Who knows what about how the world works (on a geophysical level?) How do they find it out and what should “we” do with that knowledge? These were some of the questions that Professor Noel Castree grappled with (successfully!) yesterday afternoon at a seminar entitled “Changing while standing still? Global change scientists and the politics... Continue Reading →
What a brilliant afternoon/evening!! Cheap wine (monopolised), super-smart people who forgave (?) my failure to have read the Sleeping Beauty version and the Bettelheim exegesis. All lubricated with people's digressions on consent and cups of tea, Jack Halberstam and much more. This fun was at the second “Reading Folk” group meeting. Will I be at... Continue Reading →
Marc Hudson on the current state of play in the United Kingdom. From the march last Saturday, to a historical digression, to Industry and Government to Paris. There was a climate march in London on the weekend, that the organisers said they were hoping would be the biggest ever in the UK. (For the record,... Continue Reading →
Or rather, about men calling themselves feminists (yo, sorry for the click-baiting). Help me out here. Why am I (a bloke) hesitant about men applying the “f” word to themselves? Am I wrong/irrational? If so, why? If I am right, why? [UPDATE 9th March - please read the comments if you have time - there... Continue Reading →
How did we NOT act on climate change when warned about it in the late 1980s? How did we manage to ignore the science and increase our emissions by as much as they needed to be decreased? (Setting aside that this is what we always have done, that we are not the Enlightenment beings we... Continue Reading →
Went to something on “radical information literacy.” The questions are Who knows things, how to know things/find them out, how to critique sources and figure out when they are being manipulated by friend or foe? Et cetera. At least it flags up that a simple “information deficit” model is grotesquely inadequate for explaining why we... Continue Reading →
Professor Matthew Paterson gave a seminar on "the Cultural Politics" of Climate Change at the University of Manchester. See also this interview conducted via email before the event. This was part of the Sustainable Consumption Institute's external seminar series. Here is the video (which was static, while the speaker was not!) And here is the... Continue Reading →
Please see this excellent and important film. Covering a few vital months in the history of the US Black Civil Rights struggle in the mid-60s, it sweeps you along, forcing you to think, feel and hope. It received justifiably positive reviews in the States (with predictable carping about historical accuracy (1). Opening with Martin Luther... Continue Reading →
Will there be a long loud legal global (LLLG) signal coming out of Paris? No (two words – "US Senate"). Two linked questions; a) In the absence of a LLLG signal/deal, will there be the enormous investment in renewables, energy efficiency and 'leap frog' technology transfers that would be necessary to change humanity's energy systems?... Continue Reading →
A lively debate about the near and long-term future of western civilisation took place yesterday in central London, at the launch of the book “The Politics of Green Transformations”. The edited volume based on work of the STEPS centre, was the centrepiece of an event at the National Liberal Club, and provoked a conversation about... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 