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  • When did you last indulge in moral licensing?

    When you've done something rather green and virtuous, like wearing that extra jumper, using those life-time bags, or riding to work on the bike, do you then reward yourself in some way?  Perhaps in quite an ungreen way?  If so,...

  • The long lease of poverty's grip

    I wrote last week about the draft sustainable development goals.  Goal 1 is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere.  The associated targets are these: 1.1 by 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living...

  • Ambitious, Transparent, Universal, Equitable – adjectives to watch

    In a recent article for the Guardian, the leader of the UK's parliamentary opposition, Ed Milliband, wrote this: "As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said, if the world is to hold warming below 2C, global emissions need to peak...

  • More on Sustainability and the National Student Survey

    I've written before about attempts to shoe-horn a focus on sustainability into the UK's influential National Student Survey [NSS] question set, and I've usually been rather dismissive of any likelihood of this coming to pass.  Well, it seems I was right,...

  • The EAC Questions our Youth

    I watched the latest session from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee [EAC] (25 February) on Parliament TV.  It was a poorly-attended event, with almost as many witnesses as MPs.  Those speaking were: National Union of Students – Jamie Agombar...

  • Why is Bristol Europe's Green Capital for 2015?

    Bristol is Europe's Green Capital for 2015, but you have to wonder how this came about as its sustainability credentials seem pitifully few.  In the BBC's most recent Costing the Earth, Tom Heap explored these issues.  Clearly, the award was granted as much on future...

  • Bad Day at HEFCE – Good one at Bath

    HEFCE announced on Wednesday that its Deputy CEO, Steve Egan, is leaving and will be taking up a new post at Bath as Vice President (Implementation).  I'd say that's ... Bath 10 – 0 HEFCE Eat your hearts out all...

  • Deep Learning and the rise of the machines

    I watched a TEDx talk by Jeremy Howard on deep learning and the rise of the machines.  You can see it here.  Prepare to be just a little bit impressed.  It might have been coincidence (or media-smart machines at work), but...

  • Sustainable Development Goal 4 – a comment

    As you know, the UN is planning to replace the Millennium Development Goals with 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  One of these (Goal 4) relates to education and learning.  Stephen Sterling has contributed to a recent report critiquing the goals, and he...

  • New SDGs "risk failure without clearer targets" says new report

    UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 risk failure without clearer, more measurable targets that are based on the latest scientific evidence, a report from the International Council for Science and the International Social Science Council, has warned – as Reuters and...