Jeremy Williams's Blog, page 97
February 4, 2021
The complex politics of neonicotinoids
This post is a collaboration with Poppy Cann, a student in London hoping to study Environmental Sciences at university this year.
Neonicotinoids are a class of pesticide that was banned by the EU in 2017. The pesticide is known to weaken bees’ immune systems, and also harms the development of baby bees’ brains, leaving them unable to fly. The EU ban was welcomed in 2017 by the environment secretary at the time.
However, on the 8th of January this year, DEFRA signed off on the emergency use...
February 3, 2021
The hazards of cyclone season
The weather is different in Madagascar. It’s dry in the dry seasons and it rained every day in the wet season, and this was a defining cycle in my childhood. There was also a cyclone season. We didn’t get the worst of this, being well inland. But it remained an annual recurring threat, and there is nothing comparable to this in my years of living in Britain.
Cyclones in Madagascar were a wild card. Sometimes they took out a bridge, cutting off entire towns and throwing travel into chaos. Som...
February 2, 2021
Has the Green Homes Scheme fallen down already?
As you may know, I have a long term plan to get my home to zero carbon by 2025. I’d have done it already if I could, but we’re basically moving as fast as we can afford. So when the government announced that it was going to help pay for home energy improvements, it was just the kind of support I’d been hoping for.
Under the Green Homes Grant scheme, I could submit my plans for energy efficiency or low carbon heat. If they met the criteria, the government would cover up to two thirds of the c...
February 1, 2021
The New Age of Empire, by Kehinde Andrews
It seems to me that many of the most popular books, theories and movements around race are imported from the United States. My kids, aged 7 and 9, have learned about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks at primary school. They are iconic figures, but it’s also easier to talk about other nations’ racism rather than your own.
Britain’s own racist legacy is less visible and hotly contested, but it feels like there’s a moment of examination going on at the moment. Writers like Shashi Tharoor, P...
January 30, 2021
What we learned this week
Time Magazine looks at Amsterdam’s use of Kate Raworth’s doughnut economics model. “Economics is a social science, not a natural one” says Marieke van Doorninck, the deputy mayor. “It’s invented by people, and it can be changed by people.”
Last week I mentioned the meat industry’s advertising campaign against vegan diets. This week I learn that the dairy industry is gunning for the alternative dairy products sector in a big way – including new EU rules that would ban them from using certain ...
January 29, 2021
America’s new approach to climate change
If you pay any attention to the environmental news, you’ll know that the biggest headlines this week have gone to the incoming Biden administration. Days into his presidency, Joe Biden has rejoined the Paris Agreement and set a whole series of climate policies in motion. Climate change is back on the agenda in the United States – and the world breathes a sigh of relief.
As a reminder, there is no scenario in which the world prevents catastrophic climate change with the United States sitting ...
January 27, 2021
Save Salla, Save the Planet
Salla is a tiny and remote municipality that is known for being the coldest place in Finland. Despite being best known for skiing, they’ve just launched a bid for the Summer Olympic Games in 2032.
You’ll have guessed by now that the campaign is very much tongue in cheek. As the final words in the video admit, you don’t want these games to happen. And they haven’t actually filed the paperwork for an Olympic bid. “We’ve created this bid to raise attention about the climate emergency. Sall...
January 26, 2021
Lifestyle change vs System change
A lot of the environmental movement, especially at the shallow end, is preoccupied with lifestyle changes. You know the kind of thing I mean – the top tips for reducing your plastic use or shrinking your carbon footprint. Go vegan. Get a bike. They’re often framed as sacrifices, things we have to ‘give up’ for the sake of the environment, though that’s often in the media reporting of environmentalism than the green movement itself.
These personal actions are all well and good, but there’s a...
January 25, 2021
Book review: Mission Economy, by Mariana Mazzucato
I’ll be honest: my heart sank a little at the title of Mariana Mazzucato’s new book, Mission Economy – A moonshot guide to changing capitalism.
It’s Boris Johnson’s fault of course. He has ruined the word ‘moonshot’. For me, the word implies pet projects for national pride or politician’s egos, or perhaps the egos of their megalomaniacal advisors. Dominic Cummings was a big fan of the moonshot, and talked the government into a string of ‘high risk, high reward’ projects that have mainly ...
January 23, 2021
What we learned this week
This week I’ve been pondering the problem of all four of us in the house needing to be on laptops at the same time. Not sure this will work for us with my wife’s radio work, but here’s Kris De Decker at Low Tech Magazine and how he runs 15 year old laptops.
On the subject of low tech, there are currently five companies that transport goods by sailing ship, and they are profiled here. An eccentric niche at the moment, but with potentially useful learning going on.
As a little reminder of ho...
