I’ve worked in renewable energy / sustainability for around 18 years, and in that time have seen climate change and sustainability go from obscurity to being household words. However show-case projects and news-bites are not enough.  We know what harm we’re doing to the planet, we know the chaos it will bring around the world, we have to be serious in implementing solutions.  We have the knowledge and the technology now, and we need to use the oil we’re burning now to create a real sustainable infrastructure that will see us all into a zero-carbon age.  The UK government has just about killed the renewables industry with their lack of support in favour of dirty fossil fuels and nuclear.  The expertise we have built up is going to be thrown away.  Now of all times the government needs to support renewable energy, and how can our government take part in the Paris talks with their appalling record at home?  We can’t throw away our future. We can’t steal the future from the next generations. We can’t condemn millions to famine, flooding, disease, homelessness, war.  My work in renewable energy is likely to come to an end in the next few months, but it means I’ll have more time to protest!  It’s easy to feel powerless at the moment and cycling to Paris is a good way of being the change that we seek.  We have the power! And the waterproofs!

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