Philobiblon

How can it be that the British government is considering, nay promoting, nuclear power, when there’s still such a mess from the last lot: “Nuclear consultant Ian Jackson estimates, in his new book Nukenomics: The Commercialisation of Britain’s Nuclear Industry, that the total being spent on decommissioning is equivalent to an extra 1p in the pound on income tax.”

In the 1960s the notorious Agent Orange was tested in Australia, near the Queensland town of Innisfail. The sprayed area is still barren, and the town has an extraordinarily high cancer rate – which does, of course, make you think about SE Asia, where vast quantities of the stuff was thrown around.

Cuts in agricultural research funding have hollowed out scientific institutions. But now we really, really need them – and plant breeding specialists don’t grow on trees.

What we’re doing to the world: world wildlife vertebrate populations have fallen 27% since the 1970s, with the biggest drop from 1995. “Over-fishing and hunting, along with farming, pollution and urban expansion, were blamed. … In the next 30 years, climate change is expected to become a significant threat to species, said the WWF.”

But so as not to be too depressed on a rainy London Saturday: a city in Alaska has cut electricity use by about 30% in a matter of weeks – because it had to, due to a cut in supplies. And this is in a cold, wet, dark place. Imagine what you could do with London if you really tried.

And in one more small piece of good news, the socialist mayor of Tours, with the backing of the Green party, has decided no longer to pay the city’s subsidy to Ryanair. I wonder if the EU could block all such subsidies on environmental grounds? Anyone know if that might be legally possible?