"Thanks Mr Betts". I spent some time putting together an email to my local MP, Clive Betts, a couple of weeks ago. It was prompted by the climate talks in Copenhagen next month. I wanted to voice my concerns that we where going to ignore the future and continue to set vague and distant targets that we can generally ignore. I also suggested that if we spent a little less on building roads and airports or propping up the car industry then we could invest more in real solutions for the worlds growing problems. Suggesting that Britain could once again lead in technology and this time to correct some of the problems we have caused with out previous technologies.

The letter that Mr Betts sent was well considered and seemed to respond to each of my points in turn it. It was not just a circular but a well thought out reply even to the point that he was suggesting local companies that where already doing research into alternative fuels. It is nice to see that he is thinking along the same lines as me and I hope that by adding one more voice he will continue to put the pressure on the government to make the right decisions.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ is a great service that really allows you to dig into what your MP is doing for you in government. You can track the questions that they are asking and how they have voted on issues. Looking at Mr Betts' record of voting it looks like this ties in with the words in his letter which is nice to see.

Most of the solutions offered for reducing our carbon footprint are based on making our current travel more efficient. Why do we not focus more on reducing the need to travel and transport.

There is a movement to reduce the food miles that we use. Trying to source potatoes from the farm round the corner and not Spain just makes sense but our daily commute and trips across counties to see friends seem necessary. Could we concentrate more on the reduction of the need for transport and less on the reduction of the cost?

The daily commute to work is a necessary evil. I have to go to work to be at my desk so that people can see that I am there and come and talk to me. Some work needs to be done on location, if you are building widgets then you have to do it at the factory in the most part although there is a large network of home workers doing piece work. For office work then the main reasons for attending the physical office are to meet up with the people that you work with and so that those casual conversations, that make so much of the office work, can take place. How can we recreate this if people are not in the central office but are at home or in local rented office space? If a village where to have an office space for rent that you could use then the meeting other people and getting out of the home factors could be dealt with and you would not need to commute to work but you would be missing out on the casual contact with your work colleges and not just the people that you share the office with.

Instant messaging, chatrooms, blogs, microblogs and collaborative editing tools could all be employed to make sure that the information is flowing but the problems are larger than just the tools. Getting people to work together over a distance is hard. If you could make a video call to anybody in your office with just two clicks of the mouse and it was a decent quality with no straining to hear or see what is going on could this make it simpler? I am talking about a separate monitor with a full sized face on it and really good quality sound with little or no background noise or delay. Then being able to share a document instantly with the person on the other end and both edit it at the same time.

The virtual tea-break could be a concept. With proper video conference facilities or even over Instant messaging at a push, could there be a dedicated time that is just for banter. It may seem odd at first but if people have an official time put aside for it then it may make things tick over. I like the idea of separate screens for communications, allowing you to have chat's and videos open while still getting on with your day job.

These ideas are not for everybody but if they where offered more how many more people would take them up? What could you and I do to make them happen?