AlastairRonaldo

Alastair Robert Carr
Alastair Carr during the 18-24 Pilot Trip with the Ellen MacArthur Trust in September 2010.
Born	(1990-01-14) 14 January 1990 Lincoln, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Occupation	Assistant Engineer at Network Rail.
Known for	Gender Equality, Women in Engineering, Disability Rights

Alastair Robert Carr was born on 14th January 1990 at 0610 in the maternity wing of Lincoln County Hospital. His main hobbies are sailing and gliding. His main view is that all life on this Earth is finite and therefore the Earth can only support a finite animal population size, including humans. He is currently working at Network Rail in their Safety, Technical and Engineering division at The Quadrant, Milton Keynes.

Early life

He was brought up on a small-holding in Lincolnshire until the age of 7. His parents then moved to Coningsby where they rented a converted vicarage. At the age of 8, he was diagnosed with a certain type of brain tumour, an benign form of brain tumour and he spent a total of 15 weeks in hospital, consisting of 2 weeks at QMC in Nottingham and 13 weeks at Pilgrim Hospital. The latter 8 weeks at Pilgrim he spent as a day case patient. While he was at Pilgrim Hospital as a day-case patient, the family bought and moved into a house in the town of Horncastle. From there, much of his life, from 9 until 14 was spent there, including his secondary school years. His parents then divorced and his father moved out of the family home to a place in Woodhall Spa. His mother remarried and sold the family home and then, for a little time, rented another place in Horncastle before moving to Wood Enderby, a little hamlet with an approximate size of about 500. He tries to spread his time evenly between his mother's and step-father's residence in Lincolnshire and father's residence in Kent. His father is now retired and lives in Ashford, close to where he himself grew up.

Personal life

Alastair lives on his own, in an apartment block in Derby during the weekends, and lodges in Milton Keynes during the week. He spends much of his spare time either sailing or gliding. His long-term plans are to sail around the British Isles.

He has no spouse or partner.

Education

He went to Revesby Playgroup, when he was three years old, and then went to Tetford School, where his mother worked, and his headmaster later became his step-father, after he had progressed onto secondary school at Banovallum School. He then went to Monks' Dyke Technology College where he only achieved one A-level in the subject of Biology.

He then spent a year trying to get employment, but failing, before going onto university at Sheffield Hallam. He was unsuccessful at his first-choice degree but the university offered him a place on an engineering foundation year before progressing onto his desired course. But, a year later, when he applied to go onto the his desired course, he found out the university had discontinued the full-time part of the course, because it was sponsored and the sponsor had discontinued sponsorship. As a result, the university had started another course with a similar name that did not need sponsorship and still covered certain modules of the course that was on the sponsored part-time course. He could not do the part-time course, as that was only open to those currently in the relevant industry. He achieved second class, second division, honours degree in July of 2014. While at university, he had a mentor and a note-taker, as he successfully applied for Disabled Student status, with a learning contract.

Professional career

Alastair's professional career started out after graduating from Sheffield Hallam University. He started off working for Mott MacDonald in Altrincham as a Trainee Signalling Designer in August 2015, before being made redundant a year later. Following over a year in unemployment, he then gained a position at Network Rail as an Assistant Signalling Designer in Birmingham, Baskerville House. Then, he successfully gained the position of Assistant Engineer at The Quadrant in Milton Keynes, where he currently works.

He is a Diversity and Inclusion Champion, within Network Rail, and he also has achieved the status of Fire Warden.

Hobbies and interests

Alastair has many hobbies and interests. They include hobbies such as tennis, cricket, a type of ornithology called 'twitching', angling, refurbishing computers, sailing, gliding and travelling by train. His interests include steam engines, the human anatomy, evolution and Darwinism, the history of the Earth, the future of the Earth and several TV series like Great Railway Journeys, Scrubs, Thunderbirds, Air Crash Investigation, Wallace & Gromit and Casualty.

Views and philosophies

His views and philosophies are somewhat varied and sometimes conflicting. However, his main philosophy is on life itself and that it is finite. This is because the Earth is of finite size and at some point, intentionally or accidentally, the population size of the Earth must stabilize, because there is only a finite amount of food on it.

Just like the population size of bacteria on an agar plate with time, Alastair believes this is a similar population-size-with-time to the human species. There are some differences, however. With the agar plate, the food source is not constantly growing. But, especially in third-world countries, the food source is greatly decreasing while the population size is greatly increasing. This relates back to what his views are on world population control. A measure of this is that population growth over the century has greatly increased below the Brandt Line, while above, population size has only slightly increased. This also relates back to his views on the economy, whether it be circular or linear. The economy thrives on 2 things. An great increase in population size or an increase in living standards with the same or slightly decreasing population. The reduction of the Amazon Rainforest is partly due to the vast increase of the population size in Brazil and the increase on the demand of exports of timber. Alastair believes that we cannot go on increasing the world population, because our food supply will not feed all of our world population size, both now in third-world countries, later in second-world countries and finally in first-world countries. The UK already cannot support itself in terms of food and water, so we are having to import food from outside the UK, food which could feed less well-off countries. According to the BBC, we consumed our own food we grew in one year, in 6 months. That means we need two areas the size of the UK to feed on to sustain ourselves. We could just make more nature reserves and forests into fertile land, but that would anger many sectors of the population of the UK; naming one, ornithologists who rely on these area for wading birds to thrive and multiply.

How much of this world must we occupy? 10%? 20%? 30%? For the human to experience life on Earth at it's best, other environments, which the human would not normally survive, in which other animals and plants could thrive is necessary. The group of birds known as Waders, for example, need wetlands and freshwater and saltwater marshes. We cannot survive, living in a saltwater marsh, for example.

For the human to live life to the full, we need vast areas of land that are set aside for nature, we must only take up a small amount of the Earth's surface. We are currently trying to save many species from extinction, like the Panda and Lynx. We believe that other animals have just as much right to live as we do. However, we are progressively turning their habitat into the human habitat - shops, houses, swimming pools...

Although he believes that Evolution is happening, we have the ability to change the course of Evolution, as we are doing everyday. For example, when we decide to have a baby - that's Evolution. Because we are choosing to produce an animal that is genetically different from other animals, therefore we have also subjected it to the environment which it lives and therefore the effects of that environment. And, that environment has other animals more suited to that environment. For example, my father can sit in the Sun for hours and not get burnt, but I can sit in the Sun for half an hour, with twice the factor of Suncream, and still get burnt. Therefore, in that sense, my father is better suited to that specific environment than me. And, if I did that many times, i would eventually get skin cancer and die. However, we have the ability to change the course of Evolution, as above, by operating on people and removing that tumour.

Alastair's second view is that we only live for a finite amount of time and that we must all make the best of it. One of his synonyms that he lives his life by is Life is a journey, but it's up to us what we cram into it and All thing in moderation - he lives everyday like their is no tomorrow.

Alastair's third view is about the economy itself, which stems from his synonym All things in moderation. We have many debates going on in parliament, from women being charged lower than men when buying car insurance to the killing of foxes by hounds. Many of these view stem from two sports or hobbies with conflict with one-another. An example is the shooting of Red Grouse. In the early 1900's, Red Grouse were almost hunted to extinction, as a sport. However, ornithologists wanted the banning of shooting game birds. These are two hobbies who need to meet somewhere in the middle. The same goes for fox hunting, car insurance, neighbouring hedges, wind-farm applications, university fees, fuel prices in transport and the alternative methods of changing the energy medium, railway crossing accidents and the provision to prevent them, and the percentage of people using different transport mediums (bus, train, car). But, with the changing of these processes needs have the circular economy built into it, because the finite resources we need for these processes will deplete and become much more expensive, like petrol and diesel. For example, the trains need an upgrade from those 1940's Northern Rail Pacer trains, these non-electrified lines needing upgrades with the electrification of the line and an upgrade of the Train Protection Systems to the European-wide European Train Control System.

Idol

Alastair's idol is Ellen MacArthur, because she has opened up a new hobby to him and also has a similar view on the economy to him.

Favourite pop music

Alastair lives his life by synonyms mainly from songs. His best-loved songs include Baba O'Rliey by The Who, Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim, The Chain and Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, The Best by Tina Turner, Maneater by Daryl Hall and John Oates and and Glorious by Andreas Johnson. He also likes such soundtracks James Bond Theme from Dr. No and Men in Black. But he also likes some classical pieces of music such as Clair de Lune. His most favourite song is by far, My Generation by The Who because the song title may also mean the generation of electricity, possibly through sustainable means. He thinks he may even do a cover music video with the same music. He loves his music so much that he has gone to some lengths to produce a Spotify playlist. His playlist is entitled Alastair 0021 and has over 150 followers. On some months, he subscribes to Spotify Premium, a paid subscription service.

Interesting facts

Interesting facts and trivia about Alastair:

• Good Energy - Alastair's chosen electricity supplier is Good Energy, because it is an entirely 100%-renewable energy company, headquarters in Chippenham and was founded by Juliet Davenport, a British citizen who wanted to find an alternate way to produce energy that wasn't through fossil fuels. Good Energy now has three wind farms to its name, all within the United Kingdom. Juliet Davenport's aim has always been to move away from nuclear and fossil fuels, and decentralised energy sector where energy is generated locally, via FiT scheme tariffs.
• Yorkshire Tea - Alastair is a Top Fan, according to Facebook, of Yorkshire Tea and he specifically likes Yorkshire Tea's leaf tea. He also has numerous items of Yorkshire Tea memorabilia.
• Access 2.3 sailing - Alastair came overall second in the Access 2.3 National Traveller's Trophy in 2018, coming just behind Lindsey Burns on points.
• Gender Equality - his views and gender equality are that the days of women should stay at home and be the housewife, particularly in the Western world, are long-gone. Therefore, the United Kingdom should also gets rid of the hereditary Dukes, Viscounts, Earls and Barons of the United Kingdom, collectively called the Britsish hereditary peers and the Letters Patent because it is through the eldest male born that the titles of the realms pass down the family and the female children are disowned by the peerage. This is where all the whealth of the realm of the letters patent ends up: in the hands of males and not the females. The Duke of Westminster is a prime example, where elder females were cast aside and the youngest child, the male, inherited the title of 'Duke' and the Duchy of the Duke of Westminster; all £11 billion of it.
• Disability Equality - Alastair's view on disability is that disabled people, because they have been through more than the average person, have a more-determined outlook and are more-resilient and adaptable. Also, Alastair has been interviewed for roles, outside of Network Rail, which would require passing a test of medical fitness. He has been turned away at the interview stage and not been allowed to complete this medical fitness test, because the views of the interviewers are such that he would not pass this medical. He then compares this to a time when he was trying to apply for a provisional driving licence and, while completing the online form, his mother was telling him that he wasn't able to drive a car on medical grounds. Then, 13 months later, arrives a provisional driving licence through the post - this brings the phrase 'Don't judge a book by its cover' into context.
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Ambassador - Alastair is a STEM ambassador and he goes into schools to promote an equal diversity of children to go into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects and pursue a career in those fields. Currently, the maintenance department of Network Rail is severely and heavily dominated by middle-aged men of White-British ethnic origin.

Alastair Carr (talk) 11:10, 25 July 2019 (UTC)