Paul Mobbs &
Mobbs' Environmental Investigations –
Work Archive:
Research Reports
I've worked primarily with community groups for many years – mostly in the UK, but also in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. The materials produced from that work have relevance not just to the people who commissioned them, but many other communities too. For that reason I maintain an on-line archive of my work.
For details of the licensing restrictions on using these resources, see the Copyright and Sharing page.
Work Archive:
'Reports' Index
See also:
Research is a free-form puzzle – with no instructions or guide to show you the way. The reward of doing detailed research is to take a subject and investigate how or why it exists, and seeing how far you can push that process towards finding an objective explanation of the facts.
As Camus stated, "Memory is the enemy of totalitarianism". A large part of the research process is finding 'memories' in the form of documentary evidence, research evidence and other data. So much of today's world is based upon supposition, and the assumption of correctness. Consequently in-depth research has the potential to re-write public debates through 'remembering' the readily-available information which society often inconveniently forgets.
Though the subject varies, much of my research surrounds the topics of energy, the environment and economics – the intersection of which best describes 'sustainability'. Though some of my research is purely historical, much relates to specific regulatory or development processes. In particular, public inquiries and applications for major developments.
Mostly this research was undertaken for community and campaign groups. For that reason I like to make these reports available so that others can study them and perhaps address their own instances of these issues in their local area.
The sections of the research report archive are organized around nine themes.
Recent Research and Reports
USAF Croughton, Networked Warfare, and the Intelligence-Fusion Complex
July 2018
A short report, produced for Croughtonwatch, on how digital networks, data, and artificial intelligence are blurring the boundaries between military, political and civil conflict.
Produced as part of a study for Croughtonwatch The NATO Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex
PDF version of handout
1.4 megabytes
goto YouTube video of presentation
The Free Range Do-It-Yourself 'Feral' Stick-Fire Cooking Grate
14/06/2017
Cooking outdoors is a fun skill to learn to expand your ecological awareness and personal resilience. Cook well outdoors from fresh or foraged food, and you can cook well anywhere. Problem is, where do you find the 'ecologically sound'/fossil-fuel free kit? The Free Range Stick-Fire Cooking Grate is a small, light-weight, trestle-style cooking grate designed to burn small sticks which, with a few tools and components, you can easily build yourself.
design/construction handout
3.3 megabytes
A3 summary poster
1.2 megabytes
Whitehall's 'Fracking' Science Failure: How the Government has misled Parliament and the public on the climate change impacts of shale oil and gas development in Britain – A report for Talk Fracking
24/05/2017
This report seeks to explain how the debate over the gaseous emissions from 'fracking', and their impacts on climate change, has changed over the last few years – and precisely why that debate is critical to how the Whitehall Government has justified, and promoted, onshore oil and gas extraction in Britain.
For a review of the report go to 'Mobbsey's Musings' – 'Whitehall's 'Fracking' Science Failure'
Original Paul Mobbs/MEI research report
662 kilobytes
Talk Fracking's published version
867 kilobytes
A3 poster summarising the report
1.2 megabytes
Fracktured Accountability: A study of political decision-making and unconventional fossil fuel interests in the Coalition Government
04/03/2015
'Fractured Accountability' represents the outcome of just over two years research on the the Government's role in promoting unconventional gas and oil in Britain; specifically, whether their actions are 'legal'. More importantly, it is not a report about "fracking" per se, but rather the highly questionable relationships between policy-makers in Government, the industry developing fracking, and the finance and PR industries supporting them.
The 'Fracktured Accountability' web page
This page collects all the 'Fracktured Accountability' resources together within a single page.
'Fracktured Accountability', the report
This is the detailed report on the the alleged 'misconduct in public office' by ministers in Britain in relation to their policies on unconventional oil and gas development.
2.6 megabytes
The Frackogram 2015
This page outlines, and provides a browser for, the 'Frackogram 2015', an 'organogram' which illustrates the relationships between the government, fracking/fossil fuel companies, finance and academia.
'Fracktured Accountability', a.k.a, 'The Frackogram'
This poster describes the 'Frackogram', and how it was created. Where the 'frackogram' is reproduced as a large poster, this A3 PDf is desgined to sit alongside to provide a more detailed explanation of the 'organogram'.
3.4 megabytes
'Arrest the Cabinet'
A video of my efforts to 'arrest the cabinet' for the offence of 'misconduct in a public office', Downing Street, 5th March 2015.
Frackademics: A study of the relationships between academia, the fossil fuels industry and public agencies
February 2015
This study, produced on behalf of 'talk Fracking', examines the relationships between academia, the fossil fuel industry and public bodies – and how these relationships might influence the public debate over "fracking". The purpose of reviewing the connections between different agencies is to understand the nature of the environment which defines and constrains those decisions, and to explain the context within which recent decisions or policies have been framed. It traces the potential mechanisms by which the public debate over unconventional gas and oil may be manipulated, and how that fits in to the Government's promotion of their policies on unconventional gas and oil. In scientific debate, all issues should be open to objective examination.
For further information go to: Talk Fracking
'Frackademics' – the report
421 kilobytes
'Frackademics' case study no.1 – Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs)
108.9 kilobytes
'Frackademics' case study no.2 – Academic involvement in shale gas studies
176.2 kilobytes
'Frackademics' case study 3 – The Mackay-Stone review
146.7 kilobytes
'Frackademics' case study no.4 – The Science Media Centre
203.8 kilobytes
'Frackademics' case study no.5 – Guardian Open Letter
158.6 kilobytes
'Frackademics' case study no.6 – The Task Force on Shale Gas
127.2 kilobytes