Turkey is a dish best served cold

I'm still weaning myself off the surfing and the blogging, but it's not easy.

However, some things are helping me see the wisdom of the effort.

Take today's Guardian Online. I have captured a block of three topics, topped by the one that almost sucked me into its lair: 'Why do newspapers hate us bloggers?'

They don't hate you... er... us! They love us! Look at that figure in red below. Over a hundred comments before elevenses. Chock full of extreme and diverse opinion, quotes and links. Sure the readership number is trivial, but the source material is gold-dust. If you are a hack or commentator (or are they the same thing?) who is paid to read this stuff and write about it, who needs research?

Sadly, I am now having to find more profitable ways to spend my hours, so wading through such material, much as I'd like to, is no longer an option. And in any case, these days even if I do see something of interest, I have no faith in whether it's accurate or the time to check.

Sadly, it looks like the media I used to trust to discover and report for me are not bothering much either.

Space... the final frontier

A few posts ago I had cause to tweak an eyebrow at some coverage in the Sunday Times magazine last week regarding an eco-artist who took pictures of people protesting about global warming... from his helicopter.

This week there is a similar airborne piece, which I felt was much more striking and justified.

However, despite the familiar, depressing and assuredly concerning pictures of retreating ice fields and glaciers, what was more striking to me was the percentage that were not so much to do with climate change (though it all has a contributory effect) as population expansion and the consequent demands on our planet's finite space to house and feed these ever-increasing numbers.

For every square meter of forest turned into housing, as economies develop you'll generate a whole new source of domestic waste, and demands for energy to light, watch TV, water, garze cattle, grow soy, provide cars, roads to drive them on and biodiesel to fuel them.

I can't help but feel that if this is not addressed (though I have no easy-PC suggestions how) as a priority, all the rest is rather trivial in comparison.