There's something very satisfying about lighting candles and the fire in an energy-less (but otherwise) comfortable house. Listening to the old clock ticking and chiming on the bookcase. When the lights finally did come back on there was something a bit garish about it all - too bright and slick. A house with no power for a couple of hours is playtime though; a couple of days without heating and hot water and you soon begin to feel quite miserable. The gas cooker works without electricity so could have kept going for a while but, when the gas finally runs out, what then? There's no going back to a time and place with no hot baths, clean clothes and a reasonable degree of comfort; actually we don't have to. The technology to sustain a reasonable lifestyle is already here - we just don't implement it, choosing to live on borrowed (fast) time.*

* Climate Change - Britain under Threat. Presented by David Attenborough on BBC1 this evening from 8-9 o'clock.