In September last year I signed up to 10:10, a campaign encouraging us all to reduce our carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. As the year comes to an end, I’ve been checking back to see if my wife and I have achieved the reduction we were aiming for. A number of us from Transition [...]
Archive | December, 2010
You are traffic
There’s a great billboard up in Luton, down by one of the busy streets by the station. In simple black letters on a bright green background it reads: You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic. It would have been nice if the billboard had left it with that bubble-busting little truth. It’s never [...]
Teaching economics to children
It’s a strange business, the economy. It runs the world and is answerable to nobody, but most of us know very little about economics. If we’re dissatisfied with our lives, we’re likely to blame the government and vote for change. But if the incoming politicians are operating by the same economics, the underlying causes of [...]
What we learned this week
The prize for the world’s greenest state goes to… The Vatican, after the installation of a vast solar array this year. Has China made the same mistake we did, taking on debt rather than letting growth slow during the downcycle? We know where that leads. Want to see the IMF’s Christmas e-card? I wonder if [...]
(Astro) Turf Wars
How real are the grassroots movements against the Obama administration and his reforms? How easily can they be influenced by outside interests and corporations? (Astro) Turf Wars is one New Zealander’s attempt to uncover what’s actually going on, a documentary about a very 21st century form of propaganda.
Eminent Corporations, by Andrew Simms and David Boyle
In 1918, Lytton Strachey published Eminent Victorians, a biography that re-wrote the history books on some of the Victorian era’s greatest national heroes. He cut through the sentimental patriotism and deference that characterised the biographies of the time, an exercise in telling it like it is that changed the way we think of public figures. [...]
US energy subsidies
A rather telling infographic from the Environmental Law Institute, showing US subsidies to various industries in the energy sector.
The Cancun climate agreement
We have a climate change agreement. You could be forgiven for not noticing. I don’t know if it’s got more press elsewhere, but with the news breaking after an all night session, it didn’t make the Saturday papers and was somewhat eclipsed by angry protesting of one sort or another. Still, there it is, the [...]
High Street, your clothing workers called…
During the summer, Bangladesh raised the minimum wage for garment workers. It was a long time coming, and not big enough. Workers had asked for 5,000 taka a month, and they got 3,000, but it was a victory nonetheless. Wages were due to rise from £16 a month to £27 a month and come into [...]
What we learned this week
Good news: Recycling levels are up on 2009. Reality appears to have come crashing into the town founded and run on ‘Disney values’, as Celebration, Florida experienced its first murder. If an island state vanishes, do the people remain a nation? Do they keep their seat at the UN? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the [...]
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