A Sad but Temporary Goodbye

Happy New Year! I hope you’ve all had a relaxing break. Sadly, I’ll be taking a little break from this blog to focus on  my dissertation (who knows, maybe it’ll get published and you can read that too). 

Throughout this blog I have grappled with the role of international governance in environmental protection. I hope my discussions of Arctic governance, COPs and Montreal has illustrated some of the ways global politics has reacted to environmental challenges. It hasn’t always been positive and as with most things political, the situation is ever changing; however, I hope that at least some parts of my blog have offered some cause for optimism. I for one have drawn hope from Paris and Montreal and believe the world can continue to meaningfully unite in the face of environmental danger (Trump aside).

I did, however, say that I was going to explore the individual and bottom-up approaches can promote better environmental behaviour. Unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to, although that is not to say I do not think it is important. In fact, writing this blog has made me look more critically at the world around me and I can see now that our individual decisions, from what we wrap our presents in, to the decorations we put on our trees, all influence environmental change. Whilst these individual impacts are only small, collectively they are important, and Christmas is just the start. 


I hope to explore the different avenues for change once my dissertation is complete. For now though, I hope you have enjoyed the read thus far. I still believe international governance is important, necessary even, for achieving global sustainability; however I do now realise that politics alone cannot save the planet, but perhaps together we can.

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