- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
In March 2020, the Global Gypsum team went home from its ‘last normal day’ at the office. Shortly afterwards the UK, like much of the world, entered its first lockdown. While the picture was bleak, we were sure that the ‘novel coronavirus’ was a temporary blip during an otherwise normal year. ‘See you at Christmas’ we joked, knowing that it wouldn’t take that long.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
Winning the war is hard - but winning the peace can sometimes be harder. That’s the essence of the struggle back to the new normal for many governments, companies and people. The Covid Pandemic has been awful around the world, but as it starts to slowly recede into the rear-view mirror, we are trying to deal with a new and sometimes unrecognisable world.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
Between 1968 and 1977 the BBC produced a TV comedy called Dad’s Army. It concerned a platoon of the ‘Home Guard,’ a rag-tag band of men who, being too old, infirm or ‘essential’ to fight the Second World War proper, stayed in the UK as a last line of defence against invasion. The show depicts the flawed group trying their best to prepare with minimal equipment and know-how. They fall into mud and become tangled in parachutes on exercise, run over important dignitaries, blow things up too early, eat prized carrier pigeons and otherwise partake in classic slap-stick.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
Google Maps has a new feature, Timelapse, which stitches together satellite images to allow users to scroll back in time to 1984. As someone who is as old as the first images on Timelapse, this is sobering. Many locations around the world have changed beyond recognition: The melting of Greenland, the ‘advance’ into the Amazon, the growth of megacities like Dubai and Beijing, the disappearance of the Aral Sea... The images are equally shocking and unsurprising.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
The Covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented in modern times, both in terms of its effects on individual health and the global economy. While SARS, MERS, Swine Flu and Ebola outbreaks have been devastating for those affected, there has not been a full-blown pandemic since 1918 - 1919.1 Thankfully, we are extremely unlikely to reach the estimated 50 million deaths seen due to that pandemic during the current outbreak, although the situation remains very bad indeed.
