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November 20th 2020
The rush for a vaccine for Co-vid 19 has sparked a frenzy of billion dollar investments into new vaccine consortiums, veteran pharmaceutical corporations and start ups. Drugs regulators may be forced to approve synthetic biology, gene editing and other untested biotechnologies in the new crop of vaccines to halt the spread of the virus.
What is CEPI and COVAX?
In 2015, the former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was talking about a global contagion, a virus that could spread by “getting on a plane or going to a market.” (Gates TED talk https://vimeo.com/399471276 ) And a market is precisely where the Chinese government said the Wuhan outbreak of Covid-19 originated. Gates said, Microbes, not missiles, are the new enemy in what he describes as ‘germ games’ and predicts ten million deaths from a pandemic. In 2017, he called for funding to be re-directed into the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) for research from which Bill Gates, as a key player in CEPI, would directly benefit.
In March 2020, the British government pledged £210 million to CEPI to specifically focus on a vaccine for the coronavirus Covid-19, making them the largest individual donors to the project. A whip round of the governments of Australia, Belgium and Canada brought the total of donations to CEPI to US$760 million. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/this-oslo-facility-may-be-the-key-to-the-coronavirus-vaccine
Now CEPI has collaborated with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) to accelerate the development, production, and access of Covid-19 vaccines and tests under the banner of COVAX .https://www.who.int/news/item/15-07-2020-more-than-150-countries-engaged-in-covid-19-vaccine-global-access-facility By the end of 2021, COVAX aims to deliver two billion vaccine doses to protect healthcare workers and the 20% most vulnerable populations first. Participating countries pay for a share of the doses and poorer countries can make voluntary donations to COVAX.
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By Phil Smith, 10th November 2020
“We are on this planet together – are we really going to watch screens?”
Introduction
We are living through a crisis of separation enforced by the technology of communications. Everything we do to connect through machines drives us apart from each other and everything else. Finding ways to be there, in and with a pattern in the terrain, is a means to reconnect to forces of attraction.
‘The Pattern’ (Crab & Bee, Triarchy Press, 2020) describes a hyper-charged journey during which shifty methods for being there were devised. There is not much room in the book for explanation. This essay is an attempt to give some reasons for a practice that is mostly about not doing, more about attending, about being there and being with: stepping back and acknowledging places as primary agents; approaching places with the minimum amount of mission, function or question; going to listen to what places have to say.
Considering the apparent vacuity of these methods, they do seem to generate an awful lot of information and responsive activity from extraordinary partners; maybe even a few constituents of an art of living in the magical mode. One result is that a pattern steps forward; a diagram in the landscape combining fortuitous entanglements of various elements with the efforts of humans to embellish – with wells, road signs, temples, place names, information boards, towers, stories and chalk horses – places that connect intensely with everything else. A second outcome is a tentative journeying towards being there: eating buds from the brambles, picking gems of plastic trash from the gutter, splashing water from solution holes and holy wells on your face, standing still and letting the animals come forward from the shadows. Putting your body in there and adding some art – tying threads, sprinkling ash, scrying puddles – until, mostly gently but sometimes violently, things from there begin to make their art in your life. By going there, you get caught up in the existence and excess of these places’ unhuman others; in the process you may lose some of your separation from them.
During the UK lockdown, roads that were usually noisy with traffic were empty for weeks. Pedestrians could walk in the middle of the road rather than on the pavements. As the quiet fell deeper, the terraced houses along these streets began to present themselves as personalities rather than as an anonymous backdrop; they began to act up, asked to be noticed, coughed up residents onto their front lawns. These moments can be enjoyed for themselves, but as they string together, human entanglements with such powerful things with personalities get more intense, while the thickening web of connections offers more support. Then comes a chance to become a part of an ensemble, to dispense with the need for great vision or purposeful mission, and feel a way with unhuman others, making things up together as we all go along. If that sounds like something you would like to explore... read on.
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Susan McFie, 4th October 2020
Not long ago few of us had heard of the coronavirus, and yet this curious entity has rapidly altered life as we know it. The spiky bugs have been around for millions of years infecting almost everyone but seldom killing us – at least not until 2003 when SARS-CoV appeared in Hong Kong with a death rate of around 10%. No coronavirus had ever done that before. The outbreak was blamed on animals.
Thousands of civets were killed as suspects, and then wild pigs, bats, and snakes also tested positive for SARS-like viruses.
A similar coronavirus appeared in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. It was named MERS and blamed on camels. Then in December 2019 Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organisation that a novel coronavirus was circulating, subsequently named SARS-CoV-2. Once more animals were blamed, this time bats and pangolins. It was said to have emerged from the live animal market in Wuhan but there was growing scepticism, as Wuhan is also home to a high security bio-laboratory involved in long-term research into bat coronaviruses.
Concerns that the pandemic may have resulted from a laboratory accident were refuted in March by Scripps Research Institute claiming that “If someone were seeking to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness.” The statement was backed by a representative of the UK Wellcome Trust who said the investigation showed that the virus was “the product of natural evolution” which they claimed ended “any speculation about deliberate genetic engineering.”
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Mary Wollstonecraft
August 2020
The Dalai Lama says that the future belongs to women. But there are women from our past who continually shape our thinking, and deserve to be remembered today. One such woman is the author and activist Mary Wollstonecraft.
An Iconic Feminist
Many people know Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, who wrote the story at the tender age of 19 on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was a challenge issued amongst her travelling companions Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Byron’s physician Dr Polidore to create the most frightening story. Mary’s tale emerged victorious and her book became a precursor of the modern horror novel
Less well-known is the story of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died giving birth to Mary Shelley just over 200 years ago. Today, Wollstonecraft is a touchstone for activists who recognise her as an iconic proto-feminist who advocated votes for women one hundred years before the suffragettes, along with state funded education for girls and boys, diversity and human rights.
In Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) followed by A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) she calls for justice for one half of the human race. She questions the validity of marriage, since it benefited women neither the vote or financial independence. In 1792, she embarked on her own unconventional relationship with Gilbert Imlay, an American merchant living in Paris. It is from here that she wrote her influential critiques on the French Revolution.
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Almost twenty years ago I found myself sitting eye to eye with Nick Papadimitriou in the basement of an art gallery, just off Queen Square in Bloomsbury. It was our first day on a research project and we were both nervously rearing to write, even if science was not our primary concern. Over those weeks, I got to know Nick and admired his roll-your-sleeves-up dedication to writing, and was intrigued by his wayward and somewhat wild side.
I enjoy eccentricity, so happily listened to Nick prattle on about Gilbert White, the Woodcraft Folk, and the mysteries of Middlesex. His tales of a marginalised, middle-aged man with glasses bearing a sort of resonance. And, the more he told his stories and repeated his often humorous schtick, the more I realised that Nick had everything he needed to become a successful writer.
Over the years Nick would often call round to mine. We talked about everything as he would lend a helping hand in the garden, editing my first collection of poetry, playing with the assorted cats and dogs, and amusing the long-term boyfriends that might be around. Once, I switched on my recorder and just let it run while we talked. (http://www.samburcher.com/articles/notes-on/152-interview-with-nick-papadimitriou-november-2011.html) During another lovely day, I held my film camera on my lap as Nick talked about his latest project. (See below).
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There is widespread concern about genetic engineering, and now the new generation CRISPR gene editing. People are becoming worried that labelling of food containing modified genes for human consumption may be removed and food standards lowered after Brexit. If the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified, the UK must abide by EU rules until December 2020, which states food containing GMO’s must be labelled. If the UK leaves without a deal, the relevant regulations will temporarily pass into UK law from 1st November 2019. However, these rules will then be open to immediate amendments with potentially far-reaching effects.
What is CRISPR?
CRISPR-Cas 9, or CRISPR for short, stands for Clustered Regularly Interspace Short Palindromic Repeats. It is an idea that genetic engineers have copied from bacterial communities defending themselves against viruses and foreign DNA. Cas 9 is a protein, that with the help of guide RNA, recognises and 'cuts and pastes' the sequence of DNA to be edited.
Just like the previous generation of genetic engineering uses a viral promoter to add itself to a DNA sequence, gene editing can change more than the target genes. The possibility of recombinant DNA producing changes to a large number of genes and making unwanted edits to other sequences is very high using this technology.
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July 1st 2019
Lisbon is a city of lines: amarela, azul, verde, vermelho or red, blue, green and yellow. The simplicity of the network of fifty-five cool tiled stations is a weary travellers dream. I come down into my body from out of my head and feel safe from the prying eyes of a Metro line predator.
On the bus leaving the city the temperature reads 35 degrees centigrade, and thankfully dropping. The hills are yellow and the people are yellow and hot. The Torres das Amoreiras, also known as the Amoreiras Towers are standing to attention.The architect of these yellow fortresses of post-modernity became a standing joke after sex tapes showing him roughly buggering a succession of young girls in his Lisbon office were released onto the internet.
Renewables Revolution
An Atlantic wind is blowing through the hills and whistles noisily inside the bus's air conditioning system. Outside the tinted windows Nordex wind turbines are busily spinning megawatts of energy for a yellow city. Amongst the verdant native forests patches of drooping genetically modified eucalyptus and pine stand out like dry, sore thumbs dwarfed by plantations of steel windmills that produce nearly a quarter of Portugal’s electricity.
A revolutionary wind blows through Portugal. The Carnation Revolution in 1974 heralded the change from an authoritarian state to a democracy with barely a shot fired. It was thanks to the people who, despite being told to stay indoors, mingled peacefully with the insurgent army, putting flowers in their rifles and defusing hostilities. The spirit of freedom and self-empowerment lives on. No longer dependent on natural gas, 63% of the country’s total energy is provided by renewables; a carbon saving combination of on-shore and off-shore wind, wave and solar. (In January 2020, Portugal achieved 100% renewable energy, a target other developed countries should be striving for).
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Monday 3rd June 2019
Extinction Rebellion has collaborated with folk singer Sam Lee and The Nest Collective to perform a musical rebellion in Berkeley Square. The song of a nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) was live-streamed throughout the Square to a large crowd highlighting the plight of a bird not heard in Central London for around three centuries and nearing extinction in the UK. The chart topping RSPB’s single featuring the songs of critically endangered birds was also heard. The assembly joined Sam in his re-worded rendition of the original song made famous by Cole Porter, and written in 1939 by Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin about the nightingale in it’s notional home.
Cosmo Sheldrake, the musician son of biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake and Buddhist overtone chanteuse Jill Purce, created a poignant soundscape by naming insects, amphibians, mammals and birds that have disappeared in what the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal has described as “biological annihilation via the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction.” Cosmo named the Atlas Bear, the Tasmanian Tiger and the Passenger Pigeon amongst many others, all now extinct.
A circle of candles representing the distinctive Extinction Rebellion logo lit up the glorious Square, where London Plane (Platanus x hispanica) trees have stood for 300 years. Participants were invited to take the candles on to other places and other protests. Satish Kumar, veteran editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine told the gathering that we can only save the Earth by taking personal responsibility. “What we do to Nature, we do to ourselves,” he said, praising the efforts of David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, and reminding us of Rachel Carson’s early warning about the effects of pesticides in her 1962 book Silent Spring.
| Satish Kumar speaking at Extinction Rebellion |
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A documentary film about people-powered change to be worked with, not consumed.
Down to Earth https://downtoearthfilm.com is the story of one family’s call to freedom after questioning the home, school and work system. As they quit the rat race we follow them on a five year journey in search of the wisdom of sages and shaman, or Earth Keepers, hidden in the remote tribal communities of Australia, the Amazon, Africa, the Andes, India and Ireland.
Gaining access to never filmed before tribes in the outback, desert and jungle with just a backpack and camera each was no mean feat. Despite the different locations, the family kept making the same connections, having the same conversations, just with different faces. And the Earth Keepers sharing their insights and wisdom for the first time with outsiders acknowledge that, "now is the time for change.”
We are family
The film grew from director Rolf Winter’s dream of finding a retreat in nature for his wife and three young children, then aged 6, 7 and 10 (see his TED talk below). After spending a year in Hiawatha Forest in Michigan the family encounter Nowaten, a medicine man whose name means "He who listens," living in isolation there. He reluctantly agrees to being filmed, becoming the film’s main contributor.
Nowatan believes there is no purpose in living if you lose the land and forests, because we depend on forests for our spiritual connection and wellbeing. People are lost because they have lost connection with nature, and we are all members of nature. He says, “Life is simple, we complicate it, take only what you need.”
But, as Rolf says, we can’t all go back to the forest. So the film asks how do we lead a connected life in a fast-paced world? Real change is only going to happen with a changed mindset of you and me. The diverse problems facing humanity can no longer be delegated to our politicians and scientists, who ultimately are a reflection of us, the people. The time has come to transform our lives and create a new story, our own story. How exciting!
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The Lush Summit 14th-15th February 2018
Lush is the global soap franchise with 105 stores in the UK, its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street, well-known for using primarily ethically sourced ingredients in its bath bombs, bubble bars, floating islands oils, gels and shampoos. Every year, Lush holds a summit for some of its' international staff from 900 stores in 49 countries so they can learn more about the key environmental and social issues.
This year, Chris Packham, the zoologist, BBC personality and birder, was Lush’s on-the-spot reporter covering the two day event. He tirelessly patrolled the cavernous building on the former site of Billingsgate fish market talking to campaigners working to conserve the oceans, whales and other marine, animal, plant and bird life. I was part of this unique atmosphere with Pat Thomas, director of Beyond GM and GM Free Me, who gave Chris an informative interview for broadcast on the Lush Summit livestream. Pat also chaired a roundtable discussion finding that young people are concerned about GM food and trade agreements with the US since UK’s impending Brexit from Europe.
Lush does not test products on animals and in 2015 co-ordinated a march on Downing Street to protest animal rights with Common Decency, The League Against Cruel Sports and Animal Aid. Sourcing most of their ingredients from fruits and vegetables, the company no longer puts palm oil into its products and invests in small scale producers growing and processing essential oils and other materials in Guatemala, Pakistan, Kenya and the Lebanon. The Summit also showcased responsibly managed cork, cotton and paper.
Lush was founded by a small team in Poole, Dorset originally supplying fragrances to The Body Shop, one of the world’s first ethical high street cosmetics businesses. Working hard to do its bit for charity, Lush launched Charity Pot hand and body lotion, donating 100% of the sale price to grassroots organisations working for environmental conservation, animal welfare and human rights. Since 2007 Charity Pot has given $10 million to 850 charities in 42 countries, and donated a further £3.8 million to charity in 2014. Lush is an avid supporter of peaceful direct action, anti-roads, anti-incinerator campaigns, Syrian refugees and a One World freedom group in Palestine. Covering a broad range of issues Lush also launched a "Gay Is Ok Soap" and is active in protecting Hen Harriers from illegal persecution, providing funds to satellite tag these Scottish upland birds.
Chris Packham flagged up his concerns about the effects of palm oil production on communities in Indonesia illustrated by his own stunning photographs. He then enlightened his captive audience about one teenager's fraught battle to save the Honey Buzzard in Sicily. Lastly, he promoted his own passion project to protect the Golden Eagle, showing his short film called Fred the Golden Eagle. Fred was hatched in the only breeding nest on the Scottish border, his movements tracked by electronic tag in the woodlands around Edinburgh. But in February 2018 Fred's signal mysteriously disappeared. More than forty Golden Eagles have vanished under suspicious circumstances in recent years in the region. Merlins and Ravens have also been persecuted in areas close to driven grouse moors. A review of grouse moor management has been ordered by Scotland’s Environment Secretary and Chris repeated his vow to protect the Golden Eagle, of which there are only 440 pairs in the UK.
For further information on Chris Packham https://www.chrispackham.co.uk/news/golden-eagle-fred
More information on Lush Summit https://summit.lush.com/en Photo: Chris Packham with Sam Burcher
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30 Sept 2017
The V&A distinguishes itself with yet another fantastic exhibition, Jane Wallace reviews.
Today marks the preview of Opera:Passion Power and Politics, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s autumn exhibition in collaboration with the Royal Opera House. Probably the coolest museum in the world, the V&A is placing itself at the cutting edge of art, fashion, history and more recently music. Under the direction of Nicholas Coleridge, the Chair of Trustees, Conde Nast Chairman and ancestor of the poet, the V&A is a veritable goldmine.
It was in 2013 that the now famous David Bowie Is exhibition blossomed, decorating the hallowed walls with everything David Bowie. From stage costumes to blotchy penned lyrics,to “Life on Mars” Major Tom to much more, all charting the seamless shift of personas from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke et al. To be there was to know this chameleon-like pop star so much more intimately. Mothers from the provinces brought their teenage sons to peer into the memorabilia.
Savage Beauty, Europe’s first major retrospective of Alexander Macqueen’s exquisite couture, followed hot on Bowie’s heels in March 2015 breaking all previous records for ticket sales. In all, 493,043 people saw the show and over the last two weekends of its run the V&A remained open all night.
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8th July 2017
A new campaign using portraits and selfies is letting the UK public have it's say about GM crops
GM Free Me is an online visual petition for people concerned about the effects of genetically modified food and farming. So far, more than 2,250 people have put their faces, names and comments about the subject on the website http://www.gmfreeme.org. The campaign is the brainchild of Pat Thomas, a former editor of the Ecologist, and to get things rolling Pat and I toured farmers markets, health food shops, conferences and cities across the UK to find out how ordinary people feel about GMO's (genetically modified organisms).
Well-known supporters of GM Free Me include fashion leader Vivianne Westwood, increasingly outspoken about protecting the environment, TV gardener Alys Fowler, organic cosmetics producer Jo Woods and musicians Don Letts and Bez. Westwood commented on her GM Free Me page, “GMOs are a democratic issue. They are a massive, unethical experiment in human and environmental health. People are voicing legitimate concerns about why, if so many unanswered questions remain about GMOs, our government is continuing to try and force them on the British public."