Lara Williams

98%

That's the decrease in the annual number of single-use plastic bags in the UK since a 5p charge started 10 years ago (it's now 10p)

Not all environmental problems are that easy to tackle, but change is possible

Resharing the Mail's 2015 splash, which has aged well

www.gov.uk/government/p...

YouTube video by Creative Boom Samuel L. Jackson Wants You to Eat Seaweed (and Back Wind Farms)

OK, this is actually pretty good

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRzE...

ouchhh, she didn't even ding the little bell a billion times like limers usually do to excuse their madcap cycling.

Rest up and feel better soon!

Tilting at windmills? Trump’s claims about turbines fact-checked The US president has taken a swipe at wind power as the blades visible from his Turnberry golf course turn

You might want to sit down for this, but the Windmill Hater in Chief has said a lot of wrong things about windmills www.theguardian.com/environment/...

doing the lord's work aka lurking in r/DIYUK and upvoting all the pro-heat pump comments

The social costs of solar radiation management - npj Climate Action npj Climate Action - The social costs of solar radiation management

"One doesn’t decide whether to embark on brain surgery by focusing on the price of the knife."

Solar geoengineering might be TECHNICALLY cheap but it's extremely expensive once you factor in the social costs www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Hiding Weather Data Harms More Than Hurricane Forecasts The Trump administration’s decision to stop sharing military satellite information with meteorologists will accelerate the nation’s growing home-insurance crisis.

Cutting weather forecasters off from military satellite data to possibly enrich private companies will make hurricanes more dangerous … and our growing home-insurance crisis even worse

🎁 link to my @opinion.bloomberg.com column

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

British Airways, Alaska Air and Peers' Cleaner Fuel No Match for Emissions Rise Although carriers are using more sustainable aviation fuel than before, any climate benefits are outweighed by the increase in air travel.

While British Airways' parent IAG and Alaska Air lead in cleaner jet fuel, climate gains are being wiped out by growth in air travel. Some industry insiders are now calling for a more candid conversation about aviation emissions. Gift link here:

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Stop Playing Whac-a-Mole With Forever Chemicals What the world needs now is a universal ban on PFAS. We know restrictions work.

so there's a theory that, in the netherlands (& probs elsewhere):

🌱there's PFAS in the soil
🪱earthworms absorb the PFAS
🐔garden hens munch worms
🥚eggs from those hens have really high levels of PFAS

so Dutch people have been told not to eat the eggs from their own chickens and isn't that so sad?

hard agree
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Brits Keep a Sweaty Upper Lip on Air Conditioning Government policy in the UK has focused almost exclusively on making homes warmer. It’s far too hot for that.

Gov policy has quite rightly focused on making our homes warmer to reduce energy bills and carbon emissions.

But with extreme heat becoming a greater issue, is it time to add cooling measures to the retrofit agenda?

via @opinion.bloomberg.com

screenshot of spotify daylist described as english folk traditional thursday afternoon, consisting of irish bangers from Lankum, Lisa O'Neill, OXN and John Francis Flynn

spotify made me a great playlist of nearly exclusively irish music but had the gall to describe it as "english"

Stop Playing Whac-a-Mole With Forever Chemicals What the world needs now is a universal ban on PFAS. We know restrictions work.

Thus far, the world has been taking a piecemeal approach to PFAS -- a group of more than 10,000 toxic, persistent chemicals.

The EU is working on a universal ban, but progress elsewhere has been pitiful.

Free read via @opinion.bloomberg.com

bar chart showing deaths associate with extreme heat with and without climate change in 12 European cities

About 1500 of the approx. 2300 people that will have lost their lives across 12 European cities last week would still live, if it wasn't for our burning of oil, coal and gas. If we care about the right to life, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/pub...

The reality: From brain rot to induced psychosis, the psychological cost of generative AI is growing and flying under the radar, @parmy.bsky.social writes www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

the idea of an ai powered mental health platform actually makes me feel physically sick

The Texas Floods Were Made Worse by Climate Denialism Elected officials must be held accountable, now and in the future, for the lives lost in disasters brought on by increasingly extreme weather.

Mike Bloomberg: The horrific flooding in Texas isn’t just about a natural disaster in one state. It’s also about political failures all over the country

Every day I creep closer to recommending a lifetime achievement carbon tax.

ACT NOW, CHANGE FOREVER On 9th July, thousands people from every corner of the UK will come to Westminster to tell our MPs: this is a moment for leadership that protects what matters most — our health, our nature, our commun...

A mass lobbying exercise of UK MPs on climate change and nature is taking place on Wednesday at 9.30am
www.theclimatecoalition.org/act-now-chan...

Will it get as much coverage as the NFU's mass lobby over IHT on 19 November? I doubt it, unless WWF's Tanya Steele rides into Westminster on a bison...

taking a “sabbatical, jr.” (trip to the bathroom)

why is everything so fucking weird

so so tired

i'm so tired

ChatGPT’s Mental Health Costs Are Adding Up From brain rot to induced psychosis, the psychological cost of generative AI is growing and flying under the radar.

I cannot stress enough: people should NOT use ChatGPT as a therapist. Its habit of fanning "the flames of psychosis" is way too serious an impact to ignore.

From my colleague @parmy.bsky.social (free link!)

By every metric, wherever they've been trialled, shorter working weeks are better for business, workers and the economy at large.

Yep, people probably flocked to the beach but also:

Lots of people died. Hospitalizations spiked. Forest fires broke out. Food prices rose 12% because crops failed. Reservoirs almost dried out.

So I think the health alerts this time around are reasonable
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/ins...

gross article

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

A two-panel meme featuring Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the top panel, Geordi is shown with his hand raised in a dismissive gesture, wearing his characteristic golden uniform and metallic visor, with a disapproving expression. The text reads "Using trees to offset fossil fuel CO₂ emissions." In the bottom panel, Geordi is shown with an approving gesture, pointing forward with his finger and a pleased expression. The text reads "Planting trees for shade and just because."

Let's see if this is clear…

Yeah so if the average since 1910 is 437 hours and the standard deviation is ~52 hours, then this is a big anomaly (4.18x more than standard deviation).

super crude back of envelope calculation though so I defer entirely to scientists!

The UK’s Record-Breaking Sunshine Isn’t All Good News One of Britain’s warmest — and sunniest — springs ever may be lifting spirits, but it comes with challenges.

Gift Link / Free to Read

Opinion | @lararhiannon.bsky.social , Columnist

The UK’s Record-Breaking Sunshine Isn’t All Good News

One of Britain’s warmest — and sunniest — springs ever may be lifting spirits, but it comes with challenges.
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti... via @opinion.bloomberg.com