Imagine that during the London blitz, the British debated whether the country was at war with Germany. Imagine that some peoples’ response was this: “History is full of wars, so this is nothing special. This kind of thing happens all the time.” Imagine others saying: “Sure, a bomb lands from time to time, but […]
Read More… from Where is Climate’s Winston Churchill?
Carsten Jensen
It can be hard to keep going when the environmental crisis is ongoing, and worsening as the years go by. It’s easy to turn away. Of course, sometimes we need to watch a funny movie, go for a walk in nature, or have a nice meal. Self-care and resilience are part of the work. […]
Read More… from The Exhilaration of Everything Change
Cath Drake
I’m struggling with the concept of hope at the moment. Is it an ideological con? My dictionary defines the verb ‘to hope’ as: to cherish a desire that something good will happen with some expectation of success or fulfilment. I might as well just cross my fingers. We hear a lot about the value […]
We know relatively little about life in the deepest oceans. But we know that the blue that covers more than 70 percent of the planet is also a regulator of its climate, and responsible for around 50% of our oxygen. It is also home to millions of extraordinary species. Only last month, 5000 new […]
I am flicking backwards and forwards between my poem Human Chain, published 30 years after the anti-road protests at Twyford Down in Hampshire – and the photo from March 1993 which inspired it. It begins: Looking at the blocks of chalk passed hand to hand by the protesters – silhouettes of black against the white […]
On the evening of 4 May 2023, three orcas (orcinus orca), otherwise known as killer whales, attacked and sunk a Swiss-flagged yacht in the Gibraltar Strait. The same day, crew on the British-flagged Mustique radioed the Spanish Coast Guard for help after four orcas ripped off its rudder and pierced the hull. Last month, […]
Thirty years ago, Roc Sandford moved to a small, bleak island in the Hebrides. They aimed to live there without mains services and manage the land for wildlife. But the place had a different destiny in store. Far from being an unspoilt haven, Gometra was in ecological crisis, caused by climate and nature breakdown. […]
June already and a full moon. I take my tea to the top of the garden where I can look out across the hills. It’s been a cold spring and in our small glen these early mornings are still dewy. Cool enough for a thick jumper, fresh enough to clear my head. Everywhere is […]
Llevamos meses asistiendo a una sucesión de récords de temperatura en todo el mundo y a un rápido aumento de fenómenos climáticos extremos. Los datos científicos nos confirman que no son incidentes aislados: los últimos ocho años han sido los más cálidos en el conjunto de la Tierra desde que hay registros, y la […]
Read More… from LLAMAMIENTO POR LA TIERRA DESDE EL MUNDO DE LAS LETRAS
PEN Català
We have been witnessing a succession of temperature records around the world for months and a rapid increase in extreme weather events. Scientific data confirm that these are not isolated incidents: the last eight years have been the warmest on Earth as a whole since there are records, and the current temperature is already […]
Read More… from CALL FOR THE EARTH FROM THE LITERARY WORLD
PEN Català
I was surprised at my emotions upon arrival at my first XR march. As the sun warmed my skin, I looked at the faces around me: I saw smiles, I heard chanting, and I sensed solidarity. So why do I feel sad? I wondered. I couldn’t escape emotions of guilt, shame and loneliness, feelings […]
Crickets chirping noisily around me, observed with blinking indifference by long-tailed lizards as mosquitoes circled in periodic diving raids, I trudged the last hundred or so metres of rising dust to the rear of the factory compound. The corrugated iron fence, ragged but ten foot tall in places, seemed to offer no insight into […]
Read More… from The Lucrative Illusion of Green Capitalism
Laurie Parsons
Why not go on a short walk? Only fifteen minutes or so. It could take you anywhere, through a green space, or down city streets. Go on a walk and listen to recordings of poetry melded with sound. These natural sounds were recorded on site at the Ring of Brodgar, Orkney, Scotland. They comprise wind, […]
Read More… from Rewilding: Brodgar Poetry/Sound Walk
Stephanie Green and Sonja Heyer
In 2019, a group of Swedish scientists published a paper on the migration patterns of the European Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus). They had discovered that the migration patterns of the birds, worldwide, are linked to the lunar cycle. This led me to wonder what tales nightjars would tell each other if they could speak? Perhaps […]
Cheap paper is all around us. It’s flushed down toilets, taken away in cups, wrapped around online orders, photocopied, printed and discarded. Paper may be a renewable resource, but it has to be grown somewhere. For the European market, this somewhere tends to be Portugal, which produces about 50% of Europe’s paper. Portugal’s paper […]
It’s 2020 and I am debating whether my lupin seedlings are ready for transplanting. Like Barnacle goslings leaving the nest, the transition is a bumpy cliff. They are the height of my thumb, two only have their seed leaves still and aren’t identifiable. I use a spoon to scoop them up and plop them […]
Read More… from Staying Grounded
Dr Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs
In 2022, a writer friend and I began talking about how we wanted to draw local poets and writers together, to build community around those who were addressing (or wanted to address) the climate and ecological emergency in their writing. We put some feelers out and on a warm evening in June, twelve of […]
Read More… from Now is the time to set up a local Writers Rebel
Rebecca Stonehill
Zadie Smith spoke as part of XR’s The Big One on April 21st 2023 outside 55 Tufton Street. Video c/o Real Media. […]
Read More… from Zadie Smith’s Speech on The Tufton Pragmatists
Zadie Smith
Following her appearance at The Big One on April 21st 2023, Zadie Smith has shared the definite text of her piercing speech with Writers Rebel. It is reproduced here exclusively. Hello. I want to speak to you today about a man called Craig Mackinlay, MP. Craig campaigns against flagship green policies, and is […]
For 2100, 77 years from now, the likely range in global temperature increase above the pre-industrial average is 2-4.9°C, with the median 3.2°C. Globally, that is to say, we are set on a course for a barely imaginable catastrophe. As Sir David Attenborough put it, four years ago this month, “It may sound frightening, […]
We gather here in love and rage to tell the story of our age, to ring the bell, to write the page, to raise the roof, rattle the cage, expose the lies, call out the cheats who foster, posture, pant and pitch deadly denial, rank and rich, and peddle death at Tufton Street and […]