A new dilemma for those who advocate Veganism is on the agenda of the forthcoming Oxford Farming Conference. Farming and other interests are now arguing that it is vital we eat more lamb and beef because some crop plants and fish are being drained of essential nutrients.
A heart specialist who is speaking at the conference is claiming that key nutrients in some fruits, grains and vegetables have declined by up to 50% over the past 50 years.
Alice Stanton, professor of cardiovascular pharmacology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland says that nutrient levels have dropped because farmers were trying to meet demand for cheap food. The declines in nutrients includes vitamins and key elements essential for sustaining a healthy metabolism within the human body. She also highlights the fact that the genetic selection of crops which look good, have an even shape and appearance also reduces mineral uptake from the soil. If the genetic selection process prioritises above ground appearance to the detriment of below ground root development, then this will restrict nutrient uptake.
But, it is much more complicated than this analysis advocates because there is a growing body of empirical evidence that the increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide from our use of fossil fuels and of course intensive farming practices such as factory livestock production, leads to plants increasing their carbohydrate concentrations at the expense of nutrient uptake. Over the past 50 years carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased from around 290 ppm to current levels of around 400 ppm, leading to hugely damaging climate change. So, which is more damaging : low levels of minerals in our veg or the damaging influences on climate change of intensive meat production from livestock farming? Meat and Two veg – now there’s a wicked problem ?

Rice and wheat provide two out every five calories that humans consume. Like other plants, crop plants convert carbon dioxide (or CO2) from the air into sugars and other carbohydrates. They also take up minerals and other nutrients from the soil.

The increase in CO2 in the atmosphere that has happened since the Industrial Revolution is thought to have increased the production of sugars and other carbohydrates in plants by up to 46%. CO2 levels are expected to rise even further in the coming decades; and higher levels of CO2 are known to lead to lower levels of proteins in plants. But less is known about the effects of CO2 levels on the concentrations of minerals and other nutrients in plants.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02245.002

What should he do? From a single leak, a terrible breach might grow. The whole country could be flooded, and everyone he knew would drown.
Like any well behaved and responsible boy he did the only thing he could think of. He stuck his finger in the dike, and the leak stopped.
Of course, now he was stuck. He couldn’t move, because as soon as he did, the leak would start again.
He stood there for quite some time. He was rather tired, and his finger felt a bit numb from the effort of holding back the North Sea, but he knew he was doing his duty.
At last a local Burgomaster happened to pass by.
“Young man,” he said with a certain amount of sternness, “why are you poking your finger in the dike?”
“I am stopping a leak,” the boy explained. “I saw the dike leaking, so I stuck my finger in the hole.”
“Heroic boy!” the Burgomaster exclaimed. “You shall be rewarded! Meanwhile, keep your finger there while I call the Burghers together.”
The Burgomaster called an urgent meeting of the Burghers, and they agreed that the boy had heroically saved Holland.
“And now,” the Burgomaster asked, “what shall we do about the leak?”
“It seems to me,” one of the Burghers replied, “that private enterprise has already found an admirable solution to the problem. The boy has stuck his finger in the dike, and the leak has stopped. You might describe it as voluntary self-regulation. There is no need for expensive government action.”
The Burghers unanimously voted to award the boy a Certificate of Good Citizenship, which the Burgomaster was delighted to be able to present to him the next day.
“Thank you,” the boy said politely, “but I still have my finger in this dike.”
“And we appreciate that,” the Burgomaster replied. “I may confidently speak for the whole Council of Burghers in saying that your heroic action is universally admired.”
The boy stood there with his finger in the dike for a few more days.
It was not long, however, before another leak sprang in the dike, a little bit farther down the way.
“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Burghers. “There is another leak.”
“As private enterprise has so admirably solved the previous problem,” one of the Burghers responded, “the solution to this new leak is obvious. We need only persuade another heroic boy to stick his finger in it.”
In their wisdom they went into the local school and found another boy who, after much persuasion, was willing to stick his finger in the dike.
It was, however, only a few days later that two more leaks appeared. This time it was much harder to persuade boys to stick their fingers in the holes; and when, a week later, half a dozen more leaks appeared, no volunteers were to be found.
“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Council. “Private enterprise seems no longer to be adequate. We may have to repair the dike itself this time.”
“Nonsense,” said one of the Burghers. “The solution that worked before will work again. We must simply force private enterprise into action.”
All the Burghers then visited the school and dragged several young boys by the ears to the dike, where they were forced to plug the leaks with their fingers.
But the dike, which was old and poorly maintained, continued to spring new leaks here and there, so that it was all the Burghers could do to find more boys to plug up the leaks with their fingers. At last the Burghers compelled every little boy in the Low Countries to stick his finger in a hole. All economic activity came to a halt, as it is well known that young boys are the main consumers of skates and cheese, on which the economy of Holland depended at that time.
“What shall we do?” the Burgomaster asked the Council. “We have run out of heroic little boys. At this rate, we may have to plug the leaks with our own fingers.”
“That would be moderately inconvenient,” one of the Burghers remarked.
In true democratic style, the Council voted to remove the North Sea by digging a new seabed somewhere in Germany; and they voted themselves several solid gold spades, befitting their dignity, for the purpose. And if you go to suburban Wilhelmshaven right now, and look into the field to your right as you drive westward on the Friedenstrasse, you will see a number of Dutch burghers very busy with their spades, trying to dig a new bed for the North Sea. It is lucky for them that the people of Wilhelmshaven have mistaken the burghers for a party of archaeologists looking for ancient Saxon remains, which has allowed them to continue the work uninterrupted.

“As Aristotle put it long ago, human beings are distinguished from other species by our ability to use language. Yet too often, at our jobs and in our business, we don’t listen to one another. Invested in our views, we explain when we should inquire. Caught up in our own preconceptions, we disguise our feelings and fears, and hide our very meaning. Our talk, in fact, drives us apart.”
Change Agents UK convened a novel workshop in April with a group of sustainability practitioners based on the principles of effective dialogue. Or in simpler language it convened a daylong event of good listening and conversation on the SDGs! The event was based on ideas pioneered by William Isaacs in his book, Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together: a pioneering approach to communicating in business and life (1999).
In his engaging book, based on over ten years of research with corporations, managers, business and community leaders, William Isaacs, the director of the Dialogue Project at MIT, explores how problems between managers and employees, or between companies or divisions within a larger corporation, stem from an inability to conduct a successful dialogue. He eloquently demonstrates that dialogue is more than just the exchange of words, but rather, the embrace of different points of view — literally the art of thinking together. Rather than making a power point presentation or having questions and answers, this event was presaged on the basis of a conversation around how the organisations represented assessed how they and their organisation were implementing the SDGs. Essentially, what was working and what was not. So each of us met in a room arranged in a circle of chairs and started a conversations in which we all made more or less short perfunctory statements about our assessment of sustainability in a range of organisational contexts from universities, local authorities , professional bodies to wildlife conservation projects.
So for the first hour or so we mostly listened and as we all became more relaxed we began to critically analyse what we had heard. We assessed good sustainability practice and how it had created traction within each organisational context. Then we explored what was inhibiting further engagement and action in relation to the SDGs.We avoided trying to voice solutions at too early a stage, perhaps tacitly embracing Daniel Kahneman’s ideas on thinking fast and slow? Finally, we shared ideas on how we might enhance understanding of the SDGs and their implementation. And, perhaps unsurprisingly the most aired ideas involved a critical appraisal of how best to communicate the SDGs in ways in which inspire and motivate action. Examples included short film, games and social media, perhaps inspired by the sustainability communications consultancy, Futerra.
“From gender equality to ending hunger, via climate action, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have got it all. The world’s governments, civil society, stakeholders and business did a pretty good job of creating a To Do List for humanity.
Except that list is written in a way which excludes the most important change-maker of all – YOU.
Because sustainability won’t be solved by institutions without individuals. Because each of us need to be invited to take part. Because we all have the right, the responsibility, and the opportunity to change the world for the better.
Because ‘people power’ is as important as ‘powerful people’ when it comes to progress.
At Futerra we know the incredible impact millions of folk working together can make. So, a few months ago we hacked the 17 Global Goals into a set of Good Life Goals.”
(https://www.wearefuterra.com/2018/07/why-we-need-new-good-life-goals/
Perhaps the most important message from this innovative event was that we need to avoid technical and academic language. And we should couple this with acquiring an understanding of group behaviour-an understanding that any group will include movers, opposers, followers and bystanders. And, as such these characterisations of group behaviour and dynamics are an important means of understanding the roles we tacitly assume and are an essential element of an effective and healthy ecology of thought which can lead to innovative and inspirational solutions to the implementation of the SDGs.

Tea and cucumber sandwiches with the only female Nobel Laureate, Dorothy Hodgkin and tea and banana breakfasts with a Ghandi!

In early 1979, I was awarded a visiting science fellowship by the British Council at the University of Hyderabad, India. And, amongst a range of life affirming and memorable experiences, I was the only guest of honour at a reception for Dorothy at the new university being created out of the semi arid desert outside the city of Hyderabad. Given her outstanding achievements you can imagine my astonishment to be introduced by the Vice Chancellor G.B. Singh (himself an eminent Harvard educated chemist) to Dorothy in a scarlet carpeted elegant tent-bedecked with sumptuous flowers – in the grounds of the emerging new campus and spent a pleasant and stimulating hour alone with her, eating carefully crafted cucumber sandwiches (without crusts!) following her lecture to a hundred or so academic staff and students. We spoke of her early career as a research scientist which clearly interested me as it linked directly to my then status! I later learned more about Dorothy as she was one of Margret Thatcher’s professors at Oxford and held in great esteem by our PM, such that she had a picture of Dorothy in her office in number 10.During MT’s time as PM, I worked as an HMI (education) with national responsibility for environmental and technical education and drafted key reports for her secretary of state for education (Sir Keith Joseph). 

  Early in my time at Hyderabad I was also immensely proud to be introduced to Professor Ramchandra (Ramu) Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Already an eminent Indian philosopher, he was the son of Devdas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s youngest son) and Lakshmi (daughter of C. Rajagopalachari another eminent writer and politician. Ramchandra Gandhi obtained his doctoral degree in philosophy from Oxford where he was a student of Sir Peter Strawson. Ramu is known for founding the philosophy department at the University of Hyderabad.  He and I routinely breakfasted on bananas and tea on the balcony of his tiny office in Hyderbad itself. And, he and colleagues introduced me to the idea of environmental philosophy and ways of encouraging deeper moral and ethical ways of approaching what has become my lasting career trajectory in the field of education and sustainability. And, he leaves a deep and lasting memory of him attending my 35^th birthday party at the university guest house and his gift of his maternal grandfather’s book, Ramayana.

(Hodgkin won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the structure of penicillin and insulin. As of 2016 she remained the only British woman scientist to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in any of the three sciences it recognises. In 1965 she was only the second woman and the first in almost 60 years, after Florence Nightingale in 1907, to be appointed to the Order of Merit. She was the first and, as of 2018, remains the only woman to receive the prestigious Copley Medal and elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society in 1947.And, she had an asteroid named after her in 1983!)

I’m asking this question because I was interviewed by NBC Universal on Sunday about this. They are creating a programme about Greta and wanted some “expert” advice from someone who knows? A quick search on the internet and surprise surprise you will find a paper I and a few colleagues from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate wrote following a visit there in 1992. This is what we said:

Schools and higher education institutions in Sweden have developed a wide range of innovative and demanding curricula to meet the objectives of Sweden’s environmental policy. Upper secondary schools offer more opportunities to develop environmental awareness, understanding and practical skills than comparable sixth form and post-secondary colleges in England. In Sweden there is a strong emphasis on practical work developed through projects based on contemporary environmental issues and their resolution. Environmental education has been well supported by a substantial input of new resources, especially materials developed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Industry.

The NBC interview went well. Linda, a Canadian Journalist from Toronto, asked some searching questions about how Sweden’s approach to environmental education might have helped create such an influential figure on the international stage; by helping her to argue so eloquently and powerfully for action on climate change. I started by telling Linda about the Swede’s love of nature. Why?

 It probably started ages ago with the botanist Linnæus who gave the world its first classification system of plants and animals. Centuries later, conservationists, influenced by Linnæus, warned of the potential dangers of industrialisation to Sweden’s richly rural and agrarian countryside. Their work led to the legislation that secured the protection of the land and the creation of Europe’s first national parks in Sweden in 1909.

Today Sweden has 30 national parks and more than 4,000 nature reserves, together covering more than a tenth of the country’s land area, or the whole of neighbouring Denmark.

More than 80 per cent of Swedes live within 5 kilometres of a national park, nature reserve or other nature conservation site.

And yes, there is no doubt that its education system, backed by national policy, has led to a culture of informed and committed environmentalists from all sectors of society. Notable figures like Helena Norberg Hodge, Karl-Henrik Robert, Claes Nobel and many more. And now we can celebrate the addition of a young and vibrant woman to this illustrious list!

At just 16 years old, Greta Thunberg has started an international youth movement against climate change.

Epic tales of floods (climate change), knowledge, wisdom and uncertainty set the context to this ambitious CD recording by the Leeds based indie group-ILiKETRAiNS.

Released at a time (2013) when the world’s leaders were struggling to come to terms with the impact of widening global austerity, major conflict zones and catastrophic and unpredictable weather systems in virtually all parts of the globe, the tracks explore what this might mean for humanity.

How do we respond to “tipping points”, when situations move from stability to instability as human activity crosses planetary boundaries, such as elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations leading to climate change? Is there a path towards more resilience, adaptation and renewal in the face of such unprecedented and accelerating change around the world? And what does this mean for Universities and the students enrolling in the 21 Century? Some high profile academics – the “apostles of change” – argue, for the most part convincingly, that education for sustainable development (ESD) can and should play an important part in developing the competencies and attributes of those who we need to “see the Deep”- meaning they who can begin to critically analyse and reflect on the meaning of sustainability and how they might contribute to resolving our increasingly un-sustainable world.

The cataclysmic effects of climate change are already wreaking havoc in our” global garden”

In itself sustainable development is not new. According to Genesis, Creation was launched with a statement of sustainable development policy; man was set in the garden “to work it and take care of it”. But whilst man has responded impressively to the first part of this commission, he has taken much longer to grasp the implications of the second. Indeed, it is only within the last decade or so that the complexity of sustainability has become better understood. As I talk to people who grasp some of the urgency surrounding the impact of our current un- sustainable lifestyles, I am constantly reminded that there is still scope for scientific and public disagreement about probabilities, timescales, and detailed causation and response. And yet the cataclysmic effects of climate change are already wreaking havoc in our” global garden” (see: The Climate Reality Project; 24hourly reports on climate change from numerous locations around the world.

It is tempting to cast education in the role of prophet or evangelist

Many have argued that our universities have a key role to play in moving us to a more sustainable future. But in defining the contribution our universities can play it important not to claim too much. It is tempting to cast education in the role of prophet or evangelist, charged with achieving a radical shift in society’s values. This view, however, entails some controversial assumptions about the role and purpose of education; and quite aside from the issue of principle, it is far from clear what such an approach would achieve in practice. The prophet’s usual fate, after all, is to be ignored. Values and attitudes-individual, industrial, public-are all moulded by many influences (for example, Government policy and the media). To say this is not at all to suggest that the University sector’s treatment of sustainability issues is not a significant strategic issue.

If the 2.5 million students currently enrolled in UK Universities graduate with the skills and attributes to help society become more sustainable, then they will have undoubtedly contributed. And it is right that universities should seek to lead this agenda.

However, as has been stressed by Lord Browne’s recent review of funding in higher education, they must maintain due contact with the aspirations of their clients. These aspirations were recently confirmed by a series of national surveys, commissioned by the Higher Education Academy in 2010, 2011 and 2012 of nearly 15,000 university students which found that almost 80% believe that sustainability skills are important for their future employment.

But all of this raises some important questions:

For example, are our universities systematically creating the conditions that offer under graduates the context, understanding, skills and values that will prepare them for the challenges we face in creating a more sustainable future? And do the 180,000 academic staff have the expertise and capabilities to create these conditions? We currently have no real mechanism for assessing this in any meaningful way. Even though the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) undertook a strategic review of sustainable development in HE in England in 2007 which covered some aspects of teaching and learning this is outdated and unlikely to be repeated with the current emphasis on budget cuts.

The Melbourne Model

The Higher Education Academy has initiated an ambitious but relatively small-scale pilot with 8 universities called the Green Academy – A Curriculum for Tomorrow, which aims to promote new approaches to the curriculum. It is fundamentally aimed at achieving what are described as “Graduate Attributes for the 21 Century” after a radical curriculum restructuring programme carried out by the University of Melbourne- which became known as the Melbourne Model. Harvard, Hong Kong and Yale have undergone similar reforms along with a small number of universities in the UK: Aberdeen, Manchester and Southampton. The Melbourne Model is based on 5 well defined graduate attributes: Academic Excellence; Knowledge across Disciplines; Leadership in Communities; Attuned to Cultural Diversity; and Active Global Citizenship.

International learning experiences

Two of these attributes directly focus on international learning experiences. Graduates of the University are expected to understand and respect for social and cultural diversity and value different cultures. They are expected to accept social and civic responsibilities and be advocates for improving the sustainability of their environment and have a broad global understanding coupled with a high regard for human rights, equity and ethics. Interdisciplinarity is emphasised especially where complex issues require more than one discipline to resolve them. This is exemplified by 2 programmes:

• An Ecological History of Humanity;
• Food for a Healthy Planet.

Throughout their undergraduate programme students benefit from exposure and experience of more than one way of knowing and seeing the world. Another good example is provided by the University of British Columbia whose courses seek to achieve four graduate attributes whereby the graduate demonstrates:

• holistic systems thinking;
• sustainability knowledge;
• aware of, and integrates across, intellectual constructs;
• acts to create positive change.

Given the current pressure on graduate employment and limited future job prospects, preparing future graduates for these uncertainties as well as those of global sustainability –is an essential element of a university learning experience and one which the University of Worcester is committed to supporting and leading through its programme of professional and academic development. Without this kind of support future generations of graduates are in real danger of becoming displaced from society and losing their capacity as global citizens.

It’s not difficult to see our blighted little island as a “tiny speck” of land sitting rather vulnerably somewhere in the North Sea and within this speck more and more islands of communities cut off by floods for weeks and months. And in many of these communities there has been an unacceptable absence of resources or help in their time of crisis.

Matlock and many areas of Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Worcestershire have been seriously affected by flooding yet again with economic, social and environmental consequences which have yet to be fully resolved and assessed. Chris Huhne, the former Liberal Democrat MP and Energy and Climate Secretary captured the nature of this national crises when he argued that “flood defence cuts driven by deficit reduction “are part of the problem; but more importantly he said” we cannot continue learning by drowning”. This short statement illuminates the “wicked un sustainable problem” we face with policies focussed entirely on adaptation to climate change as opposed to trying to stop the problem. As he says: this focus on spending more on adaptation in Matlock, for example-“is progress of sorts”. But it fails to consider two gargantuan accelerators of climate change. First is that the extreme wet weather we are experiencing is occurring now when climatologists have shown that the planet has only warmed by 0.85 degrees C since 1880 and hence we have a further 1.15 degrees C to go before we reach the 2 degree danger level that science predicts could tip us into runaway climate chaos. Second, the rise in rainfall intensity we are now experiencing and more so in the future will lead to a fourfold increase in physical damage to property and land. This increase does not include damage to future food supplies, degradation of soils, habitat loss and diminishing biodiversity and the cost of coliform bacterial infections caused by water contaminated by human sewage. Look out the window when it next rains and just try to imagine what Matlock or Worcester or Venice might look like with a 2 or 6 degree rise in global warming. Scary isn’t it?