Barbara McFarlane

Whilst a lot of what Bill Gates wrote in his memo makes a certain amount of sense, his main point that short term emissions reduction is not the priority is based on flawed and out of date data.

I’ve scribbled on his graph below to add a very important line - reality.
#climatechange #acceleration

Here's a helpful how to guide on how to break the spiral of silence...

talkclimatechange.org/howTo

We don't just want 9 river walks, we want access to all rivers. 96% of rivers in England and Wales have no rights of access. Landowners have blocked public access to rivers for centuries. Labour's promise is just 9 new river walks. We say that's not enough.

Cross-government planning proposals threaten nature and must be fixed This post is by Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link The planning system must be improved for nature. When development damages protected wildlife, developers shouldn’t …

"We can’t say it strongly enough: for planning reform to succeed for both people and nature, this newt-bashing, snail-baiting, spider-hating scapegoating must stop."

@richardbenwell.bsky.social, chief exec @wclnews.bsky.social, outlines what's needed to create balance between nature and planning:

Greenpeace threatens to sue crown estate for driving up cost of offshore wind Environmental group accuses king’s property management company of ‘milking for profit’ its monopoly ownership of seabed

Only in Britain could the monarch effectively own the sea-bed, and milk it for profit

So much for King Charles' 'green credentials'

This is absolutely outrageous and has to stop

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

Don't care about the massive damage done to native ecosystems by the constant release of vast numbers of invasive pheasants for shooting?

Maybe you'll care about catching Lyme disease instead.

England’s rivers ‘under threat’ as water extraction surges to record levels Exclusive: Investigation finds 76% rise in water taken from rivers and lakes for industrial or public consumption in two decades

River abstraction has soared 76% over two decades, threatening rivers, ecosystems and future supply. Water companies fall back on extracting more from already stressed rivers 4/4
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’

Utterly beholden to lobbyists, staggeringly ignorant and dismissive of the natural world: Rachel Reeves might not look or sound like Donald Trump, but she is behaving very much like him. This government is even more of an ecological hazard than the Tories were.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Andy Street is spot on. Birmingham is a brilliant city. Vibrant, diverse, wonderful.

Oxygen Conservation's purchase of BrewDog's Lost Forest at Kinrara - parkswatchscotland BrewDog’s sale of Kinrara, the estate near Aviemore which it purchased for £8,800,000 in December 2020, and the announcement by Oxygen Conservation earlier this week that it had purchased it (they hav...

Excellent analysis of this disaster. Oxygen Conservation's purchase of BrewDog's Lost Forest at Kinrara - parkswatchscotland parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/04/o...

‘Seeing the trees being ripped down is really hard’: meet a father and son protesting against HS2 The controversial HS2 route slices through some of England’s most precious woodland. But standing in its way are father and son Larch and Seb Maxey. They explain why living 30ft off the ground in prec...

I wrote this story back in 2020 about Larch Maxey www.theguardian.com/environment/... Now he faces losing his home - fundraiser here: gofund.me/ce4ec3de0

‘An attack like this is against all human kind’ – mother of Manchester arena victim We were joined by Figen Murray. She is the mother of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.

‘An attack like this is against all human kind’ – mother of Manchester arena victim

www.channel4.com/news/an-atta...

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

Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @theguardian.com

YouTube video by Prospect Magazine The true story behind ITV’s The Hack—live with Toby Jones, Jack Thorne, Alan Rusbridger and more

This is well worth a watch .. some discussion of the need for Levi son 2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzxO...

Labour Party Conference: Housing chief Steve Reed tips his hat to Trump With his MAGA-style slogan and red baseball cap, the new housing secretary has brought energy to the Labour Party Conference. But is it the right energy? asks Will Hurst

How many people think to themselves, "I'd vote Labour, if only they could be more like Trump." I would guess it's a number close to zero.
But Labour seems to be chasing a figment of its imagination, and this is perhaps the most grotesque example so far.
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion...

How Britain’s housing was broken | The Observer Jessica Field’s Eviction and Peter Apps’ Homesick chart the rise and ruin of social housing in the UK

Lovely to see @rowanmoore.bsky.social giving space and thought to the ideas in Homesick, alongside the excellent Eviction by Jess Field:

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Warnings over collapsing fish stocks as experts advise ‘zero catch’ for cod Conservationists call for action to follow scientific advice and end overfishing in the North Sea and west of Scotland.

“Our warnings [...] were ignored, & since then we've had to watch helplessly as the UK Govt sold out our seas & communities, allowing fishing pressure to build relentlessly as [...] industrial vessels squeezed out the small local boats" @hugotagholm.bsky.social
www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

Can we also stop supplying weapon parts to Israel, suspend trade and impose a sports and cultural boycott to try and ensure there's a Palestine left to recognise?

We want the media and politicians to recognise there's a large number of women who are supportive of the trans+ community. We call on them to report truthfully about the sources of violence against women and to address the systems that perpetuate harm. notinourname.org.uk/petition/not...

🌊 Scientist, adventurer & wildlife filmmaker Lizzie Daly calls out the devastation bottom-trawl fishing is inflicting on UK marine protected areas 🚨

Please help put a stop to this! Time is running out to have your say. ⌛

Take action with us here: only.one/act/uk-mpa-c... ✊

The pressing case for protecting harbour porpoises from fisheries bycatch in English waters - EIA We investigate and campaign against environmental crime and abuse

Bycatch is a serious welfare and conservation issue, harbour porpoises and common dolphins being bycaught at levels that are impacting their populations,more than a thousand marine mammals are bycaught in UK static fishing nets. eia-international.org/blog/the-pre...

Here's a plot of fertiliser imports into #Ireland over recent years.
By far the greatest tonnage is for N-compounds, with a marked up tick in 2023-'24.
Intensive ruminant production sucks nitrogen & our rivers/lakes show it, but let's hold onto the #NitratesDerogation & sacred cows.
[Data CSO]

Google data centres coming to Hertfordshire?! Sounds a lot like the final nail in an already well-nailed coffin for the local chalk streams. Or will the water be sucked out of the Thames at Teddington for it under Thames Water’s current plans? Keep your beady eyes on this.

Films for Action: The Line We Crossed. From the frontlines of climate resistance it traces the quiet unravelling of our protest rights. At St Paul's Church West Hackney 182 Stoke Newington Road, Fri, 19 Sep 2025, Doors open 6:30, Film show and discussion 7 - 9.30
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/films-for-...

Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms Exclusive: Leachate is tankered to treatment works where it mixes with sewage and industrial effluent

A massive, dangerous and disgusting scandal, of which far too few people are yet aware. At @fightingdirty.bsky.social we'll keep pushing to stop it. Congrats to @rachelsalvidge.bsky.social for continuing to shine the light:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Image of South East Rivers Trust installing a road runoff filter in the River Wandle London

When @seriverstrust.bsky.social found efforts to restore trout to the River Wandle kept failing they identified road runoff pollution as a possible issue & installed 1 filter at a critical point - after that, after 90 years away, trout began returning.

www.southeastriverstrust.org?s=Wandle+roa...

Rachel Reeves could soon find herself in court over her plans to strip protections from bats & newts.

👉 Experts warn her rollback of environmental law could break rules under the Brexit trade deal, opening Britain up to EU legal action.

This isn’t growth. It’s bulldozing nature for profit. 🌱

‘These People Can’t Stand What London Represents… It Makes a Mockery of their Entire Worldview’ Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, addresses the increasing number of claims by those in the media and politics of the capital city’s apparent decline

🔴 "These People Can't Stand What London Represents… It Makes a Mockery of their Entire Worldview"

Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, addresses the increasing number of claims by those in the media and politics of the capital city's apparent decline

🚨 BREAKING: 1,000 litres of “BLOOD” spills from a Shell platform in the North Sea.

Activists just installed a giant piece of protest art by world-famous artist Anish Kapoor to symbolise the DAMAGE oil giants like Shell are inflicting on people and planet.