April 2017

  • SDGs for the UK?

    The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has produced a report on the SDGs.  This is the summary: By adopting Agenda 2030 the Government has committed itself to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals - or the Global Goals - in...

  • Hail, Shakira

    Goodbye, then, Malia; absolutely no one will miss you. In a bold move, the NUS has bundled its terrible President off the stage after only a year in office.  Malia B was challenged by Shakira Martin whom I know as she was a member...

  • EAUC reaches parts others can only dream of

    EAUC has made what must have been a hurried submission to the government's 'Building our Industrial Strategy' green paper.  I say this because it seems the only way to explain this sentence: "The combined budget of our members is some £25...

  • BBC nature programmes on TV are good for you

    So says a less than critical article on the Mother Nature Network [MNN]. Well, to be picky, it actually says that "Watching nature documentaries boosts happiness.  Anxiety and fear give way to joy and awe when we tune into scenes...

  • Remembering Henry Hobhouse

    I mentioned Henry Hobhouse's Seeds of Change: The 6 plants that transformed mankind the other day.  I read this many years ago now, along with his  Seeds of Wealth: 5 plants that made men rich.  I read his Forces of Change: an unorthodox...

  • Who needs satire any more?

    A few years ago, The Onion ran a story about the growth of teen suicides in the USA.  They reported that the large numbers involved were seen as less of a problem than the evidence of (il)literacy in their suicide...

  • Keeping sugar producers sweet

    The Economist has a lengthy article on the economics of sugar production – as controlled by the EU's complex set of regulations and rules.  It's worth a read for an insight into how complicated the production of a simple product...

  • Babble or something worse?

    I got this the other day about a special issue of EER: New Materialisms and Environmental Education This is part of what it said: In New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency & Politics, Coole and Frost (2010) argue that contemporary environmental, economic, geopolitical, and technological...

  • Is it time for Tom Harwood?

    I see that a reasonably normal person is standing for NUS President.  That's Tom Harwood.  You can see him here. Tom says that "Together we can make the NUS more inclusive, moderate, and credible".  You can see more at: TomForNUS.com...

  • Geography for geographers

    Last year, the Commission on Geographical Education (CGE) published an International  Charter on Geographical Education.  This imposing tome fails the real-world test at the first hurdle.  Despite this being a 2016 publication, there is only one reference to the SDGs.  This is...