The Power of Scotland
By Stan Blackley (@stanblackley ) is Deputy Director of Communities at Yes Scotland (www.yesscotland.net). Earlier this week I took part in a breakfast debate at the Scottish Renewables annual conference Continue reading
Category Archives
Archive for: Climate Change
Perspective from outside a fragile beautiful planet
A visually stunning, poetic, inspirational short film (20min) featuring interviews with a lucky few who’ve seen Earth from beyond its thin skin of atmosphere. Well worth putting the kettle on Continue reading
Altogether Better (without oil)
There is little argument against a Yes vote, except fear mongering and fear itself. But it is independence from oil that is needed. Independence from the miracle fuel.
Can We Reinvent Ourselves?
By Chris Thomson As the possibility of independence draws nearer, some of us are wondering whether this will be the moment when Scotland re-invents herself. The precedents for this are Continue reading
Rio Grand Apathy
By Ross Croall Throw off the shackles of the so-called ‘debate’ on climate change – environmental problems are real, and they are here to stay. Forget about global warming for Continue reading
On the Edge
An exceptional work of analysis and vision from one of the most astute observers of the present worldwide revolt. Jerome E. Roos is the founder of ROARmag.org (Reflections on a Continue reading
I Am the Evidence
By Andy Wightman There is a programme on Radio 4 called The Unbelievable Truth in which panellists compete to see how many nuggets of truth they are able to hide Continue reading
Indy Max or the Status Quo
This is the second in our series on #IndyMax (see also Trident Nowhere to Go here) By Justin Kenrick Four non-nationalist reasons for independence, and one reason against For those voters Continue reading
Occupy Hinkley C
The Invisible Fightback
As Gideon Osbourne and the perfidious Liberals announce the most punitive attack on working people that would make even the Milk Snatcher blush crimson, we round-up some of the responses – online and in the real world,
Climate Change as Tourism Opportunity
By Mike Small In a travesty of journalism this week the Scotsman chirpily reported the ‘upside’ of climate change, noting how we’d have fewer deaths, opportunities for tourism, ‘new crops’, Continue reading
Reality Check
Wind’s got up a bit eh?
The Gallic Village of Keratea
By Athanasios Georgilas Here is a video accompanying this article. It is particularly valuable because it was produced by students of Keratea. A few days before Easter, the most important Continue reading
Commons Manifesto (Part 2) – How can we squeeze CARBON out of the economy?
By Justin Kenrick Most of the serious commentators on climate change see us as having already gone past the point of no return. This is not because the emissions in Continue reading
The Nonsense Guide to Climate Change
After recent exchanges we thought this was useful…from George Marshall, an explanation of the ‘position’ of climate sceptics, reproduced from chapter 3 of Danny Chiver’s new book “The No-Nonsense Guide Continue reading
Commons Manifesto
A spectre is haunting Europe. The spectre of climate change…
Being Human
By Justin Kenrick Mapping our route, based on a more accurate understanding of what it is to be human… If what we need is – in part – to create Continue reading
Hit the North
“Economic ‘failure’ was used as an excuse for the IMF to privatise services, decimate societies and prop up or restore dictators across swathes of Latin America, Africa and elsewhere; and this approach is currently being used across southern Europe and is likely to reach the rest of us very soon…”
Change: Accelerator
Should those active in political parties who see the need to reign in corporate power, focus not on party building but on building a broader movement of which their parties are a part? Should they focus less on electoral strategy than on culture shift strategy, and on connecting this to addressing the democratic deficit?
How can we criticise the current system in a way that prefigures and helps enable a more just society?
By Justin Kenrick In a famous interview, the BBC’s political editor Andrew Marr asks Noam Chomsky whether he thinks Marr is “self-censoring”. Chomsky replies by saying, in effect: No, there Continue reading
Why do we Accept a System Driving us to Extinction?
By Justin Kenrick It is the expectations we have of each other (the assumption about what is the norm) that shapes what is possible. Until, that is, some event disrupts Continue reading
The Commons is Alive and Well, and We Can Be Part of It
This is the second in a series of ‘Case for the Commons: the kinder Society we want’ posts – the third will try and answer the question: What is the Continue reading
Climate Chaos – Can we stop it before its too late?
This is the first in a series of ‘Case for the Commons: The kinder Society we want’ posts – the second will argue that international agreements have failed and will Continue reading
The Road to Nowhere
With the news that everything the protestors at the Pollock Free State – said was true all along we feature Rosie Kane from her new blog: “Tomorrow evening a whole Continue reading
Shock of the Century
By Michael Greenwell Brian Taylor of BBC politics fame had a seemingly off-record quote about the startlingly obvious yesterday… Firstly, a UK minister told me, with considerable emphasis, that the Continue reading
In the World, at the Limits to Growth
“It’s been part of the background noise for over half a century, warnings about resource scarcity, biodiversity loss, soil erosion or climate change. But impacts were always on the imaginative horizon. Sometime, far enough into the future to be re-assuring to a species that evolved with a clear preference for the short-term…”
Porty, Clause 4 and Election Fever
By Justin Kenrick ( a response to A Liminal Moment) Elections are always liminal moments, moments of ‘in between’ when the normal state of things is turned upside down and Continue reading
Beyond Broken Britain
An SNP administration in full coalition with the Scottish Green Party could allow real change to sweep across the nation. Major shifts towards a low-carbon society AND a transition away from the centralised feudal constitution of the British State ARE achievable through such an alliance.
‘The Fire and the Flood’: Energy, Inundation and the Future of Scotland
By Christopher Harvie I The Ring of Fire What we think and say now is quite different from the autumn of 2010; in a different world from the Copenhagen agenda Continue reading
Trains, Planes and Automobiles
What about the train? Well ‘our’ high speed rail network ends at Birmingham. Tory-Liberal Transport Secretary Phillip Hammond inadvertantly spoke the truth when he told the Conservative conference last year: “We have committed to a high-speed rail network that will change the social and economic geography of Britain”. But it’s not just our infrastructure disenfranchisement. It’s about the continued control of society by private business.
