The upside of all this rain

The plants this year seem to be thriving and those walks between showers have been quite splendid.

Managing water sustainably at household level?

So it's the wettest summer in UK on record....ever....so why doesn't it surprise me that someone somewhere is saying that we don't have enough water! Reservoirs not at capacity and groundwater levels going down in some places seems to be how that's worked out. Is 'enough water' just another social construct? Although there are undoubtedly biophysical elements that can be measured and compared with past times, what do those comparisons mean? In the UK many of us are pretty ignorant about where our water comes from or goes to and what it means to use water sustainably. But it doesn't take long living in an area where water's in short supply to cut usage substantially and there's no quicker way to slow down usage than to have to carry what is needed by hand. Must be devastating to experience floods at home and not a lot we can do about the quantity of rain we're getting right now but perhaps a lot more we can do about our water use and infrastructure at a household level? Examples include not paving over our gardens and avoiding using drinking quality water where clean waste water or rain butt water will do.

Widening gap between UK rich and poor

According to the BBC's report of Joseph Rowntree Foundation's findings the wealth gap between rich and poor is at its greatest for 40 years. So why has this happened under a Labour Government?

Planning?

Interesting to see what Jonathan Porritt makes of the new Planning White Paper. I hope he's right that NGO angst might be premature. UK currently seems to value quantitative rather than qualititative growth so highly I full agree with Porritt that the Air Transport white paper is laughable as a model of sustainable development proofing. Interesting also to see that he thinks the claim that large infrastructure projects are subject to planning delays is largely unsubstantiated. On this theme also the announced new targets for house building seem to me way out of line. How many would get into the hands of first time buyers rather than 'investors'?

England in July

This year clouds feature strongly in my July pictures. This one taken as we walked near Whipsnade on Saturday - quite a delightful and varied walk with lots to see.

The spirit of Richard Sandbrook

...lives on. I was delighted to see so many projects underway in memory of Richard, due to his friends and family who have set up the Richard Sandbrook Trust one year on from the commemorative event last year that I remember well.

Al Gore...campaigning and systems

Interesting to see the line-up of the Observer's 2007 ethical awards and that readers awarded Al Gore 'campaigner of the year'. I was also very interested to read in the Observer magazine a recent article from James Traub that started
"Gore was telling me about Ilya Prigogine, a Belgian chemist who won a Nobel Prize in 1977 for his insights into the thermodynamics of open systems, an intriguing subject that has very little to do with global warming. ... We had moved on to complexity theory, in which Gore would really immerse himself if only he had the time, and then to the concept of nested systems, which of course had been developed by the late psychologist Uri Bronfenbrenner...."
I think systems ideas have a lot to offer our current 'climate change and adaptation' agenda so found it interesting to hear where Gore's focus sits in this respect.
I haven't yet fully engaged with what he's been saying recently about energy efficient IT systems, embedded systems and total system design and architecture....but will.