Picturing where microplastics come from Here's an image I came across on social media recently that I found useful. Yes really, something useful on social media. That doesn't happen often anymore, though I should point out that it was LinkedIn, which used to be the most boring and staid of all…

Osmosis, the other other renewable energy I've been writing about renewable energy for twenty years, and just this week discovered that there's a whole other kind that I didn't know about. This is the climate nerd equivalent of my daughter finding a new Pokemon. Usually when we're talking about…

A nice little tool from Hannah Ritchie, showing comparisons in energy use. Have a play, use it in classrooms, and give a little energy literacy boost to those around you.

It’s not solar that competes with farmland One of the big hesitations around solar farms is that they take up land that could be used for food production. It's an argument that's made by climate sceptics who oppose renewable energy, but those on the green side of the equation worry about it too.…

Catch up with Luton’s green schools I don't post many local stories, but here's a little video featuring some of my work in the last couple of years in Luton's schools. The Climate Action Teacher Champions (CATCH) programme was set up by Luton Council and local partners. I was involved in the…

What we learned this week The Guardian have run a whole series of articles this week on the theme Beyond Growth (a name I once used for a sister website to this one). Good to see that kind of sustained attention on postgrowth futures in a mainstream newspaper. As the Trump administration revoked…

Three board games for the climate We were playing a board game the other everning as a family, and my daughter chose Carbon City Zero. It's an educational game about climate change, but it totally stands up as a form of entertainment. This isn't always true of educational games, and climate change…

Book review: Code Dependent, by Madhumita Murgia New technologies always come with trade-offs and unanticipated consequences. The more powerful the technology, the greater the potential for disruption. We're still in the early stages of accessible AI tools, but we're already seeing profound…

Would you like to visit a heat pump? Considering a heat pump, when the time comes to replace your gas boiler? You are not alone. All over the country people are debating the pros and cons of making the switch. Last week I had a conversation with a colleague who is thinking about having a heat pump…

What we learned this week Quilicura is a community in Chile that is facing water scarcity, in large part because so many water-cooled AI data centres are located there. To raise awareness of the problem, they brought together a group of local experts to answer people's AI queries for a day. It's…

Book review: Attensity, by The Friends of Attention The great promise of social media was to make it easier than ever to make connections. It initially looked like it would help us make friends and build communities. And yet somehow social media has left us fragmented and isolated, more divided…

The hardest parts of the climate transition Climate disaster can be averted with current technologies and solutions. That's an important message. We don't need to hang our hopes on nuclear fusion, solar panels in space, or geoengineering. Preventing runaway climate change is within our power,…

What we learned this week A useful example of a successful climate justice court case: the government of the Netherlands has been ordered to develop a climate protection plan for the Carribean island of Bonaire. Electric cars outsold petrol cars in the EU last year, though hybrids remain the most…

Are your views on renewable energy up to date? "The way we are doing renewable energy in this country at the moment is an economic act of self harm," Reform Party leader Nigel Farage told an audience in Scotland recently. "The more we rely on renewables, the higher our domestic and our industrial…

Bako Motors and the future of electric vehicles Bako Motors is an automotive start-up making electric vehicles in Tunisia, specialising in vans and micro-cars designed for urban use and last mile deliveries. On the roof is the most obvious and most bizarrely neglected feature in the car industry:…

Book review: Snö, by Sverker Sörlin We had a brief flurry of snow a couple of weeks ago, just enough to get the kids' hopes up for a snow day and not enough to deliver. I did however take the opportunity to read a book that I'd be saving specially, Sverker Sörlin's Snö: A History. It's a book…

What we learned this week The New Scientist has published a special issue featuring the 21 best ideas of the 21st century. They include net zero, climate attribution studies and the 1.5 degree target. (Carbon offsets make an accompanying list of the most disappointing ideas, as well as effective…

The climate actions that make a difference When people become aware of the importance of climate change and want to do something about it, they often want to know what they can do about it. What simple actions can we do that will make a difference? There are a few things to say about this question…

Levi’s tackles the repair skills gap Buying quality items and repairing them when they break is one of the best antidotes to a throwaway society. Whether it's electronics or appliances or clothing, maintaining and fixing them can keep our possessions in service for longer, reducing waste and using…

Book review: The Care Economy, by Tim Jackson The last book I read by Tim Jackson, Post Growth, saw him stepping back from what you might expect from an economist and taking a more narrative driven, philosophical approach. This latest goes even further along that road, presenting a case for care…

What we learned this week The High Seas Treaty came into force this week, the first global treaty to cover marine biodiversity, deep sea mining and a number of other issues. 148 countries have signed it, so it covers two thirds of the world's oceans. The UK has missed its deadline to sign up by…

Sustainable transport with Kochi’s water metro The winner of the ITDP's annual Sustainable Transport Award was announced this week. Each year the award is presented to a city doing pioneering things in sustainable transport, and this year the winner is Salvador in Brazil. They have expanded and…

Book review: Here Comes the Sun, by Bill McKibben Bill McKibben is not a man known for his cheerful disposition. His books include The End of Nature, one that suggested we should rename the Earth now that we've ruined it, and Falter: Has the human game begun to play out? This new book bucks the…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

What is a carbon handprint? Carbon footprints are a familiar term for the climate emissions of something, whether that's a person's lifestyle or a business, or a product or event. It's a term that is well understood in green circles and is recognised among the general public. Its popularity is due…

On still blogging in 2026 I realised recently that I've been writing a blog for over 20 years now. Those two decades have not softened my reflexive dislike of the word blog, by the way. I mentally hesitate before ever using it. I will suck it up and use it here, because at the beginning of a new…

Some favourite posts from 2025 It's time to wrap things up for the season, and I will do so with a selection of highlights. Having looked back over this year's articles, here are some that I'm pleased with. The landscaper of the climate age - The Chinese architect and landscaper Kongjian Yu died…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

Wattswatt: A fairer energy comparison website When I was a child, there was one national supplier for electricity and gas in the UK. Since privatisation in the late 80s and early 90s, households get to choose who their energy provider will be. It doesn't change the electrons coming into the house,…

Climate justice and heat deaths One of the recurring themes of climate change is the disconnect between cause and effect. Those most responsible for causing climate change are insulated from its effects, while the damage of climate change falls on those with the smallest carbon footprints. There…

Book review: Enshittification, by Cory Doctorow "Dirty words have political potency," says Cory Doctorow of the term he coined for the exploitative turn taken by the digital economy. First using it in 2022, Doctorow captured the sense of eroding value on social media and other online platforms.…

Worried about lithium? Here are five unexpected materials for energy storage We're more sophisticated at it now with our gas boilers and internal combustion engines, but humans have depended on a simple energy principle since we lived in caves: if you need energy, set something on fire. If we're…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

The National Emergency Briefing There was a ground-breaking event in London this week, a first of its kind update on climate change called the National Emergency Briefing. Members of Parliament were invited to attend and many did, as a series of experts set out the state of the climate and the way…

Book review: Sink or Swim, by Susannah Fisher The earlier the world had started to reduce carbon emissions, the easier it would have been. We'd have had time, and activists would never have needed to demand radical action. The same is true of climate adaptation. We are going to have to adapt to a…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

The Green Libraries Manifesto It's Green Libraries Week this week, an event that is organised by the library association CILIP. There are a handful of events across the UK, looking at the role that libraries play in climate change. They are also encouraging libraries to sign up to their manifesto.…

Could you swap your boiler for a data centre? If you follow the news in the energy world, you will have noted the huge energy needs of data centres. Global energy demand for computer processing has been growing at 12% a year, with AI now added to cloud storage, streaming services, apps and smart…

The rise of more plant-based eating In my work with schools, I advise them on all aspects of sustainability, along with my fellow climate action advisors at Let's Go Zero. That includes food, and the most important aspect of that is meat and dairy. Local and seasonal food only gets you so far. The…

The global appeal of the doughnut This week it's the now annual Global Doughnut Days, hosted by Kate Raworth and her Doughnut Economics Action Lab. There are events happening around the world and online, exploring and investigating the ongoing work around doughnut economics. As my own…

Book review: How to fall in love with the future, by Rob Hopkins Years ago when I was more involved in the Transition Towns movement, I took part in one of their community training sessions. One of the highlights was an imaginative exercise where we interviewed someone from the future about how…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

Can São Tomé make its entire country a nature reserve? A few years ago there was an unusual campaign to make London the world's first national park city. London, especially south of the river, has enough green spaces to just about make that plausible. In 2019 they achieved it, though I don't…

Book review: The Green Ages, by Annette Kehnel I'm doing a bit of a reading series on the future at the moment. I reviewed Designing Hope last week, with more to come. The Green Ages is part of that too, despite being a book on history. Written by German historian Annette Kehnel and translated by…

Heating homes with seawater Just outside my office window is a heat pump, which provides our house with low carbon heating and hot water. It's an air source heat pump, which means it draws heat from the air and channels it into the house. There are other forms of heat pumps, notably ground source,…

What we learned this week Featuring China's climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.

Film review: Power Station When you put solar panels on your roof, the sun pays for them. It might not feel like it when you get the installation quotes in, but those panels will generate more than they cost and the universe pays you back. So why aren’t we putting them everywhere? Why are so many…

Currently reading: Sink or Swim, by @susannahfisher.bsky.social - very good so far, and a hardback book without a dust cover is a classy object, no?

Book review: Waste Wars, by Alexander Clapp Did you know that during the Cold War, 10% of East Germany's GDP came from taking waste from West Germany? People couldn't move across that border, but rubbish could - and it moved from the richer territory to the poorer one. That's a pattern that…

Racist is a descriptive term This week we've seen the Prime Minister at pains to call out the Reform party's racist policies, while insisting that people who vote for Reform are not themselves racists. It's a tightrope walk, with journalists repeatedly inviting politicians to call their opponents…