Public Priorities

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 →

We’ve had enough Growth

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 →

Planetary Education

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 →

On Journalism, Blogging and Aspirations

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 →

Population: The Elephant In The Room

“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 →

We Societies & Cooperation

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 →

An Ethical Question

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 →

Actual Democracy Would Be Nice

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 →

6 Steps to a Green Economy

If the leaders of the most influential countries and the CEOs of the biggest corporations, plus other key players working for large NGOs came to me and said, ”So Tegan, what do you propose?”, this is what I’d say. STEP 1. TAKE STOCK The foundation of a green economy is truly efficient use of resources. … Continue reading →

The Issue Attention Cycle

While reading Libby Lester’s Media and Environment as research for an essay, I came across a section where she writes about another author’s work which I found very interesting. Published back in 1972, Anthony Down’s book is called Up and Down With Ecology – The Issue Attention Cycle. He theorized that any ecological issue goes through a … Continue reading →

Tax It Up?!

Tax. Isn’t that a horrible word? I’m sure it fills you with that indignant feeling – oh great, there the government goes again, taking loads of my hard earned wages to spend on their 5 star holidays and second homes. Great. But what if it could be a solution to the problematic discrepancy between environmental action and the profit-hungry … Continue reading →

A Toolkit for Sustaining a Positive Attitude

If you’re one of those people that agonize over the world’s many problems, and find that your awareness of current issues is threatening to turn into a black cloud of apathy and despair (rather than a fuel for positive action) then you are who I wrote this post for. Many people I know care a … Continue reading →

Erratic Recycling Isn’t Impressive

What’s up with all this erratic recycling? I don’t mean on an individual level, I mean in terms of what is provided. My mum’s street takes almost everything weekly  and so does mine, which is great. But my boyfriend’s house (which is in the same town) doesn’t take paper, and my friend’s (also in this … Continue reading →

”Triple Bottom Lines” for Companies

Some businesses make lots of money while doing really bad stuff, such as exploiting people and causing pollution. Some businesses make lots of money while doing some good things, often by having some kind of foundation linked to the company. And some businesses make money by doing good things, such as Ecotricity, for example. This … Continue reading →

A ”Closed Loop Economy”

I’ve been giving some serious thought to what kind of economy/society we could have to replace our current model of waste and exploitation that will soon be breaking down. (Please see earlier posts about why and how. In this post I want to focus on what could be next). I think what we should have … Continue reading →