Ed Dowding

Apologising to Wonga

For the ‘personal growth’ diaries: —- Dear xxxx I was having a chat with xxxx today who brought it to my attention that I’d been a little rude to you during the mentors evening, ripping on you as hard as I did about your decision to work with Wonga. I apologise unreservedly for making you ...

Dark Skies

This is cool. I didn’t know this even existed! Exmoor National Park has been designated the first International Dark Sky Reserve in Europe! A view of the stars is a view of our natural heritage and a spectacular quality of Exmoor’s night time landscape. Dark night skies are a declining resource, threatened by development and ...

Debt forgiveness. For everyone. For ever.

Still no idea why this wouldn’t work if you think big enough. One could slash private debt by 100pc of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices, and dethrone bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and painlessly, by legislative command, far more quickly than anybody imagined. The conjuring trick is to replace ...

The Righteous Mind

I’m currently listening to The Righteous Mind by by Jonathan Haidt whilst on a long car journey from Salisbury to La Plagne and back in 4 days. It kept me captivated for 8 solid hours yesterday, which is pretty darned impressive, but also par for the course since his last book, The Happiness Hypothesis did the same, twice. I’ve ...

Please watch these two films.

Overview OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo. http://www.overviewthemovie.com/ Chasing Ice This is the trailer – there are UK screenings happening now. http://www.chasingice.co.uk

I hope the Mayans were right. The “end of the world as we know it” seems like a bloody good idea.

PS. I’m not proud of the tone of voice this is written in, and really I should have waited a few days, edited, and posted up a version which speaks to love and beauty and connections. But this blog serves a number of purposes: it’s a place to share thoughts, it’s a personal diary of ...

Staples To Offer 3D Printing Services

This is a big (albeit totally expected) deal. Sit up and pay attention if you aren’t already. As Chris Anderson (Mr TED talks / Wired) recently said: 3D printing is going to be bigger than the internet. Mcor and Staples announced today a deal in which Mcor will supply their paper-based 3D printers to Staples ...

Humanity has never faced such a bigger series of challenges….Just start

On Global Entrepreneurship Week: A bit about Ed and Sustaination He likes to solve problems and finds the 21st century a very exciting time to be alive since there are lots of big problems to solve. Food is the biggest which joins all the others together, and that’s why he started Sustaination. Before this he co-created the ...

The value in being together

I’ve got issues. Anyone who knows me will tell you that. Why? The gist of it is that I’m rather disappointed by humanity’s reluctance to improve upon our collective situation. But recently I’ve had a few realisations which are helping me make peace with this which I’d like to share. They’re important, so I’m going ...

“Why Socialism” by Albert Einstein

The time—which, looking back, seems so idyllic—is gone forever when individuals or relatively small groups could be completely self-sufficient. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that mankind constitutes even now a planetary community of production and consumption. http://pocket.co/sd_Yq

“Somebody thought of it, and someone believed it” – a generation steps forward at London Sustainability Jam

The room is dark. About fifty people sit with silent and energetic expectation. The screen shows a sky full of bright stars. A couple walk arm in arm, and as their faces are lit by the projected starlight, a voice comes through the darkness: “Imagine it’s 2015, and you’re taking an evening stroll down a ...

PoW: Philosophy on Second Life

http://pocket.co/sdtCN

Why climate change doesn’t spark moral outrage, and how it could

http://pocket.co/sdtCQ

Visualising cyber attacks

HoneyMap is a map on cyber attacks, as they happen.

The Heretic – LSD research

http://pocket.co/sIKyD

Debt: The first five thousand years

http://pocket.co/sIKUZ Quite interesting bits of history but skips over important points.

What resources do we have left? (A: not many)

  Source: http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2605/26051202.jpg

Have you quit your stupid job yet?

This is a copy of a letter I’ve just written to a chap who works as a “Finance Analyst – Environmental” for BP. I post it here for reference. — Hi James I promised to send you some bits and pieces about how there *is* a real alternative to the tiresomely immoral, impractical, unnecessary, well-paid ...

To Capitalist Folly, Town in Spain Offers Reply

http://pocket.co/sIQyR

Flying windturbines

The higher up you go, the stronger the wind. So if you fly a wind turbine at 400m it should generate a lot of energy, right? Right.