May 2012
6 posts
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“The thing at the heart of our problems globally is the value system. We value...”
– Neva Frecheville
My friend Danny is going on a bit of a journey, and he’s filming it! It’s well worth a watch. In his latest video, he chatted to Neva in the pub. As you can tell from the above quote, it was more exciting than it sounds. Danny’s video series is continuing, and...
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A Proposal: Let's demand the 'impossible'.
The science is clear. We need to take urgent, ambitious action on climate change. Even conservative sources, such as the International Energy Agency, estimate we have less than five years to take meaningful action on climate change, or seriously harmful effects will be irreversible.
Meanwhile, the politics is uncompromising. In Durban nations agreed to implement a new climate treaty in 2020. It...
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Want to keep track of the ongoing climate...
Although you may not have heard about it on the news, there are actually UN climate change negotiations ongoing in Bonn, Germany. These negotiations are not as big as the annual ‘COP’ summits (such as ‘COP17’ in Durban that I went to last year), but without the media attention often more achieved at these small meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change...
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April 2012
3 posts
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March 2012
3 posts
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“It’s an extremely reactionary film. It tells the story of a good normal...”
– Slavoj Zizek on The King’s Speech
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“It merely reinforces a picture of evil as attributable to a couple of...”
– David Leon on the ‘Kony 2012’ campaign, in Ceasefire Magazine.
Although this article’s headline is rather over the top in its condemnation, it’s very perceptive in its highlighting that Kony 2012 entirely neglects the socioeconomic backdrop that allow situations like to...
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February 2012
5 posts
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Idea of the week: give free bicycles to school...
This is my idea of the week, a very simple one. Each year schools pay for bus passes for their pupils, costing hundreds of pounds per pupil. My simple idea is offering the same value in bicycle to pupils as an alternative.
Advantages for the pupil:
Shiny new bicycle!
No additional cost
Can use it to travel at weekends, when bus passes doesn’t work
Can travel to/from school around...
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"Beauty is in the eye of the gasholder"
Two weeks ago Bryan Chalker (author of the terrible/amazing pun above), the Mayor of Bath, wrote to the Bath Chronicle suggesting the reuse of Bath’s soon-to-be-demolished gasholder as a space for education, community and creativity. He referenced this incredible project in Vienna where old ‘gasometers’ have been beautifully refashioned into housing and community space.
This...
“The urge to knit is surely the most moral force in the world.”
– The Guardian, 10th February 1961: “Teenage knits: two thirds of teenagers are knitters, says survey”
January 2012
8 posts
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Matt Adam Williams: Decisions, decisions →
What is the role of a conservation organisation in debate around national public projects? A great piece from my friend, Matt, on the stance of the RSPB. I find the case in the extract below particularly uplifting - all too often ‘conservation’ gets itself confused with ‘conservatism’ and panders to NIMBYism. Great work, RSPB.
mattadamwilliams:
Over the past couple of...
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“The root causes of economic and social injustice and climatic degradation are...”
– Peter Coville in The Occupied Times. I concur.
From the article: “3 Reasons Why The 99% Must Now Take the Lead on Climate Change”.
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Occupied Times: "A Diplomatic Occupation:...
The Occupied Times is the newspaper of and for Occupy London, an incredible, independent publication that perfectly demonstrates the creative and collaborative energy behind the Occupy movement. For their latest issue (see #10, PDF), I wrote an article about my experiences at the UN Climate Talks in Durban, South Africa and how we used the principles and methods of the Occupy movement to push for...
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“I think our roads are statistically safer largely because soft targets,...”
– Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday. Yes, the Mail on Sunday.
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“It’s not a great big boast because we’ve never had a green...”
– Tory MP and former editor of The Ecologist, Zac Goldsmith on the BBC’s ‘HARDtalk’.
I think I concur. Not going to give the government much praise but, as he rightly says, it’s not hard to be the greenest government ever.
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Communicating the Challenge is the Challenge:...
Three weeks ago, I made this video. I was exhausted, husky and, if I’m honest, disheartened. I’d just spent two weeks at the United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa. They were the best weeks of my life, but that it’s taken me until now to write something about it says it all.
I applied to be on the UK Youth Climate Coalition’s delegation to the UN (pictured,...
December 2011
3 posts
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“I’ve been away for a while (to Durban, South Africa to be precise)....”
November 2011
5 posts
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Unstrange Minds: Enviro-psychology: can the... →
To think I inspired such an awesome blog post! Make sure you check it out in full.
psychologeek:
My friend is heading to the UN in Durban later this week for climate change negotiations there, and it got me thinking about climate change and the psychology of such a world-changing issue. Conveniently, a recent edition of the BPS research digest had the perfect report!
….
The interesting...
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Tom at the UN: Update #1 (Preparations!)
Hello!
I’m heading out to Durban, South Africa for the UN climate change negotiations in just four days time! Here’s some stories and videos about the hopes and expectations from different quarters. I’ll be sending out four or so updates like these over the course of the conference: contact me if you’d like to be added to my mailing list.
In this update:
Our reflections...
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“You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.”
– Barack Obama talking about Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, after President Sarkozy of France remarked about Netanyahu: “I can’t stand him. He’s a liar.”
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“If the downward trend continues — and if anything it seems to be accelerating —...”
– Paul Krugman, Economist, Nobel Prize winner. (via the Climate Reality Project)
October 2011
4 posts
psychologeek asked: How is the fund-raising for the UN trip going?
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Thank you
As many of you will know, I’ll be heading out to the United Nations climate change negotiations in Durban next month to press negotiators for a fair, ambitious treaty that represents the interests of young people. I’m attending as part of a delegation with the UK Youth Climate Coalition, and you can find out more on our website.
Many people and organisations have been very generous in...
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“I understand why they’re doing it – it’s a brazen attempt to capture...”
– Charlie Brooker on the government’s proposal to raise the speed limit to 80 mph. From his brilliant comment piece in The Guardian, I thoroughly recommend you read the whole thing.
September 2011
4 posts
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“For those who believe climate change is about some distanct future, I invite...”
– United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on his visit to the pacific island nation of Kiribati last week. Climate change will cause Kiribati to sink under rising sea levels if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut.
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August 2011
7 posts
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LeftCentral: Feed-in Tariff Review
Following a request to the UK Youth Climate Coalition website, I recently wrote an article for the ‘LeftCentral’ blog regarding the government’s fast-track review of the Feed-in Tariff. An extract of the article follows:
Last Sunday I watched the first episode in the new series of ‘Dragon’s Den’. At around 9:45 came the serious proposition, the project that (we’ve all now...
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“The creativity, ideals and courage of the youth of the world should be mobilized...”
– Principle 21 of the Rio Declaration, produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
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July 2011
8 posts
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