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The Guardian view on switching off: in an always-on culture, we need time to think | Editorial
Midwinter is for hibernation and the chance to make different kinds of connections
“Disconnect from the internet for at least two hours a day and treat your own thoughts like a garden through which you are strolling,” was the advice offered by the novelist Ian McEwan to younger writers after being made a Companion of Honour in December. The capacity to be curious about mental processes – while simultaneously experiencing them – is an important one for an author seeking to describe the human condition. But anyone who values self-awareness will be used to noticing how their mind works and wondering why.
“Only connect” was the maxim of another famous novelist, EM Forster. Forster used the characters in his novels to put flesh on his arguments against the emotionally repressive code of the time. But McEwan’s recommendation to disconnect should not be understood as a repudiation of Forster’s humanism. He was not warning writers off paying attention to other people’s minds and ideas – but drawing attention to the need to spend time with our own. In a world of permanent connection, in which attention has been commodified, switching off and away from the outside world is arguably harder than ever before.
Continue reading...*Carbon Data Engineer (Geostatistics), ClearWind – Singapore
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Heavy flooding is UK’s climate crisis ‘wake-up call’, says Tewkesbury Abbey canon
‘We need to move so much faster’ to battle climate crisis, warns the Rev Canon Nick Davies, as locals assess damage
Standing at the top of Tewkesbury Abbey tower, the Rev Canon Nick Davies is talking about the flood.
But this is no sermon; the vicar is not reading from the Book of Genesis. He is discussing the flood waters before his very eyes, stretching far into the distance and besieging the medieval market town once again.
Continue reading...UK politicians call for environmental footprint launch after ‘alarming’ deforestation findings
Climate change: Former oil executive Mukhtar Babayev to lead COP29 talks in Azerbaijan
Electric racing team charges ahead with offsetting emissions from its latest season
ANALYSIS: Red Sea diversion piles on shipping costs but unlikely to increase sectoral EUA demand
Oil industry veteran to lead next round of Cop climate change summit
Mukhtar Babayev is named president-in-waiting of UN climate summit to be held in November
Cop29, the next round of UN talks to tackle the climate crisis, will be led by another veteran of the oil and gas industry.
Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s ecology and natural resources minister, has been appointed the president-in-waiting for the Cop29 climate talks when they take place in the country in November.
Continue reading...Hundreds turn out for Northern Waterthrush in Heybridge
‘We’d come here to get away from bickering about screens but had plunged back further: to the Eocene’
Other families have spread on to the finest beaches – but how often do you travel an inner-city waterway and happen upon ‘bats, bats, bats, and more bats’?
My son and I drive 10 minutes from home to the venerable Fairfield Park boathouse. We study a list of river-faring craft and choose a two-seater kayak. He likes sitting at the front, he tells me, so he can pretend he’s alone. I like sitting at the back so I can watch him grow before my eyes.
On the river we make a show of synchronised paddling but, when we’re out of sight, we let ourselves drift downstream. Eucalypts overhang the water and we float through reflections of twisting branches, making them ripple. Ducks come and race us. Parrots skitter through the trees that line the banks. Only the appearance of a bridge connecting the Eastern Freeway reminds us we’re mere kilometres from Melbourne’s city centre.
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Agroforestry and Carbon Credit Specialist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – Mozambique
Climate crisis is making sugar more expensive around the world, say experts
Cost of sugar surges to highest level since 2011 after extreme dry spell in India and severe drought in Thailand threaten crops
The climate crisis has been previously identified as a threat to coffee and beer, and its impact could now be stretching to another of life’s joys: dessert.
The global cost of sugar has surged to its highest level since 2011 following concerns of overproduction rates from India, which has experienced an extreme dry spell that has threatened crops, and Thailand, which is facing a severe drought. The two countries are the largest exporters of sugar, after Brazil.
Continue reading...Azerbaijan selects ex-oil exec turned environment minister as COP29 president
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Drop in coal power sends German emissions to lowest level in 70 years
Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell to the lowest level since around 1950, as a weak economy and high prices caused energy-intensive industry to lower production and coal power fell.
The post Drop in coal power sends German emissions to lowest level in 70 years appeared first on RenewEconomy.