September 2014

  • Let's hear it for the Ebola virus

    I wrote recently about a dire presentation at the recent ECER conference where ESD was taken to task for being overly-anthropocentric.  The speaker, Helen Kopnina of the University of Amsterdam and the Hague University of Applied Science, spoke up for...

  • Cheap at half the price

    The Plymouth Herald – essential reading, I find – recently reported that the city's University had splashed out a sum not unadjacent to £150k on 7 Chairs.   "Gosh", that's cheap, I thought.  I know professors are poorly paid, but really,...

  • Fairness and Physics

    Peter Harper, variously of the Centre for Alternative Technology, Schumacher College, and the University of Bath is presenting a lecture tonight at BRLSI on Energy: Fairness, Physics and Sustainability.  This is the blurb: The atmosphere is a shared resource.  Therefore the...

  • The most terrifying video you'll ever see

    This is how this YouTube clip is introduced.  Really, I thought – has no one seen this YouTube gem which I defy anyone to watch without reaching for the valium. No matter how often I watch the "most terrifying" YouTube video, it just...

  • What is ESD? And why is it important to your students?

    This is the title of a paper that Paul Vare and I have written for the Teachers: Agents of Change project, funded by the EU, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and the Czech Development Agency. This...

  • Nimbyism is taken to new heights in Wiltshire

    Wiltshire has an explorer – David Hempleman-Adams – who seems to do most of his exploring out of the county. Hempleman-Adams has made an intervention into the local solar PV politics (ie, should Wiltshire Council encourage or discourage it?).  The Council's policy is not to have...

  • There but for the grace ...

    ... of ?? Well, you can complete the sentence for yourself, but my money's on the last two lines of Hilaire Belloc's 'Jim' (one of his cautionary tales for children) which were never far from the surface of things, even if...

  • Intangible Cultural Heritage? Let's grab it with both hands

    On Saturday, there's a conference on Intangible Cultural Heritage in the UK: promoting and safeguarding our diverse living cultures.  It's at the Museum of London Docklands, West India Quay.  It's about time. The 2003 UNESCO Convention defines Intangible Cultural Heritage...

  • George Monbiot and Brian Wilson disagree on progress, and what's progressive

    George M’s latest dyspeptic vision of the future – at least for benighted folk north of the Wall –  has been seen off by Brian Wilson for the “patronizing rubbish” it clearly is.  Wilson asks where are the progressive ideas in nationalist politics,...

  • Linking Thinking – but never enough

    You can access WWF Scotland's ageing, but still rather fine, Linking Thinking report here.  It was written by Stephen Sterling, Paul Maiteny, Deryck Irving and John Salter.  Is it for you?  Well, the authors say that if you, or your institution or organisation are: interested...