George Monbiot

1 week ago | theguardian.com | George Monbiot

This feels terminal. The breaches of trust have been so frequent, so vast and so decisive that the voters Labour has already lost are unlikely to return. In one forum after another, I hear the same sentiments: “I voted for change, not the same or worse.” “I’ve voted Labour all my life, but that’s it for me.” “I feel I’ve been had.”It’s not dissatisfaction. It’s not disillusionment. It’s revulsion: visceral fury, anger on a level I’ve seldom seen before, even towards Tory cruelties. Why?

2 weeks ago | freitag.de | George Monbiot

Das Feuer, das am Monatsanfang 500 Hektar der Hügellandschaft Dartmoor in der südwestenglischen Grafschaft Devon zerstörte, sollte eigentlich gar nicht möglich sein. Es dürfte keine brandgefährdete Landschaft sein. Aber Schafe, Rinder und Ponys haben sie dazu gemacht. Die Tiere fressen gezielt die kleinen nachwachsenden Bäume und verhindern so die Rückkehr des gemäßigten Regenwaldes, der nur sehr schwer entzündbar ist.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | George Monbiot

The precedent is uncanny, and the failure to learn from it downright mystifying. Keir Starmer is rushing gladly towards the catastrophe Boris Johnson inflicted on himself in 2020. Had he set out to stymie Labour’s chances of re-election, he couldn’t be doing it better. In 2020, Johnson promised “a whole new planning system” for England, which, he claimed, would promote “economic growth”. He said he wanted to see 300,000 new homes built every year.

3 weeks ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | George Monbiot

This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a story of breath-taking perversity. Even in fairly recent history, it used to be much bigger, to judge by two lines of evidence: a few surviving oaks scattered beyond the current woodland edge, and bluebells and bracken, often seen as indicators of recently-forested land.

3 weeks ago | etc.se | George Monbiot

De låtsas inte ens längre. Härom veckan sa BBC, som redan är Storbritanniens mest aktiva censor, till programledaren Evan Davis att sluta med den podcast om värmepumpar han gör på sin fritid. Den var en harmlös, torr genomgång av maskinerna, utan något uppenbart politiskt innehåll. Men BBC, säger Davis, såg det som att han ”styrde in på frågor som är politiskt kontroversiella”. Podden måste genast upphöra. Så är BBC:s programledare förbjudna att säga något kontroversiellt? Långt därifrån.