When I was a journalism student, I was taught how to write and investigate and check sources, how to structure a story and present information as dispassionately as possible. I was also let into a little secret. There was a rather enlightening moment when I first started getting current press releases, writing articles, and then seeing [...]
Archive | February, 2011
What I learned about China this week
Having just read When a Billion Chinese Jump, and learned a whole lot in the process, I thought I’d do a special China edition. Perhaps the most striking thing about China is how big it is. Coming from a small country, it’s just a whole other dimension. The three gorges dam reservoir is the length [...]
Why David Cameron should not promote the UK arms trade
“We have no evidence that British equipment has been used in the recent unrest in Libya.” Downing Street spokesman Perhaps Downing Street doesn’t have any evidence, but Amnesty International does. That’s an armoured car made by NMS International (Their website appears to have been locked, but here’s the homepage cache) They’re based near Coventry. Here’s [...]
When a Billion Chinese Jump, by Johnathan Watts
Why bother cutting my emissions when China is building a new power station every week? That’s a common enough objection to taking responsibility for one’s ecological footprint. China overtook the US as the world’s biggest emitter of carbon this year, and has doggedly stood by its rights to develop and industrialize, and nobody is going [...]
The Jenga economy – there’s only one way it can end
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on a post-growth presentation, a one-stop introduction that explains the limits to growth and what a sustainable future might look like. It needs to be as simple and striking as possible, so I’ve been trying to think of images and phrases that capture the essence of [...]
One Good Cut
Banks are the most heavily subsidized industry in the world. So why not cut benefits for bankers? Here’s the latest from the Positive Money campaign. Sign the petition at onegoodcut.org
Time to cut ties with the arms trade
David Cameron is off on a tour of the Middle East this week, touching down in Egypt this afternoon. Arms sales are “expected to be on the agenda” on the tour, and there are rumours that six arms companies are travelling in the trade delegation. I don’t know if they’ve been dropped, but the Prime [...]
What impact do documentary films actually have?
Of the making of social documentaries there is no end. I posted links to two last week, come to think of it. Michael Moore kicked the door down with films like Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11. Al Gore made a controversial blockbuster out of a powerpoint lecture in An Inconvenient Truth, and now practically [...]
What we learned this week
Fridges would be more efficient if they were outside – built into an external wall perhaps? When protestors are teargassed in Bahrain or shot with rubber bullets in Libya, they have the British government to thank. Barclays Bank scored profits of £11.6 billion in 2009, and paid just £113 million in corporation tax. Corporation tax [...]
Inside Job
Inside Job is a documentary about the financial crisis that’s getting some great reviews at the moment. It arrives in the UK this week.
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