Sara R

Phasing out gas in European social housing - what the UK can learn

NEW ANALYSIS: More than 80% of UK social housing still relies on gas boilers keeping bills exposed to international gas markets and climate targets out of reach.

I’ve explored how other European countries are tackling this at scale, and what the UK can learn.

www.sureserve.co.uk/news-and-pro...

The #FinancialSector, a threat to the security of us all.

And I would add to this their oligopolistic control over the #FoodSystem, from seed to takeaway

Diane Keaton, Oscar-winning star of Annie Hall and The Godfather, dies aged 79 The legendary actor best known for her many collaborations with Woody Allen, as well as films including Reds, The First Wives Club and Book Club, has died

#DianeKeaton

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

As always, today's issue of my friend @katharinehayhoe.com's newsletter has good climate news, not-so-good news, and info on what you can do to make an actual impact on saving our planet.

mailchi.mp/1148a2d0bdbf...

He was a good boy

There are four house martins feeding above my head. They’re six inches long and are about to travel 6,000 miles. That’s about 63 million times their body length. The lunatics.

At 9:03 am, the Mary Rose broke the surface of the water, seeing sunlight (such as you can on a cloudy day!) for the first time in 437 years.

#WhereWereYouIn82

The Chapter House, Salisbury Chathedral

The Chapter House, Salisbury Chathedral https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-turner/the-chapter-house-salisbury-chathedral

Libro audiobooks support independent stores like ours. Create an account, choose us as your bookshop to support, and we get a % of all subscription and one-off purchases.

A golden ticket, which says "Golden Ticket. The bearer of this golden ticket is the winner of a year's supply of audiobooks from Libro.fm". Held in my hand with Charlie Mackesy's new book in the background and the title 'Always Remember' just above the ticket.

Today is #BookshopDay! An ideal time to come to indie bookshops, find your next reads and early xmas gifts. Plenty of signed copies, limited editions, and a @libro.fm golden ticket to be found! The finder wins a year of audiobooks from Libro, and now hidden away... 1/2
#booksky

Scientists Completed a Toxicity Report on This Forever Chemical. The EPA Hasn’t Released It. Agency scientists found that PFNA could cause developmental, liver and reproductive harms. Their final report was ready in mid-April, according to an internal document reviewed by ProPublica, but the ...

This story is about the report that hasn't been published - but it's also about IRIS, the part of EPA that wrote it and has been assessing the toxicity of chemicals for decades.

Of 55 scientists who worked on recent IRIS report, only 8 remain in their posts.

www.propublica.org/article/epa-...

Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Accused of Nearly 800 Environmental Violations on Las Vegas Project Nevada could’ve fined the company more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”

Nevada state regulators have accused Elon Musk’s Boring Co. of digging without approval, releasing untreated water onto city streets and spilling muck from its trucks, according to a new document obtained by @citycastvegas.bsky.social and @propublica.org.

Photos of past Burpee postdocs with some of our great students at Bucknell.

Excited to begin the search for the next (6th) Burpee Post-Doctoral Fellow in Botany here in my lab at Bucknell! Funded research and teacher-scholar training embedded in the primarily undergraduate institution (#PUI) environment.

#iamabotanist

Details (+ application portal) here:

lnkd.in/eVsbe7K5

World’s top fossil fuel producers set to grow despite Paris targets The world’s 20 largest fossil fuel producing countries are on track to produce more than twice the amount of coal, oil and gas in 2030 than would be consistent with the global goal to limit warming…

The world’s 20 largest fossil fuel producing countries are on track to produce more than twice the amount of coal, oil and gas in 2030 than would be consistent with the global goal to limit warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit), according to the new Production Gap Report 2025.

Guess who just got both the updated COVID vaccine and flu shots today? Your dear Leader Trump. Maybe you should get them too.

Sincerely, An Epidemiologist Who Told You Trump Would Get COVID Booster.

Federal agencies hiding out in a bunker

🎵 They did the Monster Slash 😭 @ellecordova.bsky.social

Once 'sustainable' mackerel stocks are drastically declining While overfishing is the main problem for mackerel stocks, climate change has been having an impact too

The tragedy of industrial fishing strikes another species off the list. It would appear that this will only end when there are no fish left to catch.

www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ou...

Fossil fuel companies control a mere 1.42% of renewable energy projects worldwide, study reveals The fossil fuel industry is falling far short of its pledge to lead the energy transition, according to new research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autòn...

And you've seen every single one of them proclaimed on an electronic billboard: #BigOil in full #GreenWashing mode

phys.org/news/2025-10...

October 2025 Newsletter | More About Sita | Hen Harrier Action An RSPB Press Release issued this week reveals more detail about the location where the young female Hen Harrier, Sita – satellite tagged thanks to the

Our October Newsletter is out now, with more about the death of young satellite-tagged Hen Harrier SITA.
Plus wildlife photographer Richard Birchett becomes an Ambassador for the charity.
And a reminder about author Mark Cocker's talk in Buxton, sponsored by HHA.
www.henharrierday.uk/newsletters/...

Photo of Zack Polanski. Text: Natasha Walter: why young women are flocking to the Greens

‘It feels good – and quite strange – to think I could vote for what I believe in…’

@natashawalter.bsky.social reports on why young women are flocking to @greenparty.org.uk, won over by @zackpolanski.bsky.social’s stance on topics such as Palestine, refugee rights and economic injustice 🌱

The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation My newly launched report on how we can safeguard the independence of our important scientific and evidence-generating institutions - not least so they can hold government to account

PS I also wrote a substack post on it which you can read here:
christinapagel.substack.com/p/the-uks-in...

UK’s arm’s length public bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation Seven in ten Britons say it is important for top scientific institutions to be independent in exclusive new polling.

5 Setting priorities and safeguarding operational autonomy

6 Protecting the freedom to publish

7 Framing the national conversation to explain what these bodies do and why it matters

Ultimately, we want to mend our defences before it’s too late.

Report is here
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

11/11

We suggest seven initial recommendations for strengthening our key scientific and evidence-generating bodies.

1 Increasing legal and statutory protection

2 Supporting independence in leadership appointments

3 Resilient funding models

4 Strengthening accountability to parliament

cont 10/11

We also carried out polling with @moreincommonuk.bsky.social .

The public strongly favours independence for our scientific bodies. 71% say it is more important for them to be independent of the Government than controlled by it, regardless of their political party affiliation. 9/11

This is a vulnerability map for 8 key bodies: ONS, OBR, Food Standards Agency, MHRA, Met Office, UKRI, Natural England, & UKHSA.

ONS has the most independence. All but ONS have ministerially appointed leadership. 3 could be abolished with no oversight as they have no statutory basis.
6/11

E.g. The Met Office is the nation’s weather service AND a global climate change research centre. It is highly vulnerable.

Ministers fund its research, influence its priorities, and appoint its leaders. With no statutory basis, its priorities and funding could be changed with little oversight. 5/11

We identified 6 core components of vulnerability:

Is a body established in law?

Who appoints its leadership?

Is a body directly accountable to parliament?

Who sets its priorities?

Who controls its funding?

Is it free to publish without ministerial say-so?

4/11

We studied 24 bodies in detail.

From the Office for National Statistics to the Met Office, from the Medicines & Healthcare Regulations Agency to Natural England, from the Food Standards Agency to UK Research & Innovation, these organisations meet a requirement for expertise and national need. 3/11

We found that the UK’s top scientific institutions, from the Met Office to the UK Health Security Agency, have inadequate institutional defences.

If an incoming government wanted to weaken the role of science and evidence in policy making, it could do so shockingly fast. 2/11