The thing people love most about economic growth is that it creates jobs, and prevents existing jobs from being cut. Similarly, the worst thing about recession is that people lose their jobs. This is totally reasonable, seeing as in this world we need a paying job to get by, not to mention the fact that … Continue reading
WordPress informs me that Earth Baby is 2 years old today! It may be a small achievement compared to the mega-blogs that have been going for years and have thousands of subscribers, but for my part I’m incredibly proud of myself for actually keeping up with this hobby. Before I started blogging I was much … Continue reading
Treated day in and night out as the consumers we’ve become, we’re all used to deciding what kind of products and experiences we’d like. That should be good practise for a little exercise I want you to do. I think we should all – as citizens – think about the kind of society we’d like. … Continue reading
Hydraulic Fracturing – or ‘fracking’ is an intensive method of fossil fuel extraction which involves blasting tonnes of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to extract gas or oil. It happened in America (see the shocking documentary film Gasland and this post) and now my government want it to happen here. My prime minister is … Continue reading
This is another post along the post-growth vein, please read We’ve had Enough Growth for some background on this. Subject for this evening: business models. We’re used to two major business models in the West today: corporations and private companies. Corporations are legally obliged to maximise profit margins for shareholders above all other concerns. Shareholders … Continue reading
Lately, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way our society will be able to become both sustainable and equitable, providing a good quality of life for ourselves while allowing other species to flourish, is if we abandon economic growth and consciously transition to a postgrowth society. I realise that’s a tall order, but … Continue reading
Hello lovely readers! I’m sorry to admit I’ve been neglecting my blog slightly these last few weeks, and I’ve only just noticed why. It’s my summer holiday from university and I’m back in my hometown for a couple of months, visiting my family and my old friends. I realised today that the reason I haven’t … Continue reading
My recent backpacking trip had many high points: swimming in the Portuguese sea, enjoying wine in the sun, seeing the Notre Dame… Low points included missing trains, paying through the nose for last minute accommodation, living on crisps and running out of money. But by far the worst experience I had while abroad was seeing … Continue reading
I often find myself confused as to why on earth more people aren’t freaking out about the contemporary environmental crisis. I assumed it was because most people just don’t care, and I couldn’t get my head around that. Recently, I’ve been coming to the conclusion that actually, it’s more likely to be because most people … Continue reading
Okay, now I’m going to sentence you to my musings, thoughts and half-baked plans. As you may know already, I’m studying a degree in Environment and Media Studies. I’ve just finished my first year, and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone. This September I’ll need to organise my placement year, a 12 month optional … Continue reading
I personally really don’t like the big energy companies. I’d quite like to see them crash and burn. Individual satisfaction aside, it turns out that’s not particularly likely nor as good as it sounds. This is because: They will fight tooth and claw against carbon regulations, and are in fact already doing this. And they … Continue reading
“The elephant in the room” is a funny phrase because if there was an elephant in your room, you’d definitely talk about it. Pretty loudly, I’m willing to guess. If there were two elephants, there’s absolutely no chance the issue would be ignored. And yet many people continue to ignore population growth and consumption growth. Population growth … Continue reading
This little video (by Sustainable Man) got me thinking about cooperation vs. competition. We’re often told that competition is they key to survival – in nature, and in human society. Think Charles Darwin. And that is true, up to a point. But it’s not the whole story. Nature would be complete chaos if cooperation wasn’t … Continue reading
Continuing on from my last post, The Consumption Engineer, I now have an ethical question in my mind. On the one hand, I believe it is wrong to manipulate people in any way, and that we should always have freedom of choice. But on the other hand… Maybe Public Relations (PR) can do for sustainability … Continue reading
First of all I want to express that I’m incredibly grateful and lucky to live in a country which has a democracy, and also to live in a time period where women have the vote. But wouldn’t it be super awesome and, you know, right, if we had even more than that? If we had an actual democracy? … Continue reading
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