Market uncertainty needs replacing with consistent policy across the energy, infrastructure and housing sectors. Critical new technologies require research investment. Campaigns are required for public information, to inform on what changes will be required in homes and workplaces, and help provide public acceptance and confidence in this new positive future.
That is the real issue with ministers and the PM currently doubling and tripling down on irresponsible behaviour of an advisor at the heart of government – the increased public health risks that may result from this poor example being set.
Like all the best journeys, the road has had moments of joy, despair and plenty of lessons in life and self.
People tend to have certain preconceptions about caves and caving, which do not reflect the reality and the rewards of the sport. From non-cavers the most common remarks I get are about claustrophobia and going under water. Given that journalists are people, it is perhaps not surprising that some of the coverage of the ongoing…
In the last week or so I have been for a fifteen minute walk, been out (in a taxi and accompanied for moral support) to the hairdressers and been to visit friends for an about an hour. This may not seem like much, but for me at the moment, these were all major victories. Ten…
It is possible to use thermal response tests on these small diameter square driven piles to determine the ground thermal conductivity to within 10%. However, for the pile thermal properties, it is better to calculate based on the known factory construction conditions of these particular piles
I’d been caving for perhaps nine hours. We’d been going slowly, carrying a lot of equipment and I was tired. Very tired. Now I was shivering in a storm shelter at the foot of a draughty waterfall with so much flow that you could barely see where the pitch rope was. In any other circumstance…
Four rebelays and five hangs to “the ledge” (merely a few square metres in size, but bliss to put your feet on the floor) then a further three hangs to -300m. That is the height of the Eiffel Tower pretty much straight down.
Somewhat overdue, some snaps from our explorations at New Year
You can debate whether her visions of the future were plausible outcomes, but you cannot question the very real fear and distress she was experiencing as she looked out to an uncertain future.
At the weekend I went caving with some friends in the Yorkshire Dales. Nothing unusual there. We were a team of four: A young Canadian nurse working in the NHS in Scotland for 6 months. An Austrian scientist, currently living in Australia but in the UK for a one month research visit. A German born…
Its not been all work. Since the Arctic Slope expedition I have been cave exploring in Austria (twice), Tasmania, Timor-Leste and Myanmar. Totes Gebirge 2015 & 2016 As guests again of Cambridge University Cave and friends I was privileged to be involved with exploration of one of the most significant cave systems in the world.…
Its been a long time since I updated this blog for which apologies! It’s been an exceptionally busy period as you will see from the below where I try to give a flavour of some of the things that have been going on. COST ACTION GABI I have become leader of the working group considering…
A 450km journey down the Nigu, Etivluk and Colville Rivers in Alaska Learning Fast I was learning fast on the river Nigu. How to line a canoe through rapids, how to read the river and what strokes to use during what manoeuvres. It was important that both ourselves and our cargo stayed safe as it…
This year I have been honoured to be asked to give the Geotechnical Engineering Lecture on the basis of the my paper Thermal Response Testing through the Chalk Aquifer, which was published in Proc ICE Geotechnical Engineering in 2013. Thermal response tests are an in situ technique to measure the thermal conductivity of the ground,…
undertheground 