Looks like the government's coming in for a pounding today over its refusal to provide some sort of one-off payment to cover the rise in fuel costs for the most needy people - Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary argued for improvements in energy saving measures such as insulation etc rather than a one-off payment or a windfall tax on energy companies. But surely this is just avoiding the root cause of the issue - namely that we cannot guarantee energy security in the current climate (economic, political &, hey, why not climate change too), that a deregulated energy market cannot prevent speculation, and that energy companies may not always be working in the public interest, despite what their PR says. Until we tackle those things, energy is always going to be a social issue.

On a more cheery note, Planet Earth interviewed a chap called Johan Eliasch, a businessman who "put his money where his mouth is" and bought a huge chunk of rainforest from a logging company to prevent its destruction. Lo and behold, I wikipedia it and come across http://www.coolearth.org/. What a great idea - and it provides jobs for local people at the same time. And even James Lovelock approves!