Waterloo Bridge, April 2019. Photo- GHD. A year ago today Central London was in a different sort of lock down. Over the Easter weekend hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists peacefully occupied Oxford Street, the Marble Arch area and Waterloo Bridge. It was the most concerted direct action to date to draw attention to the gravity of… Continue reading
Browsing Category Environment
New rewilding campaign seeks to heal the countryside
This morning two buzzards and a red kite soared in interlocking circles in the warm air high above my garden. Quite what this interaction of two distinct species meant is beside the point. We were looking at a very conspicuous example, as close to home as it could possibly be, of rewilding. Technically the buzzard… Continue reading →
Webinar on responses to climate and ecological emergency in context of Covid-19.
On Thursday the 26th March I joined an online webinar on responses to the climate and ecological emergency in the context of Covid-19. It was organised by climate litigation charity Plan B, and accessed by over 100 members of the British media. An expert panel included former Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government, Sir David… Continue reading →
Could the little cirl bunting inspire the rebuilding of our countryside?
We must take the cirl bunting as an emblem of hope for the 2020s, and many decades to follow. This pretty, but insignificant, bird was saved from likely extinction in the UK not by the bird-loving public fitting up more bird boxes and putting out more feed, but by giving public money to farmers. It… Continue reading →
Could new support scheme for farmers reboot our countryside?
Wherever you stand on Brexit, it’s hard not to take some comfort from the government’s proposed Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. This is the post EU strategy to introducing new ways of funding farmers with public money – moving from the basic payment principle to the “public money for public goods” approach. I heard a… Continue reading →
A favourite Middle England marque joins the EV revolution
The only time-passing diversion at Milton Keynes station at midnight yesterday, as I waited to pick up a very late family member, was a series of rolling electronic adverts. The display had the desired effect, because here I am imparting the case for the all-electric Vauxhall Corsa-e – “Milton Keynes to West Yorkshire on a single… Continue reading →