Great place to go in August!

Just back from a few days break in mid-Wales. Wide open landscapes, great walking, wonderfully peaceful, few tourists away from the honey pots and not a computer in sight. Watched red kites feeding here - quite remarkable. Even with my little compact camera they were close enough to look like red kites. Learnt a bit about how not to cross bogs also....but lived to tell the tale.

Thinking in Systems

I've long been a fan of Donella Meadows, of Limits to Growth fame so was pleased to get a reminder in my email this morning of a book published earlier this year that she was working on at the time of her death called 'Thinking in Systems'. It made me track down an article that appears there called Dancing with Systems in which she presents her ten 'systems wisdoms'. I like the one that says 'Pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable' but they're all pretty good.

Media perspectives on climate change

Internews, Panos and IIED got together to bring forward a range of perspectives on negotiations about climate change with the 'climate change media partnerships'. This year's 40 fellows seem to cover a wide range of issues and different parts of the world. Unintended consequences of interventions feature quite strongly on this site, for instance this one on forestry, where landless farmers evicted by forest restoration projects managed by an NGO consortium have been protesting. Whose rights get taken into account in such situations and what should happen is something we consider in our OU course Environmental Responsibility.