As prolonged heatwaves and rising global temperatures make Britain’s weather increasingly volatile, we are witnessing a dramatic escalation in wildfire activity both here and across Europe. 🧵1/9
El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year
El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year
UN forecasters warn of worsening conditions in 45 countries currently experiencing severe food insecurity About 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger before the end of next year by the rapidly developing El Niño weather system, according to forecasting. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of people already facing dangerous levels of hunger, owing to years of drought in parts of Africa and pressure on food prices from the war in Iran. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
My column on how capital becomes a death cult. Faced with a choice between profit and human life, the radical right chooses profit. Then it tries to persuade us that mass death is what we want. It's the new phase of climate denial: accept your fate, earthlings. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Murderous heat, an endangered food supply, decimated landscapes: embrace the Mediterranean life | George Monbiot
As climate disaster stares us in the face, the radical right says ‘Embrace the Mediterranean life’. Embrace death, more like it, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
When you kill it, it doesn’t die’: the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immortality “When this jellyfish gets old or gets hurt, instead of just dying like most animals, it transforms itself back into a baby jellyfish and grows up all over again. .” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘When you kill it, it doesn’t die’: the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immortality
Turritopsis dohrnii has the ability to turn back into a baby jellyfish and grow up all over again
theguardian.com
Imagine if, instead of talking about small boats, Burnham announced, for example, a major programme to update building regs and retrofit all public buildings with insulation, heating/cooling heat pumps with HEPA filters, solar and batteries.
Jessica Elgot@jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 3d agoWe are in the third drought in five years. We have the National Trust and NFU - those radical types - sounding the alarm on unprecedented temperatures. But so little from any single figure in politics talking about the climate crisis.
Sure, but it was never a question of whether she was right or wrong. All the MPs and the press knew very well she was correct, because they see it all the time. The point was that some insolent upstart tree-hugger had no business running her big yapping mouth, where the public can hear. The end.
A first year above 2C in the mid-2030s now looks plausible. 0.5C was first passed in 1980, 1.0C in 2010 and 1.5C in 2024. The 15-year trend runs at 0.42C per decade. The 2026 and 2027 points for the current El Nino are estimates. We're not remotely ready!
🧵Right-leaning newspapers are trying to blame Europe's raging wildfires on everything EXCEPT fossil fuels 1. The Wall Street Journal Frontpage story: "Greece fights wildfires as Europe crisis spreads" WSJ editorial: "How green policies fuel fires in Europe"
I think the great mental block with climate change is people understanding that the world they grew up in is gone, forever. But it’s also important to tell people that the world of mitigation/adaptation could, in many ways be better, that many of the measures we should take are inherently positive.
Dr. Aaron Thierry@thierryaaron.bsky.social · 4d ago"The #climate we live in today is the least extreme climate you will experience in your lifetimes because of ongoing fossil fuel emissions."
Lockdowns showed that states can pour massive resources into making the politically impossible happen quickly, the public will accept huge changes if they understand why they're needed, and that we should listen to scientists. Something to remember when it comes to action on climate change.
The period 2018/19 was the political/media class collectively realising there is no upper limit on how horrifically they can behave, with total impunity, and that is precisely how we wound up with first Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and then Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
A serious country would already have started an overhaul of (at the very least) public buildings and regulations to both mitigate/adapt to climate change and improve air quality/secure against future pandemics. Technically, it would be pretty much the same measures.
Paul Bernal@paulbernal.bsky.social · 4d agoIf you want to avoid school lockdowns next time, do the preparation now. Provide schools with the resources. Deal with ventilation.
The correct analysis of the correct root cause - once the pandemic, any pandemic, broke containment, nobody was going to get the life they should have had - should lead you to invest more in public health and more in international coordination, to prevent the next pandemic from breaking containment
Your root cause analysis is flawed: they never had the life they should have had because of Covid. Closures followed Covid, and were one possible response. We did, in fact, see the other possible responses in that same time period, and they involved things like “piles of dead bodies in freezers.”
This stuff really does amount to an intellectual and moral collapse. It’s a rejection of the absolute basics of scientific understanding, risk management principles, economic and technological transitions, and even conservative values, all masquerading as pragmatic realism.
I suppose we should be grateful the Sunday Times is both-sidesing the idea we should try to cut carbon emissions, rather than dismissing it outright. But it’s still further evidence of how mainstream reporting on climate has got dramatically worse in recent years. www.thetimes.com/article/ed72...
How wildfires put climate (and net zero deadlines) back on the agenda
Much of the country is experiencing the extreme heat scientists have long warned about, but reignited political debate shows no sign of finding consensus
thetimes.com
I think this is less controversial now than it was 20 or 30 years ago, but the 80s was a far, far more interesting decade for pop/rock music than the 60s
lil miss big boy@lighter.bsky.social · 5d agoPost your hottest music take. Mine is New Order is better than Joy Division.
I think what's happened here is the press immediately recognised the obvious truth of what Hannah Spencer said but their idea of fairness/compromise is to still go in two footed on her, a vile 'leftie', and then circle back and pick up her points a few months on without acknowledging they were hers
Podcasting is Praxis@praxiscast.bsky.social · 5d agoThat's weird, because a whole discourse happened where we were all told drinking was super normal and anyone asking questions was a gross communist who didn't understand? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
When every news story is framed around corporations and their need for constant growth, then every reduction in public consumption, no matter the positives for our general health, is portrayed as a disaster that needs corrected.
The Independent@the-independent.com · 5d agoBars are switching their focus back to Gen X as younger Gen Z stops drinking
According to the parliamentary annual report & accounts for the 2025/26 financial year, the cost of subsidising the bars in the House of Commons alone was around £5.8 million. Meanwhile, to save £3 million less than that, Jodrell Bank is being defunded and shut down. share.google/MRHIvCsCsKoc...
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
share.google
Just about the only observable politics Sir Keir had was a worryingly intense certainty in the centrality of hierarchy and mandatory deference to your superiors, i.e. him and his friends, and the need to ruthlessly crush people who do not show the required level of respect.
David Timoney@fromarsetoelbow.bsky.social · 6d agoAccording to George Monbiot, "Starmer was a weak man, without a clear vision of his own, who was rolled by any powerful state or corporate lobby. He was no match for a well-funded and highly effective international campaign." This is misleading. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
But as LBC itself reported today, the *systems* impacts of global heating on the UK will be exponentially worse. Food production and distribution networks are just one set of systems that are at severe risk of collapse under a warmer climate.
Tesco, Sainsbury's and Aldi sound alarm over food supplies as Britain imports nearly 80% of fresh fruit and veg - as heatwaves and wildfires sweep Europe | LBC
Food industry giants including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Aldi are urging Andy Burnham to make Britain's food security a national priority alongside energy and defence.
lbc.co.uk
“It's just a rumour that was spread around town By the women and children Soon we'll be shipbuilding”
flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 7d agoYeah, there’s not much help coming here, I’m afraid. Attempting to fix social care is at least somewhat hopeful, but the rest looks like much the same shit with a smiley face badge rather than a frowny one.
"But we're only 1% of emissions": media in countries collectively emitting 20% of global CO₂ In 200+ national newspapers in 27 countries made claims that because that country accounts for only approx 1% of global emissions, progress in cutting that country’s emissions should be slowed
Defense Keynesianism isn't real and people should stop pretending it is
flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 7d agoYeah, there’s not much help coming here, I’m afraid. Attempting to fix social care is at least somewhat hopeful, but the rest looks like much the same shit with a smiley face badge rather than a frowny one.
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..."
