By Tom Savage •
August 26, 2009
Who would have predicted the world of science fiction films would prove so prophetic? Our planet is being over-run by machines and we need people like Arnold Schwarzenegger to save us
In the world of the film The Matrix, robots, machines and other perennially nasty automatons have taken over the world – another normal day in Hollywood. However, it’s a pleasant surprise to find out that the film’s creators have gone so far as to think about the energy crisis that must ensue from such a power hungry group of captors. In order to sustain themselves, the machines grow humans in cozy little pods and use the energy our bodies generate to power their world.
Ingenious really, aside from the fact that our bodies are way more efficient than any machine yet invented – so the energy output would hardly allow them to make a cup of tea (or warm oil), let alone enable them to achieve their (presumably unconscious) goal of world domination. We mere mortals only need a meal or two a day to power something capable of building the pyramids, reconstituting itself, and designing the combustion engine. Of course, we do all this with a handy little bit of consciousness and, sometimes, ethics along the way.
By Tom Savage •
August 7, 2009
The front pages in the UK this week are a-spread with the news of record profits at Barclays Bank, with accompanying bonuses for top bankers. This echoes last week’s story at Goldman Sachs. Given the recent bailouts and government support, the Economist is right to note that ‘such largesse looks cheeky at best’!
Although the two crises have little in common, this obstinate reminder of how little has changed in the financial sector prompts me to deeper pessimism in the environmental crisis.
Why? We’re perhaps only a year into, and most certainly nowhere near out of, the greatest economic crisis in living memory. Many people are still in the thick of it, as witnessed, for example, by record unemployment levels on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet it seems that we are incapable of learning, or changing in the face of significant crisis.
By Tom Savage •
August 7, 2009
Image credit: KYZ at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
In the “green” space, credibility is crucial, and things are changing rapidly as investment washes in and out of the sector, companies make big eco-commitments, or they slink away from their environmental goals. A great way to stay up to date is to sign yourself up for a few newsletters in the space you’re interested in moving into. Being well-read is also a networking tool — you can know who’s growing, who’s been bought out, who’s making headlines. Use these developments as opportunities to reach out to the companies or people involved and start a meaningful dialogue.
By Tom Savage •
July 22, 2009
Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to interview Andrew Winston, the author of ‘Green to Gold‘, a seminal work in the environmental space and all round green guru. If you haven’t read it already, I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the sometimes difficult relationship between the environmental sector and commercial organizations. As ever, Andrew provided thoughtful commentary on the state of the environmental movement and CSR:
