We’re all familiar with the concept by now: a day of frenzied shopping, with the odd fist fight thrown in! Around the early two-thousands, the last Friday in November became the season’s busiest shopping day, taking over from the Saturday before Christmas. This import from the US is now firmly fixed in our calendar, along […]
Plymouth City Council are still not listening to community concerns or valuing our trees. Eighteen months after the reputation-trashing act of eco vandalism carried out by Plymouth City Council (PCC), where they cut down more than 100 trees at night, it seems that no lessons have been learned by our decision makers. The council might […]
As the 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference is getting under way in Azerbaijan, I’m on a train from Devon to Edinburgh to attend court hearings into the Rosebank and Jackdaw North Sea fields. The last government permitted exploitation of these two oil and gas fields in 2023 and 2022 respectively but was challenged […]
Discussions about building a proposed waste incinerator in Canford were deferred by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s (BCP) planning committee in September 2024. There is no confirmation, yet, about when it may be discussed, but the committee was due to meet on November 7, 2024. On that day, concerned residents, environmental groups, and local organisations came […]
Highlighting a week of protests and actions in London and across the UK focused on the “Achilles heel” of the fossil fuel industry setting our planet on fire: their insurers. Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) major national campaign, demanding that the insurance industry stops insuring the climate criminals setting the world on fire, hit the streets of […]
Anyone who has read Rory Stewart’s book, Politics on the Edge, will have learned the uncomfortable, shocking truth that MPs frequently go through the division lobbies with little or no knowledge of the content, purpose or justification for the proposed legislation on which they are voting. Unless they have a particular personal interest or are […]
Plastic Free Axminster has been carrying out a ‘slow-burn’ campaign to raise awareness in the community about the dangers of cigarette littering. We have been talking to retailers, hospitality outlets and businesses in the town about this and encouraging them to display our posters, to make customers, clients and staff more aware of the dangers […]
The Friends of the River Teign held their launch event on October 13 on Shaldon Beach, alongside the River Teign. The event was attended by Newton Abbot MP, Martin Wrigley, (Lib Dem) who carried out a water quality test, one of a series to be carried out through the winter by the group. The event […]
In 2021, we published an article urging readers to oppose planning permission for a new waste incinerator to be run by Eco Sustainable Solutions, in Parley, Christchurch. It was granted planning permission in December 2022, but the Environment Agency has not yet received an application for the necessary permit to operate it. In July 2023, […]
‘Country gent’ Nigel Farage was enjoying a sunny October Sunday, foraging for mushrooms. He didn’t say where (this is his leisure time, after all), but posted a cheery video on X/Twitter, showing a few prize specimens picked for his lunch. “If you don’t know what you’re picking”, he said, “be careful”, then demonstrated how to […]
Roz Savage MP has selected the CAN Bill in the Private Members’ Bill Ballot, and now has the chance to progress all the way. This is a golden opportunity to pass a Climate and Nature Act—but it’s critical that there are as many supporting MPs as possible to help it succeed. It’s especially important to […]
I am happy to admit that having camped extensively as a girl guide in my youth, I have no plans to wild camp again in my twilight years, even though there genuinely is nothing to beat that enveloping, cossetting stillness and powerful sense of connection to the land to be felt beneath the star-studded velvet […]
Friends of the Dart has found evidence of illegal dry spills in 14 different areas of the River Dart dating from 2021 to 2023, the worst of which occurred in Rattery where a total of 15 hours of sewage was found to have been released into the river. What is a Dry Spill? A dry […]
The Climate and Nature bill currently has the backing of 175 MPs, 231 scientists and 731 nature organisations in the UK. Zero Hour, the campaign that is pushing for the bill to be enshrined in law, says that the bill guarantees a “comprehensive and joined-up approach” to tackling the climate crisis, but what does the […]
Extinction Rebellion (XR) used shocking photos to puncture the pretensions of climate crisis funders JP Morgan’s Greenwash campaign. On September 10, 2024, XR arranged a hard-hitting visit to the Sustainability Department of one of the biggest funders of climate breakdown, which they called the ‘most staggeringly pointless and hypocritical place in the UK’. Global investment […]
Britain woke up on July 5 to find that fourteen years of Tory government was over. Sunak was gone, and his predecessor, whose 49-day tenure was even more disastrous than predicted, had capped her sparkling career by struggling to find her way offstage after unexpectedly losing her very safe seat. Older readers may remember watching […]
On August 9 and 10, 2024, National Trust members joined with Extinction Rebellion Wimborne to protest at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne with placards and leaflets. They spoke to hundreds of visitors, urging them to call on the National Trust to stop banking with Barclays, the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe. They carried placards […]
In the UK it is estimated that 140 meals per person (70kg) are wasted each year and that 70 per cent of wasted food comes from the home, mainly from fresh fruit and vegetables. Additionally, those statistics do not take into account the inordinate waste created by enveloping fruit and vegetables in single-use plastic. WRAP […]
On 15 July 2024, Extinction Rebellion groups from Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole (XR BCP), Wimborne and Purbeck, took their continuing campaign against Poole Harbour oil company, Perenco, to their offices and facility in Furzebrook. The campaign was sparked by Perenco’s spill of 200 barrels (approximately 31,600 litres) of reservoir fluid, consisting of 15 per cent crude […]
… into thinking that fabric softeners, conditioners and dryer sheets are absolutely essential to good housekeeping? From all the adverts to which we are subjected, we could be forgiven for thinking so! Perhaps we need to take a closer look. First there are all the millions of plastic bottles which get discarded every year in […]
As a psychologist, I know only too well the varied ways that we humans are distracted from painful knowledge that conflicts with our wishes, or our prevailing world view, or with wider political ideologies. And along with others, I see how citizens in the UK and beyond are increasingly confronted with the painful consequences of […]
If you’re like me, you find the damage wrought by us humans on the natural world very depressing. The easiest way to cope is by just not thinking about it; but the ostrich approach – while a form of self-preservation – will, of course, only add to the problem. Most of us, though, if we […]
YouTube footage from the climate change conference COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021 reveals scores of delegates chanting “Another world is possible”. It reflected their disillusionment at the compromised conference process and at the lack of governments’ commitment to meaningful action in the face of the escalating climate crisis. While, unsurprisingly, the footage was not […]
STOP PRESS: ALREADY FULLY BOOKED! BE QUICK NEXT YEAR, IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART! A leading local conservation charity is calling on people in Devon to help it discover more about the county’s bats. Devon Wildlife Trust is about has embarked on the ninth year of its Devon Bat Survey. The research is believed […]
Yes, you read that right. It would wake me around four or five in the morning – even earlier in May and June – starting with the twitterings of robins which were soon joined by blackbirds, chiffchaffs, and many others, and which would grow to a crescendo before fading as the birds began to get […]
Marketed as a way to help those seeking to give up smoking cigarettes, vapes are now considered trendy, especially among teenagers, and with the range of flavours, one would think one was choosing sweets rather than something that causes harm to the environment and to human health! According to the UK Government website, “use among […]
Members of Extinction Rebellion Wimborne staged a colourful protest at the gates of St Giles House, the seat of the Earl of Shaftesbury, in Wimborne St Giles on Monday March 18, 2024, which was the St Patrick’s Day Bank Holiday in Northern Ireland. We wanted to raise awareness of the Earl of Shaftesbury’s exploitation of […]
England’s eels are in trouble. Since the 1980s, the numbers in our rivers and wetlands have declined by some 90 per cent. Without urgent intervention, a once-common animal could face extinction. There are several reasons for this dramatic fall. One of the most obvious is the growth of man-made barriers blocking access to suitable habitat. […]
The BBC have reported that ‘Perenco UK pledges no repeat’ of the oil spillage in Poole Harbour. In reply, local activists from Extinction Rebellion say the only way for Perenco to honour this pledge is to stop oil extraction in Poole Harbour now. Extinction Rebellion (XR) groups from Bournemouth-Christchurch-Poole (BCP), Wimborne, Purbeck, East Dorset Friends […]
Greenwashing is claiming something is eco-friendly, green or sustainable when this is not the case and is not linked to any clear evidence. It makes consumers think they are helping the planet by choosing those particular items. Ingredients in a product being described as “natural”, “organic” or “eco-friendly” or “green” leave us assuming that the […]