Archive for March, 2009
Prosperity without growth?
In: Uncategorized
30 Mar 2009It’s official. The reason the economy is not growing is that we have had too much growth. The solution is to curb consumption. These are the conclusions of a report on Prosperity Without Growth by Professor Tim Jackson for the Sustainable Development Commission. Given his long-standing views on the subject the likely conclusions were pretty […]
- Tags: climate, consumption, economics, environment, sustainability
Tired Brown set for G20 disappointment
In: Uncategorized
30 Mar 2009The following comment by me appeared in the latest Fund Strategy (30 March). Gordon Brown is no doubt hoping that this week’s G20 summit in London will bolster his standing at home and abroad. He is likely to be disappointed. Judging by Brown’s PR he is an important world leader whom everyone does, or at […]
- Tags: economics, finance, Fund Strategy
Time magazine on “era of excess”
In: Uncategorized
29 Mar 2009The cover story of Time magazine’s American edition seamlessly moves from blaming bankers to placing responsibility on everyone for the economic downturn. In its view it is a crisis of generalised excess. The starting point of the piece by Kurt Andersen, a novelist and former Time columnist, is the Reagan era of the 1980s. In […]
- Tags: America, consumption, environment, ethics, finance, sustainability
Review of Spirit Level on spiked
In: Uncategorized
27 Mar 2009Spiked has published my review of Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. The article looks at how the idea of equality has been redefined from political to therapeutic terms.
- Tags: book, health, inequality, review, spiked
Myths about “green jobs”
In: Uncategorized
26 Mar 2009An interesting looking paper by four American academics looking at “seven myths about green jobs”. To quote the abstract: “A group of studies, rapidly gaining popularity, promise that a massive program of government mandates, subsidies, and forced technological interventions will reward the nation with an economy brimming with green jobs. Not only will these jobs […]
- Tags: economics, environment, work
Fashionable sustainababble
In: Uncategorized
25 Mar 2009I do not normally follow fashion but an article by Suzy Menkes, the veteran fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, saddened me. Evidently the scourge of sustainability has even penetrated deep into the fashion world: “Two different strands are converging in fashion: a yearning for lasting value and an urge to know more about […]
- Tags: consumption, ethics
Financial problems not what they seem
In: Uncategorized
23 Mar 2009The following comment by me appeared in the latest Fund Strategy (23 March). What has the chairman of America’s Federal Reserve got in common with the hosts of “fake news” television comedy programmes? More than supposed. Certainly they were all high profile figures over the past few days. Ben Bernanke announced a massive quantitative easing […]
- Tags: economics, finance, Fund Strategy
More on Malthus
In: Uncategorized
22 Mar 2009The Guardian’s Malthus comment discussed in a post yesterday was itself a response to a speech by John Beddington, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, arguing the world is facing a “perfect storm” of energy, food and water shortages by 2030. Beddington does qualify his remarks by saying that the development of science and technology […]
- Tags: climate, consumption, energy, environment, food, Malthus, science, technology, water
Guardian edges closer to Malthus
In: Uncategorized
21 Mar 2009The Guardian, traditionally seen as the voice of the liberal left in Britain, edges ever nearer to fully embracing Malthusianism. This comment comes as close as it can without explicitly stating that Malthus was right. No doubt the reason for the popularity of the New Malthusianism, also espoused by the likes of Thomas Friedman and […]
- Tags: Malthus
A misleading “consensus” on climate change
In: Uncategorized
21 Mar 2009A piece on the BBC website by Mike Hulme, a professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, on the misleading idea of a consensus at a conference of over 2,000 climate change researchers in Copenhagen this week. From his account it was a vigorous and thoughtful conference with numerous […]
- Tags: climate, environment
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