miscellaneous

What we learned this week

Portugal had a goal of ending coal power by 2030, but this month it closed its last coal power station, nine years ahead of schedule. It’s the fourth European country to stop using coal, joining Sweden, Austria and Belgium.

Can you raise Christmas turkeys through regenerative farming practices? This company in California is claiming that by using native grasses rather than farmed feeds, their turkey farms are a net gain for nature.

Credit Suisse have been fined £147 million for fraudulent loans to Mozambique, which have cost the country billions. But since it was the London branch of Credit Suisse, the fine will be collected by the FSA and given to the UK Treasury to spend as they like. Sign the petition from the Jubilee Debt Campaign to send the money to Mozambique where it belongs.

“We need to be alert to context and not ask ‘what will work, generically?’ but ‘what will work and be right for this place and contribute to the bigger picture?’ – because population size, landscape, climate, skills, identity and culture all hold opportunities and barriers for change.” Josie Warden at the RSA asks questions about making global change in specific places, something I often consider here in Luton.

An upcoming talk for this week – in conversation about climate and race with Greta Arena, for the Festival for Change, on Youtube at 9:50am on Wednesday 1st of December.

Bako Motors and the future of electric vehicles

Bako Motors is an automotive start-up making electric vehicles in Tunisia, specialising in vans and micro-cars designed for urban use and last mile deliveries. On the roof is the most obvious and most bizarrely neglected feature in the car industry: integrated solar panels. For Bako it’s a key selling point, and it makes them a…

Book review: Snö, by Sverker Sörlin

We had a brief flurry of snow a couple of weeks ago, just enough to get the kids’ hopes up for a snow day and not enough to deliver. I did however take the opportunity to read a book that I’d be saving specially, Sverker Sörlin’s Snö: A History. It’s a book that’s rooted in…

What we learned this week

The New Scientist has published a special issue featuring the 21 best ideas of the 21st century. They include net zero, climate attribution studies and the 1.5 degree target. (Carbon offsets make an accompanying list of the most disappointing ideas, as well as effective altruism and alternative fuels.) A UNEP study into finance and the…

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