I want to leave a safe world for our children and Grandchildren. We have the technology. What we need is ACTION! For over a hundred years people have talked of harnessing the huge power of the tide in the Severn Estuary. The last proposal was rejected because it would destroy the mud flats that the birds feed on.

However, a Professor of Engineering, Rod Rainey, has designed a system to generate electricity from the Severn that will keep the mud flats, so the birds still get their lunch! It also doesn’t use turbines and therefore won’t chop up any fish that go through it. It’s cheaper to build than an equivalent amount of gas-fired generation.

It ticks all the right boxes. However, my maths isn’t good enough to check a Professor of Engineering’s work. What we need is a feasibility study. I’ve been trying for over five years to get local politicians interested, without success. Dan Norris, the West of England Combined Authority Mayor, could order a study. Instead, he’s setting up a committee, to consider creating a commission, to investigate if we should generate power from the Severn.

We don’t need another talking shop. What we need is ACTION!

You can read about the Professor’s system here.

P.S. Tidal Lagoons – Forget them. They are twenty-two and a half times as expensive to build as the Rainey system.

My house was built in 1926 with solid walls and no insulation. Consequently heating my home is probably my largest contribution of greenhouse gases. I have put in loft insulation but it’s only four inches of fibreglass. (Scam Alert I get phone calls telling me that the British lung foundation has declared that fibreglass is an irritant and needs to be replaced. It doesn’t. They have never made such a statement and they aren’t even called the British Lung Foundation any more.)

I’m planning to double the depth of my loft insulation. I’m going to lay more joists across the existing ones and put insulation between them. Then replace the boards and junk in the loft. The beauty of this is that there are plenty of offcuts of insulation board in builders skips around Bishopston. They are usually quite happy for you have it because they have to pay for the skips to be emptied.

I shall make a video of how I do it so other do-it-yourself homeowners can copy me. There are an enormous number of houses in the UK that need insulating and it’s expensive to have it done professionally. Doing it ourselves could make a big difference.

The big challenge is how to insulate my solid walls. I had a quote a few years ago of £15,000. Wow! If I can find a way to do that myself it could make a real different. I can’t imagine the nation will ever have the manpower or money to retrofit all the old homes in the country. But lots of homeowners doing it themselves could.

Any ideals?