BBC Future • 12th January 2023

The pollution causing harmful algal blooms

It is the "smell of decay and death", says Beth Stauffer, from the University of Louisiana. "It has a physical presence. This layer of very striking greens and blueish greens…when you put your paddle in it, you can feel it." She's describing the harmful algal blooms (HABs) that used to be more associated with marine environments. But in recent years they've been moving further inland and affecting freshwater systems, too. And scientists such as Stauffer are trying to find out why.

The Sunday Times • 20th January 2022

How I earned my dad stripes and built a zebra crossing

Never have I been so pleased to see a boy racer. It’s July 2019 and I’m standing next to a busy B road in Banbury, Oxfordshire, with an unusual delegation of adults. I say “adults” because it’s school pick-up time, 3pm, and we aren’t with any children. I have invited the local councillor to see how this main road near a school, with no pedestrian crossing, forces parents and children to run across and hope for the best, twice a day...

BBC Future • 30th November 2021

Why we're entering a vaccine RNAissance

Until recently most people had never even heard of mRNA vaccines. Now scientists believe they may be the key to solving a wealth of health problems. Barely a year ago, Anna Blakney was working in a relatively inconspicuous, niche field of science in a lab in London. Few people outside of her scientific circles had heard of mRNA vaccines. Because none yet existed...

Elemental • 20th July 2021

Is Reverse Osmosis water good (or bad) for your health?

Given that I’m writing a book about water, accepting an offer to review a home water filter made sense. But now it’s on my kitchen counter, I’m not sure if I want to use it. My reservation is this — how pure is too pure?

The Sunday Times • 20th December 2020

Britain needs to steer away from the killer car. We owe it to Ella

Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah died in south London from acute respiratory failure in 2013. She was nine. But it was not until last Wednesday, after a long legal battle, that a coroner finally ruled on the cause of her death. She has become the first person in the UK — and the world — to have “air pollution” listed on her death certificate...

Big Issue • 5th October 2020

Coming up for air

It’s no silver lining but the pandemic has at least led to an improvement in air quality. It’s up to us to keep the pressure on politicians to ensure the life-saving benefits are made permanent.

The Bookseller • 1st May 2020

Picador pre-empts book on 'next big climate crisis'

Picador has pre-empted an investigation into water stress, billed as "the next big climate crisis", by environmental journalist Tim Smedley. Publishing director Georgina Morley acquired world rights for The Last Drop: Solving the World’s Water Crisis for publication in spring 2022.

BBC Future • 9th April 2020

How to mine precious metals in your home

With so many of us now stuck in our homes during the pandemic, long-postponed jobs such as clearing out the loft or attic may seem like a good way of keeping the monotony at bay. Perhaps sorting through the “drawer of junk” in the kitchen or cleaning out that over-stuffed cupboard in the spare room are rising up your to-do list. If you need a little extra motivation for the spring clean, though, there’s probably treasure hidden in there.

BBC Future • 11th December 2019

The toxic killers in our air too small to see

After years of headlines about air pollution, we’ve been misled on a few things about the world’s biggest environmental health problem. For example, we’re told that “PM2.5” – solid pollution particles measuring 2.5 micrometres or less – can pass through our lungs and into our blood stream. But, in fact, the vast majority of them can’t. The biggest killer of all never makes the headlines, isn’t regulated, and is barely talked about beyond niche scientific circles: it’s nanoparticles.

Royal Society • 27th August 2019

Clearing the Air: Shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize

"Tim tells the full story of air pollution: what it is, which pollutants are harmful, where they come from and, most importantly, what we can do about them. Amidst terrifying statistics Tim uncovers the hope that remains for the planet. He tells inspiring stories..."

Bloomsbury Publishing • 21st March 2019

Clearing the Air - Bloomsbury

OUT NOW! Whilst living in London, sustainability journalist Tim Smedley became concerned by the escalating headlines about air pollution, and also by how little he knew about it. Outdoor air pollution was shortening his life – and potentially that of his young family. In a bid to learn more he travelled to several major world cities including Delhi, Beijing, Helsinki, London and Paris, and returned with the solutions...

BBC Future • 25th July 2019

Could wooden buildings be a solution to climate change?

I’m standing in a seemingly ordinary construction site of an unremarkable office block in east London. The seven-storey building is about two-thirds complete – the basic structure and staircases are in place, with plastering and wiring just beginning. But as I walk around, something different slowly reveals itself. The construction site is quiet and clean – it even smells good. And there’s an awful lot of wood...

BBC Capital • 10th July 2019

Why are people thirsty for 'raw water'?

“Anybody here drink water, but wish you could pay more for it?” In January 2018, the “raw water” movement was doing the rounds on the US TV comedy circuit, and it was Stephen Colbert’s turn on The Late Show. “Well, good news,” continued Colbert, “because the next big start-up craze in Silicon Valley is ‘raw water’… water that’s unfiltered, untreated and unsterilised. Wow, drinking that sounds unsane!”

BBC Radio 4 • 29th April 2019

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4, You and Yours

[Interview clip starts at 20.08] The environmental journalist Tim Smedley began researching air pollution after the birth of his first child five years ago, and he's made it the subject of his first book – “Clearing the Air”...

The Observer • 17th March 2019

Deadly air in our cities: the invisible killer

"In the winter you can taste and smell the pollution,” says Kylie ap Garth, drinking coffee in a cafe in Hackney, east London. “My eldest is eight and he has asthma. Being outside, he would have a tight chest and cough. I just assumed it was the cold weather. I didn’t realise there was a link to the cars.” She is not exaggerating. The main road from Bethnal Green tube station is clogged with traffic, the smell of diesel fumes mixing with smoke from barbecue grill restaurants and construction dust.

BBC Future • 18th June 2019

The poisons released by melting Arctic ice

In 2012, Sue Natali arrived in Duvanny Yar, Siberia, for the first time. Then a postdoctoral research fellow studying the effects of thawing permafrost due to climate change, she had seen photos of this site many times. Rapid thawing at Duvanny Yar had caused a massive ground collapse – a “mega slump” – like a giant sinkhole in the middle of the Siberian tundra. But nothing had prepared her for seeing it in person.

BBC Future • 12th March 2019

Why Britain’s rain can’t sustain its thirst

When it comes to water scarcity, the last place on Earth you’d think of is rain-soaked England. Winter here is cold and wet. It rains for what feels like weeks on end. Lawns squelch with saturated soil and garden water butts overflow, likely to be unused until April. The UK’s average annual rainfall is a sopping 1200mm, compared to the 300s in Afghanistan, or just double-figures in Egypt. Yet within a few short months, significant parts of the UK will be staring down the barrel of empty water butts...

BBC Future • 26th February 2019

How artificially brightened clouds could stop climate change

In June, 1991, something surprising happened to the Earth. Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines, erupted. The pressure built up over centuries beneath this dormant volcano caused the second largest eruption of the 20th Century, spewing vast amounts of white ash and sulphates as high as the stratosphere – 10 km above the Earth’s surface. As a result, the average global temperature that year dropped by 0.6C. And for some researchers, that raised an interesting possibility. Could we do this on purpose, deliberately producing artificial clouds reduce global warming?

BBC Future • 21st September 2018

The outrageous plan to haul icebergs to Africa

If towing icebergs to hot, water-stressed regions sounds totally crazy to you, then consider this: the volume of water that breaks off Antarctica as icebergs each year is greater than the total global consumption of freshwater. And that stat doesn’t even include Arctic ice. This is pure freshwater, effectively wasted as it melts into the sea and contributes to rising sea levels. Does it sound less crazy now? This untapped flow of water has enticed scientists and entrepreneurs for over a century...

BBC Future • 7th September 2018

How to drink from the air

All air, from arid deserts to humid cities, contains water vapour – globally, an estimated 3,100 cubic miles (12,900 cubic kilometres) of water is suspended as humidity in the air around us. That’s five Lake Victoria’s (Africa’s great lake, at 2,700 cubic km). Or a whopping 418 times the volume of Loch Ness. This is the humidity in the air we breathe, that reappears as beads of water on the side of a cold drink, or as morning dew on blades of grass. And a technological race is underway to harvest it as drinking water.