Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (XR BCP) have put up the plaques in nature reserves, green spaces and popular dog-walking spots to highlight the plight of many of the UK’s most iconic species. The message the group wants to send to locals is that it is not too late for us to turn things […]
Editor’s note: We are reproducing this briefing sent to MPs so that you can see and share the information they have been given. One of MP Watch‘s aims is to counter disinformation and misinformation, which has a nasty habit of sticking in minds more than the facts. We face crises on numerous fronts as a […]
Do you remember way back when a storm like Eowyn was something of a freak event? It was , in fact, so unusual that a certain weatherman blithely denied the threat back in October 1987. Storms did not even get names until 2015, when the Met Office and Met Eireann started a joint initiative to […]
Local residents joined Extinction Rebellion (XR) Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) and XR Wimborne, who once again gathered outside Bournemouth’s Civic Centre to demonstrate against the building of waste incinerators in the area. They are concerned about the detrimental effect of the proposed incinerators on local residents’ health, the local environment and increased global warming. […]
May Puckey is a 17-year-old from East Devon who is passionate about the environment and politics. We are very keen to encourage young citizen journalists, so please get in touch if you want to have your writing considered for publication. Happy New Year! This year, I have pledged to be flight-free for the sixth year in a […]
How are the plans for ‘decking’ your house for Christmas going? With 125,000 tonnes of decorations and 68,000 plus miles of Christmas lights going to landfill or incineration each year, maybe we need to re-examine our seemingly insatiable desire for all things sparkly and glittery. Who doesn’t love a bit of twinkle? However, so much […]
May Puckey is a 17-year-old from East Devon who is passionate about the environment and politics. We are very keen to encourage young citizen journalists, so please get in touch if you want to have your writing considered for publication. The media has focused on what Donald Trump’s second term of office as president will mean […]
Use paper straws! Turn out your lights! Don’t run the tap while brushing your teeth! So I have such an impact on the environment? If I died tomorrow I wouldn’t even save the equivalent CO2 emissions across my lifetime that the private jets flown into the latest COP conference produced – but god forbid I […]
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 […]
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 […]
Look, we know that everyone goes along with the idea that Murdoch (and the fossil fuel monsters) decide who runs this country and although this is bullsh*t, you make it real by going along with it. Stop! Shed-loads of us voted for you because you were a) not the Tories; and b) promised change. Don’t […]
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 […]