A striking climate change conundrum has emerged in Namibia, where drought threatens the survival of 200 elephants. The government’s solution? Sell the elephants.
My wife, who is a BBC radio journalist, recorded a special programme on ‘earth heroes’ in our local area. It features activists, inventors, entrepreneurs and more, and you can listen back here.
People have been talking about geothermal power from Cornwall for decades and the potential has never been properly tapped, so it’s great to hear that the first commercial contract has been signed to supply it. (It’s with Ecotricity, once again with another UK first.) It’s only for 3MW of power at the moment – but you’ve got to start somewhere.
Good to read about an amendment to the Basel Convention on waste trading, that will hopefully give developing countries more ways to prevent plastic dumping by overdeveloped nations.
This graph of new car sales in Norway, posted by Robbie Andrew on Twitter, shows how pure petrol or diesel cars are now very much a minority interest. This is a dramatic shift in a decade, and the kind of thing I would hope to see in Britain in the coming years – alongside an overall decline in car sales and increased public and active transport, naturally.
Three of this week’s posts, in case you missed them:
Book review: Breathe, by Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan has been mayor of London since 2016, and in this book he outlines his action on climate in the city. It’s a mix of the personal, the political, and the possible – cities can lead on climate change in ways nations can’t, and mayors can be a powerful influence. Breathe begins with Khan’s…
What we learned this week
An interesting development in the story of nuclear fusion – Microsoft have agreed a power purchase agreement with a fusion energy company. A gamble of course, but if it pays off it will make commercial fusion power a reality by 2028. If fossil fuel companies had to pay reparations for the damage they have done…
Community solar on the Bottle Yard Studios
I haven’t done many ‘building of the week’ posts recently – apologies to those who love a bit of green architecture. Here’s one that might qualify, although it’s also about community solar and sustainable business. The Bottle Yard is so called because its main site used to be the bottling plant for Harvey’s Bristol Cream…
The Earthbound Report 
Very interesting, well done.