Light not so fantastic? - but then there's 'Bulb Barter'

Caption: The JunkkMale household 'stash' - mostly for bayonet fittings, which we have few of.

A lightbulb went off in my head when I read this:

Low energy lightbulbs mailed to British families that cannot use them

Initially of course, I was simply appalled at how something so potentially worthy could be so mismanaged and/or abused, but then I read this: '..they have often had screw fittings that cannot be used in the bayonet sockets found in most British homes.'

It doesn't get around the 'ugly' issue (not major in this household as the bulbs are usually within a shade), but it occurs to me that it might be worth trying to set up localised (and who better than Junkk.com, with its postcode localisation system to enable people nearby to connect) system I'd tentatively call the 'Bulb Barter'.

Simply put, a place where you drop buy to exchange a bulb you can't use for one you can.

And I think I know juts the folks here in Ross to help me kick it off.

Watch this space. If it works, maybe a better, more proactive national programme than the latest Planet Ban-it?

Targets, box-ticking and enviROIs

Kyoto is worthless (and you don't have to be a sceptic to believe that now)

I'm not a 'sceptic' (optimist). But I am not a total pessimist either.

Perhaps that's the problem. I still lack the conviction to get to the level of extremes that may be necessary.

However, those who would try to persuade the likes of me are a sorry bunch, as this piece suggests.

At least the activists are mostly sincere, if often frightening and, crucially, off putting in their self-belief.

But it is the highly paid pols and hangers on that really take the biscuit, and undermine any serious efforts to address the issue.

Kyoto was a rallying call, yet I read this: The EU has managed to claim success while increasing emissions by 13 per cent

Doesn't help, really.

Then we had Bali, when half the world flew to the other side of the world. That seemed to achieve little more than many of us noting how many went and how little they achieved.

Now we have Poznan.

And, as always these days, we seem to have a total belief in process over and above result.

CATEGORY - BOX-TICKING

Had to be kicked off, for all the good it will do...

Guardian - Ticking the boxes

I think we need funding to do a study into all the funding for studies into the sheer waste of time, money and space that is represented by the exponentially-growing box-ticking industry and those who gravitate into it with agendas above and beyond simply making sure what is happening is happening for good reasons and a decent ROI to those paying. It might go a long way to explaining how and why a pot of money is a) denuded on self-serving empires before any is allocated and b) what's left usually gets to go to some very odd places indeed.