Category Archives: Environment, society, politics and economics

Car confusion – cynical Jaguar

At Manchester airport recently – where you pick up your luggage – there was a screen showing an advert for an new Jaguar. It went: and   There is a new villain in town.  So this ad is designed to … Continue reading

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Ouch: a system of environmental justice

Maximising happiness does not work. I wonder if minimising pain can work a bit better. Let’s say we create a measure of a unit of pain e.g. a “hurt” established by experiment as the pain experienced by putting your index … Continue reading

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Pelicans, sufficiency and fear of the future

How we respond to sufficiency is critical for addressing the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.  This is critically linked to education and attitudes to risk. Consider how pelicans handle sufficiency.  Of these the American naturalist John James Audubon wrote: “Pluming … Continue reading

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Dealing with addiction

We jail drug dealers but we celebrate the creators of addictive computer games. It is a peculiarity of our brains that we get addicted to things: alcohol, drugs, sex and so forth.  And it doesn’t do us any good because … Continue reading

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AirBnB and protecting nature

Experience of AirBnB in the USA illustrates an important thing about the relationship between man and the planet. AirBnB is the online “bed and breakfast” agency (without the breakfast) now valued at $10bn.  We stayed at two AirBnB’s on a … Continue reading

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