"Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, recently appointed to the role by the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, meets Secretary of State Rubio in Washington" is one of those lines that would sound perfectly plausible to anyone in 2015, but explaining the intervening period would give them an aneurysm.

It shouldn't need saying, but profits of $5.73bn in a single quarter are absolutely obscene.

I spoke to @thetimes.com on horrible yields and how there is no "new normal" "As bad as this year’s harvest is proving to be, Behrens warned against seeing it as a “new normal”. “Until we get our carbon emissions down things will continue to get much, much worse.”" www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Heatwave forces farmers to abandon crops as harvests fail

Extreme weather and rising costs see growers diversifying into alternative businesses, raising severe concerns over the future of British food security

thetimes.com

I got a bluetooth thermometer last Christmas and I've been tracking temperature in Teddington ever since. July 2026 the hottest since records began*. An average daily high of 30.1 degrees is wild. *this record began January 1st 2025

Shooting interests & the rightwing press want to exploit the wildfires to reinstate moorland burning. But you don't fight fire with fire. You fight it with water. This wildfire in Wales' Elan Valley in May stopped abruptly when it reached re-wetted peat bogs: www.walesfarmer.co.uk/news/2614875...

BP exiting the North Sea is a big moment in the history of the industry and Scotland’s economy. It’s been a long time coming, and marks an end to over a century of petroleum activities and more than 50 years of North Sea drilling. BP’s exit cannot be explained by short term tax policy changes 🧵

BP puts North Sea business up for sale

Chief executive Meg O’Neill says the business would be ‘better positioned as part of another company’, sparking recriminations over the basin’s high tax regime

thetimes.com

Oil lobbyists and SNP and Tory politicians will tell you BP is leaving the North Sea due to tax levels. That isn’t a credible explanation. In reality it’s down to the relative profitability of production and geology.

It assumes you'll get good mayors - people who "speak to the strengths of their region" to attract investment and jobs. Loads of jobs potential green jobs in Lincolnshire - is Andrea Jenkyns doing a good job attracting that investment? (I think Luke Campbell maybe gets the benefit of the doubt?)

James Austin@jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 6d ago

This is very good on something about devolution that worries me as well; the lack of scrutiny and accountability of mayors. Jen focuses on the press - but I also have concern about the lack of democratic scrutiny as well from other elected representatives. London has the GLA. WECA has... yeah

Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.

A classic polling result. "We spend too little on defence." "And would you like to pay for that with tax rises or spending cuts" "No thank you"

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · last wk.

What do people in 7 countries see as the biggest global threats? France: Climate change: 48% UK: Climate change: 35% Canada: Climate change: 31% Poland: Military attack: 43% USA: Political extremism: 39% Germany: Mass migration: 36% Australia: Religious terrorism: 31% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

And once again, I am asking any leading politician (including @andyburnham.bsky.social) to explain the precise means by which burning more oil and gas from the North Sea brings down prices for this winter. It'll take years to come on line and be sold at European market prices to the highest bidder.

She's questioning the fundamental principle of a science-based target to ensure the UK contributes to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities & respective capabilities. Net zero 2050 is not a political it is a scientific one.

The problem with making this case (which Badenoch didn't make anyway) is that the whole point of the Climate Change Act is to give different political parties the freedom to reach the target by whatever means they see fit. All the plan has to do is be credible...

James Murray@james-bg.bsky.social · 6d ago

You can make the case net zero targets are too prescriptive and a more flexible approach is needed, but you need a plan that is a lot better than what Badenoch implies to still actually get to net zero by around 2050 or else you risk runaway climate disasters.

The result in the UK is a country that now keeps hundreds of political prisoners, a country in which you can get six months in jail for marching slowly down the street. Protest here is acceptable as long as it’s useless. Let the people have their say, but only if we can’t hear them.

The pragmatic approach is to not do it @andyburnham.bsky.social. The oil and gas companies posting obscene profits today are lying to you about what drilling could do to bills. All it will do is increase their profits, and speed up the climate harms being felt by people across the UK right now.

Instead of relying on the Bank to tackle inflation, this government should take more responsibility: supporting households with high costs and kicking the UK's addiction to expensive fossil fuels. 3/3

It hasn't rained since April and European governments are wrestling with how to respond to devastating wildfires. Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch and various columnists are publicly debating whether escalating climate impacts require decarbonisation at all. www.businessgreen.com/news/4533644...

'A consequence of the climate crisis': UK, France, and Spain vow to work together to tackle wildfire threat

Joint statements promise more co-ordinated effort to enhance climate resilience, as Tory leader brands net zero plans a 'political fiction'

businessgreen.com

While wildfires burn and communities suffer across Europe, fossil fuel giants are cashing in. If we’re serious about tackling the climate crisis, the answer is NOT more fossil fuels. It’s investing properly in renewable energy to cut emissions, cut bills and protect nature.

Shell’s profits more than double after jump in oil and gas prices

Environmental groups renew calls for windfall tax to support households following Q2 earnings rise to $9.84bn

theguardian.com

This is a leader of the Conservative Party who would not allow in her party Theresa May, Boris Johnson, David Cameron and (based on her views on climate change needing an urgent response) Margaret Thatcher

Lucy Siegle@lucysiegle.bsky.social · 7d ago

Kemi Badenoch wants common sense wildfires that respect oil and gas assets, not all this mad net zero stuff.

The warmer weather this year is the best it's going to get. This will be one of the coldest years of the rest of your life. A Mediterranean climate is increasingly deadly.

Leo Hickman@leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 7d ago

The Daily Telegraph has raced through all five stages of climate denial this week. But this is, perhaps, the most ridiculous column so far: "Without minimising the severe downsides…especially on some poorer nations, many in Britain would enjoy the kind of warmer climate predicted by modellers..."

I see your doom scrolling, and I raise it this. www.news.com.au/technology/o...

AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books

If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.

news.com.au

It's not going to become 'the norm' though, is it? That's what so fucking terrifying about it. It's going to become a lot worse, very quickly.

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · last wk.

Would you be happy if this summer's weather became the norm? Happy: 38% Neither: 22% Unhappy: 38% yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...

Breaking ma heart Cairngorms Wildfires

Marvellous from @tompeck.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

It's noticeable, too, that there wasn't a single question on the climate, at a time when Europe is experiencing catastrophic wild-fires & record-breaking heat. It's astonishing how low down the political agenda this remains in Britain, when all the environmental indicators are signalling disaster.

This was also my main criticism of Oppenheimer, which I only saw for the first time this week.

Cliff Pervocracy@pervocracy.bsky.social · last wk.

Here's the archive link since the original was down when I looked: archive.is/VOO3p Even having enjoyed the movie I am 100% on board with her criticisms, most pointedly: "We are not shown that war or killing are bad, only that good men sometimes feel bad about it – a very different point."

There've been a good 38 press releases from No 10 since Burnham became PM - many of them calls with world leaders. Not once has climate, nature or environment been mentioned beyond condolences for wildfires or broad points on energy. As the UK faces a 4th heatwave this year, can that silence hold?