Journal

Went across late to The Vaults in Leake Street, under Waterloo Station, to hear Jim Al-Khalili in conversation about his new book, Sun Fall, as part of the Nesta Future Fest. Bought a copy, which he signed for me. Fascinating – and who should we bump into over drinks before the session started than my old colleague and friend Jonathan Shopley and his wife Andrea, plus their daughters. Haven’t seen them for a while, but due to see Jonathan and Andrea in a few days at my father Tim’s memorial service.

A Bank Holiday it may have been for some, but Louise and I flew to Helsinki yesterday, though she didn’t get in till much later. Took part today in Neste’s annual summit, featuring speakers like the company’s CEO Peter Vanacker, Christiana Figuieres of Global Optimism and Nick Haan of Singularity University. A growing sense that we are all at a real inflection point. Then we worked with Peter, Simo Honkanen and Salla Ahonen on our new project.

The story of my recent involvement with Extinction Rebellion is told today in Ethical Corporation and on Medium. The ripple effects of the protests have been profound and will spread for some time, long after any remaining graffiti have been removed.

Across very early to Tower Hill and then on to Hermitage Wharf, downstream from Tower Bridge, to see Gavin Starks and take part in a workshop on the dock with Alan Schwartz and others (including Geoff Mulgan, Bryony Worthington, Irene Ng and Ben Cotton), exploring next steps with Alan’s Universal Commons initiative.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) have been making considerable ripples today, among other things having shut down Waterloo Bridge – just outside our Somerset House offices. I went down to talk to some of the protestors this morning, after a fantastic meeting with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency – and was blown away by their mild manners and gentility. Loved seeing children doing chalk pictures on what would normally be a very busy London thoroughfare.

No great surprise to hear that some folk, accidentally or not, have smashed a door at Shell’s HQ building on the South Bank – doors I often went through in the 1990s. Not ideal. But the truth is that the oil industry has strung out this game for too long – in a strategic process that Alex Steffen calls “predatory delay”.

Very impressed by the cover story in this weekend’s Financial Times Magazine, titled ‘Survival Tactics’. It’s behind a pay wall, but if you haven’t yet read the piece, I strongly recommend it. As the Wikipedia entry for XR notes, we must all now move well beyond our comfort zones.

I liked – and was very impressed – by XR co-founder Gail Bradbrook when she came into Volans a few weeks ago. Our missions are closely aligned – and we are looking into how we might help them build bridges, rather than blocking them, to the business world.