Roderick Bale

Eating this ultraprocessed food may be good for you and the planet, experts say | CNN Plant-based meats have been viewed at times as ultraprocessed and possibly unhealthy. But some experts believe they deserve a second look.

This has always been clear: plant-based meat alternatives are better for the planet and, at least compared to red meat, better for your health. That this is not widely accepted is the product of meat industry disinfo, science illiteracy, and some very stupid journalists.
www.cnn.com/2025/07/21/h...

Pith hit! 🍾

Here's the alternative global warming plan. Draw up the drawbridge. Let the global south burn. Suck out the last fossil fuel profits. Get the population down to 1 billion (as per Peter Thiel) and let the oligarchs enjoy their vineyards in Siberia and feudal estates in other cool places

🐈

A screenshot of a news story with the headline: Would this food label change how you eat? The picture for the story is of a shrink-wrapped meat package that has a sticker that reads "Warning: The cattle raised for this meat were castrated without pain relief."

The list of terrible things done to farmed animals is so long, and meat/dairy/egg companies don't have to disclose them. That'll soon change in Switzerland — at least for one set of really awful practices. New story today in our Processing Meat newsletter:

BBC do this for any reporting about farming animals, particularly British farming. Critical reporting skills similar to a bag of suet

Yet, unbelievably, many who should know better think this is a beautiful landscape that is fine as it is

Sign the Petition Protect bluefin tuna in UK waters

In 3 months, bluefin tuna will be migrating back into our waters, where they'll be met with a fleet of commercial and recreational* fishers. It's a horrible way to welcome these magnificent, charismatic creatures. Let's try to get this to 250,000 before they arrive.
www.change.org/p/protect-bl...

UK weather: Spring may become driest on record with no rain in sight There has been a lack of rainfall in many parts of the UK so far this spring and there is little or no rain in the immediate forecast.

This Spring (March-April-May) may end up being the driest on record for the UK.

This would also make it the driest of any season in a dataset that goes back to 1836.

Spring in 1852 currently holds the record for driest season at 100.7 mm averaged across the UK.

www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti...

1. This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a story of breathtaking perversity, told in this thread. (There’s a one-page version at the bottom). 🧵

‘The fledglings couldn’t escape’: Dartmoor blaze raises questions about wildfire strategy Commoners say restrictive grazing may be raising risk of fires like one that scorched 500ha of moorland

They're 100% wrong. The fireprone landscape on Dartmoor is caused by centuries of grazing. Preventing fires means rewetting the land, and allowing/assisting the return of the temperate rainforest and carr, which should be widespread here and is v hard to burn. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Reading this while ironically sat at the foot the sheepwrecked Cambrian mountains

Springtime for Hitler It's not Bake Off. It's a global far-right insurgency.

It's not Bake Off. It's a global far-right insurgency.

To normalise Nigel Farage, is to normalise Donald Trump.

We, the media, have to wise up fast.

broligarchy.substack.com/p/springtime...

Stained glass window showing Morris dancers

A Mery May around a maypole

Dancing friar

Hobby horse

“A mery May”. The Betley Window, c. 1500, V&A.

The BBC is utterly beholden to the right. Why else would it fear a podcast about heat pumps? | George Monbiot The broadcaster behaves like Starmer’s government: suppress the left, cave to your critics, and undermine your own survival, writes Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The BBC is institutionally biased towards the right and the far right, and here's the proof: the results of an almost perfect before-and-after experiment.
My column today.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

forgot the tags #dendroarchaeologia
🏺🌳💍(archaeology and tree rings)

Drought weather in the northeastern United States, authored by Laurie Agel with @mathewabarlow.bsky.social, Christopher Skinner, and @ambarish.bsky.social journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

An 1860s oak, in what was formerly a field, and some 1960s fir, chestnut and beech 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Had solid fuel as my only source of heating for years. Still thought it was polluting expensive and generally crap

🧵 You might have seen a post urging you to donate to Harvard, a wealthy university that needs no financial reward for doing the bare minimum.

Instead, I'd like to tell you about some organizations that are working to protect academic freedom and at-risk scholars and deserve your support

1

On April 20th, 2025, the United States will Cross the Point of No Return. That’s the day Donald Trump’s advisory committee is expected to release its findings on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act — a move that would allow him to deploy the military domestically…

I don't know how likely this unfolding is, but everyone should read it and decide for themselves. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
medium.com/@aletheisthe...

The aridity influence on oxygen isotopes recorded in tree rings Abstract. The stable isotopes of oxygen in wood cellulose (δ18Ocell) have been widely used to reconstruct historical source water use in trees or changes i

This would suggest that in some cases (and contrary to some previous studies, e.g. Sternberg) we can't treat the fractional exchange between oxygen in carbohydrates vs. water during cellulose synthesis as a constant academic.oup.com/treephys/adv...

Focus on farmed animal populations - they are the real problem

PR campaign may have fuelled food study backlash, leaked document shows Eat-Lancet report recommended shift to more plant-based, climate-friendly diet but was extensively attacked online

1. Whenever you see really vicious and widespread "spontaneous" attacks on scientific findings that challenge powerful economic interests, you can be assured that corporate lobbyists have been busy behind the scenes.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This bird's nest is made of candy wrappers and face masks. Here's what we can learn | CBC Radio Dutch doctoral student Auke-Florian Hiemstra excavated a bird nest, and made a startling discovery. From McDonald's lids to face masks, the nest was built with layers of human trash — the oldest piece...

#Amsterdam's canals don't meet most Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point criteria, and not all scientists agree with declaring the #Anthropocene anyway, but these feathered inhabitants' embrace of 'new' materials is terrifying. There's nothing encouraging about the common coot's adaptation.

Carney gets it. Trump 2.0 is the US’s Brexit moment

When did you ever see English streams/rivers full of large woody debris, like fallen trees or branches? Almost never, because of obsessive over-management and resistance to allow woodlands to develop naturally. But natural state of woodland streams is to be full of fallen trees, slowing the flow.

The life of a dairy cow The surprising truth about milk is hiding in plain sight.

Bad day to post about anything besides everyone's tanking 401(k)s, but:

I have an illustrated piece on the life of a dairy cow, finally out in the world! The dairy industry is brutal. There's really no good reason to mass produce another mammal for its maternal milk

www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Next generation Arctic vegetation maps: Aboveground plant biomass and woody dominance mapped at 30 m resolution across the tundra biome The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, placing tundra ecosystems at the forefront of global climate change. Plant biomass is a fund…

🧵New paper out in Remote Sensing of Environment led by Katie Orndahl and Logan Berner! In this study, we (really they) mapped aboveground plant biomass and woody plant dominance across the entire Arctic tundra biome—at 30 m resolution. A thread 👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Spot on George. Well said