MacKay video

Prof David MacKay has been touring America giving a tak based on his book "Sustainable Energy: without the hot air". A recording of his talk at UC Berkeley is available from the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/2010_04_08_David_MacKay. This is well worth watching. The lack of brightness in the projected slides is fixed fairly early in the talk.

Prof MacKay provides the numbers and leaves it to us to reach our own conclusions. Mine are: (1) Renewables will damage the environment and never work; (2) Even nuclear will not work without improving the current technology for nuclear power; (3) There's going to be a tough decade before necessary changes can counteract the decline in oil production that I expect to start soon.

Meanwhile the British election is likely to end with 3 parties and no majority for any one. The Lib-Dems will block nuclear power if they are included in a coalition. So the only way for Britain to advance sensibly will be a Labour-Conservative coalition. Will politicians put their own interests ahead of their bitter personal animosities? Don't count on it. This is where the Head of State has a legitimate role in looking for a coalition that makes sense. They don't have to listen to party leaders if those leaders don't command a majority in the House.