November 2016

  • Late warnings from UNEP

    UNEP's emissions gap report (2016) makes for uneasy reading, but is probably a necessary counter to all the over-positivity that has surrounded the recent 'agreement' of the Paris Agreement.  The report calls for less complacency all round.  Here's the start...

  • Pity the poor Swedes

    I wrote about the summary report of the Living Planet Index last week and thought it much less apocalyptic than the Guardian headline writers.  It is, of course, full of facts 'n' figures which make absorbing reading.  There are a few surprises...

  • Unlock the lock-ins

    As slogans go, "Unlock the lock-ins" is up there with "Rectify the anomaly" and "Stronger together".  In fact, it's way ahead as it manages to be both meaningless and misleading at the same time which is quite something.  That is,...

  • I can't believe ...

    To all my friends in the USA, I can only offer the crumb of comfort to be found in this video from Not the Nine-o-Clock News in 1982.  It sings for itself.  Just make sure you watch it right to the...

  • The Golden Age

    There are still environmentalists who think that a return to a golden age is possible – if only if we all do more of this or less of the other.  You know, that time when there was no social injustice,...

  • So what should we do about this sad story? 

    Here is Jorgan Randers on what to do about the environmental crisis we are in.  The pdf is adapted from his 2012 lecture in the 10th Annual Distinguished Lecture Series in Sustainable Development, hosted by the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability...

  • From Holocene to Anthropocene

    Today's post is by Stephen Martin who attended the inaugural WWF Living Planet Lecture, that took place at the Royal Society on November 3rd, where the guest speakers included Sir David Attenborough and Professor Johan Rockstrom.  Steve writes: Professor Johan Rockstrom was the main...

  • Riesling, Roads and Rye

    According to Saints Matthew and Luke, when Christ was commanded by Satan to turn stones into bread to show his divine powers, he declined, saying that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.  Well, that's as...

  • Good news for environmental educators – well, sort of

    The Guardian had a piece last week on extinctions.  Its headline was: World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns This reports on the publication of the Living Planet Index which "shows that vertebrate populations are...

  • Sustainability at Bath

    It's been something of a paradox for a while now that the University of Bath takes sustainability seriously across all its activities, but keeps quiet about it, relatively speaking. No longer it seems.  Monday and Tuesday of this week saw...