More regulation please

[English assassin]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1574003,00.html

A good article this, showing business leaders making the point that they cannot possibly afford to instal more efficient technologies unless regulation protects them from back slides who continue to use old, cheap, but dirty techniques.

And George Monbiot saying hooray for business.

And the bizarre spectacle of a labour government rejecting regulation in the name of the market. Overlooking the obvious point, made in the article, that regulation will in fact create the market in new technologies.

(Do you think politicians can spell "externality"?)

All in all a strange collection of everyone doing the opposite of what you would expect.

[Crazed Rabbit]

The architects Atelier Ten had designed a cooling system based on the galleries of a termite mound. By installing a concrete labyrinth in the foundations, they could keep even a large building in a hot place - such as the arts centre that they had built in Melbourne - at a constant temperature without air conditioning. The only power they needed was to drive the fans pushing the cold air upwards, using 10% of the electricity required for normal cooling systems.

That sounds like it would save money, so why don't they do it? Noone's stopping them, and they'd save money in the long run.

This is really just businesses who don't want any risk installing these new technologies.

Crazed Rabbit