Comments for The Mint Magazine

Comment on Not broken, just wrong by Henry Leveson-Gower

Henry Leveson-Gower — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:47:41 +0000

In reply to Raffia Tim. Totally agree, Tim.

Comment on Not broken, just wrong by Raffia Tim

Raffia Tim — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:20:24 +0000

Jamie Oliver touted a great school meal programme once prioritising local produce and combining with nutrition education. Needs to be revived. Kids of all ages is where it needs to start; they go home and bully parents to do the right thing, and repay energy and effort 10x as much as effort with adults.

Comment on The circular root by Willy Diddens

Willy Diddens — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 12:05:09 +0000

“circular economy”, as opposed to “linear”, is as such a (geometric) metaphor. It involves a degree of arbitrariness. If you choose e.g. the term “spiral economy”, you suggest a combination of sustainability and growth.
The term “circular economy” may be wrongly chosen. It implies a continuous return to the point of departure and the urgent need for “no waste” and efficiency. In this context, well-functioning machines seem an appropriate metaphor. So, the conceptual limitations generated by the underlying metaphor should be taken into consideration as well.

Comment on The circular root by Guy Dauncey

Guy Dauncey — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 17:50:23 +0000

Thanks for this! The whole metaphor of the economy as a machine (including the circular economy) serves to remove human agency. It plays into the mistaken belief that there are objective economic laws, which is a smokescreen designed to hide what’s really happening, which is competitive players fighting for power.

The forest metaphor might mislead us too, if it assumes that all species in a forest are cooperative, symbiotically working together, with the Mother Tree (Suzanne Simard) lending a helping hand. In reality, every species is simultaneously seeking sunlight (grow tall!) and depending on the other species.

Here’s a third metaphoric possibility: a superior visitor from space telling us all “If you don’t get your shit together and learn to to cooperate with Nature, you’re all going to be gonners!” 🙂

Comment on The cost of killing crisis by Cosima

Cosima — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 16:44:45 +0000

thank you for this informative article! it is important to talk about all the losses wars create on so many levels and that the desire for occupying land is no justification for engaging in killing machine.

Comment on The ifs and buts of Hydrogen by Richard McIver

Richard McIver — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 12:29:28 +0000

You do not need to produce hydrogen and ship it. LNG can be shipped and piped
quite easily a nd is used all over the world now. With ceramic membranes you
convert natural gas to hydrogen with no energy losses. I do not see many articles
on ceramic membranes for hydrogen but this is really a game changer like led lights
for efficiency and solar pv electricity.
I hope to see materials for dense storage of hydrogen developed so hydrogen can
“take off”.

Comment on The philanthropist’s stone by Evan

Evan — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 08:31:56 +0000

Amy’s argument seems to be that philanthropy should be confined to the non-essentials.

I really dislike EA and utilitarianism in general. I agree wholeheartedly with this.

However, the atmosphere around effectiveness has been encouraged by the donor organisations – your gift does good! This is understandable I think. People want to know they aren’t just wasting their time or money. I do want to know that fewer people are starving (or whatever).

I would love to see money channeled through international friendships – i think there are two places where this already exists – churches and sports.

Comment on The price of free speech (or why we can’t always shut the fuck up) by Julia

Julia — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:18:30 +0000

I believe the idea of freedom of speech was created with the idea of political (or socio-political) dissent in mind. This is quite different from spreading hate against people or the belief that a certain group of people is inferior and, therefore, free game for abuse.

Comment on Interview transcript: Helena Norberg-Hodge – A view from the top by Bipul Dev Sharma

Bipul Dev Sharma — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 02:17:52 +0000

I didn’t find anything in the contact page. Whatever, thanks for the interview. It’s good indeed.

Comment on Paradigm Shift by James Charles

James Charles — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 08:18:55 +0000

No ‘BAU’?
‘Most’ ‘economic thinking’ is ‘short run’ and ‘redundant’? ‘It’ ignores the ‘supply side’? ‘Growth’ {and ‘civilisation’} depends upon ‘cheap’ F.F. – those so called ‘halcyon days’ are ‘over’. ?
“The crisis now unfolding, however, is entirely different to the 1970s in one crucial respect… The 1970s crisis was largely artificial. When all is said and done, the oil shock was nothing more than the emerging OPEC cartel asserting its newfound leverage following the peak of continental US oil production. There was no shortage of oil any more than the three-day-week had been caused by coal shortages. What they did, perhaps, give us a glimpse of was what might happen in the event that our economies depleted our fossil fuel reserves before we had found a more versatile and energy-dense alternative. . . . That system has been on the life-support of quantitative easing and near zero interest rates ever since. Indeed, so perilous a state has the system been in since 2008, it was essential that the people who claim to be our leaders avoid doing anything so foolish as to lockdown the economy or launch an undeclared economic war on one of the world’s biggest commodity exporters . . . And this is why the crisis we are beginning to experience will make the 1970s look like a golden age of peace and tranquility. . . . The sad reality though, is that our leaders – at least within the western empire – have bought into a vision of the future which cannot work without some new and yet-to-be-discovered high-density energy source (which rules out all of the so-called green technologies whose main purpose is to concentrate relatively weak and diffuse energy sources). . . . Even as we struggle to reimagine the 1970s in an attempt to understand the current situation, the only people on Earth today who can even begin to imagine the economic and social horrors that await western populations are the survivors of the 1980s famine in Ethiopia, the hyperinflation in 1990s Zimbabwe, or, ironically, the Russians who survived the collapse of the Soviet Union.” ?
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2022/07/01/bigger-than-you-can-imagine/
https://www.facebook.com/cosheep