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 Trident and Environmental Paradox

Over the last few days the political parties have been trying to get their environmental policies to the top of the political agenda. Today they vote on the replacement for Trident.

This site has spent so much time on the Trident debate presenting a political and ecological analysis that the political parties or the media are not presenting.

Yesterday we were told that the environment is the biggest challenge we face. So we have to turn TVs off standby and recycle our cans. How many people for how many years will have to do everything we are told to do in order to offset the emissions produced and resources used in building such a s system. It just puts dissonance into to minds of the population.

All our efforts are futile when we see the resources that want to be allocated. The cold war was a world run on the balance of fear. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). The environmental challenge is a world of Mutually Assured Survival.

There needs to be a coherent and cooperative global approach to planetary management. The superpowers of the present and future are the ones that the world can depend on and look to for survival. The survival of everyone, everything and this Earth.

Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower. Sent to all MSPs April 2006
The UK Nuclear Deterrent.
Scotland, Trident and the Legacy of JFK

Scottish Ship Building Job Losses: You can Take a Horse to......

Thanks to Perth

Yesterday I had an afternoon in Perth Scotland. I realised it is important to put the country when working with the www. I remember when I started searching for Blairgowrie and thinking to myself, what surf beach?

So it's a big thanks to everyone I spoke to and has helped with the promotion of the Blairgowrie Town Hall Event on the 28th March. The Perthshire Advertiser and The Courier are both going to do a piece. Both are covering stories of environmental interest and there letter pages are constantly full of debate on the environmental challenge and dilemma. The Blairgowrie event will give a chance for their readers who attend where the agenda for the G8 in Perthshire came from, and how we can take the results into the future for the benefit of Perthshire, Scotland and the planet.

Remember it doesn't matter whether climate change is due to man made or natural causes, we still have to do something about it.

Mountain Supplies and Craigdon Mountain Sports have both posters up in their shops. I have bought some of my recent kit, waterproofs, sleeping bag and rucksack from them, plus all the other odds and ends. It is in the mountains of Perthshire where I get the natural perspectives on the environmental situation. Whether it is just seeing where the snow is or checking grazing pressure of deer populations etc.

Thanks to everyone in Perth who has helped.

Flaws in Nobel Prize Winning Work

In my post of 11th March I reviewed The Trap, what happened to our dreams of freedom. (Some national news reviewers commented on why such a long title. Clue? Try searching for that title, but add Bob Marley). Done a bit of it for you.

I have to say I knew very little of Nash's work. I had seen the film Beautiful Mind, late one night (probably while doing something else). What I hadn't realised was Nash's influence on western politics from his Game Theory. I was aware of John Von Neumanns work, and was happy to accept this as valid. What I hadn't realised was Nash had built on and changed some of Von Neumans work.

There are various phrases that hit popular culture and become well known. 'Blue sky' was a phrase I knew from the 70's as a term for free design thinking. This suddenly around 2002 it started being used in political chat shows re Government and associated thinking. The phrase 'tipping point' is one I really detest because it is so close to 'self-organised criticality'. Tipping point is a term I feel people use because it is safe, they will not be asked to explain it. Self organised criticality is a phrase which might prompt the question, what does it mean? The phrase that is going about at the moment is "the elephant in the room". As in something so obvious it is forgotten about or ignored. Is that what it means?

Having seen a brief overview of Nash's work. If what I knew when I was about 22 and I had been in a room and Nash was explaining his to be future Nobel Prize winning theory, I would have leaned over his shoulder and pointed something out. The current phrase being "the elephant in the room". Would that have been considered sick. This was a Nobel prize winning paranoid schizophrenic.

I really don't think so. I think Nash would have wanted someone to enter his world and give him some direction, The flaws in his work could have been pointed out from associated work known at the time.

Let's leave the work of Nash for now. In passing when I do a presentation on 28th March at Blairgowrie Town Hall if it crops up in passing I will show the flaw Nash made in his work, something I think he would have been grateful of at the time. The Conservative Government of Thatcher could have been so hated if they tried to incorporate Nash's work, because no one pointed out to him the fundamental flawed premise in his work.

Blairgowrie Town Hall 28th March. Let us disprove a Nobel Prize winning theory. In so doing create a better future. I am sure John Nash would want us to do this, take the paranoia out of schizophrenia. Or we could just listen to Marley's Exodus.

Did Gordon Brown Visit My Blog?

In my post of 10th March Professor Lindzen I Presume I took a swipe at the suggestion to turn off TVs. As can be seen from the permanent writing down the right hand side of this site I have have been at this environmental game for a good many years ( all my life). In the post I made a reference to TV on/off switches and a very brief environmental impact assessment on them. I have to hold my hand up and admit once I worked as a TV installation engineer. Previously I had been trained to and worked on MOD research, and been approached by some of the biggest bands in the world to be tour and technical manager. When I worked with TVs I had a bit of an 'approach'. Some of the OAPs thought I was ......

So on the 10th March I took a swipe at turning off TVs. Al Gore, don't try and teach your Granma to suck eggs, as they say.

On the 13th March Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor, makes a statement he wants manufactures to put on off switches on TVs. This is even more bizarre as coincidentally I had an email to sign a Gov petition re on/off switches (after I wrote my post).

At this point I am not going to go into the links and connections. Thank you though Gordon, you knew I was right. Probably the best way is to investigate the power requirements of the stand by system. I am pretty sure you can get the stand by system to work at such a low wattage you would not need a physical on/off. Explore that route as well. I think you might find I was right.

Tory Tax Policy

Heard the Tories talking about environmental tax policy today. Something about covering the social and environmental costs of air travel. Hardly revolutionary. Virtually the same words as the Cabinet Offices draft Guide on Regulatory Impact Assessment covered here in work I did for them in 2002.

Remember these are another political party talking about "shifting tax burdens". This means the environmental damage is not being repaired etc. Again it is just talking about the sound bite "climate change". The problem is global ecological life support system collapse.

Brian from Devon and Cornwall View left a comment in Professor Lindzen I Presume which drew attention to the correct challenge, the response of the earths ecology to changing factors. Again smoke and mirrors, define the problem first. Climate change is just a symptom.

The Trap: Dreams of Freedom, Reviews

For anyone who missed the BBC 2 documentary this is a collection of reviews from the Guardian