The Fortune Forum will be meeting on tuesday night at the Dorchester hotel to discuss innovative ways to relieve global poverty. In attendance will be 100 billionaires, captains of industry, celebrities and philanthropists, gathered to hear Ted Turner speak and Joss Stone sing. The Fortune Forum, according to their website, “is dedicated to assist and [...]
Archive | February, 2009
Wildlife photographer of the year
I haven’t got along yet, but I see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is on again at the Natural History Museum in London. It’s always excellent, and well worth the admission price. If you have a spare afternoon in London, take a friend.
Maxed Out, by James Scurlock
One of the recurring questions of the credit crisis is ‘why didn’t we see it coming?’ It’s become known as ‘the Queen’s question’ here, as it’s the one she asked the experts herself. The fact is, thousands of people knew what was going on, that our economy was running on unsustainable levels of credit, but [...]
Giving up carbon for lent
The season of Lent begins today, as you will know if you’re hitting the afternoon slump and have vowed to give up chocolate or coffee. Lent is one of the few religious seasons that is noted by popular culture, alongside Easter and Christmas. The idea of ‘giving something up’, or ‘detox-ing’ seems to hold a [...]
Power Shift 2009
This week will see the biggest ever act of civil disobedience in the name of climate change, as thousands of people descend on a Washington DC power station. ‘Power Shift‘ will see 10,00o young people occupy the coal-burning plant that provides electricity to the congressional buildings. While bold and technically illegal, this is no anarchist [...]
The climate faithful
Are the world religions catching on to climate change? I’m quite familiar with what’s going on in Christian environmental circles, but not so much with the other major religions. I did a bit of a round-up, and it’s on Celsias just here.
International development blogs
International development doesn’t feature very highly on the blogosphere list of priorities, dominated as it is by gadgets, Obama, and all things Apple. But there are a few development bloggers out there, and since it’s more of a niche you tend to get better writers. Anyone can write about the new mac book, after all. [...]
Rebuilding Africa’s transport network
There are some interesting contrasts between India’s railways and Africa’s. The keyword is perhaps ‘network’ – India has one, Africa doesn’t. In India you can use the trains to travel from one part of the country to another. In Africa you can use the trains, if they’re running at all, to move things to and [...]
How corporate tax evasion affects the poor
It didn’t seem to matter much when the economy was doing well, but suddenly tax evasion is back on the political agenda. I’ve already written about the issue of tax havens here, and I mentioned the Guardian’s eye opening reports into what the FTSE 100 companies actually pay in tax. Here’s another angle on it [...]
Shopping is not a solution – buy less, give more
So say the creators of Buy (Less) Crap, a response to the (RED) charitable consumer initiative. “The mission of Buy Less on an individual level is to provide a means for people to donate directly to charity, to remind them that this is the most efficient way to support a cause, and to inspire less [...]
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