Despite the tube strikes – or perhaps, in a perverse way, because of them – we ended up with an excellent turnout for our evening with Tom Heap at the RAF Club, with nearly 80 people joining us. As one of our open events, it was especially pleasing to see so many new faces alongside our longer-standing members, and I was delighted to meet several people who said how much they had enjoyed the evening.
Tom was every bit as engaging as we had hoped. He has a real gift for taking a complicated subject and making it feel immediate and interesting, and he did exactly that as he guided us through the human race’s long dependence on “burning stuff”. His reminder that we still burn through the equivalent of a forest the size of India each year was rather sobering.
There were several striking moments, not least his point that around 70% of the global population think action should be taken on climate and energy, yet most believe they are in the minority because they assume everyone else feels differently. It was a useful reminder of how easily people can be left thinking they are alone in wanting change, even when they are not. He also spoke about China’s extraordinary expansion in solar and renewables, with production and use having doubled in the past year alone – a reminder that other parts of the world are already treating these technologies as serious, secure and necessary.
After a few questions from the floor, many stayed on for drinks and conversation, and Tom himself kindly remained for a while too – even managing to sign and shift a healthy number of books before the evening was out. All in all, it was a very successful evening and a good example of what these open events can do: bring together members, guests and new faces for something interesting, sociable and thought-provoking in equal measure.
Organised by Tim Murphy
