cough If you're gift shopping for anyone interested in how the world works, do consider these. Storm in a Teacup is all about the physics of everyday life and Blue Machine is all about how the ocean works - the water itself, which is the biggest story on Earth. Share the joy of nature & science!
Two book covers: Storm in a Teacup and Blue Machine
Do you remember the Shoe Event Horizon from the brilliant Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? (explained in pic if not)
Is that where we are today with online fast fashion clothes shopping?
Listen now to this week's Rare Earth, all about fast fashion, its effect on the environment, and options for what happens next as this giant industry perhaps faces the end of the road: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vbt0
The Shoe Event Horizon is an economic theory that draws a correlation between the level of economic (and emotional) depression of a society and the number of shoe shops the society has.
The theory is summarized as such: as a society sinks into depression, the people of the society need to cheer themselves up by buying themselves gifts, often shoes. It is also linked to the fact that when you are depressed you look down at your shoes and decide they aren't good enough quality so buy more expensive replacements. As more money is spent on shoes, more shoe shops are built, and the quality of the shoes begins to diminish as the demand for different types of shoes increases. This makes people buy more shoes.
The above turns into a vicious cycle, causing other industries to decline.
Eventually the titular Shoe Event Horizon is reached, where the only type of store economically viable to build is a shoe shop. At this point, society ceases to function, and the economy collapses, sending a world spiralling into ruin. In the case of Brontitall and Frogstar World B, the population forsook shoes and evolved into birds.
If you're in London today (Sat 20th), don't miss the spectacle that is the Great River Race! This historic race is a fabulous way to see all sorts of traditional (from many traditions) boats - skiffs, coracles, gigs & more - race through central London. You can keep up here: https://greatriverrace.org.uk/live-map/
We've just recorded a Rare Earth on animal migration & this app is amazing. It's called Animal Tracker (www.icarus.mpg.de/29143/animal-tracker-app ), and it's real time data on 100s of animals - birds, foxes, bison & more. Their tracks are fascinating, taking clear routes with intent. More to come next wk on the air!
For the next three years I'll have the (additional) post of Frank Jackson Professor of the Environment at Gresham College, giving a series of free public lectures on Earth and how it works. All will be freely available online. You can see their whole programme here:
Open Planet is doing some great stuff, and this is an incredible resource for anyone telling stories about the ocean:
thousands of cinematic clips themed around marine issues and environments available to everyone.
Seeing is believing, and this will help everyone see.
A new David Attenborough documentary is always an event, but I think that Ocean really is something innovative and different. I've seen some clips, and it tells a critical & unseen story (plus spectacular photography, of course). It'll be in cinemas from May 8th. Do go!
Happy 99th birthday David Attenborough! The day itself is actually Thursday - May 8th - but today the Observer has published a lovely list of memories and the things he did that have provided inspiration from 99 people (including me). Well worth a read :)
So much of the destruction in the USA is away from the spotlight at grass roots level. But the foundations of a modern society are being smashed. The National Science Foundation has just stopped awarding new grants and funding existing ones. That effectively means that work on all existing NSF grants has to stop immediately. Universities are telling researchers to stop spending on those grants right away. That's jobs and progress and opportunity just being eradicated.
In today's Rare Earth on concrete, I somehow omitted my favourite thing about it:
To make concrete you need cement, which needs limestone. And the calcium in limestone was all collected by tiny sea creatures, building their shells atom by atom from the water around them. So the calcium in every single bit of concrete has passed through a sea creature. We only have skyscrapers because of marine life.
[The ace pic is from a WSJ column I wrote on this]
The news has been more than a bit grim of late, so hooray for Carbon Brief providing some genuine and really meaningful good news: the UK's carbon emissions in 2024 were the lowest since 1872, because demand for fossil fuels just keeps decreasing.
Hooray for International Womens Day etc, but really, it's an utter embarrassment to society that it's still necessary in 2025.
We need a Gaia-like parent to tell the tech bros that they're not allowed to play with their shiny scifi toys until the basic homework of human equality is sorted out.
The Royal Institution Christmas lectures are 200 years old this year! There will be lots of events to celebrate, but if you're in or near London, this is a good start - a live show with the best science demos from two centuries. I'm sure it'll sell out quickly. Tickets here:
It is such a delight to discover that the origin of Reuters (the huge news agency) is that in 1850 Paul Julius Reuters started a service using pigeons to carry news & stock market prices between Brussels & Aachen, until telegraph could take over. Pigeons went by train each day & then flew back.
11 yrs ago I found this funny: 'How many Microsoft designers does it take to change a lightbulb? None. They just define darkness as “industry standard”
But now I can't unsee this:
'How many huge companies does it take to fix the climate? None. They just define global warming as “industry standard”
Blast from the past... Just found this photo from 9 yrs ago when I let TV people give me hair extensions in order to demonstrate how TV hair adverts are made (it was a documentary on the science of hair - I swear this was serious science!).
1/2
The problem with a lot of ocean "exploitation" is that it's like mining a human for calcium. Yes, a human body contains ~1kg of calcium, and you could take it out, but it's already doing quite a lot of useful things, and the human has far more potential to help you if you leave the calcium alone.
It's more than a bit windy out there, but just look how clean the UK electricity grid is right now with all that wind energy flowing in (graphics source: https://grid.iamkate.com/)
Look who I met for this week's Rare Earth (on air at 12 today, online any time). He looks cute until you look at those big talons. We're talking about birds of prey - how are they doing, & can there ever be too many?
Thx to the UK Owl and Raptor Centre for letting us visit
Figure showing market share of heat pumps in different countries (HT Jan Rosenow). The big story isn't the massive increases in Switzerland, Denmark etc - it's near universality in Norway, Sweden, Finland - this is very well-established tech, ESPECIALLY in cold countries.
I love this display at the ARTIS-Groote Museum in Amsterdam, showing water volume compared with Earth. We treat the little water we have so badly. And yet we're so excited every time there's even a hint of water on Mars. We need to recognise how precious Earth's water is and treat it accordingly.
It blows my mind that in many designated marine protected areas (MPAs), bottom trawling is still allowed, along with many other destructive activities. Surely, the default state for a "marine protected area" should be no commercial fishing. Otherwise, what's the point?
Last night I had the huge privilege of interviewing the great Sylvia Earle about the ocean. She said this, which really stuck with me:
"If Jane Goodall had been limited to studying chimps by hauling individuals out from high above the forest and inspecting what came up, she would have learned almost nothing"
Mastodon hivemind... I'd appreciate some technical help. I've got a wordpress website and I used to be able to embed my Mastodon feed on it. This hasn't worked for about two months now. I asked for help here and got nothing, but I'm clearly not the only one with this problem:
Here's something interesting for anyone concerned about the water quality in their local streams/rivers:
Earthwatch are running a FreshWaterWatch scheme, where (if you join for a bit of £), you get water quality measurement kits and can submit results to a national map. More info here:
