Today is Groundhog Day. For groundhogs and groundhogologists, it is the first day of Spring. It is Candlemas, which for some marks the end of Christmastide. For numerologists, it is a pleasing 02 02 20 25. It seems an auspicious day on which to announce the official launch of Greeneralia.net.
It is not completely finished. You will find flaws. We are perhaps at the stage of ‘Vernissage’? To begin with, it will only reach my friends and contacts. This is a good moment for any constructive suggestions, which will be gratefully received. (And encouragement is always welcome).
If you are reading this, you will not need an attempted summary by me, a non-scientist, of the environmental problems that Planet Earth faces in the next decades. I am old enough to have read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring when it was first published and have been worried about the planet from the periphery ever since.
My take is that, apart from the actual physical problems we face as planet-dwellers, our main problem is communication. Let us suppose that everyone on Planet Earth has access to a phone or a PC and the internet, whether individually or through links with others. (And yes, I know that yetis et al need several links to be able to connect, but it is still possible).
One of the reasons, hypothetically, is something like this: ‘Luis Portillo’, say, a meteorologist with many doctorates, discovers a new way of predicting the weather in granular detail in different zones and several months ahead (bear with me?). He is in a position to warn every or each Mr Singh in the Punjab of oncoming drought or flood to the nearest week. How does he do it? At present, probably through the agriculture department of the state government, in other words the bureaucracy. Suppose instead he had an immediate link on the global honeycomb to the village panchayat in which the flood was imminent? In other words, Greeneralia aims ultimately to connect unit with unit and person with person.
“Only Connect”?
Laura Sykes
Editor
