The Wellbeing Research Center has released its figures for 2025, reporting on life satisfaction around the world. Respondents are asked to rank their lives on a scale of one to ten, and the country with the highest life satisfaction is Finland at an average of 7.74. The lowest is Afghanistan at 1.36. Madagascar, which I always look up first in global rankings of anything, is 4.16.
Time Magazine on how Ukraine plans to claim climate damages from Russia. We may be a way off that yet, but it’s interesting to see a country highlighting the link between war and carbon emissions even in the midst of the conflict.
Cigarette adverts have been banned for years. Isn’t it time we banned fossil fuel ads, and other things that we know are detrimental to human health? As a starting point, Andrew Simms of the New Weather Institute explains why London should ban SUV ads and if you’re convinced you can sign the petition to the Mayor of London.
Plug-in solar is one of the most promising avenues for democratizing clean energy, though few countries have got a legal framework for it just yet. Here’s David Roberts’ Volts podcast on the state of balcony solar in the US. Don’t miss the fact that the place leading the way is Utah, where a Republican congressman heard about plug-in solar in Germany and pushed through the legislation to bring it to his constituents.
Every once in a while my wife and I find ourselves working on the same stories. You’ve read my take on Luton’s pioneering charity solar project, and here’s Lou’s for the BBC.
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India meets its ambitious solar target
Annual climate talks are a time for big announcements – new targets, new investments and partnerships. Politicians will often declare a new goal in the run-up to the conference, to show leadership or reassure others that they’re doing their part in the giant ‘I will if you will’ of global environmental diplomacy. What happens to…
Book review: Everything Must Go, by Dorian Lynskey
Over the last couple of months I’ve read a number of books about the future, both positive and negative. It wasn’t particularly intentional as a programme of reading, but it’s been an interesting exercise in comparing and contrasting. Everything Must Go fits well into the theme, as an examination of apocalypse in popular culture. People…
The National Emergency Briefing
There was a ground-breaking event in London this week, a first of its kind update on climate change called the National Emergency Briefing. Members of Parliament were invited to attend and many did, as a series of experts set out the state of the climate and the way that Britain will be affected. The briefing…
The Earthbound Report 