Articles (Ecologist)

Years ago, when Jonathon Porrit said that capitalism was ‘the only game in town’ it was not a ringing endorsement of the free market but rather a pragmatic, grudging acknowledgement of the reality of a world ruled by the current capitalist structure. His hope was that environmentalists would recognise this, factor it into their campaigns […]

Marketed as a superfood with almost magical properties, soya protein is found in almost everything we eat. It’s a shame its health claims aren’t worth a bean, says Pat Thomas. Within a very short time frame – a decade or two – soya has infiltrated our daily diets to a spectacular degree. Believe the PR […]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a natural sweetener with a great taste and zero calories. That is the promise of Truvia, the latest product to hit the guilt-free-sweetener market. Truvia is made from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant, a native of Paraguay, that has been used for years as a […]

It’s time to come clean, says Pat Thomas – anti-dandruff shampoos are nothing but advertising puff and chemicals. Take a look at the multitude of celebrity advertisements and outrageous claims for shampoos on TV and in magazines and it is easy to lose sight of the simple truth: the main function of a shampoo is to […]

It’s fair to say that we have our share of robust discussions in this office. Opinions get aired, fingers get pointed, occasionally voices get raised. It’s all in a good cause. Setting the world to rights isn’t always a civilised tea party. Most of what we talk about is predictable: climate change, land use, peak […]

Recent reports of catastrophic declines in bee populations have had scientists buzzing around looking for a plausible explanation. Is it mites? Is it GM crops? Is it mobile phones or habitat loss? It’s all of these things, says Pat Thomas, but it’s also so much more than that. Forget everything you thought you knew about […]

There are two things bothering me. Okay, actually, there are a lot of things bothering me, but let’s keep the list short. The first is a recent report that the FBI thinks ‘eco-terrorism’ is the number one domestic terror threat in the US. Greens, it seems, really are the new reds. The second is the […]

Nobody made a big deal of the court decision. In fact the adjudication was shrouded in so much medico-legal babble that a lot of newspapers shied away from reporting it. Nevertheless, quietly and with as little fanfare as possible, the US courts have conceded a case in which a childhood vaccine caused autism. There were […]

A weedkiller that kills a lot more than simply weeds? If it’s worse than the poison it’s no cure at all, says Pat thomas. A weed, as an insightful gardener once said, is just a plant growing in the wrong place. But to deal with the simple problem of plants growing in the wrong places, globally […]

A new green tide is sweeping over us. Thanks to January’s presidential debates in the US, politicians everywhere are meeting the grey news of a collapsing economy with the promise of a bright new era of green jobs. I should be jumping for joy that this issue has been placed on the political agenda, and […]