We know that our city is moving in the right direction in its move to become carbon neutral and to respond to the climate challenges that are facing us in a way that will benefit everyone. Yet we also know that we need an ever-improving connection between policies enacted by decision makers and the actionsContinue reading “City of Nottingham Climate Assembly July 2026”
Category Archives: environment
JOHN RUSKIN and CLIMATE CHANGE
In 1884, John Ruskin delivered one of the first lectures to discuss climate change and make a link to industrial pollution. Now, with the help of a group of 13- to 16-year-olds, a new exhibition Sheffield’s unrivalled Ruskin collection is taking place at the city’s Millennium Gallery. Storm-Cloud brings together work from the Guild ofContinue reading “JOHN RUSKIN and CLIMATE CHANGE”
David v Goliath :Community Flood Resilience in the Derbyshire Dales
Fear got us this Far- Hope will get us Further and Possibly Faster
By Tobias Brosch, Edward Mishaud, and Disa Sauter “An elevator-pitch definition of fear might be a neurobiological process to keep us alive,” writes cultural historian Robert Peckham in his 2023 book, ‘Fear: An Alternative History of the World.’ Indeed, fear – that full-on jolt of adrenaline we feel throughout our body – has served humanityContinue reading “Fear got us this Far- Hope will get us Further and Possibly Faster”
WHAT IS TRUE NET ZERO?
From the Guardian 19/11/2024 Under the “true” net zero definition, the natural world’s vast carbon-absorbing capabilities must only be put to work to remove historical emissions so that the planet can slowly cool over time, the net zero researchers say – not to cancel out future fossil fuel pollution.“It is a common assumption that removingContinue reading “WHAT IS TRUE NET ZERO?”
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”
The right have hijacked Englishness. Can it be reclaimed?
I spent Saturday morning listening to an exceptional former Green MP Caroline Lucas talk about England and being English and how distorted our electoral system has become. She is a formidable and eloquent analyst of how our system has become a bandwagon for the right and how we might change this dynamic by transforming manyContinue reading “The right have hijacked Englishness. Can it be reclaimed?”
Rebecca Solnit: Slow Change Can Be Radical Change “Describing the slowness of change is often confused with acceptance of the status quo. It’s really the opposite.” By Rebecca Solnit January 11, 2024 “To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”–Georgia O’Keeffe* Someone at the dinner table wanted to know what everyone’s turning point onContinue reading
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”
New Ways of Seeing the World: Big History and Great Transition
Opening essay for a GTI Forum David Christian May 2023 As the first astronauts peered down on Earth from space, they saw the planet anew. They all had the same epiphany, as the sight of one small, fragile world, embedded in a huge universe briefly replaced the multiple, ever-changing impressions of everyday life. To buildContinue reading “New Ways of Seeing the World: Big History and Great Transition”