Home page feature articles

Ecologist G7 June 21
https://theecologist.org/2021/jun/11/one-humanity-one-planet-how-g7-can-safeguard-resilient-future

Rob Hopkins

What the Transition movement can teach us about how to ‘bounce forward’
May 2020

George Monbiot 

Coronavirus shows us it’s time to rethink everything. Let's start with education
May 2020

Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick

Politics, Trauma and Empathy: Breakthrough to a politics of the heart?
August 2020

James Rebanks

How to save British farming (and the countryside)
September 2020

Richard Heinberg

What if preventing collapse isn't profitable?
Published on 23 September 2020  by Common Dreams.

Neil Kitching - Carbon choices

Scottish author's new book on climate change

Scottish geographer and energy specialist Neil Kitching has sent us a summary of his new book 'Carbon Choices' on the common-sense solutions to our climate and nature crises.
February 2021

Rob Hopkins 

From What is to What if?

The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it’s more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it.

(An article from the publisher's website about Rob Hopkins' 2019 book  'From What is to What if?', now newly available in paperback.)

Read the full article, and comments from a number of distinguished figures, including 'doughnut' economist Kate Raworth and climate scientist Michael Mann.

The book is available from Waterstones in paperback (14 January 2021) for £10.99, or in hardback (15 October 2019)  for £19.99.           ISBN: 9781645020295

Nobel Prize Summit  April 2021

Our Planet, Our Future - An Urgent Call for Action

This statement was inspired by the discussions at the 2021 Nobel Prize Summit, issued by the Steering Committee and co-signed by over 100 Nobel Laureates and experts.

The next decade is crucial: Global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by half and destruction of nature halted and reversed. An essential foundation for this transformation is to address destabilizing inequalities in the world. Without transformational action this decade, humanity is taking colossal risks with our common future. Societies risk large-scale, irreversible changes to Earth’s biosphere and our lives as part of it.We need to reinvent our relationship with planet Earth. The future of all life on this planet, humans and our societies included, requires us to become effective stewards of the global commons — the climate, ice, land, ocean, freshwater, forests, soils, and rich diversity of life that regulate the state of the planet, and combine to create a unique and harmonious life-support system. There is now an existential need to build economies and societies that support Earth system harmony rather than disrupt it.

Read the full statement and list of signatories

There are links to recordings of most of the summit sessions here

2021 Nobel Prize Summit 

Interview with Johan Rockstrom

The Observer   29 May 2021   Jonathan Watts

Johan Rockström is one of the world’s most influential Earth scientists.  As director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, he advises governments, corporations and activists, including his Swedish compatriot, Greta Thunberg, about the latest research on the climate and biodiversity and argues for better science communication.  Last year, he co-edited Standing Up for a Sustainable World, a book that brought together essays from climatologists, economists, environmental defenders, financiers and school strike activists.  In recent months, he has teamed up with David Attenborough to create  a new Netflix series, Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet, participated in President Joe Biden’s climate summit and co-organised a declaration by more than 100 Nobel laureates.

Read the full interview

Two views on the run-up to COP26

Enough of the COP26 paralysis

Paul Mason in The Ecologist  12 April 2021

The biggest enemy, in the run up to COP26, is the atmosphere of vagueness and promise. We need to blow it away with facts and arguments.

Read the full article

What will it take to convince the world to take climate change seriously?

Catherine Brahic, Environment editor, The Economist
6 September 2021

What will it take to convince the world to take climate change seriously? There is no straight answer, and in any case it depends on who is meant by “the world”. For the sake of argument, let’s say: governments and businesses, in a measure great enough to reduce carbon emissions and meet the Paris agreement goals.

Read the full article