Mark Norman

@mark60.bsky.social

Recently-retired primary school teacher, NW England: here for climate justice, the nature crisis, education, active travel, allotment chat and … Norwich City FC.

‘Britain has private ownership while making the state responsible for planning via subsidies. The result is a zombie system, a muddled and dysfunctional hybrid of state and market, with the benefits of neither and the costs of both.’ Arthur Downing on the energy crisis www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Arthur Downing · Asset Sweating: Britain’s Energy Crisis

Britain has private ownership while making the state responsible for planning via subsidies. The result is a zombie...

lrb.co.uk

Perfectly put. I’ve recently been told I’m enabling traffickers for simply wanting the RNLI to continue rescuing people (he meant, “the boat people”). If someone is in distress at sea, for whatever reason, the RNLI are there for them, 24/7.

Foreign aid contributions fell in 2025 amongst almost all of the top 10 donors. In 2025, the amount of foreign aid given by the world’s richest countries fell by almost a quarter. That amounted to a reduction of roughly US$50 billion.

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Dubbed a "chemical bomb," discarded cigarette butts leach heavy metals, nicotine, and microplastics into water, accounting for 12% of global aquatic litter. Researchers highlight beach smoking bans with targeted fines as an effective way to protect fragile marine ecosystems. mongabay.cc/M2FAoc

Cigarette butts make up 12% of aquatic litter, global review finds

Cigarette butts account for roughly 12% of the litter found in rivers, lakes and beaches surveyed for a recent global review. Researchers pooled data from 130 studies conducted in 55 countries…

mongabay.cc

🔴 Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000 The Conservative leader and Alex Burghart MP held “off-site meetings” with the billionaire media mogul in August bylinetimes.com/2026/09/25/r...

Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000

The Conservative leader and Alex Burghart MP held "off-site meetings" with the billionaire media mogul in August

bylinetimes.com

🚨 Urgent message to Labour Conference delegates. Pass it on! On Sunday, you'll get to vote in the priorities ballot, which will decide which motions will be heard at conference. Let's make sure that a fair voting system is on the agenda. Vote for "electoral reform" and ask others to do the same.

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In Peru’s high Andes, glacier retreat is threatening water security. To combat water insecurity, a community project is restoring high-altitude wetlands and native forests to secure water for downstream communities, though experts caution these tools are "not a panacea." Euan Wallace reports.

In Peru’s high Andes, restoring ancient ecosystems could help protect water security

In the highlands above Villa de Arma, community leaders once walked through ice and snow. They still remember the stories told by their grandparents of the Apus, high-mountain spirits that guard the…

mongabay.cc

Liar. Small boat crossings peaked under Johnson in 2022 reaching 46,000 in 2022. In current year they are 18,565 and falling. Also prior to Boris Johnson's Brexit there were none.

It's a disaster, and it can all be traced to
Labour ideology. Burnham has no mandate
from the people. He has no real ideas, and
no plan,

Johnson on X

This news is important because all the fucks out there actively attempting to wreck the world want you to think that the work is hopeless and just mitigating the worst case scenario. It's not. Fucking keep going.

Hope For The Planet@h4tp.bsky.social · 3d ago

We now have rigorous pooled data showing that even without active restoration efforts, cleared rainforest can rebound to 75% of their former species composition and 90% of species diversity within just thirty years. #goodnews

What is the Lovell Telescope revealing about our Universe?🔭 Inside the Observatory: Discovering the Universe from Jodrell Bank, on 1 Oct, is an evening with some of the Observatory team exploring the cutting-edge science happening at Jodrell Bank Book now: https://ow.ly/ACNR50ZRo5w 📸 Andrew Brooks

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We have seen an astonishing resurgence of the lovely amber-winged wall brown butterfly at Knepp. Before 2025, there'd been just one record of this rare butterfly in the Wildland this century. It gets its name from its habit of basking on walls and rocks, where it opens its wings to soak up the sun.

The UK Road Safety Strategy adopts a Safe System approach with a target of a 65% reduction in KSIs by 2035. With lower urban/village 20mph implicit within a Safe System culture they will become the norm in the UK. #20splenty is making our places fit for the 21st century.

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