Alec Luhn

Humans will NEVER colonize another planet. Never.

If we can’t even agree to do the minimum to keep Earth habitable, there’s no way in hell we’ll cooperate to make another planet habitable.

This is why COP is so maddening

mini-meadows, bat boxes, rooftop refuges... What are your favourite or most creative examples of people making space for wildlife in towns/cities? We’re covering urban wildlife on next week’s programme & we’d love to hear about what is already out there!

On BBC Radio 4's Rare Earth next week we'll be covering urban wildlife, and we'd love to hear about the fun/creative/unusual things happening near you to make space for wildlife in towns/cities. Do reply to this and let us know!
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Climate heating has reached even deepest parts of the Arctic Ocean The depths of the Arctic Ocean have warmed more than scientists expected. New research has placed the blame on warmer water from Greenland

The depths of the Arctic Ocean have warmed more than scientists expected. New research has placed the blame on warmer water from Greenland

Undersea ‘storms’ are melting the ‘doomsday’ glacier’s ice shelf Spinning vortices of water trapped under the Thwaites glacier ice shelf account for 20 per cent of the ice melt. They’re expected to get worse as the world warms

Spinning vortices of water trapped under the Thwaites glacier ice shelf account for 20 per cent of the ice melt. They’re expected to get worse as the world warms

Cryptocurrency backed by Farage donor is used for Russian war effort, investigators say Tether tokens found to facilitate scheme that enables sanctions evasion and launders money for the Kremlin

It's always the ones you most expect...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Daily Mail owner strikes £500mn deal for Telegraph Tie-up would create one of the most powerful right-leaning media groups in Britain

Daily Mail's parent company agrees a deal to buy Telegraph for £500m! Media consolidation, let's go, ya gonna blink and stop this competition regulators? Over to you, Nandy? Strong potential everyone just waves the sale through to STOP HAVING TO READ OR THINK ABOUT IT. www.ft.com/content/cd8e...

Opinion | The Thucydides Trap Is Coming for America

"The United States now faces a choice: meet rising nations as respected partners in building a new, more equitable multipolar world or seek the costly, brittle power that comes from domination. Trump has chosen the latter; China, it seems, seeks the former." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...

Undersea ‘storms’ are melting the ‘doomsday’ glacier’s ice shelf Spinning vortices of water trapped under the Thwaites glacier ice shelf account for 20 per cent of the ice melt. They’re expected to get worse as the world warms

Nbd, just underwater hurricanes hitting the doomsday glacier
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...

Climate heating has reached even deepest parts of the Arctic Ocean The depths of the Arctic Ocean have warmed more than scientists expected. New research has placed the blame on warmer water from Greenland

“The deep ocean is much more active than what we thought. I thought the deep ocean could be warming, but not so fast.” www.newscientist.com/article/2505...

Can methane cuts pull us back from the brink of climate breakdown? With temperatures breaching the Paris limit, experts say tackling the powerful gas could buy crucial time as the clean-energy shift stalls

This is a nice idea but a dangerous one.

"Ending the wasteful practice of venting and flaring would be an easy win: it used to be routine, for safety, to stop methane building up and exploding, but long-established technology renders this almost always unnecessary."

It will never happen.

What is cloud seeding and could it end the drought in Iran? Facing its worst drought in decades, Iran is attempting to stimulate rain by spreading seeding agents in clouds, but the technique is likely to have modest benefits at best

Short answer is: Not chemtrails, and no it couldn't www.newscientist.com/article/2504...

Rapid melt from Antarctica could help preserve crucial ocean current Greenland’s melt is expected to slow the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, but research suggests a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet could in some cases prevent it from shutting down

Do two wrongs make a right? Research suggests Antarctic melt could prevent the collapse AMOC current.
One small caveat: you’d then have up to 3m of sea level rise. @newscientist.com www.newscientist.com/article/2504...

Ice Mushroom | Alec | Substack I'm Alec, an award-winning climate journalist, and this is a monthly newsletter with my latest reporting as well as interesting stories about icy and mountainous places. Click to read Ice Mushroom, by...

I’m also starting a monthly Substack newsletter called Ice Mushroom, which is the name for a giant blob of rime ice that can form on windward rock faces.
Please subscribe to follow my stories, as well as interesting news about icy & mountainous places: icemushroom.substack.com

Personal news 🚨: I’ve started a 10-month gig as environment news reporter at New Scientist, the most popular weekly science & tech magazine.
I'm in the office on a mobility scooter as I recover from a broken femur & frostbite on a mountain in Norway this summer—thank you for the messages of support!

Fossil fuel emissions rise again – but China's are levelling off Global emissions from fossil fuels are expected to hit another record high in 2025, but China’s carbon emissions appear to be reaching a peak

Global emissions from fossil fuels are expected to hit another record high in 2025, but China’s carbon emissions appear to be reaching a peak.

Sequencing Hitler's genome teaches us nothing useful about his crimes To understand Adolf Hitler, we need to look at his personal life and the wider societal and historical context - analysing his DNA for a TV gimmick tells us nothing, says Michael Le Page

“There is no need to look to genes to explain why many individuals try to become dictators – the far more pressing question is why we let them.” The argument against sequencing Hitler’s DNA for a TV documentary. @mjflepage.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2504...

Could electric race cars soon be faster than Formula 1?

Formula 1 cars have been the fastest road vehicles for the past 50 years. But electric vehicles may soon become the quickest on earth, as the battery-powered cars of the upstart Formula E racing championship are making huge technological strides.

Could electric race cars soon be faster than Formula 1? The electic cars of the Formula E racing championship can accelerate faster than Formula 1 cars and their top speeds are catching up – but battery capacity would let them down in a head-to-head

Formula E beat Formula 1 in a race? Depends on how long the race is.
But it's still wild that electric race cars have come within touching distance of combustion engines in a mere 11 years. www.newscientist.com/article/2503...

When rift lakes dry up it can cause earthquakes and eruptions Lake Turkana in Kenya, known as the cradle of humanity, has shrunk in recent millennia – and the loss of water has led to increased seismic activity, which could have impacted our ancient ancestors

Our ancestors at "cradle of humanity" Lake Turkana faced more earthquakes & volcanoes after it got drier & water levels fell.
"Like loosening the cork on a champagne bottle,” less water unleashes fault slips & magma in rift systems. Climate can affect tectonics! www.newscientist.com/article/2503...

One of the cool things about living in UK is you can wake up one day & find out you reside 300 yards from an ancient Roman road. (h/t @davidho.bsky.social)

UK 'green' biomass sourced from forests with 150 year old trees Calls for subsidies for industry to be halted

Similarly I once found Drax was sourcing “sustainable” wood from an area in Russia where the forest will take >150 years to regrow & reabsorb the carbon that was burned off into the atmosphere www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/0d2afd9...

Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say Exclusive: report by Stand.earth says subsidiary of power plant received truckloads of whole logs at biomass pellet sites

Drax received logs from cutblocks in BC containing 90% old growth forest, a Canadian investigation found.
So it’s receiving £2m a day in UK green energy subsidies to burn old growth forest 🤔 www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Vietnam sees 35 rainfall records broken in October - VnExpress International Vietnam's northern and central regions saw a total of 35 rain records broken in October alone as two storms, Matmo and Fengshen, caused unprecedented downpours.

The Vietnamese Bach Ma Mountain Peak station recorded one-day rainfall of 1,739 mm - close to the global one-day record and perhaps a new record for the northern hemisphere. It is part of a deluge Viet Nam has seen in October, shattering 35 precip records. e.vnexpress.net/news/news/en...

I wish we could ignore Bill Gates on the climate crisis. But he’s a billionaire, so we can’t | George Monbiot Money talks – and his essay denouncing ‘near-term emissions goals’ at Cop30 mostly argues the case for letting the ultra-rich off the hook

This week's column is on Billionaire Brain: the condition which seems to prevent extremely rich people from perceiving the utterly bleeding obvious.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little have been tried.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

It’s almost laughable how the second the UK government starts having budget troubles, it turns & runs from every climate commitment it was talking up

EV drivers could face new tax in Budget - BBC News The BBC understands there have been "conversations" within government about the possibility of a new levy on EVs.

If the UK is “backing the transition to EVs,” then why is it considering a tax on miles driven in an EV, to be paid for the year in advance!?
The whole point of an EV is it costs slightly more but is cheaper to operate. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK will not invest in Brazilian tropical forest fund at Cop30 Britain will not commit public money as Rachel Reeves grapples with balancing the books ahead of the Budget.

The UK failing to invest any money in the forest fund *it helped to create* because of domestic political pressures is so, so 2025 www.edp24.co.uk/news/nationa...

Strong criticism after Brazil opens up for oil exploration outside the Amazon Shortly before the climate summit in Brazil, the country has granted permission for oil exploration outside the Amazon's mouth. Environmental organizations are reacting strongly.

Production started from Bacalhau, Equinor’s largest international field 16 October 2025 08:00(CEST)

Oil from Bacalhau would emit millions of tons CO2 The Bacalhau oil field in Brazil is estimated to hold 2 billion barrels of oil, which are located 2000 metres below sea level. It is also stretched along the Brazilian coast and covers 800 kilometres of pre-salt areas. This not only makes it extremely demanding and expensive to extract the oil, it is also very harmful. Burning 2 billion barrels of oil would lead to high emissions, possibly upwards of 800 million tons of CO2, which is nearly double the annual Brazilian emissions. ‍ Bacalhau harms local fishing industry One of the biggest risks of continuing to explore the Bacalhau oil field is to harm the local population in the region, which subsequently is among the poorest in the country. They are dependent on tourism and fishing which are threatened by Equinor’s Bacalhau project. Possible oil spills, changes in the ecosystem while in development, and other risks to the environment would harm the livelihood of the local population in many years to come. ‍ Risk of losing tens of species Bacalhau is surrounded by a fragile ecosystem in an area which is regarded as a hotspot for biodiversity. In other words, there are huge risks of losing some of the most unique and valuable species in the ocean. According to the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) and the Environmental Impact Report (RIMA), there are 18 species of birds, 6 species of whales and dolphins, 4 species of sea turtles, and 25 fish species in Bacalhau that are threatened with extinction. ‍

Facts – Equinor in Brazil Equinor has been present in Brazil for more than two decades Brazil is a core area for the company’s long-term growth In addition to Bacalhau, Equinor is operator for the Raia development, another major ultra deepwater field development, expected to come on stream in 2028. Equinor is also expanding its investments in renewable energy, with onshore assets already in operation and more projects under development through its subsidiary Rio Energy

Absolutely nuts for Norwegian media to report on Brazil's 'hypocrisy' without mentioning Equinor SPINNING UP THE LARGEST FIELD IN BRAZIL SINCE 2000 - literally days after Equinor celebrated its production start

Another day in the petrostate!!!!! COP30's going to be cool

www.nrk.no/klima/krafti...