Author Archives: Laurie

In times of disjuncture and hardship, an impulse exists to take flight from reality and retreat into the comfort of old-worn habits and familiar surroundings. To some, this offers the opportunity to reflect and reimagine. Many may simply desire to escape, or remain entirely ignorant to the problems at hand. For others, to be seenContinue reading “Davos’s time is up”

How can we face up to the enormity of environmental collapse? How can we collectively build a politics for the Anthropocene? Laurie Laybourn-Langton interviews activist and former climate diplomat John Ashton. Laurie Laybourn-Langton (LL-L): You’ve been at the forefront of combatting climate change through your role at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and by foundingContinue reading “Imagination and will in the Anthropocene”

All states, markets, welfare systems, major religions, their justifying ideas and the people that fought to create them came about in a uniquely stable epoch geologists call the Holocene. This era was typified by a climate suited to human flourishing, and is now over. In its place comes the Anthropocene, the name for a timeContinue reading “Welcome to the Anthropocene”

Why didn’t Transport for London (TfL) invent Uber – and would Londoners be better off if it had done? The issues raised by this question are important and go beyond both transport and London and make us ask who and what the digital revolution is for. In the jargon, Uber is a digital platform thatContinue reading “Uber X TfL? Turn peer-to-peer transport into a public service”