Category Archives: Environment

Is It a Fair COP?

“Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change, It is one minute to midnight to prevent catastrophe.” —Boris Johnson at COP26, November 2021 Intensifying media blanket coverage means most of us were fed up with “last-chance-saloon” mood … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Politics | Leave a comment

Can You Canute?

(Note: this is the column I would like to have written for my local paper, The East Lothian Courier, but was constrained to half the words and neither of the maps) The new agreement between the SNP and Greens to … Continue reading

Posted in Community, Environment | 1 Comment

No Life on Mars

On Tuesday, BBC4 broadcast two excellent Horizon documentaries from a few years back. An hour of “Mars: A Traveller’s Guide” from 2017 at 9pm followed by an hour of “Mission to Mars” from 2012/13at 10pm. Given that, fifty years ago, … Continue reading

Posted in Community, Environment | 3 Comments

Wind Farms or Windbags?

The Scottish energy strategy published in December 2017 sets a 2030 target for the equivalent of 50% of the energy for Scotland’s heat, transport and electricity consumption to be supplied by renewable sources. By June of last year, Scotland had … Continue reading

Posted in Commerce, Environment | Leave a comment

Greta vs The Red Center

Greta Thunberg,, the immensely sensible 16-year-old who triggered mass protests at the reluctance of nations to address looming climate catastrophe, sailed across the Atlantic in a non-polluting yacht to address the UN’s Climate Summit this summer. Her message was impassioned, … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Blank Coast

Retirement is great. It means you can welly off somewhere without having to explain yourself. After half a century of travel, I finally decided to try somewhere I’ve been avoiding all that time: Spain’s holiday coast. Never having been one … Continue reading

Posted in Environment | Tagged | 1 Comment

Drought? It’s a Fecking Desert

Say what you like about America but, once Britain had wearied of empire-building, the USA pretty much invented the modern world single-handed. China is a great country now coming into its own. But, like its prosperous Asian neighbours their recent … Continue reading

Posted in Commerce, Environment | Tagged | Leave a comment

Get Yer Wellies Out

Like a spoiled kid in a toy store, President Donald Trump has played with just about every lever of American government available to him. Unlike his moderate predecessors, he has rampaged about, playing fast and loose with immigration laws, trade … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

To End All Wars

This week we had another series of news items reminding us of te centenary of yet another WW1 battle—this time the Amiens offensive when the Allies finally had success in breaching German lines on the Western Front and rolling them … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Our Clowns Are Back

SOS Puffin is a volunteer project sponsored by the Scottish Seabird Centre which started in 2007. It aims to bring under control the invasive plant tree mallow which had taken over the islands of Craigleith and Fidra, threatening important populations … Continue reading

Posted in Commerce, Environment | Tagged | Leave a comment