It’s time for Scotland to break with US tech. Isn’t independence in reality something of an illusion in this global world dominated by tech and economic oligarchs? Isn’t what Scottish independence offers really an opportunity to pick sides? From Connor Beaton ✍️

Although Britain has one of the highest levels of membership of environmental organisations in the world, it has little impact on our closeness to nature. Some interesting thoughts on why in this might be by Miles Richardson in @patrickbarkham.bsky.social's article.

Glad someone is talking sense about this very popular local venue. Yet again a knee-jerk reaction by a local authority to demolish. And Jocelyn doesn't even mention the embodied carbon aspect. Demolition would be a lose lose scenario.

Thanks Paloma, Andy, Amy, Finlay, Cormac, Ashleigh, Anna, Ray, Geoff, John and Glo. Without you it would not have happened!

MASS CLIMATE LOBBY: On Friday, Scotland’s biggest-ever lobby of politicians on climate issues took place in Holyrood. The event was organised by @sccscot.bsky.social, which we've now joined. @gailhalvorsen.bsky.social attended on behalf of SEDA, lobbying MSPs including @lornaslater.bsky.social

Less than two weeks to go until the @uofglasgow.bsky.social and @scotecodesign.bsky.social green careers fair. The careers fair will showcase jobs that operate along ecological principles to highlight the wide range that is available. 📅 Wed, 24 Sept 2025 ⏰ 10am—4pm 📌 Glasgow University Union

Most careers fairs tend to promote only a narrow range of jobs. The SEDA Green Careers Fair will redress the balance by highlighting openings in regenerative farming, forestry, bioproducts, environmental NGOs, environmental law etc, all of which are growing sectors looking for recruits.

Remember all that fulminating in the billionaire press about "free speech" (ie their freedom to abuse Muslims, trans people etc with impunity)? Now that people are being arrested for speaking about an issue of the utmost gravity, the self-appointed guardians of liberty have fallen strangely silent.

It's utterly mad. These people are the opposite of terrorists. THEY WANT PEACE. The police know they're not terrorists. The government knows they're not terrorists. Yet, on the Home Secretary's orders, they're being arrested under the Terrorism Act. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

"Why is it that a tree never moves?" Atul Shah's provocative and accessible book 'Organic Finance' opens with this powerful poem. Do read! "Interest rates, exchange rates, stock prices are all numbers which abstract reality and have often been converted into hard facts and supreme gods"

How Scottish society could be transformed by the multiple benefits of intergenerational living. Full recording and slides of SEDA Land’s Radical Housing Conference Scotland 2025 part 3 now available. Thanks to partners @agilehomes.bsky.social & @archifringe.bsky.social seda.scot/radical-hous...

@gailhalvorsen.bsky.social of @scotecodesign.bsky.social kicks off the Zoomers and Boomers Soirée talking about her experience of living in an intergenerational household at the Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 3. @agilehomes.bsky.social @archifringe.bsky.social

A thoroughly fascinating evening. If I was to sum up I would say we need more grassroots initiatives to encourage community activities such as Bristol's Play Street Order; inclusion of intergenerational living in NPF4; and more multi generation cohousing projects. Thanks to all involved!

Can Scotland’s housing emergency be solved by more intergenerational living? Come along to our Zoomers and Boomers event at Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh tomorrow at 6pm. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/radical-ho...

Looking forward to chairing this event to try and understand why, in Scotland, why intergenerational living is not more common and why we don't value the benefits it can bring. I benefitted enormously from growing up in the same house as my grandparents.

Renowned Scottish singer-songwriter and environmentalist Zoë Bestel is performing a version of Utopia, live, at Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 3, in Augustine United Church on Wed 11 June, 6-9pm. Sophie Cooke will read a newly-commissioned poem at the same Zoomers and Boomers Soireé.

Fraser/Livingstone Architects’ Robin Livingstone will talk about intergenerational living and how this can work in practice, through the lens of the zero-carbon, multi-generational community he’s developing on the edge of Forres in Moray. SEDA Land/Architecture Fringe event, 11 June, 6-9pm.

Students! Looking to enhance your CV and make a positive impact? Join SEDA LAND as a volunteer at this September’s Green Careers Fair! No prior experience required—just bring enthusiasm & eagerness to learn. Email [email protected] for more info!

We'd love to hear your views about intergenerational living – something mostly lost in the UK as we gravitate towards the nuclear family. Can architecture be part of the solution?

We were so lucky to have such incredible artist performing at the conference. Thank you Beth and Chris!

SEDA Land thanks all those who came to Birnam Arts for the Radical Housing Conference on Friday. From activists and timber home manufacturers, to investors in construction and retrofit hubs, we managed to assemble a fantastic group. Thanks to @agilehomes.bsky.social for bringing the event North.

In parts of this septic isle, fresh water has become first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable. How did it come to this—and where do we go from here? Must read about the global fight to halt abuse of our rivers by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social, extracted from his book Is A River Alive?

On World Press Freedom Day, it emerges Israel has arrested prominent Palestinian journalist Ali al-Samoudi in the Occupied West Bank.

Access to a safe, civil, low carbon, affordable home is not a lot to ask for, but the housing crisis has cut off supply! So it's time to get radical, because doing what we always did, will only get us what we always got. Are you a housing radical? 🎟️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/radical-ho...

Great offer for some of the best speakers on housing in Scotland!

Retrofit definitely needs well qualified people as it can be extremely complicated, but I would argue that that could be a surveyor, an engineer or A.N.Other. This is exactly what we will be discussing at one session of the Radical Housing Conference being held on 2nd may.

📍 In Honduras, a father and son stood up to illegal logging and paid the ultimate price. Their brutal deaths are a chilling reminder of the dangers faced by land and environmental defenders around the world. 🛑 This must end. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Henry Leveson Gower, chief executive of the Centre for Economic Pluralism, who previously led innovation policy in the food and drink chain at Defra, will argue for a shift to nature-based solutions that have a positive natural capital outcome. 📅 28 April, 4-6pm 📍 Online seda.scot/events/natur...

This is one way to get more quality homes built quicker and using local timber – off-site prefabrication. Hear how at The Radical Housing Conference Scotland.

RADICAL HOUSING CONFERENCE SCOTLAND 2025: John Forbes, of Communities Housing Trust, will look at ways of fast-tracking housing developments; the SFT’s Diarmaid Lawlor will look at methods of raising capital for affordable homes. 📌 Birnam Arts & online 📆 9am-5pm, 2 May 2025 🎟 seda.scot/events

Fantastic! Works like this are more likely to change hearts and minds than the bare facts.

It's a disgrace how many schemes have been set up by the Scottish government and aborted. We need long-term commitment and trusted installers. I feel like a stuck record but, we know how to do it – so let's work out how.

Great insight into how district heating is rolled out in Denmark. Why are the Danes so far ahead of us? Certainly their PR campaigns are very good, taking the public along with them over many years. They are also better at committing to long-term solutions. We need to put the pies in the ground now.

RADICAL HOUSING CONFERENCE SCOTLAND: Speakers include Makar founder Neil Sutherland & Logie Timber founder Mark Councill. Neil is already building offsite prefabricated, affordable homes using local timber—the sort provided by Logie. They will discuss how the model might be replicated Scotland-wide

“Radical Housing Conference Scotland brings together the doers in housing, providing an opportunity to grow the links needed to deliver more of the sustainable, affordable, home-grown housing that Scotland needs”: Local Government Housing & Planning Committee convenor @ariane-burgess.bsky.social MSP

Fantastic lineup of speakers. Let's get these homes built.

Great stuff Glo. Your description of moisture movement in the full length recording is excellent. It gets to the root causes of the issues of damp and mould in buildings. This ought to be seen by all builders, house owners and local authorities.

Wyndford Towers erased: Wheatley Homes rides roughshod over the wishes of residents and sustainability campaigners — who advocated a retrofit solution — by dynamiting three 26-storey residential blocks in Maryhill, Glasgow.

Thanks Scotonomics for some fascinating talks. @dannydorling.bsky.social suggested private individuals should not be allowed to be landlords without training. But then we also heard that asset managers are bad landlords, so do they get sent on courses? @williameconomist.bsky.social

The world is alive. It is animate. It speaks—but not always in words. It speaks in textures, in movement, sensations, in the hush before rain. We are losing the perceptual capacity to hear it. Hearing it requires a kind of literacy we no longer teach - a way of knowing that is based on intimacy.

I like the more strategic place-based approach of these two, particularly in relation to the spending of tax. We already have vehicles that could be used for the distribution such as RLUPs or local place plans, giving locals more say in how the money is spent.

Looking forward to this debate covering a broad range of financial models. Hopefully we can whittle down the proposals to find the best combination that will help restore nature with the involvement of communities.

Daily dredging of river on Ballyheigue beach, Kerry, to stop flooding upstream. Piles of seaweed for locals to use as fertiliser or therapeutic baths. Anything left gets washed back into the sea. Apart from the diesel driving the tractor it's a pretty nice cycle. Shame I've not had a seaweed bath.

Well done team!

Neil and Sophie – the perfect combination to demystify the impenetrable world of finance!

Each of the six panelists at our Nature Finance, Public or Private? event is committed to nature restoration with community involvement, but each believes in a different approach. The hope is they will find some common ground. 📅 28 April, 4-6pm 📍 Online 🎟️ seda.scot/monday-28th-...