October 2012

  • More on the UK's "mindless" badger cull

    Today's Observer carried this critique: Britain's top animal disease scientists have launched a devastating attack on the government's "mindless" badger cull, accusing ministers of failing to tell the truth and demanding the immediate abandonment of the killings.  The intervention by dozens of...

  • Wroughting away

    At a Food Growing in Schools Task Force conference the other week, there was something of a minor spat about the 3Rs, and the word "wroughting", a concept I first came across in the context of Industry Year, in 1986....

  • ESD and the QAA – dangerous medicine

    Now that the QAA has embraced ESD – or so we're told, and HEFCE has spent a fortune encouraging / exploring / enabling this – I expect its fortunes (ESD's that is) to diminish even further.  Having experienced the QAA's...

  • Have you got all your [blue] marbles?

    I have, at last, run out of excuses for not looking at the phenomenon that is Blue Marble.  I note that the Untidy Britain Group is now part of this, as the latest BM Mag notes ... The need for...

  • Is there LiFE in Copernicus?

    We are encouraged to take both the Copernicus Alliance, and EAUC's LiFE (Learning in Future Environments), seriously, as major initiatives supporting sustainability and learning, and I have no doubt that, for those involved, there is something to be gained by...

  • Proposed new SD indicators – it's almost too late to have your say

    Defra is consulting on a new SD indicator set.  So far, there have only been 80 responses and the consultation closes on October 15th. There are now 12 provisional headline indicators [ HI ] that are meant to be high-level outcome...

  • Come and meet Nick Clegg ...

    ... when the EAUC treats with the EDG on November 14th. Although meeting the diminished Clegg may now be a turn-off rather than the turn-on he once was, don't worry because he may not even be there. It's a proven,...

  • Meeting protocols in the digital age

    Another excursion yesterday into the slightly surreal and often intermittent world of the Skype conference call; six people in 4 locations.  It worked remarkably well, thanks in no small part to the computer moderator and everyone's patience.  I thought of...

  • Peas in our time

    I spoke briefly at a Food Growing in Schools Task Force conference the other day, offering a summary of the day.  I'll not trouble you with what I said, though you can see a few presenters' PPts here, other than...

  • Harmony with nature: all vanity and hubris

    Harmony with Nature generates about 22 million Google results.  Harmony in Nature, on the other hand gets around 125 million.  Make of that what you can.  Each phrase is problematic: the first is wishful thinking dressed as political theory; the second...