A recent paper has traced the evolution of selected global environmental agreements from 1971 to 2025. And, it asks why the increasing intensity and focus of international environmental governance has not been matched by urgent and scalable improvement in planetary conditions. Using qualitative comparative document analysis across climate, biodiversity, and pollution, the study assesses theContinue reading “GOVERNANCE AND THE ANTHROPOCENE”
Category Archives: Economy
When will Labour take the initiative and be bold? Or are we facing yet another crisis of governance?
Our letter to John Whitby our MP Emma Hickling and Steve Martin We saw the Peoples Emergency briefing last week at Matlock Imperial Rooms, during the final night of the fifth heatwave that the UK has experienced this year. The next night we watched the National Emergency briefing videos on YouTube. These briefings highlight theContinue reading “When will Labour take the initiative and be bold? Or are we facing yet another crisis of governance?”
Paradigm Shakes
We seem to be stuck in a dangerous and destructive paradigm. Our current approach to climate change is painfully inadequate. Will shifting paradigms be easier if we start with a few small shakes?Karen O’Brien Jan 20 ExtremesThese are not easy times. It’s hard to watch the news and read the latest climate projections. And it’sContinue reading “Paradigm Shakes”
NET ZERO MEANINGLESS WITHOUT NATURE’s SUPPORT
There can be no net zero without nature. Each year, the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions. They feature in dozens of national plans to limit global heating to below 2C. This week, however, the scientific architects of net zero have a warning: you haveContinue reading “NET ZERO MEANINGLESS WITHOUT NATURE’s SUPPORT”
What does progress look like on a planet at its limit?
Putting endless growth above our wellbeing and the environment is no longer tenable-from a Guardian Culture article by Kate Raworth Here’s a question for our times: how should we imagine the shape of progress? In the twentieth century the answer may have seemed to be very clear. It was growth, measured in terms of nationalContinue reading “What does progress look like on a planet at its limit?”
Consilience
In Search of the Unity of Knowledge by E. O. Wilson I have recently returned to reading the biologist and polymath’s 1998 book in search of some answers to why there is an absence of political leadership capable of addressing our current ecological and environmental crises. I have adapted and summarised some of the earlyContinue reading “Consilience”
HISTORY NOW
I encourage anyone reading this on New Year’s day to watch Simon Schama’s BBC TV series called “History Now” Schama is always a compelling presenter but in this series, he is more than a messenger, offering something of a call to arms as he emotionally recounted memories of watching Václav Havel address crowds of CzechContinue reading “HISTORY NOW”
NEW ECONOMY based on NEW SYSTEMS
The role of human agency is an essential element of the authors of this new books analyses, evaluations, and prescriptions. If humanity is to live in harmony with itself, with other creatures, and in balance with the planet’s ecological systems, then we must be clear about what we can and cannot do, and what weContinue reading “NEW ECONOMY based on NEW SYSTEMS”
Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world
The word has become a rhetorical weapon and an ideological political meme, but it properly names the reigning ideology of our era – one that venerates the logic of the market and strips away the things that make us human. And its most recent admirer Liz Truss our much-reviled former PM became a celebrated maleficent proponentContinue reading “Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world“
OUR economy is killing us.
Even before the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, rates of healthy life expectancy were falling in Scotland. People living in the poorest areas in the UK were dying younger because of deliberate cuts to social security and public services. Now, each week sees a new headline about the rising tide of destitution. At the same time,Continue reading “OUR economy is killing us.“
