Hoots & Havers with James Irvine Robertson February 2005
IT SEEMS THAT MANY PEOPLE want to include the word Breadalbane in the name of the redeveloped educational institution which will arise in Aberfeldy. If it was up to me I'd ditch the word. The reason it looms so large in the Aberfeldy area is thanks to the pestilential family of that designation who used to live at the new hotel being developed adjacent to Kenmore.
A Mr Pont came a map-making a couple of hundred years ago and the head of the family, as always into ruthless aggrandisement, wanted his name on as much of Scotland as possible, so he put the screws on Pont and made him write it in large letters over much of Atholl. The Central Belters and the English knew no better; local opinion was ignored and he was allowed to get away with it.
I agree that losing the name Breadalbane - known by most outside the area, and increasing numbers of immigrants inside, as Breddlebane - may not be easy - that dirty great brown sign would need repainting for a start - but it would be nice to disassociate ourselves from the oppressive and arrogant megalomania of that part of our heritage.
But there's little chance when the cringe-making Griffin Forest still sticks like a bogey to the local maps and signposts. |
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Granted the world is unlikely to shift on its axis in consequence, but I changed my mind a few weeks ago. Instead of global warming being just another tiny blip in the several billion year development of our planet, I was forced to acknowledge that humanity has played a huge part in this, that it's going to have dire consequences and, unless we do something very soon, we will bequeath a seriously degraded environment to the next generation.
In a way it's rather bad luck. The last half century has been a golden age for us in the first world. Disease, starvation and war have been virtually absent for the first time in history and we have enjoyed the pleasures of unprecedented affluence. Material poverty now means the absence of a DVD player rather than having to watch our children die. Other generations may have created deserts - the Highlands of Scotland being one example - and wiped out species of animals but we've never before have the power to change the entire planet and, even worse, never have we had the knowledge to understand this and know a way to sort it out. So we have given ourselves an unprecedented responsibility.
It gets worse. Three quarters of the world will find it almost impossible to join us to sort the problem out - should we be willing to do so. They are those who are still starving, dying of curable disease, or have the cheek to want to become as rich as we are. It's difficult to expect them to accept that it is better to remain in poverty rather than accept some dirty industry. So it's up to us. But the most important us - America - chooses to believe, as did I, that serious action is unnecessary.
It's this global dimming thing that convinced me. The amount of sunlight reaching the earth has declined up to 30% since 1950 due to the soot particles we pump into the air. In some ways this has been fortuitous since this decline has shielded us from the effect of the greenhouse gases. Their warming effect has almost, but not quite, been cancelled out by the other muck which reflected light and heat back into space.
Now it's becoming trickier. We have scrubbers in power station to filter out the soot, and catalytic converters in cars. As a result Europe has the cleanest air it's had for decades, so the sunlight has come back - and we don't have winters any more. So, while we're not doomed, it seems unarguable now that the next generation or two will be faced with appalling problems of our making.
One cannot help wondering if windmills really are the way forward. There's a gamy whiff about them - the sort of thing that EU auditors might well be advised to brush up on. But I came across one excellent energy source. The encyclopaedia described it as having no greenhouse gas emissions, safe and reliable, low long term cost and ease of transport and stockpiling of fuel. Its only serious disadvantage is political opposition.
I am also informed that to equal the output of a bog standard nuke would require 140 square miles of country to be turned into a wind farm. I don't know how much that is, but it sounds a lot, quite expensive and environmentally extremely bracing.
My generation has enjoyed life in a period of unparalleled peace and prosperity and will be able to warm my bones in my old age. Salvation for our descendants really depends on whether we have the common sense to begin a huge expansion of nuclear power. Then we could plug our cars as well as our lightbulbs into the grid and save the planet.
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