There’s usually one dry day a week, and I squeeze an autumnal ride in then if free. Today was a corker; everywhere drenched in vibrant russets and golds from West Drayton to Beaconsfield via Langley and Black Parks and Burnham Beeches. Previously, greener rides through the amazing giant conifers of Havering-Atte-Bower and the Kentish Weald of Chartwell, Hever and Chiddingstone brought equal pleasures. Continue reading
Many humanoids will “fall back”* to a logically correct time tonight, when they set their clocks to approximate to the solar noon of their slice of planet Earth’s surface. This is wise, for they have been getting up increasingly in the dark, Continue reading
I may be the only customer at The Wine Society warehouse in Stevenage who rocks up after a thirty mile bike ride, usually muddy (more of this anon), to fill my panniers with a dozen bottles and pedal off. Continue reading
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
Martin’s winning design in the Greater London Council’s competition to initiate 1000 miles of dedicated cycle routes. Evening Standard, February 1978
Project C25 has taken a back seat in 2019, though I have been checking on the condition of the routes, finding to my relief minor improvements in many places, and little evidence of degradation and thankfully no disrupted or closed paths. For instance, yesterday I learned that downstream of the Thames Barrier “the missing link” had been installed. Continue reading
The Tokyo megalapolitan area is home to thirty eight million people – substantially in excess of half the UK population and the world’s largest urban agglomeration. Having experienced it firsthand, here are some observations from a wide-eyed Londoner Continue reading
The Autumn equinox coincides with my last day with the Royal Opera on tour in Japan. We will have just performed the thrilling opening sequence of Verdi’s Otello in Tokyo at the moment of equinox – UK readers will be having breakfast (08.50 BST). Whatever, wherever, whenever… Happy Equinox! 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
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