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Richard Douglas

@maitrereynard.bsky.social

140 followers 450 following 310 posts

Research Fellow, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, University of Surrey. Wombles. Yes, and armchair Spurs. Go Thorns. Commanders. Trying to see the positives. https://cusp.ac.uk/about/fellowship/r_douglas/

cusp.ac.uk

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · Sep 23

In my new book, The Meaning of Growth - published 30 September by @routledgebooks and featuring a foreword by @timjackson.org.uk - I investigate the roots of the political resistance to environmental science and policy, and suggest a new approach to overcoming it. www.routledge.com/The-Meaning-...

The Meaning of Growth: Anti-Environmentalist Rhetoric and the Defence of Modernity

Since the Limits to Growth report was published in 1972 it has been widely known that a commitment to endless growth was putting us on course for environmental disaster—so why have we failed to take d...

www.routledge.com

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Reposted by Richard Douglas

Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 15h

I tried to cover a lot of ground here. A few points developing the argument, regarding current government's "Pride in Place" etc: basically I like this stuff, but worry a bit about lack of realism about what they might achieve in isolation.

Power to Change @powertochange.org.uk · 17h

📖 @npjgarland.bsky.social pens our next 10-year anniversary essay, exploring the history of past regeneration efforts to help guide today’s public policy, and offering three lessons as the government pursues its new Pride of Place agenda.

Read: http://bit.ly/4qoNpXz #PowerToChange10

Two people work on installing solar panels on a rooftop with text overlay discussing a historical perspective on community and public policy, featuring Nick Garland from IPPR.

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 13h

Trump’s doing more damage to that building than the Royal Engineers managed in 1814

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 13h

ABC News pulled the satellite imagery of the White House comparing Sept. 26 to today.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/new...

Satellite view of the White House showing an image on the left where the East Wing is still standing and an image on the right where it's completely demolished

Reposted by Richard Douglas

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14h

Leavitt: "At this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president's main priority."

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Reposted by Richard Douglas

Morgan Jones @morganj0nes.bsky.social · 13h

A really interesting conversation about posting and politics with politics poster Will Stancil:

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 1d

It’s more important than ever these days to do what you can to lift the spirits of those around you. And that’s why I’m proud of giving the gift of laughter to my U14s by going completely a over t in goal tonight. One of those where trying to stay on your feet only makes it funnier.

Reposted by Richard Douglas

CUSP //: Post Growth Research Centre @cusp.ac.uk · 2d

In his new blog, CUSP researcher @maitrereynard.bsky.social explores the spiritual roots of political climate denial and society’s attachment to growth—and how defending growth has become a defence of modernity itself. → cusp.ac.uk/themes/m/blo...
—
cc #postgrowth #modernity #limitstogrowth

Climate denial and the defence of modernity | Blog by Richard McNeill Douglas

What we are lacking is an inspiring vision of our lives, collective futures, and spiritual reality in a world in which we cannot keep growing forever. As mu ...

cusp.ac.uk

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 2d

Iain McGilchrist in @jonathanrowson.bsky.social's Spiritualise report. I have much the same thought every time some AI assistant tries to justify its existence by popping up and asking if I want it to summarise whatever I'm reading.

“McGilchrist puts it like this: “There’s a danger, in my terms, of the left hemisphere [of the brain] having to collapse things too quickly into something familiar, ‘what is it precisely?’, leaving, therefore, no place for the intuited and the implicit, through which alone all great ideas in art, in religion, and in our lives are communicated. Making things more explicit doesn’t actually make them easier to understand: it means we understand something other than what it is we are seeking to know.”

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 2d

I tell you what, though, it does look really old. It was shot in the late 80s. Which though itself to be a time of glitz and glamour. But London looks grim and washed out, like it’s the early 70s.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 2d

Not interested, she said. She wasn’t in the mood for it. Too old. Oh well.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 2d

So I said let’s try something else, and out of nowhere I suggested Mr Jolly Lives Next Door.

www.channel4.com/programmes/c...

Comic Strip Presents...

Outrageous and hilarious films from the Comic Strip team

www.channel4.com

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 2d

I laughed and laughed but she wasn’t fussed. “And three hard boiled eggs,” I said, but she just looked at me.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 2d

I said to my daughter shall we watch something together? She gave me five minutes so I showed her the cabin scene from A Night At The Opera.

youtu.be/PFu0KyrNAAA

Ordering Dinner and Crowded Cabin Scenes YouTube

YouTube video by Ronald van tienhoven

youtu.be

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Reposted by Richard Douglas

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 3d

"I wanted to address a recent interview in which I was egregiously misquoted as saying: 'I legit can’t wait to fire these ungrateful poors with our company’s new AI agent.'"

A Clarification on AI from Your CEO

"Elijah Clark, a consultant who advises companies on AI implementation, is blunt about the bottom line. ’CEOs are extremely excited about the oppor...

buff.ly

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 4d

Rereading @jonathanrowson.bsky.social's landmark Spiritualise report for a talk I'm giving in December. Have got to the chapter on death. This is a good one to remind ourselves of. (Point 2 refers essentially to job-work, and not the meaningful kind.)

Consider that Bronnie Ware, a palliative nurse, distilled the five most common regrets of dying individuals from numerous firsthand accounts (Ware, 2012a):
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 5d

Radcliffe & Maconie are on sparkling form this morning. A joy.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

BBC Radio 6 Music - Radcliffe and Maconie

Kicking off the weekend with intelligent music, conversation and a variety of guests.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Richard Douglas

Will 🎃 Aaaaargh-solute Shower 🇺🇦 @showerabsolute.bsky.social · 5d

For no particular reason, ahem. Betteridge's Law, btw

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Facilitated communication: Does the 'miracle tool' really help non-verbal people speak?

Experts say a tool supposedly helping nonverbal people speak is prompting false criminal allegations.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Richard Douglas

Captain Haddock @realcaptainhaddock.bsky.social · 6d

Jumpers for goalposts! Bananas on the pitch for John Barnes! A lump of concrete in the eye of a Luton fan! And get to smash the train up on the way home!

a man in a suit and tie is talking about something marvellous .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is talking about something marvellous .

media.tenor.com

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

Endless shame for the US Navy.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

I mean, I could be wrong… and who can really say what things would be like in a few years…. but I really do remain convinced that if the PM ordered the Royal Navy to blow up some trawlers in the Channel, they’d at least tell him they weren’t able to aim straight.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

That reminds me… Tony Harrison passed away recently, and I meant to post on here how much I loved his film, Prometheus. Watched it in the Notting Hill Coronet. Me and about two others there. A little golden moment.

share.google/wUGvG0KuGUyC...

share.google

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

In case of interest @climateofgavin.bsky.social @climategeorge.bsky.social @kevinclimate.bsky.social @marchudson.bsky.social @katharinehayhoe.com @billmckibben.bsky.social @volts.wtf

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

“The importance of viewing climate denial as a defence of modernity is to understand that anti-environmentalists have got something right: there is something fundamentally incompatible between the idea of environmental limits and foundational aspects of the modern world-view.” My piece in Resilience

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 8d

Climate denial and the defence of modernity www.resilience.org/stories/2025...

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 8d

Climate denial and the defence of modernity www.resilience.org/stories/2025...

Climate denial and the defence of modernity

What we are lacking is an inspiring vision of our lives, collective futures, and spiritual reality in a world in which we cannot keep growing forever. As much as we need policy wonks, scientists, and ...

www.resilience.org

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Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

Please give it a Grade-length slumber. It needs a very good rest, to be rebooted in 15 years with absolutely no one who had anything to do with New Who involved.

Doctor Who Production News @doctorwhopn.bsky.social · 6d

Jane Tranter reacted to Robert Shearman's recent DWM comments as “…really rude, actually, and really untrue.”

“Doctor will be back and everyone, including me, including all of us, just has to wait patiently to see when — and who.”
deadline.com/2025/10/doct...

‘Doctor Who’ Producer Jane Tranter Hits Back At “Rude” Writer Who Said Sci-Fi Series Is As “Dead As We’ve Ever Known It”

'Doctor Who' producer Jane Tranter said it was "rude" for witer Robert Shearman to say that sci-fi series is as "dead as we've ever known it."

deadline.com

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

So suffice it to say: Celebrity Traitors is so good it’s making a tangible difference to my quality of life.

Richard Douglas @maitrereynard.bsky.social · 6d

Shame Big Al’s had to cancel on me tonight, otherwise I’d be able to follow up on our bevvies with a forensic take down of Alien: Earth and why it doesn’t deserve a second series. But this is going to have to wait, I need my Al for this.