A bill payers’ boycott targets Wessex Water and demands they fast-track infrastructure upgrades and stop dumping raw sewage in our seas and rivers. Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (XR BCP) has launched a new campaign calling for ten thousand people nationwide, including Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) residents, to stop paying their wastewater bills. […]
In December, I wrote about the need for a change to the law on the insolvency of water companies. I suggested a change that would wipe out shareholders, give loan creditors a haircut and leave essential suppliers with their payments due intact because they were essential to the ongoing supply of water in the UK. Renationalisation […]
Global average temperatures in 2023 exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, conditions never before experienced by human civilisation. Though crossing this iconic milestone for one year doesn’t mean that average warming has yet reached that point, it was only in 2018 that UN climate experts, the IPCC, predicted that we wouldn’t reach 1.5°C until around 2040. […]
Update: Riverford’s petition will be debated in parliament Jan 22 with potentially important ramifications for farmers across the UK. We’ll be listening in. Devon-based Riverford (of veg box fame) have launched a new #GetFairAboutFarming campaign, calling for British supermarkets to sign up to the principles of Riverford’s Fair to Farmers charter: Pay what you agreed […]
And so it begins again. Despite the unanimous verdict of the High Court decision back in the summer, wealthy asset manager, Alexander Darwall, has elected to challenge that decision and ask the Supreme Court to make a final judgement as to whether the right to wild camp (leaving no trace) exists or not. On Sunday […]
Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (XR BCP) have held another protest – their fifth – since Perenco’s oil spill on 26 March 2023. They were joined by activists from East Dorset Friends of the Earth, Bournemouth and Poole Greenpeace, and other XR groups from across Dorset. The spill, at Ower Bay in Poole Harbour, […]
Dear Editor Power cuts remind us of the need for infrastructure investment The power cuts experienced by 860 properties in the Crediton area just after Christmas remind us how important our infrastructure is. The shocking truth is that much of the United Kingdom’s infrastructure is ‘not fit for purpose’. The most glaring examples are our water industries and […]
Each new year brings hopes and fears – hope for good changes, fear that bad ones might arise. Mostly, we hope things will improve for family and friends who are struggling but worry about how events outside their control will prevent progress. All our personal futures are bound up with the wider world, so here […]
The much-anticipated Independent Review of Protected Site Management on Dartmoor was published on 13 December 2023. It was overshadowed by the COP28 deal, but locally it’s just as significant: after all, Dartmoor is by far the largest area managed for wildlife in the south-west, and its peat bogs hold carbon stores equivalent to an entire […]
Dartmoor Environmental campaigner Tony Whitehead looks at the Independent Review of Protected Site Management on Dartmoor published this week and asks whether it will help nature restoration in this precious landscape … When I first skimmed through the Independent Review of Protected Site Management on Dartmoor that was published this week, my initial reaction was […]
We spotted this on Twitter and thought that it sounded horribly accurate; it really sets out just what we are up against… Romain, who describes himself as a grumpy Parisian, campaigns with Oil Change International to accelerate the end of the fossil fuel era. Sitting in tonight’s Global Stock Take (GST) negotiations on fossil fuel […]
On 12 December 2022, wealthy landowner and hedge fund manager, Alexander Darwall and his wife, brought a case to the High Court to overturn the enshrined right to wild camp on Dartmoor National Park – the only place in England and Wales where it was legal. In January, he appeared to have won, but his […]
Dear Journalists, Please challenge ministers when they brag that UK has cut emissions by nearly 50 per cent. That’s only part of the story and highly misleading – because we’ve offshored so much manufacturing. The UK has in fact barely cut emissions at all outside of the power sector since 2010. An abject failure. What’s […]
Here’s the evidence that the UK Gov is now overtly blocking the action needed to avoid climate catastrophe. What have I missed? Despite crystal clear science that the world already has enough fossil fuels to last until 2050, and to surge well past 1.5°C leading to catastrophic damage… …the UK gives huge tax rebates to fossil […]
Dartmoor is one of England’s most treasured landscapes and important wildlife havens. Just as the brooding hills, hidden valleys and spectacular tors delight visitors year-round, the oak woodlands, heath, bog and mires are home to many species that are vanishing elsewhere – including golden plover, curlew, high brown fritillary and countless rare insects, plants and […]
In the run-up to COP28, where governments will discuss urgent measures to mitigate the worst effects of climate breakdown, a new online poll has revealed that British adults have, in Bristol Energy Cooperative’s opinion, shockingly low awareness of a climate solution that’s potentially right on their doorstep: community energy. The new Ipsos poll commissioned by Bristol Energy Cooperative (BEC), a community-owned energy coop, shows, when […]
Rishi Sunak is going to step up his efforts to weaponise climate action for political gain, pretending that he is the champion of the motorist and the homeowner facing hideous bills for energy (thanks to profiteering). Using the famously environmentally-minded King as the mouthpiece for his ‘plan’, Sunak will no doubt claim that new oil […]
The lawn is a terribly British thing: Wimbledon, picnics, making daisy chains. For me summer starts when I’m hit by the scent of cut grass and then it’s that bit of green that remains into the winter months after the trees have lost their leaves. So why are so many gardens in the UK being […]
Stopping what he called the ‘war on motorists’ seems to be Rishi Sunak’s latest electoral wheeze. He, or his advisors, have worked out that there are lot of people who not only drive, but who love cars and the roar of engines, the smell of petrol, the sound of revs and the thrust of rapid […]
In the UK, it is estimated that we will spend a total of £777m on Halloween this year, up 13 per cent from an estimated £687m in 2022. Not to mention that of the 17 million pumpkins we buy, 14.5 million go to waste after October 31. A terrifying quantity of costumes are purchased each […]
Local activists from Cycling Rebellion have launched the LOVE 20 campaign at Winton Banks in Bournemouth, calling for a 20mph speed limit on Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) roads where citizens live, work, shop and play. Heart shaped spoof 20 miles per hour (mph) speed limit signs were displayed along the road, chalk art brought […]
On Saturday September 30, around 300 people gathered at Princetown to show their passion for creating a wilder Dartmoor. The “March for Wild Dartmoor” was organised by Wildcard, a growing grassroots movement of ordinary people, campaigners and experts who want to put pressure on the country’s biggest landowners to commit to ambitious rewilding projects as […]
The colourful campaigners of Extinction Rebellion Wimborne (XR-Wimborne) joined the crowds gathered for the Inside Out Dorset performances in September 2023. “We sang fossil fuels themed songs, processed and unfurled banners before the Inside Out performances started, and in parts of Wimborne where performances weren’t taking place. Our message was simple, there’s still time to […]
“First, we need to change the debate. This debate needs more clarity, not more emotion. The test should be: do we have the fairest credible path to reach Net Zero by 2050, in a way that brings people with us?” Rishi Sunak, Sept 20, 2023 Shhhhhhh! Don’t blow the choreography. Sunak’s speech on Wednesday September […]
The day before Rishi Sunak’s outstandingly dishonest Downing Street press conference on Wednesday, at which the Prime Minister announced his decision to junk key parts of the UK’s emission reduction efforts, a meeting of a very different kind took place in Cornwall Council’s main chamber in Truro. Convened by Climate & Ecological Emergency Cornwall, a […]
When Russell Brand issued his pre-emptive denial in an attempt to get ahead of the horrendous allegations of rape and sexual assault aired by The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches on Saturday, he addressed his 6.6 million YouTube subscribers with the words: “Hello there, you awakening wonders.” It’s Brand’s standard greeting to his followers and […]
The Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels has registered over 400 actions, marches, rallies, and events around the world. These mobilisations against fossil fuels are coordinated by more than 780 endorsing organisations. They are expected to draw millions of participants between September 15 and 17, 2023. This includes a Pier-to-Pier march and rally in Bournemouth […]
Dear Editor On September 10,2023, activists from Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (XR BCP) held a protest against the illegal dumping of sewage into Dorset’s waterways by Wessex Water at their Ringwood water recycling centre. In the week that a BBC report revealed that in 2022 Wessex Water was responsible for 215 dry spills […]
Signs were put up across the 4,000 acre Spitchwick Estate on Dartmoor this summer forbidding swimming along 17km of the River Dart, including at popular beauty spots. Forty right to roam campaigners held a ‘protest swim’ at Spitchwick on Sunday 10 September in defiance of the ban. Groups included Right to Roam, The Stars Are […]
Nature is in decline on Dartmoor – like in most of our National Parks. [Please see video in Twitter post below in which Guy talks to Tom Heap Media about how bad things are. Ed] So the government’s Dartmoor review, underway now, could help turn things around – or make things even worse. Here’s how […]