​Dr David Dixon

Headteacher, consultant and writer

​I was a primary head teacher for twenty years across three schools. In my schools I promoted the twin causes of environmental education and sustainability as a central ethos. My schools were always successful in both official and holistic terms and I'm convinced that using sustainability and 'real life' as the cross curriculua context for learning helped my formal outcomes, as well as the well-being of pupils, staff and local community. I can help schools with curriculum development, strategies, content and leadership to link sustainability with school improvement more generally.

Find out more about my work with schools

Why I wrote 'Leadership for Sustainability, Saving the Planet one school at a time'

When I left headship after twenty years, it was tempting to think that I deserved to sit back, potter in the garden and do some part-time school Improvement consultancy to pay for extended out of season holidays. It was imaginable that holding down the job of managing three challenging schools for two decades 'entitled' me to a nice retirement?

The reason I chose to sweat over a hot laptop to write a book was the realisation that I’m entitled to nothing.

Why?

Because my life to date has likely taken much more out of planet Earth’s biosphere than has been replenished. This is starkly illustrated by ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ which each year creeps earlier and earlier. This marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. 
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See more about the book here

Thanks to Karsten Winegeart for the image

With my daughter Sequoia, an ocean enthusiast, in Wales

I think of my numerous foreign holidays by plane and the hundreds of thousands of miles I’ve driven. This is compounded by my consumption of processed food with high carbon and water footprints, living in energy thirsty houses and lazily using cheap products procured from ethically dubious sources. I also wince about the amount of single-use plastic I’ve used and how many cheap electronic devices and articles of clothing I’ve discarded without thought of how they were manufactured and disposed of.

All this is nothing compared to having two children brought up in one of the most prosperous areas of the world and requiring vast planetary resources.

I’m as guilty of obliviousness, self-justification, obfuscation and denial of my personal responsibilities towards our planet as the next person. Like many I’ve also put environmental concerns into a box marked ‘To Be Dealt With Later’ whilst carrying on regardless. Like many others in ‘developed’ nations, I’ve felt a misplaced feeling of entitlement to my spoils as if this was the natural way of things.
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Having had a background in Environmental Education, I was aware earlier than most of today’s headline ‘environmental problems.’ This led me to put sustainability increasingly at the heart of my work, while endeavouring to pursue a ‘low impact’ lifestyle. But, as you can see from my past accumulation of over-consumption, I’m not preaching from an ivory tower of smug virtue. I sometimes did my best, but hindsight has shown me that it wasn’t good enough.

Suddenly the distant deadlines for action of my youth have come uncomfortably close, along with a sinking feeling that some have passed.
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So, it’s all too apparent that the social and economic activities which are depleting planetary resources at an alarming rate need to change course as we enter the uncertainties of the geological Anthropocene Epoch.
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With my newborn daughter, in 2014

 This shows that like asteroid strikes and volcanic eruptions, humans are radically and detrimentally changing the bio-chemical make-up of the planet.

Another strong motivation for writing this book is raw fear and this has been enhanced by having a young daughter, born in 2014, who may well be alive at the end of the century.

By the time she’s an adult, environmental tipping points will have been reached (some say they already have) and I literally fear for her life and those of her generation, let alone those coming later. She will have the advantages of the privileges we as her parents can confer on her, but their worth is dubious if our civilisation crumbles due to the biosphere being finally unable to bear the burdens human beings place upon it.
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​​Despite mending many of my damaging ways, I still owe the planet a substantial debt.

So, if you see this book as a guilt trip, then I suppose it is.

​At least I’m not in denial!

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