Sorry if what follows is banal, but it was new to me. Ah, bless Facebook... The word "constructive," it occurs to me after more than half a century on t'planet, is deployed by people who don't want to engage with criticism of what their cherished organisation has (not) been doing. So, if I point out... Continue Reading →
The Magpie was the newsletter of the Manchester Wildlife Group which had begun in 1984. The first Magpie appeared in 1986, and the last issue 54 appeared in 2005. At its height, it was a quarterly publication. The format was A4 landscape, with staples in the middle. It was sent out to members of the... Continue Reading →
'A Blueprint for Survival,' the first big eco-manifesto, is 50. Below I explore where it came from, how it was received and why its lessons still matter - as part of the "All Our Yesterdays" project. See the full report on which this guest post below is based here. On Thursday 13th January 1972 the... Continue Reading →
We should of course be angry at the right people at the right time and in the right ways (1). There has been an achingly successful campaign first to deny the existence of climate change, then to say that doing anything about it can either wait or would be massively expensive. We should be angry... Continue Reading →
I am brewing a piece (rant) on the last 3 years, from the end of 2018 to now. The gist is that the trajectory of the "climate movement" was entirely predictable in the round. Yes, specific idiocies like the XR tube action, and getting hit by a pandemic were not in anyone's particular scenario, but... Continue Reading →
A few examples spring to mind. In 2007, while my eyes were opening wider and wider to the reality of Climate Camp, I was at an event in Manchester aimed at getting university students involved in the "non-hierarchical" organisation. And two self-described "non-hierarchical leaders designed the meeting that involved rather a lot of talking... by... Continue Reading →
The Buddhists are right, I think, about the ways in which longing and desire prevent us from learning, from seeing the world more as it is than as we would wish it to be. This is coming from a very revealing interaction this morning online, on a Twitter account I share the running of. The... Continue Reading →
Public Meetings are disastrously bad at achieving their goals. They are not the only reason that social movement organisations struggle to recruit or retain people, but they are a significant barrier to a Better World (tm). I have been writing and video-making about this forever (well, it feels like that). See here and here. To... Continue Reading →
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. I get that it is easier and safer to keep saying the cat should wear a bell. I get that it is easier to celebrate occasions on which the cat didn't get to kill quite so many mice. BUT WHAT THE ACTUAL... Why are people spending time on creating podcasts, or holding zoom calls... Continue Reading →
There are many topics on which I am a dreadful bore. On a subset of those I am a dreadful SMUG bore. On a subset of those I am a dreadful smug bore who will one day be thumped by a breeder. That subset is actually one item - the "I had a vasectomy in... Continue Reading →
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