Systems and Climate Change seminars - coming soon

What do systems ideas offer to help us understand and live with climate change? The Open Systems Research Group is exploring this theme in 3 inter-linked lunch-time seminars at the Open University on March 11th, April 15th and May 13th. Details can be found here.

Snowdrop hunting

Today I've been over to Anglesey Abbey on what has become a bit of a ritual for this time of year - hunting for snowdrops. The Great British Gardens site is a great help. Besides snowdrops, there's a wonderful winter garden at Anglesey Abbey - very clever planting for colours, contrasts, fragrances and shapes. I note from my old blog that my previous few years' snowdrop trips to Audley End and Benington Lordship were quite a bit later than this one. Does this mean we're in for an early spring?

I've become fascinated by snowdrops. They don't grow well in my garden so I'm not a collector but happy to just see them growing elsewhere. I love to see them flowering early in the year as the days just start to lengthen - a very cheering sign of spring to come. I also find interesting the stories people tell about them. From the Abbey's leaflet :

"Snowdrops ...have a long association with monastic sites and are linked with the church festival of purification....snowdrops cross-pollinate easily, so wherever there are a number of varieties present there is a good chance that some new types will develop. The Anglesey Abbey collection now contains over 170 varieties..."

And from the Audley End website some time ago...

“The common snowdrop has been known throughout Europe for centuries and believed to have been grown from earliest medieval times. Then the soldiers returning from the Crimean War (1853 – 54) brought back snowdrops (theGalanthus plicatus) in their backpacks and by 1891 snowdrop passion had taken a firm hold.”

Thinking on thinking

I deeply admire the writings of Sir Geoffrey Vickers who in retirement from public life wrote to make sense of his experiences. He served as solicitor, soldier, adviser to the National Coal Board and member of a great many public and professional bodies including the Medical Research Council. Looking through his 1970 book Freedom in a Rocking Boat this morning for some readings for students, I found his following comment thought provoking. For me, one of Vickers great skills is in how he captures the dynamics of life. In this introduction to his book he is striving to acknowledge those who have influenced his thinking:

....my sense of indebtedness leaves me dumb. Socialized and humanized by being claimed from birth onwards as a member of so many communicating human groups; ushered into self-awareness through a language, every word of which resonates with the meanings of ancient usage; heir to several cultural traditions, each far too abundant for my assimilation - how can I name or number or know the living and the dead who have shaped my thoughts and me?

Remarkable strength of spirit

I watched Channel 4's 'A Boy called Alex' yesterday. What a remarkable attitude to life he and his family showed. Truly inspirational.

Nuclear power?

So our Government's definitely backing a new generation of nuclear reactors. Very interesting to see the diverse views here about whether people feel this is right or wrong. To me it feels a bit like going back in time. When the first round were built it was partly because nuclear power was perceived as a cleaner cheaper option to other possibilities at that time. There was faith in the future that safe long-term ways would be found to dispose of their waste and health and safety issues were played down. As I understand it technology's moved on but we still haven't sorted the disposal of wastes issue nor some of the health and safety issues. Though many see little choice and think that nuclear weighs up well against other options and needs to be part of the solution to our energy supply problems. But if the true costs of the nuclear option were weighed up in terms of waste disposal wouldn't it compare less well with renewable energy options which would be my first choice?

Kenya - a complex situation

I had a New Year letter with a difference from a friend who has made her life in Kenya. Her story of the politics, emotions, relationships, movement of people and disruption of infrastructure she was experiencing highlighted for me how complex and serious the situation there has rapidly become. Also how variable it is from one part of the country to another and among different communities. Fortunately she feels herself to be in a relatively safe area. But she was highly critical of the international news coverage which she found far from accurate as journalists work to get their soundbytes, based on their own limited experience and interpretation of events. It has made me question the role and nature of journalism in such situations. It's one thing to let the rest of the world know what's going on but quite another to report without understanding the depth of the situation and without acknowledgement of complexity and variability, hence playing into the hands of one group or another. I wonder generally about the nature of the intervention and reaction of the international community. I'm really surprised to see such a turn of events in Kenya and I do so hope that the international community can learn from past occasions in Africa and help ease the situation, not polarise groups or inadvertently extend the conflict as it plays out in front of the world's media.

Carbon footprint & the New Year resolutions league table

I hear from this DEFRA page "According to a YouGov poll, just 15 per cent of Britons have resolved to reduce their carbon footprint in 2008, compared to 38 per cent pledging to lose weight and 20 per cent aiming to make more money."

I don't find this very surprising. It seems to me to echo wider priorities that come across in news coverage and Govt policy.

As the New Year starts

I remember life in Sierra Leone where at New Year people danced and sang 'Happy New Year me no die-o' just celebrating being alive for the start of another year. I love watching fireworks but increasingly the New Year displays around parts of the world seem a bit excessive, a competition among cities to out-blitz each other. To me they seem less celebratory about what really matters than the Sierra Leonean way. Still - some energy savings in the celebrations in New York I note.

Looking for 'environmental good news' to start the year took a bit of doing but I am cheered to think that travelling by Eurostar to Paris amounts to only one tenth of the environmental effects of taking a plane. In addition, according to this article, Eurostar offsets carbon emissions on that amount. I think this sounds great but given the huge recent re-construction at St Pancras do wonder a little where boundaries have been drawn on counting the costs.

Following the consumerism of Christmas in the UK I'm wondering if we all really have to go at the pace we do. If we all slowed down a bit and cut out consuming what we don't really value anyway and do say 80% of the consuming we're currently doing, I suspect for many of us our quality of life would improve a great deal. Schon's 'reflection-in-action' comes to mind as a way of achieving it.