I am not an Environmentalist.

Neither am I a "Green".

I may be about to generalise an entire group of people, but does it not seem that we are incessantly told to use fewer plastic bags, stop using energy, drive less and so on and so forth?

But I want to use energy. I want to use a lot of it. It makes my life better. I absolutely do not want to go around my home unplugging things, making sure they are not on standby, taking worn out bags to the supermarket and taking a crowded, expensive bus, when I can drive. That is not to say that I want to waste energy, just that I do not want to worry about it.

Does that make me a hypocrite? I have been pondering this for a while, and I found that I have never really been one for the "conservationist" attitude. Why should we use less energy?

Our civilisation is based on energy, and our growth as a culture is tied to it. The solution to our energy woes can come partly from being more responsible with our energy, as "the Greens" say, but ultimately we should neither expect to nor encourage regressing in our energy demands.

The point I'm making is that we have a problem, but we should try to find a solution to the problem rather than adapting ourselves to deal with it. People will not give up their high energy consumption because it improves their lives. They will want to travel more, do more, experience more, and so they should! Our lives are too short to worry about saving every scrap of energy (and chastising those who do not do the same).

We, as a race, have a tremendous capability for innovation, imagination and resourcefulness. "What the mind can conceive it can achieve". If we apply ourselves to developing new and better sources of energy, clearing the political roadblocks in their path, and accepting that energy should be ubiquitous and unnoticed, then we will be a large step closer to being free from energy concerns.

I welcome your comments.

Cost of train/plane travel

I want to go to Geneva, Switzerland, next month for a couple of days to visit some friends. I don't travel often, and I want to enjoy the journey, so the obvious choice would be to go by train.

I'd get on the Eurostar in London and get off in Paris. Then a quick trip on the Metro from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon, where another train would whisk me directly to Geneva. I wouldn't have to worry about getting to and from airports, it would be a nice, leisurely journey, and I'd see the countries I'm travelling through. I'd even be able to use my mobile phone, take some photos, walk around comfortably....

I'm on a budget, though! I can get a return flight to Geneva for about £50. Return. Want to know how much the train would cost? Closer to £200. I could go there and back 4 times on the plane for that money! If money were no object, of course, I would take the train, but money is an object! I need my pennies!

This seems completely backwards to me. A plane takes only a couple of hours (so provides a "better" service in that respect), needs a huge amount more fuel to do its job as it has to lift such a heavy load to such a great height, at a great speed, for a long time. The train doesn't need anywhere near as much fuel, takes 3 times longer, and can carry more people. Why does it cost so much more to go by train?

I don't even want to go by train because it would save energy/CO2 emissions, but because it would be more memorable and enjoyable. Why are train prices so expensive?

Thank you, train companies (or damn you, plane companies) who are forcing my economic hand into making an unwise decision. I suppose the question is not "why is train travel so expensive?", really, but "why is air travel so cheap?" Considering what a plane has to do to get to its destination, I simply can't understand how it can be that cheap, at least compared with the train ticket (which, I should stress, is a cheaper "youth" ticket: it's not even full price!)

Rant over: I'm off back to work.

Site Redesign

As you may or may not have noticed, the main site has undergone a bit of a redesign. I hope this will make it much easier to navigate for first time visitors. I've also removed the rather bulky banner and made the whole thing narrower so it's easier to view.

Let me know if you find any broken pages I may have missed when I did the update!