Andrew Simms's Blog, page 7

Tesco: why did it all go so wrong? | Andrew Simms

A blinkered pursuit of profit has wounded Britains biggest supermarket group

Tesco starts investigation into overstated profits

There are two types of chancellor, Gordon Brown used to joke. Those who fail and those who get out in time. Tescos former chief executive, Terry Leahy, now enjoying a lucrative career as a feted business guru, got out in time. The irony is that many of the problems now bringing the retail giant low are a legacy of the strategic decisions he made.

The latest blow to the company is the extraordinary overestimate of expected half-yearly profits amounting to a quarter of what was expected for the period that has seen Tesco lose about a tenth of its value, massive in City terms. Its an unwelcome greeting for the new chief executive, Dave Lewis, who has only just taken over from Leahys successor, Philip Clarke. The latter left after failing to resolve the problems he inherited.

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The ozone layer is recovering – there’s hope for the environment yet | Andrew Simms

A global treaty to eliminate harmful chemicals and protect the ozone layer has paid off. We need to take the same decisive action on fossil fuels

“Sometimes things don’t go, after all, from bad to worse,” wrote the poet Sheenagh Pugh. “Some years, muscadel faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail.” News that the ozone layer is showing signs of recovery – 27 years after a ban on the manmade chemicals that damaged it – is welcome evidence that decisive international action can avert self-imposed disaster. It is that rare flower, a positive environmental story.

It’s easy to forget the potentially catastrophic threat the world faced only recently. In the 1980s, scientists noted the ozone layer – which screens us from the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays and without which we couldn’t survive – was thinning. The cause was tracked down to a group of chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, that were being increasingly used in everyday household and industrial appliances and goods, such as fridges and aerosols.

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The ozone layer is recovering theres hope for the environment yet | Andrew Simms

A global treaty to eliminate harmful chemicals and protect the ozone layer has paid off. We need to take the same decisive action on fossil fuels

Sometimes things dont go, after all, from bad to worse, wrote the poet Sheenagh Pugh. Some years, muscadel faces down frost; green thrives; the crops dont fail. News that the ozone layer is showing signs of recovery 27 years after a ban on the manmade chemicals that damaged it is welcome evidence that decisive international action can avert self-imposed disaster. It is that rare flower, a positive environmental story.

Its easy to forget the potentially catastrophic threat the world faced only recently. In the 1980s, scientists noted the ozone layer which screens us from the suns damaging ultraviolet rays and without which we couldnt survive was thinning. The cause was tracked down to a group of chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, that were being increasingly used in everyday household and industrial appliances and goods, such as fridges and aerosols.

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A doomed Earth of science fiction may well become a reality

Our climate altering activities are hurtling us towards the fictional future of a hot, melting world

27 months and counting

Theres a scene in the newly-restored science fiction classic The Day the Earth Caught Fire (premiered last week in the summer open air cinema at the British Museum) when The Daily Expresss fictional, bull-nosed science reporter, Bill Maguire, barks at a newsroom junior to fetch him information on the melting points of various substances. Its to illustrate a spread in the paper which is investigating how massive nuclear tests have shifted the planet on its axis, causing chaotic weather and a heat wave to slowly marinate London.

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It's time energy policy hums to a different tune | Andrew Simms

Why is the UK government seeking to exploit more fossil fuels when we cant burn what we already know is there?

During the filming of Dr Strangelove, Stanley Kubricks satire on nuclear armageddon, Kubrick is supposed to have turned to its star, Peter Sellers, and asked: Have you ever heard of mutually assured destruction?

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There are good reasons to be an apocaloptimist | Andrew Simms

The climate clock is still ticking yet there are incredible opportunities to make things better

Recently I was called an "apocaloptimist" a term I hadn't heard before. Galling, because I've written a book titled Cancel the Apocalypse which, it might be argued, embodies apocaloptimism. In fact it is slightly off. An apocaloptimist is defined online (it is yet to be recognised by respectable dictionaries) as: "someone who knows its all going to s**t, but still thinks it will turn out ok."

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Forget life on Mars, it's closer to home that matters | Andrew Simms

Our obsession with escaping to outer space is more to do with what's wrong down here. We cannot relocate

If they found on Mars a single blade of grass there would be ecstasy at mission control, unleashing visions of humanity spreading out across the cosmos. But does the obsession with finding life on other, potentially habitable planets somehow excuse and blind us to the trashing of this one?

News of the discovery of yet another Earth-like planet fuels the fantasy that if we scorch our own, we can always relocate. From Richard Branson to Stephen Hawking, there's a hypnotic fascination with the possibility of escape which somehow relieves the pressure to look after our own, extraordinary planetary home.

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Where is the signboard to warn of a climate catastrophe?

Clear signage warns us against known dangers, and yet there isn't one on fossil fuels wrecking civilisation

In many areas of life there are clear early warnings if you are about to do something stupid or self-destructive. One of my favourites is the unambiguous sign that reads Danger of death.

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Climate treaties must recognise and protect eco defenders | Andrew Simms

The murder and intimidation of ordinary people defending the
environment and land cannot be called 'development'

River otters, lichen on trees and coral in oceans are not just beautiful to look at, they tell us something important about the environment around them.

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Climate change: we must terminate this market madness

Arnold Schwarzenegger's financial ties to companies implicated in illegal logging shows the markets do not have the answer

"If climate change is a total downer it's going to be really hard to take action," said one of the scientists behind the UN climate panel's recent report on climate-driven threats to food, health and infrastructure.

One reaction is to talk up the business opportunities of doing things. Without doubt, there are many, and there is enormous scope for climate entrepreneurs. But there is a trap in hyping markets as the answer.