We must take the cirl bunting as an emblem of hope for the 2020s, and many decades to follow. This pretty, but insignificant, bird was saved from likely extinction in the UK not by the bird-loving public fitting up more bird boxes and putting out more feed, but by giving public money to farmers. It… Continue reading
Browsing Category Environment
Could new support scheme for farmers reboot our countryside?
Wherever you stand on Brexit, it’s hard not to take some comfort from the government’s proposed Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. This is the post EU strategy to introducing new ways of funding farmers with public money – moving from the basic payment principle to the “public money for public goods” approach. I heard a… Continue reading
A favourite Middle England marque joins the EV revolution
The only time-passing diversion at Milton Keynes station at midnight yesterday, as I waited to pick up a very late family member, was a series of rolling electronic adverts. The display had the desired effect, because here I am imparting the case for the all-electric Vauxhall Corsa-e – “Milton Keynes to West Yorkshire on a single… Continue reading
Silent Seven go green in Central London
Update Feb 2020. A ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at the latest, under government plans. It’s been a slow start for the small electric city car. I wrote the following piece in 2011, in that optimistic pre-Olympics age. In… Continue reading
Former government chief scientist Sir David King calls for urgent climate action
It’s encouraging that the need for urgent action on the climate emergency is finally being being widely accepted by politicians, business and the wider public. The message must be relentlessly proclaimed throughout the 2020s. Until recently so many opportunities have been squandered, so many experts ignored. One is the former government chief scientist Sir David King. I remember an… Continue reading
Could housing go green as planners develop 2020 vision?
BBC Radio 4’s Start the week (Monday January 6) took the starting-the-New-Year theme of rebuilding, and featured as one of its subjects an innovative prize-winning council housing project in Norwich. But how innovative? David Mikhail, whose architectural practice won last year’s Stirling Prize for this scheme, told presenter Andrew Marr what they had created there,… Continue reading