Chris Baker

Century-old papers saved from the bin reveal changes in Europe’s plant life Plant inventories dating back to 1884 and nearly thrown away enable unique time-lapse study of biodiversity in Swiss meadows

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A soft focus illustration of a pair of goldfinch eating the seeds of thistles. The main attraction of the illustration is the depiction of the different textures in soft hues

British Birds and their Nests ‘Goldfinch’ (1953)
Artist: Allen Seaby

As Tories vow to scrap ‘failed targets’, how do their climate claims stack up? We fact check Kemi Badenoch and her party after she promised to repeal Climate Change Act if they win power

This is a brilliant demolition of Kemi Badenoch's nonsense about the Climate Change Act by @fionaharvey.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Country diary: The red cross on the white horse is gone. For that we are thankful | Derek Niemann Frome, Somerset: The Westbury horse is a local landmark to us, but also a countryside icon to travellers from across the world, all of whom are welcome

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow Key selections from On Tyranny, for viewing and sharing

Here is my best guidance, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons nearly nine years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century."
snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

Revealed: sewage overflow in English and Welsh national parks twice outside rate Exclusive: Campaigners attack ‘outrageous’ situation, saying waters in protected areas should be cleanest

Revealed: Sewage overflows twice as bad inside national parks

Exclusive: @campaign4parks.bsky.social attack ‘outrageous’ situation, saying waters in protected areas should be cleanest

Story by me
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Country diary: Finding common ground when you least expect it | Eben Muse Drakes Broughton, Worcestershire: The scourge of rural litter is enough to bring anyone together, even a farmer and us, trying to camp for the night in his field

Love this Country Diary from @ebenmyrddin.bsky.social, in which another countryside is gleaned from the most unexpected of moments.

It also echoes what I've experienced in other countries where access to land is assumed and normal. Reciprocity follows.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Cover of the Tufty Club booklet, featuring Tufty with two of his friends

Road safety and the Tufty Club.

(I don’t recall there being an expiry date. I think that means I’m still a member of the Tufty club)

Bookmark of Ravilious painting of the train & the horse, free from its enforced oppression from @rathergoodart

Oh DEAR Wiltshire! Someone’s put a red driving harness on our wild white Westbury chalk horse, for bad intent. I have it on good authority, this hoss does not work for that & will refuse to go. Do boo from the Ravilious train. I’m certain, as war artist, HE’d have been appalled with its inference.

111 years ago today the last Passenger Pigeon on earth, which we called Martha, died in Cincinnati Zoo at around 12:30pm local time.

The most abundant bird species Earth had ever seen had been driven to extinction. markavery.info/2025/09/01/p...

#cincinatti #ohio #extinction #birds #martha

Flags as symbols of prejudice, not pride – and a distinct air of menace. Welcome to England 2025 | John Harris The rapid spread of these banners is unsettling – and shows how the hard right is reaching people and places the left cannot, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Spot on @johnharris1969.bsky.social. The Right are hijacking Englishness with narratives of exclusion, exceptionalism & imperial nostalgia,& progressives haven’t even got onto the bloody pitch. We urgently need to tell more compelling stories of who we are #AnotherEngland👇

This letter.

Arresting the poets are we? Not a good look.

Hi Horatio, if you are still adding names, please add mine. Can't DM I'm afraid.

Illustration of a girl in a blue pinafore who is so intently absorbed in her comic that the toast she is cooking on the grill in front of her keeps burning

On #BookLoversDay
Many a book lover started with comics

(John Bull Magazine 1952, Douglas L Mays)

I found out that my hometown newspaper just shuttered after more than a hundred years in print. Hold your local journalist extra close tonight for me.

Zadie Smith, Michael Rosen, Irvine Welsh and Jeanette Winterson sign letter calling for Israel boycott More than 200 writers request cessation of all trade until people of Gaza given adequate food, water and aid

We did this. Proud of all who signed, and all who act www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Campaign to change the route of Dartmoor's historic Abbot's Way A Devon author claims a walk supposedly used by medieval monks is wrong and maps need changing.

My take on this theory: chrisbaker.handpressed.net/worths-way/ from a walk done c.2013/14, piece written earlier this year. Crossing's opinion on the probable route is worth noting.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tourist discovers ‘extinct’ jellyfish while rock-pooling in Outer Hebrides Thistle-shaped Depastrum cyathiforme was last seen in France in 1976, but has now been found on South Uist

Lovely story from the brilliant @britishwildlife.bsky.social magazine. This mag is endlessly fascinating – recommend if you're not a subscriber already. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Lovely little piece this, lovely idea, and a new word too: spogomi. Have added some dreamy pics of collecting litter from the banks of the Dart estuary, from several years ago. No prizes that day but our bodies did ache. Lots of litter. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Think it has to be Garden Birds for me.

Yes. Had some of my raspberries for breakfast this morning, they are just beginning to ripen.

‘All the birdsong in the world in one sound’: England’s nightingale haven at risk from planning bill Conservationists warn that losing Lodge Hill in Kent to housing could be a catastrophe for one of Britain’s most at-risk birds

Important piece by Helena Horton on Lodge Hill and its nightingales, a place that I wrote a chapter about in Irreplaceable because of its significance - together with the idiocy of biodiversity offsetting for such a unique and valuable wildlife site.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan among 380 writers and groups to call Gaza war ‘genocide’ Letter also signed by Hanif Kureishi and Russell T Davies urges ceasefire and unrestricted distribution of aid

We did this. Proud of everyone who signed
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Children with stars on the moors

A large crowd by a tor

The stars are for everyone, forever, thanks to three years of tireless campaigning to ensure wild camping rights are safe on Dartmoor.

Today we celebrated this historic victory at Haytor.

Tomorrow we will continue to work for access rights for all, beyond Dartmoor.

Very pleased to have made it to Hay Tor today with hundreds of others, and Old Crockern, to celebrate the Supreme Court's ruling on wild camping. Dartmoor's stars are for everyone - now let's see the same thing in other places too.