September 2013

  • Nobody sings about prawns

    They never did, and never will.  But herrings are a different matter, as those of you familiar with Ewan McColl's "silver darlings", know. A recent Bagehot article in the Economist about fishing in the river Clyde (well, actually about no longer...

  • From the fens to Friends of the Earth with bells on

    My week began in Cambridge at EESD-13 about which I've probably said enough – except that the positive memory of it lingers.  And it ended at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust [WWT] AGM which turned out (well, almost) to be a...

  • A man with his brains caught in the mangle

    I guess only a man (or perhaps a 'new man') could have written the claptrap that appeared in the Daly News the other day.  I can hardly bear to copy it.  He's describing going back to hand washing laundry using...

  • EESD – a couple of good questions

    The highlight of Tuesday morning at EESD was not the Keynote by BP's Ellen Williams, provocative though that was (as well as being welcome in a post-Browne sense).  Rather, it was the pre-presentations questions posed by the Chair of parallel...

  • EESD – a revisionist view of UBC

    I've long had the view that it was the University of British Columbia [UBC] that you should look to in order to see the intersection of higher education and sustainability at its best; that is, for an integration across research,...

  • EESD: Lord Browne, and half a speech

    The second keynote on day one of the conference was given by Lord Browne of Maddingley.  It  hadn't a title, which may have been because it didn't have much of a focus.  This was a keynote that could have been...

  • EESD-13 an international affair

    The number of countries represented here is impressive.  They include: USA     Canada     Mexico     Colombia     Chile     Virgin Islands     Ghana     South Africa     Malaysia     China     Australia  ...

  • Going to EESD 13 – still rethinking the engineer

    I'm off to EESD 13 this week – just to listen, and to represent ELSA ; the English Learning and Sustainability Alliance.   This is the conference blurb: Much progress has been made over the last decade in introducing concepts...

  • Schools meals for all – probably not

    Well, we shall see whether the government's new policy of free school meals for all under 7s will deliver its desired outcomes in terms of increased pupil concentration in the afternoon, and greater attainment – well, in the narrow sense...

  • Wildlife, human population, and confusion

    The Wildlife Trusts have produced a statement on population, resource use & consumption in the UK.  It begins: The Wildlife Trusts believe that it is insufficient simply to prevent the further decline in the quantity and quality of existing habitats,...