Copenhagen – a gathering of the peasants of the earth
So we didn’t get a deal. Yes, this is a catastrophic failure of the thousands of negotiators, media, world leaders and informed experts who crammed into the Bella Centre for two weeks in December. But this is a failure too for civil society, and not only those who travelled to Copenhagen formally (as NGO representatives,...
Citizens / Climate change / Communications / Individuality / Leadership / New Economics / Trust / Wellbeing
Inverting The Power Pyramid
Preparing some notes for a panel session at next week’s CBI forum on Climate Change, I am struck by how top-down the world still really is and suddenly alarmed that I remain in a narrow minority of those wishing and willing to embrace bottom-up democracy and ride the chaos of new networks. The CBI intro...
Project Cameron – in search of an idea?
In a thoughtful recent New Statesman article, Dominic Sandbrook berated the politics of our age saying that above all “one thing is missing, perhaps the most important thing of all: the big idea…there is little evidence that the general public has lost its appetite for big ideas.” And of Cameron he said “it is almost...
Critical planetary boundaries
As an update on the Perfect Storm a group of 28 internationally renowned scientists have just announced a ‘safe planetary operating space´ that will allow humanity to continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. See the video introduction. The Nine boundaries include climate change, stratospheric ozone, land use change, freshwater use, biological diversity,...
Low-fly zone
I have not flown for many years. I don’t fly because I feel that for me, knowing what I do about climate change and equity, it would be immoral to fly. I try and encourage others not to fly also. I believe very much in the ‘be the change’ philosophy of Gandhi. I believe its...
Comedy of the Commons?
Thomas Freidman said recently in the NY Times “Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over...
Blowing hot and cold
It’s been a bad week for Ed Milliband’s renewables aspirations. The RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage have come out all nimby against the planned Shetland wind farm. And the Vestas jobs protest in the Isle of Wight is being joined by disappointed festival goers from the canceled Big Green Gathering. BP is again defending their...
De-clutter
As it’s holiday time the subject of flying seems apposite. In this weekend’s Observer, comedian David Mitchell points out the confused state of the Government’s position on climate change and aviation. Ed Milliband has promised to safeguard cheap air travel so that we don’t have to “go back to 1974 levels of flying”. Mitchell comments:...
Gordon’s Rainbow Bridge to a Better World
Gordon Brown’s surprise descent into the world of TED Global was a clear coup for the Curators but left the audience – sceptical Brits at least – with a sense that this was more a pitch for life after the Premiership than it was a genuine strategy for wellbeing reform. Certainly, the words were right...
