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Sustainability


Prospect magazine •

Call this a hot summer? This phenomenon explains why next year may be worse

It’s the photograph of the summer. Maybe of the decade. Maybe of the Anthropocene. In July, as wildfires raged in Bordeaux, a middle-aged couple set up their sun loungers and parasol on the beach at Lake Lacanau. The man’s leg nonchalantly rests on his knee. The woman is seemingly reading her phone, or is it a Kindle, perhaps loaded with this summer’s must-read. A body board, beach bag and sandals lie casually next to them on the sand. People can be seen in the water. And ahead of them, on the f...
Prospect magazine •

Britain deserves better than this botched plan for nature

Why did we leave it so late? The United Kingdom is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, according to the latest State of Nature report, and was ranked by a Natural History Museum study in 2020 as the 189th out of 240 countries and territories for biodiversity. We can’t blame our geography—our neighbour, France, ranks 5th best for biodiversity—instead, this is the consequence of British choices. UK terrestrial and freshwater species have declined by 19 per cent, and more than 40m b...
Cambridge University Press •

Book: From Crisis to Action: Climate Change Through the Eyes of the Most Vulnerable

"From Crisis to Action takes you straight to the front line of the climate crisis. It brings home in vivid detail the impact climate change is already having on people and communities around the world and paints a picture of what is at stake across seventy climate vulnerable countries. It's also a call to action: to remind us that we have an opportunity to avert the worst impacts and build a resilient world for everyone." Cambridge University Press.

By Abena Takyiwaa Asamoah-Okyere, Ministry of Finance, Ghana, Christina Natalia Widjaja, United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, and Tim Smedley, writer
Prospect magazine •

Economic growth and the search for abundance

A moment halfway through Ezra Klein’s and Derek Thompson’s recent book Abundance reveals something of their approach to building a net zero world. In 2023 a gasoline lorry exploded, causing Philadelphia’s I-95 bridge to collapse; Governor Josh Shapiro waived all the usual rules and regulations for public works so it could be rebuilt in record time. The project was of great benefit to the community. But during the works, the state secretary of transportation recalls encountering two workers using...
The Times •

Book review: The Last Drop: Solving the World’s Water Crisis by Tim Smedley — how Britain’s taps could run dry

I read most of Tim Smedley’s book about the world’s impending water shortage while wallowing in the bath. It’s where I do much of my reading, happily turning the pages for hours until my flatmates begin to hammer on the door of our only bathroom. From that vantage, the thesis of The Last Drop: Solving the World’s Water Crisis felt utterly improbable. How can we be on the brink of a water shortage, not only elsewhere but in grey and soggy Britain too, when it flows so easily and cheaply...
the Guardian •

The Guardian Long Read: ‘Drought is... the next pandemic’

During the summer months in the Oxfordshire town where I live, I go swimming in the nearby 50-metre lido. With my inelegantly slow breaststroke, from time to time I accidentally gulp some of the pool’s opulent, chlorine-clean 5.9m litres of water. I stand a bottle of water at the end of the lane, to drink from halfway through my swim. I normally have a shower afterwards, even if I’ve showered that morning. I live a wet, drenched, quenched existence. But, as I discovered, this won’t last. I am living on borrowed time and borrowed water.
BBC Future •

Is air pollution causing us to lose our sense of smell?

For many people, a bout of Covid-19 gave a first taste (or rather a lack of it) of what it is like to lose their sense of smell. Known as "anosmia", loss of smell can have a substantial effect on our overall wellbeing and quality of life. But while a sudden respiratory infection might lead to a temporary loss of this important sense, your sense of smell may well have been gradually eroding away for years due to something else – air pollution.
BBC Future •

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.
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