Heroes and Villains

The New Statesman has published its guide to who it thinks are the heroes and villains of the environmental movement. One of the beauties of lists like these (apart from the pantomime-like orchestrated booing and cheering) is there's always something to disagree with, and this one is no exception.

As you know I'm not keen on raising people up onto pedestals (see my controversial Brian Haw post for example) so when we single out individuals for praise or condemnation it's not always about them as an individual (although it can be) it's also about what they represent.

The villains list must have been difficult now that George Bush is out of the White House but he's there in spirit under the guise of Donald Trump but the authors have commendably kept the focus of their ire on the actions of big business (with an side serving of poking for the Labour government).

It's when they come to the heroes list I'm a little more confused. Franny Armstrong, yes, of course, good stuff, but the National Grid? Apparently they published a report saying that wind power was not variable in input. Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad thing to do but heroic? Publishing a paper stating something pretty obvious? If you say so... and the less said about James Lovelock the better. Literally.

I don't know - check it out for yourselves. I'm just glad I don't have to compile a similar list because if I singled out Switch Ninja for praise people might just look confused.