Donald Noble’s Site

Update, I didn’t realise the blowout-preventer was the failsafe — but it failed!

I am amazed that there appears not to be a failsafe shutoff valve on the oil well on the seabed. Surely it would be a good idea that the top of the well should be sealed if there is a disastrous problem with the rig above — if only to prevent loss of the valuable commodity, not to say anything about minimising the environmental damage.

BP is using submersible vehicles, equipped with cameras and remote-controlled arms, to try to activate a blow-out preventer – a series of pipes and valves that could stop the leak.

However, this was a “highly complex task” and “it may not be successful”, said chief operating officer of BP’s exploration and production unit, Doug Suttles.

… the oil slick was estimated to have grown to about 600 sq miles (1,550 sq km)

More on the oil slick, and the estimated two months to fix it by Richard Black Oil stirs troubled waters

This is another scandalous example of the environmental disregard of oil companies. But we continue to support them by driving around in our cars, flying off to foreign climes (ash permitting), and buying food transported half way round the world instead of eating fresher local produce…

Over the past couple of weekends, I have climbed these three Grahams on the rough plateau to the west of Loch Ness and north of Glen Moriston. They inhabit a barren landscape, strewn with lochans, bog and peat hags, with some rough rocky tops poking through.

On Easter sunday, I headed up Glen Affric, past Tomich and Plodda Falls, and parked at Cougie Farm. I started the walk in the warm sunshine, after realising I would not be needing my heavy winter fleece, by following a forestry track west for about 600m. The ascent started when I turned south onto an Argocat track, following a steep path beside a burn to Bealach Fèith na Gamhna. Once onto ridge, an easy walk SW to a trig point, before crossing a rocky/peaty plateau to the true summit about 300m to the south. The air felt properly warm for the first time on the hills this year, and it was nice to be able to sit about and take in the view while eating lunch.

The descent was by a slightly more direct route cutting through a felled forestry plantation (which was not such a quick route as it looked due to the presence of hidden branches forming formidable trip hazards!). After returning to the farm, I decided to also climb the small hill to the west, Meall Dubh, hoping for even better views of the snow capped Glen Affric Munros. Dense forestry plantation seemed to block the ascent, so I ended up walking along the track for about 2km to a gap, where there was a very steep ascent to summit. While closer to Glen Affric, it is also a lower hill, so while the views were stunning, they weren’t any better. Again, I decided to chance a more direct route of descent, bashing through the forestry plantation, which was quite hard work.

The following weekend, Malcolm and I went up the two hills to the east. We parked just west of Invermoriston, at Blàraidh, and cycled up the rather steep track to Loch Liath, where we left the bikes. On foot, we followed the rough ridge west to the top of Carn Mhic an Toisich over quite rough ground with no sign of a path, then returned by the same route.

Back on the bikes, we cycled through a ford swollen with meltwater, and further up the track to Loch ma Stac. Walking east then northeast over easier terrain, we contoured round a small top then ascended a rocky ridge to the summit of Meall a’Chrathaich. Moments after we reached the summit, a (very light) flurry of snow started falling. Quite a change from the previous week! We hastily returned to bikes, and went down the track, back to car rather faster than we came up.

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Total time taken: 4 and 4½ hours; Distance: 12km and 27km (16km by bike); Height Climbed 690m and 880m; Photos Taken: 83 and 76.

Photos on Flickr and the second set

I was going to write a piece about the recent anouncement that the USA and Russia are committing to reduce the number of nuclear warheads they have in service, and that we in the UK should be doing likewise. But George Monbiot has written something much better than I could, in his article War with the Ghosts which I urge you to read of you have not already done so.

The non-proliferation treaty, to which the UK has signed up to, commits the nuclear powers “to pursue negotiations in good faith on … nuclear disarmament”. So why the hell are we as a country still planning to spend tens of billions of pounds on replacing the Tridant “nuclear deterrant”. This is especially ludicrous — as if it’s not already stupid enough — when we are in the depths of a recesion, when we can least afford it. The Lib Dems are at least saying they would consider other options to like-for-like replacement of Trident — but does this go far enough?

We need to keep telling the politicians — who, after all, are in government to represent us — that there are better things to spend taxpayers’ money on. Even a duck house with a moat would be a better use of the money (in that it is 10 orders of magnitude less).

You could also sign up to the Global Zero: Together for Zero petition.

It must be time to change the clocks again, the news is full of the biannual demand to mess around with the timekeeping system still further. 1, 2, 3...

One of the proposals to it move to what is being termed “Single/Double Summer Time” (SDST) — why not just call it what it is — Central European Time. Although I suppose that this wouldn’t go down too well with some parts of the electorate — after all, it has the word “European” in it, so it must be bad.

There are plenty claims and counter-claims about whether this would save lives & energy, or increase accidents in the summer/winter (delete as applicable). Fordyce Maxwell agrees somewhat

There are still enthusiasts for double summer time, plucking figures freely from the air. This month it is “introduce double summer time to provide more than 8,000 jobs and boost tourism income by £3.5 billion”.

I still stand by what I wrote 3 ½ years ago (although I can’t say I actually follow this, I like lying in bed in the mornings too much).

The obvious answer, with no associated cost, is for people to just get up earlier! We have changed our habits over the past few hundred years, with the advent of the electric light, to stay up well past sunset. If we want to enjoy more of the natural sunlight, why don’t we just match our activities to the daylight, rather than messing about with our clock system!

Plus, the laws planetary motion dictate when the sun rises and sets. Adding one to our arbitrary counting system isn’t going to change that. Unless Newton et. al. missed something rather critical!

Now that a lot of the snow has melted, I got out hillwalking for the first time in a month. Last weekend, Malcolm and I headed up Strathconon, to climb a couple of Grahams either side of the road at Inverchoran.

Beinn Mheadoinn

We parked near the head of the Strath, at the track to Inverchoran Farm, and started walking in that direction, following a good (but steep) track up the coll to the east of Beinn Mheadoinn. Once we reached the coll, we ascended the heathery slopes on the NE of the hill, which were still wet from recent snowmelt. The top was craggy, and rather windswept, with wintery showers limiting the time we spent there.

The views over the Munros to the south would have been rather nice, if it weren’t for the low cloud and driving rain, but were still interesting. The descent was by much the same route, taking just over 2 hours to complete. As we walked down the track, the sun showed through, boosting our sprits, and motivating us not to stop at the car but to continue up the other hill.

Meall na Faochaig

About 200m west of Inverchoran, a track heads northwest, up the southern flanks of Meall na Faochaig, before turning back on itself. Before we got to the end of this track, but still slightly later than we should, we left the track and headed northwards to the summit. The Grahams book suggest following the ridge, but we headed too far east, and ended up with a viewless slog to the top. There we were greeted with nice views of Meallan nan Uan to the north, but the more distant hills to the west were not very distinct due to the cloud. Descent was again by the route of ascent, by which time the weather had cleared again.

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Total time taken: 4¼ hours; Distance 15km; Height Climbed 1050m; Photos Taken 22.

Photos on Flickr