Carbon Brief’s State of the Climate shows how 2024 has begun with a series of record warm months, making this another record breaking year. Already.
Interesting to see names like RSPB and National Trust among the supporters of the Restore Nature Now march on Saturday 22nd of June. Could be one of the larger environmental protest marches of recent years if you’d like to attend.
I’m in the market for a new fence at the moment after a couple of panel casualties over the winter. And this new solar fence option has just been launched (see above) that will make anything else look inferior.
Is it time to drop the phrase ‘net zero’? The outgoing head of the Climate Change Committee told the Guardian that it might well be, as it’s become a culture wars bogeyman.
This week I watched Can I Live, a one hour performance piece from Fehinti Balogun, in advance of an event at the University of Bedfordshire where we’re watching and discussing it. It combines spoken word and music to discuss climate change, race and colonialism, and I found it playful and moving. It’s not available to watch online, but catch it if it screens near you, or book one in if you’re programming a local environmental event. Here’s a snippet:
This week’s articles
Book review: Abolish the Monarchy, by Graham Smith
Over the Easter holidays I had a stump to dig out in the garden. It was going to be a long job, so I decided to choose an audiobook to accompany the task. Something I wouldn’t normally get round to reading. And since I was going to spend all day hacking at something obsolete but…
Voice of vanilla
80% of the world’s vanilla comes from Madagascar. Producing it is a highly specialist form of agriculture. Vanilla is the only edible food that comes from orchids, and orchids are jungle primadonnas of the highest order. It’s not easy work, and it’s not well paid, despite the very high value of vanilla to the global…
Britain’s first biophilic school
Now that I’m spending more time working with schools, I expect I’ll end up writing more often about school related climate solutions. I make no apology for that when it’s a story like this one: Britain’s first biophilic primary school, which opened in December 2023. St Mary’s Voluntary Catholic Academy, in Derby, was burnt down…
The Earthbound Report 