Climate change
The great climate climbdown is finally here
Finally, thankfully, the global warming craze is dying out. To paraphrase Monty Python, the climate parrot may still be nailed…
Is ‘wind drought’ the latest climate catastrophe?
In an enjoyable guide to wind-related topics, Simon Winchester reports that terrestrial wind speeds are mysteriously declining and we are now in the grip of ‘the Great Stilling’
Westminster’s climate conundrum
With three weeks until the Budget, the main political parties have been setting out their economic thinking. Each faces the…
Why I pity the poor eco-zealots
An email popped into my House of Lords inbox last week from Lt Gen. Richard Nugee with the subject line…
On the trail of a missing masterpiece: What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan, reviewed
In the archipelago-republic of 22nd-century Britain, a literary scholar becomes obsessed with a long-vanished sonnet sequence and the woman who inspired it
The best radio at the moment is on the BBC World Service
Online viewings of Conclave increased threefold following the death of Pope Francis last month. At least some of the traffic…
A meditation on the beauty of carbon
In fact carbon proves just a peg for a series of essays on the oneness of life, with references to ‘ancient teachings’ , ‘other ways of knowing’ and Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies
The downfall of climate change poster boy Michael Mann
Even if you’ve never heard of Michael Mann, you will have felt his baleful influence on your energy bills. He…
Kemi’s stance on net zero is courageous – and correct
Kemi Badenoch secured the Conservative leadership on the basis that she would confront her party and the country with uncomfortable…
Pious bilge: Kyoto, at @sohoplace, reviewed
The West End’s new political show, Kyoto, can’t be classed as a drama. A drama involves a main character engaged…
Letters: The dangers of the ADHD ‘industry’
Nothing left Sir: Rod Liddle is right to ascribe the establishment’s desire to suppress the truth in relation to grooming…
The case against a ‘climate emergency’
January is the ideal month for gaining a sense of perspective. I’m increasingly convinced that the ‘climate emergency’ is another…
The Ginger Rogers theory of information
I had a friend whose approach to entrepreneurialism was to take two separate things that seemed stupidly popular and somehow…
Dam shame: what really caused Valencia’s floods?
Who is to blame for the devastating floods that hit Valencia on 29 October? The mob that surrounded King Felipe…
A scorched Earth: Juice, by Tim Winton, reviewed
Winton’s teenage Australian protagonist is recruited by the sinister Service organisation in its crusade against the billionaires whose profiteering has cooked the planet
The grandstanding against the Hay Festival is short-sighted
When the country’s largest literary festival parts ways with its main sponsor, it is not usually a cause for rejoicing among writers,…
Why won’t Chris Packham have a real debate on climate?
On Sunday, the BBC did something unusual. It invited Luke Johnson, a climate contrarian, to join a panel with Laura…
In the grip of apocalypse angst
Dorian Lynskey lays out the many ways in which we have imagined the world ending – through pandemic, nuclear holocaust, climate change, asteroid impact or, most unnervingly, AI
Real life
‘They’re going to have to stop cows,’ said my mother, looking doubtfully down at her plate as we tucked into…
Who fact checks the fact-checkers?
Last week, a retired physics professor called Nick Cowern said it was time to get tough with ‘climate denialists’. ‘In…
Cool it
he new head of the IPCC on the need to move beyond eco alarmism
Towering infernos
Our unpreparedness was vividly illustrated by the catastrophic Canadian inferno of 2016 – originally judged a minor brushfire beyond Fort McMurray’s city limits
The big beast in peril
As the world’s thermometer, the ocean keeps everything in balance, but carbon emissions and our use of it as a dumping ground is threatening its life, says Helen Czerski
Airheads
The arrogance of the ‘Tyre Extinguishers’
