Ecological Debt has been on my reading list for ages, but I won a copy recently from nef on Twitter and read it last week. It’s an unusually wide-ranging book, from a writer who understands that climate change, debt, resource depletion, development and lifestyle are all intricately bound together. To do justice to one issue, [...]
Archive | March, 2011
Carbon laundering: how to hide rising CO2 emissions
Britain has, on paper, reduced its carbon emissions. The latest reductions, with a little help from the recession, have been rather pronounced: That’s great, except that the chart only accounts for emissions within the UK. If something is made overseas and consumed here, those production emissions go on somebody else’s tab. The emissions for transporting [...]
Saudi Arabia’s ‘day of rage’
Have you filled up your car recently? In the news today is the little snippet that UK forecourt prices have broken the £1.40 barrier for the first time. The unrest in Libya is widely blamed. Libya accounts for 2% of the world’s oil, so imagine what might happen to the oil price if Saudi Arabia [...]
Property development for birds
It’ll be nesting season in Britain soon. Here are some things to help the birds near you.
People for Corporate Tax Cuts
2011 is going to go down in the history books as the year of austerity. The textbooks will have to be re-written, as seventy years of economic wisdom is re-evaluated. In a crisis, the best thing to do is now is apparently to hunker down, and cut all unnecessary government spending. So this week the [...]
The future can go one of three ways
This week I’ve been reading Ecological Debt, by Andrew Simms. It comes at it from a slightly different angle, but makes the same argument as Make Wealth History, or probably as close to it as anything I’ve read so far: Estimates vary, but scientists suggest that to stop dangerous climate change becoming irreversible, over the [...]
Taking Scottish salmon to the Chinese market
Scotland recently signed a major trade deal with China, upping its exports of fresh salmon. Great for the economy, but the deal ignores the major problems around salmon farming.
The Idler Academy opens today
The Idler Academy is now open, Londoner’s may be pleased to hear. Aiming to recreate the “spirit of cultivated leisure” of the 18th Century coffeehouse, the academy will be serving coffee and cakes, selling books, and hosting talks and events. Visitors will be able to take courses in Latin, ukelele, embroidery, and growing food. Gavin [...]
A budget to change the climate
Exxon-Mobil’s lobbying team, the coal industry, Fox News, the people who commissioned the stealing of the CRU emails – their moment has come. In three days time the US must agree its government budget, and this one could be historic. This particular budget, drawn up by the majority Republican house, is notable for bringing the [...]
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