January 2017

  • UKSSD’s open letter to the Prime Minister

    UK Stakeholder's for sustainable development [UKSSD] wrote an open letter to Mrs May last week.  It was published in the Times.  It's here: Dear Prime Minister, As a group of businesses investing in making our economy fit for the future,...

  • Bigging himself up, bigly

    I'm well known for my toleration and generosity of spirit, for my forbearance and my willingness to see the best in everybody.  I can even believe that there might be some good in the new president – somewhere, secreted away, and that...

  • Sterling on the SDGs

    I've been reading Stephen Sterling's recent piece in the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development (Vol 10.2).  It's here, and downloadable.  This is the Abstract: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are viewed in the context of Johan Rockström’s work on...

  • Neo-colonial adventurism and the NUS

    A UK team of two (from EAUC and NUS), is heading off to Uzbekistan to sell them the delights of ESD.  You'd have thought that the Uzbeks had problems enough, but apparently not.  This is a British Council funded jaunt and you...

  • Indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals

    Indicators have been proposed for the Sustainable Development Goals from the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network: Indicators and a Monitoring Framework for Sustainable Development Goals: Launching a data revolution for the SDGs Such indicators are, of course, vital if we...

  • Contrasting images of the natural world

    Two images of 'nature' have caught my eye this last few weeks.  The first was a pic of tigers incarcerated at ZSL (London Zoo, that was) opening their christmas presents.  That is, tearing the Christmas wrapping paper off large cardboard boxes.  Just...

  • Oxfam's careful arithmetic

    I got an email from Oxfam the other day.  You probably did too. Its subject line said: "8 billionaires have the same wealth as half the planet."  Shocking, of course, if true.  And of course, it is.  Well, it is...

  • Horse manure will bury London 9 feet deep by 1950

    This was an 1894 headline in The Times, warning of the doom to come.  It features in a YouTube video by the authors of Resource Revolution: How to capture the biggest business opportunity in a century. The horse problem is now...

  • New madness from UNESCO

    I see that UNESCO, bored with having to sort out ESD's contradictions, is trying to invent a new acronym: ECCAR – Education for climate change awareness and resilience This is less catchy than a dose of flu, and about as welcome.  It all...

  • Nature Schools

    You might (or not) have caught the BBC's brief news item saying that the Wildlife Trusts are planning to set up a Trust to run four nature schools.  The Nature Schools website says: "A team led by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust...