good people doing dumb things

BUSY old fool, unruly Sun,
        Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?

I am fascinated by how dumb other modes of transport seem to me. When I am in a car, that cyclist pulling out to swerve across 2 lanes of traffic to flash down a sidestreet looks quite naughty. As a cyclist, both the slow moving pedestrians stepping off the pavement infront of me and the eternally stationary cars and buses seem unbelievably slow. And when I am walking along with heavy bags, all those vehicles seem quite a threat. What amazes me is how I can get out of a car or off a bike and immediately change perspective. It seems dumbness is quite relative, despite some more jaundiced assessments in the press.

Mostly I ride around on a bike. That makes me feel quite good, actually. I get to wind up my country cousins by pointing out that my commute is completely bikeable, provided you don't mind cladding yourself from head to toe in wet-weather gear on mornings like today. Naturally, my self-esteem is quite undamaged by behaviour like swerving across 2 lanes of traffic and nipping into a sideroad to get away from all the heavy traffic. And it isn't even dented by my country cousins telling me that it is just sickening how people who manage to live reasonably centrally (whilst obviously only having a postage stamp garden) adopt an air of sanctity on carbon footprint issues. Pretty dumb, eh?

My happiness about having cycled there was the only specific experience I could bring to last night's amazing Special Interest Group session on Cleantech. We have a community led by Hugh Parnell that have been considering issues related to Cleantech for a few years now, but it was my first visit. Cambridge IP and Marks & Clerk did a great job of first describing the patent landscape with a nice engineering breakdown of the subcomponent technologies that will bottleneck scaling up of alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, and then giving a Cleantech-specific analysis of the strategies for protecting your intellectual property. It is thrilling to see how well-crafted German and Scandinavian government policies have created local champions and international markets for those services that have even been able to challenge the US leaders. I know from friends taking the Carbon Trust market incentive scheme to China and investing in UK technologies in the TTP Carbon Trust incubator here that we have great opportunities in carbon capture and in teaching other nations how to get these technologies adopted. I left the session more optimistic about our ability to really help save the planet from here.

So I shall be delighted to go along on the 10th June to Robinson College and learn more about why good people do dumb things. Andrew Campbell, who will be illustrating his talk with such interesting choices as Tony Blair's decision to take us into Iraq, has a wealth of experience to share. I shall feel right at home, being someone who regards themselves as good, but somehow manages to be consistently dumb. Its free to all, and I hope I shall see lots of you there! And I particularly look forward to hearing how you got there!!

And for those of you who insist on driving, I expect you will all want to come along to our lovely event on greening cars on 3rd June also at Robinson. Lotus Engineering and the Technology Strategy Board will come along to tell us all about how we will have transport without associated guilt. Senior people are coming in for the afternoon from outfits like BP, Cosworth and IBM in addition to native companies including 1 Limited, Antenova, Autoalert, EEDA, Ego Aeroplanes, Nokia, Qualcomm, Renewables East, RL Tech, TTP, and TWI amongst others.  Incidentally, apparently Robinson have a lower carbon footprint than other venues, so you don't even need to worry about coming to both events! Again, this event is free.

Gosh, here I am being dumb again! Promoting free events? Well, leading a network is a bit counter-intuitive. I know the biggest ask is actually your time, not your money - but that unless you come in, you won't experience this amazing community. So I'm highlighting some events where you don't need to put your hand in your pocket, even if you are not yet a member. Service first.

Comments

[Tim Lancaster - Carbon Trust Director in China]

I encourage you to go to Matt's meetings; I attended one in 2003 while working at the BBC and decided to change career to work in the sustainable energy field. Two years later, I joined the Carbon Trust, 9 months ago I started their first overseas office in China and am now setting-up a JV to develop low carbon technologies there. That meeting was life-changing for me so I suggest you make the time and go - the sun comes up each morning but we only live once.