In a recent meeting which went largely unnoticed by most of the world’s media, Australia’s new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, landed in Ottawa and held talks with Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister. These two leaders are both ideologically driven conservatives, in the mold of George W Bush, and both are going all out in …
Economic Fundamentalism: Staying the Course in Defiance of Common Sense Read More »
In recent weeks I have read a number of reports published on the BBC which look at energy issues. One article in particular by science editor David Shuckman caught my attention. It looked at how European countries might replace Russian Gas imports. In the wake of the Ukraine crisis and the possibility of tit for …
The recent events in Ukraine have been described as the most serious international diplomatic incident to have occurred since the end of the cold war. To those familiar with the power politics of that earlier time, the signs are eerily familiar; a sovereign country being destabilised by the actions of two competing power blocks; an …
The first World Forum on Natural Capital was held in Edinburgh, Scotland last November. This comes at a time when there is increasing interest in the idea that we need to place a value on the services that nature provides us with for free if we are to prevent further environmental degradation. The conference attracted …
It is a question which is of concern to all high school students and to all parents of teenage children. What will I do after school? For some the choice will be obvious; they will have a desire to follow a certain career path, or to enter a specific field of study. However, the majority …
The major defining feature of politics in our current day and age is the division between the political left and right, with the political spectrum popularly being perceived as a progression from communism on the extreme left, through socialism, liberalism, and conservatism, to fascism on the extreme right. The terms left and right are believed …
When we look at how our market economy affects the environment, it appears that all common sense goes out the window. According to the prevailing economic wisdom, it makes perfect sense for us to clear vast swathes of tropical rainforest to make way for oil palm plantations and soya beans, to pursue the last few …
The inability of our society to take serious action on problems such as climate change is extremely frustrating to many people. After all we know what it is we have to do; why don’t we just get on and do it? It seems simple, but there are many obstacles to change. Most of these are …
Like most people I am proud of my culture. I was born in Scotland and spent the first 25 years of my life there. Although I now live happily in Canada, in many ways I still think of Scotland as being home. It is the landscape which shaped my perceptions of nature and beauty, the …
One of the critical challenges for the next century is the need to stabilise, and ultimately to reduce the number of human beings on this planet. We are already by far the most abundant large animal on Earth, and our sheer numbers, combined with our extremely wasteful use of resources, is putting increasing strain on …
Sometime between fifty and one hundred thousand years ago, the ancestors of modern-day homo sapiens are believed to have left their African homeland and begun their relentless expansion across the world. Within a comparatively short time period, early humans had extended their influence to every continent. Life is believed to have existed on this planet …