Rebecca John

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Columbian Exchange The impact of the spread of animals, crops and diseases between continents after 1492

This will be a treat: The Columbian Exchange on In Our Time today. #Skystorians

First look at a system wide view MethaneSAT data show emissions vary widely by region, exceed inventories & industry’s goals

Interesting look at the data that MethaneSat, a satelite that monitored methane pollution from oil and gas extraction sites, gathered in its year of operation before it suddenly disappeared.

www.methanesat.org/project-upda...

A Supreme Court Shield for Big Oil Would Come at Your Expense When we talk about someone wanting to both eat their cake and still have it, we’re using a logical impossibility to highlight the cake-haver’s delusional mental state. When it comes to the fossil-fuel...

"If you want to know who will ultimately pay in this scenario, just look in the mirror. Even as your home-insurance rates rise, so will your taxes. All of this will drive down property values, especially in the places most at-risk from climate disasters. And that will hurt muni finances even more."

Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points

“The climate scientists we surveyed were unambiguous: current economic models can’t capture what matters most – the cascading failures and compounding shocks that define climate risk in a warmer world – and could undermine the very foundations of economic growth.”

This should be THE story everyday.

and yes, the BBC has enormous problems *but*

*gestures at everything*

Bezos burning the Washington post to the ground is as firm a reason for the continued bbc licence as ever there was. Eventually everything that can be owned by a billionaire will be owned by a billionaire and at that point its future will be determined by the whims of a man making 166k per minute.

THIS

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

Democracy dies of heatstroke.
What a tool Bezos is--imagining having that kind of money and still being afraid of Dear Leader.
www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...

Washington Post Begins Sweeping Layoffs

It's a small part of the broader bloodbath, but the guy who made his fortune selling *books* online closing the *books* section of the newspaper he owns deserves some kind of special medal for hypocrisy.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem.
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Iran protest doctor: ‘In one street, I saw blood pooled in a gutter with a trail stretching several metres’ | Anonymous I’ve worked as a surgeon in disaster zones. Nothing compares to the nightmare I saw in Iran’s hospitals when the state started shooting protesters

Iran protest doctor: ‘In one street, I saw blood pooled in a gutter with a trail stretching several metres’ | Anonymous

Bafta has caught the zeitgeist with One Battle After Another, but let’s hear it for The Ballad of Wallis Island Paul Thomas Anderson’s antifa parable is queasily relevant to the times, but here’s hoping Tim Key and co can get some reward for their brilliant British film

Bafta has caught the zeitgeist with One Battle After Another, but let’s hear it for The Ballad of Wallis Island

Swift bricks to be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after Holyrood backs ruling Rest of UK has so far resisted calls to make it mandatory for developers to install bricks that provide nesting for swifts and other endangered birds Swift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds. The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings “where reasonably practical and appropriate”. Continue reading...

Swift bricks to be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after Holyrood backs ruling

As the Taliban step up their war on women and girls, it is clear that appeasement has failed | Gordon Brown Major powers have renewed diplomatic links while others seek deals to deport migrants. And all the while gender repression is getting worse, warns UN special envoy and former UK prime minister Gordon Brown

As the Taliban step up their war on women and girls, it is clear that appeasement has failed | Gordon Brown

“A.i.” is for creeps and weasels.

PSA: Here's how the anti-net zero sausage gets made:

1. Oil companies fund climate denial groups
2. which incubate fake experts
3. who write policy papers for 'think tanks'
4. which get blurbed by politicians
5. & reported uncritically by right-wing media.

Voila!

www.desmog.com/2026/01/28/c...

Wholesale gas costs blamed for rises in household energy bills Energy prices have eased since the height of the energy crisis in 2022-23 but pressure is still on the Government to tackle high bills

66% of recent increases in UK energy bills has come from wholesale gas prices, say @ukerc.bsky.social - 17% from grid charges, 13% from extra policy costs

Despite gas accounting for 1/3 of generation, its price drives cost of electricity up to 90% of the time

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

NEW: Expensive gas still biggest driver of high UK electricity bills, says UKERC

"Volatile, gas-linked market prices – not green policies, as some misleading claims have suggested – dominate the real-terms increase in bills since 2021."

www.carbonbrief.org/expensive-ga...

Reminder that in the UK an incoming radical, populist government would have immediate access to immense, unchecked executive power.

And the current government is doing nothing to protect us from that.

For such a softly spoken guy, Ben doesn't hold back on the Trump administration:

"Insane. That’s the only word for it. Removing our ability to measure and monitor how the world around us is changing, makes no sense whatsoever."

Coal power generation falls in China and India for first time since 1970s ‘Historic’ moment in biggest coal-consuming countries could bring decline in global emissions, analysis says

Coal power generation falls in both China and India for first time since 1970s

- ‘Historic’ moment in biggest coal-consuming countries could bring decline in global emissions, analysis says

#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

US oil groups warn they will need guarantees to invest in Venezuela Donald Trump to hold more talks with industry bosses as president flexes power over energy markets

“No one wants to go in there when a random fucking tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country.”

US oil groups warn they will need guarantees to invest in Venezuela

A warning I constantly make: as climate activists, we must denounce how frames of national sovereignty/interest are used not only to advance fossil fuel operations, but also to persecute and slander climate justice points and advocates.

The U.S.-Venezuela-Guyana Oil Triangle The U.S. interest in Venezuela isn’t just about the oil there, but also about the oil next door in Guyana, and the U.S. oil companies that have staked their future on it.

Something I see a lot of folks missing in discussions about what's happening Venezuela, particularly around oil, is the role U.S. oil majors' interest in Guyana—and the threat Venezuela posed to it—has in all of it. Explainer here: drilled.media/news/guyana-...

Outskirts of Australian cities at risk of catastrophic fires on scale of deadly LA blazes, study finds At least 6.9 million residents on Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart fringes exposed as dry summer follows years of vegetation growth

Meanwhile, catastrophic #climatechange
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The Prize- The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power - YouTube

A good time to watch
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power

Particularly Episodes 5 and 6 - ‘Crude Diplomacy’
and ‘Power to the Producers’

@pbs.org

Severe Weather Emergency Protocol activated in London ❄️

The temperature is due to drop below freezing tonight, and emergency accommodation is open across the capital for those sleeping rough.

If you are sleeping rough or know someone who is, connect to support via StreetLink

thestreetlink.org.uk

a screenshot of the video

a screenshot of the video

Coke admitted they had to generate 70,000 video clips for their latest Christmas slopvertising

BY MY CALCS:

- 4x the CO2 impact of a normal ad project
- 1 day of 2-5 medium hospitals
- 1 month of 250 households
- 44 years of continuous Netflix viewing

futurism.com/artificial-i...

The Institute of Economic Affairs Banked £640,000 from Oil Giants and Murdoch The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) – the anti-state, anti-climate pressure group – received more than £640,000 from fossil fuel companies and Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate between 1957 and ...

🔴 REVEALED 🔴

The Institute of Economic Affairs – the anti-state, anti-climate pressure group that "incubated" Liz Truss – was bankrolled by oil giants and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

📝 Exclusive findings from @desmog.com 👇