Monday, March 9, 2009 at 10:54PM Smogblog's handy guide to the techniques by climate skeptics is available here. Essential background reading for anyone in the business of persuasion. The funny thing to me is how narrow the denialists arguments are - even if CC wasn't happening, we's still be precarious on energy, food and water due to a century of mismanagement - which marks us out as Idio Sapiens...
Friday, March 6, 2009 at 11:39AM A couple of years back, I was introduced to Mark Kerr, Chief Executive of Powys County Council, a large, rural local authority that covers the centre and east of Wales in the UK. Mark is an ex Roayl Navy Rear Admiral with an intelligent, focussed manner; it was a pleasure to invite him to take part in the Hay on Earth Sustainability Seminars that I organised for the first time in 2008.
The event was in part a Road to Damascus experience for Mark, and he recognised the scale of change that he and his council needed to take to step up to speed on change for sustainability.
Wind the clock forward one year, and Mark Kerr has just resigne, with a report on the BBC web site giving details. The article mentions that 'He was critical of councillors in an article in reNews on 5 February, which claimed councillors keen to appease local anti-wind farm sentiment were threatening the future of projects planned for Powys. Mr Kerr is reported as saying: "Local members tend to have less respect for policy than for local sensibilities".
I sincerely hope that Mark's resignation will have an impact on the thinking, courage and action of the councillors and co-officers at Powys. We need courage and action more than ever.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 5:50PM The 2009 EcoBuild show at London's Earl's Court Exhibition Centre is three times the size of the same event that I visited a few years ago - a strong demonstration of how much the market has grown.
A meeting with colleague Alistair Gould from the Low Carbon Group was inspiring and will provide many rich connections to the work that we're already involved on with communities, business and government.
Exciting times ahead...
Friday, February 27, 2009 at 6:27PM The Welsh Assembly Government, one of the world's leading agencies of national scale change, launched their well-received Walking and Cycling Action Plan today.
Development of the plan has been a good example of collaboration between government and change-makers, with excellent input from Sustrans and CTC
Going mountain biking on the new(ish) black run at Brechfa Forest in west Wales; maybe it'll feel even more like a party.
