The world’s climate-environment crisis is suddenly – belatedly – rocketing up the agenda
The equinoxes in March and September, if they are adopted as official Earth Days, can become ‘hooks’ for universal action Continue reading
It is a beautiful May day, and no C25 rides for some while. Time to get the glamour bike out and give it a spin. This is what the C25 can conjure up in a short afternoon: a 15-miler from Elstree to Rickmansworth, home and back in two and half hours. How’s that possible? Continue reading
Martin’s winning design in the Greater London Council’s competition to initiate 1000 miles of dedicated cycle routes. Evening Standard, February 1978
I am in the crew of the new production of Britten’s Billy Budd at the Royal Opera House, but a bit of personal history links me to the creative gestation of the piece. Maybe. Anyway, it’s an interesting story, worth sharing. It goes like this (with apologies for some serious name-dropping…) Continue reading
Twice a year gives a new rhythm, a new habit of action, every 6 months, in Spring and Autumn.
Fixed Planet Events Equinoxes are true planet events, fixed until the end of time. It’s logical to use them. With a planetary perspective you get to see the Big Picture. In the new One World era, we must have that vision.
Equal under the Sun Equi-nox means equal night. It’s when, each March and September, the entire Earth gets equal amounts of light and dark (12 hours night and day). You can say that at equinox we are Equal under the Sun©. There’s no better time to sense our common destiny and purpose – our global citizenship.
Planet Action Equinoxes are planet events – ideal moments for adding the individual’s “little bit” to the greater whole.
Rhythm Equinoxes are twins – the Spring-Autumn rhythm will work beautifully, harmonising with financial and academic calendars, giving summer and winter patterns. Then, whatever is achieved – action, resolution, celebration, link, audit – six months later we can check our progress, refreshing or redoubling our efforts.
Temperature Equinoxes are neutral – ideal for taking a planetary ‘temperature’ audit – a matrix of available data to judge our progress in tackling de-carbonising, pollution, biodiversity, etc.
®, led by equinox-logic, has come up with many neat ideas. Here’s one:Daylight saving In March we sleep unnecessarily through morning daylight. There is a simple, fair, and logical equinox-based solution to daylight saving that could be applied internationally and save $millions in energy costs and tonnes of CO² completely cost-free!
A new initiative led by the young is taking root fast (clickable), adding pressure to act as if there is a future (for them). That’s the stick. And the carrot? – remember that science tells us climate change (clickable) is overwhelmingly caused by man-made global warming. If we made it, we can un-make it.
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These words of the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead – who with others 50 years ago in 1969 chose this fixed event in the calendar to be the first Earth Day – apply precisely to the equinox.
The Spring Equinox is a natural Earth Day, with a host of advantages built in. Not only that, it has a twin on the other side of the year: the Autumnal Equinox (September 23). Continue reading
The C25’s purpose is to entice the rider out beyond the metropolis into pastures new, and while designing the system I was acutely aware of the importance of noting potential hazards along the way. Last week, out of the blue, I was thrown by a potholed rut between the surface of the approach lane and the main A40 carriageway in Beaconsfield, and left unconscious by the roadside for 20 minutes. Continue reading
This is the transcript of a reading given on December 15th at St Clement Danes Church as part of the Christmas Concert of the talented young choir Coro.
Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth’s orbit and head up and out into deeper space. The astronauts were Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders and they orbited the moon ten times during December 24, 1968. On the fourth pass, at 4pm GMT, as they came round again from the dark side of the moon Anders saw something emerging from below the lunar horizon: Continue reading
It starts so well. Straight off the train at Rainham (20 minutes from Fenchurch St) you can take a coffee at Rainham Hall (NT) before setting off on five miles of prime offroad cycling – and superb birdwatching – along the Thames to the RSPB centre at Purfleet. Thereafter, in order to reach the destination of Tilbury Fort, significant obstacles as well as fascinating discoveries lie ahead. Continue reading
To conclude final checks of the C25, I have ridden the twelve Spinoffs. The climb to Pink Hill (235m) is up the beautifully graded and picturesque Bryant’s Bottom, followed by an exhilarating descent to Princes Risborough and concluding here just beyond the charming hamlet of Horsenden, where the Phoenix Trail takes over. Continue reading
To conclude final checks of the C25, I have ridden the twelve Spinoffs. This is the Thames valley NCN4 route to Reading, largely flat of course, but here at leafy Bowsey Hill the spinoff concludes in a short but quite rigorous offroad climb. There is a choice after the descent to Crazies Hill; Continue reading
To conclude final checks of the C25, I have ridden the twelve Spinoffs. Here on the singular Basingstoke Canal, the route ended after 8 miles at Mytchett canal centre. I had been told that the towpath ride deteriorated markedly thereafter, but on the contrary, Continue reading