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 →
Letter in New Internationalist about movement-building and (lack of) learning… #emotacycle #smugosphere
An edited version of the letter I sent to New internationalist has appeared in the latest issue. I've put the stuff they edited out in bold... I opened the latest issue, with its teasing headline "How We Stop Big Oil" with a sense of trepidation and weariness. I feared it would follow a format I've... Continue Reading →
Bet on “Business As Usual Activism” to persist until “the end”
A few days ago an article appeared in the Guardian - ‘It cannot be activism as usual’: Kumi Naidoo and Luisa Neubauer on the way forward for climate justice It was a write-up by Bill McKibben, and the subheading was "As the climate movement hits another impasse, activists Luisa Neubauer and Kumi Naidoo explain why... Continue Reading →
What is to be done? Or, “Full Court (De)Press”
The "well, what's your alternative?" question ENRAGES me. Because I have answered it so many times, and the people asking me (almost always) know that I have; they just don't like my answers. These answers would move them out of their comfort zone, decentre them, force them to do (different) hard work. It enrages me... Continue Reading →
We should give our age in ppm. No, hear me out. (I’m 97ppm, btw.)
One thing people don't get about climate change is just how quickly the blanket of C02 is thickening because of our emissions. Sure, there's that Al Gore on his elevator stunt in the film "An Inconvenient Truth." And there's this that shows we are thickening the blanket more and more quickly (because we are burning... Continue Reading →
We need to see what isn’t there
Quick thought, because a) working on an overdue Doctor Who article, b) working on The Job (CCS) and c) have a call imminently with an old friend. So much of what frustrates me about me/social movement organisations comes down to the inability/unwillingness (because it's hard, and if you don't practice, you never get better --... Continue Reading →
Elephants don’t tapdance. And they don’t even do elephant-y things any more. We are so screwed.
Take it as a given that elephants don't tap dance. (They are super smart, and we are a horrible horrible species, busy exterminating them, but you knew thtis). Elephants don't even jump - because, why would they need to? And the elephants, if you don't know me, are one of my favourite metaphors for big,... Continue Reading →
“Isn’t it entropic, I really do think” – or “How Groups Zombify, and what, in theory, was to be done…” #HowGroupsZombify
If you are Really Damn Old you may recognise the song lyric reference in the first half of the title. "Whatever," as the young people used to say. "How Groups Zombify" - HGZ, as we will call it, (but which could also stand for Hypocrites Going Zealous?) is a key question. For me, anyway. Not... 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 →