By Anne MacLennan 2024 was the hottest year on record globally and this summer was the UK's hottest. About 1,500 deaths in just 12 cities during the European heatwave in June-July were attributed to climate change; 171 of those in London. Temperatures and deaths are...
The next climate summit COP30 takes place from 10-21 November in Belém, Brazil. Given the lack of progress by countries in submitting their national climate plans, the cuts in climate finance by rich countries and the rejection of carbon-cutting measures by the USA...
By Anne MacLennan As the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Carbon dioxide equivalents reached an all-time high last year, 50% higher than pre-industrial levels and breaking the 1.5°C barrier, with...
On 15th August the final stage of international negotiations failed to reach an agreement to create a landmark global treaty to end plastic pollution. Petrostates refused to endorse the draft treaty because it addressed plastic production, which they considered to be...
Microplastics are everywhere on Earth, from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Everest, in the air, the water, in plants, animals and our bodies. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation says soils contain more microplastic pollution than the oceans...
by Anne MacLennan Salmon farming is unsustainable according to a report published last month. Aquaculture is the fastest food production system in the world. Farmed fish have outnumbered wild-caught fish since 2022. Seventy percent of salmon are now farmed, with...
According to Greepeace only 17% of the UK's plastic waste is recycled: the rest is burned, dumped abroad, or sent to landfill. Globally only 9% of all plastics produced are actually being recycled, and in fact only 21% of all plastic is economically recyclable, (i.e....
by Anne MacLennan The International Permaculture Festival of Wild Ideas held last month, was an online festival ‘featuring inspiring thinkers, doers and creatives from around the world exploring permaculture and wilding’. As such, it provided inspiration and hope for...
by Anne MacLennan Plastic is a problem and there is a lot of it about. Invented (as Bakelite) in 1907, production had reached 2.3m tons annually by 1950, 448 tons in 2015, and is set to at least double by mid-century. The plastic lifecycle aggravates climate change...
by Anne MacLennan In his new book, A Climate of Truth Mike Berners-Lee (author of There is no Planet B) points out that we are in a polycrisis, faced with interactive crises in climate, biodiversity, pollution, energy, food, disease and population. We’ve known about...