George MonbiotAs Dutch elm disease spread across Britain in the 1970s, the country fell into mourning. When the sentinel trees that framed our horizons were felled, their loss was a constant topic of sad and angry conversation. Today, just a few years into the equally devastating ash dieback epidemic, and as the first great trees are toppled, most of […]
George Monbiot Environmental breakdown, coupled with the self-destructive behaviour of governments, has set us on a road to ruin. And we’re blocking off all means of escape It’s a good question, but it seems too narrow: “Is western civilisation on the brink of collapse?” the lead article in this week’s New Scientist asks. The answer […]
Visitors: 371 [thrive_text_block color=”light” headline=”What an extraordinary dereliction of duty that our politicians leave headteachers to fix a public health crisis”] [/thrive_text_block] Deregulation, the government and many newspapers assure us, saves money and time and reduces frustration. That’s the theory. But, as I see every day, it doesn’t quite work like this. My youngest daughter’s […]
Visitors: 356 [thrive_text_block color=”note” headline=”Growth must go on – it’s the political imperative everywhere, and it’s destroying the Earth. But there’s no way of greening it, so we need a new system”] [/thrive_text_block] Everyone wants everything – how is that going to work? The promise of economic growth is that the poor can live like […]
Visitors: 332 [thrive_text_block color=”light” headline=”The way discredited stories spread after a chemical weapons massacre in Syria should be a matter of serious concern”] [/thrive_text_block] What do we believe? This is the crucial democratic question. Without informed choice, democracy is meaningless. This is why dictators and billionaires invest so heavily in fake news. Our only defence […]
Visitors: 355 [thrive_text_block color=”light” headline=”Look to Sheffield: this is how state and corporate power subverts democracy”] [/thrive_text_block] One of neoliberalism’s promises was that it would free us from bureaucracy. By rolling back the state, it would vanquish the stifling power of officialdom, granting us unprecedented freedom and opportunity. This promise runs through the works of Friedrich Hayek […]
Visitors: 295 [thrive_text_block color=”light” headline=”The rupture of 2008 presents a chance to throw out our iniquitous system that busts the planet – here are some ideas”] [/thrive_text_block] We are still living in the long 20th century. We are stuck with its redundant technologies: the internal combustion engine, thermal power plants, factory farms. We are stuck […]
Visitors: 253 [thrive_text_block color=”light” headline=”The suffering inherent in mass meat production can’t be justified. And as the artificial meat industry grows, the last argument for farming animals has now collapsed”] [/thrive_text_block] What will future generations, looking back on our age, see as its monstrosities? We think of slavery, the subjugation of women, judicial torture, the […]
Visitors: 368 George Monbiot, PhD Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did […]
Visitors: 243 George Monbiot, PhD Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did […]
Visitors: 541 George Monbiot, PhD Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did […]
Visitors: 945 George Monbiot, PhD Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did […]
Visitors: 306 George Monbiot, PhD Studied in Oxford University, a columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How […]
Visitors: 533 George Monbiot Columnist, The Guardian , UK Why is there a worldwide revolt against politics as usual? Because corporate globalisation has crushed democratic choice. A wave of revulsion rolls around the world. Approval ratings for incumbent leaders are everywhere collapsing. Symbols, slogans and sensation trump facts and nuanced argument. One in six […]
Visitors: 285 George Monbiot Columnist, The Guardian, UK The remarkable decline in violence between humans suggests that we could also restrain our violence against the planet. This is humanity’s great paradox. We are the only animal capable of sustained empathy and altruism towards unrelated beings. And we are the only animal that murders so […]
Visitors: 302 How a ruthless network of super-rich ideologues killed choice and destroyed people’s faith in politics The events that led to Donald Trump’s election started in England in 1975. At a meeting a few months after Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party, one of her colleagues, or so the story goes, was […]
Visitors: 278 Only by crossing social boundaries and coming together can we resist the forces that threaten to crush us. If there is an irrepressible human trait, it’s the determination, against all odds, to reconnect. Though governments seek to atomise and rule, we will keep finding ways to come together. Our social brains forbid any […]
Visitors: 319 It’s a simple choice: stop all fossil fuel prospecting, or break the Paris agreement on climate change. Do they understand what they have signed? Plainly they do not. Governments like ours, now ratifying the Paris agreement on climate change, haven’t the faintest idea what it means. Either that, or they have no intention […]