February 2024

I've been reading a new report [ Our Journey to Net Zero: understanding household and community participation in the UK’s transition to a greener future ] from the Institute for Community Studies and others, on the preparedness of UK households...

Here are a few of the stories that came across my desk(top) this week: Yanis Varoufakis explains in UnHerd why poor farmers across the EU are revolting, and what cannot be done about it.  It begins: Manos, a sixth-generation farmer...

I attended the I-SEE Sustainable Energy & the Environment Webinar, ‘The Science Behind Climate Models’, yesterday.  It was given by Bill Collins, Professor of Climate Processes, Atmospheric Chemistry and Earth System Modelling at the University of Reading. Here's his blurb: We...

I'm fortunate enough to live in Wiltshire and so was pleased to see that James Dyson won an 18 month-long battle with Wiltshire Council [WC] and the DfE and now can make a £6m school donation to the primary school...

Wildlife and Countryside Link is a coalition of environmental organisations in England committed to protecting the natural environment. Late last year, it made a submission to a parliamentary enquiry into Race and the Environmental Emergency on behalf of 11 of...

The Guardian reports that the European Commission has announced ambitious intentions to become world’s first climate-neutral continent with plans to cut emissions by 90% by 2040.  It’s a fair bet that few of the EU's population will have had any...

I wrote back in December about how the price of new gas boilers was rising because manufacturers were passing on the fines imposed on them by government.  From HMG's perspective, of course, these are not fines, but are branded as...

There has been much press coverage recently about the criticism of certain NGOs working across Africa on conservation initiatives which marginalise and sometimes harm local people.  The well funded organisation, African Parks, has been mentioned, specifically by  Survival International which...

Teach the Future has a template letter to be sent the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Skills, etc, Bridget Phillipson.  It nicely sets out the arguments for the Labour Party to do what TtF would like it to do,...

It’s time to cheer the Environment Agency.  At a moment when it would have been easy for its senior leadership to be distracted by a deluge of public criticism over huge sewage discharges into rivers and onto beaches, reports of...