A few months ago I wrote about Madagascar’s oil, a messy and marginal prospect made viable by the rising price of oil. With producers scratching around for new sources, the country’s shale oil stocks suddenly look worth pursuing, and a company has been formed to exploit them. They’ve been raising their money for the venture [...]
Archive | March, 2011
The top ten littered brands in the UK
Keep Britain Tidy have announced the results of the litter league of shame, the top ten most littered brands in the country. Drum roll please: 1. McDonald’s 2. Cadbury 3. Greggs 4. Wrigley 5. Coca-Cola 6. Mars Incorporated 7. Unbranded fish&chips/kebab/pizza 8. Marlboro (Philip Morris Int) 9. Lambert & Butler (Imperial) 10. Subway Interesting to [...]
100 places to go before they disappear
Here’s a book title that defines the relationship between consumerism and climate change. It lists 100 places at risk from climate change, from Hudson Bay to the Maldives, while suggesting you should fly there to see them before they vanish. Erm… There’s even a foreword from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which says “We simply have to [...]
Britain’s trains: Let’s undo the Beeching legacy
Last week, the British government lowered the price of petrol, and put £100 million towards fixing potholes on the roads. Falling back on car culture is a tried and tested way of boosting the economy, although in the past it was geared towards the car industry,rather than just driving them about. It’s not a growth [...]
What we learned this week
How to fund the transition to a green economy, according to Ann Pettifor. A little perspective on the Eurozone crisis – for some countries, going bust is a national tradition. Not in my banger is the Soil Association’s new campaign to stop intensive pig farming in the UK. What the world’s economic centre of gravity [...]
The credit ratings agency is watching you
UPDATE: With ratings agencies back in the news, I’m re-posting this one. This week Standard and Poors have essentially punished the US for the fiasco over the deficit. We will find out on monday how much that will cost the country, and the rest of us. But who are S+P, and why do they get [...]
The best cure for a hangover is not to sober up
Today’s newspapers are all reporting on yesterday’s budget. Fairly predictably, most of the front pages champion the change to fuel duty. The chancellor’s speech was written to highlight that very measure, saving it to the end. ”We have put fuel into the tank of the British economy”, he concluded, and the nation’s journalists looked no further [...]
Big, complex, expensive and violent
Events in Japan have, unsurprisingly, re-ignited the nuclear debate. Alongside genetic modification and perhaps nanotechnology, it is among our most controversial and high-stakes technologies. As I’ve read the different sides in the papers this week I’ve been reminded of E F Schumacher’s critique of industrial society. He identified four trends at work, and they underpinned [...]
Why I won’t be “marching for the alternative”
The 26th of March has been called as a day of protest in the UK. It’s been organised by the trade unions, who love a good march, but it’s got a pretty wide base of support. NGOs are supporting it, and a number of Christian groups are rallying supporters to attend. If all goes to [...]
Picturing sustainability: the Prix Pictet
Now into its third year, the Prix Pictet has announced a winner for 2010. Mitch Epstein has received the prize for his series on energy, ‘American Power‘. It’s a great project, and I’ve written more about it over at PostGrowth.org The Prix Pictet was founded in 2008 as a way of highlighting social and environmental [...]
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