Tom O'Hara

A brown graphic showiing a playground the statistic: 73% of UK councils use pesticides in parks and green spaces.

🚫🌼 Most UK councils still spray pesticides in parks, playgrounds and pavements, harming bumblebees and other wildlife.

📌 Check your council’s record: www.pan-uk.org/pesticide-free

📣 Demand better or celebrate progress!

#PesticideFreeTowns #PollinatorsNotPesticides

The Butterfly Summer: Norfolk & The Fens Even in a heavily farmed region like East Anglia, there is space for nature to thrive, as we discovered in north Norfolk and the Fens.

Inspired by our recent trip to Norfolk, I posted on my blog for the first time in nearly five years… www.nothere.co.uk/butterfly-su...

Damselfly (I think) at Wicken Fen

Wind pump at Wicken Fen

Duck in the water at Wicken Fen

Speckled wood butterfly

Finally got round to visiting Wicken Fen last week, on an intolerably hot day. Turns out fens don’t have much shade. Still, I thought it was great. My 4-year-old’s review: “Why do you want to look at all this pond stuff daddy?”

Galapagos centipede Scolopendra galapagoensis carrying a young Floreana racer Pseudalsophis biserialis on Gardner-by-Floreana islet

One of the best things about my job is meeting amazing scientists working in Galapagos and learning about mad things like this giant centipede that can eat snakes 😮

(Photo © Luis Ortiz Catedral)

Maybe it sounds silly but it really felt like a punch to the gut. We still have so much work to do in this country to reconnect people with nature. How could you look at this amazing little island of biodiversity and think, “nope, that’s got to go”? 😤 (2/2)

Mini wildflower meadow full of poppies next to a block of flats in Walthamstow, London

Every morning on the way to nursery, my son and I have been stopping to look at this little meadow that had sprung up at the bottom of our road in Walthamstow. Absolutely buzzing with bees, ladybirds and other insects. A couple of days ago, someone mowed it to the ground. (1/2)

Picture story with text (in French) which reads: - Is there a doctor here? - I’m a doctor. What’s going on? - A heart attack. - I am a doctor of philosophy. - He’s going to die… - We are all going to die.

Save the endangered Galapagos sea lion – Big Give Sea lions are among the most charismatic creatures in Galapagos, charming visitors with their playful nature. Sadly, they’re also at high risk of death and injury from fishing nets and other plastic w...

Galapagos sea lions suffer more reported injuries from lost and discarded fishing gear than any other species in the Archipelago, entangled by nets and plastic cords. Can you spare a few quid to help protect them? All donations made by midday Tuesday are doubled!

donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Petition: Ban driven grouse shooting Chris Packham, Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery (Wild Justice) believe that driven grouse shooting is bad for people, the environment and wildlife. People; we think grouse shooting is economically insignifi...

Fewer than 500 more signatures needed to reach 100,000 & trigger a Westminster parliament debate on the future of driven grouse shooting.

Plz sign and share - we might get there today! @ruthtingay.bsky.social @chrisgpackham.bsky.social @markavery.bsky.social

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

Some more recommendations:

George Monbiot - ‘Feral’

Benedict Macdonald - ‘Cornerstones’

Chantal Lyons - ‘Groundbreakers’

Ben Goldsmith - ‘God is an Octopus’

Charles Clover - ‘Rewilding the Sea’

Galapagos rail rediscovered on Floreana after 190 years - Galapagos Conservation Trust The secretive Galapagos rail, thought to be extinct on Floreana, has been found on the island for the first time since Darwin observed it in 1835.

The Galapagos rail has been recorded on Floreana for the first time in 190 years, in what appears to be recent rodent eradication efforts bearing fruit. But has it actually been there all along…? A great story (and an intriguing mystery) from Galapagos! galapagosconservation.org.uk/galapagos-ra... 🪶

Every day as we walk the beach we see at first hand the impact plastic pollution is having on the natural world. These photos, taken over the last week, show kelp stipes growing through/entangled with the remains of plastic bottles. #Anthropocene

YouTube video by kelpfoot Tesco invades Denmark

Recent news headlines keep reminding me of this bit from @aiannucci.bsky.social’s ‘Time Trumpet’ - youtu.be/0PSyiRXIEyc?...

‘Groundbreakers’ by Chantal Lyon’s

‘Groundbreakers’ by @chantallyons.bsky.social - One of the best books I’ve read about rewilding, up there with ‘Feral’ and ‘Wilding’. I learnt a lot about wild boar, but it’s also beautifully written, and very balanced in exploring conflicts between human and boar.

‘The Places In Between’ by Rory Stewart

‘The Places in Between’ by Rory Stewart - Best known as a successful podcaster and not so successful politician, but I think his true calling may be as a writer. Another book about a gruelling journey way off the beaten track - takes a while to get going, but a fascinating insight into Afghanistan.

‘Blood River’ by Tim Butcher

‘Blood River’ by Tim Butcher - An even more extraordinary African journey into the conflict-riven Congo. A crazy and compelling book, though pretty bleak too.

‘Road to Timbuktu’ by Tom Fremantle

‘Road to Timbuktu’ by Tom Fremantle - I read a lot of books about Africa this year, and this was the book that sparked that off. Great travelogue about a journey through West Africa in the footsteps of the Scottish explorer Mungo Park.

‘London Clay’ by Tom Chivers

‘London Clay’ by Tom Chivers - Probably the best book about my adopted city that I’ve ever read. So many fascinating nuggets about the history under our feet.

‘Ravenous’ by Henry Dimbleby

‘Ravenous’ by @henrydimbleby.bsky.social and Jemima Lewis - I got this for Christmas last year, brilliant book about our broken food system and full of recommendations that still seem to be mostly unheeded by our lobbyist-coddled politicians.

I narrowly failed in my arbitrary challenge of reading 24 books in 2024, but it was the first time that I kept a record of every book I read and what I thought of them, so here, as an unsolicited end of year present, is a thread of the six books I enjoyed most this year…

Screenshot from Spotify Wrapped. Caption says: March was your Theatrical Ritual Folktronica phase.

I remember it well

This feels like an increasingly urgent question - how can we keep letting a handful of petrostates block meaningful action on climate and plastic pollution? But I suppose the flip side is, does the whole concept of an international order/the UN become even more broken if you start excluding states?

Five firms in plastic pollution alliance ‘made 1,000 times more plastic than they cleaned up’ Five oil and chemical companies which promised to divert plastic from environment accused of producing 132m tonnes of it

The same coalition of corporations, petrostates and lobbyists now at COP will head to Busan next week to try and derail Global Plastics Treaty talks. Encouraging that the new UK gov is taking a tougher stance, as the industry can’t be trusted to regulate itself: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Thinking about opening a tapas restaurant called The Large Padrón Collider

bird sounds

My pet theory - the thing Europeans get wrong about the US is we expect it to behave like a European country, rather than a country of the Americas. In a lot of ways I think it has more in common with Colombia or Brazil when you look at its history, racial dynamics, political polarisation etc.

Sorry! Was just trying to offer some light relief in dark times…

Richard Nixon

Galapagos barnacle blenny

4. Richard Nixon / Galapagos barnacle blenny

(Image credits © Wally McNamee / Jon Anderson)

George W. Bush

Galapagos sea lion yawning

3. George W. Bush / Galapagos sea lion

(Image credit © Diego Andino)

2. Joe Biden / Galapagos giant tortoise

(Image credits © Andrew Caballero-Reynolds - AFP / Prof. W.G. Hale)