Mr Obama’s most important challenge

People in almost every country are really being hurt by the recession, and although they understand that there are people in most other parts of the world who are also having to cope with the largest economic downturn in the lifetime of most of us, it is cold comfort. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are [...]

UK terrorism laws applied to things that are nothing to do with terrorism

Parliament has enacted a series of anti-terrorism laws which are being used in ways that have nothing to do with terrorism. Great care must be taken before you give the police or the tax authorities more power because they will inevitably use powers given for one reason to assist them in ways that were not [...]

Dumbing down the study of Chemistry and climate change

The Government says that educational standards in science subjects are improving “year on year” and that science teaching is improving and the experts who monitor science teaching are satisfied that science is really well taught in schools. This is important. The whole world needs to develop highly competent and dedicated scientists who can stretch their [...]

Thorium energy – a project worth undertaking

Is thorium the missing piece of the energy jigsaw? Thorium is an element that is more abundant than uranium and can be used in nuclear reactors more safely than uranium. The advantages of relatively carbon free electricity generation by uranium are well understood, and so are the disadvantages.

The Climate Change Bill will not change climate change

Peter Lilley is a Conservative MP and he has criticised the Climate Change Bill, working its way through Parliament, because it represents poor value. He places the cost at “up to” £10,000 per family in a blog written for the BBC’s very large and informative website, although it is unclear how the £10,000 is calculated [...]

Recycling collapses with the economic down turn; what should we do?

I have occasionally expressed concern about “recycling” household waste but mainly from the standpoint that much of it is shipped to China and ends up in land dumps there.  Genuine recycling is important but the economic recession has made recycling uneconomic. That does not mean that we should not recycle, but we should find a [...]

Solar concentrators – dreams of renewable electricity and a new grab for desert land

Virtually all of the electricity that we use involves turbines, which are sophisticated plumbing devices. Usually the turbine is wound up by a heat process most often burning gas, oil, or coal to heat water into steam to drive the turbine. Nuclear energy does not involve burning but still heats water into steam. If you [...]

Carbon emissions – a crime against humanity

I have never met Dan Bloom, but I feel I know him. His concern over climate change led him to devise a concept of polar cities, which phrase makes the global warming point in two words. Mr Bloom has now decided that national governments, who are not doing anything near enough to prevent climate change, [...]

The temperature is rising and emissions playing the tune

Kyoto is not working. The industrial nations of the world were supposed to reduce their carbon emissions; all of them signed up to it except the United States of America. It came into force in 2005 when the requisite number of countries signed up to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2% [...]

Climate Change Conferences and difficulties of creating climate change measures

In December, before Mr Obama takes office, the leaders from United Nations meets in Poland to discuss climate change. We all must hope that the leaders will create a new version of the Kyoto Treaty (which expires in four years time), a more modern one without the compromises and faults that are embedded in Kyoto [...]