a more sustainable approach to flood management.

It is unclear why the WWF has gone public on this or why the Courier has reported it as news. This method was known about 25 years ago to my knowledge and experience. In consultations for DEFRA in 2002, in the post FMD epidemic shake up of farming and land use, and in work I did for the Cabinet Office, these were changes I strongly argued for. This contributed to changes in the Common Agricultural Policy, which were pushed through with strong support by PM Tony Blair.

Really the Courier and the WWF should be looking at the reason for the unsustainable 'concrete solution' always having pre-eminence when flooding is mentioned. Is it anything to do that when a report is commissioned, it is very often done by concrete loving civil engineers?

The situation also raises the problem solving approach to environmental challenges. Far too often a technocentric approach is taken over the more appropriate ecocentric solution. The situation of flood prevention is a good example of where the media and headline makers should report on the most advanced perspectives on a subject area and not rely on reporting as news things which were current 25 years ago.

All Perth and Kinross Councillors had access to the Perthshire Flood Damage article of 17th January 2007 so for many yesterday's report told them nothing new. One benefit of the internet is that the most accurate and up to date information can be supplied to those who require it. A Benefit for all of society and the planet.

Perthshire SNP MP Pete Wishart has since written to me and informed me that his is waiting for a reply from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Though I have no doubt that any reply may fall short of the truth at least it is another point from which we can start asking questions from as to why when the Government had the solutions to flood problems in Perthshire in 2001 they chose to ignore them.

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.

Scotland, Trident and the Legacy of JFK

In the early 60s President Kennedy initiated a programme to put man on the moon and bring him back alive before the end of the decade. This was done, but it is the space programme in the 70’s which will give us the example of how to save a planet.

Apollo 13 lost it’s life support system due to a small explosion in the service module. Earth has now but all lost it’s ecological life support system due to economic growth, greed and exploitation. When it finally shuts down about 5 billion or more will die.

The only way the astronauts arrived back on Earth alive was to shut down all non essential systems to preserve sufficient power to enable them to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and land safely.

The only way we can survive is to assist the Earth to rebuild the ecological life support systems of the planet. To do this we must shut down all non essential systems. One of the biggest emitters of pollution and consumers of resources is the global weapons industry.

The results of it’s products bring about destruction further adding to the collapse of the planets life support systems. Repairing the damage and rebuilding towns, cities, infrastructure and countries after war consumes resources and causes pollution, causing more ecosystem collapse.

The weapons industry is a ‘multiplier’, each and every step from production, through implementation and restoring the consequences of it’s actions destroys a little bit more of the planetary systems that keep us alive and the beauty of life, part of the reason for living.

Opposition to the new nuclear deterrent can be justified in that the resources used and emissions released in it’s production are an unacceptable contribution in destabilising the increasingly fragile ecology of the planet.

The arms industry and the nuclear deterrent are one of the non essential systems that need immediately shutting down on the space ship that is this Earth. The peace of the planet and the security of Scotland then comes down to the mutually assured destruction of the 21st century.

As Marshall McLuhan said, on spaceship Earth there are no passengers only crew. The resources allocated by the Government previously for nuclear weapons, now go into the creation of making Scotland a world leader in planetary management.

All life on the planet is now threatened. Scotland takes a global lead in maintaining that life on the planet. So who will threaten Scotland? Any threat to Scotland reduces the viability of Scotland to ensure the continuation of life on Earth. Any potential aggressor risks their own demise by their course of action.

The only weakness that if the carrying capacity of the planet is reduced so much one group may decide to reduce the population of the planet by the mass killing of others to try and give themselves a better chance of survival.

Though by the stage that this scenario is reached chaos and anarchy on a global scale will be so rampant it will be difficult to identify one particular enemy, each part of humanity will be at conflict with the rest over the scraps of existence that remain.

Soon the soils of Scotland will dry out in searing summer heat, fires will burn through the mountains uncontrolled. Winter winds will blow the dust of Scotland across the surface of the Earth. That remaining will be washed down by storms into the rivers choking and blocking them. Flood waters spilling through villages, towns and cities.

What has taken millennia to create will disappear. No longer will we have to travel to the moon to see barren desolation, the lunar landscape will be brought here. Glen Lyon, Cairngorms, Rannoch Moor, everywhere denuded and gone. Deposited in the streets and houses of towns.

There is no point in having a nuclear deterrent to protect nothing. Use those resources to create the future. Through the flip flops of fate Kennedy left us the legacy of how life is sustained on a stricken space craft. Get rid of or shut down all none essential systems. Trident first, free the resources.

Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower