May 2013

  • Well ahead of my curve

    I recently finished a report for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on its education work since launch in 2010.  Titled,  Ahead of the Curve, it can be downloaded here.  The report is much more colourful and graphic, in the design sense,...

  • A grenade in the Curriculum Journal

    As I noted recently, I have a forthcoming paper in the Curriculum Journal, in a special issue on education and sustainability in the UK.   So has Ken Webster, I'm pleased to say.  His contribution is a poke in the ribs for those...

  • When you think about sustainability, do you really need to think about quality?

    I began drafting this post at the end of March, on a train slowly making its way through that most soothing of landscapes, the Wiltshire Downs.  I was returning home from three days on the road: grandchildren (an education in...

  • UN General Assembly discusses sustainable development goals

    The UN general Assembly is devoting 24 days in 2013 to an open working group on sustainable development goals.  Of these just part of one day (in November) is devoted to education, with "employment and decent work for all", "social...

  • Fifty thousand saw I at a glance ...

    ...tossing their heads in sprightly dance. No.  Mercifully not daffodils, but snakeshead fritillaries at one of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's splendid reserves in the Cotswold Water Park. I didn't count them, of course, but OU researchers did.  Good to see...

  • More stories from the Shed

    There was an unusual flurry of activity in Shed Share last week.  It followed this request from the student union at the London Institute of Education (IoE): Hello. I am part of the Sustainability Network at the Institute of Education,...

  • The party may soon be over

    The Economist has a piece last week on academic journal publishing: It begins, AT THE beginning of April, Research Councils UK, a conduit through which the government transmits taxpayers’ money to academic researchers, changed the rules on how the results...

  • A trilemma we all share

    I listened to nPower's Paul Bowtell the other day at a Wildlife Trust Corporate Green Awards breakfast.  He talked about the company's "trilemma" of Moving to a low carbon economy Maintain a secure supply Keeping energy affordable ... all at...

  • 400.03 and counting ...

    That's 400 ppm of atmospheric CO2, of course as a symbolic (though hardly milestone) level is reached, and exceeded.  The 400.03 ppm figure was reported by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] on May 10th.  For the record, these...

  • Ed Davy writes a letter

    The ever-reliable Learn from Nature alerts me to a recent piece in the Guardian which I somehow missed.  This reveals – SHOCK –  that one secretary of state (Davy) has written a private letter to another (Gove) about the need...