More Eco-themed sideshow ideas ‘KNOCK THE DIRTY FUELS DOWN and THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE SMOG-BOUND

Following my last post,I’ll now give more information about the Eco-themed sideshows at our Children’s Science and Climate Change afternoon. Here’s the second ‘game’. It’s called ‘Knock The Dirty Fuels Down'. The targets are empty  415gm  cans, with a wrap-around showing dirty fuel installations. They have to be knocked off their shelf with beanbags. Clearing 7 or more off the shelf earned winners’ tokens.

The sideshow had an associated placard (not seen in the picture of the sideshow) - but reproduced below the sideshow image.

Simple knock about fun - with a profound message

AND HERE’s THE THIRD ATTRACTION

So here is the third of the sideshows which will shortly be available to churches and schools in the Cambridge area to borrow. The picture is a prototype, and the images on the wine boxes will be renumbered to give a clearer message. The sideshow is called 'The Good, The Bad and the Smoggy’. Playing is very simple: players toss or lob a beanbag at the array of wine boxes (an interesting way of re-using them) which are numbered to reflect that clean air technology is way more superior to dangerous, dirty fuel energy generation.Smog  was that dense and life-threatening form of air pollution that the UK experienced way back in late forties and early fifties, until the introduction of The Clean Air Act in 1956.

Thus, the (revised) highest score of 10, needless to say, furthest from the player, features a Tokamak. A Tokamak is a nuclear Fusion energy generator. It operates at colossal temperatures and pressure, in effect emulating the method by which the stars produce heat and light. Tokamak processing, which leaves no nuclear waste, unlike the present fission power stations, has been under development for decades. The development costs have been so vast that only international collaborative funding has been able to put up the huge amounts that have been necessary for progress to be made. Then, in May 2025, CNN reported that a commercial enterprise was building a Tokamak just outside Boston USA. Amazingly, and encouragingly, funding of US$2billion is backing this enterprise. Clearly, even usually hard-nosed investors believe Tokamak will deliver, and a date of 2030 is slated. It is hard to envision just what this will mean, but with a projected target of producing four times the power input, the enterprise will undoubtedly be a game changer in the energy market. So the incorporation of the Tokamak at the top end of the sideshow scoring is intended to give a message of HOPE to children playing the sideshow. Not that many of them will want to be bothered with such detail, but on the basis that every child is likely to be accompanied by a responsible adult, this message maybe part of a drip-feed of encouragement to be optimistic that Clean Air Technologies will sweep away their dirty and dangerous predecessors in the not-too-distant future.

Scores of 5 - 9 (inclusive) are allocated to various established clean air technologies, wind turbines, solar panels, sub-sea (near surface generators, which operate in races of water and produce three times the energy density of wind turbines) sea-borne booms and tidal lagoons. There are no scores of 2, 3, or 4: the scoring drops to 1 represented by Coal, Oil, Gas and Shale - all dirty and dangerous fuels which also leave scars on the landscape when they are abandoned.

'Should these score at all?' one asks - but then, this is only a sideshow game!

The concepts behind the sideshows will all be explained in a small pamphlet entitled ‘Our Sideshows: what they mean’, available to borrowers of the equipment. At the time of writing this post, the pamphlet is in embryo form.

For now, to better understand the purpose of the Eco-Fayre, go to The first Mini Eco Fayre entry that you will find HERE  

 

A Mini Eco-Fayre which may be of interest. Part 1

On my ‘main’ blog, The Cross and The Cosmos, I have been posting about an outcome of a children’s event called ‘Science Faith and Climate Change’ That outcome is that we are building up a collection of sideshows all with an Environmental message to loan out to schools and churches, predominantly - but there could be other uses for the kit.

The set will be known as St Mary’s Fen Ditton, Mini Eco-Fayre collection. I will now repeat those postings over a few days and maybe into a couple of weeks, as, if you are in the Cambridge area, you might be interested in thinking about how you could use such an offering

Here’s a copy of the first post ...

Last Saturday afternoon, 17th May proved a warm, delightful few hours for our experimental Science, Faith and Climate Change event at St Mary’s, Fen Ditton, on the Eastern edge of Cambridge. The Faraday Institute, Schools and education team, provided fascinating insights into Fossils and faith, Our bodies in all their Godly complexity (children could make DNA bracelets and the fascinating nature of non-Newtonian liquids intriguingly demonstrated. The explanations of various sciency things were much appreciated by those who visited.

Meanwhile, outside in the churchyard, a sequence of Eco-themed sideshows provided entertainment and hopefully some education and HOPE for the young people present (and, later, for the older helpers, too)

Here is one of the sideshows entitled post-event, ‘Do You give a Toss?. You can see a beanbag which, having been tossed, didn’t quite make it to score on the right-hand side.

If you look closely, you will see the clean air section at the top earns high points, whereas the dirty fuel disaster section, featuring wildfires, floods and hurricane score consistently low. This message is spelled out more explicitly in a note to accompany the sideshows which is set out here.

Fen Ditton Children’s Science, Faith and Climate Change Afternoon .

The Outcomes by Trevor Thorn

 

Saturday May 17^th was kind to us in weather terms as those who came were able to enjoy an imaginative collection of Eco-themed outdoor sideshows. In the church. Indoors, the Schools and Education team from The Faraday Institute provided a fascinating array of ‘stations’ which included a spectacular collection of fossils, an opportunity to make a DNA bracelet and the wherewithal to make a suet-ball birdfeeder as a tangible expression of encouraging the bird-life in our gardens.

 

It would be dishonest to say that we were besieged by children from the three schools in which we promoted the event but there has been a promising development around the sideshow collection. The picture of the most popular of these, which will now be renamed ‘Do You Care a Toss’ will give a sense of what we might now regard as a prototype for a Mini Eco Fayre which we can offer to schools and other churches as a package. We will put the stalls into a nearby storage facility, so they are readily accessible and seek further support from the Cambridge Schools Trust to finance this second step of our Eco-venture.

 

One of the important elements of the display was to give children HOPE that Climate change need not be the disaster story that is all too constantly in the media. In order to make this message clear, a two sided slip was prepared, one side addressed to children and the other to their parents or carers. Here, for your interest are the two texts

 

Parents & Carers

OUR SIDESHOWS

 

The aim of our sideshows is to give children a sense that Climate Change is not the threat it is sometimes made out to be.

 

New clean technologies are developing all the time and are now attracting big investments, notably the TOKAMAK, a nuclear fusion generator which can generate huge energy output without nuclear waste, and is due to come on-line early 2030s. A TOKAMAK has attracted $2billion in investment (Source CNN) which might otherwise have gone into dirty energy production.

 

It does not take a lot of thinking to realise that investors will soon wake up to the idea that the future has to be one of clean, green,  technologies and that money will move from dirty fuel generation into these far more attractive investment areas.  The sideshows imply this message and are, thus, designed to give your children and teenagers HOPE – a vital message for their generation

 

And HOPE is also the greatest message of the Christian church.

 

Thank you for reading this

* * * * *

 

Message for Children about our SIDESHOWS

 

Please have fun on our sideshows.

 

As you try to win tokens for prizes you will be helping to raise money for remote villages in Africa who will be helped to build solar lighting to avoid using dangerous fuels, like kerosene.

 

If you look at the sideshows carefully, you will see that clean, green ways of generating energy score much better than the dangerous dirty fuels that have been part of your mum, dad and grandparent’s history.

 

Clean, green ways of making power are getting better all the time and the world is waking up to that fact.

 

In the not too distant future, lots of people will want to put money into supporting these clean methods rather than the old ways – and then Climate change will not be as bad as some people say.

 

So why not talk to the older people of your family and ask them to consider Solar panels, Heat pumps and electric cars if they haven’t already. That could be YOUR way of helping this change happen

 

Let’s hope this next step proves to be a positive one in our efforts to link the church to concern for the issues of climate change and the effects this is having on some children.

Another sideshow will feature in our next post.

IT IS NOW THE INTENTION THAT THE SIDESHOW EQUIPMENT IS PUT INTO STORAGE IN THE CAMBRIDGE AREA AND CAN BE MADE AVAILABLE TO ANY CHURCH OR SCHOOL THAT WOULD LIKE TO RUN A MINI ECO FAYRE OR INCORPORATE THEM INTO A LARGER EVENT (SUCH AS A VILLAGE FEAST).

WE ALREADY HAVE 2 PROSPECTIVE USERS!

IF YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS POSSIBILITY AND WOULD BE ABLE TO COLLECT AND RETURN UP TO 5 STALLS (BEING SUPPLEMENTED PRESENTLY AND SHORTLY 10 WILL BE AVAILABLE), Email crossandcosmos@gmail.com  Head your enquiry ’Side Show information and start ‘Hello Trevor Thorn’

I hope this might be of interest in raising the profile of the anxiety some young people are experiencing, and help them to find someone to talk to, who will allay their fears with a confident message that dirty dangerous fuels must be abandoned - for the world’s sake. And that they can play a part in bringing this change about.

You can view the original, and more recent posts at The Cross and The Cosmos blog

 

 

                             

Our car is not as small as the one pictured here, but I wonder if we are alone in feeling that our car is shrinking compared to the  many cars that seems to have to straddle a space and a quarter in a supermarket car park. Just this week we were flanked by what felt a colossal beast. As we sat in our car, the driver and his companion returned to the beast: they were an elderly couple - and might have needed it to transport a horde of children, grandchildren and possibly even great grandchildren. But if that isn’t the case, it’s hard to understand just why such a beast is needed in Battersea (where the dealer’s address was)

As I pondered this, the nonsense poem below came to me - at least it relieves my feelings - just a little...  

Your car is too big sir, 

your car is too big,

for just one or two,

your car is too big! 

You may want its status, 

lust after its heft, 

but if many follow you, 

there’ll be no world left.

Nuclear Fusion Means (unlimited) Energy Clean,

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, just outside Boston USA, announce (CNN 6^th May) they hope to have an unlimited power-generator called a Tokamak up and running by 2030. This will totally transform the energy map of the world.

 

Nuclear Fusion means energy clean,

Far more power than ever yet seen.

The Tokamak shape

Will be perfectly safe:

Unlike mining’s dangerous extremes.

A Writers’ Retreat:

A Bovine Quest (with Climerick to finish).

 

We are on an island writing retreat.(Iona)

 

‘Go. Listen to a sound of the island – and reflect it in a written format of your choice’, we are bid.

 

I decide I will go and listen to the sound of cows chewing cud.

 

I walk to the gate that leads to the hill – no sign of any cows.

 

I walk on round two further bends -  not a cow to be seen anywhere.

 

I see a woman feeding sheep. As she turns her car to leave, I knock on the window: it is reluctantly rolled down.

 

'Are there any cows around, or are they all being overwintered?' I ask, with scant idea of whether that is a sensible question in the second half of March.

 

'There’s cows up there', she says, jerking her thumb towards the north, ‘But none down there’. The thumb is jerked in the opposite direction and, feeling my visitor-ness, I set off, at least knowing I am not travelling in vain.

 

I walk to the gate to the North End; no sign of any cows.

 

I ask a young woman ‘Any cows up there?’

 

She looks at me and my walking stick slightly strangely, and says she has seen two or three.

 

I know I am not travelling in vain.

 

I ascend towards the top of the elevation: not a cow to be seen anywhere.

 

Aha! I think. If I climb as high as I can, I will surely see any cows there might be, wherever they may be lurking.

 

And sure enough - there are cows some 100 feet below and they are troughing it. 

 

 

Gone is my notion of putting my voice recorder as close as I dare, to a constantly chewing soft mouth and retreating to transform  the sound into writing.

 

Instead, there is the violent chomping of a bovine tea party, but joyful, I feel a CLIMERICK come upon me.

 

And so it did come to pass, 

that I listened to cows chomping grass. 

Then horror! They’re belching: 

it’s clear they are belting

out methane, a vile greenhouse gas.

 

  

TODAY’S CLIMERICK: RACHEL REEVES, LISTEN - GROWTH IS FOR FOOLS

Edited Pixabay Image

What folly! -More Runways to kill the planet

Rachel Reeves, listen! Growth is for fools,

if it leads to the planet’s downfall.

The Earth’s urgent need

is to swiftly impede

power-making, with foul dirty fuels

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

TODAY’S CLIMERICK - with HOPE: Materials Science is where

 

Materials Science Is Where

You will find a great body of care

For sustainability

At scale capability

Young people, take hope; don’t despair.

 

On the Eco-verses site, we are always on the lookout for reports of activities that can bring some hope into a fraught futurism. In the September 2024 issue of Materials World are articles on bringing colour to solar panels making them more attractive to architects; recycling of critical metals from spent alkaline batteries, improved recycling of solid state lithium batteries; The next generation of smart offshore windfarms; how precise measurement is vital in the race to net zero and 3D printing of natural material flooring panel (to replace steel) and more. This Climerick is a repetition of one posted on 1.10.2024 except for the last line. The earlier version appealed specifically to investors to support as many Eco-businesses as they possibly can. 

TODAY’s SLIMERICK:THANK GOD FOR VERY BRAVE WOMEN

And I do mean THANK GOD...

Thank God for very brave women

Bishops who won’t just, ‘AMEN’;

but speak truth to power

and simply won’t cower

to blust’rers and cowardly men.

For  Bishop Mariann Budde in the US - YAY!

and for

Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley in the UK - YAY!

TODAY’s CLIMERICK: STORM EOWYN BRINGS HAVOC AND FEAR

Cyprus Avenue, Belfast 

in  the wake of Storm Eowyn 

(Guardian Picture)

With so much violence in weather systems worldwide, and so much turbulence in politics, including the disgraceful stopping of the Climate and Nature Bill in the UK parliament today. I will try to bring both a CLIMERICK and a SLIMERICK every day (other than Sundays). Won’t make that aim all the time - but I’ll try, and hope others will take up similar writing. So here’s today’s CLIMERICK, coupled with today’s SLIMERICK ...

STORM EOWYN BRINGS HAVOC AND FEAR,

WITH A STING JET - A RARITY HERE;

IT BROUGHT RECORD GALES,

AND DESTRUCTION AT SCALE.

IT’S CLIMATE CHANGE, BOTH LOUD AND CLEAR.

See today’s BBC Northern Ireland weather news at Northern Ireland | Latest News & Updates | BBC News

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE   

TODAY’S SLIMERICK (Day 3 AI - After Inauguration)

As each day unfolds, it seems there will be new ideas for a SLIMERICK-A-DAY!

I’ll try! And here’s todays

SLIMERICKS ICON (Modified Pixabay Image)

LIAR TRUMP, YOU’VE BEEN GRACELESS I HEAR,

TO A BISHOP, WHO, SHOWING NO FEAR,

ASKED YOU TO BE KIND

TO ALL HUMANKIND,

NOT JUST TO YOUR WHITE THUGGISH PEERS.

TODAY’s SLIMERICK (Day 2 AI - After Inauguration)

 

SLIMERICKS ICON (Modified Pixabay Image)

Liar Trump, Your Paris attack

is not clever, for by rowing back,

you’ll heighten wildfire

and hurricanes dire.

Yes! Your land will be blighted, that’s fact.

We will attempt to post a SLIMERICK daily to note the damage being inflicted by Liar Trump, not only on America but on the whole world

SLIMERICKS JOIN CLIMERICKS: TODAY’S SLIMERICK (Day 1 AI - After Inauguration)

SLIMERICKS ICON (Modified Pixabay image)

As from today, every SLIMERICK is a CLIMERICK and therefore an ECO-VERSE, as good sense is overwhelmed by the most dangerous administration the world has ever seen, masquerading as democracy.

Why SLIMERICK - SLIME RICK!

and here, the first SLIMERICK, a modified earlier CLIMERICK

LIAR TRUMP, you are headed to be

THE GREAT FOOL OF WORLD HISTORY.

As you boost coal and oil,

the planet will boil;

then it’s doomsday for Earth, YOU and me.

 

STARMER - WHAT ARE YOU ON?

SORRY TO THOSE WHO COME HERE TO FIND ENCOURAGEMENT TO HELP FIGHT THE CRITICAL ISSUE OF CLIMATE CHANGE - BUT THE POLITICAL WORLD IS SUCH A MESS - THAT I’M STAYING WITH PLIMERICKS JUST NOW

So yesterday The Sun (pause to rinse mouth out) reported Starmer as saying ‘I’ve got the Balls to take the axe to the Benefits system.' My response

O STARMER, YOU CLAIM TO BE BRAVE,

AT MAKING A BENEFITS SHAVE.

A TRULY BRAVE GUY,

WOULD SMASH WEALTH THAT’S SO HIGH,

IT IS DIGGING DEMOCRACY’S GRAVE

Let’s hope lots of voters will see this and register their disgust with their MPs 

MEET PLIMERICKS ALONGSIDE CLIMERICKS: Message for ZUCKERBERG

AI generated Pixabay image

I really can’t help it! When I started writing CLIMERICKS, I thought that would be enough, but we are seeing such malign things happening in the corporate and political worlds, I just cannot but try to express my indignation and often outright anger at daily news. Yesterday’s news provoked this …

The first PLIMERICK, that is a Limerick with a decidedly people-focused slant.

ZUCKERBERG, how do you dare,

Reduce your duty of care

To those who don’t doubt,

Harmful trash YOU put out?

The toll of their DEATHS - YOU MUST BEAR?

It is surely obscene that such a massively profitable outfit so demonstrably puts profits before people. IT IS SHAMEFUL! Could it be that this withdrawal of due diligence is about cosying up to someone more powerful? Each of us will have our opinion.

And, perhaps people,who still have decency as a watchword, will gather round this and send a powerful message to a guy who has simply far too much wealth for his own good and thinks he can ride roughshod over vulnerable subscribers to his platform.

CLIMERICK: If You’re Now Returning Some Clothes, A verse to prompt you to think, as you return unwanted garments

 

If you’re now returning some clothes,

A I can quickly disclose,

if the path of return,

 will be just slash and burn

or perhaps NOT increase the earth's woes.

So we find ourselves in the ‘Season of the Returns’, when disliked, wrong sized, plainly unlike the description, clothes get walked to the Post Office or mailing boxes to land back on the vendor’s doorstep. This is a 'planet aware’ moment. 

Do you have any idea what the policy of that seller is to the possible van-loads of returns that arrive unbidden throughout this Season of the Returns.

Do YOU care? I hope you do, because you can do an Earth- friendly/ unfriendly check before you send a garment back.

One way (as suggested on 16th December on this site, would be to ask the sellers for a copy of their ESG (Environmental, Sustainability and Governance) report and see a) if it exists at all and if it does ask for a copy from their Customer Relations Department. Make your action dependent on what the report says. So, if that should reveal (Unlikely) that they simply trash all returns - and some undoubtedly do, there really isn’t an Eco-wise reason to send the garment back. Take the refund, take the garment to the nearest thrift or charity shop and bask in the knowledge that you have saved that garment poisoning the earth with many thousands of others.

However, all that takes effort. Though by taking that course, you will bring pressure on some of the more unscrupulous traders and earth needs to know some of you will (Bravo! Bravo)

So, yesterday, I tried a much simpler route. I am signed up to an AI suite and asked it ‘What will #GooseandGander do with a garment I return? It’s an ideal target for aa AI request, very specifically targeted, so the Algorithms will get straight to the heart of the query. It might take you quite a long time hunting round the G&G website, for example.

The answer came back in less than 5 seconds.

If you return a garment to Goose & Gander, they will typically inspect it to ensure it meets their return policy criteria (e.g., unworn, unwashed, and in its original condition). After that, they might:

1. Restock It: If the item is in excellent condition, they could add it back to their inventory for resale.

2. Sell as Seconds: If the item has minor flaws, they might sell it at a discount as a “seconds” item.

3. Recycle or Donate: For items that can’t be resold, they might recycle the materials or donate the garment to charity.

Policies can vary, so it’s best to confirm with Goose & Gander directly if you’re curious about their specific process.

Now, I realise the answer said ’they will typically...’ and not simply ’they will’. I’ll be following up and asking other retailers questions with the help of AI.

And at the end of it all, I feel as if I have struck a tiny, but significant seam of customer awareness.

Do think about it. I will be back with another thought- provoking idea in a few days.

IN THE MEANTIME, MANY HAPPY RETURNS.

 

.