The long-awaited career change is now under way. My interest in human affairs was always much broader than a focus on sustainability policy would allow, and so I have now moved to concentrate on writing fiction, under the pen name Michael Ford.

The new website for the writing of Michael Ford is here. I have begun detailing my experiences of publishing direct with Amazon in a series of articles here.

The stories in this first collection of short fiction are concerned mostly with relationships, with ourselves, each other and the world in which we live. They explore a multitude of aspects of human experience, including perception, consciousness, the construction of identity and personal reality. The characters are taken on emotional, sexual, spiritual and philosophical journeys, which celebrate the mysteries and miracles of our existence.

A Renewable World is now available in a Chinese edition, which is quite beautiful. Well, aside from the rather forbidding cover, which we could say has departed somewhat from the rather cheery, cartoonish cover of the English version, and the mix of technological and organic on the German edition.

The first thing I looked for was the photo I took at the Three Gorges Dam, which features in the chapter ‘Towards Energy Equality.’ The perception of a steadfast Government penchant for muting criticism, could lead one to anticipate the excision of any discussion about one of the most visible of China’s ecological gambles. But not in this case.

I spent five weeks travelling around China in 2006, with a brief stop in Mongolia which involved an ill-fated horse-riding episode in the wide open, wind-blown, sun-blasted land of the nomads. I have never mounted a horse since. The photographs make it look perfectly wonderful, but try eight hours in the saddle with no practice, and a sudden switch to an all-goat-based diet, then we’ll compare notes. Continue reading →

In a new report, ‘The Green Economy in Bristol and the West of England (pdf),’ published by the Bristol Green Capital Partnership, figures show that the local green economic sector has grown significantly in recent years, as most have contracted. Between 2005 and 2008, growth in the renewable energy sector was around 160% nationally, compared to 10% for the economy as a whole.

Figures drawn from the University of the West of England for 2010 showed that 1,086 companies in the West had sales of £2.4 billion, and employed 19,292 people. Annual sectoral growth is expected to increase to 5.5% by 2014/15. The highest year-on-year growth is expected in carbon finance and in four energy subsectors: wind, wave and tidal, carbon capture and storage, and photovoltaic energy. Continue reading →