Capturing autumn light

I was pleased with these pictures, taken in the Netherlands last weekend while walking with friends. The low afternoon light in the trees was beautiful.

Research methods - Denmark

Last week I visited Denmark again for the first time in just over three years to make a contribution to this course on Research Methodologies in Organic Food and Farming Research. My role was to give a bit of an overview and background to systems methodologies as well as getting students to try out a few techniques in the context of their own PhD research. We visited a highly diverse organic farm as part of the course so were able to draw on that experience also. The event was held in a hostel in the forest - simple rooms, log fires, lots of space - wonderful place for such a course and it was great to hear about all the projects going on and to be able to contribute a few ideas.

Doing things differently

Jonathon Porritt reflecting on the 'death throes of capitalism' and 'scary times' says:

"From a sustainability perspective, it’s difficult to exaggerate the significance of this moment. Depth-driven consumerism, underpinned by a corrupt, self-serving and unaccountable financial system, has been at the heart of 20 years of environmental devastation. It’s over. If we chose, we could now do things very differently once we’ve negotiated our way through the recession."

I'm sure he's right where there are cost savings to be made but history has shown that environmental measures that require investment don't do well when times are hard. There must be many different paths to take in the actual process of 'negotiating our way through the recession'. I find it hard to anticipate the systemic effects but like Porritt, think there'll be opportunities as well as problems.

Greece again

Yes - sometimes it does rain in Greece but I've seen enough rain in UK this summer so here are some brighter moments. The church is in Skopelos and the others are of the wonderful Pelion region we've been lucky enough to visit quite a bit these past few years, through our links with the University of Thessaly in Volos.

Gurkhas to stay in Britain

Looking around for some good news among all the doom and gloom I note that retired Gurkhas have won the right to stay in UK. Sounds as though it doesn't affect many and I can't pretend to know all the issues. But it seems to me an important point of principle that given history and the Gurkhas service to the UK, they be allowed to choose.

Illegal logging

I've recently engaged with the work of the Environmental Investigation Agency on illegal logging in Indonesia. I find I react strongly on hearing about some of the situations they've been investigating in Indonesia. I find it deeply disturbing to hear details of this sort of environmental crime including the sheer scale of it! Sobering also to hear how such products find their way to Europe in spite of many companies' stated intentions not to support unsustainable forestry. So it's cheering to hear the US start to extend its own wildlife trafficking legislation - the Lacey Act - to include timber, wood products and plants. This would in effect prohibit the import, sale or trade of illegally harvested wood products. Responsibility will therefore lie with importers, retailers and traders in the US, not just with those doing the logging. Whether the bill will go right through and how such legislation would work in practice remains to be seen. To me, it seems long overdue and I hope there will be pressure for the EU and UK to do likewise. EIA, as a campaigning organisation, are facilitating individuals to call for such action. They've drafted a letter that can be sent to local MPs.

Reason - its use and abuse

Thanks to David Chapman for the link to this interesting set of articles on 'why people hate reason' from the New Scientist. An impressive line-up of authors offering some very different disciplinary perspectives. Quite a lot of common themes among the different contributors discussed in the Editorial

"The first problem our contributors have identified is not with reason itself, but with its abuse. The second unifying theme among our contributors is the concern that science and reason are increasingly seen as providing not just scientific, technical and military fixes, but answers to everything that matters in the world. Some of our contributors bring a third charge: that even on its own terms, reason must own up to some serious limitations."

....though it's concluded that

"some of the expectations of reason are ...unreasonable."

In our Open University Environmental decision making: a systems approach course we consider different approaches to decision making, some very rational others much less so. We need all the approaches so I see rational and less rational means more as a duality than a dualism. A few years ago I became aware of precision farming approaches that enabled farmers to move from intuitive to more rational approaches and findings that farmers' decision making was actually highly rational. Having worked through a lot of environmental decisions where Simon's ideas of limited rationality seemed to resonate very strongly, this research made me think, as I was becoming used to claims that we need to value intuitive approaches more highly than the strictly rational. I agree we need to accept the limitations of reason but not sure I hate reason - its clearly got users as well as abusers.