Why Gramskii.com exists:

Its first objective is to keep me and my family in a comfortable, First World lifestyle without requiring me to bend myself out of shape or pretend to be something I'm not.

• At various points in my career I've been a 'big shot', and can confirm it's not all it's made out to be if you don't have the rest of your life sorted.

• Nor does owning the latest car, or going on an exotic holiday mean very much if you're not there with the right people. That's a fact, no matter how hard the ads try to convince you otherwise (mine included, in a former life).

• We are by no means 'rich' particularly when compared with many of our friends, yet, we remain in the top 10% of earners in the UK, (you can look up how much that would be) and comfortably in the top 1% globally. So in the grand scheme of things we've been unbelievably lucky, and we know it.

  • What's more, we've paid off the mortgage, paid our taxes, and, despite being relatively healthy, we know the NHS is there if anything goes wrong (it gets a bad press, but it's a wonderful thing).

  • To really make you nauseous, we also live in a beautiful part of the world on the side of the Mendip Hills in Somerset (UK), among lovely neighbours (well, mostly).

  • So these days our main challenge is to get two of our kids through university, subsidising their accommodation and Student Loan repayments.

• Like I say, First World problems. We're very lucky. We're very grateful.

Why Gramskii.com REALLY exists:

But Gramskii.com isn't just an exercise in feathering my own nest and being smug about it.

• The real objective is to make a dent in TWO other goals, without which everything I've just described would not mean very much.

• ONE: Having written a book about capitalism and climate change, I now feel a strong obligation to pass on what I found. Not because I want to preach my worldview, but because I think the facts alone, properly understood, might be enough for us to avoid a needless global catastrophe.

• If I don't follow through on this, everything else is rather academic.

• TWO: The other, more ambitious plan, (well, we can all dream can't we?) is to set up an animal sanctuary — a sort of retirement home for farm animals who'd otherwise be heading to the abattoir. Think of it as a care home, minus the bingo, plus a lot more mud.

• Alongside it would be an education centre for school visits, where children could see what industrial farming actually looks like, and quietly reconsider their enthusiasm for McDonald's Happy Meals.

• And in doing so, they'd be making one of the biggest contributions any of us can make to reversing global warming, simply by eating a little less (or zero) meat and dairy.

• As Oscar Wilde once said, we're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

• If you want to help me in any way with these projects, which at a minimum, involves just spreading the word about my book — that would be great and I'd love you forever. xxx

About Gramskii

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