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Category Archives: Environmental
This is the Way the World Ends
Reflections on AI, Agency, and Human Responsibility. I was ten years old at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and, to be honest, the drama of those events largely passed me by, eclipsed in memory by the assassination of … Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Environmental
Tagged ai, AI and Geopolitics, AI Regulation, AI Safety, Artificial Intelligence, chatgpt, Climate Change, Existential Risk, Human Agency, Nuclear Disarmament / CND, philosophy, Progress and Its Discontents, technology, Technology & Society, US–China Relations
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Water, Water Every Where, Nor any drop to drink
I may not have been paying much attention in my school English literature lessons, but these lines from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, seemed suddenly to resonate with a number of themes which have been capturing my recent extracurricular … Continue reading
A Glimpse Through the Concrete Window
Art, Science and the Long View of our Carbon Future You may have noticed the recent news that China’s emissions of CO2 have “been flat or falling for 18 months”. [1] Good news surely? I was prompted to suggest to … Continue reading
The Case in Favour of Open Borders
Opening the national border to all who wish to come is an unfashionable idea. The last person I can recall advocating such a policy was Angela Merkel. “Wir schaffen das” she said with the confidence of a true leader. We … Continue reading
Indebted
Why and How the UK Can and Should Invest Now in Grid-Upgrade and Solar Power The national debt is a perpetual and festering sore in any discussion of our economy. The more we borrow, the heavier the millstone we pass … Continue reading
Bogland
Tradition, Memory, and the Future of Peatlands Once upon a time, the burghers of Dumfries would dig and burn peat to keep them warm in the cold of winter. The town had an array of bogs or mosses from which … Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Dumfries and Galloway, Environmental
Tagged biodiversity, conservation, environment, peat, peatlands, trees
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A National Park for Galloway…
A Chance for Revival or a Risky Gamble? A proposal is afoot to make some part of Galloway – as yet undefined — a national park also to include, perhaps, South Ayrshire. This proposal has sparked increasing debate, with strong … Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Dumfries and Galloway, Environmental
Tagged hiking, history, Nature, scotland, travel
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From Cat Food to Clickbait
The Evolution of Irresistible Convenience Food Out in the unsettling world of clickbait, family pets seem to have a special place in the pantheon of what the bored or purposeless internet user finds irresistible. So here’s a story of Macklin … Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Environmental
Tagged Cats, diet, food, Food Industry, health, Microbiome, nutrition, Ultra Processed Foods, UPFs
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From Apex Predators to the hidden World of Mycorrhiza
I’ve never been much of a bird watcher. I can just about name the birds that turn up at my feeders, which occasionally include some eye-catching specimens. Greater spotted woodpeckers come from the woods nearby for peanuts and there’s also … Continue reading
Posted in Comment, Dumfries and Galloway, Environmental
Tagged birds, conservation, Curlews, eagles, environment, fungi, habitat, Nature, ornithology, wildlife
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The Tech Bros are Coming for Our Wind
Should AI Data Centre Roll-Out be Phased and Linked to Renewable Installation? In the dreamy and often overlooked backwater of Dumfries and Galloway, on the site of the former Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station near Annan, an AI Data Centre is … Continue reading →