Friday, August 12, 2005

The island above all others

Good to see news about renewable energy in Unst, one of the Shetland Islands, in the mainstream press. I hope Ross Gazey and colleagues go far with this.

Among the things I'd like to know more about is how the gaseous hydrogen will be made liquid and stored, transported and used, and what this will cost? Also, what are the prospects for livelihoods and wealth generation?

I was lucky enough to go to Unst in '96, when I managed to convince my producer at Costing the Earth that we should do a feature on environment and livelihoods, with a focus on Shetland.

I loved it. The people - with a very hard past that has made them resourceful, but a relatively enchanted present - are fantastic. The landscape is like no other I know. Driving across Unst, for example (I was on the way to visit the recently opened Zetnet office, I think), was like coasting over some part of some ur-brain - a landscape that resembles or perhaps even is something in the deep subconscious mind.

On Google Earth it's just about 60.45 N, 0.53 W

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