Cases of the cattle disease Bovine TB have been steadily rising in the UK for many years, and the government have decided to deal with the problem by implementing a pilot scheme throughout the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire for badger culling. The pilot scheme aims to cull 5,000 badgers, 90% of which will be … Continue reading
Last Friday I took an exam and finished my first year of university. Most students probably want to move on as quickly as possible after the stress of revision, but this exam was on something I study in my free time: environmental issues and management. An interesting part of the module I had to revise … Continue reading
If everyone in the world consumed the same amount of resources and produced as much waste as the average person in Western Europe, we’d need three planets. If we all lived like the North Americans, we’d need five. On the global scale, we’re using just over one and a half Earths worth of resources and … 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
Enough Is Enough (2013) is an astounding book by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill, subtitled “Building a sustainable economy in a world of finite resources”. I read it in three days, tossing my novel away with my exam revision. It’s possibly the best book I’ve ever read in my life; it’s only real competition is … Continue reading
It’s easy to get bogged down with the enormity of the problems that taunt humanity in the 21st century. Climate change, environmental degradation, resource scarcity, species loss, pollution, environmental injustice, animal suffering, poverty, hunger, human rights violations, inequality, discrimination corrupt governments, economic recession… The list goes on. But over the last couple of days I’ve come across a … Continue reading
The Great Green Wall is a long term project in Africa that involves planting a huge ‘wall’ or trees along the Southern edge of the Sahara desert. The picture below is a bit blurry in terms of the key, but you can clearly see the sandy colour representing the desert region and the emerald green line symbolizing the proposed … Continue reading
Hello everybody! Sorry I haven’t had time to post too much lately, but its all for a good cause – my first two academic essays are bursting their way through my keyboard as we speak! Well, okay I stopped for the evening actually but you get the idea. One’s on the internet and the public sphere, and the … Continue reading
I’ve come now to the end of a certain chapter of my life, and the beginning of another. I’ve been anticipating university for over two years now and last week I finally went through my induction to the University of Brighton. Today is the start of the teaching term, and my first lecture is in approximately thirty eight minutes. For that … Continue reading
I first read about Polly and her work in a Permaculture Magazine article about a year ago. Recently I watched this talk and I’m glad to see she’s still going strong. Her views make so much sense. Basically, she argues that to the list of international Crimes Against Peace like genocide and war crimes should … Continue reading
I really hate it when people discard other people’s efforts and label them as a hypocrite when they’re just doing their best. As you may guess, I’m talking specifically about people’s efforts to live a greener and more sustainable life. All too often I hear people saying stuff like ‘’Oh yeah, he’s such a hypocrite. … Continue reading
Whether it’s ‘’exploiting nature’’ or ‘’getting closer to nature’’, the problem’s the same: we aren’t recognizing that we ourselves are a part of the natural world. It’s easy to see why this assumption has come about… We’re so different to our Earthly cousins that the fact we’re animals too can easily be overlooked. I mean… … Continue reading
As I’ve been reading about the Sustainable Development Conference outlined in my last post, I’ve been thinking that it seems almost too good to be true. I’ve read the Zero Draft document, and a report entitled Green Economies to Green Societies, plus information provided on the official website. They talk of creating green, equitable and … Continue reading
In my last post, I talked about the importance of looking at the positive. On that note, I sat down and tried to scribble in my notebook as many solutions for implementing a sustainable human society as I could. These are solutions that have already been invented, are being practised or researched, and which I … Continue reading
Since the ‘70s, a growing body of people around the world have been sensing and observing that the way we treat our home planet is wrong. Unethical, unworkable, unfair, unsustainable… At first a trickle, then a stream, now a fairly hefty current of “alternative” or “ecologically minded” people are pushing against the mainstream. What I’m … Continue reading
Earth Baby 