guest speaker with stories and insights from around the world
Energy blackmail used to get support for apartheid regime
How South Africa blackmailed the UK government to exile Seretse Khama and his English wife from returning to southern Africa.
Earthquakes and fracking
An assessment of fracking and earthquakes in the UK.
Is it possible to have an ethical foreign policy?
Not if we rely on fossil fuels because countries providing the energy we need call the shots, and we have no leverage over them. Energy security is something all citizens in developed countries expect their governments to provide and securing reliable energy supplies will need to be an increasingly important part of European and foreign policy
Exporting electricity: rural damage to provide city's benefits
The dislocation between where energy is produced, and where it's used.
Will fracking contaminate UK drinking water or cause shortages?
The problems that fracking might cause.
Oil company? No, energy company
Changing approach of energy companies.
Educating on reducing energy use
At a community meeting last night, I got a sobering insight into how difficult it can be to change individuals' environmental behaviour.
Revolution reminds us of the need for energy security
Ethical foreign policy a by-product of energy security.
Wave power versus nuclear power
Professor Stephen Salter was maybe thirty years ahead of the times when it came to harnessing the energy of waves. His innovative 'duck' design was sidelined by the nuclear power industry and other vested interests in the 1980s. Well, he's now been finally vindicated and given the credit he richly deserves.
Scottish tidal electricity generation
Marine engineering skills put to good use to generate electricity.
Should the UK build nuclear power stations?
In trying to make my own mind up, I want to look at five factors: cost, safety, climate change, waste and timeliness. Ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer: like many questions related to energy it comes down to what your priorities are.
Subsidising energy production and consumption
Opponents of wind farms, and sometimes all non-fossil fuel alternatives, often try to suggest that economically it isn't a level playing field: that sustainable energy is only economic because it is heavily subsidised. this is a knotty area to get a handle on, and this piece is only the starting point.
Who pays the price for energy?
What energy choices does a country need to make to reduce its imports of fossil fuels and therefore make itself more secure from international uncertainty and conflict?
