WHILE we closely monitor the quality of our water and air鈥攁nd quite
rightly so鈥攚e seem to pay scant attention to monitoring our soils. In this
context, what has happened to Soil Protection Strategy? This
long-promised consultation document is to outline the government鈥檚 policy on
soil protection and is being jointly drafted by the Department of the
Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Ministry of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food.
Originally promised for spring 1997, the document was then delayed until
1999鈥攏ow the news is that it will be published by Easter. The most
convincing explanation I鈥檝e heard for the delays is that ministers have turned
the document down for 鈥渇urther redrafting鈥�. However, I鈥檝e also heard it said
that the document had to go back to be 鈥渟harpened up鈥�, and some MPs suggest the
scheme would have cost much more to run than the estimates given to Jack
Cunningham when he was agriculture minister.
Britain鈥檚 lack of a coherent national soil monitoring scheme means that we
simply don鈥檛 have any well-founded information on the stuff beneath our
feet.
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Monitoring soil is a far more complex issue than, say, monitoring water. I鈥檇
like to hear what specialists such as the British Society of Soil Science think
we should be regularly measuring in a national monitoring programme鈥攊f we
get one.
KEITH HILL, junior minister in the Department of the Environment, Transport
and the Regions, told MPs recently that the government is to publish its draft
climate change programme for consultation in the spring. He went on to say that
it will take into account that, as a result of the 1997 Kyoto conference on
climate change, Britain has a target to reduce a basket of six greenhouse
gases鈥攊ncluding carbon dioxide鈥攂y 12.5 per cent below 1990 levels by
2008-12. Britain has in fact set itself a domestic goal to cut the emissions of
carbon dioxide by 20 per cent by 2010. Hill added that the Kyoto protocol
requires that international discussions about targets beyond 2012 begin by 2005
at the latest.
If we are not serious about climate change we are mortgaging our future. Are
we all serious?
KIM HOWELLS, the Department of Trade and Industry鈥檚 junior minister for
competition and consumer affairs, is to be commended for pushing through action
to help inventors. Inventors often employ promotion agencies to sell their
ideas. Such a move isn鈥檛 always plain sailing: if the agencies are
unsuccessful鈥攁s has too often happened鈥攁nd lazy to boot, there is
little the inventors can do about it.
Until now, that is. The DTI, together with the Patent Office and Business
Link, a network provider for businesses, have produced a splendid brochure, the
Step-by-Step Guide to Using Invention Promoters
(www.innovation.gov.uk/inventors/inv_pro.htm). Howells says it is important that
creative individuals don鈥檛 become unsuspecting victims of unscrupulous firms and
lose their limited resources in return for very little. Such an eventuality is
just as bad for Britain as it is for the individual. However, as he says,
contracting for the services of an invention promotion firm should be no
different from making any other major purchase. Individuals need to apply the
same kind of common sense.
The guide details some organisations and websites where inventors can find
free or low-cost information about promotion agencies. If any reader ever
becomes aware of unscrupulous businesses acting as promotion agencies, they
should not hesitate to let me know.
