People need drama, they need wildness, and they need nature. And the BBC’s Springwatch provides it all. Set over an hour an evening four nights a week for three weeks in May in the UK, Springwatch transmits live from a variety of locations where wildlife scientists give scientific insight into the soap opera-like goings on […]
Jail has taught me a lot. But it’s not what the government hoped. During the 17 years I practised civil engineering I wrote a steady stream of reports and journal papers, alongside occasional industry magazine articles. All of that was dry compared to most things, especially to the issues raised by civil resistance and […]
There is nowhere that climate chaos will not harm. We’ve heard this, again and again, and yet we cannot seem to grasp it. Even those places we call Paradise—whether it’s a town called Paradise, like the one in California, destroyed by fire in 2018, or places we find so perfect we call them Paradise, […]
Fresh-water springs come up through bitter brine. – Tennyson Arriving in Portugal in the spring I met a painfully familiar challenge – Covid. The once ubiquitous, now furtive flu hurled me into isolation and despair. I have chronic migraines and fatigue from the last time I caught Covid, so I was seized with the […]
Read More… from The death of the Ocean is the death of magic
Robin Boardman
Behind us the castle: the ragged keep rises from the scarp like a giant’s stumpy tooth. Nearly every day I pass this magnificent pile, but its magic never pales: the way it nestles on the hilltop of Corfe, ringed in fortifications of ‘burr’ stone and the broken circle of its defences. It’s the magic […]
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