This page lists the most recent five to ten blog posts and videos. Most posts are available as both HTML (web) pages and A4 PDF files you can download. Video posts are usually a shorter page or script with a link to the video hosted on YouTube.
The blog posts are listed below in reverse chronological order (most recent first).
‘A Book in Five Minutes’, no.7, 19th January 2022:
‘The Deep Ecology Movement’ (1980)
Forty-two years on from its publication, Bill Devall’s paper and its clear critique – now realised in the predicted failure of the movement to make change – deserves a much greater audience.
Go to the YouTube video for this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘A Book in Five Minutes’, no.6, 7th November 2021:
‘This Land is Our Land’ (1987)
A book which traces an arc of how the shift from Feudalism into Capitalism, via the reciprocal Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, not only changed the landscape, but also created many of the social ills that still afflict society today.
Go to the YouTube video for this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.18, 25th October 2021:
This is an over thirty-year long story about my involvement with contaminated sites, and helping communities to get action to clean them up. This tale is innately connected to my home town, Banbury. It’s an average small town; a backwater on the border between the Midlands and the South East. Yet in the 1980s, this place taught me about the issues of waste and land contamination. Not because it was exceptional, but because these issues affect communities across Britain.
Click here to go direct to the YouTube video
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘A Book in Five Minutes’, no.5, 4th October 2021:
‘Post-Scarcity Anarchism’ (1971/2004)
Murray Bookchin foresaw the rise of consumerism, and the changing dialogue in society towards a politics of ‘post-scarcity’. ‘Post-Scarcity Anarchism’ is an anthology of Bookchin’s essays around this theme.
Go to the YouTube video for this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.17, 2nd October 2021:
‘Weaponising Space Debris’ – Britain, DARC, and the military’s control of space
Britain is to become part of a US network to ‘dominate space’. The UK government are promoting this as a way to create greater ‘security’ for our technological lifestyle. The reality about what this system is for, and the US military’s strategy behind it, is somewhat different to that public message of greater security.
Click here to go direct to the YouTube video
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘A Book in Five Minutes’, no.4, 20th September 2021:
‘Diet for a Small Planet’ (1971)
I think there are very few books that you can truthfully say, ‘this book changed my life’. When I first came across it almost forty years ago, this one changed mine. It explained clearly to me what it was I needed to know to eat well.
Go to the YouTube video for this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘A Book (or report) in 5 Minutes’, no.3, 15th September 2021:
‘Ecological Economics For Humanity’s Plague Phase’ (2020)
Each morning the Sun comes up. We instinctively know this. The problem is that in the modern world, people sometimes find it difficult to tell the difference between: Natural phenomena – like the Sun rising; and the grandiose myths we tell ourselves – like the functioning of the economy.
Go to the YouTube video for this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘A Book in Five Minutes’, no.2, 8th September 2021:
‘The Technology of Political Control’ (1977)
The most effective books are able to transcend time; by applying a relatively broad, well-observed analysis of the roots of complex issues in the past, that continue to have relevance today. This is such a book.
Go to the YouTube video for this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘A Book in Five Minutes’, no.1, 1st September 2021:
Published in 1972, and shrouded in controversy since that date, ‘The Limits to Growth’ is the most successful econometric projection ever made, and a groundbreaking ecological book that the environment movement itself has a deep-seated fear of discussing in public.
Go to the YouTube video for this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.16, 28th August 2021:
Lithium-ion batteries versus potatoes in the battle for energy storage
Did you know that, weight-for-weight, potatoes can store more energy than lithium-ion batteries?
Click here to download the PDF version of this post.
Go to the YouTube video accompanying this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
Ramblinactivist’s video, 22nd August 2021:
2021/12: ‘Boris Johnson – "One Lie Beyond" (aka., 'The Mung Beans')’
This track has been brewing for some time; ever since I saw Boris' presentation to the world – representing us! – where in setting the stage for how we are going to tackle climate change he attacked 'mung bean munchers'.
Click here to go direct to the YouTube video
An MP3 version of the music is available on the web page.
Ramblinactivist’s video, 19th August 2021:
Some days you wake up with a bass riff in your head and it just won’t go away. It has to be exorcised…
Click here to go direct to the YouTube video
An MP3 version of the music is available on the web page.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.15, 12th August 2021:
YouTube has become a warped subliminal marketplace; a confidence trick of misdirection. Digitally disembodied people pretend to be your best friend, while the platform they use fleeces your computer of as much information as possible in order to commodify your soul.
Click here to download the PDF version.
Go to the YouTube video accompanying this post.
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.14, 7th May 2021:
‘Bright Green Lies’: A brief review of the film and its ‘deep green’ message
It’s been a year since ‘Planet of the Humans’ caused the leaders of climate campaigns to go into heated meltdown; by comparison, this film throws them an even greater challenge to try and respond to.
Click here to download the PDF version.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.13, 25th March 2021:
Why is there no ‘right to food’, or to grow food in Britain?
Covid has exposed Britain’s endemic poverty, and the chaotic state of poverty-relief systems; is a possible solution, ‘food sovereignty’, being deliberately ignored?
Click here to download the PDF version.
Ramblinactivist's videos 2021/2, Sunday 17th January 2021:
Ramblinactivist 2021/2: ‘The President’s Parting Shot’: A Reflection on Threats and Resilience
Exactly sixty years ago, President Eisenhower give his ‘farewell address’ to the American nation; known today for popularising the term “military-industrial complex” . Today though this has arguably morphed into the “military-industrial-entertainment complex”, so intermeshed have those arms of modern society become.
Click here to go direct to the YouTube video.
Ramblinactivist's videos 2021/1, Sunday 17th January 2021:
Ramblinactivist 2021/1: ‘A review of the last 30 years, and a look ahead’
In 1991 I quit my join in engineering and become a full-time eco-freak. I thought I’d last six months; a year tops till the money ran out. Well, the money’s been running out for thirty years this year, and I’m still (barely!) keepin’ on keepin’ on.
In this short review I look at some of what has been. More importantly I drop a few ideas about where I’ll be going next. Most of all, I just want to share with you the fact that we’re still here (barely!) and we have all to play for – if you’re willing to raise the lifestyle stakes *low* enough!
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.12, 9th January 2021:
‘Seven Billion Mutant Monkeys’ playing with advanced technology… what could possibly go wrong?
When daily technological interactions reach a critical performance tipping point, the only sure route to progress is marked, “Exit”
Click here to download the PDF version.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.11, 30th December 2020:
In the endless picking-over of the events of 2020, now and in the future, how many will care to inspect their past tendency to always project a rosy future irrespective of its demonstrable flaws?
Click here to download the PDF version.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.10, 3rd December 2020:
Retail & services are collapsing; well, it would have happened soon anyway
People are mourning the loss of their ‘normal’ life – the truth is that ‘consumerism’ is no longer a viable lifestyle, and never really was.
Click here to download the PDF version.
Click here to go direct to the YouTube video.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.9, 1st December 2020:
‘My Resignation’; or, ‘Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism’
“I am writing to inform you that as of the end of 2020, I am resigning my position with the environmental movement”
Click here to download the PDF version.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.8, 6th October 2020:
Boris bullshits the greens (again); and they swallow it (again!)
Just because something sounds nice and positive doesn’t mean it actually is; and with this government, that’s seemingly guaranteed – especially where it concerns the environment. Why do highly-paid green campaigners, working for the groups who claim to represent the ‘public interest’, keep pliantly falling for the bullshit rather than calling it out?
Click here to download the PDF version.
Ramblinactivist's videos 2020/2, Saturday 3rd October 2020:
“Rules Britannia, Britannia Breaks the Rules”
Recently the media have been complaining that the British Government intends to “break international law” as part of Brexit. In practise these complaints highlight the media’s historic silence when the British Government has routinely broken international law before; in particular, our involvement in foreign conflicts involving the USA and ‘Western’ interests.
Click here to go direct to the YouTube video.