“Universities have been with us on this Earth for at least one thousand years and will surely be with us in the future; perhaps so long as there is life on this planet that has any well-being. There is now something in not just the name of the institution but in the idea of theContinue reading “The Coming of the Ecological University”
Author Archives: Steve Martin
Quality Standards and Sustainability in our Universities
The link between quality and sustainable development is probably best exemplified in the following quote: “Human relationships based on naked self-interest (e.g., greed, envy or lust for power) maintain inequitable distribution of wealth, generate conflict and lead to scant regard for the future availability of natural resources.” An education system which mirrors these values isContinue reading “Quality Standards and Sustainability in our Universities”
What’s in a name? – why ‘the environment’ can be a misleading myth
Guest blog by Stephen Sterling, Emeritus Professor of Sustainability Education, University of Plymouth I see myself as an environmentalist. And have done so ever since my early teens – which was a long time ago. So why would I be writing a blog with such a title? On the face of things, perhaps it seemsContinue reading “What’s in a name? – why ‘the environment’ can be a misleading myth”
A SHIP FROM DELOS
Annually a sacred ship would set sail around the Island of Delos, and until its return, Athenian society would not partake in public executions due to religious observance. Socrates trial at Roayl Sota and sentence occurred during this period. Whilst waiting for the sacred ship and the fate to follow, the 70-year-old Athenian philosopher defendsContinue reading “A SHIP FROM DELOS”
A Brave New Wild
A new report entitled ‘Count the cost of 2020: a year of climate breakdown’, published by the charity Christian Aid, has once again highlighted the existential crisis we face from Climate Change. Unsurprisingly, the burden falls disproportionately on poor nations, like Bangladesh, where the 2020 floods covered almost a quarter of the land area ofContinue reading “A Brave New Wild”
Sustainability Leadership
THE POSITIVE DEVIANT: SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP in a PERVERSE WORLD by SARA PARKIN EARTHSCAN 2010 This is a review I wrote for the Institution of Environmental Sciences in 2010-It has even more relevance to our current existential predicament now. So much of what we do is unsustainable and there seems to be a paucity of sustainabilityContinue reading “Sustainability Leadership”
Learning for Sustainability in Times of Accelerating Change
Edited by Arjen E.J. Wals and Peter Blaze Corcoran. Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2012. 550 pages. (€) 69.00 (hardback) ISBN: 978-90-8686-203-0. I reviewed this massive book for the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development in 2012 and set it in the context of a prescient album by the Indie Group ILiKETRAiNS: “And we regret theContinue reading “Learning for Sustainability in Times of Accelerating Change”
Can philosophy help humanity cope with the complexity of reality?
In an earlier blog, I explored the ideas of objectivity and subjectivity and how different world views impact on our understanding of reality. In 2002 philosopher John Gray also explored these issues and their impact on human thought in a book called Straw Dogs. He wanted to attack the unthinking beliefs of thinking people. TheContinue reading “Can philosophy help humanity cope with the complexity of reality?”
A LIFE ON OUR PLANET
I was invited to a virtual event last Sunday by WWK-UK to hear from Sir David Attenborough about his new film on Netflix. A Life on our Planet is a feature-length documentary which tells the story of life on Earth and the ecological changes of the last century, many of which have been filmed andContinue reading “A LIFE ON OUR PLANET”
Twelve Principles for Reinventing the 21 Century University
Universities are much in the news, but it is not good news. The rise in the pandemic R number in the UK is having a profound impact on university students as they return in their thousands to campuses to find in many of them that they face total lockdown. So, no immersive quality campus experienceContinue reading “Twelve Principles for Reinventing the 21 Century University”
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