Britain is in the grip of two twin obsessions this spring, the Queen’s...
Latest posts
Book review: Future Money, by James Robertson
In Future Money: Breakdown or Breakthrough? money campaigner James Robertson makes the case for wholesale reform of the money system. At the heart of our debt problem, of our desperate need to grow, and our overconsumption of the earth’s resources, lies one crucial common factor – the creation of money as debt. 97% of our [...]
How to use VAT to encourage greener energy – a proposal
A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about VAT and the possibility of using VAT rates to encourage greener electricity. It’s not the kind of thing I normally write, but it’s an idea that might be useful and so I wrote it up in a little detail over the weekend. See what you think. [...]
What we learned this week
The average British child spends 6.1 hours a day in front of a screen. Almost a quarter of all crimes in Britain are committed by 10-17 year olds, who are most likely to engage in ‘aquisitive’ crimes. I wonder if the above fact is related at all. This week detectives seized the biggest ever haul of [...]
We can afford renewable energy
To transition from our fossil fuel addicted energy system to a clean and sustainable one, the world needs to find hundreds of billions of dollars every year. In 2011 global investment in clean energy was $240 billion. In a time of financial insecurity, say the critics, this is simply too much – we can’t afford [...]
The Copernican revolution in banking
In the 16th Century, Nicolaus Copernicus set out a radical idea: that the sun did not travel around the earth, the planets revolved around the sun. It was a scientific breakthrough of incalculable significance, but was highly controversial at the time. Copernicus’ book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was banned by the Catholic church for almost [...]
Is the United States a postgrowth country?
I’ve written before about how Japan is a post-growth country, and has been for 15 years. I’ve also suggested that Britain seems to be entering a similar economic plateau. Here’s a new one: the United States may also be a post-growth nation. That sounds unlikely, but it has been noted by several analysts, including Kevin [...]
Could you help fund the Spirit Level documentary?
The Spirit Level is one of the most significant books I’ve read in the five years that this blog has been running. It describes how societies are more equal do better on a whole list of quality-of-life indicators – there are positive correlations between equality and rates obesity, teenage pregnancy, prison population, literacy, and alcohol [...]
Declining biodiversity around the world
Last week I mentioned the Living Planet Index and the earth’s declining biocapacity. Here’s a little more detail from that report, showing what is happening to wildlife in different parts of the world. As the graph shows, biodiversity is recovering gently in Eurasian half of the Northern hemisphere. It is in decline everywhere else, and [...]
The Living Planet Index 2012
The Living Planet Report is one of the things that inspired this blog in the first place. Produced every two years by WWF and the Footprint Network, it aims to show the state of the world’s biodiversity and how well we are living within the planet’s biocapacity. If you’ve never read it, take a look. [...]
A jubilee for the sweatshop workers?
If you’ve been down a high street recently, you’ll be aware that the Queen’s diamond jubilee is being taken as an excuse for an orgy of conspicuous patriotic consumption. Evey shop has a range of royal merchandise, and there is apparently no household item so obscure that it can’t be decorated with union jacks. Some [...]
