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    The 'democracy problem' posts

    Should we not mention what’s happening to the biosphere, in case it scares the mainstream?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 27-Aug-2017 | 14

    This is a question for anyone working in the field of environmental sustainability. What’s actually happening to the biosphere, how bad is it, and should we tell people or keep it quiet? Read more

    It’s worse than you think: review of Douglas Rushkoff’s ‘Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus’

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 14-Aug-2017 | 0

    Here’s an article that’s part review of the latest book  by Douglas Rushkoff (buy it – it’s excellent), part ramble about twenty-first century capitalism. Read more

    How money causes poverty (plus war and ecological destruction), and what could replace it

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 07-May-2017 | 57

    Exchange has always been part of the human story, whether between individuals, tribes or nations. Some people have what others don’t, due to geography or skill, and exchange is a means of getting what you don’t have, and giving what you have a surplus of. Read more

    Two things you can do to help stop the encroachment of GM crops into the UK

    Linda Kaucher of Stop TTIP | 11-Apr-2017 | 4

    Glyphosate is the key ingredient in Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’, the product that farmers have to buy to apply to the genetically-modified crops that they’ve bought from Monsanto. Half of Monsanto’s profits come from Roundup sales. Read more

    Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 16-Mar-2017 | 3

    In the West, there’s a word that usually accompanies ‘democracy’, and that word is ‘liberal’. Liberal democracies – that’s what we have in the West. That’s liberal, as in liberty / freedom; and that’s certainly what classical liberalism stood for in its infancy. Read more

    How to misrepresent Adam Smith: review of P. J. O’Rourke’s ‘On the Wealth of Nations’

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 14-Feb-2017 | 0

    I don’t know if you’re familiar with P. J., but he’s an excellent writer, and he’s extremely, acerbically funny. With this book, as with his Give War a Chance, several times he made me spit my tea out and have to stop to wipe tea off the page. Read more

    What are the roots of right and left thinking, and can we unite left and right against corporate power?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 08-Jan-2017 | 12

    Why do people who consider themselves ‘left-wing’ seem to embrace a raft of policies that appear unrelated? For example, if you’re of the left, and you believe in (say) progressive taxation, why should that also mean that you believe in gun control, or Read more

    Reasons not to buy from Amazon

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 03-Jan-2017 | 0

    In 1983, Richard Stallman launched the GNU free software project, on which many people could collaborate, and in 1985 he founded the Free Software Foundation, to promote and assist the development of free software. Here is a page from his website Read more

    Monopoly and capitalism: why you’ll lose at both if you try to play nice

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 18-Dec-2016 | 1

    Monopoly is obviously based on capitalism, but the biggest difference between Monopoly and real-life capitalism is that Monopoly is just a game. Whatever happens in the game, it doesn’t mean that in real life Read more

    Companies like Fairphone, Ecotricity etc. are doing great things, but could easily be picked off by the corporate sector; why aren’t they co-ops?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 15-Dec-2016 | 6

    Body Shop, Green & Blacks, Ben & Jerry’s and Innocent Drinks represented a Brave New World when it came to doing business – Fair Trade, sustainable, (slightly) less hierarchical, informal, friendly. Read more

    Dear Fidel Castro…

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 08-Dec-2016 | 5

    I believe that you were a great man – whatever you did, you did because of passion and integrity, not because of a thirst for money or power. But you had the wrong plan. Read more

    What good might come from a Trump presidency?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 04-Dec-2016 | 15

    Donald Trump says that when men get together in locker-rooms (or on buses), they ‘talk like that’ with each other. But they don’t – I have male friends, and if one of them talked to me ‘like that’, it would be the end of our friendship. Read more

    New York Times: GM crops require more pesticides and don’t increase yields

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 27-Nov-2016 | 6

    I’ve been saying for a long time that GM crops do not increase yields and they don’t reduce pesticide use – because that’s not what they’re designed for. This report in the New York Times shows that I was right. Read more

    Want to help stop CETA? Here’s something you can do (before Wednesday)

    Linda Kaucher of Stop TTIP | 21-Nov-2016 | 0

    Remember the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) that’s a part of TTIP and that would have allowed corporations to sue governments that introduced legislation that threatened their profits? Well now it’s part of CETA, a deal between the EU and Canada Read more

    What’s the current situation as regards TTIP, TPP, CETA, TiSA, and what’s the future for trade deals?

    Linda Kaucher of Stop TTIP | 20-Nov-2016 | 0

    It’s been a very confusing time for TTIP and other pro-corporate trade deals. There has been huge public opposition to them, often based around the fact that they would allow corporations to sue elected governments if they introduce policies that threaten their profits Read more

    The US presidential election is a circus, and the sooner we realise that power lies elsewhere the better

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 08-Nov-2016 | 2

    As Adam Curtis recently explained, governments are no longer for deciding how we live, or for building a better society – they have slowly morphed into institutions for managing the affairs of the finance sector. Read more

    Review of Adam Curtis’s new movie ‘Hypernormalisation’

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 26-Oct-2016 | 0

    Adam Curtis has a new movie out – Hypernormalisation, about how, due to ‘perception management’, what we see as ‘normal’ is anything but – and you can see it for free on BBC iPlayer. Read more

    The pros and cons of fracking in the UK and why you need to know about them

    Steve Last of IPPTS Associates | 14-Oct-2016 | 9

    It’s time for all those interested in how society will achieve a sustainable level of impact on the environment to brush up their own thoughts and opinions on the pros and cons of fracking in the UK. Read more

    How CETA will allow TTIP (RIP) in through the back door, and how you can help the Austrian Chancellor block it

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 03-Oct-2016 | 0

    Here are two sources of information about CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) – and both of them are completely biased. They are biased against the interests of the corporate sector and in favour of the interests of ordinary people and communities. That’s the kind of bias we like. Read more

    Reimagining progress: what we can learn about ‘lean thinking’ from indigenous communities

    Here’s a living example of a ‘lean’ economy (outlined by David Fleming in our last blog post), and how you can help to preserve it. The ‘unlean’ economy is encroaching onto the territory of the Kichwa and Sapara communities in the Ecuadorean Amazon, in the form of large oil corporations, and will destroy their communities, as… Continue reading Reimagining progress: what we can learn about ‘lean thinking’ from indigenous communities Read more

    There’s a crash coming – a slap from Mother Nature. This isn’t pessimistic; it’s realistic.

    The human impact on nature and on each other is accelerating and needs systemic change to reverse.

    We’re not advocating poverty, or a hair-shirt existence. We advocate changes that will mean better lives for almost everyone.

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