Letters / Back tae da sixareen
Some people still fret we will run out of “affordable energy”.
Alas, it has always been the case that there was never enough cheap energy. That’s what prompted ancient civilisations to deploy oxen, donkeys, crude wind and water-driven machinery etc, which are still in use today wherever people are “ill-aff”.
The problem with using “social engineering” to reduce energy consumption is the underlying yearning to somehow turn back the clock to “the good old days” when we were all “sustainable farmers” and had a life expectancy of about 35 years.
Of course “sustainability” has only to apply to the “vulgus mobile”, the “great unwashed”. The great and the good (and the rich), by virtue of their responsibility for taking care of us would be forced to forego their dearest principles and carry on exactly as before.
For the rest of us, if we disobey “Carbon Manitou” He will be angry and we shall “swee” in his fiery breath – for all eternity!
Happily, it is precisely because of our accelerating ability to find new ways of producing and using energy more efficiently that we have the luxury of sitting in a nice warm room, in a comfy armchair, pontificating on the internet about how we should use less energy – whether by having windmills on our roofs, allotments, bicycles or whatever turns you off…er, I mean ON.
If we were all “sustainable farmers” there would be no argument, we’d all be too busy looking for new ways to access affordable energy and stay warm.
I still remember my Mam’s older lady relative rowing an open boat from Gletness to Girlsta several times a year to help an old man to bring home his peats. Maybe we should all get back to that?
One idea that would help us to go part way could be for all those who don’t want us to use energy – fossil fuelled or otherwise – to STOP USING IT!
Get rid of your cars, start up your allotments and get on with it, there’s a long enough tradition in Shetland, after all – “back tae da sixareen, da kishie and da wife puwin da ploo!” I expect most people will say “Aye, GET ON YOUR BIKE!”
John Tulloch
Lyndon
Arrochar
tullochj22@btinternet.com
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