Materials Man

I don’t read newspapers, I get my news through the radio, I have a great little DAB radio that is first into my suitcase, when travelling. The business programme on Radio Scotland on Sunday got my ears fully tuned in. It was the prosaically named James Smith, Chairman of Shell, Shell UK I guess as I may have missed this point, however the reason I was listening with attention was, he was espousing the same doctrines for planet salvation as Tom Friedman in his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. The guy is no dumb red neck Texan, this Brit is fully switched on, he talked about Shell investing in sustainable biofuels, the opposite of what the Bush admin did and world grain prices shot up, increasing poverty and political instability. Shell are investing in the future, in carbon capture, carbon capping and echoing Friedman’s book terms for trade for energy. In other words use the market place and cost the environmental damage of carbon release and let the techies, scientists and capitalists sort it out. He did not actually use the words smart electrons but it was heavily inferred that IT can greatly assist in delivering electricity at the cheapest cost by balancing supply to demand with smart meters etc. I swear he has read, understood and taken on the solutions outlined in Hot, flat, and Crowded. I don’t care how he got there, I am mightily impressed he has.

Gives a person hope, gives the planet hope.

ya beauty, my son who is 27 does not know what a steam punk is, so for once I’m ahead of the game. Only because I heard the tail end of the radio cafe program on radio Scotland regarding steam punks. Intrigued I listened as I drove from the cursed contract on the A7, well there was a dawning realism that I may and my wife may belong to this sub-culture called steam punk!! Why ? because we both mend and make things, but don’t most households? Like a drop of mercury (could sue schools for that now) I can’t put my finger on steam punks, except for a strong anarchist purpose running through it. And conventional non challenging societal systems guy that i am there is a waking resemblance of an anarchist in me. The banking bail out is incensing me and i know it is necessary for the wider economy, but where is our leadership? we have been well and truly reamed by the “establishment”, going wider so has the planet by industry and our demands for “goods” ever cheaper. Does this make me a steam punk? I’m going to say yes, as I believe challenges to any system is good.
On a relevant theme, a book titled ” the shock of the old” technology and global history since 1900 by David Edgerton is a steam punk book but i bet the author is unaware it is.