Greta Thumberg cancelled her Edinburgh appearance earlier this month - because Book Festival sponsor Baillie Gifford invests in fossil fuels. There was also a walkout by other writers and audience members who said it is not enough to meet and talk about climate change - we need to stop funding the types of activities that make it worse. Writing on Substack, columnist Alex … [Read more...] about Climate change at the Edinburgh festivals
Climate emergency
Rewilding the Highlands: Glen Affric and Dundreggan point the way
It’s an early evening in mid-April and I’m walking through a spring-green birch forest in Glen Cannich, a dozen miles west of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The trees are dripping with silver-grey lichen, and mosses abound; birdsong is everywhere, and the air feels strikingly pure and fresh. There are beautiful views through the trees and bracken to the river and fields … [Read more...] about Rewilding the Highlands: Glen Affric and Dundreggan point the way
COP26 and Africa’s development needs
We hosted Mathias Lyamunda, the chief executive of an NGO in Tanzania, as part of the HomeStay network for COP26. This gave us a glimpse of an African perspective on the climate change conference. Africans feel they are being told they can’t have affordable electricity - there is no capacity for them to have that; because of what the rich world has already taken from the … [Read more...] about COP26 and Africa’s development needs
Garb-Age in the Highlands
Here is a photo by Rob Bruce. It was taken at the end of the summer when a group of people from our community and some holidaymakers spent the day clearing a beautiful remote beach in Wester Ross of plastic waste, which of course is a by-product of the fossil fuel economy. They filled a boat with 15 bags of plastic waste. By weight, 90% of the waste was from the area’s salmon … [Read more...] about Garb-Age in the Highlands
NHS alert: code red for climate change
Is the NHS equipped to deal with floods, gales and heatwaves of extreme weather? Can democracy Deliver in Time?We knew it was coming. The IPCC special report on Climate Change ('code red for humanity') should leave no-one in any doubt that we cannot afford to waste more time on promises yet to be delivered. We've been good at promises in Scotland as well as the rest of the … [Read more...] about NHS alert: code red for climate change