Peter Smith, professor of sustainable energy, warning at the British Association festival of science that Climate change will reach point of no return in 20 years.

"What will overcome [government apathy] is when there's a two-metre rise in the Thames so that the House of Commons is under water," he said. "The tragedy is that there needs to be a fairly catastrophic event to motivate politicians to take action, [so] they feel confident that the public will vote for them next time."

The book The World is Flat, which inspired the Bricking It? event and web site, is a terrific read on the economic and educational challenges of globalisation. As Steve Moore says, it has become a defining metaphor. But is that the only metaphor for our discussion?

The book has just nine pages in 600 on the coming oil and environmental crisis, and there's nothing substantial on climate change. How important do we think these changes are in defining the sort of life the next generation will have? And what opportunities does this challenge offer? Apart from lifebelts of course ....

The idea of running Bricking It came to me when I was sitting in the MP Derek Wyatt's office in the second week of the New Year. He was sharing anecdotes from his recent trip to India and in particular how impressed he was the education facilities and the appetite for learning in the sub-continent. We mused about the grandchildren and children of his constituents in the Isle of Sheppey might be doing for a living twenty years time.