This article first appeared on Resilience. “You ‘green types’ want us all to go back to living in caves…” If I had a pound for every time I have heard this… Well, let’s just say, I could afford a very…
This article first appeared on Green World. The shocking onset of the crisis in Ukraine – with Russia’s criminal, murderous invasion – has shown dramatically the downside of depending upon petro-states to keep us warm. While the climate crisis will,…
This article first appeared in The Independent. If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Obi-Wan Kenobi knew the score. Sometimes, to win, you have first to lose. Big. And I can’t help…
This article originally appeared on ABC Religion and Ethics. “You could attach prices to ideas. Some cost a lot, some little … And how do you pay for ideas? I believe: with courage.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein. I take it as…
This article originally appeared on The Conversation. As a philosopher who thinks about climate change, a central concern motivating my work in recent years has been anguish that our species and our political-economic systems are dangerously short-termist. Indeed, I have…
By Rupert Read and Wolfgang Knorr. This article first appeared on Emergence. The mantra of ‘Climate Emergency!’ has been a central feature of the exhilarating and deeply necessary climate-movement that has swept the world since 2018. In this essay, we…
This article first appeared in The Independent. Fourteen days. That’s how long it will take many people to give up on their new year’s resolutions (although some won’t even make it to the second Friday of 2022 or “Quitters Day”,…
This article first appeared on Resilience. I’m no Clement Clarke Moore (“Twas the night before Christmas…”) but I’d like to think when my family and friends read my Christmas offerings to them, they will get the same warm, cosy feeling…
Our civilisation is launching out at full pelt over a cliff. What happened recently in Glasgow – the creation of a super-leaky, near-corrupt climate market; the pledge to come back next year with better promises on emissions reduction; the weird…
This article first appeared on Brave New Europe. There’s a phrase used in politics; ‘to kick the can down the road’. No doubt you’ve heard it before. It means to put off confronting a difficult issue or making an important…
By Rupert Read and Jem Bendell. This article originally appeared on Brave New Europe. One of us (Rupert) is in the thick of Cop26 in Glasgow, the other (Jem) is watching the social media closely from the other side of…
This article first appeared in the Eastern Daily Press. Torn from its post and flapping in the bitter Glasgow wind, the huge COP26 banner seemed like an ill omen. We stood on the pavement: thousands of delegates on the first…