David Farrier

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Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here | George Monbiot Consider the annihilation of agricultural land alongside the genocide – and grasp the chilling totality of this attempt to eliminate all life, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

When you consider the *ecocide* alongside the genocide being perpetrated in Gaza, you begin to grasp the totality of the Israeli state’s attempt to eliminate both the Palestinians and their homeland.
My column today.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Should we intervene in evolution? The ethics of ‘editing’ nature | Aeon Essays Countless species are dying from human-induced environmental change. Should we use genetic technology to alter and save them?

Many species won't survive without our help, but what should that help look like? I wrote about this for @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/shoul...

Nature's Genius is published in Italian!!

Oh no! Hope you're out of pain soon.

Can't think of a government in my adult life that has failed to meet the moment like this one.

Rue Rue Jo Cox, Députée Britannique, a street sign in Burgundy reads, Assassinée pour ses convictions. No British road is named after her, I found on returning home, for fear it could have proved controversial. I remembered in Shakespeare rue even for ruth, called 'herb of grace' because it was used in exorcisms, by the angel to clean Adam's eyes, and Gulliver back home for his nose against the smell of his countrymen.

I think about this poem by Ian Duhig — about Jo Cox, the Labour MP assassinated by a man shouting ‘Britain first’ — every day at the moment. No other contemporary poet has looked so clearly at the political reality of the far right as a minority who must always be appeased

Does this apply to Oxbridge colleges? 🤔

This has absolutely thrilled me!

I had an amazing time @wainwrightprize.bsky.social yesterday! So many inspiring writers and extraordinary books. Congratulations to @guyshrubsole.bsky.social, a hugely deserving winner for conservation writing, and fellow @canongate.co.uk writer @chloedalton.bsky.social for book of the year!

Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds Scientists say ‘shocking’ discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout

This should be headline news - the implications are horrifying …

Concerned too that the loss of habitat and biodiversity is addressed with a bit of shrug

North Edinburgh people: if you haven't seen it already, the report on a new tram route is here: consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/tram-nor...
Worryingly, it shows a clear preference for Roseburn over Orchard Brae. If you value the Roseburn path, please respond to the consultation!

Maybe when the recording of soft play runs out

UK to evacuate nine Gaza students with university scholarships Move follows months of pressure from MPs, academics and campaigners, with dozens of other students still stranded

The UK government will evacuate nine of the 40+ students in Gaza with scholarship at UK universities. My PhD student Shaimaa isn't included. We must now make sure they help the other students - email your MP today. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Latest from the Edinburgh Book Festival: Catching up with fellow Edinburgh prof @david-farrier.bsky.social & Alex Riley, both brilliant nature writers, both with new books that celebrate the resiliency and adaptability of nature.

Check out: Nature's Genius & Super Natural! @edbookfest.bsky.social

The image shows the Edinburgh book festival page for david farrier and alex riley's event, Unstoppable, on Thursday 21 August

Can't wait to speak with Alex Riley and @calflyn.bsky.social tomorrow @edbookfest.bsky.social about all that makes life extraordinary. Come along!

I think he also writes at the top of Scottish mountains in winter.

Necropolitics: “the death-inflicting politics of colonialism…where those in power don’t have to care who lives or dies. The priorities of the colonisers are elsewhere, in land, power and wealth grabs. The colonised are left in conditions where their lives are not even secondary, but irrelevant.”

It was such a thrill to be on stage @edbookfest.bsky.social last night with the next Future Library author, Amitav Ghosh(@amitav.bsky.social)! No other writer is so alert to the living forest and the way forgotten lives endure in the archive. And as gracious in person as you could hope for.

Exciting news!!!!!!
Thanks @wainwrightprize.bsky.social!

Update: no one can identify a single person as belonging to a group that The Times says has 130 academic staff.

Totally unnamed and likely fictitious academics being quoted by the Daily Express, The Times, the BBC & the Times Higher.

Edinburgh University had ‘outsized’ role in creating racist scientific theories, inquiry finds Investigation finds one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious universities benefited from transatlantic slavery and was haven for white supremacist theories

Every strand of this Edinburgh University report could be its own front page.

Yes, some of it will be familiar to historians, but this kind of frank public recognition is all too rare.

Incredible work by many different scholars.

Off topic, but I visited the Garden Futures exhibit at V&A Dundee yesterday--think you'd like it. Among the surprising things I learned: Patrick Geddes designed the layout of Tel Aviv's green spaces.

Reform-led Durham county council scraps climate emergency declaration Durham is thought to be first UK local authority to rescind its statement, in a move condemned as a ‘very dark day’

Durham council is run by fantasists, idiots, and grifters.

Ed Miliband would let a turbine farm destroy Brontë country. We need net zero, but at what cost? | Simon Jenkins Of course the climate crisis must be confronted, but history, tranquility and beauty must also count for something, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

Who's going to tell him what 3 degrees of warming will do to Bronte Country
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I had a great time chatting to @littleatoms.bsky.social about Nature's Genius - somehow, in 30 minutes we touched on almost the entire book!

All within a few miles of where I grew up: Pity Me, No Place, Stanley.

Is this good? Tempted