I’ve heard the Club of Rome’s groundbreaking piece of research described as ‘debunked’ more times than I’ve heard it praised, but I thought I’d go back and read it anyway. There are 20 year and 30 year revisions, but I ordered a second hand copy of the 1972 edition and looked at the original claims. [...]
Archive | November, 2010
UN: Development is possible without growth
The UN released it’s latest Human Development Report (pdf) last week. It’s the 20th year they’ve produced the report, and it shows nothing but progress on the Human Development Index, the report’s metric of wellbeing composed of income, life expectancy and literacy rates. This is something they quite rightly celebrate, before exploring the changes in [...]
On being a Christian blog
Make Wealth History was voted number 5 in the Jubilee Centre’s top Christian blogs this week. That’s nice to hear, although I don’t really consider this to be a ‘Christian blog’ per se. That would imply that either it’s about Christianity or that it’s written for Christians, when it’s clearly much broader than that. Nevertheless, I am a [...]
What we learned this week
60% of containers on ships from the US to China are empty. That’s the reality of a trade deficit, but it hadn’t occurred to me before. Simon Jenkins makes a compelling case for dismantling Britain’s armed forces and saving ourselves £45 billion. Transforming Cultures tells the story of Enric Duran, a ‘modern day Robin Hood‘. [...]
Newsletters you’ll actually read
If you’re anything like me you get dozens of email newsletters from charities and websites, and I’ll bet half of them remain unread. They’re all well-meaning of course, but too many of them just aren’t quite interesting enough regularly enough. I read the updates from groups that I really like, but most newsletters are just [...]
The Department for International Development… of British business
“And let no-one be in any doubt whatsoever: a zero-tolerance approach to corruption” said international development secretary Andrew Mitchell at the Conservative conference early this year. If he meant it, he should fire himself immediately. British cocoa company Armajaro Holdings was recently banned from activity in Ghana after allegations that cocoa was being smuggled out [...]
The life you can save, by Peter Singer
Peter Singer has worked out how to end poverty, several times over. If 90% of us in the West gave away just 1% of our incomes, and on a sliding scale, the richest 10% give away between 5% and a third, you’d have a pot of $1.5 trillion. That’s enough to meet the Millennium Development [...]
Living beyond our means: the Living Planet Report 2010
This weekend I’ve been browsing the WWF’s annual Living Planet Report for 2010. They’ve been producing the reports since 1998, and it’s been one of the influences behind Make Wealth History in the past, showing the inequity of our resource use and the over-shooting of the planet’s capacity. Here are some highlights:
Fate of the World
Fate of the World calls itself ’a new kind of strategy game’. I wouldn’t disagree, as there aren’t many computer games that are profiled by both the respected scientific journal Nature and the gaming magazine Edge. Built out of existing climate models and data, Fate of the World puts the player in control of the [...]
Top ten British eco-houses
Here are ten inspiring houses that show a way forward on sustainable housing. It’s not a scientific top ten in any way. They’re not rated for energy efficiency or for innovative architecture – I’m looking for real-life, ordinary houses. If it’s fit only for millionaires or hippy small-holders, I’m not interested, because we all need [...]
Books
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