The Bustard

The Bustard is moving

2011-12-01T23:28:00.000+01:00

I have moved the blog over to a wordpress site - apparently it is better for promoting the site. The new site is at www.thebustard.com The site is stil under development but all the posts are there. And there are some fun new bustard cartoons by Hungarian cartoonist Daniel Csordas.

The revenge of Greg Gloom, Part 6: The target

2011-10-27T22:52:00.001+02:00

Mai Wei woke fresh from a deep and satisfying sleep. He spent ten minutes doing exercises and showered in luke-warm water. He took the stairs down to the restaurant for breakfast. All part of his new regime. He drank up an expresso in one and suddenly had an idle thought. “Telford! It’s just thirty miles away!” Why not visit the old stomping grounds? Why not a sip of nostalgia? Surely

Good news for the sky

2011-10-25T18:08:00.000+02:00

Amidst a lot of bad news (extinction in Vietnam of the Javan Rhino, slaughter of 800 skylarks in Hungary by Italian hunters, shoot-to-kill search for a hungry shark in Australia), some good news came up about cutting emissions from air travel. The broad-minded and intelligent congressmen of the United States of America have voted for a bill which bans US airlines from participating in the EU

The revenge of Greg Gloom, Part 5: Planning a party.

2011-10-25T00:52:00.002+02:00

An enormous, ultra-efficient Dove 7000 gleamed on the runway of Mai Wei Airport outside Beijing. With seats for two thousand people - the travelling elite - it was the best and latest of Chinese technology. A dozen of these aerospats wove their white web around the globe, linking its largest cities on monthly flights. The passengers were hand-selected for purpose and integrity. Perhaps the

Killing sharks

2011-10-24T13:34:00.000+02:00

In Australia they are after a great white shark which has had three people for dinner in the last few months. These people were engaging in leisure activity. That is, something rather trivial. It doesn't seem right to kill a shark to protect people engaging in a trivial activity. Leisure seekers have an alternative. They can use a public swimming pool. Or watch Jacques Cousteau films on

The revenge of Greg Gloom, Part 4: Planning a fête.

2011-10-21T16:23:00.004+02:00

Greg Gloom sat in his darkened, attic flat in Telford. His face was lit by the computer. As he pedalled furiously, his eyes flickered and he licked his lips in great concentration, searching for the provider of a marquee tent. For a caterer. For someone to supply hundreds of coloured balloons. And someone to blow them up. For a brewer to bring half a dozen barrels. For trestle tables. For

Great white hope

2011-10-19T18:12:00.000+02:00

Bang goes the first CCS project. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-15371258 Pity Mr Huhne didn't read chapter 37 of Climate Change for Football Fans. He would have saved himself some bother.

Addressing famine, malaria and drought in the Czech Republic

2011-10-18T20:08:00.002+02:00

Point Carbon reported this morning that the World Bank has bought 2.6 million Kyoto emission rights from the Czech Republic. So I checked the World Bank website in case something had changed. But no, their mission is still: “… to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge

The revenge of Greg Gloom, Part 3: Tescoland

2011-10-18T00:18:00.002+02:00

Demand for

Out of sight, out of mind - similarities between sub-prime and climate change

2008-03-04T06:37:00.000+01:00

The Financial Times recently quoted George Soros in the context of the sub-prime crisis. “Securitisation had the effect of transferring risk from people who are supposed to know risk and know the borrowers to people who don't.” This observation points to a general truth about the way our economies work, and is relevant for a range of environmental problems including climate change.

The Smog Wars (part III)

2008-02-29T23:37:00.006+01:00

The Smog Wars were in their tenth year and life in the capitals of Europe was grim. Wiederkoenig’s mobs, patrolling the streets in matt black Porsche Mephistos, struck fear into the hearts of ordinary citizens. Brussels continued to fight a red-tape rearguard action, sending swarms of health and safety inspectors to car factories and stifling production by seizing on petty infringements of

Official statement from Barclays Premier League

2008-02-16T09:11:00.001+01:00

For immediate release Barclays Premier League has cancelled its plans for staging one round of Premier League matches at various international venues each year. Advisors to the Premiership have calculated that such arrangements are likely to generate additional emissions of greenhouse gasses of approximately 150,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The Premiership realises that it is irresponsible

Brussels v Bonnelli: Perverse impacts of renewable targets

2008-02-12T13:54:00.000+01:00

When the European Commission’s policies prompt people to follow the steps of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu it is time to reflect on this monstrous organisation. Energias de Portugal has a plan to put a 170MW power plant across the river Sabor1. This power plant will destroy the “last wild river in Europe”, damaging flora and fauna, threatening rare populations of wolves and spelling

The haves and the have nots

2008-02-02T15:06:00.000+01:00

Exponents of emissions trading use a lot of jargon and acronyms. While aesthetically unappealing, technical jargon can be useful because it is concise and technical terms have specific meanings which can be checked and verified independently of the speaker. You have to call a PDD a PDD. This is quite different from management jargon which is confusing and ambiguous and a cover for woolly

The Smog Wars (part II)

2008-01-27T19:02:00.001+01:00

when two vectors of evil – the German Auto Industry and the European Kommissariat - collide…1 In a leafy street of Budapest the Porsche Cayenne screeched around a corner and roared down the road leaving a stray cat, three songbirds, an elderly woman, and her bags of shopping plastered on the tarmac. A glance inside the cockpit revealed the Porsche Cayenne driver – closely cropped hair,