Couple More Things...

The Guardian discusses Air Conditioning this week. It considers the rising dependence we have on it, not least because of global warming and hotter summers, whilst flagging up the damage the energy-hungry aircon does to the environment, thus precipitating the vicious circle. It also asks us to be forward thinking in our plans for future buildings so that we can limit our need for air conditioning.


A rather more uplifting story is about elephant populations in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The latest census was carried out last week and showed that numbers had increased since the last survey three years ago. The succss has been attributed to the dedicated national park guards, who have been protecting the animals from poachers at great personal risk and for a meagre salary. The EU has now agreed to fund more support in the near future. Many hope that tourism to the area to see the wildlife will bring revenue and reduce the local need to profit from poaching (though it seems that travel will come at an enormous environmental cost too, not to be encouraged without reflection). It will be interesting to see how this situation continues to develop.