All these people on Climate Twitter, spouting variations of information deficit, or hope deficit or anger deficit. All of them studiously avoiding the key (imo) question - what do social movement organisations need to do DIFFERENTLY, given that for the last 30 plus years, they have not managed to slow the acceleration of the destruction... Continue Reading →
Things we can’t see, don’t have the language for, that MATTER (the mechanics of social movement organisations etc etc)
We can't, usually, 'see' carbon dioxide. But we know it is there. Since the 1950s very very accurate measures of its concentration in the atmosphere have been kept (thanks to Uncle Sam and his military industrial complex). While dickheads - to use the technical academic term - like ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott scoff at "invisible... Continue Reading →
Smart but so very very stupid at the same time: Dunning-Kruger among would-be leaders
I've just read Melissa Benn's excellent novel of "New Labour" - "One of Us" (more soon). That - combined with Rishi Sunak's response in the "leadership" "debate" to what he would do about climate change (recycling, wasting less, innovation) has got me to thinking about the question of, well, how our "leaders" are so catastrophically... Continue Reading →
How/when to criticise environmental activists for being “stupid, unhelpful, lazy.” (spoiler: it’s not when they refuse to join cheerleading for aggro-capitalism)
This is going to be sweary. If you are all Omar Little, and don't like swearing, then look away now. For fucking fuckity fucking fuck's fucking sake. What kind of fucking clueless muppet chides environmentalists when they are lukewarm about some rapacious purveyor of salt, sugar, fat and protein getting in on the fake meat... Continue Reading →
What is to be done? After the Heat goes out of the issue…
On my @our_yesterdays account I did a thread highlighting some of the previous episodes in UK government awareness of the (then long-term) threat of climate change, back in the 1970s. After the litany, came the homily - https://twitter.com/our_yesterdays/status/1548660813950500868 So in this post I will (as briefly as I can, with hyperlinks to other places where... Continue Reading →
Of (#climate) hubs, hope and homilies…
On Wednesday two excellent things took place. One, I bought some juggling kit at the "Oddballs" shope in the lanes in Brighton. https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1547865902464389121 The second is - hopefully - more consequential. I went to Seaford (a town on the coast) to meet up with Becky and Roy, who are neck deep, with others, in organising... Continue Reading →
A supermarket encounter, pondering charities as salesmen for Big Pharma
UPDATE - Aaaand a week later... "Critical elements of leading Alzheimer’s study possibly fraudulent" July 24th, 2022 Alzheimer's Research UK having a stall and a couple of people at the Co-op -a young woman holding up an orange and as her practiced opening gambit asking me what's the connection with Alzheimer's? “Diet, class,” I say... Continue Reading →
Learning about climate change from Boris Johnson
Some people like to make it all very VERY complicated (whether they know that is what they are doing or not). And you can do that. You can make climate change and what we are supposed to do about it so fantastically complicated that you scare off most potential allies and actors. You can make... Continue Reading →
Silly Malthusian post I will doubtless regret…
I just put this on Twitter, managing - of course - to muck up the numbering on a two-Tweet thread. This will come as a shock to regular readers of this account, but upon wide reading, some (second-hand?) thinking and reflection, I think that, well, our species' "civilisation" is completely FUBARRED. We are delusional maniacal... Continue Reading →
Just Stop Oil – a winning formula?
Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jJ9Ur8WNPE It is fascinating for many reasons. The folks interviewed are right about the coming impacts, and if anything underselling the seriousness of our shituationThe jeering of them from spectators is shared by many MANY people more widely.The comments on the video are disabled (unsurprisingly, but it wouldn't JUST be bots leaving... Continue Reading →