@jmbecologist
Applied ecologist working on the ecological emergency Studying ecosystem restoration, rewilding, dispersal, spatial ecology, ecosystem services, agro-ecology, global change. Views are my own & personal/unofficial
I’m really disappointed in @theguardian.com for posting this misinformation and failing to disclose who funds Britain Remade. It’s bad journalism to publish a pro deregulation article from an EDF-funded PR company-created lobby group without that context @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
Pro growth rhetoric claiming to care about our suffering natural world 🦔 Britain Remade is a Tufton Street adjacent think tank that promotes building unfettered by environmental legislation
A deeply odd Guardian article that massively underplays the damage building & infrastructure do to the environment
& while claiming to be pro-environment seeks to de-regulate the sector
Based on a nonsensical zero-sum argument about conservation funding
Comes from pro-growth group Britain Remade
We tend to always find excuses rather than examine an academic culture that encourages so much flying
Trump’s justification for attacking Iran
seems like that of a pub drunk who punches someone because “they were looking at me funny”
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
🚨 URGENT 🚨
Experts warn UK must start stockpiling food to prepare for climate shocks or war.
UK is only 54% self-sufficient - much, much lower than eg France, Spain, Netherlands, US, Australia.
We are dangerously reliant on fragile global supply chains.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
And a breakdown by career stage. I would contend that senior academics do most (and likely with least per air mile benefit!)
Yes! Plenty to learn from close to home
Academic flying
- from some senior researchers flying long haul multiple times a year
to flying students off to far flung field courses -
raises the question whether the resulting harm done to the environment
outweighs the good done by the research & educational gains
Creating a better world is simple
Just ask: “What Trump do?”
Then do the opposite
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
It is easy to think of nature as existing elsewhere - in reserves, in other parts of the world, places we fly to on holiday
Which can mean we think responding to the biodiversity crisis is simply about conservation actions
Rather than the fact that our society is based on the exploitation ofnature
The environment is trendy now - from Gen Z dating flags to the piles of books on the subject in bookshops
Shame this is not translating into action - individually, socially, or politically
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
New paper! Bird nests (Wood Warblers) are hubs of invertebrate biodiversity on forest floor, hosting more species/individuals than leaf litter. Probably due to heat & food detritus. Losing Wood Warblers = ecological networks lost. #ornithology
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The environment is trendy now - from Gen Z dating flags to the piles of books on the subject in bookshops
Shame this is not translating into action - individually, socially, or politically
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Interesting policy brief on wild boar/feral pigs in Scotland
Some view them as non-native pigs, either escaped or released illegally
Others see them as wild boar, once more in the wild after being driven to extinction
kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfil...
Dodgy political donations undermine democracy & should be stopped
In South Australia political donations are banned - parties will instead receive public funding, within strict expenditure caps
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
As the ‘growth agenda’ is increasingly dominating UK research funding, we scientists also need to push back against this drive to line the pockets of the super rich
While everyone’s opinion counts in considering what nature recovery should look like
Experience, expertise &, especially, evidence need to be taken into account in guiding how we achieve this recovery
Trump: My war has a clear objective which I've already achieved. I have killed the Epstein story.
New Private Eye on shelves now.
➡️ Subscribe: checkout.private-eye.co.uk/SingleItem?I...
While everyone’s opinion counts in considering what nature recovery should look like
Experience, expertise &, especially, evidence need to be taken into account in guiding how we achieve this recovery
More coasts at risk ⚠️
Some areas of the oceans are sitting several metres higher than previously realised.
Up to 132 million more people could be underwater with 1m of sea level rise than current estimates suggest.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reform fury as someone else wins by Our By-election Editor Tim Shipsink The losing candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Matt Goodwhinge, has demanded an immediate re-run of the election on the grounds that he lost comprehensively to someone else. "It's totally unfair and rigged," said Goodwhinge. "I shouldn't be required to sit there and suck it up, just because I lost." Mr Goodwhine continued, *I can't believe that all those voters I demonised failed to back me. Especially after I was endorsed by Tommy Robinson and ten million Russian bots on X. "We have clear evidence of family voting, where people voted in order for me to stop deporting their families." Mr Badloser concluded. "I'm the victim of colour prejudice. They didn't vote for me simply because I'm not green." Reform leader Mr Farage, speaking from a sun lounger on a rock near the Chagos Islands said, "It's a tragedy that the people of Manchester won't see Matt in Westminster, but my constituents don't see me in Clacton either." PLUMBER DEFEATS MATT GOODWIN Photo of Hannah Spencer with speech bubble saying… I've stopped the cock
Beautiful from Private Eye on the massive toddler-tantrum that Matt Goodwin and Reform are having, because they got whooped in Gorton and Denton.
As the ‘growth agenda’ is increasingly dominating UK research funding, we scientists also need to push back against this drive to line the pockets of the super rich
“politicians must stop prioritising socially and ecologically destructive growth that only increases the profits of the world’s richest individuals and corporations”
So says a UN rapporteur
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
I think we can be more scientific- eg work we doing on projecting biodiversity responses to climate change scenarios & assessing what species & communities might be able to persist under these scenarios
Well, we suggest experimental approaches to see what works out & to contain risks under uncertainty. We applied ecologists are actually quite knowledgeable about implementation.
Can you share reports, papers, etc?
So, you might be interested in our paper
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
As climate change presents us with unprecedented environmental conditions for our time
To what extent should we look to the past to guide nature recovery?
Or should we be totally rethinking our approaches to conservation?
In The Woodlanders, Hardy writes about the multiple traditional uses of woods in my home patch of Dorset - certainly a lot of human activity even in the late 19th century
