Rob Ralston

UN plastics treaty chair to step down with process in turmoil Exclusive: Luis Vayas Valdivieso says he is quitting for personal and professional reasons after reports of pressure behind the scenes

I'm not sure how far these developments have leaked beyond the global plastics sphere, but UNEP do not come out this looking good

Meat vs EAT-Lancet: The dynamics of an industry-orchestrated online backlash • Changing Markets The EAT-Lancet Commission publish EAT-Lancet 2.0: an update to the planetary health diet 2019. One of the most influential academic studies ever released, it also faced significant online backlash – o...

Meat vs EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet: The dynamics of an industry-orchestrated online backlash

Report by the Changing Markets Foundation

changingmarkets.org/report/meat-...

The Portland frog backing down an army of jackboots

When your custom character appears in a cut scene

YouTube video by Telepathic Instruments "How to Orchid" by Telepathic Instruments

an advert so good that I joined the waitlist for a synthesiser I would have no idea how to use

biased as an arsenal fan, but newcastle play such a relentlessly cynical form of football. It’s fine to be conservative, but the constant time wasting is so frustrating to watch

A ‘coordinated campaign of deception’: Philly sues 2 companies over misleading recycling labels The lawsuit targets SC Johnson, owner of Ziploc bags, and Bimbo Bakeries, the country's biggest bread and snack food manufacturer.

Philadelphia filed an extremely thorough lawsuit on Wed against SC Johnson (Ziploc) and Bimbo Bakeries over claims that their plastic bags are recyclable, accusing the companies of engaging in a "coordinated campaign of deception." @grist.org grist.org/accountabili...

The Sustainable Development Goals at 10: how global governance is undermining progress This month marks ten years since the adoption of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Yet there is little cause for celebration: progress has been dismal. Benjamin Faude and Jack Taggart argue that...

new blog by @benjaminfaude.bsky.social and @jacktaggart.bsky.social on the UN SDGs, drawing on a recent special issue in @globalpolicy.bsky.social

lots of great contributions, including a paper by myself and Jack Taggart on institutional hybridity in global plastics governance

Yes! love that paper

Ignorance can be strategically used to promote 'non-knowledge' and deny liability

Rather than view this in terms of a lack of knowledge, we need to understand how strategic ignorance is being used as a source of power

Fit for the Future: A Fair Deal on Food for a Healthier Britain Fit for the Future: A Fair Deal on Food for a Healthier Britain

beyond healthcare, TBI's work on food systems / obesity is a another example of how AI is being promoted as a 'technological fix' to what is fundamentally a political problem

institute.global/insights/pub...

amateurish reporting that uncritically reproduces pseudoscientific and eugenic frames

@politico.com must retract this piece and issue an apology for using damaging and offensive phrases like the ‘autism problem’

not worries - I think it could be phrased a little more softly, but the interview is really pretty bad!

maybe this post reads a little harshly, but I think the way Sunstein talks about Hayek in the New Yorker piece is, to some extent, illustrative of his approach to political theory more broadly

link to his paper: doi.org/10.1177/0263...

in terms of nudge, I this this paper by Nicholas Gane puts forward a persuasive case that this form of behavioural economic is not really the 'libertarian paternalism' that Thaler and Sunstein would claim

the Cass Sunstein new yorker interview is as bad as everyone is saying, but I would say is not entirely unrepresentative of his work

the behavioural economics of 'nudge' is characterised by the same tensions and inconsistencies evident in this piece

www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

almost have to laugh at how cartoonish the corporate donors to this are: big tobacco, the arms industry and tech companies specialising in citizen surveillance

Palace intrigues The plastics treaty talks in Geneva ended without a deal. As negotiators weigh their options about the way forward, troubling questions are…

a month on, @magnuslovold.bsky.social comments on the final day of UN global plastic treaty negotiations in Geneva

there were rumours circulating in whatsapp groups about UNEP engaging in what might best be termed 'discretionary governance' - this blog details some of the chaos that unfolded

treating peoples lives as if it’s some ‘cutting the red tape’ deregulation initiative

6 years in and I have finally figured out the unwritten rules of academic CVs that nobody tells you about

The Arctic’s Plastic Crisis - IPEN International Pollutants Elimination Network Damage to the Arctic from the fossil fuel/petrochemical industry includes threats from chemicals, plastics, and climate. These have combined to poison lands, waters, and traditional foods of Arctic In...

This report explores the latest science on threats from plastics, petrochemicals, and climate change that impact Arctic People: stoppoisonplastic.org/blog/portfol...
It highlights the voices and testimonies of Indigenous leaders who are engaged in efforts to protect their land and People.

Pretty significant breakthrough in tackling undue corporate influence in global climate governance

After years of pressure from CSOs, UNFCCC will require observers to disclose who is funding their participation at COPs. More to do obviously, but a major step

kickbigpollutersout.org/COP30-next-s...

Economic sociology and the far-right Reflecting on the recent support of prominent business moguls for far-right movements, this comment article argues that reactionary politics are permeating deeply into socio-economic interactions, ...

"the rise of reactionary politics is an epochal trend that reshapes markets and capitalist systems in depth"

@theobourgeron.bsky.social in @jcultecon.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

and worth emphasising that WHO Foundation stated that anonymity would only be granted in exceptional circumstances

the only thing these technical fixes achieve is to delay having to confront the reality that we can only address climate change through massive reductions in fossil fuel extraction

Dvora Yanow refers to this as ‘meta-framing’ where the focus is ‘who said what’ about a policy rather than the substance of the policy itself

I guess this is a logical consequence of financialised capitalism, but doesn’t make it any less wild

Radical right accommodation really does not work.

New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk

doi.org/10.31235/osf...

The health risks from plastics almost nobody knows about Researchers have linked phthalates, chemicals found in plastics, to premature birth, infertility and ADHD.

For the last several months, I've been digging through endless scientific literature on what happens when pregnant mothers are exposed to plastic chemicals in their food, water, and everyday household products.

The result is this story.

I hope you'll take the time to read.
wapo.st/4g3ZoFc

Dominik Szoboszlai’s wonder strike sinks Arsenal and sends Liverpool top Dominik Szoboszlai’s stunning free-kick gave Liverpool a 1-0 win over Arsenal that puts them top of the Premier League

beaten by an incredible freekick from Szobozlai, but I have this persistent doubt about Arteta's systems-thinking and what seem like increasngly clear trade-offs between solidity and creativity