For those of you who aren't up with the lingo: When we burn fossil Fuels (coal, oil and gas) to get energy, we release carbon dioxide. This is bad because it adds to the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere and more carbon dioxide traps more heat, which melts ice caps, causes droughts... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley
The problem for satirists these days is to make their fiction as outlandish and unbelievable as reality. Tricky job. But "these days" is the hostage to fortune in this, because fifty years ago Philip Roth faced the same dilemma with Richard Nixon. And his brilliant "Our Gang" (no, seriously, you should read it) has some... Continue Reading →
They are supposed to be SOCIAL movements, not personal ones: Of McNulty, metrics and #MeOnly
Warning - incoherent-and-dashed-off-when I-should-be-thinking-and-writing-about-Something-Else rant Measuring "success" of social movements is notoriously difficult. Did a law get passed? Repealed? Did social attitudes change? Over what timescale? Who did what to what effect? Or did things change BACK, or not change (not all social movements are 'progressive'!). And on and on. But sometimes an organisation comes... Continue Reading →
Rochdale Council’s idea of improving nature
This is a couple of weeks back, but I realised I am probably gonna use it again and again, so want to put it somewhere it can be found. Rochdale Council deleted the tweet, and the Twitter monkey responsible probably got sent for re-education. You can DO these things of course, but you're not supposed... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
This slender volume - containing three essays entitled "The Sin of Height," "On the Level," and "The Loss of Depth"- is an erudite, reflective and profound meditation on love and loss. Of course it is - this is Julian Barnes we are talking about here. The first two sections deal with early hot-air ballooning (including... Continue Reading →
No numbers, no infrastructure, no clue – the death of XR
Various people have called me several shades of cunt for my take on XR. They either ignore, or never bothered to find out, that back in 2019, when it was kicking off, I conducted and posted interviews with participants on Manchester Climate Monthly, offered to put together a private event with old and new activists... Continue Reading →
Book review: “Desdemona – if you had only spoken!”
This one's a keeper. Eleanor Bron translates and introduces a work by German author Christine Bruckner. The work is 11 speeches/musings by real (including Gudrun Ensslin, Mrs Martin Luther) and fictional (Desdemona, Mary, Effi Brest etc) women as they reflect on their lives and how they have been shaped (and mostly constrained/contained) by men and... Continue Reading →
What am I good for? Of “All Our Yesterdays” and “Yes, but let’s BELL the BLOODY CAT.” That’s about it, I think…
A house move is a chance to reflect (because I don't ever ruminate otherwise, oh not at all). So many books. So so many bloody books. So many of them not read (so many not written, too.) You get to thinking, as per my Twitter header - What has it all been for? What am... Continue Reading →
Big Brother is talking to you…
States don't just create external boundaries. As per Cesaire, the technologies are being brought into the metropole.
Academia making me angry for the right reasons! Energy technology innovation #EpicFail #SpeciesBeDoomed
I often rant, sorry, "offer calm, considered and reasoned critiques" about academics who study nonsense badlystudy important things badlystudy important things well but write in turgid academese These things make me angry. But for once, I am angry after reading an academic paper, not about any of the above (because it is paper which studies... Continue Reading →
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