Why personal climate action matters – according to experts: EL_Images/Shutterstock Do you feel powerless? You probably aren’t responsible for the investment decisions of an energy company, nor do you have a hand in government policy. But still, you are reading about climate change – a problem that can easily seem intractable to most people. The Veganuary …
US-Africa relations under Biden: a mismatch between talk and action: In his first year in office, US president Joe Biden committed to resetting US-Africa relations based on a doctrine of equal partnership. He sent his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. The visit was used to outline the administration’s policy …
The new climate stripes? How creativity can inspire environmental action: New air quality stripes show changes in air pollution for 176 cities since 1850. Kirsty Pringle/data from http://airqualitystripes.info/, CC BY-NC-ND Without context, vast numbers are meaningless. Data can be incredibly dry, abstract and difficult to visualise. But sometimes scientists find clever ways of presenting complex …
Vaccinating livestock against common diseases is a form of direct climate action: PERO studio/Shutterstock Animal diseases have a devastating impact on livestock production. In 2022, for example, 131 million domestic poultry died or were culled as a result of avian influenza (also called “bird flu”). Yet the cost of livestock disease goes beyond a shortage …
UK government facing legal action for failing to tackle climate change – but it could backfire: The parish of Whimpell once stood on the Norfolk coast between the village of Happisburgh and the sea. Whimpell disappeared into the sea centuries ago thanks to coastal erosion. And now Happisburgh is facing a similar threat. Some, however, …
Strikes: when companies collaborate with unions, industrial action can benefit business: Nigel J. Harris/Shutterstock More than 4 million working days have been lost to industrial action in the UK in 2023. This is more than at any point since 1989 and around nine times more than the yearly average of 450,000 days in the 2010s. …
Somali pirates are back in action: but a full scale return isn’t likely. Here’s why: An Iranian fishing vessel, Almeraj 1, was reportedly hijacked by Somali pirates in November 2023. According to media reports, the pirates demanded US$ 400,000 in ransom and threatened to use the Iranian ship for additional hijackings if the payment was …
Why renewed China-US cooperation bodes well for climate action: Melnikov Dmitriy / Shutterstock The relationship between the US and China is the most important in the world, and it has been unstable and sometimes under extreme stress in recent years. But a recent meeting between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in California may bring …
Climate action for Africa in 2023: three big developments: 2023 is highly likely to be the hottest year ever recorded. And climate change is to blame for one-quarter of the global population being exposed to dangerous levels of extreme heat. We need signs that countries are taking steps to address this. Specifically, we need climate …
Memory in action: what the UK’s official COVID commemoration should look like: Whether an actual bereavement or a loss of experience, everyone has lost something to COVID. From early on in the pandemic, grassroots memorials sought to acknowledge this collective experience, including the national COVID memorial wall in London and the annual national day of …
How action over parliamentary spying scandal could affect the UK’s economic relationship with China: The arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for China has fuelled calls in Westminster for tougher action against China by the UK government. This could impact the UK economy since China is an important trading partner and industry …
The Conservatives have seized on cars as a political wedge – it’s a bet on public turning against climate action: “Talking about freedom, sat in Margaret Thatcher’s old Rover” read the UK prime minister’s tweet in July 2023. Earlier that day in an interview with The Telegraph newspaper, Rishi Sunak had declared that the Conservative …
Zimbabwe’s climate action plan: a win for the environment, health and energy: Reducing carbon emissions will promote health and development in Zimbabwe. Zinyange Auntony/ AFP/ Getty Images The dumping of billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere yearly is already having a devastating impact around the world. This includes …
How board games can get people involved in climate action: The dangerous wildfires burning across Europe show us how real the climate crisis has become. When we see these disasters on the news, it’s clear we need to take action on climate change now. But it can still be hard to really understand how. That’s …
Nigeria needs to take climate action: 4 urgent steps to start with: Trucks, with goods, abandoned on Nigeria's East-West highway cut off by flood in October 2022. Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images Climate change is not just a buzzword or a topic for political debates. It is a real and pressing issue that affects …
Why strike action is climate action: Taking strike action is difficult. Some difficulties are obvious: sacrificing my pay as a lecturer creates immediate financial difficulties. Other difficulties are more hidden, like the pervasive anxiety of a strike day as emails roll in. Strike-breaking colleagues remind me about pressing deadlines and students ask about class, marks, …
Climate doomism is bad storytelling – hope is much more effective at triggering action: IrDesign90/Shutterstock When news about the climate is published, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, frightening headlines like “final warning” or “now or never” are often the norm. Some activists call this approach “climate doomism”, and are quick to …
IPCC’s conservative nature masks true scale of action needed to avert catastrophic climate change: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) synthesis report recently landed with an authoritative thump, giving voice to hundreds of scientists endeavouring to understand the unfolding calamity of global heating. What’s changed since the last one in 2014? Well, we’ve dumped …