Climate change New Year 2020

The Apocalypse is now. Whether you are in Idlib or the suburbs of Sydney. In Prudhoe it is a beautiful quiet morning and unseasonably warm for sure. In Australia it is our flaming June and it certainly is. There is months more to go. Australian institutions have been notably reluctant to recognise climate change. Just weeks ago they helped mess up the latest intergovernmental climate change conference. This I am certain of and so is the retiring BoE governor. Face up to the reality of the massive change needed in all our lives or we will quite likely burn. A dry summer in Prudhoe surrounded by its beautiful woodlands? That is what is happening to people just like you and me whether in Greece, California or Australia. This is a stark situation and I am amazed that many people will want to start New Year with a fireworks display? The thing is we have to listen to the Scientists and along the way the hearts of Putin, Trump et al have to change. But that is the rub, the hearts of all of us have to change. We need redemption. Recent political processes in Great Britain show the nastiness that lies in the human heart. Honest genuine patriotism can very easily be slid into warped hate filled nationalism. Nationalism will get the world nowhere in the face of where we are near headed. The miracle that is needed is a miracle of the heart and I would commend Jesus Christ and his Gospel and his presence today in the Holy Spirit as a power worth bending the knee too. My daughter gave me for Christmas a beautiful brand new apology for the Christian faith by Alister McGrath. And that reminded me of another book we have, all in the links below. I am an industrial archaeologist who sells out of date bus timetables married to a lovely librarian. Both of us work very hard in developing better public transport which will be essential going forward and where in the last 30 years investment (real betterment not like for like replacement) in North East England has been next to non existent. The famous industrial historian and founder of railway preservation L T C Rolt wrote one of the earliest green books - High Horse Riderless and I read it decades ago. Have a wonderful New Year Holiday and gear up for huge change in 2020!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50868717

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-50938504 https://www.librarything.com/work/4544407/book/75726984 https://www.librarything.com/work/21298330/book/176892010

UN Climate Change report

I feel something should be said about climate change, so much in the news recently. But what? I do not feel I have anything systematic to say. Just a series of questions and points which may add up to something. I cannot say that the UN report or the extinction rebellion protesters have enthused me. Jamming up London's public transport certainly did not. I do not deny the reality of man made global warming. I am very taken by the thought that the world population has doubled since 1970. That cannot be remotely sustainable. For the UK my preference is a population at about the 60 million level and it should be a society which is very self sustaining and biased towards quality public transport. It is no sweat to me to ground flight. But think how many Kenyans or Egyptians would be upset by that? Will airships becomes the answer? I live in rural England and Scotland, a modern clean diesel car seems inescapable until battery power is really tops. And think of the rare metals that go into those batteries. I don't mind imported meat drying up especially from North America. But do I want to live without corned beef? And I certainly really enjoy eating Galloway beef and the other excellent options with no food miles on them that you can enjoy from Northumberland and South West Scotland. It does seem to me that the real action if change is to happen is in South America, the Trophics, Sub Saharan Africa and the Sea. Eliminating plastic from the sea is a no brainer. But telling people not to have babies is not popular. The Chinese tried to and gave up? Should they have given up? I am very relieved we only have had one child yet the animal reaction is to go forth and procreate. Sex needs to be realigned as primarily for pleasure. Many religious groups including Catholicism would struggle with the new message: the world is overfull. Malthus the priest is someone we have to listen to. Go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus

General Pitraeus

"Dubbed the warrior monk, he proved no monk at all". BBC R4 Today 0635. The subject General Pitraeus (or Betrayus - a word play not new but now made more apposite). The subject is sex and the divide is between ideals and pragmatics. I accept that the human is essentially a sexual and imaginative animal. I applaud diversity. But there has to be boundaries. If you lie to your partner or risk state secrets there will not be a happy outcome. It would be better if Pitraeus' wife (or Hilary C for that matter) had learnt to apply a chastity belt. The technology is readily available nowadays. Or if absent partners had managed their dalliances in a more straightforward way. Not for nothing does the phrase "camp follower" exist in history and our British military authorities in World War faciliated brothels. Now if you find this all distasteful, perhaps soldiers and others should not leave home for another's country in the first place? This little link well describes the ups and downs of such situations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagh_El-Birket .

Background to this.