A big thanks to Dr Crippen for writing about what I was going to post about today. It means I can go back to sleep.
The short version is that there are some pillocks that don't want to have to look at the injured servicemen coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was drawn to my attention on one of the ambulance forums, partly because we have a fair number of ex-forces people in the ambulance service and partly because, while some of us may disagree with the purpose behind the wars, we do respect and honour the people on the ground actually doing the fighting for our political masters.
the other thing to post about is that, as you are probably aware, there is wide flooding around the UK at the moment. The British Red Cross have set up an appeal fund. If you have a spare couple of quid please head over there and donate to that or one of their other causes.
(…and now I head over to PC World to get something for my brother, then to Homebase to get a tonne of stone for my mother. Then I shall collapse back to sleep).
Donation Done.I saw the headline on the Independent yesterday which claimed to 'definitively link the torrential rain in England to climate change'. That was fast. If anyone has read Michael Crichton's book 'State of Fear', you'll know to be healthily skeptical of such statements.
Ggggrrrr! My grandad was a SSAFA rep.VTEMT: Crichton is a novelist, and perhaps should have stuck to what he knows best:
Crichton's Thriller State of Fear: Separating Fact from Fiction
I think that everyone should be a healthy skeptic about everything. I don't subscribe fully to Crichton's position, nor do I buy into the extended media hype. Somewhere out there is a grain of truth surrounded by a mountain of noise. I think it's irresponsible journalism for the tabloid press to seize on an event like the recent flooding and claim that it is linked to climate change.
I agree, but I think it's more irresponsible of people like Crichton to encourage us to play Russian Roulette with the species', and the planet's, future.Because even if global climate change isn't happening/isn't caused by humans, cutting back carbon emissions, saving energy and recycling etc isn't going to do any serious harm in the long run.
But, if he's wrong, then given the natural human tendency to hear what we want to hear and ignore bad news, he's encouraging us to take a dangerous gamble.
One that could lead us to a species-wide Darwin Award, for outstanding stupidity in the face of a clear and present danger….
Grr. Mind you, everyone I ever met in Ashtead was a NIMBY so…
That's true. Unfortunately, humanity doesn't have a good track record of working together to fix big problems…. Let's hope we can pull this one off !
There's just been a report on this on the Today programme on R4. Here's hoping it has the desired effect.
Well, they mad the right decision in the end.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/6927013.stm
I used to live in Mole Valley and still have loads of friends who live in Ashtead – who all SUPPORT the house!! And now common sense and empathy has prevailed. Yippee!!