I was in danger of quoting nef’s Great Transition report every day last week, so I held this one over, but this is just about the perfect articulation of the make wealth history premise: The environmental and economic crises are not separate but interconnected events. It is the high levels of debt-fuelled consumption in developed [...]
Archive | October, 2009
Time’s up for tax havens
It’s a big week for Britain’s overseas territories, as the government is due to unveil new guidance tomorrow on the subject of tax. As you may remember, tax havens are small territories that charge little or no tax, enticing wealthy companies and individuals to relocate their finances there. It’s a useful way for rich people [...]
Environmental innovations
It’s something of a cliche to say that every little helps, but such is our wasteful way of life that any tiny innovation that saves energy, waste, water or materials is important. We need to reduce the through-put of our entire economy, but design has a huge part to play in re-inventing the products and [...]
End daylight savings time, cut CO2
The clocks went back this weekend as British Summer Time came to an end, giving us all that fabled ‘extra hour’ of sleep. It’s an annual ritual, and a thoroughly confusing one for people new to the country. It certainly confused me when I moved back to the UK from Africa. I’m still not sure [...]
He would say that – Lord Griffiths on inequality
Lord Griffiths, a Conservative peer and vice-chairman of investment Goldman Sachs, spoke out in favour of big bonuses on friday. “We have to accept that inequality is a way of achieving greater opportunity and prosperity for all”, he said. Erm, no my lord. Inequality is directly linked to crime, teenage pregnancy, educational performance, alcohol addiction, [...]
What we learned this week
If you ate a different variety of apple every day for six years, you still wouldn’t have tried all the varieties that grow in the UK. Developed countries spend $20-$30 billion a year subsidizing fossil fuels, a practice banned by the G20 recently. Los Angeles, the city of Hollywood and Beverly Hills, has a poverty [...]
speaking louder
ouch. A striking point from satirical news website the Onion.
Per capita energy use, and US responsibility
I did the Transition Town training course last weekend, which was excellent. This is one of the slides that stuck with me: The graph shows energy consumption oil equivalents. Although China now produces more CO2 than any other country, it also has the greatest population. Per capita energy use is low. The US, which comes [...]
Because we all need CO2
Stunning. Obviously it’s true in a limited, half-witted sense, but you can knock it down with a feather – rain is good, but floods are bad. Food is good, but obesity is bad. CO2 is good, but global warming is bad. The climate is as much about balance as anything else. The people responsible are [...]
the cycle lane of shame
The cycle lane is a great symbol of environmental underacheivement. Anyone who’s ever used them knows that councils consider it more important to be seen to be doing than actually doing, and that’s why you end up with cycle lanes where there’s room for them, rather than where they’re needed. Out to shame their town [...]
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