Two years ago, the Welsh Government declared something called a “Climate Emergency;”  apparently signing up to the Extinction Rebellion proposition that to save the planet – by which, of course, they mean to save our way of life; since the planet would be better off without us – we have …

Today is open up day for the beleaguered folk of the UK.  Non-essential shops, pub and restaurant gardens and children’s indoor activities are all open for the first time since Christmas.  And the media narrative that accompanies this new stage of the pandemic response is that the economy is poised …

The 2009 docudrama, The Age of Stupid, is set in a post-apocalyptic 2055 where narrator Pete Postlethwaite is the sole survivor of the ravages of climate change.  London is under water.  Sydney is permanently ablaze.  Las Vegas has all but disappeared beneath the desert sands.  The Alps no longer witness …

I can still remember, as a toddler some 57 years ago, seeing a steam locomotive shunting coal wagons in sidings not far from where I grew up.  It wasn’t to last.  Later that year, the infamous Beeching cuts were implemented.  A couple of years later, the two-track branch line had …

Ordinarily, a giant container ship as long as the Empire State building is high, blocking the southern stretch of the Suez Canal, would have been the lead story on every news channel.  Around ten percent of the world’s seaborne oil goes through the Canal; some 3 to 4 million barrels …

Cargo cults have been a feature of Pacific Islander beliefs for at least as long as European and Chinese sailing vessels traded goods across the ocean.  As Peter M. Worsley wrote in a 1959 article: “Throughout Melanesia primitive men await a black Messiah who will bring them a largess of …

Until the 1860s, whale oil had been the main fuel for lighting and for use as a lubricant.  Until recently it was believed that excess hunting had resulted in the decimation of whale populations by the mid-nineteenth century.  However, while hunting had taken its toll, it appears that whale populations …

It goes without saying that online retail has had a good pandemic.  And when it comes to online retail, Amazon leads the pack.  At the same time, “bricks and mortar” aka “High Street” retail has taken a pounding, as the retail apocalypse gathers pace.  Understandably, demands for a new “Amazon …

It is, perhaps, easiest to blame all of Britain’s ills on Brexit.  Failing this, the global pandemic – and our response to it – is a good candidate for blame as the economic consequences of global lockdowns and restrictions begin to emerge.  There are though, slower and deeper processes which …