Without legally enforceable definitions of terms like “recyclable”, “eco-friendly”, and “biodegradable” we will see a never ending stream of greenwashing advertising selling us the exact same product they have always sold us, with the veneer that this is more environmentally friendly. Environmentalism has risen to a prominent place in the public imagination, to the relief
Celebrate saving the less charismatic Write odes to plankton, snail and flies, Our love of birds and mammals may be automatic, But we struggle to value lichen in our lives. It’s harder to sing of fungi than of tigers, Hard to remember the worm in the earth, Diversity means algae as much as flowers So
When I was 12, nearly 13, I had a science project due; one of my first of secondary school. I loved forests so I decided to look at the effects of deforestation which led me to studies of Greenhouse Gases. It was 2004 and while people knew about “global warming”, it was not on the
The first thing you need to know about my ‘no single-use plastic’ January is that 100% I still used single-use plastics. I did not succeed in avoiding them entirely because there are just so many insidious sources of plastic in everyday life. I would have had to adopt #StopthePlasticTide as a full time job to
The problem with “sustainable lifestyle” bloggers is that they’re liars. That does not mean that they are always lying on purpose or that a sustainable or minimalist lifestyle is not a good thing to have but ultimately, they’re selling you something, an ideal, and like much you will be sold in your life –
What has a genre of eco-speculation got to do with Ireland’s changing political landscape? What could solarpunk offer a country that is not actually famed for its sunshine? “Solarpunk is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilization look like, and
The idea that a rapidly growing population would inevitably result in economic and resource crisis has been part of the popular imagination since Rev. Thomas Malthus published his essay Principle of Population in 1798. Malthus has been largely disproven but the idea that population is the greatest threat remained influential and was seen repeated in
A lot of people discuss and focus on individual action in reaction to political or social problems rather than wider changes. I mentioned this in my Marxism and Mental Health video. Most of the time this is to distract people’s attention from a lack of action on the part of those with the most power.
