Pem was once a musician. If pressed, he'll go all dewy-eyed and recount tales of playing guitar to one man and a dog down the local bars. Pem howled the blues, the dog howled, the man turned his back and ordered another beer.
He hasn't really grown up. But he now puts pen to paper as well as finger to fret.
When he wasn't growing up, first that occurred just outside London, before moving to Devon at the age of seven. He's aware that last bit rhymes.
He has Welsh roots and is a descendant of the artist Augustus John - which is quite easy to achieve when you learn the man sired over a hundred kids. Pem has only the one child. Abigail. He's very proud of her. More so than he could ever express in words or through music. He just is.
In alphabetical order - of importance to Pem: Curb Your Enthusiasm, environmental issues, family, Family Guy, friends, (not Friends - he finds that offensive), Lightnin' Hopkins, Motorhead, Son House, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The White Stripes, Tottenham Hotspur.
I’ve yet to see a red squirrel in the wild. Such is this animal’s continued population freefall that I may never see one. Full stop. Though once a common site down in the south of England, now it is mainly in the north and in Scotland that it survives.
It’s been a native of the British Isles for 10,000 years now, yet the naivety of the Victorian era threatens this creature with extinction.
In 1876, one Mr Brocklehurst, formally of Cheshire, in the north of England, now turning in his grave, decided it was a good idea to release a pair of North American grey squirrels into the wild. The rest, as they say, is history.
Glastonbury Festival is one of the highlights of the British summer. Or lowlights, some may say, as it invariably seems the clouds burst that particular weekend.
Revellers rush back to their tents to wait for the rain to subside. But recently, it has come to light that cows living on the farm where the festival takes place have been choking on metal tent pegs left behind. Has an answer been found?
The military games must stop. The ambiguities come to an end. Explanations need to be provided.
I reported in the Guardian last month that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) were objecting to wind farms in the UK because they felt the turbines interfered with military radar. The turbines were, in their words “in the line of sight.”
(Of course, were we not a bellicose little island nation, always eager to attack and interfere with foreign disputes, we wouldn’t need to concern ourselves with defense quite so much.)
I demanded answers. Demanded, if their objections were true, that there be immediate improvements in radar technology so that the UK could proceed with meeting renewable energy targets.
75 miles was the round figure given. Were a turbine any closer than that, then interference would be unacceptable, the UK’s defense at risk.
Yet, last week there was a U-turn by the MoD. A complete turnaround that must have caused wind farm planners along the east coast of England millions of pounds: financial waste caused by military indecision.
Globalization brings with it many threats to endemic island species.
Certainly, as an example, food air miles often makes the news, with consumers urged to buy locally, in a bid to cut down trade reliant on kerosene and its resultant CO2 emissions.
But importing foreign foods brings with it additional risks and uncertainties. One can never know for sure what else is being imported along with their food.
I use this, I stress, as merely a clue as to what may have caused the varroa mite, which carries a number of viruses and which has wreaked havoc on UK bee colonies.
Environmental decision making is fraught with contested views. An example in point is the proposed barrage that would span the Severn Estuary, not far from me really and technologically, rather exciting.
Yet negative environmental implications abound, more of which in a moment - for now, let’s quickly marvel at the possibilities.
The Good News
It seems incredible that just north of where I live, 50 miles or so, there exists the second highest tidal range in the world - with a difference between high and low tide of some 14 metres. The potential to harness this enormous flow of water into renewable energy is obvious.
I apologise profusely for having brought that advert to an international audience, but I had to. It’s cathartic to share.
I shudder at the voice-over to such an extent that I need to lie down in a darkened room afterwards and gnaw at my knuckles. Hideous snobbery. What were the creatives thinking?
But to M&S. Or Marks and Spencer, to give them their full title, a clothing and food store from here in the UK who in an announcement to the press state:
“Marks & Spencer is to roll-out a 5p charge for food carrier bags in all of its UK stores from the beginning of May to encourage customers to reduce the number of bags they use and to raise money for environmental projects.”
The symbol of the UK establishment, the Houses of Parliament, has today been invaded by protesters clambering onto the roofs and demanding justice over Heathrow’s third runway decision.
As we skate dangerously close to cut-off time, and this writer gets the distinct impression that he’s beginning to mix metaphors - the big question then: how does the UK feel it views environmentally pressing questions?
Looking to members of the website generous.org.uk I asked them what they felt. Commenting on my earlier blog concerning biofuels, Andrew Fleming gives a full and well-informed account of his personal views. Over to Andrew then:
“Biofuels are not a simple answer - until all the starving are fed, I would prefer that we feed the poor, rather than fuel the rich. It is not a simple question. If we do not alleviate climate change which is happening, then we will lose more land from active crop production due to global warming.
