The other day I noticed some Lego kits in a shop window showing Arctic landscapes that included a mini Lego figure drilling into the ice, industrial vehicles and ice cutters. I was shocked. What do we want to tell our children about the Arctic? Perhaps about biodiversity, wildlife, Indigenous people, and maybe that the ice…
Read full post
Studies estimate that food production accounts for 19-29% of greenhouse gas emissions, 80-86% of which are agricultural. Agriculture is itself a threat to biodiversity and increases the risk of soil degradation. Modern society and the rise of capitalism has seen the middle classes expand within developing countries and this leads to increasing demands for foods…
Read full post
The West Coast Main Line, on its last push into the built-up South East, rises through a tantalising swathe of rolling, yearning countryside. The trains breast the scarp in minutes. Then this narrow ribbon of the Chilterns is gone. How many travellers, since Robert Stephenson built the line in the 1830s, must have thought: ‘If…
Read full postI feel the tug of the sea as I exit Hastings railway station. No need for a map. Just follow the wheeling seagulls downhill to the beach. What does the town forever linked, with geographical imprecision, to England’s biggest home-defeat do to erase 1,000 years of hurt? It turns instant recognition to its advantage, rebranding…
Read full post
Imagine you are trying to create inhospitable conditions for wildlife. Cut down any plants, dig out the soil, compact the ground and concrete it over. This is what millions of people in the UK choose to do when they raze their front gardens to the ground for reasons such as ‘ease of maintenance’ and ‘convenient…
Read full post
‘What do you think of climate change?’ I often ask people. If they reply ‘a hoax, and if it is true it’s natural’ – I think, ‘seriously’? Then I run out of words! Or they may reply, ‘we’ve left it too late’, which I can stomach but still I’m puzzled. To put this into context,…
Read full post
The environment and the health of our planet are in the hands of you and I. Every single thing we do affects what happens. Even when we walk to school or work, most of us are wearing shoes that have been created from leather from a cow, which, over time, will wear down and then…
Read full post
The words ‘palm oil’ make my heart drop. This usually occurs when I help do the weekly grocery shop. For some years I was aware of palm oil’s impact on our environment, but it’s only in the last eighteen months that the scale of the problem has hit home. The Good Derived from the fruit…
Read full post
Is it reasonable to demand that the UK government take drastic action to address the climate emergency, when China’s emissions far outweigh our own? As someone who works in the media, this is a question I’m asked a lot. It is clear that seismic shifts will have to take place globally if we are to…
Read full post
A plant-based diet isn’t just good for the environment, but also for our health and animal welfare. I’ve been vegan for 4 years and it’s one of the best life choices I’ve ever made. At first I found it hard to believe that I could live without meat, eggs and dairy. I needed protein –…
Read full post