Centre for Alternative Technology

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On a chilsome friday afternoon I set out from Nottingham with the group 'Engineers without Borders', towards CAT, centre for alternative technology. We arrived at the centre, to the warmth of the 'eco cabins' in which we'd be staying. The wood stove was in operation, giving us excellent relief from the cold. Later on we were joined by a group from Birmingham and then later by the second group from Notts (at around midnight!).

The next day we made our way up to the site, for a talk with one of the Engineers about 'Zero Carbon Britain', the centres' proposal to achieve a zero carbon economy in the Uk within two decades... a seemingly achievable plan - 'just add political will'... This is a tough commodity to come by it seems, though apparently Lib Dem are pretty keen. This was followed by a peak at some parts of the site normally off-limits to visitors, followed by general looking around the site, and of course a stop at the cafe.

Later on we had another chat with a guy who's been heavily involved in CAT for a number of years, back at our eco-cabin, in the company of oxford uni EWB. This was interesting, based largely on the themes: we need to be a little less greedy, start implementing the renewable solutions which have existed for ages and continue to improve, and generally start taking climate change a little more seriously; and lobby parliamentarians and big business to do likewise. Oxford, for all their academic prowess, seemed relatively naive on the environmental issues; which could be construed as worrying. I couldn't help but wonder what to do about the likes of Exxon et al, powerful corporations with vested interests in continuing and propagating behaviour which will only serve to worsen and catalyze climate change - clearly huge barriers to effective and rapid change in society re the environment and general survival of life on earth....

We then jumped into cars to burn some fossil fuel and headed to the nearby seaside.

Back at CAT, cooking was followed by drinking, which preceded eating. CAT run an MSc course in conjunction with the Uni of East London. This is run as one residential week at CAT per month... our visit happened to coincide with the final evening of this months' residential period, so we had the excellent opportunity to attend the MSc end of week party; which was most excellent! There was loads of people, I couldn't help wander where all these people could have come from... to assemble here in the remote welsh mountains at this eco-centre. Was a really lively event complete with gypsie band.

The next day, we looked around the site again, before leaving the peace and serenity of the Welsh mountains, to return to the business of Nottingham. Coming back to be greeted by Radcliff-on-Soar coal power station served as a stark reminder of how far our society is from taking on board the principles which the pioneers at CAT are trying to promote... and how much change we will have to achieve in order to survive peak oil and avert runaway climate change.

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Comments

[Chris]

At the CAT with your hat
Nice to see you back on line. We'll send you some of our pictures from the CAT.