In an age of austerity and troubled government spending, one of the great...
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Building of the week: YHA National Forest
Here’s somewhere I stayed a couple of months back with the good folks from the Breathe network – Britain’s only purpose-built eco-hostel. It’s in the National Forest, part of an ambitious plan to re-forest a 200-mile strip of English countryside. Being in a ‘forest in the making’ means the hostel is currently surrounded by saplings [...]
The coming first world debt crisis, by Ann Pettifor
In 2008, the Queen posed a question at the London School of Economics: how come nobody saw the economic crisis coming? She received a variety of answers, both on the day and at later discussions. No doubt economists take some comfort in debating that question, but the fact is that plenty of people saw the [...]
Talking post-growth on Radio 2
I was on the Jeremy Vine show today on Radio 2 to talk about post growth economics. The production team had come across my article on Japan, and got me in to talk about whether growth is actually necessary in an economy. On the other side of the table, Sam Bowman from the Adam Smith [...]
The Poor People’s Energy Outlook
Future global energy demand is a much-studied topic. The International Energy Agency can map demand into the next century and attempt to say how that demand will be met. But amongst the wrangling over fossil fuels vs nuclear vs renewable energy, one facet of global demand gets missed out: energy poverty. A third of the [...]
My life as a (legally) homeless child
Today I discovered that I was homeless for much of my childhood. As you can imagine, this came as something of a surprise to me. As I was making the baby his breakfast and listening to the radio, I heard a discussion of government plans to cap the total sum of benefits that a family [...]
Greedy Lying Bastards, the movie
And the prize for the bluntest documentary title of the year goes to… Craig Rosebraugh for his expose of the oil industry, Greedy Lying Bastards. Well, it’s going to get you noticed at least, although the chances of constructive dialogue with the industry as a result of the movie will be slim indeed. Here’s the [...]
Some simple living links
My recent post on 10 myths about simple living has prompted a couple of people to get in touch, and I thought I might do a round-up of related links. Samuel Alexander and the Simplicity Institute are producing some great research on downsizing and post-growth lifestyles. If you consider yourself to be living a life [...]
Two kinds of more
This week I’ve been browsing a book my wife got me for Christmas, Margaret Atwood’s In other worlds: Science fiction and the human imagination. It’s a diverse collection of the novelist’s lectures and articles on SF, superheroes and mythology, but here’s a pertinent thought from the mix: There are two kinds of ‘more’, says Atwood [...]
Book review: Voluntary Simplicity, by Duane Elgin
There’s a long list of classic environment and lifestyle titles from past decades on my reading list. Every once in a while I pick one up – The Limits to Growth, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Silent Spring – and see how it has stood the test of time. Usually it confirms the impression I got [...]
What we learned this week
A neighbour gave me a wheelbarrow today, which makes it a good day to link to this history of the wheelbarrow. You may not think you have time to read such a thing, but I assure you that you do. If I add that it includes notes on wind-powered wheelbarrows and the use of wheelbarrows [...]
