A couple of years ago a group of scientists identified and named the nine planetary boundaries we need to life within. Mark Lynas picked up the concept as the basis for his book The God Species. They have also inspired Oxfam, and this week they released a discussion paper that adds a new dimension to [...]
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Write to your MEP about mining transparency
A few weeks ago I wrote about Tearfund’s Unearth the Truth campaign, which calls for transparency in the extractive industries in developing countries. Unless mining companies are forced to disclose how much they pay for mining rights, people have no way to keep the government accountable. Revenues from mining or drilling can vanish, and local [...]
The Poor People’s Energy Outlook
Future global energy demand is a much-studied topic. The International Energy Agency can map demand into the next century and attempt to say how that demand will be met. But amongst the wrangling over fossil fuels vs nuclear vs renewable energy, one facet of global demand gets missed out: energy poverty. A third of the [...]
Mapping for rights
If you live in an urban environment, you probably have a house, legal or illegal, on a street with neighbours in a certain part of town. You know where you’re allowed to go and where you’re not within the highly structured urban geography – pavements for people, roads for cars. Particular buildings and places are [...]
Redefine wealth for global prosperity
“We can’t begin to tackle poverty without growth.” The words of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, speaking in the US last year. Since the fragile peace negotiated in 2003, Liberia has had steady economic growth at an average of 7% a year. If the country can continue to build, tackle corruption, increase access to education and [...]
I paid a bribe in Kenya
Growing up in Madagascar and Kenya, I became rather familiar with corruption. Demands for bribes crept into the most everyday of activities, from picking up parcels at the post office, to getting a prescription, or connecting a phone line to the house. Policemen would stop cars at random and tell the drivers their papers were [...]
Offsetting gone wrong
A couple of months ago I expressed my interest in offsetting the carbon emissions I can’t cut, clearing the decks as best I can at the end of the year. I still intend to do so, and am looking into how best to do it. Not all offsetting schemes are created equal, as The Ecologist [...]
The 200 year wait for water and sanitation
The summer of 1858 as gone down in British history as the year of ‘the great stink’, when the Thames became so clogged with effluent that Parliament refused to sit because of the smell. It was the turning point for water and sanitation in London, and once the MPs had calmed down and straightened their [...]
Land grabs: the unintended consequences of biofuels
Access to land is one of the oldest sources of conflict. It’s written deep into Britain’s history through the enclosure acts and the seizing of the commons – a process that shaped the landscape, drove people into the cities, and through the industrial revolution, changed the world forever. It’s an injustice that’s never been corrected, [...]
Back the Robin Hood Tax at the G20
When I first read about the financial transaction tax, it was a campaign adrift. A proposal had lost in the European parliament by just six votes – the UK being the leading voice against it. That was 2005, and the decade long campaign for the tax appeared to fizzle out. A few years and a [...]
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