Bill Scott's blog
Thoughts on learning, sustainability and the link between them
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The Moth Snowstorm
The publisher's blurb for Michael McCarthy's new book, The Moth Snowstorm: nature and joy, begins like this: Nature has many gifts for us, but perhaps the greatest of them all is joy; the intense delight we can take in the natural...
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How GM do you feel today?
The Economist recently ran a story under the headline: Genetically Modified People. The graphic was itself appropriately graphic. The point of the piece was that human beings’ ancestors routinely absorbed genes from other species. The article began: OPPONENTS of genetically modified crops often...
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The Future History of Political Economy – Part 1
Another well-written post from the Daly News landed in my in-box last week. It's focus was how economics has ignored thermodynamics over the years and centuries. I touched on the issues it raises in my talk at Cambridge last week...
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The RSPB, housing and biodiversity – a case in point
Several newspapers this week, and the PM programme on Radio 4, have covered a story about the RSPB in Cheshire as it appears to seek to sell land for housing that it was given in a legacy on the proviso...
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Getting gloomy about what children don't know
I was going to write a post about a recent Telegraph article about children's dwindling knowledge of nature. It's another pessimistic view about how people know less and less, about less and less, at least as far as "nature" is concerned. Mind...
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Visiting the CRASSH site
As I mentioned last week, Ken Webster and I shared a platform yesterday in Cambridge, at a Climate Histories seminar hosted by the wonderfully named CRASSH – the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Ken explored the...
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EAUC asks some questions
The EAUC has released its much anticipated business guide for university governors: Ten Reasons to Build Resilience into the Future of your University. It had a long gestation. The guide was developed by EAUC and Plymouth University, together with the Leadership Foundation for Higher...
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Teaching about climate change: starting from Lawson
I count myself blessed that I don't have to teach about climate change. It's hard enough to take a coherent view yourself than to have to help others take their own stand on it. And where to begin? Normally, I'd...
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Does being in 'quality nature' contribute best to human wellbeing?
It is hard to pick up a newspaper or watch TV without coming across somebody official telling us to take more exercise. The NHS, for example, recommends that someone my age has a mix of "moderate and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity every week...
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A Festival of disruptive Innovation – the DIF
In case you're wondering what happened to the EMF – the Ellen MacArthur Foundation – here's an update. You'll recall that it began in 2010 with the aim to inspire a generation to rethink, redesign and build a positive future. The Foundation works with...
