I hate it when I hear people killing spiders, wasps, ants, because they’re scared of them or because they’re a nuisance. Warning don’t go to next comment if you don’t like spiders.

Climate change: England's gardeners set for peat compost ban https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62069553

I love the Netherlands and have always wanted to go to their Floriade exhibition but have never made it. This one looks very interesting. https://www.positive.news/society/growing-green-cities-the-dutch-expo-that-shows-you-how/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/24/oil-firm-rockhopper-wins-210m-payout-after-being-banned-from-drilling?CMP=share_btn_tw

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62674800

3 min read
To solve the climate crisis, we must rein in the wasteful wealthy
by Damien Gayle

“Eating just one billionaire would do more to prevent climate change than going vegan or never driving a car for the rest of your life.” So proclaimed a post on Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram last week.
XR has not previously been known for its class analysis (nor even now: “This is obviously a joke,” the group’s caption averred). And yet it hit home: the post has been liked 40,000 times, about as much as XR’s previous 11 posts combined.
The image was a meme of Lisa Simpson before an auditorium, crafted by an account called the Ragged Trousered Philanderer. But it encapsulates a serious developing shift in the narrative of climate activism: we can’t solve the climate crisis without solving the problem of inequality.
For decades, climate change has been understood by the public as a crisis in which we are all implicated. Environmental campaigns exhorted us all to turn off our lights, buy more fuel efficient cars, recycle as much as possible – our consumption had to be adapted to minimise our impact on the planet.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that such efforts, while by no means unnecessary, are less than a drop in the ocean. Nothing drove this home more this summer than another Instagram post: Kylie Jenner's picture of her and partner Travis Scott standing in front of two private jets, captioned: “you wanna take mine or yours?”
It was posted days after Jenner, it subsequently emerged, took her private jet on a flight that lasted just 17 minutes. That might not sound like much, but it was estimated to have belched a tonne of carbon into the atmosphere – about a quarter of the annual carbon footprint of the average person globally.
Jenner’s conspicuous carbon consumption became a catalyst for a wave of reporting on the use of private jets by the rich. And not just the super-rich. In the Guardian we reported on Disney’s marketing of a $110,000 round-the-world package holiday with a carbon price tag of 6.2 tonnes for each of its 75 paying guests. That’s about 20 times more than the 0.3 tonne average of someone in a low-income country, according to the World Bank.
Flying is without a doubt the most egregious example of carbon profligacy by the rich, according to Andreas Malm, professor of human ecology at Lund University, Sweden, and author of influential polemic How To Blow Up A Pipeline.
“If you as an individual consumer want to burn as much carbon as possible, emit as much CO2 as possible, what you do is go on a flying binge,” Malm says. “That’s the most CO2 intensive act of consumption you can engage in. It exceeds everything else, driving and meat eating and whatever – particularly since these are emissions that don’t fulfil any legitimate purpose and don’t serve any human need.”
Consumption like this has made the richest 1% of the world’s population responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest 50% – 3.1 billion people – in the last 25 years, according to Oxfam. And as inequality continues to grow, so will their disproportionate impact. By 2030, Oxfam predicts, the carbon footprints of the world’s richest 1% will be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement.
And yet that is not even half the story, since the impact of the world’s wealthiest people is not only their consumption, but in the realm of production, from where the super-rich obtain their wealth, says Matthew Huber, professor of geography at Syracuse university in New York.
In a new book, Climate Change as Class War, Huber sets out how the fossil fuel system is inextricably tied to an economic system that continually leads to greater concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Yes, it’s true that Jenner, or Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk and others, are contributing to climate meltdown with their superyachts and private jets and the like – but what, Huber asks, about the people who sold them the fuel in the first place?
If there are lessons here for activists – and for anyone who is interested in tackling the climate crisis – Huber and Malm say change must start with the wealthiest and most powerful. But, says Malm, we cannot expect governments to do the work for us.
“All the governments I know of are beholden to these people, their taskmasters, if you like; the classes that they have to coddle the most,” Malm says. “That makes it extremely hard to envision any government moving against precisely these people, because that’s the people that are closest to.”
“If governments can’t do attack the most egregious instances of luxury emissions, then ordinary people will have to," he adds. "I think the next step for that kind of activism to go after private jets and super yachts and other monstrous machines for luxury emissions. It’s not that we’re done with SUVs, that campaign just needs to multiply and spread further and intensify. But there are more targets than SUVs.”
And so, it seems, that if we are serious about a future on a livable planet, eating billionaires might not be such a joke after all.

https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/487901239462866

https://newatlas.com/environment/recyclableblades-siemens-gamesa-kaskasi/

Very heavy rain, like today's thunderstorms coming after many weeks of drought, runs off rather than into the parched ground and therefore overloads the sewer system. UK water companies are then allowed to discharge untreated sewage into rivers and the sea. So, if we redesigned our cities to make them capable of absorbing more rainfall at a time, couldn't we make them more resilient and less liable to street flooding and therefore minimise sewage discharges?
I'd never heard of the Chinese notion of a 'sponge city' but it's not as odd as it sounds - and it's the opposite of the concretisation that characterises modern urban development. If the Chinese can make this idea work, to cope with monsoon conditions, then the idea should be capable of being exported to countries where extreme rain has drastic effects because the local infrastructure isn't designed to cope with occasional downpours.
On a small scale, this resembles the rain garden approach, where rainwater is used directly in the garden rather than being piped away to rainwater tanks and butts or down into the sewers. A well-designed rain garden can apparently absorb all the rainfall that falls on an average house.
So a true 'sponge city' should be able to absorb most of heavy rainfall, thus preventing the flooding of inadequate sewers, the overloading of water treatment facilities and thus the discharge of untreated sewage into rivers and the sea.
See eg https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-59115753

I think I’d be described as an ultraflexitarian these days so reasonably happy with that.

https://theconversation.com/which-diet-will-help-save-our-planet-climatarian-flexitarian-vegetarian-or-vegan-186772?

Maybe 'Save the Planet' would have been a more appropriate loop in which to post this, but both seemed potentially relevant.
https://www.scooploop.com/thread/diy-repairing

https://kslnewsradio.com/1973214/200-year-old-tree-explodes-in-portland-due-to-heat-wave/amp/

This is a good news story. The levels of coral is the highest for 36 years. Proof that there is no climate emergency.

https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/great-barrier-reef-recovery/

For anyone who's been sweltering in rooms directly under a roof, it would be worth considering how their roofs are presently insulated and whether that could be changed so as to make them radically more effective at keeping out excessive heat (and, of course, cold during winter).
My attic has 'cold roof' insulation, rolled out between the joists above the ceiling of the rooms below, which is fairly effective.
At the back of the house, however, there are low-ceilinged rooms with no/almost no ceiling void above them, so their slated roofs have never been insulated. Some of my neighbours in identical houses have had 'cold roof' insulation installed when that part of their home was re-roofed, but my excellent roofer tells me that that wouldn't make a great deal of difference in heatwave conditions. So there's no point having the back of the house re-roofed at enormous expense.
When the roofers re-did the flat roof over my stairwell, they installed a 'warm roof' under a felt surface - which they not only guaranteed for ten years but expect should last for 30-40 years. (Apparently those felted flat roofs which notoriously fail within a few years do so because they were badly made - cowboy roofers don't do this properly.) That made a huge difference in terms of insulation against severe heat: I can work on the top landing this morning, while my study (at the back of the house, under an uninsulated slate roof) is already very unpleasantly hot and will become intolerable as the heatwave continues.
So it's well worth considering having these sloping roofs re-done with a felt surface, so as to be able to use the 'warm roof' technique to insulate them. (One can't, apparently, do that under a slate roof because it needs to be well ventilated inside.)
That won't be easy to do legitimately in a conservation area, unless the local planners have already taken account of the effect of climate change to adapt their policies on retrofitting old houses - but some councils may already have begun moving in that direction. This summer's extreme conditions should provide a means of spurring others (and perhaps even central government) into updating their policies so that people can make even protected old buildings resilient enough to remain habitable in much more extreme conditions than those for which they were originally built.

I’m sure they’re not doing so well in other areas but this is good.
https://happyeconews.com/2022/07/25/intel-operations-in-us-costa-rica-india-achieve-net-positive-water/

https://happyeconews.com/2022/08/03/my-electric-vehicle-adventures/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-62393204

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/environment/first-osprey-chicks-recorded-in-yorkshire-since-1800-hatch-at-wensleydales-bolton-castle-estate-in-landowners-dream-come-true-3795431

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clk9rkrk1zko

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/20/fact-check-why-fracking-uk-will-not-reduce-energy-bills?fbclid=IwAR3oOiy5qZfjA634mxW-ffrsHKrnEJUTHgInyfqVY4RV4blURrrkHPCkY-0

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2331542-uk-government-to-hold-back-data-on-state-of-biodiversity-in-england/

Southern Water is imposing one in a week's time. Thames Water seems likely to apply one very shortly thereafter - and I'd be surprised if Anglian Water didn't follow suit, too.
See https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/29/southern-water-announces-hosepipe-ban-amid-uk-drought-fears

https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/waste-and-recycling-surveyor-east-london-4-posts?fbclid=IwAR3g9q0prFMnswn4cFKsmKtHBFjNeA0k0zNouXDdC6neLsw--xnSf73djmU

Electrical items and technology
https://www.currys.co.uk/services/delivery-installation/recycling.html

Yesterday evening I released my herd of free-range cinnabar moth caterpillars into the wild, where they can feast on ragwort to their hearts’ content.

I finally found a use for the charity bags that keep appearing through my letterbox – cut into strips for markers to try to stop council contractors from cutting the plants down.

At last, some good news.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/22/sussex-farmers-plan-to-create-wildlife-rich-green-corridor-to-the-sea?CMP=share_btn_tw

This is unlikely to be news to anyone in this group, but it may be useful to inform others.
https://ieep.eu/news/more-than-half-of-all-co2-emissions-since-1751-emitted-in-the-last-30-years

Stop oil Protest

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/16/climate-chief-alok-sharma-warns-i-may-quit-if-new-pm-dumps-net-zero-pledge?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/climate/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-mining-electricity.html

https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project/bluey

This is a very interesting way to use advancing technology, and trust you enjoy the insights.

PLUS
https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/12/tory-green-consensus-leadership-contest-net-zero-climate-sceptic?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

https://ecohustler.com/technology/what-is-killing-the-serpulid-reefs-of-loch-creran

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/council-pledges-action-weedkiller-plastic-24458769?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

This article is three years old, but still current. Reform of business taxes has been mentioned during the race for the new Conservative leader.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49130995

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/12/george-eustice-new-tory-leader-net-zero-rewilding
NB Grant Shapps has pulled out of the Conservative leadership race.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/12/uk-dispose-of-100bn-plastic-packaging-year?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

This could explain inaction on the climate. Ignorance / lack of interest.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/11/fewer-than-10-percent-of-uk-mps-sign-up-for-emergency-climate-briefing?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco

https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/opinion-war-in-ukraine-is-no-excuse-to-abandon-green-focus

Read to the end.
https://medium.com/the-mission/we-did-it-to-make-margarine-d51c3d4825ec

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/06/power-wealthy-earth-politics-democracy-plutocracy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.4277147/a-cruise-ship-s-emissions-are-the-same-as-1-million-cars-report-1.4277180?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

I haven't read the book, but it's recommended by The Tree Council.
https://septemberpublishing.org/product/fixing-the-planet/

If we switched to renewable energy, the number of ships crossing the ocean would fall by 40% because they're just carrying fossil fuels.
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/the-happiest-number-ive-heard-in

Little enough, but at least something was done.
https://www.birdguides.com/news/police-action-against-dog-walker-after-curlew-eggs-destroyed/

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/stella-vita-solar-campervan-netherlands-spc-intl/index.html

This year Earth Overshoot Day lands on 28th July. In less than 7 months, humanity will have used up all the resources that nature can regenerate in a year.

25th December 1971
15th November 1981
13th October 1991
24th September 2001
4th August 2011
1st August 2017
28th July 2018
29th July 2019
22nd August 2020
30th July 2021
28th July 2022

Fruit flies have a nasty tendency to appear at this time of year, flocking to fruit bowls and kitchen waste bins.
So I went looking for ways to get rid of them without using artificial chemicals and found all sorts of ideas. If only I had some wine dregs going to waste, as I'm sure I've used that one in the past ... I might have to use good vinegar instead.
https://www.tipsbulletin.com/homemade-fly-killer/

This ingenious sand battery is a terrific idea. It can't be scaled down for domestic use but helps to minimise the cost of domestic energy supplies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61996520

https://twitter.com/KneppWilding/status/1542818906909425665