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 →
Who’d try to build a new coal mine? The divestment campaigns are slowly convincing banks to steer clear (), the coal price is in the floor. The Indians seem to be (finally) increasing domestic production and their solar price is tumbling. The environmentalists and their pesky skinks are slowing things down, the social licence to operate... Continue Reading →
According to the American humourist Dave Barry “Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot masturbate.” (As in, meetings aren't just ego-potlaches, they're also for the recycling of anxiety and responsibility). While meetings might be full of wankers, they’re surprisingly joyless experiences. “Nesta”,... Continue Reading →
Jean-Francois Mouhot who wrote an article Past connections and present similarities in slave ownership and fossil fuel usage published in Climatic Change in 2011, He also makes the point that The history of slavery and its abolition shows how blurred the frontier between what is considered good and evil can be, and how quickly it... Continue Reading →
The Manchester Evening News has a letter today that slams Kate Chappell, the Executive Member for the Environment for a broken promise (she said she would set up a blog, never did so). The letter (written by some Moss Side malcontent) also points out that the so-called and needs-to-be-killed-off "Stakeholder Steering Group" won't even allow... Continue Reading →
In July 1969 Richard Nixon didn’t give a speech. It would have gone, in part, like this: Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their... Continue Reading →
So, you’re doing a Masters, or even a PhD (wow, you must be soooooooooooooooo smart. Not). You’d think you’d know how to read and right, write? Not so fast. You’ve probably picked up some bad habits, and even if you haven’t, there are other habits and tricks (“hacks” or “apps” or “patches” as the young... Continue Reading →
The seminar itself is excellent, with good questions (and answers) about a call for a moratorium on the construction of new coal mines. But nonetheless, apologies for rubbish quality of footage.
Madlab is back! The Northern Quarter venue (‘here be hipsters’ say the old maps. The new maps say ‘here be more hipsters’) has been tarted up from industrial grime to post-industrial sleek without losing its essential charm. They’ve done away with the rickety stairs (bloody health and safety gone … sane), left the exposed beams... Continue Reading →
The tl;dr is this - we come up with all kinds of rationalisations for the dismal failure of our social movement organisations to either change/modify government policy or even retain the talent that passes through its meetings and slip through its fingers. When someone tries to raise it, there are a variety of defence mechanisms... Continue Reading →
