HORIZONS

Goodall's goals for the globeCould giant solar farms in the Sahara provide Europe's electricity? Can we really expect to make petrol from wood and straw? Could burying charcoal help solve global warming? This is just a sample of the questions that Chris Goodall answers in his new book, Ten Technologies To Save the Planet(Profile Books, £9.99). The former business consultant, teacher and MBA graduate from Harvard University brings the realism of an economist and businessman to a field that attracts many mavericks and idealists.

In his book, Goodall explains how the most promising solar schemes involve a huge array of mirrors in the world's deserts that superheat liquid to generate electricity. He heralds the arrival of Roadster, a new electric sports car from Tesla. He suggests that zero-tillage cultivation (which doesn't involve turning the soil, thereby locking in its carbon content) is a superior form of farming to organic farming for global warming. And, he promotes the new generation of biofuels that are being created in the US from woodchip from sawmills. He also suggests that once we have successfully switched away from coal, gas and oil we will find that energy costs are no higher than they are today and perhaps considerably lower. www.carboncommentary.com.

Ringing the climate changes

Next Saturday is designated as Global Action Day Against Climate Change, which this year coincides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. In Ireland, the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition of non-governmental organisations will mark the day with a bell-ringing consciousness-raising campaign. Communities around the country will be encouraged to "ring the changes" at 2pm on Saturday to signal that the world should not warm by more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels. If groups or individuals want to organise a bell-ringing event in their area, they should telephone 01-6394653 or e-mail info@stopclimatechaos.ie. See also www.stopclimatechaos.ie.

The woodpeckers move in

Ireland is one of the only countries in Europe that doesn't have resident woodpeckers. However, in the past two years a number of black and white woodpeckers have been heard drumming in several woodland locations in the spring. In some places, they have stayed on into the breeding season. A few young woodpeckers have since been spotted, which suggests the great spotted woodpeckers have started to breed in Ireland. Birdwatch Ireland is very keen to monitor this process and urges anyone who hears or sees woodpeckers to contact the organisation on 01-2189878 or by post to Birdwatch Ireland, PO Box 12, Greystones, Co Wicklow. See also www.birdwatchireland.ie.

The heroic hedgehog

Self-confessed hedgehog obsessive Hugh Warwick has just published a book on his 20-year passion for this lowly mammal who didn't even get a speaking part in The Wind in the Willows. A Prickly Affair: My Life with Hedgehogs (Penguin) chronicles Warwick's travels from a field in Shropshire to the islands of Scotland and from hedgehog hospitals across Britain to the International Hedgehog Olympics in the United States. The book also includes advice on how to make your garden more hedgehog-friendly and explains how hedgehogs can save the world.

sthompson@irish-times.ie