In the last few weeks I’ve been trying to take social networking a little more seriously. I like to focus on writing rather than promoting the blog and chasing traffic, but it helps to have lots of different ways to access the content we’re creating, and bring more people into the sustainability and social justice [...]
Archive | July, 2010
Reimagining change, by Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Channing
We live in a world of competing stories. We know that our culture is headed for the rocks of resource depletion, debt and climate change, but people don’t rally around bad news. It’s much more comforting to believe the progress story – the one about aspiration, economic growth, and ever-rising standards of living. It’s the [...]
Science fiction, or the future of clean energy – what is nuclear fusion?
It is either the miracle energy source of the future, or the most expensive wild goose chase in the history of science. If it succeeds, it could solve climate change and resource depletion at one stroke. It would be an endless source of cheap power, and our energy-intensive lifestyles could continue with impunity. If it [...]
Activists close BP petrol stations across London
Greenpeace activists closed dozens of BP petrol stations across London this morning in a series of interventions. Teams of volunteers descended on forecourts early this morning, putting up signs and removing the switches the pumps. The campaign group claims to have temporarily halted the sale of petrol at all 50 of London’s BP stations. Making [...]
2010 – another year of weather records
At the end of last year, meteorologists were predicting a warm 2010, with the Met Office suggesting it could beat 1998 to be the warmest year on record. Those claims began to look a little dubious as the snow fell and many parts of the world had a very cold summer. But how are we [...]
London’s bike revolution
A few weeks ago there were workmen digging up the pavement just down the road from the office. Two weeks ago I walked past and saw the finished article – a two lane, bright blue cycle route leading cyclists across a main road and off towards Lambeth. It’s one of London’s new bike ‘superhighways‘ that [...]
What we learned this week
Heard about peak phosphorous? Tim Jackson gave a great lecture on prosperity without growth at the 2010 Deakin lectures, and you can hear it online here. In related and rather sad news, this week the government announced that they are withdrawing funding for the Sustainable Development Commission, the originators of prosperity without growth. “Sewing is [...]
Plants for a future, by Ken Fern
There are over 20,000 known edible plants in the world, a quarter of which can be grown in the UK. So why does 90% of our food come from just 20 plant species? Ken Fern has dedicated his life’s work to rectifying this situation, trying out and promoting alternative foods, and now runs the charity [...]
A third of Britons now growing their own
A third of us are growing our own fruit and veg, according to a recent Yougov survey. Remarkably, 44% of growers just started this year, making it something of a boom. The research group attributes this sudden rise in interest to the recession, rising food prices, and high profile growers and chefs on television. The [...]
The future’s bright, the future’s low tech
I’m quite a fan of appropriate technology, E F Schumacher’s belief in human-scaled technology, as exemplified in projects such as appropedia or practical action. According to Schumacher, technology has a tendency towards giantism and complexity, and so moves ever further away from its human operators. Appropriate technology on the other hand recognises the ‘actual size’ [...]
Books
No data found
