Ten years ago today Four Corners broadcast a programme on “the greenhouse mafia”. In hindsight it can be seen as the starting gun for a two year sprint that led to “the first climate change election” It's worth knowing the history and actions of one of the groups revealed by that documentary. The first time... Continue Reading →
Advocacy Coalitions Framework – a video
The "Advocacy Coalition Framework" is a very useful tool for researching and thinking about how public policy does - or doesn't - change, especially on really contentious issues. It looks at how groups of actors that have enough in common bond together to try to get all/most of what they want. I'd heartily recommend you... Continue Reading →
Interview with an academic – on “Two Degrees”, Paris, #climate and so on
"The Two Degrees Dangerous Limit for Climate Change: Public understanding and decision making" is a (very) new book by academic Chris Shaw. Here he responds to a series of questions about the two degree limit, the recent Paris conference, and 'what next'. [The book itself is a good 'un - if anyone in Manchester wants... Continue Reading →
Paris changed everything. Erm #climate calamities continue
We'll get to the climate calamity in a second, promise. First, some remedial Greek mythology: Paris was “nice but dim”, and chosen to settle an acrimonious dispute between some powerful actors. He fell head over heels with a rather beautiful creature,full of promise(s). For a little while everything seemed fine, but sadly, relationships broke down,... Continue Reading →
Why the hype over Paris and #COP21? Politics, psychology and money
An essay on hype, history, denialism and the fossil fuel lobby. I hope I am wrong, and that Paris is indeed the “turning point” it is being hyped as. It won't take us long to find out – two or three years, I reckon. Personally, I think it will run into the sand in much... Continue Reading →
Fetish night at Bruntwood: sustainability gets VERY interesting. #Manchester #climate
Cross posted from here. Not that kind of fetish (sorry for the clickbaiting). I mean the original, anthropological meaning of “fetish” - a god that we create, then forget that we created as we come to worship it. That kind of fetish was being discussed tonight at the latest and best-I've-been-to meeting of the excellent... Continue Reading →
On deliberately lousy cons and the (selection) logic behind them
We've all had emails from the sons or daughters of Nigerian dictators asking your help to get a load of cash out of the country, with a nice little reward for you yourself. And then there are the 'you've won the lottery' ones. There are variations, all collectively known as advance-fee scams. If you're like... Continue Reading →
A lively dodo!! On extinction, Derrida and solastalgia
Went do a corking seminar this afternoon, at the end (well, middle) of a corking day (more on that another time). It was by Gitanjali Pyndiah, a third year PhD student at Goldsmith's University (scene of a crime against academia and activism 10 days ago, but I digress). She's looking at how 'we' (people from... Continue Reading →
Scared now, because only John Major can save the UK.
Only John Major stands between us and a Pinochet-style coup. What have I been smoking? BBC Radio 4 news, is what(1). The slide towards living in a totalitarian state is a long, slippery and mostly 'gentle' one. The always-slender civil liberties we have (and fwiw, imma rejoin Liberty), are under attack. I won't bore you... Continue Reading →
Of Monbiot, Manchester and miserable ‘feral’ futures.
Nature as redeemer, nature as escape, nature as the solace for our "gridded, controlled, mannered urban lives." So far so romantic. Well, nature is on the road, and she’s gunning for the lot of us. We’ve poked the beast, and now it really is waking up. On a quiet day, you could hear it snoring.... Continue Reading →
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