Justin McGuirk

The value of public R&D

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...

US ‘Night Stalkers’ seen in Caribbean as fears of regime change rise in Venezuela Elite helicopter unit’s part in military deployment comes as Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Nicolás Maduro

Maduro is hardly Mosaddegh but regime change for oil is very Iran 1953

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Global use of coal hit record high in 2024 Bleak report finds greenhouse gas emissions are still rising despite ‘exponential’ growth of renewables

We’re not transitioning away from fossil fuels (yet), we’re adding renewables to fossil fuels www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Timely arrival: Great British Railways clock launches at London Bridge Digital timepiece is UK rail’s first national clock in more than 50 years and will be seen at stations across the country

The new national rail clock was launched at London Bridge today. I was on the jury that chose it from hundreds of entries, and we had a grand old time
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Miliband defends clean power goal after energy bill rise - BBC News The energy secretary says the UK's reliance on fossils fuels is a major "weakness" in a conference speech.

Actually the drive for clean energy is one of the things Labour has done well, but they’re not shouting about it enough precisely because of headlines like this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A leaked memo, a Maga-style hat and a trail of broken pledges – it’s Labour’s great housing betrayal | Aditya Chakrabortty Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

The thing is, even if we had the carbon budget for those “1.5 million homes” (which we don’t), “build, baby, build” is not the solution because housing is not a simple supply and demand problem
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

98%! Only 2 in every 100 installations don’t need corrective action. Read it and weep

If you've never been to Gaza, you won't appreciate what the yellow line means. Basically Israel now holds most of Gaza's small but important agricultural land. Continued Israeli occupation, which I judge the likely outcome, makes Gaza even more unliveable and more dependent on outside goods.

Repair cafe

We are running another repair cafe on 7th Nov. FREE to all. Learn how to mend your favourite objects for free, get involved in the repair and reuse process, and gain advice on the steps needed to bring your beloved belongings back to full working order. share.google/76mO7KzxbyiE...

Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado wins Nobel peace prize Opponent of Maduro regime receives award and praise for keeping ‘flame of democracy burning’

OK this is going to get very interesting indeed

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

🚨New report: how the fossil fuel industry duped successive UK governments into pumping money into costly CCS schemes to ensure continued reliance on oil and gas.

The book's not bad either!

Last chance to see More than Human, which closes on Sunday. It's been such a privilege seeing people fit this show into their mental landscape and responding in ways that are emotional, philosophical and practical. Don't miss it

designmuseum.org/exhibitions/...

A Fossil Fuel Economy Requires 535x More Mining Than a Clean Energy Economy Transitioning to clean energy would reduce the volume and harm of mining dramatically

Yeah, Heartland started pushing fear of lithium mining explicitly in 2023.

This was a key response to their propaganda, and includes a link to the Heartland piece.

www.distilled.earth/p/a-fossil-f...

Crazy. I met Yu Kongjian last year at a symposium on landscape design. His ‘sponge cities’ concept is an important one. Sad news

Six key messages from the World Design Congress The World Design Congress saw the world's leading designers gather to discuss the planet's future. Here we pick the most prominent themes from the event.

Nice to see my talk at World Design Congress quoted in this roundup.

“The challenge is that we have to work at two speeds simultaneously: with immediate urgency, and with the vision to begin the slow project of reimagining our relationship with the living world”

www.dezeen.com/2025/09/16/w...

Six key messages from the World Design Congress The World Design Congress saw the world's leading designers gather to discuss the planet's future. Here we pick the most prominent themes from the event.

"There is no point growing the economy if it is not done sustainably and with regeneration at its heart"
#design

www.dezeen.com/2025/09/16/w...

Kafka-land at UC Berkeley The 160 members of the university notified that their names were forwarded to the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights were not informed of any specific allegations against them.

A smart Judith Butler response to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
www.thenation.com/article/soci...

More than Human Symposium Join designers, architects, artists and researchers in a symposium that explores our creative relationship with design for animals, environments and landscapes

Very much looking forward to the More than Human symposium tomorrow, with speakers including Emanuele Coccia, David Abram, Marcus Coates, Andres Jaque, Paulo Tavares, Daisy Ginsberg and Lucia Pietroiusti
futureobservatory.org/programme/ev...

Unless Israel is stopped, by the end of October Gaza city would be reduced to rubble.

Ah Paul, the Dolphin Embassy drawings are in the More than Human show at the Design Museum

Adam Shatz · Berlin Diary Throughout my stay in Berlin, I kept hearing from Germans quietly critical of Israel that ‘cracks’ had begun to...

In the LRB, I write about the complicity, denial and evasiveness that have characterized Germany’s response to the destruction of Gaza. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Interesting: “a vision of abundance”

"There has never been a true 'transition' away from coal, oil – or even wood" Earth Day this year is focused on shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy but the concept of the energy transition is deeply flawed, writes Jean-Baptiste Fressoz.

"The global history of energy is not a story of substitution, but of accumulation. There has never been a true "transition" away from coal, oil, or even wood. In 2024, wood still generated twice as much energy as nuclear power" (I'm enjoying this book; here's a primer) www.dezeen.com/2025/04/22/e...

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

Photograph by Heidi Levine / the Washington Post

Yesterday, @washingtonpost.com Washington Post published an image of Gaza City which looked like Hiroshima.
It seems that this is one of the *least damaged* areas in the Gaza Strip. Short thread:

@leloveluck.bsky.social

They are saying very clearly what they intend to do.

Where are you?

Even the tawdry timeline we inhabit has some bring spots--from my piece in the NYT this morning
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...

Thought for the Day - Rev Lucy Winkett - BBC Sounds 16 JUL 25

More than Human is the topic of today’s Thought for the Day by Rev Lucy Winkett. Did not see that coming!

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...