The Earth is Full

This TED talk is a useful summary of Paul Gilding’s book, The Great DIsruption. Listening to the first half of his presentation, one could be forgiven for thinking that Gilding has thrown in the towel, based on his projected level of doom and gloom. This is not entirely the case. Yes, things do look grim, [...]

Ray Anderson on the Take-Make-Waste model

There have been numerous tributes to Ray Anderson who passed away this week. This one from Paul Hawken — the man who inspired him through his book The Ecology of Commerce — is the eulogy he read out at Ray’s memorial service on Thursday. He sums up by describing Anderson as ‘the greatest man of [...]

Spending money we don’t have, on things we don’t need, to create impressions that won’t last, on people we don’t care about

I’ve wondered for some time now, why a mainstream political party doesn’t use an alternative measure to GDP as a major plank of its political platform (e.g. Genuine Progress Indicator, or Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare). The use of GDP growth as a barometer of societal well-being is entirely inappropriate, a view supported by none [...]