Paul Burgess

@pdburgess.bsky.social

Scenographer, theatre-maker, folk fiddler & community arts facilitator with a focus on green thinking & queerness. ESL content producer on the side. MSc student. he/him

Whether it’s AI going rogue, being used by criminals, or simply flooding social media with slop and disinformation, we need strict, enforceable rules. I’ve signed this petition to demand the UK government introduce an AI Rights Bill with REAL rules, regulations and guardrails. Join me: 38d.gs/5roa

Put an AI Rights Bill in place NOW, before it’s too late

Another day, another headline about AI gone rogue. It's why I've signed a new petition calling for the UK Gov to introduce an AI Rights Bill - with REAL rules, regulations and guardrails to protect us...

38d.gs

This shows the days per year with marginal heat stress in orange, and coral bleaching heat stress in red in the Florida Keys. Both the intensity and longevity of heat stress per summer is increasing.

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Jeff Berardelli @weatherprof.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The waters around #Florida are heating, especially fast in the Florida Keys. In the past 4 decades summer water temps have increased from comfortably below the “bleaching threshold” in the mid 80s (blue), to near/above 90 (red) in recent years - a deadly temperature for coral if it’s persistent 1/

Of course Cofnas, Thiel and Reform’s Orr are connected. It’s actually quite a small group of people who are responsible for the onslaught of disinformation and far-right bullshit we’re being subjected to, an onslaught that is fracturing our society and robbing us blind. And which killed Arday.

The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday

The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network

bylinetimes.com

Labour has got this policy so wrong. 1. It favours new homes when we need to be retrofitting the huge amount of empty properties in the UK. 2. It deprioritises brownfield sites, which should be the second choice after retrofitting existing buildings.

Loosening of planning rules in England to allow more new homes near stations

Angela Rayner to launch guidance for ‘default yes’ on developments near transport hubs, including on green belt sites

theguardian.com

The arguments trotted out against leaving fossil fuels in the ground are strikingly similar to the arguments trotted out against ending the slave trade, 230 years ago. 1. If we stop trading slaves / extracting fossil fuels, Britain’s economy will collapse 🧵

Is “pragmatic” the new, “grown up” word? Andy, there’s nothing “pragmatic” about drilling for more oil & gas - to even consider it with the planet literally on fire is total madness. How many times must we say it will do nothing for energy bills or security? It would be an act of utter recklessness

Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas

PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’

theguardian.com

Our criteria for success are disastrously skewed. In my view, a successful person is one who does more good than harm, on any scale. On this measure, most billionaires are massive failures, while humble folk in my neighbourhood who look after other people are highly successful.

I was sorting out my photos for the design | stage catalogue and realised that I've never shared any of the artwork I did for Deafinitely Theatre's Barrier(s). Or, at least, not the images in their entirety, as the actual projections used sections from a larger whole.

This week's column explains how successive Environment Secretaries in the UK have been actively facilitating ecocide on behalf of industrial lobbyists. Charged with protecting the living world, one after another has been working for the enemy. This has to change.🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Besieged by lobbyists, will UK ministers protect our ecosystems? No, they’ll chicken out | George Monbiot

Industrial poultry farming is killing our rivers. But rather than stop it, the government has been facilitating it. Will Andy Burnham end this ecocide, asks Guardian columnist George Monbiot

theguardian.com

Every four years, there’s a national theatre design exhibition representing the work of Society of British Theatre Designers members. If you're a theatre designer working in the UK, your work should probably be in it.

A scaffolding structure against a black background supporting range of monitors, drawings and models with an outlandish costume in the foreground, including a huge segmented hat.

I’ve just signed this petition for a public inquiry into violence at our border. I was shocked when I read about the horrible violence kids and even babies are living through there - and we’re paying for it! Please sign and share. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Violence towards kids just isn’t right

I’ve just signed this petition to get a full public inquiry into the violence at our border. I was shocked when I read about the horrible violence kids and even babies are living through there - and w...

you.38degrees.org.uk

Very sad indeed to hear of David Hockney's death. His exhibition 'Hockney Paints the Stage' at the Hayward was a huge influence on me as a kid, and his opera designs - both in their visual boldness and in the way they reflect the music - still are. I also met him a few times…

🚨 Half the UK’s top 10 fish stocks are being overexploited, new research shows! Overfishing is emptying our seas of life, and it's a political choice 🐟 So I’m joining @oceanauk.bsky.social in calling on the Prime Minister to end overfishing in UK waters. Join us! 📩 act.oceana.org/page/178303/...

🚨 Half the UK’s top 10 fish stocks are being overexploited, new Oceana UK research shows

Overfishing is emptying our seas of life, and it's a political choice 🐟 That's why I’m joining Oceana UK in calling on the Prime Minister to end overfishing in UK waters.

act.oceana.org

New study: most climate models underestimate the decline of the Atlantic overturning circulation #AMOC. The AMOC is on course to slow by more than 50% by the end of the century. 🌊 Very likely the AMOC will then be past the tipping point for full shutdown. 😨 us.cnn.com/2026/04/16/c...

A vital system of Atlantic Ocean currents is weakening and closer to collapse than thought, new studies find | CNN

New research provides alarming evidence this ocean circulation is slowing and could be heading toward a shutdown, which would have catastrophic impacts on the planet’s weather and climate.

us.cnn.com