Blue Kirkhope
@bluekirkhope.bsky.social
Writer. Trudging through the bog, always heading northwards. Glasgow, Scotland | (she/they) www.bluekirkhope.com
I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
Blue Kirkhope advocating here for a new phrase to enter our vocabulary: climate fires.
Caught by the River@caughtbytheriver.bsky.social · 3w ago'We need to talk about how we talk about nature and climate [...] How the misuse of tongue, teeth, mouth and throat can be as violent as a naked flame in an open, dry moorland.' Blue Kirkhope unpicks how the English language can catalyse the climate crisis www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/07/word...
First essay in a very long while, on ecolinguistics and climate change. It's good to be back!
Caught by the River@caughtbytheriver.bsky.social · 3w ago'We need to talk about how we talk about nature and climate [...] How the misuse of tongue, teeth, mouth and throat can be as violent as a naked flame in an open, dry moorland.' Blue Kirkhope unpicks how the English language can catalyse the climate crisis www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/07/word...
'We need to talk about how we talk about nature and climate [...] How the misuse of tongue, teeth, mouth and throat can be as violent as a naked flame in an open, dry moorland.' Blue Kirkhope unpicks how the English language can catalyse the climate crisis www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/07/word...
Today, on the BBC's World Service, Vibeke Venema interviews Annie Ernaux: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
BBC World Service - Outlook, Annie Ernaux: ‘My mum burned my teenage diaries’
The shopkeeper’s daughter who won the Nobel for her fearless, taboo-breaking writing
bbc.co.uk
Oidhche Shamhna – a South Uist #Halloween Ethnomusicologist, photographer, folklorist, & scholar Margaret Fay Shaw (1903–2004) recorded a traditional Hebridean Halloween on South Uist in the 1930s, in photographs & on film —via the National Trust for Scotland #Gaelic www.nts.org.uk/stories/oidh...
Following the discovery of mosquitoes in Iceland, Dr Andrew Jennings, @thinkuhi.bsky.social Associate Professor in Island Studies, discusses the need to build resilience #islands in the face of rapid climate change. @adammarkham.bsky.social #climatechange open.substack.com/pub/resilien...
Climate’s New Invaders: Iceland and Shetland’s First Mosquitoes and the Warning for Northern Islands
As an academic living in the windswept Shetland Isles, I’ve always been fascinated by how climate shapes the fragile ecosystems and cultures of remote islands.
open.substack.com
Shaetlan has finally been recognised as a language in its own right. The recognition comes after the local language was given its own ISO code by SIL Global, the organisation that handles the international Ethnologue database has been tasked with the handling of international language ISO codes.
Shaetlan receives full recognition as a language
SHAETLAN has finally been recognised as a language in its own right. The recognition comes after the local language was given its own ISO code by SIL Global,...
shet.news
It began with meadow pipits and ended with a rainbow over the Sloy dam. Raindrops like pearls cast by bright sunbeams, sparkling slabs of glistening granite, scrambling up the craggy scree slopes and hauling my body 3000 ft high to panoramic views of the Arrochar Alps, Loch Lomond and beyond.
Gaelic is on the verge of extinction. The rural housing crisis caused by an explosion of second homes & buy-to-lets is one of the major driving forces. Next week MSPs will vote on my proposal to increase the tax rate on those buying second homes in communities where Gaelic is still widely spoken.
Greens to force vote on tax for second homes in Gaelic-speaking communities
THE Scottish Greens are set to force a vote on increasing taxes on holiday homes and short-term lets in Gaelic-speaking communities.
thenational.scot
Summer is not quite over yet: A beautiful day-flying hummingbird hawk-moth in a Shetland garden earlier this week.
My latest Clyde Built Radio show is now up, where I rediscover my love for Kim Gordon and quite clearly forget to iron my trousers.
Fragments w/ Blue (23/8/25)
Stream Fragments w/ Blue (23/8/25) by Clyde Built Radio on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.
m.soundcloud.com
My poetry collection, Bodily Fluids, is now available to preorder from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social 💦💘 www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Len Lukowski - Bodily Fluids | Broken Sleep Books
Len Lukowski’s Bodily Fluids is a charged, unflinching examination of desire, transgression, and the shifting boundaries of selfhood. Moving through sex, memory, digital detritus, and fleeting intimac...
brokensleepbooks.com
Please excuse my absence, I have been staring at the floor.
Whan du telt me hoo du thowt o ‘luck’ as nae mair as chance, de happy hubbelskju o aentropie, I thowt onnly o de ben-end o my grandmidder’s hoose an aa her talismans o tat… —Roseanne Watt, “Lukkie” #poem #poetry #Shetland www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/lukkie/
THREAD: 🚨 Leaked Israeli government documents just dropped. Here’s what they reveal: Israeli media outlet Channel 13 published internal war cabinet transcripts from March 2025. They confirm that the Israeli government knowingly pursued a strategy of starvation in Gaza.
Front page! It was a real pleasure to work on this story with @craig-nisbet.bsky.social @stkildawhs.bsky.social @ellingbry.bsky.social on the first drone census of the gannet population at St Kilda, which has determined that it is once again the world’s largest colony #NTSSeabirds shorturl.at/PQxSg
Results from the 2023 #StKilda Gannet census are to be published in the December issue of #ScottishBirds, revealing relative stability in what is once again the world's largest colony, despite fears that #HPAI may have had a greater impact on the population #NTSSeabirds @scottishbirding.bsky.social
A bird’s-eye view of the gannet colony at St Kilda
The first drone census at St Kilda has revealed the islands are now home to the world’s largest gannet colony.
nts.org.uk
A dark day for Scotland’s seabirds. We're incredibly concerned that Scottish Government have granted consent for the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm, which could catapult some of our most vulnerable species toward extinction 🚨 We will carefully scrutinise the details and consider our next steps.
NEW: The Scottish community-owned island of Eigg has announced a boycott of Israel The island of 120 people has backed BDS and its sole shop will stop stocking goods from Israeli firms www.thenational.scot/news/2533509...
Scottish community-owned island announces full boycott of Israel
The Isle of Eigg has announced a full boycott of Israel amid its genocide in Gaza ...
thenational.scot
Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.
LOVED Daisy LaFarge’s Lovebug. Ironically I have been too lovesick and heartbroken to ~consume~ anything related to love of late, but this both joyfully and horrifically demonstrates the destined symbiotic nature of all living things, the network, as opposed to the hierarchy, of it all.
WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for. Stop using WeTransfer.
At climbing sessions near Lviv in west Ukraine, the Mountain Seed Foundation gives children and families impacted by Russia's war an opportunity for respite on the rock, helping them to cope with trauma.
When I was 22 years old (10 years ago now), I embarked on my first long-distance trail, with the assumption this may help cure my CPTSD in some form along the way. But it merely enhanced it, exacerbated it, in that I came out of it #NOTHEALED. I felt cheated, that there was something wrong with me.
Oh does it turn out that going out into nature can't cure rare neurodegenerative diseases? huh.
I am SO HERE for The Salt Path scandal. Up yours, the “nature cure”. Happy fucking Sunday.
Back on Clyde Built Radio with a new regular show called Fragments ✨ Expect the mellow and the melancholy, the sweet and the sexy. Love to play some of my most favourite recent listens in this wee green booth.
Fragments w/ Blue (28/6/25)
Stream Fragments w/ Blue (28/6/25) by Clyde Built Radio on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.
m.soundcloud.com
