When you write about big global issues every day, it’s easy to lose perspective in the enormity of it all and miss the little steps forward along the way. One of the areas where there is definite progress is tax dodging. Just four or five years ago, there was practically no public debate about tax […]
Author Archives | Jeremy
Development has two directions
I used this graph in a presentation recently, but it occurs to me that I’ve never posted it on the blog. It’s from the Footprint Network, and it shows the UN Human Development Index along the horizontal, and Ecological Footprint on the vertical. The coloured spots are countries*. The further those coloured dots are to […]
You can either fly or drive
George Monbiot’s book Heat: How to stop the planet burning is one of the more comprehensive popular attempts to square our modern lifestyles with the reality of climate change. He describes how the energy system can be made low carbon, how we can change our diets and renovate our houses. To his surprise, he finds […]
Development and sustainability can’t be separated
The Millennium Development Goals run will have run their course by 2015, and there’s a good deal of debate going on about what should replace them. One key aspect of the debate is that the MDGs never integrated sustainability into development goals, and climate change wasn’t even included. There was no recognition that, if separated, […]
What we learned this week
Not the first time it’s been done, but there’s been another survey of climate scientists and whether or not they agree with that human activity is warming the planet. This time it’s 97%. Meanwhile, how about this for the definition of institutional denial – the Treasury recently blocked a proposed review into the risks that […]
The climate does not change by CO2 alone
Imagine you are riding a bike. You are pedaling at a constant speed, but sometimes you have the wind at your back, and at other times you’re pedaling into a headwind. You go up hills and down hills. Even though there’s no change to your pedaling, you will slow down or speed up at various […]
The world’s greenest football club
Interest in sport and environmental awareness haven’t necessarily gone together very often, but there’s one club that is aiming to change that. In 201o Forest Green Rovers took on Ecotricity as a key sponsor. With Ecotricity’s Dale Vince as chairman of the club, the relationship has developed into an intriguing experiment in sustainability in sport. […]
The case for a Land Value Tax
The Land Value Tax is an idea I’m quite interested in, and that I think needs consideration. (My introduction to the idea is here) It’s one of those ideas that has been discussed many times in the past and almost implemented on occasion, but never quite got underway in this country. It’s being revisited at […]
Defining one planet living
The premise of this blog is that lifestyles in affluent countries are unsustainable. If we want to end poverty in the developing world without destroying the environment, we need to reduce our consumption. But by how much? What’s the target? It’s fairly easy to set a benchmark for sustainability. A sustainable lifestyle would be within […]
Why we can’t depend on a shale gas boom in Britain
One of the more depressing developments in government in recent days has been the series of resignations from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Several senior climate advisors have quit the government, with rumours that progress on renewable energy or climate change is being quashed by the treasury. There appears to be something of […]
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