Back to the dark ages.

I have no idea why this came to me while sitting in church. There was a sermon about Christian Aid and how we can help those less well off than us. This is a good idea if we help other people to help themselves as is the philosophy of Christian Aid. A great deal of aid fills me with thoughts of why we do this. So many rich people in these countries make no attempt to help the poor. So much aid gets syphoned off into the pockets of corrupt politicians. But we feel we have to help. In the end if some good comes of aid then we have to put up with the corruption or so my head tells me.
That is not what I was thinking about however. It was when the talk started about feeding the hungry and stopping global warming or harm to the environment. That morning somebody from friends of the earth had been on the radio casting cold water on any developments.
They disparage the use of GM modified crops when there is no evidence of harm and plenty of evidenc eto support the increase in yeilds. If we are to feed an increasing population, then we need to follow up any chance to help farmers overcome problems. They then critisise the use of pesticides to control bugs and deseases. They cannot have things both ways.
They shout about the use of hydrocarbon fuels and its effect on the environment but then oppose all attempts to replace these fuels. Every time somebody proposes wind turbines there is an anti action group in place. They even oppose the use of an incinerator to burn waste. The proposals are that the incinerator will produce electricity for the local area. In addition they complain about the use of land fill sites. Any solution than changing the way people live is opposed by them. They might like living without modern systems and engineering but the najority of people are quite comfortable with this.
Make air travel more expensive so that people will find alternatives, they cry. But this will impact the poorer sections of society but not the wealthy. In the same way as the wealthy find ways to avoid paying tax, the rich will still fly without any thought of those priced out of the market.
What can be done? I do think that the government could be more proactive. They exhort us ordinary citizens to go green by having more efficient boilers, insulated homes and solar panels. Every government building should have solar panels on the roof or mini wind turbines. Surely this would go a long way towards cutting the use of hydrocarbon fuels.
Then wind turbines could be sited on industrial estates like the ones off the M1 near Daventry.
I feel better after that rant.