By Virginia Thomas-Pickles, GLOBUS Correspondent We live in a society constantly talking about productivity: the need to ‘hustle’, accomplishing tasks on your endless to-do lists. But is this really how it should be? Let me start this article by saying I am a self-confessed workaholic. I love my degree in Global Sustainable Development and enjoy the breadth and depth of topics... Continue Reading →
THE HYPERLOOP
By Julian Jaggs, GLOBUS Correspondent We now traverse the seven seas, soar through the skies, and touch even the stars. What could possibly be next for human transport is a bit of a head-scratcher – it’s all been done, right…? Well, one new form of transportation is currently being developed, and it’s been described by... Continue Reading →
THE VOICE OF THE YOUTH
by Šimon Michalčík, GLOBUS Correspondent Roughly a year ago, all of us were probably experiencing difficult times. One day, when the gravity of self-isolation (both physical, and consequently, social) laid on me, I wrote a poem. I thought about how the pandemic was most likely just a mere glimpse into the uncertainties and falls of... Continue Reading →
The Capitalist Curse
By Clint Broadway, guest writer from this year's GSD competition Our interactions with each other and the world around us have always been governed by currency. Whether it be the Mesopotamian shekel, used to pay mercenaries in the 6th century B.C, or computerized dollars, which have erected immense corporations more influential than most countries, currency has been idolized... Continue Reading →
Cotton- The Most Unsustainable Fibre?
By Ilaria Ravazzolo, GLOBUS Correspondent When talking about fashion, which materials would you name as being the most sustainable? There’s a good chance that the answer to this question is ‘cotton’. Cotton seems to be the perfect fibre because it’s cheap, natural and plentiful. However, what most of us don’t realise is that the production... Continue Reading →
COP: The Successes and Failures of the Paris Agreement (Part 3)
By Amy Denton, assistant editor of GLOBUS Now that you’ve heard all about the Kyoto Protocol which some say paved the way for the Paris Agreement, let us explore the successes and failures of one of history’s most significant international environmental accords. But first, what is the Paris Agreement? The aim of the Paris Agreement... Continue Reading →
Message (not) Received: The Pitfalls of Climate Change Communication
By Eszter Vlasits, GLOBUS correspondent ‘Incredibly complex’. ‘The biggest threat humanity has ever faced’. ‘The perfect problem’. These phrases, all commonly used to describe climate change, evoke the feeling that we have a good understanding of the magnitude of the threat we are facing in the 21st century as Earth warms up, causing drastic changes... Continue Reading →
Change
by Prabhas Vedagiri The following are a series of poems submitted to the GSD Competition this year. Prabhas takes the reader on a journey that explores nature in its various dimensions and man's role in this experience. As we perilously move towards a point of no return, the consquences of our actions more visible everyday.... Continue Reading →
The UK’s ‘neo-colonial’ Nationality and Borders Bill: devoid of dignity, morality, and compassion
By Caitlin Hoyland, GLOBUS correspondant In June of this year, the UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, proposed the Nationality and Borders Bill. This bill aims in part to implement new legislature as part of Patel’s ambition to create a ‘fair, humane, compassionate, and outward-looking Home Office’. Yet the UK Government isn’t planning on investigating the... Continue Reading →
Resisting HS2: THE Welsh Road Protection Camp
by Alexandros Kassapis, GLOBUS Correspondent Cutting through 108 ancient woodlands, 693 local wildlife sites, 18 Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves, and many more protected areas, the UK’s current largest construction project, the High-Speed Rail 2 (HS2), has triggered a massive natural disaster. Since the construction of HS2 began in 2020, a long belt of resistance camps... Continue Reading →
Broken Blue
By M. L. Lee, Guest Writer Broken Blue Cover me in blue, Like you used to, Life abundant, no corner unreached, Each light ray streaming through, Illuminating corals: Bright. Unbleached. Plankton fill my lungs, Like you used to, With oxygen, Drifting through, life-givers, not one, But thousands rise and fall, fall, with the sun. Swim... Continue Reading →
Geo-engineering: The Next Step?
By GLOBUS Correspondent Vlasits Eszter Imagine a movie set sometime during the 21s century, where humanity is on the brink of destruction because of climate related catastrophes. Their last hope was a team of scientists who launched rockets into the atmosphere in the hopes of controlling the weather. But they never expected what happened next.... Continue Reading →
Ocean Warming: The Forgotten Impact of Climate Change
By Amy Denton, Assistant Editor of GLOBUS When we think of climate change, we often just think about greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causing the average global temperature to rise, which of course does happen. However, we rarely consider where most of this heat energy goes. The answer to this would be the ocean. A... Continue Reading →
The future of train-bragging in a post-COVID world
By Szebasztián Csernik-Tihn , GLOBUS Correspondent Before COVID-19, travel habits could be described by two Swedish words, ‘flygskam’ (flight-shame) and ‘tagskryt’ (train-bragging). They refer to the widespread phenomenon where more and more people started travelling by train and were not afraid to share this on Instagram. According to Eurostat, in 2019 there were 416 billion train... Continue Reading →
The Dangers of Voluntourism and How To Avoid It
by Faye Palmer, GLOBUS Correspondent What is voluntourism? International volunteering can be an excellent cultural exchange with many positive outcomes for both the host community and the volunteer. However, some profit-driven volunteering companies do not have the intentions of the local community at heart, which can lead to more harmful consequences than good. Voluntourism is... Continue Reading →
Can drug decriminalization be socially sustainable?
By Silia Tsigka, GLOBUS Correspondent In November 2020, the possession of hard drugs, like heroin and cocaine, as well as the medicinal use of hallucinogens, like mushrooms, was decriminalized in Oregon. Oregon became the first US state to adopt this policy through a democratic vote and, soon after, other states moved towards a looser drug policy... Continue Reading →
Exploiting the Student: Why higher education is more about money than ever before
By Olivia Kline, GLOBUS correspondant UNiDAYS, Student Beans - we love to hate them. They provide discounts and offers that give students… well what exactly? A 20% discount at Pretty Little Thing? A voucher for dinner at Zizzi’s? At first glance, only the positives appear, which makes us believe that materialistic living is affordable. Who... Continue Reading →
Nutrient credit trading: a way to curb nitrogen and phosphorus pollution and the expansion of oceanic dead zones
By Faye Palmer, GLOBUS Correspondent What are dead zones? Dead zones are anoxic areas of water that cannot sustain biodiversity. They occur naturally, but there is increasing concern that anthropogenic activities are accelerating their growth. Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers are primarily responsible for dead zone expansion as they cause eutrophication – they overload the water with nutrients. Due... Continue Reading →
The Role of Reforestation in Tackling the Climate Crisis
By Šimon Michalčík, GLOBUS Correspondent Every second counts Combatting the climate crisis is of the utmost importance. Both our society and our planet are being destroyed, and with every fraction of a degree of global warming, the consequences grow significantly more alarming. The Paris Agreement set to keep the temperature rise below 2°C (with the ambitious goal... Continue Reading →
Bill bets on nuclear
by Laura Chevrot, GLOBUS Correspondent The topic of cleaner energy is becoming increasingly relevant. As of today, over 113 countries including the United Kingdom have committed to carbon neutrality by 2030. Attention has turned towards alternative energies such as wind, solar and electric power to achieve net zero emissions. But these technologies have their downsides... Continue Reading →