Tomorrow, Andy Burnham will become the next UK Prime Minister.  He has set out his vision for his premiership, under the title ‘Manchesterism’.  Much ink has already been spilled in scrutinising it.  Our sister site, Steady State Manchester, carried this article following his speech at the city’s People’s History Museum.  Steady State Manchester has been… Continue reading Andy Burnham’s ‘Manchesterism’, a degrowth perspective

The minimum living wage has reignited the debate on basic income. But would it be viable in the face of eco-social collapse? A basic land income could be an alternative suited to this scenario. By Manuel Casal Lodeiro, Coordinator of the Instituto Resiliencia. Originally published in Spanish, in Revista Ecologista No. 108, 01/06/2021 . Translated… Continue reading In Defence of a Basic Land Income

A policy brief by Research & Degrowth  We share here an executive summary authored by Milena Hanenberg of the new policy brief ‘Clothing the Planet Within Limits: A Degrowth Approach to Fashion’, published by Research & Degrowth International and written by Marula Tsakgari. The policy brief provides both a scathing indictment of the current organisation… Continue reading Clothing the Planet Within Limits: A Degrowth Approach to Fashion

by Anna Pagani, Hans Volmary, Daniel Fitzpatrick* Providing housing for all is central to building any future. Yet, the system put in place to deliver housing globally has been relentlessly driven by growth imperatives. The consequences are far reaching: unhealthy, unsafe, overcrowded, over- or underheated, and inadequate housing, which is paralleled by the soaring greenhouse… Continue reading Housing (for) a post-growth world: A manifesto

The minimum living wage has reignited the debate on basic income. But would it be viable in the face of eco-social collapse? A basic land income could be an alternative suited to this scenario. By Manuel Casal Lodeiro, Coordinator of the Instituto Resiliencia. Originally published in Spanish, in Revista Ecologista No. 108, 01/06/2021 . Translated… Continue reading In Defence of a Basic Land Income

A policy brief by Research & Degrowth  We share here an executive summary authored by Milena Hanenberg of the new policy brief ‘Clothing the Planet Within Limits: A Degrowth Approach to Fashion’, published by Research & Degrowth International and written by Marula Tsakgari. The policy brief provides both a scathing indictment of the current organisation… Continue reading Clothing the Planet Within Limits: A Degrowth Approach to Fashion

by Anna Pagani, Hans Volmary, Daniel Fitzpatrick* Providing housing for all is central to building any future. Yet, the system put in place to deliver housing globally has been relentlessly driven by growth imperatives. The consequences are far reaching: unhealthy, unsafe, overcrowded, over- or underheated, and inadequate housing, which is paralleled by the soaring greenhouse… Continue reading Housing (for) a post-growth world: A manifesto

by Anna Gregoletto and Mark H Burton1 In the series Prospects for Degrowth pdf version of the article Overviews of the current conjuncture – openings and risks We opened the series with Mark’s stock take, Prospects for Degrowth 2025 of the current situation of polycrisis2, which presents a multitude of challenges but also opportunities for… Continue reading Prospects for Degrowth: the story so far.

by Graham Janz* In the series Prospects for Degrowth Toward a voluntary and democratic degrowth Degrowth is voluntary and democratic. It can’t be achieved through violence or unjustified coercion ––  though of course nature is coercive and, as Hannah Arendt puts it, so is the truth.[1] On the road toward degrowth, citizens of settlements ranging… Continue reading Familiarizing Degrowth: Art and Grounded Communities

A response to Ted Trainer In the series Prospects for Degrowth Mark H Burton Ted Trainer makes some important and relevant points in his critical but friendly discussion of the degrowth movement. However, like others, well rooted in the European traditions of praxis and degrowth in particular, I don’t really recognise the movement overall from… Continue reading Degrowth, the Movement, the State, Socialism and Marx

A (friendly) critique of the Degrowth Movement: A Reply by Manuel Casal Lodeiro In the series Prospects for Degrowth This is the first response we are publishing to Ted Trainer’s piece which was republished on our site here. Dear Ted, it’s been a pleasure to translate another piece of yours and make it available to… Continue reading A (friendly) critique of the Degrowth Movement: A Reply by Manuel Casal Lodeiro

The first in our series Prospects for Degrowth

by Mark H Burton¹

These are difficult times indeed, with terrible news on many fronts. What are the prospects for the degrowth alternative as we move through 2025?

Dark times: the current context

First, we need to understand what is going on around us: what is the evolving context with which degrowth has to contend, and to which it has to present a viable alternative?

Collapsing planetary and ecological systems in the face of insignificant mitigation and excessive material flows

Unrelentingly, more evidence accumulates about the dire state of the planetary and ecological systems on which humanity relies. For many years, we have known that the planet has entered the danger zone on multiple dimensions, and for longer that this was likely to happen. We are now seeing increased evidence for cumulative impacts and positive feedback effects impacting on likely earth system tipping points², so that climate chaos in particular is getting steadily worse. Some examples: the diminishing of the ocean currents that give Europe relatively a mild climate (for latitude), more and more extreme, unprecedented weather events, the presence of pervasive pollutants such as nanoplastics in all our bodies and brains, and the collapse of insect populations. It is what the eminent Barry Commoner author of the four laws of ecology, more than five decades ago, called the ‘closing circle’.³

Despite this, and the efforts of many, including the UN, there is little or no sign of serious mitigation actions worldwide. That is particularly clear in the two areas where there are global agreements, climate and biodiversity: in neither case are commitments made by countries being adhered to⁴. The emergency brake⁵ needs to be applied but the drivers all have the accelerator pedal firmly pressed down to the floor.

The internal and external limits of capitalist expansion

Capitalist economies generate economic growth because the pursuit of profit and capital accumulation are integral to them. The economic and social systems of nearly all countries rely on continued economic growth for stability and to fund government expenditure. There could be alternative possible designs – we degrowthers certainly think so – but for now, the stagnation of most rich country economies has become a problem for them. The stagnation has multiple causes. Internally, the long-range trend for the rate of profit to decline⁶, itself the result of an inescapable contradiction of capitalist business, is countered by a variety of ‘fixes’, new markets, cheaper resources and labour, technological innovation, but those options have become ever less potent in forestalling the inevitable: even the booming US economy is dependent on the temporary boost from increased fossil fuel exploitation and export. Externally, the increasing scarcity of energy and mineral resources doesn’t mean they are about to run out but that extraction becomes ever more expensive, causing reduction of the both the energy and the money returned by investment across the board, which sends ripples through the system, amplifying the impact of the internal contradiction. The environment also offers increasing shocks from climate and ecological destruction which also have their impacts on the accumulation cycle. Capitalism’s growth motor is broken and while there will be temporary repairs, nobody knows how to fix it long term. ‘Deregulation’, the weakening of hard-won protections for people and planet, is again fashionable but while it might give a temporary boost, it won’t change the underlying realities. Instead it will make their impact greater.

Bankruptcy of political leadership

Faced with recurrent, multiple global crises in the economy, the political elites are revealed to be ideologically bankrupt. Without new ideas they are not able to confront the pancrisis and the population knows it.

Renewed growthism – backtracking on environmental and social protection

Faced with economic stagnation the elites are panicking. Wild eyed in the control room, they thrash around seeking to fix the unfixable, pushing all the buttons, pulling all the levers, to no avail, just making things worse. They try the old mantra “growth”, repeated endlessly, and given a priority above all else⁷. They roll back environmental and social protections⁸: pulling out of agreements on climate mitigation, desperately promoting a building boom⁹, directing expenditure to the military¹⁰, promoting non-solutions such as nuclear power, hydrogen¹¹ and carbon capture and storage¹², all in the name of GDP growth, for they know no other god.

Geopolitical conflict and population displacement

As primary resources get scarcer and more expensive to extract, so conflicts occur over them, often disguised as something else. As ecosystems and agriculture collapse more conflicts appear and intensify. As conflict and war increase, so populations get displaced, seeking better lives or just escaping intolerable and dangerous situations.

Right populism, fascism and racist movements

As the ruling elites lose their political capital, so the political right attempts to fill the void. They play on the declining incomes of some sections of the population, blaming minorities, women and migrants. It’s the old fascist playbook, sometimes, as before, hand in hand with sections of big business, but now with a weakened labour movement and fragmented left, they have less organised opposition than before. These movements deny the ecosystem realities facing humanity, act to increase the already enormous inequalities in wealth, and under the typically legitimist exterior there is a violent, militarist undercurrent. As a result of this right wing pressure, centrist parties have themselves significantly shifted their rhetoric and policies rightwards. In the past weeks and months, this rightward shift, and its consequent reactions, have gathered pace alarmingly – the fascists are already in some of the control rooms.

Entry points for the degrowth alternative

Given that conjuncture (or something like it – there are other ways of characterising it¹), what might be the entry points, the nodes for resistance, prefiguration and organisation for the degrowth movement? In considering this we have to recognise that there is no longer a reasonably unified, collective, protagonist or ‘counter-hegemonic subject’, no single ‘midwife of history’. That is to say, where once there were strong movements of the organised working class, often linked with movements for liberation from imperialism, they have, if not disappeared, then weakened. Moreover, the multiple set of issues to be confronted means that the opposition to the dominant order consists of diverse groupings who might make common cause on some issues but not on others, particularly in the absence of a unifying ideology: class struggle is not enough². For that reason, the pointers that follow cover distinct sectors and struggles. As Chertkovskaya has argued³, degrowth activism will involve different (often overlapping) modes of struggle in different places and times: Resisting, Taming, Halting, Escaping / Building alternatives and Dismantling and Smashing. Moreover, the degrowth movement is small so if it is to turn the growing popular rejection of the status quo into an ultimately planned degrowth of capitalism and its excessive material flows, it has to, selectively and critically, ally with other more or less friendly groupings while working at the edge where groupings and organisations come into contact⁴.

Disenchantment of sections of the left and centre-left

Sections of the left and centre left are recognising that the productivist, mitigated capitalist model both fails to deliver the anticipated benefits to the population, while threatening the environmental substrate that society and economy rely on. The are more likely to be sceptical of technological fixes for the ecological crisis than the productivist mainstream. Increasingly they are disenchanted with the rightward turn of most social democratic and supposedly socialist parties. Is there a chance of rediscovering the left’s alternative project⁵, one that resists the commodification of everything and focuses instead on fairness, kindness, beauty, sufficiency and respect for nature?

It is unlikely that the ruling factions of most centre-left parties will change direction but there is considerable resistance and frustration among their activists: in the UK, some Labour Party council groups have defected en bloc to independent or green groupings. It is probably now a realistic prospect that sections of these movements could be ‘peeled off’ and organise around the alternative counter-hegemonic banner of degrowth, or degrowth socialism. We have to be ready for those moments, as well as work to make them happen and welcome people newly embracing degrowth. The current Spanish government⁶ illustrates that an effective left can, under the right circumstances, exert corrective pressure on the centre left, lessening the tendency to drift rightwards. Green⁷ and ecosocialist groupings need to be pushed to more explicitly reject growthism and campaign for the alternative.

Historically, to a greater or lesser extent, the left and centre-left have been closely connected with organised labour, the trade unions. Some trade union campaigning is aligned with degrowth aims⁸ but some is not, particularly where jobs in the ‘dirty’ economic sectors (cars, aviation, weapons, fossil fuels in particular) are concerned. This means the alliances have to be navigated critically and compromises made carefully.

Popular resistance to mega-projects, fossil fuel expansion and other extractivism, data centres, green space erosion

This is an obvious area for degrowth activists to both align with and to do some ideological reframing of these struggles as part of the wider degrowth project. Experience suggests that this is fertile ground as campaigners’ political consciousness inevitably develops through lived struggle on these issues. Moreover, these areas of resistance cut across the North/South – Rich/Poor divide but all are occasioned by capitalist expansion.

Interest in demonstration projects and degrowth-friendly alternatives

These are the ‘concrete utopias’ discussed elsewhere⁹. They tend to be small-scale but a) suggest possible degrowth futures, b) make a real difference for those they reach, c) represent possible nodes for survival/restoration in the face of collapse or system-change. Degrowth activists can (and do) help make the connections here, both ideologically and practically.

Anti-fascist resistance and solidarity movements

The rightward turn of politics, the rise of fascist parties and voting, and the alliance of sectors of capital with the fascist right all lead to an opposite reaction from social movements old and new. In some countries massive anti-fascist demonstrations have taken place. Consumer boycotts are gathering against some of the far right oligarchic interests. Degrowth activists will also be involved in such campaigning, and will be there in solidarity and support, while promoting the degrowth alternative as the radical (at root) solution to the fascist turn.

Degrowth as counter-hegemony

What do we know about the role of ‘big ideas’ in galvanising systemic societal change? Perry Anderson summarises his understanding and its implication thus,

…ideas count in the balance of political action and the outcome of historical change. In all three of the great cases of modern ideological impact, the pattern was the same. Enlightenment, Marxism, Neoliberalism: in each case a system of ideas was developed, to a high degree of sophistication, in conditions of initial isolation from, and tension with, the surrounding political environment—with little or no hope of immediate influence. It was only when a major objective crisis, for which it was in no way responsible, broke out, that subjective intellectual resources, gradually accumulating in the margins of becalmed conditions, suddenly acquired overwhelming force as mobilizing ideologies with a direct grip on the course of events. Such was the pattern in the 1790s, the 1910s, the 1980s. The more radical and intransigent the body of ideas, the more sweeping its effect, once unleashed in turbulent conditions. … Resistance and dissent are far from dead, but they continue to lack systematic, uncompromising articulation. None will come, experience suggests, from feeble adjustment or euphemistic accommodation to the existing order of things. What is needed instead, and will not arrive overnight, is an entirely different spirit—an unflinching and where necessary caustic analysis of the world as it is, without concession to the arrogant claims of the Right, the conformist myths of the Centre, or the bien-pensant pieties of too much of what passes for the Left. Ideas incapable of shocking the world are incapable of shaking it.¹⁰

He could be describing degrowth. We want degrowth to become the ‘good sense’ of the future, a vision and an action plan that brings together diverse constituencies: it is well placed to do that with its simultaneous and cross-cutting concern for ecological safety, and social and economic justice. For that promise to be realised though, degrowth has to be readily and honestly communicable to those who are unfamiliar with its theoretical and empirical basis, and to those who may have doubts, often fed by misinformation. The neoliberal project¹¹ and the Green New Deal¹² both had the advantage of an easy to summarise set of ideas that were actionable. To be honest, degrowth lacks that¹³, although there are very good book-length treatments¹⁴. We need a well developed communication strategy: in the UK we do have an example degrowth manifesto¹⁵, with a suite of policy ideas, and that can be adapted to other contexts. We need to go beyond that with what is sometimes called the “elevator¹⁶ pitch” – the essential persuasive essence that can be conveyed in a couple of minutes, opening the door for deeper explanation, exploration and experimentation. This is not to dilute the message with a bland “almost degrowth” label, but to emphasise the need to communicate and persuade effectively.

Optimism of the will but pessimism of the intellect¹⁷: the reality of collapse

There will be difficult times ahead. Livelihoods will collapse, violence will increase, people will be displaced and hurt in many ways. We must be prepared for the severe effects both of ecosystem, economic and social collapse and for the widespread violence and gangsterism that will be increasingly prevalent from both state and non-state actors.

We do not expect to win but we cannot afford to lose. Our approach will be collective not individual, caring, sharing and resisting, while always showing the way along the alternative degrowth pathway that we will be constructing as we go. Or at the very least, helping prepare for a ‘better collapse’¹⁸.

Mark Burton
March 2025

I am grateful to Mladen Domazet, Richard Shirres and Carolyn Kagan for helpful comments on an earlier version.

Notes

See the articles in this series

As much of the world takes a sinister turn on several fronts, not least in the UK with the re-vindication of GDP growth and militarism, DegrowthUK is inviting timely submissions on the topic ‘Prospects for Degrowth’. This will create a series, and to start it, we publish a short piece ‘Prospects for Degrowth’. Contributions could respond to that or focus on other related questions.

The series could include pieces related to topics such as:

• Implications of the accelerating climate and ecological crisis.
• Political openings and closures in the present conjuncture.
• Economic strains and their implications for the degrowth agenda.
• Confronting renewed growth-fetishism and militarism.
• Taking care of ourselves and others in the context of collapsing ecological and social systems and repressive politics.

DegrowthUK also welcomes submissions on other topics that fall within the scope of the overall theme of prospects for degrowth.

We welcome publications by researchers and activists based in the UK and beyond.

Guidelines

Articles could include case studies, analyses and graphics, and be theory or policy-focused, opinion or creative pieces.

The word count should not exceed 3,500 words excluding footnotes and, citations and bibliography.

Please submit prospective pieces together with a short biography to this email address: degrowthUK@steadystatemanchester.net. We accept PDF, RTF, DOCX, DOC and ODT document formats, and all the main graphics formats.  The received submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

To kick off the series, here is a specially written piece by DegrowthUK and Steady State Manchester’s Mark Burton.

Britain and the rest of the world face a set of almost intractable challenges, ecological (including climate), economic and social. Yet political leaders with few exceptions are failing to propose the actions and policies that could address the scale of this pancrisis.

Here though, in this election year, is an alternative, a kind of manifesto with a portfolio of illustrative policies, Getting Real. It is an initiative from members of the degrowthuk network, working with other contributors and advisors.

Stop the Damage! Build a Better Future!
How Britain can face ecological, social and economic perils
It is accompanied by a 2 page Summary and key messages document. A shorter summary follows the text of this email. The core of the initiative is a fully referenced 75-page report, covering key areas of policy and action, with recommendations. Do take a look and show your support by endorsing the initiative.

There are two elements – an Emergency Brake to stop the damage, and a Plan for Renewal and Reconstruction.
There’s a website, Getting Real with the full title and tagline:
Getting Real about the Crises Facing the UK – Stop the Damage! Build a Better Future!

While the initiative comes from the degrowth community, we believe it has a wider appeal – demonstrating the seriousness of the approach with proposals that are attractive to the many, but adequate to the multiple challenges we all now face. Anything serious has to be both.

We invite you to share, and to endorse the manifesto, either individually or as an organisation. We need a massive effort to get this in front of those who could make use of the detailed groundwork.

We realise that we stand little chance of this initiative changing either the timidity of present political ambition, or its repetitive growth consensus…….. yet. However, the realities of ecosystem and climate science mean that sooner or later something like this will be the lifeline that is needed as panic sets in.

If you can help to maximise the reach of the materials and facilitate the kinds of conversations that will be needed – then please reply to this email.
We plan to run a webinar and other events about the initiative.

We have more work to do on presentation and messaging – maybe you can help with that.

What we are saying

Let’s get real, to face the (perfect storm of) ecological, social and economic crises. Reality needs a response that is,

Urgent

Britain faces interconnected ecological, economic, and social crises. It’s time for bold and immediate policy changes.

Comprehensive

Demonstrates a holistic approach, with policy changes across key sectors to tackle pressing environmental and social challenges.

Rejects GDP growth

Focuses on the necessary move to a society and economy that does not rely on endless growth in energy use and consumption, and the political and economic changes necessary to achieve this.

Applies an Emergency Brake

In a profound ecological and climate crisis, immediate measures are necessary, including substantial reductions in energy and material consumption, with rapid reduction in carbon emissions, alongside a safety net for those affected.

Has a longer term Renewal Plan

To build a future for all within planetary resources, covering energy, livelihoods, production, consumption, and more.

Prioritises collective well being

Guaranteeing decent living standards, transforming production and consumption patterns, and ensuring affordable housing: no to poverty and extreme wealth.

Transforms the economy

Using judicious government borrowing, tax reform, and reshaping financial institutions to serve people and the planet.

Offers true security

Thinks globally, acts nationally, redirecting defence spending to civil purposes, supporting climate justice globally, and addressing historical injustices.

Redefines success

Emphasising meaningful economic, ecological, and social outcomes.

Is bold, realistic and necessary

Getting real means taking a bold yet realistic path. It’s time for leaders to stop fiddling with inadequate measures, to apply the emergency brake and establish an ambitious plan for reconstruction and renewal – there is a world to win.

A Call to Leadership

We urge leaders and opinion formers to consider and adopt these proposals, either in whole or in part, for a sustainable and equitable future.

Mark H Burton

This post and Getting Real does not necessarily represent the views

of all network members

There is now a later post about this initiative click to read

The signs of ecological overshoot and climate breakdown are ever clearer to see and we know that economic growth (i.e. endless material expansion) is the prime cause.

Meanwhile, both main parties stick to the mindless mantra of GDP growth as if that would solve the multiple problems of the country.

This year we are likely to have an election where all the parties (with the partial exception of the Green Party) try to outdo one another with claims about how they will secure economic growth. They will also make claims about how they will address the climate crisis (the other planetary boundaries are likely to be hardly mentioned, if at all). In addition to the highly questionable claim that growth will redress inequalities and poverty, they will argue that it is needed to decarbonise the economy – an oxymoron dressed up as policy.

Our initiative tries to disrupt that depressing consensus and show what the alternative could be. It has the form of a comprehensive policy framework that. we think, is more adequate to the profound challenges that this country, and humanity in general, faces, in contrast to dominant political and economic thinking.

It states clearly what has to be done now to halt the destruction of the ecological systems that sustain us all.  We use the concept of the Emergency Brake to capture that idea.  We recognise that these proposals are extremely challenging and will have consequences that need to be mitigated.  Therefore we include a proposal for an emergency safety net as part of the Emergency Brake actions, and we complement the Brake with a comprehensive Plan for Reconstruction and Renewal.  This covers most of the areas that need to be addressed for there to be the kind of society and economy that sustains the population while continuing to minimise the various human footprints on the earth’s systems.

Our initiative is in the context of the upcoming General Election but that is more of a convenient opportunity to try and enter the national debate, than an event that should contain or constrain the scope of the project.

We have yet to produce the final version.  We have received encouraging and helpful feedback from a number of people with expertise in areas covered and have incorporated suggestions and corrections.  We have further promises of feedback.  We are now publishing the draft 2 page summary (click here to download it). You can also request the 78 page main document by emailing us at degrowthuk[AT]gmail.com.

To take this forward,  we’d really appreciate your help with the following things.

1)  Feedback and suggestions. If you have specific and constructive feedback or suggestions, we’d really appreciate it.  We will consider feedback carefully and try to take account of it.  Please don’t share  the documents without our agreement – we don’t want this unfinished work to enter the wider public domain until we have a final version.
2)  Before we can go public, we will also need help to prepare graphically appealing material – so if any of you are, or have good contacts among, graphic designers, communications professionals, cartoonists, animators…. then please do let us know.  We will want a small set of materials to capture people’s attention and tempt them to dig deeper into the detailed documentation.
3)  We need to plan the public launch of the initiative.  We are putting together a listing of friendly public figures, journalists, and so on to approach.  We’ll need endorsements, and will be coming back to the network so you can sign up as endorsers, but we also need some well-known names.  We need to think about an launch event, live or online (or both) and we’ll need a  social media campaign.   If you can help with any of those things, please let us know.
4)  We’ll need some money.  What are your thoughts on this?  Are there bodies we might approach?  Should we set up a crowdfunder? The group I’m part of, Steady State Manchester, will commit some money but we’ll need more.  Is your group up for this? Contact us if you can help.

Mark Burton
for the manifesto working group

Opportunity to apply for a 4-year PhD studentship at the University of Leeds, fully funded by the EU Horizon Europe project “Models, Assessment & Policy for Sustainability” (MAPS)

Topic: Examining the role of inequality reduction for making welfare states more growth-independent

Supervisors: Professor Milena Büchs, Dr Richard Bärnthaler

We are seeking to recruit an outstanding PhD candidate (UK home fees status only) to conduct research on the role of inequality reduction in making welfare states more growth-independent. The project will examine relationships between inequality, social issues and social expenditure, as well as the role of progressive income and wealth taxation for redistribution and state revenues in a postgrowth context.

This project is part of a larger work package on “Safeguarding Social Outcomes” in a postgrowth context within the Horizon Europe funded project “Models, Assessment & Policy for Sustainability” (MAPS).

Applicants will have at least a merit from a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline, social science methods training, and experience with quantitative data analysis. Experience with narrative systematic reviews is also desirable. The funding conditions are limited to applicants who fulfil UK home fees eligibility.

Application deadline: 29 January 2024

Interviews: week commencing 12 February 2024

Start date: 1 June 2024

How to apply: please submit your CV, transcripts from previous degrees, and a motivation statement (max 1,000 words) to Milena Büchs on m.m.buchs[AT]leesds.ac.uk by 29 January 2024, 9am CET.

Stipend: UKRI standard living allowance (£18,622 in 2023/24); UK fees and cost for fieldwork travel and conferences will be covered by the project budget. For queries and more information please email Milena Büchs on m.m.buchs[AT]leeds.ac.uk.

Prof. Milena Büchs

Professor of Sustainable Welfare
Director of Postgraduate Research Studies, School of Earth and Environment
School of Earth and Environment
University of Leeds, UK