Welcome to composter – our new weekly eco-news digest
October Books Member, Liz Batten, has kindly offered to create a weekly news digest of eco-news for us. Here is the first installment we hope you find it useful and do send us your news and views too.
Energy
Someone worth following on YouTube is Dave Borlace and his Just have a think channel. A book provided Dave with the inspiration to set his climate communication video channel that aims to decode the sometimes overwhelmingly complicated and confusing scientific information around climate change. The book was called ‘A Farewell to Ice’, written by the arctic research scientist Professor Peter Wadhams. Is there a book that has provided you with the inspiration to take action on climate change? We’d love to hear your recommendations.
Retrofit
The wonderful folk at Civic Square have been busy working on “Retrofit Reimagined”, with partners around the UK. Watch this joyful little film to get a sense of what they’ve been up to and what we can learn from their imaginative work:
These ideas could/should form part of the Local Growth Plans, currently being formulated by Southampton, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight Councils – and they should involve us! To join other like-minded folk contact Retrofit Southampton: Welcome - RetrofitSouthampton
Food
This Guardian article sings the praises of buckwheat is the new miracle crop for a future of extreme heat (although this is a bit ironic at the time of writing) – already being grown in Devon. If you want to try buckwheat, you can buy it in shop now.
Building new homes
The new Labour government is proposing building more homes on the Green Belt to meet demand. There’s an interesting debate on X about the definition of where these homes might go – perhaps instead of calling it the “Green belt” we could call it the “Nature belt” and define exactly which areas are most ecologically rich (now or potentially)? Sometimes the “ugliest” land is the most nature rich and the “prettiest” is most likely to be a desert for biodiversity. Here’s an example of the debate on X:
This debate could benefit from the insights in Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities a great analysis and perhaps explains why the virtual “Solent City” that has been built in South Hampshire, doesn’t feel so great.
We hope you have enjoyed our first Eco-news digest. Do let us know if there are books that you would like to recommend about the subjects mentioned.
