And from last year's visit

The commitment to alternate forms of energy is alive and highly visible in the Northern part of the UK. Each time I visit, I see more wind turbines, and, up here, concerns about the view change are evidently non-persuasive. A picturesque shot of Lumley Castle now will require a little photoshopping to remove the thin white lines that poke above the trees behind it. Here, perhaps unlike the Mendip Hills (where a Telegraph correspondent lives), energy supply needs will be less controversial. Similarly if you want to record your vacation with pictures, you have to accept that "England's green and pleasant land," is increasingly yellow with the oil-producing rape. On the other hand, a quick trip to my comments on a visit last year sees that it contains the comment, relating to a local vicar's protest at the potential installation of wind turbines at Tarry (where my eighth-generation ago acestor mined coal).

It would be one of those ironies of man, if a land that once hosted a series of mines across the fields and moors is now considered too beautiful for the more environmentally friendly windmills. I will remain dutifully silence about the other message.

The world is increasingly involved in finding alternate sources of power, and the impact of these, and other efforts around the world, that are now bearing fruit will certainly reduce the impact that the reduction in conventional oil production would otherwise bring. The displacement of the need to import oil with the use of this domestic supply will alleviate a little of the pressure that is building around the world as supplies tighten. But, in the tightening of that supply, we are not yet always sensitized to all the impacts of tragedies occurring elsewhere.

As we write about, and debate the next Hurricane season, for example, we tend to focus considerable attention on the GOMEX along the Gulf Shore. But hurricanes and typhoons are, in their impact on global production damaging not only in the Gulf, where a considerable portion of Mexican production also is found, but also in the deep water recovery zones around the world, and off China. The loss of production from one field was, this time, quite low around 22 kbd but nevertheless it is an indication that these tragedies and loss of life and energy can occur globally.

For the curious