“Focusing only on climate can end up absolving policymakers of their failures to climate-proof their citizens.” An important reminder from Fred Pearce that disasters have multiple causes, and overplaying the climate factor lets people off the hook for other localised failings.
After accelerating sales in EVs last year, we’ve got an an interesting decade on decade comparison: Every week, more electric cars are sold around the world than the whole sales total for 2012.
“Intensive farming systems are the single biggest cause of animal suffering on the planet and are fast becoming one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time” say Compassion in World Farming, and yet it rarely features in climate plans. You can sign their petition for its inclusion.
India’s largest company, Reliance Industries, is running what Chris Goodall describes as “one of the most ambitious transition plans in the world”, pivoting from fossil fuels to solar and hydrogen through a $75 billion invesment plan that will make it net zero by 2035.
I told you I’d have more news about my new book once we’d finalised front covers and details, so – an announcement:
I’m not going to talk much about this as it’s not relevant to the themes of the blog, but just to let you know – this is my new book.
It’s the story of a boy counting to a million during lockdown. It’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever written, although the main feedback I’ve been getting is that it makes people cry.
It’s out from Nosy Crow on March 3rd, and there are KS2 teacher’s resources here. £1 from every sale goes to NHS Charities Together.
Available from Zebedee’s Books
(which is the online bookstore my kids set up in direct competition with me when I showed them Earthbound Books.)
Highlights from this week if you missed them:
What can we learn from Insulate Britain?
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that today we have to announce that as Insulate Britain we have failed” said Insulate Britain yesterday. If you didn’t know the context, it would be a slightly strange statement. The cost of living is all over the news. The need to insulate Britain and buffer households from…
10 things I learned from eating vegan for a year
I’ve been ‘plant-based’ or ‘mostly vegan’ for several years now, since coming to understand the role of livestock on the climate. But towards the end of 2020, my son asked if he could be properly vegan. I joined him and we have done it together. I haven’t mentioned this before on the blog. I see…
The unreported climate crisis in Zambia
Every year the NGO Care International compiles a list of under-reported humanitarian crises. They do this by tracking news stories in the global media, and seeing which ones got the least attention. I wrote about it in 2020 and in 2021, and some themes emerge – Africa dominates, and so does climate change and conflict.…
The Earthbound Report 
Considering all the damage done by pollution, increase in temperature may be the least of our problems.