A degree in economics, maths, physics and bionics
Today I learnt why some trees start turning brown during a prolonged heatwave.
It turns out that it isn’t an early autumn at all. Under severe heat and drought stress, some trees effectively start shutting down parts of their leaf system. They reduce water loss, chlorophyll breaks down, leaves brown and some are eventually sacrificed altogether. It’s a survival mechanism.
I didn’t ...
I was speaking to an old mate of mine, Gwylim, last night. He works for the Kennet & Avon Trust, so he knows a thing or two. Britain’s rivers are in trouble. big trouble. We can keep pretending the present system just needs another stern letter from Ofwat, or we can start treating water as the national infrastructure it actually is.
There is a peculiar argument that appears whenever anyone suggests taking Britain’s water companies ...
The Miraculous Conversion
Death does strange things to people’s memories.
Since Rod Liddle died, Britain appears to have discovered that it secretly loved every word he ever wrote. People who presumably spent Sunday mornings carefully preserving his columns in leather-bound volumes have emerged from everywhere to tell us that he was fearless, brilliant, hilarious and, naturally, a national treasure.
It has been quite a transformati...
I’ve been doing a bit of reading into why some people refuse to accept climate change, and it turns out the answer is a bit more complicated than assuming they failed GCSE Science and have been quietly pissed off about it ever since.
The evidence suggests that, for many people, rejecting climate change has surprisingly little to do with the climate.
It’s about people.
The Inconvenient Inconvenience
Accepting climate change often ...
Restore UK has decided one of Britain’s great lost treasures is smoking in pubs.
Restore is a wonderfully appropriate name because, if we’re restoring things, let’s stop being half-hearted about it. Why cherry-pick one outdated idea when we can bring back the entire catalogue?
Why stop at smoking in pubs?
Let’s bring back polio. It will give children something to talk about. It’s character building.
How about a dose of ...
