February 2021

  • Dasgupta, NGOs and the silence on schools

    As I noted the other week that the Dasgupta Review has been published.  It has been widely welcomed with some NGOs publishing extensive comments.  See, for example, this from WWF-UK.  The WWF commentary makes a number of key points, the first two of...

  • The Alternative Beatitudes

    A while back, I suggested that it might be easier to green the Beatitudes rather than the 10 Commandments, so here goes.  NB, changes are in bold: "And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He...

  • DfE and the Natural History GCSE

    Imagine a conversation in a sanctuary just north of the Thames ... Permanent Secretary – The next item on the agenda, Secretary of State, is what to do about the OCR proposal for a natural history GCSE. Secretary of State – Golly!...

  • Coal and the Kremlin

    Imagine a conversation somewhere east of the Vistula ... Sergey Some good energy news for a change Mr President.  Useful idiots in England have pressurised an out of their depth local council to change its tune about opening a new...

  • Dasgupta 1

    The Dasgupta Review was published last week and can be downloaded.  It has been widely welcomed.  The Review said that schools should “introduce Nature studies from the earliest stages of our lives and revisit them in the years we spend in secondary...

  • Ten Alternative Commandments

    In the mid-1970s, at a conservation education conference at the University of London's Chelsea College, the Bishop of Kingston-upon-Thames, the Rt Rev Hugh Montefiore, put forward what he termed a conservationist version of the 10 Commandments.  Here it is:  –...

  • The Feast of St Brigit

    Brigit (pronounced breed) was goddess of the ancient British Kingdom of Brigantia.  She regenerates the forces of nature at the end of each winter.   Today, February 2nd, is Imbolc (pronounced emolc) which is half way between the Winter Solstice and...