BBC Blog Network

User Profile

Young_Mr_Grace

Listed below are comments made by Young_Mr_Grace between Monday, 28th April 2008 and Tuesday, 29th April 2008.

«Newer
Older»

Biofuels: bad for the environment? 08:38am on 29 Apr 2008 Biofuels are at the very best a bit-player and stop gap in the process to halt climate change and at worst a significant contributor to food shortages.
Global over population and Asian economic growth will overwhelm any attempts to tinker at the edges of the problem.
Unless there is a technological change on a par with the industrial revoltion or the introduction of the internal combustion engine then the only real progess can come from developments like the proposed trec solar power scheme ( www.desertec.org ). The trec model would work well in SW USA to supply North America or in Australia to supply SE Asia and I'm sure parts of India and China would be suitable too.
Shouldn't the EU be looking at proposals like this instead of finding yet another way to subsidise farmers.
Carolina and the apocalypse 9:06pm on 28 Apr 2008 The Max Hastings article was thought provoking but it missed an important point. The military has not only been undermined by the left who oppose military action (without conceding that it may sometimes, unfortunately, be justified) BUT ALSO by the right who have contrived to make a society where what matters is the size of your mortgage not your number of medals. Max says "For centuries, armies have largely consisted of young working-class men, often with poor qualifications." and he is right but thankfully we now have a situation where there are less young men with no other alternative than the army and the military no longer offers a route out of poverty - quite the reverse. In the post-thatcher "what's in it for me?" years why would anyone choose to join the military? To the unqualified youngster it doesn't offer much by way of a long-term career and doesn't give you much chance to get on the housing ladder. Let's face it - the military is the armed wing of the civil service and there is much money to be made selling ringtones than fixing tanks. In a free-market, money driven society the military just doesn't offer the right incentives. (The US seems to operate a quasi-socialist approach to military recruitment by offering public funding for education, healthcare etc to soldiers.) The use of UK military as Uncle Sam's Sepoy's doesn't help any "For Queen and Country" type argument when the country in question is across the Atlantic. In the UK patriotism just isn't enough to tempt teenagers into a career dead-end - besides we have all been inoculated against such stuff by studying Wilfred Owen at school. For the situation to change then society would need to revert to one which generated large numbers of otherwise unemployable youths with no other hope than the army - only Q is would such a society be worth fighting for?

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

Young_Mr_Grace