News and Updates

  • All models are wrong, but some are useful

    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...

  • Common Sense breaks out in Wiltshire

    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...

  • Race and the Environmental Emergency

    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...

  • Encouraging Disability in the Foodchain

    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...

  • CHMM Backtrack

    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...

  • The Miller's Tale

    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...

  • Dear Bridget

    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,...

  • Environmental Courage and Conviction

    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...

  • Iron and Steel Industry and Energy

    You'll likely have read that Tata Steel is closing two blast furnaces in Port Talbot before it has built the taxpayer subsidised electric arc furnaces to replace them in 2027.  By the end of the year there will be no...

  • Common Centaury

    2023 was a very good year for identifying plants in the wild although I did not spend enough time doing it.  I'm determined that 2024 will be better.  This is a good January resolution. Common centaury is my plant of...