About

I have followed and participated in the environment movement my whole life in many different ways.  From early "campaigns" with the Young Ornithologist Club, of which I was member, in primary school against discarding fishing tackle and stealing eggs from nests through to marching for climate justice at COP26 in Glasgow last year.

Much has changed and evolved over this time, with some successes but more, much more, still to be done.  There have been successes with ozone depleting chemicals, with whaling, and with deforestation and conservations in many locales.   Many of these issues are important in their own right but secondary to climate change and its effects.  The need to tackle climate change has been evident to me for at least a quarter of a century, possibly longer.  I recall the discussions following the Kyoto protocol, in particular around the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gasses at the time, the United States.  

This was in the days before Facebook and Twitter. It was more difficult to reach a large audience.  We had bulletin boards, mailing lists, Geocities and Yahoo Groups.  Now it is much easier to reach out to a wide audience, but the challenge is now being heard over the noise.  I started this blog back in 2011 to try and collate and critique things that were going on in the environment and sustainability space.  At the time many of the issues were extremely polarised, with vocal climate change deniers dominating the public discourse.  

Important media outlets such as the BBC would portray climate change as a matter of debate with equal balance given to the vast evidence of human caused climate change to the vested interests of those wanting to maintain the status quo.  This meant there was little room for debate on the actions being taken to support decarbonising our societies. Greenwashing could go unchallenged and unintended adverse side effects were ignored.  For example greater use of biofuels displacing fossil fuels but causing deforestation and habitat loss or conservation of one species to the detriment to another.  In addition to this, some proposals or solutions are quite emotive, leading to arguments with little basis in the science.

I haven't updated the blog so much in the last few years.  Life sometimes gets in the way.  This is a good thing.  I have been spending time with family and time outdoors.  Since COVID arrived with enforced lockdowns, time spent on the computer was work and I needed to get away for long walks or rides. 

Currently, I am reviewing the old posts.  Some, I feel, have stood up well while others are dated and irrelevant now.  Some would benefit from being updated and re-posted, which may happen in the coming weeks along with new content.  New pages are being added to cover the main themes of the blog, linking to key posts:

• Climate Change - it's causes, it's effects, and mitigations
• Renewable Energy - what works, what is coming, evaluation of technologies
• Transport - we all need to be somewhere
• Resources - water, soil, stuff to make stuff, recycling, pollution
• Conservation - deforestation, habitat loss
• Nature Stories - shared experiences of time outdoors

In the meantime, I hope you find the posts worthwhile and I welcome feedback, positive or negative.

As before, I'm keen to connect with others active in this space.  I am @EcoWarriorMe on Twitter.

EWM, November 2022