Andrew Simms's Blog, page 5
July 24, 2015
Monsanto's new $1bn herbicide shows our bias towards hi-tech solutions
From superfoods to GM crops – every week presents a new technological solution to save the world, distracting us from the simpler, sustainable options
Every week brings news of the latest world-saving technological breakthrough, from electric cars to superfoods and energy miracles. Global agrochemical firm Monsanto just announced a $1bn investment in its new herbicide, dicamba, part of Roundup Ready Xtend, its system for genetically engineered crops such as soya beans and cotton.
But, as we consider which paths to go down to solve the world’s food, energy, climate and health problems, are we spellbound by hi-tech answers over less glamorous, but potentially better, low-tech approaches?
Magic bullets are typically designed to work with existing infrastructure, allowing the status quo to be maintained
Related: Can agriculture giant Monsanto's data biz help the environment?
Related: We need regenerative farming, not geoengineering
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July 2, 2015
Could human imagination save us from extinction? | Andrew Simms
We have been driving many species to extinction, seemingly without a care about who and what we push over the edge, including ourselves. But our ability to empathise may be key to our survival
If you wandered around planet Earth 100,000 years ago you would have come across at least half a dozen distinct species, or sub-species, of human. At least one, Homo erectus, centred around East Asia, lasted for nearly two million years. That makes the duration of us, recognisably modern Homo sapiens, at around 200,000 years, seem modest.
It will remain so if Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is correct. He suggests on current trends we’ll be lucky to see out the millennium.
Related: Humans creating sixth great extinction of animal species, say scientists
Continue reading...July 1, 2015
Forget Heathrow expansion, Davies report should tackle frequent flyers
Business flights are falling and the airports commission should keep frequent flyers on the ground, not wave more planes into the air, argues Andrew Simms
The Airports Commission chaired by Sir Howard Davies, former chairman of the Financial Services Authority, has today published its report on the next steps for aviation in Britain.
Related: Davies report won't stop our campaigns, say Heathrow and Gatwick chiefs
Related: Should sustainability professionals fly less?
Continue reading...June 26, 2015
Forget airport expansion, Davies report should tackle frequent flyers
Business flights are falling and the airports commission should keep frequent flyers on the ground, not wave more planes into the air, argues Andrew Simms
The Airports Commission chaired by Sir Howard Davies, former chairman of the Financial Services Authority, is set to publish its report on the next steps for aviation in Britain.
Related: Davies report won't stop our campaigns, say Heathrow and Gatwick chiefs
Related: Should sustainability professionals fly less?
Continue reading...June 18, 2015
The green Pope: how religion can do economics a favour
In the run up to the Paris climate talks, religious leaders such as Pope Francis can push forward debates about climate change, consumption and equality
Palpable shock met Tuesday’s news of the Pope’s unequivocal and outspoken intervention in the debate on climate change and global inequality. The stir caused by his latest encyclical could partly be due to generally low expectations of the Catholic Church following years of relentless, negative scandal. But we shouldn’t be surprised. The world’s major religions all have economic teachings that apply to how we treat the planet and each other, and which often starkly contradict orthodox economic models.
Modern economics views itself as value free, but that wasn’t always the case and the major faiths all view economic prosperity through a moral lens. If that makes business leaders or economists squirm, it’s worth remembering that the grandfather of market economics, Adam Smith, wrote about The Theory of Moral Sentiments. To him, the economy was rooted in an explicitly moral universe. Whether we’re aware of it or not, and regardless of the fulminations of anti-environmental, extreme, right wing Republican Christians in the US, the economic teachings and moral frameworks of the great faiths profoundly shape how we view the path to prosperity, sometimes in surprising ways.
Related: Good, natural, malignant: five ways people frame economic growth
Related: Companies cannot keep shying away from setting tough climate targets
Related: Beyond capitalism and socialism: could a new economic approach save the planet?
Continue reading...June 17, 2015
Business and climate: the hype and the reality
The acid test for business leadership on sustainability will be when they tell us to consume less of what they produce so we can live within our planetary means
You wait decades for business leaders to address climate change, then 43 global CEOs call for concrete action all at once.
The group of CEOs grew out of meetings at the World Economic Forum (WEF), with familiar names in corporate sustainability circles, such as engineering firm Arup, retailer Marks & Spencer, re-insurers Munich Re and multinational consumer goods giant Unilever. But the list also included Sinar Mas, a major player in the global palm oil industry linked to deforestation.
Related: Working for Shell didn’t stop me having morals or accepting climate change
Related: We need our leaders to speak out on climate change, not stay silent
Related: Nick Stern: Shell is asking us to bet against the world on climate change
Continue reading...June 3, 2015
Why climate action needs the arts
Whether to engage in debate or change opinion and behaviour, arts can play a key role in the cultural awakening of the masses to the perils of climate change
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality,” wrote Bertolt Brecht, ”but a hammer with which to shape it.” His view was clearly shared by the judges of Anglia Ruskin University’s recent sustainable art prize. The winning piece was a large tombstone themed on climate change, blackened by oil and carrying the words “Lest we forget those who denied.”
Related: Shell sought to influence direction of Science Museum climate programme
Continue reading...May 26, 2015
We need honesty from business to tackle climate change
Business leaders may be genuinely concerned about emission cuts and carbon pricing, but there is barely any conception that business itself might still be part of the problem
Will they, won’t they? Companies gathered for last week’s business and climate summit agonised over whether governments in Paris later this year will deliver the commitments to cut emissions to avoid 2C of warming, and whether the policies to pursue targets will be agreed jointly with business.
There was fretting too about carbon pricing and whether eagerly sought cash for new technology would materialise. Reactions in the business community varied from those who thought it a lost cause without a strong, guiding and investing government hand, those who said they would show climate leadership regardless, and those who might see inaction as a blessing, leaving them to get on with business as usual.
Related: Business leaders prepare for limited UN climate deal in Paris
Related: Big business using trade groups to lobby against EU climate policy
Related: Companies aren't doing enough to prevent catastrophic climate change, new report finds
Continue reading...May 1, 2015
Where is climate change in the UK's general election? | Andrew Simms
The three main political parties have barely uttered a word about the environment and even the Green party seems to be prioritising an anti-austerity message
19 months and counting
Walking along the bank of the River Thames once, I saw some tourists gesturing at Hungerford bridge. “How far does that go?” asked one. “To the other side, I hope,” I mouthed to myself. Usually bridges do, with the exception of a few like Avignon’s, which it’s shocking to discover is little more than a masonry stump.
Continue reading...April 30, 2015
Banks and pension funds continue to bankroll deforestation and land grabs
It’s right to hold destructive palm oil companies to account, but until we look to the organisations funding their activities we’re missing an important part of the puzzle
Whether its food you’re putting in your mouth, or products you’re putting on your body, the probability is that half of them contain palm oil. That’s no accident, nor the result of some natural evolution in our eating habits and predilection for cosmetics. It’s because palm oil makes big profits for corporations.
But it takes money to make money, and large scale investment is pushing the expansion of plantations. Take the recent example of Credit Suisse, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities and the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, which has engineered a $400m (£260m) bond issue on behalf of Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), part of the giant Sinar Mas Group.
Related: Local and national interests clash in Indonesia's palm oil industry
we have an economy that cannot, by design, be sustainable or deliver optimal social outcomes
Related: World's largest palm oil trader commits to zero deforestation
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