Innovation

This blog was triggered by an article in New Scientist, 7, November, 2020 p16 Titled Innovation.  It was all about bringing the UK back into the lead in the world in Advanced Research Projects.

 

Not all innovation has to be research based, ground breaking and expensive.  There are many simple, well known measures that would make a huge difference.

 

*Introduce beavers into the headwaters of every catchment and you mitigate floods, increase low water flows, clean the water, increase biodiversity recharge ground water, trap the nutrients coming upstream with salmon migrations into the surrounding ecosystem and create a great tourist attraction.

*Finance election campaigns from the exchequer instead of from vested interest contributions and you eliminate a large block of political corruption.  This is the prime reason that politician do the bidding of vested interests instead of the bidding of the people who elected them.  Solve this one and we would stop having to push the brown stuff uphill with a spoon. Do this and most of the rest will be simplicity itself to achieve.

*Remove all subsidies on fossil fuel and a big chunk of climate change mitigation will occur automatically. Renewable energy can stand on it's own feet economically, especially since the advent of mega batteries.  Do you realize that the 100mWh battery at Hornsdale in Southern Australia is on track to earn the total $66m Aus that it cost, within three years.  They have added another 50kWh of storage and I bet they add more.

*Eliminate Cap and Trade and legislate Tax and Dividend and money will be put into the hands of the poorest instead of the richest, stimulating the economy.  The rich simply squirrel it away and it doesn't power the economy.

*Outlaw foreign fishing boats in your EEZ and set large areas aside as no fishing areas and your catches in the fishing-permitted areas will return to what they were two centuries ago.

 

*Compensate victims of floods from the land or from the sea, generously - once - and that is it.  If they insist on remaining in the flood prone area, they will never be compensated again. Hire a small group of insurance experts to hold the feet of the insurance companies to the fire and make sure they compensate the clients fully for what they deserve according to their policy.

There are plenty more but you get the idea.  The function of government is to set the playing field so that things happen automatically.  They are supposed to take the wider view and enable actions that will benefit her constituents far into the future.