Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Socialist Republic

Sheffield again showed that it is still at the cutting edge (no longer of cutlery) but of political issues, when it hosted a Conference yesterday at which Al Gore gave a presentation similiar to his film "An Inconvenient Truth". This time it was entitled "Cooling the Planet".

He is doing a great job in alerting us to the crisis around global warming. It is, of course, possible to build upon his own vision for cooling the planet. The socialist implications in terms of alternative transport patterns, rebuilding local communiuties and democratic planning have a strong tradition in the former Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and in neighbouring North Derbyshire, which some are currently trying to build upon. More on this theme later.

In the meantime could not Waterstones and Blackwell's in Sheffield catch up with some of our political and philosophical interests? By yesterday neither Nick Cohen's "Whats Left?" nor Alister McGrath's "The Dawkins Delusion" had arrived to be placed in stock. It is a good job Al Gore did more than enough to fill our minds and efforts.

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