How we found one of Monet’s flowers using a mobile phone plant identification app. In 1894 the artist Claude Monet ordered a selection of plants from his new friend Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac, who had recently exhibited plants from his nursery at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889. One of them, unsurprisingly, was the water… Continue reading
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Big Issue founder wants politicians to think long term
The welcome initiative by Lord Bird (John Bird, founder of The Big Issue), He arranged a “balloted debate” in the House of Lords in June 2019 – (a debate on subjects raised by backbenchers) on the case for better protecting and representing the interests of future generations in policymaking. is a promising start. The pioneer work… Continue reading →
Exit cuckoo, pursued by climate change?
‘The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he, “Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O, word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!’ (When Daisies Pied and… Continue reading →
Is the court of public opinion siding with climate protesters?
An interesting piece in the Guardian by Peter Hain (Lord Hain, the former Labour minister.) He makes a strong case for a halt to all pending trials of Extinction Rebellion (ER) activists, accused of deliberate criminal damage in their attempts to highlight the climate crisis. Last month (April 2021) six members of ER, charged with… Continue reading →
Five years on from Paris, where is the urgency?
Five years on from the Paris Agreement on climate, there is still more talk than action. Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to rise. Green schemes should be all around us. But they are not. Just before Christmas I noticed scaffolding on the roofs of a line of a dozen or so… Continue reading →
Is this what action on climate change actually looks like?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.) There were many articles last weekend marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. There is little more to be said on that we… Continue reading →