Just four in 10 new homes in England currently come with solar power The body representing local authorities think it should be *all* of them It would benefit bill-payers & the climate, saving people £440 per year news.sky.com/story/end-th...

Hugely important warning: allowing cheaper US food imports that don’t meet the same environmental & animal protection standards as British farmers would sound a death knell for UK farms & rural communities. It must not be part of any future trade deal

Where are all wood burners in England & Wales? Urban areas outside major cities are likely to have the worst #airpollution from wood burning. New mapping highlights #Worthing, #Norwich, #Reading, #Cambridge & #Hastings. Study led by @ucl.ac.uk. Story by me. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Dedicated bicycle lanes save lives, yet another study shows.

Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae) had its worst year on record in the UK in 2024. It numbers at @ukbms.bsky.social monitored sites have been below average now in 20 of the last 25 years. Since 1976, its population has decreased by 49% (📷Mark Searle)

"The 20 mph legislation in Wales cost approximately £32 million. However, it was estimated in the first year alone that the direct cost savings from reduced road traffic casualties would amount to three times the initial implementation costs (£92 million)."

Imagine the benefit to pollinators if, instead of fences or walls, all the new builds they're putting up had hedges around the garden, or, stony banks with lots of shelter for wildlife. 3/3

At this time of year, hedgerow plants do an outsize job feeding honeybees. A DNA barcoding study by National Botanic Garden of Wales found, even at the gardens, with a huge variety of flowers, bees chose to visit hedgerow plants over & over in April-May 🧵 1/3 www.nature.com/articles/sre...

💯 “Reliable, frequent bus services are essential for increasing patronage and making buses a viable alternative to driving. Bus priority measures reduce journey times, improve passenger satisfaction and enable the virtuous cycle of facilitating additional investment in more and better bus services.”

UK housebuilders ‘very bad’ at building houses, says wildlife charity CEO www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Paris says yes to 500 more car-free streets! In Sunday’s referendum, 67% of Parisians voted to reclaim city space for walking and cycling. The decision means 10,000 parking spaces will be removed, continuing a shift that’s already halved car traffic since 2000. www.dw.com/en/france-pa...

Why is there ANY debate? 🤦‍♀️ 20mph in Wales meant about 100 fewer people killed or seriously injured in a year. “There is, perhaps, a lesson here for politicians: sometimes it can be best to ignore the noisiest voices, and take the evidence-based course.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Wind pollinated plants re-establish fairly quickly in damaged grasslands, but it takes 75 years+ to restore the network of insect pollinated plants that rely on the right seed + the right pollinator in the right place, study finds. Can Biodiversity Net Gain offset 75 years? phys.org/news/2025-03...

Fossil fuel firms subsidised $7trillion per year, says study that finds ending them would enable meeting climate goals & promote economic growth. www.energylivenews.com/2025/03/18/w...

Sir Keir has misrepresented the impact of conservation on housing in Ebbsfleet. The majority of the homes are going ahead. The distinguished jumping spider isn’t even in the development area, but it is a precious habitat. Let's move beyond nature vs. growth - sustainable development benefits us all.

Huge Frustration as UK Government pauses the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/frustra...

Plastic pollution leaves seabirds with brain damage similar to Alzheimer’s, study shows

A dire winter for Bewick's Swan saw only 87 birds recorded at Slimbridge WWT, the charity has said:

There's a lot of data on UK water pollution - but it's not always laid out so it's easy for people to find. We wanted people to be able to investigate what's polluting their local area, & the Felt platform enabled us to build the Watershed Pollution Map: watershedinvestigations.com/landfill-sit...

"The analysis estimates that between 4% and 14% of the world’s staple crops of wheat, rice and maize is being lost due to the pervasive particles. It could get even worse, the scientists said, as more #microplastics pour into the environment." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Excellent @transportfornewhomes.org.uk report 'What is being built in 2025', which reveals new developments are: 😢car-dependent with poor public transport 😢negatively impact on communities The report also highlights how integrated transport can work. www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk/the-project/...

Toxic Town - the Netflix retelling of a real-life toxic pollution event which caused birth defects in the town of Corby (UK) - offers a stark warning on rollbacks of environmental regulations By @kirstypringle.bsky.social & @jimmcquaid.bsky.social: theconversation.com/netflixs-tox...

Diverse scrub and acid grassland gone. Addressing the housing crisis one could argue, but not so if you are a Dunnock, Nightingale, Bullfinch, Whitethroat or Linnet No doubt supposedly provisioned for with bird boxes erected as 'compensation' on the side of the boxes for humans.

Nobody knows exactly what was buried beneath Arnold's Field. Fires have burned beneath the site for years. COPD levels rising locally, and nobody in authority is stepping up to protect people. Would this have been allowed to go on so long in an affluent area? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Separated bike lanes especially benefit women: "The findings revealed a notable increase in the utilisation of segregated lanes, with a more significant impact observed among women than among men." doi.org/10.1016/j.re...

“Loneliness and isolation can lead to: 29% increased risk of heart disease; 32% increased risk of stroke; 50% increased risk of developing dementia among older adults; and 60% increased risk of premature death.” Surgeon General recommends designing cities to create more connections. #WalkableCities

‘About time they got some credit’: why hoverflies are an underappreciated insect

How would children improve transport? This list looks good to me. Government support for these actions is an investment in future generations, and has long term benefits for public health, communities and the environment. Great work from Sustrans & Halfords.

People at risk of exposure to globally banned PFOS & PFOA in Bentham - are having to fund raise for their own blood testing as neither the government nor industry steps up to investigate the impact on people's health in the UK's most PFAS polluted town. yorkshirebylines.co.uk/region/benth...

We’d all like zero energy costs in our homes and this new housing project in Essex proves that it’s possible. @jennyrhodes42.bsky.social on the future of sustainable living.

Healthy and thriving, wildlife-rich grasslands are a vital part of many of our butterflies and moths lifecycles, so we’re joining our friends at @plantlifeuk.bsky.social to ask the UK Government for a plan and taskforce to protect them for the future. 🌿🌼🦋

Rewilding sees wildlife rebound in Hackney Marshes: how a local community has managed to spectacularly reverse nature loss. Communities everywhere could be doing the same, reconnecting and empowering themselves AND nature, on so many levels. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Active travel targets at risk as national strategy set for delay www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk/Active-trave...

Countries that weaken or stop their #netzero and #climate actions may be consigning their populations to decades of preventable #airpollution illness. My latest for @theguardian.com on research led by Imperial College London. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

✅ “If decarbonisation targets are to be met, people will need to use public transport far more in future” Electrification is vital AND we also need a proper plan to reduce the need for motorised travel and shift more journeys to public transport & active travel

How urban spaces support #pollinators – a new study just published #ecology #bees #biodiversity jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/02/20/h...

In just one year, 700 oil & chemical spills have been reported by fossil fuel firms operating in UK seas. Fish, birds, dolphins, whales endure cancers, lung disease, disfigurement & trouble breeding due to the toxic effects of this pollution. www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

Recruitment is now open for the 2025 Tracking the Impact survey season! Help monitor bird, butterfly & plant species in the #Chilterns – no experience necessary 🦋🐦‍⬛🌿 Find out more and register your interest 👇 https://s.mtrbio.com/zaekadqafb #chilternsnationallandscape #citizenscience

Hey Bluesky!! I made a big stink at work until my organisation came over here from the Other Place. Let's reward the decision by showing the way we can engage and come together here instead of the zero engagement over there. Repost or like this please - help extend the reach of the CNL ❤️

2,500 trees felled to create two additional lanes and two new junctions on a 5.5-mile (9km) stretch of the A47 between North Tuddenham and Easton, Norfolk www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Air pollution has dropped significantly in #Paris in the last 15 years as a result of a deliberate strategy. Mayor @annehidalgo.bsky.social’s leadership has traded car space for green space, safe bike space, kid space.. and traded pollution for people. Good trade.

I've written a news story about part of Whitewebbs Park being handed to Spurs for a new women's football academy. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

#Hedgerows increase soil carbon storage by 40% (and that's in addition to their value for crop protection, livestock health, biodiversity, pollution sequestration and prevention of runoff and soil erosion) www.leeds.ac.uk/main-index/n...

I've written a news story about the worrying slow-down in Natural England designating SSSIs. NE is full of brilliant people, working so hard for nature. But it appears almost impossible at moment for them to designate sites under immediate threat of development. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"There is a huge push for 1.5 million new homes, with little consideration as to where they are built, or updating building regulations to ensure that houses are built to be flood resilient." @floodmary.bsky.social pulls no punches in this brilliant blog 👇🏾 floodmary.com/2025/02/10/b...

This is important — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY. There was also a 71% drop in air pollution. Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople www.forbes.com/sites/carlto...

The fundamental problem is that housing has become a product and an investment market, rather than a right… Until that changes, house prices will rise faster than incomes, because that's what investments do www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02...

After one year of the Bradford clean air / low emission zone, GP visits for breathing and heart problems were down by a quarter. My latest for @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This survey is the best evidence of the universal nature of Swift bricks: 49% of 1289 occupied across Duchy of Cornwall developments, with House Sparrows, Starlings and particularly House Martins all benefitting nansledan.com/project-news...

As Craig Bennett said today “what Natural England was doing was upholding the law; an Act of Parliament which quite rightly was adopted many years ago to protect our most precious wildlife. What would we rather our public bodies do; uphold the law, or ignore it?” www.linkedin.com/posts/craig-...