John Jopling – Feasta

About John Jopling

For 30 years John practiced as a barrister in London advising clients about the law of trusts. Increasing awareness of the deep-seated flaws in mainstream economic and political systems led to using his professional expertise to help establish a number of new institutions, including FIELD the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development and Feasta the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability. Publications included two Feasta Reviews, edited jointly with Richard Douthwaite, and the Schumacher Briefing Gaian Democracies, written jointly with Roy Madron. An article of his on the global governance systems needed to tackle climate change appears in the Feasta book Sharing for Survival, published in April 2012. John passed away in November 2019 at the age of eighty-four. You can read tributes to him and find out more about his life here.

John Jopling has written 6 articles so far, you can find them below.

CapGlobalCarbon: a global response to a global problem

In an article originally published by Scientists for Global Responsbility, John Jopling provides a succinct overview of Cap Global Carbon: a radical back-up plan for curbing global carbon emissions.

Co-creating a Global Climate Commons regime

In this presentation given at Maynooth last week, John Jopling explains why governments cannot be expected to adequately address the climate crisis and instead proposes a commons-based approach that would involve a wide range of non-governmental organisations in a cooperative and participatory process.

The Wealth of the Commons: Review

by John Jopling. This book explores the possibility that the concept of the Commons provides us with the model we need to build just and sustainable human societies in place of the currently dominant unjust and unsustainable economic/political system. It is certainly a 'must read', indeed, if you can afford it, a 'must have', so you can take in the wealth of information and ideas at your own pace, going back to re-study at your leisure.

Revolution Justified: Review

by John Jopling. How could governments be forced to take the necessary measures to address climate change? In his book Revolution Justified, Roger Cox suggests that legal action may provide the best way forward; an idea shared by many in Feasta's climate group.

A Complexity Approach to Sustainability – Theory and Application: Review

The sustainability of a human society is not just about its relationship with the environment: it's a problem concerning the nature of the society and the way it is organised. This is the important message of a book by Angela Espinosa and Jon Walker, reviewed here by John Jopling.

Occupy World Street – a global roadmap for radical economic and political reform: Review

This book is a clearly thought out and well written analysis of the extremely grave state we are in and it offers some clear proposals about what could and should be done to change the system as a whole.

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