Alistair Whitby

@alistairwhitby.bsky.social

River & wetland habitat restoration, chalk streams, & community engagement with the Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust. Into regenerative growing, rewilding, good books & generally being outdoors!

Just fascinating to see Blair, a man whose reputation was ruined by the Iraq war, advocate joining a war that is exponentially stupider and more chaotic. How is it possible to learn nothing from the worst mistake of your life?

Sources for the drinking water of 6 million people in England so contaminated with PFAS forever chemicals, the Drinking Water Inspectorate has ordered water companies to act. Our story featured on @BBCr4today this morning + here on BBC Online: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Firms ordered to reduce forever chemicals in drinking water for 6m people - BBC News

The persistent pollutants which build up in the environment have been linked to serious illnesses.

bbc.co.uk

"We should no longer be making PFAS" Water UK's David Henderson tells Nick Robinson removing PFAS from water sources is so hard we should talk about a ban on forever chemicals, not a clean up. Our story on the DWI ordering water firms to act on PFAS in water sources made the Today Programme. 🧵

Energy transitions don't happen everywhere all at once. They happen sector by sector, place by place. Pointing out that some sectors and places are not advancing yet does not negate that others have come a long way. Here are the Nordics - heat pump roll-out replaced fossil fuels reducing emissions.

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Classed as 'reprotoxic', EEA-NH4 is a type of PFAS that can harm sexual function, fertility + child development. In 2023, we exposed a plant in Lancashire releasing almost 800kg into the River Wyre - so why isn't the curent EA investigation testing for it? 🧵 1 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Regulators overlooking toxic Pfas found around Lancashire chemicals plant

Exclusive: Environment Agency not testing for ‘forever chemical’ made by factory despite evidence of emissions

theguardian.com

Huge kudos to our River Rangers who turned up for a soggy but successful wetland management session today! 👏🦆💦🐸 💧Willow hide trimmed 💧Wetland plants translocated 💧Pampas, buddleia & gourse managed 💧Channel cleared for winter After such a dry year, the rain was welcome when it did arrive 🙏

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That's a wrap! Fantastic to get phase 1 of the Landport Brooks project completed with initial ditch maintenance. 🚜👷💪 Next year's work aims to improve the ecological health & restore wet habitats of the floodplain grazing marsh. 🐦👌🐄 Great partnership with @LewesDistrictCouncil and @SDNP 👏

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A scorching but successful week of river remeandering. Four new berms completed 🙌 💦🐟 Huge thanks to our awesome volunteers, who've gone above and beyond the call of duty!💪🔥💪 So gratifying to see Kingfishers visiting the newly enhanced sections every day! 🐦

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A fantastic end to #INNSWeek with two days of removing non-native species from one of our precious chalk streams! 🌱💦💪 Two truckloads of Himalayan Balsam, Cotoneaster, Leylandii, Cherry laurel, Crocosmia, Spanish bluebells, & Box-leaved honeysuckle removed from the Lewes Winterbourne! Top effort 👏

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It looks like there's snow on the rainforest floor in May, but it's actually massed willow seed, drifting on the air. Every one of these countless magic fairy dust packets of DNA has the potential to be a magnificent old tree, supporting a highly diverse, living ecosystem. 🌏

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These are real images of exoplanets. Four super-Jupiters, imaged 10 times over 12 years around a star 133 lightyears away. These are real, giant worlds, out there in the dark. And we can see them.

"The Treasury is driving this false wedge between homes + nature...but we have been working with housing developers for years + years in harmony...good companies want nature around the new-builds. It improves...mental health...reduces flooding, provides shade." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘People love being here’: London development shows harmony between nature and housing

Five thousand new homes alongside a paradise for newts appears to fly in face of government’s ‘false wedge’

theguardian.com