What sets Breaking Together apart from most books on the Climate and Ecological Emergency is the incredibly broad scope of its subject matter. For Bendell, the climate crisis is not simply a matter of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is a deep, existential crisis that threatens human…

What is life like when it is reduced to practically nothing? That is the question addressed by Cormac McCarthy in his story The Road. The book takes place in an America which has been ravaged by fires. The cause is not spoken about, they are just a fact. The fires…

I read a lot of books about the state of the world today. Some have a strong theme running through them, driving a central idea. Others don’t. The thematic works are like a work day, ordered and scheduled. The other books are more like a weekend, unplanned, open to interruption…

Each morning before work, I take some exercise. Today my walk took me past a children’s play area and this mess. It is absolutely wrong that the community should be defiled like this, but why does this happen? Let’s think about this situation in terms of the actors involved. The…

Recently, in my role as a local organiser for a climate activist group, I sent out a newsletter inviting supporters to an evening meeting in a pub. One supporter wrote back, saying she didn’t go out in the evening or to pubs, but wished us all well. I don’t know…

Where France meets the Mediterranean. A wild empty wilderness, neither land or sea where beautiful wild white horses gallop through clouds of spray, nostrils flared, manes flying, the embodiment of equine freedom. …

Every civilization comes to an end. Like a holiday in the sun or a birthday party, one day you are having the time of your life and the next it’s all over. The Romans no longer control Europe and North Africa. The Maya’s great cities have disappeared into the jungle…

Over the weekend of 21st to 24th April 2023, I spent quite a lot of time at The Big One, Extinction Rebellion’s mass protest in London. The event was powerful and inspiring. There was a lot of love and anger and sorrow. Speakers demanded change. Workshops set out the dangers…

Rene Descartes famously declared “cogito, ergo sum” (I think therefore I am) as the first principle of his philosophy. It’s a reasonable philosophical position; being able to think is the basis of existence and hence, knowledge. Sadly, this has been widely interpreted ever since as meaning that only human beings…