Journal

Supermarine Walrus

One of the stories my mother has told over the years (and we went through again this morning, at my request) is that of her oldest brother, Peter Adamson, who was part of a smuggling trio in the immediate aftermath of WWII. Known to insiders as ‘Pete, Gus and Hank’, they flew somewhere between one and three old Walrus seaplanes back and forth across the Channel, bringing back perfume and various sorts of alcohol.

On one trip they took a young blonde, who on the trip back managed to sleep through panic stations when the intrepid – but seat-of-the-pants – smugglers teetered on the edge of running out of fuel. They debated pouring some of the illicit brandy into the fuel tank, but we don’t know whether they did or not. My memory is that Peter was asked to leave the RAF during the war, because he crashed too many aircraft.

People my parents knew in the Royal Navy have said the adventures of P, G & H were well known at the time, indeed, the Walrus(es) used to land close in to the fleet, to offload wares.

Would be interested to hear from anyone who knows more of the story.

Travelling to Singapore and Australia this evening, so visas have been on my mind. Have two passports, to facilitate getting visas while travelling, but no visa needed for Singapore. Nor, it turns out, to become a citizen of Hopenhagen, so I signed up to the latter last night. This is an international movement to drive action on climate change at the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen this December. 

The idea is that Hopenhagen will allow citizens to become active participants in the climate change dialogue and make their voices heard to world leaders and conference delegates attending the meeting. The ultimate call to action will be to secure signatures for the “Climate Change” petition in support of the UN, which calls for a climate treaty that is “ambitious, fair and effective in reducing emissions.”

Recognizing the tremendous role that communications will play leading up to and during the conference, the UN engaged the global advertising and media industry through the IAA to develop a comprehensive communications program to drive public awareness and generate action. Hopenhagen will complement the UN’s “Seal the Deal!” campaign.

Heard about the campaign from Miles Young, Global CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, when we sat next to one another at the Unilever dinner at the Tate Modern a week or so ago. For more information, or to sign up, go to http://www.hopenhagen.org/home

Did a fascinating session today with a US company that will be 200 in 2097, when I would be 148, exploring what the world will be like then.  One exercise involved going back to 1921 and trying to think how one might have foreseen then such subsequent events as the Holocaust, the atomic bombing of Japan, the invention of antibiotics, the Ozone Hole, the Internet, a black President of the USA, and so on. Taxing, but fun.

Store 1 Store 2 Store 3

Elaine, Sam and I headed across to Hammersmith this morning to check through SustainAbility’s storeroom in a repository that used to be a Ford factory. Weird going through crate after crate of files, papers, reports and books dating back up to 22 years.

Will drive in and collect the stuff in a few days, including about 15 framed posters from environmental campaigns from around the world. I had picked them up as I travelled, including two giant Body Shop posters given to me by Anita Roddick. They occupied pride of place in SustainAbility offices in Ladbroke Grove, Kensington High Street and Knightsbridge – overlooking Hyde Park. By the time we reached Bedford Row, Holborn, the aesthetic had begun to change.

Despite reclaiming a fair few cratefuls, we will still have to send quite a lot of potentially interesting stuff to landfill. Which has me thinking that we really need to put together some form of museum of environmentalism, green politics, sustainability, cleantech and so on – an idea that has been bubbling in my brain for a couple of decades, but there’s beginning to be a sense of now or never.

Sculpture asleep Winged sculpture Chair Feedback on my session

Did a flying visit to Utrecht today to keynote a entrepreneurship session at &samhoud. Great fun – and met a fair few people I knew from around Holland. Nice to be celebrated as the ‘Father of the 3Ps’, People, Planet & Profit, even if it seems a lifetime or two ago.