There was nothing to blog. Now there is something to blog, so I shall blog.
For reasons too tedious to go into, I no longer work at Ricardo. Not working at Ricardo coincided with a holiday in Cornwall and the fresh air (and isolation due to the fact that I crashed the car and it took 5 days to fix the broken windscreen) provided space for reflection.
Reflection one. The worst but about my previous job (and there were many good bits) was the lack of a team which saw me often working in isolation. Reflection two. That while it got me closer to real impact, there was a nagging doubt that my climate risk analysis was not changing behaviors or investment decisions. Reflection three. Science teaching in my sons' school is struggling, particularly with retention.
By now you can see where this is going (and H.R.H. Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, who I was just chilling with at the Mansion House last week, announced it to the gathering, so the secret is out). From September I will be studying for a PGCE, spending most of my time in a school setting, with the aim of being a qualified secondary school chemistry teacher in a year from now.
This will mean that I do a lot less work in climate, but aside from the fact that I think I'm going to love teaching, I think that - once I've achieved the rank of "at least tolerable" teacher - there will be opportunities within the profession to support concrete actions on decarbonization and, particularly, climate resilience in schools.
But one thing at a time. The next 12 months are going to be a challenge but one I'm really excited about.
