Rum! Rum for your lives!

In the Christmas period, it is estimated that 5,768,212,788 units of alcohol are consumed by adult Britons*. Extrapolating that globally, we start to see numbers that are difficult to pronounce i.e. a lot of alcohol. Despite this increased festive consumption, public thought often fails to address questions such as "was this alcohol manufactured sustainably?" or …

Taking refuge in the code

Migrants wait to be rescued by the Aquarius rescue ship run by non-governmental organisations (NGO) "SOS Mediterranee" and "Medecins Sans Frontieres" (Doctors Without Borders) in the Mediterranean Sea, 30 nautic miles from the Libyan coast, on August 2, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Angelos Tzortzinis Source: Bloomberg.com By the end of 2016, nearly 5.2 million …

If we don’t learn, we can’t change

For people to grow and move forward as a society, we must learn. We must be educated. If we don't do this, it is inevitable for us to remain stagnant. Now, if we could afford to stay stagnant and keep things just the way they are, this wouldn't be an issue. But just look around. …

Small things make for a long term

A couple of months ago, I posted about the Wildlife Aid Foundation (WAF), an animal charity based in Leatherhead, UK, who at the time were closing in on a fundraising target to help build a new housing unit for the care of wild animals in the UK. Since then, I've been following WAF and starting …

Poverty doesn’t discriminate, nor does its fighters.

Last week I posted about The Trussell Trust, calling out their undeniably powerful efforts to feed those in the UK who are not so fortunate and it got me thinking about the nature of the charity. The Trussell Trust are a Christian charity but do not discriminate those of other religions. How inspiring it is …

Are you feeling hangry?

Who actually gets to be hangry? Being hangry is a fairly new phrase and quite aptly describes the feeling you get when you are both hungry and angry - hangry. If you do find yourself feeling hangry, you would typically tuck into a juicy burger, a spicy pizza or whatever tickles your fancy. This phrase, …

Sure we don’t need soil to grow our crops anymore, but is this scalable?

Maybe you haven't heard about hydroponics before. It has been used centuries ago, in the Floating Gardens of China and Hanging Gardens of Babylon but its only recently, in the last 100 years or so, begun to get the close attention it deserves. Its impact could last lifetimes. Hydroponics is the growing of crops, not …

Tackling African malnutrion with not just more food – but with better food.

https://youtu.be/jyLk0L94ctc Sanku Fortification - Introduction Malnutrition is yet another inconceivably big problem on our planet today, affecting over 2 billion people - that's over a quarter of the global population! In countries, like many African countries, where malnutrition is so widespread, governments have stepped in to address this issue with National Fortification Standards which, through …

Capitalising on swinging weather extremes.

https://youtu.be/JDbyb-akdig Meet Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge finalist Field Factors I was fortunate enough to be taught the difference between climate and weather at school; put simply one is long term and the other short term. What we weren't taught, fortunately, was this difference in practice. We weren't able to tangibly see this difference yet - …

I want change. Show me how.

It is often the case we do not get what we feel we deserve or that there is more that can be done. During these times, it is incredibly difficult to stop yourself falling into a spiral of demotivation and a feeling of despair. Not-for-profit social enterprise, MySociety, gives the UK's public access to online …