How much electricity is lost getting power to you along those ugly cables? Apparently it is around 10% per 60 miles - what a waste!

Why do we throw away so much heat from power stations (more than half the fuel is wasted as heat) letting it escape through cooling towers to the sky? Are we stupid?

How much could we save if we stopped burning oil directly to heat our houses, and used only a fraction of the same oil to generate electricity locally and power heat-pumps to heat our houses instead? (Heat-pumps generally produce three times or more heat than the power that drives them. Sounds mad, but it is actually true.) And you still get most of the heat back from burning the oil in an engine or turbine to heat your house - that's having your cake and eating it too!

How much coal, oil and gas could we save if we properly managed our woodland (this has generally been left in decline and decay for the last 100 years), and used the timber in local heating projects? We're not talking about removing trees, just sensible management and planting new ones. How many jobs would it create? How many farmers would be happier producing a valuable crop for profit instead of being paid to do nothing with Set-Aside?

Large white windmills are very impressive PR, almost biblical in appearance but who gets the profit from them? Do we want them in our countryside? Who decided big-and-ugly was the best design? Is there a better, more attractive wind machine that could benefit all of us rather than an exclusive minority?

Why do we need nuclear power when we are wasting so much of the energy we already have? Is there yet another hidden agenda behind creating such dreadful pollution?

Do our politicians have any technical knowledge? Do they care? Why have they let such appalling waste go on for so long? Is there just too much profit in an oil-based economy that nobody has the courage to change it?

What has happened to the 'super-batteries' that would be a huge step forward for electric cars? Who now owns the patent? How can we proceed if such good inventions are simply squashed to satisfy backward-looking industrial interests?

How can we really call ourselves green if we continue to behave in such a ridiculous way? Are we all so frightened of facing the truth?

Can local, small-scale energy production solve some of these problems - YES, YES, YES!!

©FIRECRACKER™ 2010