Learning about and trying to live lightly on this beautiful planet. The natural world, inclusive bushcraft, evidence-based environmentalism and sustainable living.
Is it worth trying to reduce your personal impact when we need to tackle climate breakdown on a systemic level, or is it just, as George Monbiot calls it, pathetic micro-consumerist bollocks? Edit 20th May: replaced the embedded Facebook video with a Youtube one as it didn't seem to be visible to some people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir-XjQhOyNQ … Continue reading Pathetic micro-consumerist bollocks
Jack Raven Bushcraft has republished an article I wrote a few years ago for The Bushcraft Journal, on the myriad fascinating ways that the organisms in a woodland, from trees to fungi, interact and even communicate with one another. The Whispering Wood The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow … Continue reading The Whispering Wood
With the recent growth in interest in sustainable living I'm seeing a lot of posts of beautiful people with Instagram-worthy lifestyles sharing their clearly enviable life decisions, and I just wanted to push back a bit against the rather intimidating impression this gives that no one ever gets it wrong. I've certainly made some mistaken … Continue reading Failure Friday: coffee filter funnel
We are becoming increasingly aware of the problems caused by plastic waste, particularly single use packaging, and of the inadequacies of our methods of dealing with it as it becomes clear that recycling is not the panacea it was sold as. It's therefore encouraging to see a new scheme being launched to tackle the problem … Continue reading Closing the Loop for grocery packaging?
Four people tried to follow the link to the essay on battery recycling on my last blog post Ways to reduce single use, which I have since discovered linked to the file on my computer rather than the correct url. I've now updated this on the post itself but just thought I'd post an update in … Continue reading Tiny update
With the caveat that environmentalism is increasingly framed as a matter of individual consumer choices rather than collective action, which is bad news both for the movement's likely effectiveness and the way we think of ourselves and one another in society, I do nevertheless believe that personal environmental choices are worth making. This is not … Continue reading Ways to reduce single use
The natural world is so busy and full of beautiful, remarkable things to pay attention to that it sometimes causes me problems when I help out at the bushcraft school where I was privileged enough to spend many of my weekends this summer. I frequently find myself going out to collect firewood and coming back, … Continue reading Out of sight, out of mind: the problem with balloons
We all love learning fun facts don't we, especially if they're something new and surprising. This animal can do something remarkable, this famous person has an unexpected talent, turns out you've been using this common kitchen item wrong your entire life you great walnut, bell peppers have genders and you can tell them apart by … Continue reading Sex, seeds and pseudoscience – why peppers don’t have a gender, and you can’t tell anything by counting their lobes
Whatever the spiritual significance of the Christmas period to you, the holidays are a time when our consumption as a culture goes into overdrive. With many planetary boundaries already exceeded and an increasing awareness of how resources are being depleted to manufacture products in exploitative labour conditions, and the subsequent pollution caused when these products … Continue reading Have yourself an environmentally conscious Christmas now
Tangled Bank Foraging and Fibre Crafts 