February 2023

  • Greta T and Economic History

    Now that Jacinda Harden has shuffled off the political scene, and the Queen of Scots is following suit, that only leaves Greta Thunberg as the great progressive hope of the world. [ "progressive" as in overtly pressing a social justice agenda...

  • Climate Realism at Oxford

    I've never participated in a debate at the Oxford Union.  I've not even been there, unlike the Cambridge Union which I visited once in the early 1970s to attend a debate on nature v nurture in relation to IQ.  The impact...

  • I hope this finds you well

    Phew!  Thank goodness I don't work at the University of St Andrews where Sally Mapstone, the VC, who has a reputation for disdaining email guff, advised – or was that told? – academics not to waste time and cyber space resources...

  • The worst idea in 43 years

    I can remember when lorries used to come to the door and drop off bottles of "pop" (Vimto / Dandelion & B / Cream Soda / Lemonade / etc)  and pick up empties.  There were deposits on the bottles as...

  • And was there light at the end of the (poly) tunnel?

    Thriving in the Anthropocene was the focus of the on-line I-SEE seminar on February 7th at the University of Bath.  It was presented by Mike Berners-Lee, Director of Small World Consulting andthe author of, There is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or...

  • Horny rhinos can’t breed because of Brexit

    As a contender for unexpected headline of the year, this one (from The Times), might take some beating.  Yet another social ill laid at Brexit's door.  How unusual. Zoo keepers are in a flap because the exchange of animals for...

  • Climate without the change

    I don't do much by way of the counter-factual exercises that are so beloved of historians for obvious reasons.  So what follows is unusual. The question is: what would we (those focused on thinking about sustainability) be concerned about if...

  • Happy Imbolc

    Today is the first significant day of 2023, in Earth terms at least.  It is Imbloc, or St Brigit's Day.  The mid-point between the Winter Solstice (when the new year really begins) and the Spring Equinox. In our book, Learning,...