May 2011

  • Wind Energy, the 2nd Law, EVs, Jim Bullis, David MacKay, ...

    Catching up this morning with the Economist's bloggers, I read a Babbage column on wind energy and the Californian dream.  As with many other science and technology blogs that I read, the interest comes as much from the discussion as...

  • Trains and Boats and Planes

    I travelled to Edinburgh to the HEA meets the EMF match by train.   Although this took a  bit longer than flying from Bristol, it meant I got to spend a comfortable and undisturbed time reading Stephen Sterling's Future Fit draft...

  • The Higher Education Academy meets the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

    This encounter took place on Monday in a very wild and wet Edinburgh.  Not quite the Festival (there wasn't even a Fringe), just a great deal about the circular economy [CE] — the Foundation has now produced a broad-ranging set...

  • There was an architect, an engineer, an energy manager, ...

    ... and me. We all met at Bristol's Create Centre last week as part of a panel to discuss the idea of the sustainable school from the perspective of building design, construction and operation.  This was part of the Bristol...

  • Chinese ESD

    I listened recently to an address by Dr Shi Gendong, the Excutive Director/Chiarman of Beijing Association of Education for Sustainable Development, who spoke in a plenary session at the third GRESD conference in Uppsala [GRESD is the Swedish Graduate School...

  • The Naming of Parts

    Every year, as spring arrives, and I walk along the nearby Kennet & Avon canal, I feel a strong need to know the names of the huge number of plants that I see.  Not content with their beauty and the...

  • Greatness thrust upon me

    Sometimes, you just sit there and something nice happens.  This was my experience recently when I was invited to be President of the National Association of Environmental Education — NAEE.   This, almost venerable by now, institution has survived whilst...

  • Watts Up

    After much research and deliberation, we decided to ignore the doubters (George Monbiot, perhaps), and are now helping out the National Grid by generating photo-voltaic electricity.  We went on line last week, so don't hesitate to have that extra-hot shower...

  • The Wrong Values

    In the aftermath of the 1953 uprising in East Germany, which arose because of the population’s failure to appreciate government efforts to build a socialist paradise for them, Bertolt Brecht wrote the following in Die Lösung: After the uprising of...

  • The most Important, Urgent and Practical Things

    I was asked the other day by someone from a Community Interest Company: What do you think are the most important, urgent and practical things that can and should be done in schools and in the community to advance ESD? My...