Another Sunday morning, another (short) essay. This one is about being on the receiving end of small acts of generosity, and the instinct to pay them back. I've also added voiceovers to all my articles now, so you can listen if you prefer. Thanks pals! 🙌

Never pay it back

Pass it on, but don't pay it back

open.substack.com

"This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here." This week's Lightsome piece is about deep-time lightsomeness and one of the strangest pieces of writing of the 20th century. Subscriptions mean the world while I try to build this thing, thanks Bluesky pals 🙌🌳

12,000 years of lightsomeness

Planting trees, building brochs and cathedrals, and burying nuclear waste in the desert

lightsomeness.substack.com

For five years, I've been running every decision of our business through a single question: "is this the lightsome thing to do?" One of the things that has given us is "the fine day policy." At 60° north, the work can often wait, but the fine weather never does.

The one lightsome filter

Five years of running a business through a single question

open.substack.com

Politics breeding cruelty, algorithms breeding outrage, most of us tired. So fuck it; new Substack, all about lightsomeness. Free, one piece every Sunday. I'm a small account, so reposts by my mighty pals on here to like-minded humans would mean a lot 🙌 lightsomeness.substack.com/p/there-are-...

There are no lightsome arseholes

Picture a crofthouse, 200 years ago.

lightsomeness.substack.com

Had to share this memory from last year - I had been away with work, and when I arrived home, my youngest daughter (5 at the time) couldn't wait to tell me that her story had been chosen for publication in a kids book of short stories. This was her story... 😂🙈

Reform UK are weaponising a growing net zero cynicism in the UK - and it might just get them into power. Check out my article if you have 5 mins.

Reform UK have understood something that the industry can’t admit: growing energy transition cynicism could put them into power

Richard Tice's letter to energy sector leaders on Wednesday is the clearest sign yet that Reform UK intend to weaponise growing net zero cynicism to propel them into power.

open.substack.com

The current direction of energy market reform risks reinforcing a trajectory for Scotland where the majority of the benefits are extracted while the burdens are localised. This short viewpoint covers the REMA announcement, and some broader ideas on community ownership.

Anyone who thinks our benefit system is too generous, has clearly had their common sense surgically extracted by the Daily Mail. Losing your job is financially catastrophic (esp for mortgage payers, who drop to just 12% of an average wage overnight). And our sickness benefits bill is similarly mean.

I'm all for progressive taxation, but this isn't that. Farming can be an extremely marginal business, even on land that is valued highly on paper. I know farms that have been passed down for 300+ years from one generation to the next. Tax levied at the point of land sale feels less destructive.

The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 2y ago

EXCLUSIVE: Corporations may buy up even more of Scotland’s land as a result of the Labour Government's new inheritance tax on farmers Suicides in an already high-risk ­industry are predicted to rise as a result of the tax

This article is vital reading re. the principles of a 'just' transition. "Wind and solar only require massive natural and human sacrifice if you fail to regulate the corporations that build them". Couldn't agree more. 🙌

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 2y ago

All high-success climate action models show a sustained very-high construction rate of new renewable energy for the rest of our lives. This is why development needs to fundamentally respect biodiversity and people: blunt-force approaches cannot deliver smooth growth over many decades.

Love the sunrise on this kind of day

Love deep menacing blues, which gradually blacken as snow showers get closer and night draws in.

"To abandon facts is to abandon freedom" #BookSky

Continuing the theme of things I love: spindrift. When, on days like today, the wind picks up spray from the surface of the sea.

Community Compensation ≠ Community Benefits ≠ Community Wealth

Neil McInroy@neilmcinroy.bsky.social · 2y ago

Energy developers really should be mindful that to call Community Benefits '#communitywealth' is misleading and specious. #Communitywealthbuilding is an economic system change process with inclusive and democratic ownership at its core. It ain't payments to communities.

When it comes to creating community wealth from energy developments, Shetland has a singular experience of the good, the bad, and the downright disastrous. Last month Voar launched a report on this; there are lessons for the whole country in here: www.justtransition.scot/publication/...