Climate Thoughts with Brian

Tag: sustainability

Ripon Repair Café: One Year On and Still Going Strong.

Repair culture proving popular against rising consumerism Ripon Repair Café opened its doors once again this Saturday (11th July) to mark the first anniversary of beginning their repair journey in 2025. Sue Griffin, an organiser for the local repair team said, ‘In the first year of the repair café, we have saved a lot of…
Read more: Ripon Repair Café: One Year On and Still Going Strong.
European heat records are broken by spring heat dome

Credit @Tomer Burg The UK has just set a provisional new May heat record with 35.0C recorded in West London, exceeding the 34.8C reached yesterday. France has also seen record breaking heat with 36C recorded in the country’s southwest on Monday as a heat dome sits across much of western Europe. Friederike Otto, Professor of Climate Science,…
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Review of ‘Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home’ by Katharine K Wilkinson

Wilkinson’s book crackles with purpose and the potential of what might be possible. It reminds us that there is a ‘we’ at the heart of this journey and that we are bound and bonded by a common framework of humanity. ‘Climate Wayfinding’ is a book which encourages- even demands- time for reflection; time for strengthening…
Read more: Review of ‘Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home’ by Katharine K Wilkinson
NOT A SINGLE COMPLETED WATER COMPANY PROSECUTION FOR POLLUTION INCIDENTS IN LAST FIVE YEARS

In yet another exclusive on pollution incidents, Channel 4 revealed last night (Wed 6th May) that the Environment Agency has not completed a single prosecution of a water company for any pollution occurring in the last five years, despite almost 2 million sewage discharges. None of the completed prosecutions relate to the thousands of serious…
Read more: NOT A SINGLE COMPLETED WATER COMPANY PROSECUTION FOR POLLUTION INCIDENTS IN LAST FIVE YEARS
Review of ‘The Visual Life of Climate Change’ by Saffron O’Neill

‘The Visual Life of Climate Change’ is an enthralling exploration and evaluation of the efficacy of climate related images and challenges the reader to be more critical of the ideologies and narratives posed by any image. O’Neill makes the early point that, ‘Images are not simply facile illustrations accompanying the ‘serious’ work of textual communication,…
Read more: Review of ‘The Visual Life of Climate Change’ by Saffron O’Neill
Halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 critical to avoid disastrous effects on human well-being

Immediate call for global action to shift world towards a “Nature Positive” approach is published today in Frontiers in Science. Harvey Locke @2026 ‘Human activities are driving a global decline in biodiversity and are interfering with the natural processes essential for human well-being. Achieving climate and development goals is impossible without keeping nature intact.’ This…
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National Emergency Climate viewings help to inform the public more about climate breakdown

Swinsty Reservoir in 2025 Following last year’s successful National Emergency Briefing on the climate to MPs, more action is still required from the Government to ensure that the public is informed, prepared and protected about the climate and nature breakdown. To ensure that this happens, multiple venues across the UK will host public viewings of…
Read more: National Emergency Climate viewings help to inform the public more about climate breakdown
Review of ‘Plastic Inc.’ by Beth Gardiner

Let’s start with a visual experiment. Look around the room which you are in and see how many objects you can spot which are made of plastic. The television? The television remote? Your laptop? Your phone? Those pesky pieces of Lego? Which plastics are in your television remote? When you upgrade to a new tv,…
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Review of ‘Despite It All. A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls.’ by Fred Pearce

‘With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.’ In ‘Despite It All’, Pearce offers us a more hopeful narrative to counter the daily deluge of climate crisis stories from around the world. Pollution of our seas, pollution of our atmosphere, extreme weather, droughts, biodiversity in crisis- it is all…
Read more: Review of ‘Despite It All. A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls.’ by Fred Pearce
Review of ‘Climate Collapse?: Calls to Action from Around the World’, edited by Arkbound Foundation

Voices from around the world speak out on climate solutions that they have experienced, to highlight that the ‘waiting for Superman’ approach is not appropriate when managing climate collapse and that local communities have the power themselves to act in a powerful manner to deliver climate action. ‘Climate Collapse?’ is, at times, blunt, critical and…
Read more: Review of ‘Climate Collapse?: Calls to Action from Around the World’, edited by Arkbound Foundation