Best photographs ever?

A programme on the genius of photography is on TV tonight so I took a look at their website. It showcases what it describes as some of the best photographs ever taken.... (which strikes me as very large grouping dependng on who decides what you mean by best.) Certainly a very intriguing set of pictures. Some great links on this page also. I particularly like the one to the BBC photography portal!

CBI, ethics and climate change

Interesting to see both both business ethics and climate change at the core of the CBI's annual conference this week. Good to see also that CBI have a Task Force on climate change.

China and water

Interesting piece from Jonathan Porritt on water issues in China here. He describes the situation:

60% of China’s rivers are seriously polluted; 28% of them are judged to be “completely useless”; 20% of drinking water fails to meet minimum standards; almost every one of China’s fresh water lakes is heavily polluted by agricultural and detergent run-off, leading to massive algal blooms; 80% of discharges to sea are illegal, with huge “dead zones” stretching up and down the coast; at least 10 million hectares of land have been seriously contaminated by the run-off of toxic chemicals and heavy metals...

and what's being done to try and improve it. I get the impression that from necessity China could well take a lead on environmental technologies as time goes on. But as Porritt points out with climate change as context sorting out these problems won't be easy.

Climate change in Australia

Interesting piece on climate change in Australia from Ray Ison here. He makes a link to an interesting analysis from Clive Hamilton who makes the comment:

"It is no exaggeration to say that the way the Rudd Government deals with climate change will make or break it. Howard will be judged harshly by the historians for his resolute refusal to face up to the dominant economic and moral challenge facing the nation."

Ray also comments on events in Australia where climate change issues are surprisingly low key and asks the question about whether it's different in Europe because the discourse on climate change has been around longer.

Putting these two together.... I'd like to think that how climate change is dealt with would make or break a government but I think the way economic development is dealt with still ranks above the sustainability agenda in western societies. Much of the evidence in UK at the moment points to models of economic growth rather than sustainable development, even though at times we've appeared to be taking climate change seriously. There's a lot of window dressing - we might well now be more into recycling and sustainable procurement etc. but a long way to go on reducing wastes and use of natural resources. I suspect our Government is at present moving away from dealing with climate change rather than towards it and that it won't be that that brings it down though it might contribute. We still have areas where issues of climate change are just missing from the agenda. The moves to build another runway at Heathrow are a case in point. More on the 'laughable politics' around that in Sumptuous.

Changing climate change policy?

An interesting turn of events. Australia's got a new Government and according to the International Herald Tribune:

Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change topped the international agenda of Australia's new leader (Kevin Rudd) as he got down to work...

About time someone let John Howard know his stance on climate change was unacceptable.

Banning the bag. Just do it!

Nice posting in Sumptuous with an extract from Saturday's Guardian detailing how Rebecca Hosking became motivated to ban plastic bags after she'd seen how swallowing plastics had killed hundreds of birds and animals in the Pacific including many albatrosses she'd gone there to film. She returned home to Modbury, South Devon and in a few months got local shopkeepers to do away with plastic bags and find alternatives. She just did it. So why can't we just do it in the rest of UK?

Hoopoes

Looking at Vezon Thierry's amazing shots of birds , including hoopoes, got me thinking of a picture Simon took outside the Taj Mahal many years ago now. So I dug it out. Still like it a lot - I like the interaction and action of the shot and the way the colour of the ornate wall matches the colours of the hoopoes.

Memorable audio

In working on our new 'Environmental Responsibility' course we've been thinking through how we might use audio. Interviews and round-table discussions were suggested and I was wondering what else. Two thoughts I want to log here to remember:

(i) Poetry. John Clare was the poet I was thinking about. He lived from 1793 to 1864 through times of great change in rural England - including the land enclosures, came from a peasant family and had a deep love of nature and the countryside. Appropriate to this time of year - here's an extract from his poem November taken from here (thanks to Simon Kovesi).

The landscape sleeps in mist from morn till noon;
and, if the sun looks through, 'tis with a face
beamless and pale and round, as if the moon,
when done the journey of her nightly race,
had found him sleeping, and supplied his place.
For days the shepherds in the fields may be,
nor mark a patch of sky - blindfold they trace,
the plains, that seem without a bush or tree,
whistling aloud by guess, to flocks they cannot see

John Clare's work has quite a following today and is ranked with the greats. His relationship with the land and the countryside is an interesting example of a kind of environmental values possibly atypical of that time. Some say the disturbance of that relationship with the land caused by the enclosures contributed to the mental illness of his later years. Sadly he ended his days in Northampton Lunatic Asylum. In searching for more about him I even found this John Clare blog.

(ii) The other very engaging piece of audio I remembered was Max Nicholson at aged 91 on Desert Island Discs. There's a transcript online and I remember how lucid he was and the strength and expression of his voice....and now I see this was some 12 years ago! It struck me as quite remarkable at that time. Again it was his environmental values (and his interest in birdwatching) I found interesting.

What I'm keen on here is to find a few clips of audio of relevance to our course that might be engaging, remarkable and memorable.....as so much I listen to these days goes in one ear and out the other.

Which ecosystem? Stupid question?

The Guardian reported a debate hosted by Earthwatch a few nights ago at the Royal Geographic Society about our most vital ecosystem asking "If you could only save one ecosystem for the good of the planet, would it be forests, wetlands, oceans, mountains or the polar regions?" Speakers were allocated to make the case for each and it sounds like it went down well. Whether an online audience is always a bit more grumpy than a face-to-face audience or whether it just lacks something in the telling I'm not sure. The unanimous response online seems to be that it's a stupid question. As one commenter put it - a bit like saying which one organ of the body would you keep if you could only choose one....i.e. they're all important, what sense does it make just to choose one?

Snow!

It snowed last night - just for a while. Quite exciting and uplifting to see snow at this time of year, particularly looking out on it from a warm room. It's become quite unusual in this part of the country. Similar reaction to mine around the country according to these BBC pics. Further afield in the Alps there's a lot more of it around boosting early skiing opportunties.

Pete's pond Botswana webcam

Very glad to see the National Geographic's Wildcam Africa - live webcam at the Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana - is still going. Nothing quite like watching elephants at a waterhole and hearing the amazing array of sounds going on there, for cheering up a wintry afternoon.

Climate change agreed...what next?

"A UN panel has agreed a landmark report declaring that climate change is "unequivocal" and may bring "abrupt and irreversible" impacts." says this article on the BBC website. Behind the headline was what reported as 'arduous talks' to reach agreement and I've no doubt that in doing so this panel has a major achievement. So why does it feel like old news? It highlights for me something about our use of science....really important to know the 'what' but a lot of the challenge to humanity comes in recognising the 'so what?' What I can't tell from this article is what is new here. Are they saying the 'abrupt' nature of change expected is something new or are they saying the level of agreement is something new or both?...in either case I guess I'm already convinced about what's being said here and ready for more on 'what next'?

Complex systems and computers

This article looks at future directions in computing and how a new generation of 'quantum computers' will take us forward. Allegedly these computers work using 'Qubits' rather than electrons and presumably are special because of their very advanced data processing abilities. Some different views on the stage this new technology has yet reached but it seems to be on its way. A Professor Ekert commented "they will not be used in run-of-the-mill desktop applications but specialist uses such as searching vast databases, creating uncrackable ciphers or simulating the atomic structures of substances. ......The really killer application will probably be in designing new materials or complex systems" Sounds quite amazing. I also find it interesting that in thise sort of article people can seem a bit invisible.... 'application' implies people are still using the machines but reading the article the focus is on what the machine rather than the people can do.

This summer we wrote a paper on 'people, robots and systemic decision making' that looked at how people and 'more intelligent machines' might divide up tasks differently in decision making. We weren't particularly focusing on data processing but were considering the role of these machines in complex systems and situations. Depends what you mean by complex systems I suppose but as they always involve people, our position was that one of the key challenges for the future in working with these highly advanced computer-based technologies seems to be about getting both people and machines doing what they're good at. I'm sure these new technologies will mean we can do things we couldn't do before, which if that means for example more efficient and effective use of natural resources sounds pretty exciting. But it also seems likely they'll raise a lot of issues about what we could and should be doing with them. Interesting times.

Late autumn

The year marches on - what a splendid autumn it's been! Beautiful treetrunks that tell their own stories now emerging from those wonderful colours.

Bird photos

Prompted by some great shots posted on Picturepost I've been exploring Photonet. Found this amazing picture of bee-eater plus dragonfly. We heard and saw bee-eaters in Greece earlier this year. Too far away to see their colours but from this guide I guess they probably were, like in the picture, European Bee-eaters as they're most common in that area.

Another side of rubbish

These BBC pictures from the world of rubbish collectors, working at night in the city, got me thinking about the scale of the task and livelihoods and alternatives. Looks here like a job being professionally done and for some the focus of their whole working lives. To me it looks a bit of a thankless task but I'm glad it's being done. I wonder how those involved experience it, what ideas they have about managing waste and how they feed back those ideas? The 'some's recycled' I find chillingly low key compared with countries where there are more incentives to reduce and recycle waste. Professionalism surfaces in this area also elsewhere e.g. among the zabaleen in Cairo . Do we appreciate the job being done here enough?

Browsing for inspiration

I love this picture of a horse, called 'The elements' by Wojtek Kwiatkowski. Thanks to Sumptuous for the link to Picturepost that got me there. Some wonderful posts on both!