The Greater Good and Modernisation

The rich are always modern. Most of the central London area of Marylebone is owned by the De Walden estate. It is immensely rich and it is now modernising the buildings that it owns. By modernising I do not mean to say that the estate is building ugly new buildings in this part of Georgian and Victorian London; quite the reverse; it is tastefully restoring old buildings, converting them to their original uses as homes, and investing huge amounts of money in this modernisation, which will doubtless add to the income and wealth of the estate.

Imperfect expression of perfect thoughts

I try, in these essays, to formulate and develop ideas that cross my mind. It is a hard process because a thought may be perfect but the expression of it will almost inevitably be imperfect. “Ideas often flash across our minds more complete than we could make them after much labour.”

Such is the Nature of Progress

The World Meteorological Organization is an Agency of the United Nations. It has published data which shows that in 2011 the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide in the world was 390.9 parts per million which is two parts per million more than the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide in 2010. In 2011, concentrations of atmospheric methane (of which 60% is as a release of human activities) reached a record high of 1813 parts per billion. Carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii in December 2012 was 394.28 parts per million. Nitrous oxide also reached a new record high of 324.2 parts per billion.

Bio fuels, tropical forests and progress

In our lemming-like rush to find easy and cheap options to replace expensive fossil fuel which will run out one day and to reduce carbon emissions which may overcome us one day people have turned to bio fuels – the growing of crops for the vegetable oils which can then be refined and used as fuels to propel vehicles, vessels and aircraft. The theory postulated by the bio fuel growers, eagerly seized upon by governments desperate for a cheap and quick climate fix, is that the bio fuels are “sustainable”, which in this context means we can keep on growing them and they will not run out like fossil fuel, and “carbon   neutral” which means that the burning of them is replaced by the re-absorption of the carbon dioxide of plants through the process of photosynthesis.