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Andrew Simms – Cancel the Apocalypse: New Pathways to Sustainability

8th October 2014 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Free

Cancel the ApocalypsePublic lecture organised by the Centre for Global Political Economy and the STEPS Centre at the University of Sussex

Ever get the feeling that things are falling apart? You’re not alone. From bad banks to global warming it can all look hopeless, but what if everything could turn out, well, even better than before? What if the only thing holding us back is a lack of imagination and a surplus of old orthodoxies?

It’s a topsy-turvy world in which a country can import the same amount of ice-cream, toilet paper and other goods to trading partners as it exports, and where top bankers are paid millions for destroying economic value, while hospital cleaners create value many times their pay.

In fascinating and iconoclastic detail – on everything from the cash in your pocket to the food on your plate and the shape of our working lives – Cancel the Apocalypse describes how the relentless race for economic growth is not always one worth winning, how excessive materialism has come at a terrible cost to our environment, and hasn’t even made us any happier in the process.

Simms believes passionately in the human capacity for change, and shows how the good life remains in our grasp. While global warming and financial meltdown might feel like modern day horsemen of the apocalypse, Simms shows how such end of the world scenarios offer us the chance for a new beginning.

Andrew Simms is the author of several books, including Ecological Debt, The New Economics and the bestselling Tescopoly. He is the chief analyst on the environment at Global Witness, and was NEF’s policy director for over a decade, founding its work programme on climate change, energy and interdependence. He trained at the London School of Economics and was described by New Scientist Magazine as, ‘a master at joined-up progressive thinking.’ The Independent newspaper listed him as one of the UK’s top 100 environmentalists and London’s Evening Standard included him in their Power 1000 as one of the capital’s most influential people.

Details

Date:
8th October 2014
Time:
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Cost:
Free
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Organiser

Harriet Dudley
Phone
+44 (0)1273 915673
Email
h.dudley@ids.ac.uk
View Organiser Website

Venue

Fulton A Lecture Theatre, University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton, BN1 9RH United Kingdom
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