Sustainababble

#274: The End Dec 24, 2022

Well, this is it. Yer last ever Babble. Thank you – seriously, thank you – if you’ve lent us your attention over the years. It’s been a pleasure.

Herewith a valedictory episode in which we reveal the real reason we’re binning the babble, Ol serenades Dave with an original tune, and we humbly compare ourselves to one of the finest sitcoms this or any country has ever produced.

Mostly though we consume far too much of the Christmas spirit and get bitter about the British Podcast Awards, so it probably is time to call it a day.

Some housekeeping – our old email address is now defunct, so if you want to contact us please write to legacybabble at gmail dot com.

We love you, babble army. Hopefully see you again one day. Big hugs, Ol & Dave. Xxx

Sustainababble was (sob) your friendly environment podcast, out weekly, from 2015-2022. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

All 274 episodes available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Socials won’t be checked, but feel free to email us at legacybabble at gmail dot com.

Over and out.

#273: Chris Packham meets Sustainababble, again Dec 19, 2022

For our final interview, we’re joined for a second time by the majestic Chris Packham, our first ‘proper’ guest all the way back in 2015.

We discuss all that has changed in those seven and a half years, not least some pretty hardcore stuff for Chris personally, and we chew over what the world of activism and protest might look like seven years hence, given things continue to go so spectacularly to shit.

Talking of shit, we discover that Chris Packham is full of it – so much so that he’s put his favourite wildlife poo pics in a calendar for 2023 (available to order here, if you’re into that sort of thing).

The reality of making telly programmes; Pete Waterman’s love of steam trains; our genetic predisposition to hate brussel sprouts; Mick Hucknell; photographing dead things; Michaela Strachan’s 80s club nights – it’s all ticked off in a wide-ranging chat with a man who is evidently more driven than ever to do everything and anything in his power to fight for the living world. Cheers, Chris.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#272: Twitter Dec 11, 2022

If there wasn’t twitter, would we have solved climate change by now? Might we at least have got round to thinking about solving climate change? Would Ol have had more sleep?

Sure, loads of important eco connections and organising and other useful stuff have happened via the site, but so too has a prodigious amount of titting about (trust us, we know of what we speak) let alone all the hate and bile and BS and conspiracy that sustains it.

Do climate-y people need to ‘win’ twitter to make progress? Or is fighting online the problem, regardless of ‘side’, when we’re crying out for a bit of peace, love and understanding? And does Elon’s free speech crusade mean climate denial is re-invigorated?

What with Musk’s Truss-like flair for calm, competent leadership, these questions might be moot pretty soon, so you’d better get on and listen to this, a very macro-length episode about micro-blogging.

As mentioned in the show, ‘Stand Out of Our Light’ by James Williams is a must read on the moral and political imperative of “liberating human attention from the forces of intelligent persuasion”.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#271: Onshore Wind Dec 05, 2022

Bat-chomping bird-slicing eco-crucifixes* are making a comeback! A mere eight years after some Tories effectively banned anyone from erecting wind turbines in England, some other Tories now look poised to overturn that ban. Which sort of tells you everything you need to know about Westminster politics.

So this week we transport ourselves to a time when David Cameron was both a thing and someone who professed to like the planet, to understand why it is that these obviously useful, relentlessly popular, and appropriately sized (Grant Shapps, take note) steel and fibreglass daffodils are such Conservative kryptonite.

*This term was coined by an inhofe of such absurdly high self-regard we can’t bring ourselves to give him the oxygen of publicity. The one who looks like Gollum, if that helps.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#270: Heat Pumps (formerly called “Ol’s House”) Nov 28, 2022

Look, we’re quitting, so if there ever was a leash we are now firmly off it. Problem is, while unleashed Dave might follow his nose into the bushes of podcasting misadventure, unleashed Ol… well, he’s not that interesting is he? So having cast aside any editorial imperative to stay vaguely relevant or entertaining, herewith 45 minutes of a sad old man wanging on about hot water cylinders and heat pumps.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#269: Just Stop, Ol Nov 20, 2022

Now then, we have Some News about the babble. Listen to the show to find out precisely what (don’t worry, we haven’t been bad), but suffice to say this year’s Sustainabauble will be particularly valedictory.

But before we get too festive and emotional, there’s work to be done. Like trying to gather our thoughts on there being 8 billion humans alive.

Or indeed what we make of the increasingly ballsy climate protests sweeping the land. Are Just Stop Oil really “damaging their cause“, as so many armchair critics would have us believe?

And finally whether COP 27 (itself not finalised at the time of recording, we should add) is doing anything meaningfully better than the previous two dozen and two.

Busy boys, we are. At least for the next four weeks. Sniff.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#268: David Roberts meets Sustainababble Nov 14, 2022

Chances are you’ll have read David Roberts’ superlative writing on climate – at Vox or more recently Volts – and thought ‘coo, that’s sensible and right and interesting’. We certainly have, so we’re delighted to finally have him on the show.

David natters with us about US politics (are things potentially *not* totally naused?), progressives’ inability to be happy, the usefulness of COPs and the role of protest. We also goad him to adopt pointlessly binary positions on various controversial topics but, darn it, he sees us coming.

As mentioned in the show, here’s David’s sterling advice for aspiring journalists.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#267: Eels Nov 06, 2022

If we said “name the weirdest, most mystical & inexplicable creature on earth” you would rightly say “80s English footballer Peter Beardsley”. But pause for a moment to consider instead the ‘umble eel, a fish(ish) so unknown and unknowable that no human has observed one shagging in the wild. In fact no-one’s totally sure that they even DO shag in the wild. A bit like Peter Beardsley.

It’s an astonishing tale, the eel’s, at the heart of which is a simple question that’s confounded thinkers big and small for centuries: where do eels come from? Mad cap attempts to find out have been almost as wild as the fact that people like eating the poor sods in a ‘jelly’ of their own skin and sweat.

We delve into the deliciously, reassuringly bonkers story of the eel and its origins, a story that in October 2022 partially revealed itself to modern science. Which doesn’t strike us as a necessarily good thing.

Enjoy Dr Emily Finch’s twitter thread that prompted this episode, and then read Brooke Jarvis’ superlative New Yorker article from 2021.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#266: Poo Oct 31, 2022

Loathe though we are to be scatological, it’s time to face faecal facts: the astonishing amount of human excrement on the planet presents a honking environmental challenge.

When you think about it, with nearly eight billion of us crimping one out most days, the fact that humans aren’t all swimming in the stuff is an impressive log-istical achievement, especially when flush toilets have only existed for 150 years.

And despite it being the most normal thing in the world, poos and pooing remains a curious taboo. Unless, that is, you’re professor and film-maker Troy Hale, whose latest release (sorry) ‘Sh*t Saves the World‘ is a televisual tribute to all things number two.

Ahead of his film being deposited on a UK streaming service near you, we shoot the crap with Troy.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#265: Rainforests of Britain Oct 23, 2022

Britain has lost a lot of things lately: international standing; economic credibility; its collective shit. But we’ve also mislaid something more fragile, dank and extraordinary than even Liz Truss’s premiership: our precious and hitherto largely unknown temperate rainforests.

In his new book, The Lost Rainforests of Britain, author and campaigner Guy Shrubsole sets out to right that wrong. He’s mapped every last rainforesty remnant, uncovered centuries old cultural ties to them, and outlined a compelling case for reversing their decline.

Now listen, before you get excited, don’t go expecting pumas and parrots and leeches and wotnot, like in ‘proper’ rainforests. But as Guy patiently explains, Blighty’s special areas – cold and wet rather than hot and wet, like all the places you’d actually want to go on holiday – are jam packed with extraordinary flora and fauna none-the-less.

Or at least they were, until Dave showed up with his size 9s.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#264: Coke at COP Oct 17, 2022

Who knew climate conferences had corporate sponsors? 183,295 people, that's who, for they have signed a petition telling the UN suits to ditch the sponsor of this year's jamboree in Egypt which is... Coca-Cola. That's Coca "oh hi! we're the biggest plastic polluter in the world!" Cola. Producers of 200,000 plastic bottles EVERY MINUTE coca-cola. Corporate lobbyists supreme, Coca-Cola. Everyone's favourite pilferer of scarce fresh water supplies and flogger of brown sugary fizz, Coca-Cola. WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. We speak to Georgia Elliott-Smith, legal activist and originator of said petition, to find out what on earth is going on, and discover the astonishing extent to which climate conferences - meetings we naively assumed (SILLY US!) were about halting the destruction life on earth - are massive trade shows for polluters. Sign Georgia's petition here https://www.change.org/p/remove-coca-cola-as-sponsors-of-cop27 Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#263: Sorry Oct 09, 2022

Mistakes have been made, lessons learned. Yet again, us being away for a few weeks coincided with the ass falling out of everything that is good. In fact Blighty's new "Government" has done so many dastardly things that even usually mild-mannered bird watchers are losing their shit. Worse still, Dave & Ol's reputation is in tatters after we (*cough* Dave *cough*) said the Trussticular era probably wouldn't be much worse than what came before. Whoops. So this episode is our heartfelt apology to the babble army. We're sorry for going away, and we're sorry for being wrong. We get it, and we've listened, and we will never be wrong or away again. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#262: Liz Truss Sep 11, 2022

What, or who, is a Liz Truss and why does anyone care? Well buckle up because approximately 17 old white men from the rich bits of England have just made her boss of Blighty and there are, we fear, going to be some changes around here. Or, er, are there? Because while Liz Truss is an MP with as many environmentalist bones in her body as a jellyfish, and as much as it's very, VERY tempting to get all shouty about her un-banning fracking etc., might we be getting too obsessed with individual politicians? Is one person - admittedly quite an important person - *really* going to irreparably nause things up any more than they were being naused anyway? That's how we're rationalising the situation, at any rate. And it's probably not a million miles from King Charles III's thought process right now either. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#261: Leah Thomas meets Sustainababble Aug 28, 2022

'Intersectional environmentalism' is a) a lot of syllables, b) a brilliant concept explained simply and powerfully by writer and environmentalist Leah Thomas, and c) coincidentally also the title of Leah's new book. Part activist toolkit, part theory, and part history of environmental (in)justice, The Intersectional Environmentalist acknowledges and explores the overlap between systemic harm against Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) communities and the Earth. It also does a superb job of disentangling numerous knotty issues, like what privilege is and what it's got to do with the planet, with care and patience. And, talking of patience, Leah tells us that in a world overflowing with mansplain, her favourite pastime is "gracefully humbling men". The babble can neither confirm nor deny whether it was humbled during the course of this interview. (Yes, yes we were. Ed.) Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#260: Rupert Read meets Sustainababble Aug 21, 2022

Rupert Read is an author, philosopher, and activist, perhaps best known for his prominent role in Extinction Rebellion. He's written more than a dozen books and his most recent - Why Climate Breakdown Matters - is, well, full on. Full on in that it argues that unless we confront the full horror of the situation we're in, and the very high likelihood that that situation will unravel towards some sort of societal collapse, then we can't possibly hope to plot a course towards a liveable future. So yeah, it's not for the faint hearted, but Rupert's argument also goes that it's *only* truth-telling that has had any success in recent years (see e.g. XR and Greta) and that love & compassion has to be at the heart of our response to climate breakdown, which when you think about it, is rather lovely. Apart from the climate breakdown bit. So strap in for a bracing but powerful chat with a very big brain, who - praise the Lord - seems to think that the Babble isn't a massive diversion from the task at hand. Get 20% off when you order Rupert's book from bloomsbury.com and use these discount codes:US orders: BREAK22USUK orders: BREAK22UKCanadian orders: BREAK22CAAustralian/New Zealand orders: BREAK22AU Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#259: The High Seas Aug 15, 2022

If you ever encounter a Sloane's Viperfish, you're in for a treat. The charming creature has a bite so ferocious that its first vertebra has to act as a shock absorber. When it chomps, it unhinges its skull, opens its jaw 90 degrees, and expands its stomach to eat things up to 50% bigger than itself. Its absurd fangs act as a cage, trapping anything trying to escape. Luckily for us, Viperfish are found in the high seas, which is a very good reason to never go there. But unfortunately lots of people ARE going there, or planning to, mainly to nause them up. But what, or where, is the 'high seas'? Are there pirates there? Does anyone really care about them given they're big, wet and miles away? Do they do anything useful for humanity, other than nurture killer fish? Dr Olive Heffernan, a superstar scientist with a forthcoming book on the High Seas, joins us to answer all these questions and to explain a) just how imperilled this extraordinary bit of planet earth really is, and b) what the good people of the UN are trying to do about it. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#258: Roads Aug 07, 2022

"WHY HAVEN'T YOU BABBLED ABOUT EVIL EVIL POO-BUM ROADS?!?!" yells twitter. Well, your bellowed word is our grudging command. But while we're delighted to go truffling for babble in tarmac territory, there is no way on god's earth we are picking sides in the internecine war that is anti-roads campaigners vs anti-HS2 campaigners. But still. It is true, is it not, that comparatively little fuss is made about comparatively bollocks-loads of big new roads planned or under construction in England. Which is odd, because big new roads are quite literally a highway to climate hell, aren't they? And not altogether spiffing for the trees or newts or humans that used to *not* have a four lane monstrosity on top of them. But roads are also really quite useful, and surely the government has a point when it says we need more because the ones we've got are full. And just how evil will roads be in the future when all the things driving on them are fossil-free? We discuss. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#257: Bird Flu Aug 01, 2022

Fans of our feathered friends, look away now...If you've been to the coast recently there's every chance you'll have seen, how can we put this delicately, an exceptionally dead bird washed up on the shore. Or, more likely, dozens of the bastards. Bird flu has been around for ever, but evidently got the hump while Covid hogged the viral limelight. Now it's back with a vengeance, ensuring everyone and H5N-y-1 knows its name. Predictably enough, concern is largely reserved for the economic impact of farmed chickens getting the deadly snuffle. But what about skewered skuas or puff-less puffins? Can anything be done to stop them falling from the sky? Might it, I dunno, involve NOT TREATING SENTIENT BEINGS SO GROTESQUELY? Also this week, babble respects are paid to James Lovelock, maverick scientist and father of the Gaia theory, who's dropped off his own perch at the ripe old age of 103. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#256: 40 Degrees Jul 26, 2022

Famously soggy, predictably chilly. Well, not any more, cos Blighty has joined the global combustability club after turning in a world-beating and very much oven-ready 40.3 degrees C of scorchiosity in its latest heatwave. So how freaked out should we feel? Cos like, this was always going to happen wasn't it? And, as sure as tropical night follows sweltering day, it's only going to get hotter from here. But does extreme weather's inevitability in anyway dent its horror? Will the fact that much of London ACTUALLY CAUGHT ON FIRE change inhofe-ish minds about the need for climate action? What, in other words, The Hell are we supposed to make of all this? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#255: Green Capitalism? Jul 18, 2022

How much, precisely, is one whale worth? Half an elephant? Three dozen gibbons? "Don't be silly, Ol and Dave, you can't put a price on nature" we hear you cry. Well tell it to the IMF, because they say our blubbery friends retail for $2m, a big figure which, in the world of excel spreadsheets and cost benefit analyses, means whales are worth saving. Unlike, say, earwigs, who aren't priced up and therefore can extinctify themselves without wider consequences. Bonkers, no? Well that's what Adrienne Buller, author of fab new book The Value of a Whale: On the illusions of Green Capitalism wants us to think about. Because there is also an argument that goes 1) everything's dead or dying, 2) the powerful only care about money, 3) give animals a dollar value & men in suits might prefer them alive, 4) NOTHING ELSE SEEMS TO BE WORKING SO LET'S GIVE THIS A SHOT, EH? We discuss. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#254: Luke Turner Meets Sustainababble Jul 11, 2022

Epping Forest, or "Effing Forest" as it's known to the locals, is at the heart of Luke Turner's wonderful 2019 book about sexuality, trauma, god and personal recovery. The forest, Luke says, hums with an energy of people both enjoying the place but also getting up to things they can't do, and being people they can't be, in their normal lives. It's a human landscape, and kinda always has been - in contrast to the hippified, somewhat problematic idea of 'untouched' woodland. And despite all its undeniable loveliness, it's not necessarily a place which magically 'cures' your ills, no matter what forest-bathing evangelists might claim. We natter to Luke about all this, covering off grumble mags, Throbbing Gristle, Peter Lilley MP and the soullnessness of St Albans along the way. As you may have gathered, this week's episode features what prudes describe as 'adult themes', so you might want to avoid it if you're listening with kids and don't fancy trying to explain what a jazz mag is. You can find Luke's article about the pandemic and inequality of access to nature here. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#253: Badverts Jun 12, 2022

The babble, it must be said, has a problem with authority. Probably cos of our upbringing or something. But this week, The Authority – specifically the Advertising Standards Authority – shot up in our estimation after it said NO, PURVEYORS OF SH*T LAWNS, YOU CANNOT CALL SH*T LAWNS ECO-FRIENDLY. Huzzah! BUT, they simultaneously stamped on vegan ads, so The Authority is firmly back in the bastards column again. We think. Also this week, Joe ‘Hey! I’m still alive!’ Biden gets all militaristic about heat pumps and Dave gets all heat pumped about Rishi Sunak. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#252: Business Jun 05, 2022

If you were until recently, say, sustainability overlord at IKEA, should you be viewed as a suit who slapped green respectability onto a company that flooded living rooms with unnecessary tat? Or, perhaps, as a radical, transforming one of the word's biggest businesses into among the greenest while bringing veggie balls to the masses? Well, Steve Howard is said person - currently boss of sustainability at Singaporean investment fund Temasek - and as luck would have it he agreed to come on the babble and be asked about all things 'business' and the planet. And he doesn't even have a book out. Because if we're totally honest, for so many of us greenies, the 'B' word alone gets our babble antenna pinging. But, y'know, should it? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#251: Australia May 29, 2022

Bring out the bunting, close the streets, give everyone an extra holiday! No, not for the Queen's platinum wotsit, for the fact that the Aussies have voted out another massive inhofe! Yep, believe it or not, this week we say cheery bye-bye to former PM Scott Morrison, purveyor of weapons grade bullshit and world-leading climate inaction. And, it must be said, Olympic standard inhofery towards anyone who isn't Scott Morrison. To understand how and why ScoMo got the heave-ho, and to avoid an entire episode of Dave and Ol yelling HA HA HA HA and doing a silly dance, we natter to noted Aussie climate guru and politics wizard Ketan Joshi. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#250: Light Pollution May 22, 2022

The night sky, it seems, is getting brighter. At least according to some not-science we got sent by some not-scientists. But whether it's true or not (it almost certainly isn't) the question of light pollution got us thinking. So this week we rattle off all the ways in which the simple act of making sure we can see where we're all going is in fact abysmally bad for life on earth. Here's to another 250 episodes eh. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#249: David Attenborough May 16, 2022

We live in a desperately cynical world - christ, the Babble should know - but a few public figures remain untarnished, standing tall as beacons of trustworthiness while our shared consensus collapses around us. The O.G. Big Dave is perhaps the most trusted of them all, the mere idea of him lying too horrible to comprehend. Which is perhaps why, when *he* tells us the planet is on fire and it's all our fault - unlike, say, every climate activist - the message is heard, listened to, and believed. It's also why he must never be allowed to retire or, frankly, drop off the perch. So to celebrate his recent 96th birthday, we ask: who really is this nonagenarian newt nuzzler? What did he do before he was climbing mountains of bat shit on telly? And do his dodgy views about birth control mean he should be a permanent resident of Inhofe corner? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#248: Being Dead May 08, 2022

You might think being dead is when you can finally stop worrying about your impact on the planet. You'd be wrong. Be it burrying, burning, or buggering off to space, there are myriad options for dealing with one's remains, and not all of them particularly courteous to the living organisms you leave behind. So, inspired by an email from the intriguing sounding www.earthfuneral.com, this week Dave quizes Ol on the different ways people (or at least, Americans) have come up with to dispose of the recently departed. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#247: Mary Colwell meets Sustainababble May 02, 2022

In a rare bit of good news for the nation's youth, a new natural history GCSE means 16 year olds might one day appreciate fauna as much as they do Fortnite. Author & conservation goddess Mary Colwell is the driving force behind the 10 yr + campaign to persuade the UK government to introduce this new qualification, no mean feat given the introductions they prefer to make are between plutocrat A and party fundraiser B. ALLEGEDLY.We natter to Mary about how on earth she got this campaign over the line - featuring Bond-style train chases, among other things - as well as the spell-binding power of the natural world, and why she's cur-razy about curlews [sorry, ed.]. So strap in for an immensely heart-warming chat with someone to whom future generations may owe a significant debt. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#246: Seaweed Apr 24, 2022

Kelp. That's what's gonna save the world. Not trees, kelp. Or seagrass. Or some other form of wibbly algae that lives in the sea and isn't a plant. Bingeing carbon; hoovering up chemical nasties in the water; being home for the ickle fishies; being turned into non-plastic plastic - seaweed does myriad very important jobs without so much as a sniff of inhofery. And, lest we forget, it can be damn tasty, especially if you're the Welsh. So why don't western countries pay attention to the stuff? Why aren't we farming it at any meaningful scale? Is it really the green Jesus some people claim it to be, or is it just... green? And why, WHY, would anyone put something as unattractive as laver bread in their gob? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#245: Trespass Apr 18, 2022

Keep Out. Two little words that carry such unquestioned authority. But why are we so well behaved when what we're kept out of is often the thing we're all lacking - green space, the beguiling attraction of the natural world, things that aren't manicured and sanitised? How did England's green and pleasant lands come to be so hostile to most of us plebs? We quiz author and illustrator Nick Hayes, who has literally written the book on trespass. Two in fact - the latest, The Trespasser's Companion, being the follow up to his mind-expanding 2020 effort The Book of Trespass. Head to https://www.trespasserscompanion.org/ for more, including the opportunity to contribute to the Trespass Tripadvisor by uploading pictures and notes from your own transgressions. And join the Right to Roam campaign, demanding far better access to the countryside for everyone in England. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#244: Q & A Mar 21, 2022

Babble listeners are definitionally a wise and discerning bunch, so just occasionally we permit the besplurgification of our inbox with probing questions that we absolutely promise to answer on air - unless they're shit. This week, then, it's Dave and Ol doing the shutting up and listening, minus the shutting up bit, as we subject ourselves to interrogation by you, our loyal enablers. Lines of enquiry include:- why haven't you covered the most controversial enviro topic in UK politics over the last few years, you cowards?- what *wouldn't* you do to save the planet, you cowards?- why don't you put your mics down and do some real activism for once, you cowards? Herewith 50 minutes of us inhofes trying to justify our cowardliness. ** Donate to frontline organisations in Ukraine:* Medical relief – https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/emergency-response/war-in-ukraine/* Aid packages – https://novaukraine.org/* Support for journalists – https://cpj.org/2022/02/cpj-calls-for-protection-of-journalists-in-ukraine/ Volunteer or offer practical help to UK-based organisations supporting refugees and asylum seekers:* https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/support-us/volunteers/* https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-for-us/volunteer-opportunities/* https://www.roomforrefugees.com* https://www.refugeesathome.org/ ** Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#243: Insulation Mar 13, 2022

"No please, tell me MORE about your cavity walls!" said absolutely no-one, ever. And that's kinda the problem for poor ol' insulation: it's dull. Yawningly, achingly, Michael-Owen-in-that-weird-Dubai-helicopter-video dull. And as such, few people so much as shrug when Governments comprehensively fail to insulate Britain. BUT any muppet can see it's a spectacularly good idea not to waste heat. Especially when there's a war on, fuelled in part by people paying for that wasted heat. So why do politicians lag (geddit? GEDDIT??) so far behind the curve when it comes to making homes less leaky? Will the newly gruesome geopolitical context finally jolt suits into action? And - AND - is it ever OK to say that yes, actually, some people's homes are too damn hot? ** Please support organisations assisting Ukrainians and victims of war everywhere, if you can: Donate to frontline organisations in Ukraine:* Medical relief – https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/emergency-response/war-in-ukraine/* Aid packages – https://novaukraine.org/* Support for journalists – https://cpj.org/2022/02/cpj-calls-for-protection-of-journalists-in-ukraine/Volunteer or offer practical help to UK-based organisations supporting refugees and asylum seekers:* https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/support-us/volunteers/* https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-for-us/volunteer-opportunities/* https://www.roomforrefugees.com* https://www.refugeesathome.org/ ** Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#242: Tessa Khan meets Sustainababble Mar 06, 2022

Suing national Governments for gross Inhofery, whilst simultaneously laying the smackdown on oil and gas companies, sounds daunting and, frankly, a lot of work. Thank bejeezus then that international environmental & human rights lawyer Tessa Khan is busy doing all this and more, with no little success. We natter to Tessa, who founded and directs Uplift, about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its connection to all things fossil fuelled; the merits and pitfalls of trying to save the planet via the courts; and what to do with all the shit white men in positions of power. As mentioned in the show, please support organisations assisting Ukrainians and victims of war everywhere, if you can: Donate to frontline organisations in Ukraine:* Medical relief - https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/emergency-response/war-in-ukraine/* Aid packages - https://novaukraine.org/* Support for journalists - https://cpj.org/2022/02/cpj-calls-for-protection-of-journalists-in-ukraine/Volunteer or offer practical help to UK-based organisations supporting refugees and asylum seekers:* https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/support-us/volunteers/* https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-for-us/volunteer-opportunities/* https://www.roomforrefugees.com* https://www.refugeesathome.org/ Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#241: Ladybirds Feb 27, 2022

They're not birds, and approximately half aren't ladies. But ladybirds very much ARE beetles, and that alone is reason to celebrate them. Even if they do puke from their knee-joints. However, not everyone coos over these perfect shiny wonders. SOME PEOPLE (*cough* Dave *cough*) seem to think they're inhofes, especially the foreign ones coming over 'ere ruining aphid-munching for our natives species. So we delve into the mysterious world of Coccinellidae, from STDs to tooth powder, all in the name of helping Dave answer the entirely unnecessary question: Ladybirds - are they good or not? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#240: Culture Wars Feb 20, 2022

What is a culture war? Are greenies like us now fighting one? Are we... the baddies? All questions we must, regrettably, now grapple with, because a phalanx of Tory MPs - ably assisted by their outriders in the shite-wing media - are labelling 'net zero' advocates as woke-ist elites, determined to heap misery on the poor. So who are these finger-jabbing inhofes, and how much support do they have? Why do they hate climate action so much? Do they... have a point? Show notes:* Excellent Guardian piece on Net Zero Watch* 538 Podcast - 'Americans aren't as polarized as the news makes it seem' Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#239: NFTs Feb 14, 2022

If you thought Bitcoin was confusing, wait 'til you hear about 'non-fungible tokens'. In fact you've probably already heard about them, after a major conservation charity decided to flog NFTs of pictures of tigers and the like, only to be met with the mother and father of all backlashes. NFTs are modern and confusing, for sure. But are they really environmental kryptonite? Was the backlash deserved? Also this week, two wonderful and separate examples of creative activism from the good folks at Greenpeace and Insulate Britain. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#238: Katharine Hayhoe meets Sustainababble Feb 06, 2022

Very, VERY excitingly, this week we natter with one of the best climate communicators around, who also happens to be one of the planet's foremost climate scientists. Professor Katharine Hayhoe is a United Nations 'Champion of the Earth', chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, and one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people. Her new book, Saving Us, makes the case that the most important thing we can do about climate change is the one thing we're terrible at - talking about it. But by talking, Katharine doesn't mean passive aggressively quoting IPCC reports and hurling Keeling curves at each other. Instead, we must 'bond, connect and inspire' if we want to actually change anything. If you, like us, want more Katharine in your brain, you can:- Pick up a copy of her new book- Watch her 2018 TED talk- Read her Time article about hope- Follow her on Twitter- Head to 'Count us in', a Don't Look Up follow-on, advised by Katharine Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#237: Food Waste Jan 30, 2022

It is bonkers that so much effort, land, water & energy is used to make so much food that never goes in anyone's gob. Bonkers and, as babble listener Alysia points out, VERY planety-imperilly. Alysia also notes that we've gone 236 episodes without focussing our babblenoculars on the matter, so this week we pinch our noses, gingerly approach the kitchen caddy and gag on the maloderous stench of the global food waste scandal. Question one, of course, is who are the inhofes? Supermakets and their BOGOFs? Governments and their "meh"s? Or is it Ol, Dave, and the rest of us? Should we be better at planning our portions? Should we ignore use-by dates?* Should we stop being scared of our children and tell them to EAT WHAT THEY'RE DAMN WELL GIVEN? And how, if at all, can we get the mountain of edible wasted food into the mouths of the hungry? Read Jack Monroe's excellent twitter thread, as mentioned in the episiode, here. *Please under no circumstance actually do this. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#236: Don’t Look Up Jan 23, 2022

SPOILER ALERT! This week we natter about the Netflix film 'Don't Look Up', so EFFIN' WELL WATCH IT it before listening. The second most viewed Netflix film ever, Don't Look Up tells the story of two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an approaching - and, more to the point, LARGE - comet that will go bang on planet earth. The writer, Adam McKay, says the crashy comet is an allegory for climate change, and the film is a satire of various inhofes' indifference to the climate crisis even when it's literally falling from the sky. But what *we* can't decide is, is it any good? Should we be pleased that there's a popular film about climaggedon? Should we be cross that the analogy is a bit crude? Are we sure that it even is a climate change film? We dust off the Christmas hangovers to waffle our way towards an answer, aided significantly by some splendid listener reviews. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#235: Sustainabauble 2021 Dec 15, 2021

A statement from Dave and Ol: "All Sustainabaubles complied with the rules at the time of recording. Not that there have been any Sustainabaubles. But should there have been, they would have been babble-secure. And, just to be sure, we've instructed Arabella to investigate a Sustainabauble that definitely didn't happen, in case it in fact did." RIGHT, ON WITH IT. **You can still watch Dave and Ol in a livestream event, together with access to watch the wonderful film The Atom: A Love Affair, until New Year's Eve. Find out more here.** Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#234: Avocados Dec 05, 2021

The blood diamonds of Mexico. A hipster's fever dream. Compressed mushy peas disguised as a gonad. Is there *anything* to commend the avocado? A fruit, we'll remind you, that CAN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO TASTE SWEET. And that's before we consider 'avolattes', an invention every bit as infuriating as the people who drink them. Well hang on just a vegan-bashing minute. Why does the humble alligator pear cop so much flack? Sure, the practice of growing billions of the blighters is, in many ways, absolutely catastrophic. But so is growing billions of anything. Perhaps the h8ers could leave off the poor old avo, and let the planet-conscious eat a nice thing in peace for once? -- COME AND SEE US LIVE! On 9 December join Dave and Ol* for a Q&A with the writer & director of the Mark Kermode-endorsed The Atom: A love affair documentary. Tickets are £8, and include access to the film for a week. 50% discount for babble patreon supporters. Kick-off 7.30. Sign up here. *(On Zoom) -- Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#233: Black Friday Nov 28, 2021

It's here! Black Friday-mas is finally here! Thank the lord. Thank Jeff Bezos. Thank f*ck.Sigh. It's probably not OK to go warm and fuzzy in our special areas at the thought of being hoodwinked into buying sh*t we don't need just a month before we all lose our minds over the next orgy of mindless consumerism. And it's probably right and proper to get het up and misanthropic about it.BUT hang on. Is Black Friday actually that bad? And don't all the people who hate Black Friday also hate shopping in general, and probably humanity too? Might it be conceivable - and stay with us here - that Black Friday is *good* for the planet?--COME AND SEE US LIVE! On 9 December join Dave and Ol* for a Q&A with the writer & director of the Mark Kermode-endorsed The Atom: A love affair documentary. Tickets are £8, and include access to the film for a week. 50% discount for babble patreon supporters. Kick-off 7.30. Sign up here. *(On Zoom)--Shout out to our podcast buddies, the superb 'Life Sentence' team, as mentioned at the end of the show. Check them out here https://life-sentence.simplecast.com/--Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#232: Good COP? Bad COP? Nov 15, 2021

Is it OK to feel sorry for teary Alok Sharma? Which country's delegation parties the hardest? Who put China in the shed? And was anyone at all standing up for the dormouses (dormice?)? Not a single one of the 15,276 hot takes already published about COP26 has addressed these serious and urgent questions, but my god the babble is not in the business of hot takes. So sit back and allow yourself to be taken on a retrospective, warts 'n' all, aural tour of Glasgow's shed of sheds by Craig Bennett, CEO of the Wildlife Trusts, veteran of COPs passim, and a very tired human indeed. Follow Craig on Twitter @craigbennett3. COME AND SEE US LIVE! On 9 December join Dave and Ol* for a Q&A with the writer & director of the Mark Kermode-endorsed The Atom: A love affair documentary. Tickets are £8, and include access to the film for a week. 50% discount for babble patreon supporters. Kick-off 7.30. Sign up here. *(On Zoom) Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#231: Methane Nov 07, 2021

"So Dave, Ol, what IS your favourite tetrahedral molecule?" is not the most F of AQs we get, but the answer - since you asked - is of course CH4, or methane to its mates. It may lack the celebrity cachet of CO2, but boy does methane pack a punch in the warming stakes. In fact it packs 84 times as much of a punch, which is one reason sleepy men in suits have started announcing plans to gaffa tape some of the places from whence it guffs. So this week we don our lab technicians' coats to mansplain the sources of this fleece-like molecule, and point our microscopes at the newly penned international agreements to investigate whether they're worth the vellum they're written on. COME AND SEE US LIVE! On 9 December join Dave and Ol* for a Q&A with the writer & director of the Mark Kermode-endorsed The Atom: A love affair documentary. Tickets are £8, and include access to the film for a week. 50% discount for babble patreon supporters. Kick-off 7.30. Sign up here. *(On Zoom) Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#230: Sewage Oct 31, 2021

There are few childhood rules that continue into grownupness, but 'don't shit in the sea' is definitely one of them. Which is why it's such a shame that all Brits' shits diligently done not in the sea seem to end up there regardless. Perhaps even more dispiritingly, politicians have proven themselves disinclined to do anything, actively voting *against* a thing that would have forced water companies to stop flooding the oceans with our motions. We role up our sleeves and plunge shoulder deep into the parliamentary u-bend to find out what the blockage seems to be. Also this week, some unexpected integrity from Boris "Boris Johnson" Johnson, and a, er, concrete example of schadenfreude. COME AND SEE US LIVE! On 9 December join Dave and Ol* for a Q&A with the writer & director of the Mark Kermode-endorsed The Atom: A love affair documentary. Tickets are £8, and include access to the film for a week. 50% discount for babble patreon supporters. Kick-off 7.30. Sign up here. *(On Zoom) Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#229: Bugs Oct 24, 2021

Bugs in all their freaky forms do a staggering range of critical jobs that keep the planet from, among other things, quickly becoming a massive pile of corpses and poo. But humanity is nausing 'em, and we really, really need to stop nausing 'em. Yes, because bugs make it possible for almost all other animal species - including humans - to survive, but also because they are mesmerically wonderful in their own right. At least that's the view of this week's guest, author and head of sustainable farming at the charity Sustain, Vicki Hird, whose new book "Rebugging the Planet" is a joyous celebration of all things creepy crawly and a manifesto for bringing the little critters back from the brink. Discover more about Vicki's book at www.rebuggingtheplanet.org and follow Vicki @vickihird on Twitter and Instagram. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#228: Road to COP26 Oct 17, 2021

A year late, for obvious reasons, but the imminent Glasgow climate shindig is still seismically important. But will this cauldron of egos be any more productive than the previous 25? Yes. No. Possibly. Probably not. Oh Jesus we don't know do we. But what we DO know is that countries were set homework at 2015's Paris get-together, homework that's very much overdue. So we canter through who's the class swot, who's too cool to comply with artificial constructs like 'deadlines', and who's been feeding their assignments to the dog. Oh, and we also chat to Bamber Hawes, the man on pilgrimage to the talks from Shropshire with Clarion the polar bear atop his shoulders. For wherever there are gatherings of international suits deciding humanity's fate, there will, as sure as C follows UNFCC-, be wonderfully bonkers acts of protest, theatre, and physical endurance. Follow Bamber & Clarion's progress - and help them out with accommodation, polar bear carrying, and the like - here https://clarionthebear.fish/ Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#227: Circular Economy Oct 10, 2021

What shape best represents the absolute lunacy that is humans and their economic activity? Something Jackson Pollock-esque? Mr Messy off of the Mr Men series, perhaps? Either way, probably not a nice, clean circle. But when you think about it, it really really should be. Cos unless we start (re)learning how to work with what we've got - i.e. sending things round and round in virtuous circles - rather than what we're about to drill / dig / blow up, we're gonna be in an awful pickle. To tell us what a circular economy actually is, why it's not babble, and how Ol buying a tumble dryer may not be inconsistent with it, is author, academic and activist Claire Potter. Claire's book, Welcome to the Circular Economy, is out now. Find it, along with all sorts of excellent resources, at her website https://onecircular.world/ or in any of the usual book-y places.Follow Claire on Twitter @clairepotter and Instagram @clairepotterdesign. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#226: Gas Prices Oct 03, 2021

Everything's running out in Blighty. Gas (as in gas), gas (as in petrol) and everyone's patience. As far as we can tell, the two crises are unrelated, other than their shared connection to the climate. But crikey moses they are getting people in a tiz, not least because - and brace yourself for some advance economics here - when things run out, things get more expensive. So in a daredevil move, and with one eye on the oh-christ-this-could-be-dull-ometer, Ol and Dave simultaneously attempt to explain the gas market, geopolitics (please Mr Putin we didn't mean it), and the psychology of humans queuing for hours for petrol that isn't running out. ALSO THIS WEEK, some schadenfreude that we absolutely don't find funny and categorically do not endorse or condone. At all. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#225: A History of Motion Sep 26, 2021

Four wheels good, two legs bad. For a hundred years, the gas-guzzling car has been king. But its days are numbered - no-one seriously disputes that - and what comes next will determine the scale of biospheric butchery in the post. But what if The Car 2.0 turns out not to be flying cars, autonomous cars, or Richard Branson Cars, but instead a happy mishmash of whizzy things and old-fashioned things that you don't own? Y'know, bikes, e-bikes, scooters & hire cars all available at the swipe of an iphone, and all beautifully integrated with public transport that arrives punctually and isn't piss-stained. That's the dream of this week's guest, deputy editor of the Economist and author Tom Standage, whose exhaustive new book a) explains how the car came to occupy such economic, political and sociological dominance, and b) devotes a pleasingingly large number of pages to actual horse shit. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#224: Adaptation Aug 22, 2021

Despite what Assorted Inhofes say, climate change is a) real b) here already c) going to get worse. We'd better get ready. So how come we're - er - not? We chat all things climate adaptation with the eminent Dr Morgan Phillips, director of The Glacier Trust and, even more pertinently, author of a righteous new book about the subject, Great Adaptations. We talk about why despite human resilience, Morgan thinks that without shunting adaptation properly up the policy wazoo it's going to be Very Bad News Indeed for a very large number of people. And animals too. Turns out he's rather irked at big charities - and the Babble - for not banging on about it enough, a charge out from which we don't even attempt to weasel. All this, and why getting ready for climate change is very much like Tottenham's preparation for Harry Kane's off-sodding. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#223: Katherine Trebeck meets Sustainababble Aug 16, 2021

A 'wellbeing economy' sounds like the sort of economy that might not ruin everything, and in that sense we are very much behind it. But it also sounds like the sort of thing that we don't really know what it is. HOWEVER, this week's guest - writer, researcher, and advocate for economic system change Dr Katherine Trebeck - very much *does* know what it is, and is spearheading efforts to get Governments to actually prioritise wellbeing.We sit down with Katherine to find out where this all sits on the scale of Goldman Sachs to Kum Ba Yah, and how people can get involved in making it a reality. SPEAKING OF WHICH, please sign this splendid petition asking the UK govt to put the health of people and planet first https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/580646 Find out more about the Wellbeing Economy Alliance at weall.org and check out Nicola Sturgeon's Ted talk on why governments should prioritise wellbeing, as mentioned by Katherine, here https://www.ted.com/talks/nicola_sturgeon_why_governments_should_prioritize_well_beingSustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#222: Fairness Aug 02, 2021

Does it really matter how 'fair' the solutions to climate breakdown are? So long as we stop the worst of it, who cares whether a few people have their noses put out of joint, right? Or is that missing the point, as well as being a bit inhofe-y? Is it *only* possible to achieve the radical changes needed if those changes don't, for instance, make the poor poorer? The rather splended Environmental Justice Commission has been talking to people throughout the UK about all this and more, and its boss, Luke Murphy, joins us to chew it over. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#221: Soil Jul 25, 2021

The list of things that enable life on earth is a pretty short one: a dollop of sunshine, drizzle of water, and a soupçon of air. But for anything fun to happen on land, you're going to need a liberal smattering of soil, too. In fact that 30cm of topsoil is so fundamentally important that it gets a bit scary to think what would happen if it wasn't there. Unfortunately that's less of a thought experiment than it might sound - it's widely quoted that humanity has got only 60 years of decent harvests left before the soil is either so degraded or so not there that we won't be able to feed ourselves. Eek. So, we DIG into the issue, dish the DIRT on some dodgy statmongering, and wonder what on EARTH it all means. Aaaaaand talking of Earth, we also give short shrift to gazillionaire bell-end Bezos and his willy wanging wocket whooshing. * As mentioned in the pod, Our World In Data's in-depth piece re the '60 harvests left' stat is here https://ourworldindata.org/soil-lifespans Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#220: History of the Climate Crisis Jul 11, 2021

It's more than 160 years since clever science people first worked out that digging up and burning long-dead bugs made Earth sizzly. So why are we still doing it? Why weren't the early warnings heeded? And was it inevitable that humanity would, at some point or other, combust its way into the current planetary pickle? These questions and zillions more are addressed in Dr Alice Bell's fabulous new book 'Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis'. Alice joins us for a natter about how we arrived at now, i.e. arguably the most consequential point in human history. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#219:Ecocide Jul 04, 2021

A wise person once said that when it comes to buggering up the planet, prison is an underused deterrent. And just why should it be OK to be an Earth-nausing Inhofe with impunity? NO WE AGREE WITH YOU, IT SHOULD NOT. Enter a fearsome bunch of lawyers and campaigners that have been steadily building momentum behind getting 'ecocide' - deliberately harming the environment - adopted as an international crime. And if that's one of those ideas that makes you go 'wow yes, that seems very sensible' and also 'but how the Dickens would it actually work?', then you've come to the right place this week. Joining us to talk about the Ecocide concept and movement is Jojo Mehta, co-Founder of the international Stop Ecocide Foundation. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#218: Dams Jun 27, 2021

Amster-, E-, Jean-Claude Van-. All splendid dams in their own right, but topics for another time. THIS week we set our babble sights on the massive concrete walls wot stall rivers so we can power our trouser presses. On the face of it, hydroelectric dams seem sensible: produce loads of reliable 'leccy from thing that isn't fossil fuels. But the problem about the faces of things is that they often distract from the armpits of things. And, as we discover, dams get awful armpitty when you look into them. Talking of the pits, Ol this week provides the worst and most embarrassing technical hitch of the 218 babbles so far. And apologises to Dave forever more. (Dam right he does, ed.) WATCH: splendid 15 minute video from the Tyndall Centre re the CO2-ness of dams, as mentioned frequently in this episode https://youtu.be/wnTh07WpOKY Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#217: Shell Gets A Kicking Jun 20, 2021

Grand narratives of history are woven around pivotal moments, and it's just possible that when the history of this period is written, 26 May 2021 will be one of them. A little under a month ago, Royal Dutch Shell got told in no uncertain terms by a Dutch court to stop Royally Ducking up the Planet. Specifically, it got what in legal parlance is known as a hiding. The oil giant stood accused of endangering the rights to life and to family life by its actions, i.e. by continuing to drill for oil and therefore warming the planet. A three-judge panel upheld that accusation and ordered Shell to slash its emissions PDQ. Like in-half-within-nine-years PDQ. To understand how the (s)hell this happened and help us wrap our minds around the consequences, we're joined by Sjoukje van Oosterhout from Milieudefensie, the campaign group who brought the legal action. Read more about the historic ruling on Milieudefensie's site here: https://en.milieudefensie.nl/ Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#216: Amazon Jun 13, 2021

It's the most successful website in the world, but many of us feel icky about using it. Is Amazon terrible for the planet or is it just, y'know, big? And if it is bad, is it any worse than thousands of little shops selling crap we don't need? Amazon's climate pledges and earnest sustainability marketing notwithstanding, we put our "we don't trust Jeff Bezos as far as we can propel him moon-wards" cards on the table... and then immediately get confused, given we're both customers. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#215: Tim Jackson Meets Sustainababble Jun 06, 2021

Boris "Gordon Gekko" Johnson aside, no-one likes greed. But growth - mmmmm, warm, cuddly, economic growth - well, that's another matter. Lesson one in MP school is that our collective prosperity increases as the economy swells. More GDP = more hospitals and schools. It's one of the few things upon which mainstream political parties everywhere agree: growth is unquestionably good. Which makes the life-work of this week's guest, the absurdly big-brained Professor Tim Jackson, all the more notable. Tim, one of the world's foremost experts on ecological economics, set political tongues wagging with his epochal 2009 book Prosperity Without Growth. Infinite growth on a finite planet, he argued, is impossible, anathema to human happiness and ecologically ruinous. More than a decade on, his new book Post-Growth: Life After Capitalism is a poetic and philosophical call to arms, daring us to imagine "a world beyond capitalism—a place where relationship and meaning take precedence over profits and power". Sign us up, is what we say. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#214: Bitcoin May 30, 2021

Pity our tiny little brains. For some reason that escapes us now we thought it would be jolly interesting and not at all SODDING BEWILDERING to attempt to understand Bitcoin. That sobbing noise you can hear? That's us. Why? Well it may *look* like a harmless bunch of nerds sending each other made up money over the Internet, but it's also playing a not inconsiderable role in knackering the planet. With 1% of the world's electricity - and rising - being spaffed on cryptocurrencies, we thought we should at least ask: right, what the bloody hell's going on? Is Bitcoin contributing anything useful at all to humanity, particularly given - y'know - there's a climate crisis going on? And whatever would Dr Emmet Brown make of it? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell at Design by Mondial. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#213: Artificial Lawns May 24, 2021

Pulp, the greatest band of all time, once sang that grass is "something you smoke". Perhaps that was true in 1995, but in the cool light of 2021 we sure as hell wouldn't advise smoking what's appearing in a depressing number of British back gardens. For fake grass is all the rage, despite it being FAKE SODDING GRASS. So this week, sounding like the pair of old codgers they are, Dave and Ol get all worked up and confused about a thing other people apparently like but is very obviously abominable. NB you can vent your spleen in the direction of the UK parliament by signing this petition. Also this week, oyster-related emails from drunk babble listeners, and the best eco video you will see all year, courtesy of the wizards at Greenpeace (check it out). Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#212: Chips May 16, 2021

Remember the past? A simpler time. A time before doxing and pile-ons and Katie Hopkins. A time when wholesome telly presenters on wholesome telly programmes told us that in the future we'd all be running our cars on chip fat and everything would be fine. Well we're in that future and EVERYTHING IS NOT FINE, PHILIPPA FORRESTER. Chip fat in cars is now a thing.* So much so that Yerp insist a certain percentage of motor fuel is chip fat. Which would be super (and previously supper) if it didn't indirectly mean rainforests getting walloped. Which, it transpires, it does. Also this week, a quick canter through the impressively apocalyptic goings on since Babble #211 (a thinning stratosphere, LOL) and a look at some premium economy eco-guff from Etihad. *Don't believe us? Try it for yourself. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#211: What’s The Point? Apr 12, 2021

Jo, a babble listener from Letchworth in the UK, sent in a question that kinda stumped us. What the hell, she asked, does one say to people who can't see the point in doing anything for the planet? Sweary and shouty retorts aside, the answer isn't immediately obvious. So we asked you, the wise, generous-hearted, and magnanimous babble army what *you* would say. And you didn't let us down. So, herewith a rather splendid and dangerously uplifting 47 mins of "What's the point?! I'll TELL you what the point is, you little... " featuring superlative contributions from Amelie Edwards*, Sam Longman, Isabella Fisk, and Krystal York, only one of whom uses the word "nobhead". *Do also check out Amelie's excellent climate-y audio drama 5 Years from Now available from Spotify and elsewhere. More info on Amelie's website. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#210: Easter Eggs Apr 04, 2021

Alleluia! One of the great plot twists - perhaps only rivalled by Harold Bishop returning to Neighbours with amnesia (look it up) - is celebrated the world over today by people smashing umpteen chocolate eggs down their gullets. We briefly consider the obvious question (what the hell have chocolate eggs got to do with Jesus?) before moving onto safer territory to explore what looks like - but turns out not to be - a nailed-on babblefest of ludicrous luxury eco eggs and supermarket packaging claims. Also this week, the cringe-gasm that is corporate April Fools day gags. Volkswagen - a company already known for its complicated relationship with the truth - should perhaps have steered clear of attempted PR lolz. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#209: North Sea Mar 28, 2021

Push is beginning to come to shove, climate action-wise, particularly when politicians ponder the fat piles of cash made doing things that are Very Bad Indeed for mother Earth. Here in Britain, peak pondering occurs re the North Sea, a large grey puddle used by continental Europe to buffer itself against certain Tories, and also home to vast reserves of crude oil. Crude oil (and just as crude gas) that for decades has buttressed the UK economy, but will for millennia buttress a ballsed-up biosphere if continually drilled and burned. You see the dilemma. This week some fancy words were published detailing a 'sector deal' between government and oil industry, supposedly charting a path forwards. But when you read those fancy words - and Dave has, god bless him - you discover just how pushy and shovey those pushes and shoves really are. Spoiler: lacking in oomph. Also in this episode, and in yet more shoving news, we report on the lack of plastic being shoved back into vending machines from whence it came, three years after we were promised this would happen.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#208: Policing Mar 22, 2021

The UK Government sometimes surpasses even itself. The 'Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill' is a new bit of legislation so universally hated that even Brexiteers and Remainers are united in its opposition.At its heart is a transparent attempt to outlaw all protest beyond a tut and a roll of the eyes, following highly inconvenient Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter demos in recent years. Not content at stopping there though, the Bill also takes aim at Gypsy and Roma communities, essentially criminalising their way of life. We can't quite believe it's as bad as it all sounds, but Rosemary Harris, a political campaigner at Friends of the Earth, joins us to explain that it most definitely is; to assess the likelihood of it becoming law; and to chew over the implications for anyone wishing to protest the state of things if it does. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#207: Eco-Parenting Mar 14, 2021

Cos capitalism, cos inhofes, cos LIFE, it's all but impossible to be the planet's BFF most of the time. Having kids arguably makes that task even harder. BUT, despite the onslaught of baby marketing, and despite grandparents-to-be going all in for conspicuous consumption, there are loads of practical things parents - new ones, not very new ones, and expectant ones - can do to lessen kids' impact on poor ol' Mother Earth.* It is Mothers' Day, after all. To hear how it's done, we're joined by Jen Gale, host of the Sustainable(ish) podcast and author of 'The Sustainable(ish) Guide To Green Parenting', a new book which does precisely what it says on the tin. Pleasingly, neither the tin, the book, nor Jen pretends this stuff is easy, or always possible, or that any parent should feel bad for sometimes falling short. Amen to that. The book is out on 18 March. You can pre-order here or in all the usual places. *Obviously, not having kids, or having fewer kids, will reduce one's footprint. We purposely don't cover that here, because a) that's not what Jen's book is about, and b) we've done so previously in episodes #139 ('Birthstrike') and #65 ('Babies'). Check 'em out. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#206: Jobs Mar 07, 2021

Saving the planet isn't really about the planet at all, it's about people. People who, for instance, currently have jobs in industries that aren't compatible with a 1.5 degree world. Or people who don't have jobs at all but need them. Which is why green campaigners are desperate for governments to invest in green jobs. These are jobs that will do some of the things that urgently need doing to curb emissions, but also jobs that do what jobs are supposed to do - give people meaningful employment and a career with prospects. Young people, particularly. So a new report from Friends of the Earth, calling for £billions of investment in job guarantees and green apprenticeships, is surely a good thing. Inevitably, it contains an awful lot of numbers to make its case. Which gets us wondering - do numbers ever help win an argument? And how *do* we get people like that nice Mr Sunak to invest in the green jobs of the future that are so patently necessary? Read Friends of the Earth's excellent report here. Also this week - and talking of major investments - we reveal that anyone with a spare £6m Euros can nab themselves a handbag made of dead crocodile, all in the name of saving crocodiles. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#205: Wikipedia Mar 01, 2021

"Where'd ya read that then, Wikipedia?!?@!" used to be the refrain of bell-ends everywhere who couldn't be bothered to engage with an argument. But like most insults, it carried a grain of truth because the internet's crowdsourced encyclopaedia was, well, ropey.Not any more. In fact, in a world eating itself alive with fake news and misinformation, Wikipedia is one of the few shining lights of humans doing Admirable Things online in the name of public interest. Not least on climate change, where the wealth and - more importantly - accessibility of information is exemplary. But who are the unseen elves keeping climate pages accurate and Inhofery-free, why do they give up their free time to do it, and are they in fact some of the most influential climate-y people on the planet? Alex Stinson, a Senior Program Strategist with the Wikimedia Foundation and a Wikipedia editor with focus on climate change joins us to pull back the curtain and share some really big numbers. Numbers like 319 (different language wikipedias), 50+ million (wikipedia articles) and 1.7 billion (monthly page views). Cue Ol going for a lie down.Follow Alex on twitter @sadads, get involved in the editing community here, and read this great Mashable piece about the guardians of climate wikipedia.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#204: The Daily Express Feb 21, 2021

It's awful confusing when those who've spent decades saying climate change is a hoax suddenly ask us to join their 'Green Revolution', but that's what's happened at one of the UK's least reputable tabloids, the Daily Express. More famous for its obsession with the Royals, the weather, Brexit, and unsubstantiated 'miracle' health breakthroughs, the paper appears to have had a damascene conversion and now touts its 'Green Britain' campaign loudly from the front page. So. Many. Questions. Not least: why?do we believe them?how the hell are we supposed to feel about it? Also this week, season ticket holders at the stadium of babble, Coca-Cola, are back with their latest greenwashing wheeze, a paper bottle. Yeah, us too. Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRETA THUNBERG! Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#203: Bottom Trawling Feb 15, 2021

Stop it. STOP IT! This is a terribly Serious and Important thing, all to do with industrial fishing and delicate marine ecosystems and we could do without any sniggering at the back. Or the bottom. So then, fishing. A political lightning rod of an industry, but an absolute minnow, economically speaking. Largely out of sight and unknown, modern industrial practices make an 'orrible mess of the ocean floor as super-trawlers dredge, scrape and otherwise embugger delicate aquatic ecology. Which is why this week's news that bottom trawling (STOP IT!) is to be banned in certain so-called Marine Protected Areas is welcome. Welcome, but also begs the question 'why the HELL were you allowed to trawl the ocean's bottom in Marine Protected Areas in the first plaice'? To answer that and myriad other fishy enquiries, Chris Williams, a marine economist at the New Economics Foundation, joins Dave* for a chinwag. Let's hope he doesn't clam up. Or carp on. *Ol continues to flounder in the face of covid and is therefore AWOL for another week. To follow Chris' work, find him on Twitter @marineeconomics. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#202: The Trembling Warrior Jan 31, 2021

Many of us are reluctant activists, perhaps so reluctant we barely consider ourselves 'activist' at all. So how do we become less reluctant? How can we expand our comfort zone so trying to save the planet doesn't seem so freakin' terrifying? The answer is almost certainly in a new book, The Trembling Warrior,by author and coach Gill Coombs, who's written what she says is a 'guide for reluctant activists'. Gill natters to us about finding one's true voice; why some people (*ahem* Ol *ahem*) are so scared of what other people think; the perils of social media; and ukippers whacking songbirds out of the sky with solar panels.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#201: British S**t for British People Jan 24, 2021

Where once this small island in the mid-atlantic was famous for exporting cricket, heavy industry, global oppression and the rule of law, we're now known for the contents of our bins. For, despite a promise by Boris Johnson (we know, we know) that the UK would stop sending our crap abroad, it turns out we're still doing just that. This barefaced porkie has provoked a child to start a petition, now signed by hundreds of thousands of irked humans. So this week we jump aboard the irk express and ask why TF we can't sort out our own rubbish in our own country.PLUS, we celebrate a non-maniac becoming world boss; get all goo-ey about the Guardian doing a green thing; blow gaskets at a Cumbrian coal mine; and expose Ol as the consumerist Inhofe he truly is. Two petitions for you to sign: * Stop the UK exporting its plastic waste https://www.change.org/p/boris-johnson-stop-the-u-k-from-exporting-its-plastic-waste * Stop Whitehaven coal mine in Cumbria https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/568475 Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#200: America, WTF Jan 17, 2021

The last few weeks stateside make earlier Trumpgasms appear almost normal by comparison. Armed insurrection, an attempted coup, social media bans, a manatee having 'TRUMP' carved into its back. Srsly. Perhaps worst of all, though, is the uneasy feeling that Americans may be at the beginning of a very unpleasant period in their history, not the culmination of it. Still, the bellicose bell-end IS on his way out, to be replaced by someone who would like to stop the planet frying. Woop and yay! To celebrate, and to commiserate about the ongoing descent of his country into civil war, we talk to actual American and recovering Babble veteran (see episode #30) David Turnbull, Strategic Communications Director at Oil Change U.S.. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#199: Is it really green? Jan 10, 2021

Among today's intractable divisions, few are more bitter, more incendiary than that between the washing-up-by-hand loyalists and the using-the-dishwasher hardliners. So which *is* better for the planet? And while we're at it, what about vegan leather vs real leather, or soy bean tears compared to almond sweat? Thankfully for prospects of world peace, Georgina Wilson-Powell has written a thoroughly well researched book - 'Is It Really Green? Everyday Eco Dilemmas Answered' - that resolves the hitherto unresolveable. Georgina, a journalist and founder of Pebble magazine, joins us to natter about what she discovered along the way. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#198: Hugo Tagholm meets Sustainababble Jan 03, 2021

Ever wound up in the ocean with human faeces on your head, or a used sanitary product bobbing by? Us neither, thankfully, but many UK surfers have, which is why a bunch of them campaign for cleaner seas with Surfers Against Sewage, a national marine conservation charity headed up by Hugo Tagholm. For this opening episode of 2021, Hugo joins us to explain why Dave should try surfing (he really shouldn't, ed.), why lobbying MPs in wetsuits is effective, and to shed light on the, well, shitty practices of water companies.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#197: SustainaBAUBLE 2020 Dec 20, 2020

Well here we are, a festive season distinctly lacking in bantz. BUT THAT'S WHAT YER BABBLE IS FOR! So strap in for an unashamedly lol-centric and straw-clutchingly positive look back at 2020.As we learned in Sustainabaubles 1-5, there are few things more Christmassy than a shameless Coca-Cola ad. So we dig out their 2020 Christmas offering, in which - astonishingly - not a single piece of their whale rectum-clogging plastic is featured. Though given what a miscreant known to this podcast recently emailed Coca-Cola after one too many single malts, the less said about rectums the better.AND for the first time, we unceremoniously ditch Dicky Moore and instead provide our own musical accompaniment on keyboards, tambourine and recorder, none of which either of us can really play. We too have had enough of experts, so it seems.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#196: Juliet Davenport meets Sustainababble Dec 13, 2020

These days energy companies fall over themselves to tell us how good for the planet they are, with varying degrees of chutzpah. When it comes to actual goodness though, Good Energy is unquestionably, well, good: buy leccy from them and you can be confident it comes from the sun or the wind or Jeremy Clarkson's backside, no funny business. More to the point, your money will directly lead to *more* wind and solar power getting built, thereby negating the need for JC's derriere altogether. Juliet Davenport has been the firm's boss for two decades, and joins us to explain what makes energy good or miserable, why she can't be doing with moving to Mars with Elon Musk, and why she's letting children run her company.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#195: COP 26 Dec 06, 2020

Had 2020 been a bit less pandemic-y, we'd be celebrating / commiserating the conclusion of another mahoosive climate shindig about now. A shindig in Glasgow no less, hosted by the UK Government. Deep-fried pizza canapés all round, etc. etc..Offensive cultural stereotypes aside, there's LOTS at stake at COP 26, not least countries announcing how they'll do the thing they all agreed was a good idea five long years ago in Paris, i.e. stop the planet burning.Good hosts that they are, Bojo and co have just revealed what the UK will be bringing to the table, planet-saving wise, so we fire up the babble-ometer. Also this week, we sink our teeth into lab-grown meat. Is it good? Is it the worst thing ever? Would Jeremy Clarkson punch anyone for cooking it badly? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#194: Innovation Nov 29, 2020

Luddites, us greenies. People think it's an insult to say we all want to go back to living in caves, but - lack of wifi aside - lots of biosphere-botherers wouldn't say no.But innovation - thinking up whizzy new stuff to fix shitty old problems - really *has* to be part of the weaponry for the ecologically-concerned, doesn't it? Cycle lanes can't fix all the planet's problems, after all.We speak to two exceptionally whizzy innovators - Ayca Dundar and Francis Field - who've invented a new material, made from seaweed, that stops food rotting and prevents turtles getting packaging lodged where it shouldn't, thereby torpedoing food waste and plastic pollution in one fell swoop. In fact their invention - Solublue - is so good they're finalists in the international Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge, the winners of which will pocket €500,000. Nice little two up two down cave that'll get you, we hear.Also this week, big up to the folk at the Royal College of Psychiatrists who've produced some top resources on 'eco-distress' (see episode #185), both for children and young people, and for parents. Check them out.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#193: Hydrogen Nov 23, 2020

Hydrogen - one of those words that prompts people in environment world to nod sagely before quickly steering the conversation onto safer territory. Because honestly, no-one really understands what it is, what it's for, or whether it's terrible or brilliant or somewhere in between.Which is unfortunate, because Boris 'World King' Johnson has just come over all hydrogen-y in his headline-grabbing 10 point plan for a 'Green Industrial Recovery'.Hmm, what to do? Listen to yer Babble, that's what! Because, fearless truth-seekers and public servants that we are, we've trawled wikipedia on your behalf to find out what the hell a Hydrogen is and where to buy one. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#192: Democracy Nov 15, 2020

The climate catastrophe isn't exactly hanging about, so do we really have time for fiddling around with democracy? Sure, giving people a say is nice, but what about when their say is, well, wrong? 70-million-people-voting-for-a-climate-denier wrong, for instance... We pose this connundrum to Becky Willis, Professor in Practice at Lancaster Environment Centre, and holder of a Fellowship in energy and climate governance. During our natter, Becky reveals herself to be luke-warm on the merits of a future Dave and Ol autocracy. Well, SOMEONE won't be offered a cushy job in our administration, is all we'll say to THAT.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#191: Donald Trump Schadenfreude Special Nov 08, 2020

HE'S GONE! HE'S ACTUALLY GONE! THE TANGERINE TOSSPOT, THE BELLICOSE BELL-END, THE CLIMATE-DENYING CRACKPOT HAS ACTUALLY BEEN BOOTED OUT!Obviously he's not actually *gone* yet - presumably the next few months will be messy to say the least - but as of January next year Donald Trump will no longer be POTUS. Which is rather delicious.We celebrate by reminding ourselves of all the terrible, terrible things the Donald has done for the planet in the last four years, and by cracking open the single malt.Props to James Kelleher for his stupendous Scooby-Doo / Trump deepfake.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#190: Juliet Gellatley meets Sustainababble Nov 01, 2020

1 November is World Vegan Day, so what better time to meet the boss of vegan campaign group Viva!, the magnificent Juliet Gellatley.Juliet has been advocating veganism for decades. She's also been breaking into factory farms to film the horrific goings on there and share them with the world (though not the Guardian). We chat about some of the ridiculous questions Juliet's faced over the years (adding to the ouvre in the process, no doubt), why being vegan makes you good in bed, and whether Dale Vince (see episode #46) is going to win his bet that half the UK population will be vegan by the end of the decade.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#189: Clocks Back Oct 25, 2020

Winter is coming. You'd think we'd have been let off in 2020 of all years, but no. This most cyanide-y of bitter pills is sugared by an extra hour in bed this weekend (in Blighty at least) due to the clocks going back, which reminded us of an issue that periodically gets climate types all worked up: the fact that changing the clocks is, not to put too fine a point on it, batshit crazy.As in, why the HELL do we deliberately deny ourselves afternoon daylight and necessitate putting the lights on 60 minutes earlier than we otherwise would? Wouldn't it be fairly non-controversial to scrap this absurd custom and prevent a few coal plants firing up? No, no it wouldn't, turns out. Especially in Scotland.Exploring the issue inevitably leads us to questions like: What is time? What is the time? Is it time we stopped babbling on about something we don't understand? Is there ever a good time for golf?You get the idea.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#188: Rewilding Oct 18, 2020

Who fancies dodging a wolf on the way to work? Or perhaps a lynx barging through your catflap while pelicans pinch the fish in your pond?If rewilders get their way, these animals - all once common in Blighty - will be familiar sights once more.But rewilding isn't just about reintroducing showstopping species, even if Boris 'Beavers' Johnson recently got in on the act. As much as anything, it's giving the land a break and letting whatever wants to grow just... grow. All very lovely, but can it be done while everyone stays fed? Will farmers let it happen? And can *literally doing nothing* really be an appropriate response to the ecological emergencies engulfing us?Alasdair Cameron (he off of episode #61) knows, and joins us to tell us about his own rewilding efforts in Somerset as director of the magnificent Somerset Wildlands, an organisation buying land in the Levels to make space for nature. Thanks to Joseph Monkhouse for his majestic soundscape of iron age Somerset levels. Watch the full youtube video to see credits for individual sound recordists.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#187: What The Hell Has Been Happening? Oct 11, 2020

We're back! And there's been a touch of news since we were last a-babblin'. Some of it actually not shit, too! So, this week Dave dons his Chris Tarrant mask to host the inaugral 'What The Hell Has Been Happening?' quiz. The only rule? Answers must not be gloomy. 2020 doesn't need any more gloomy Ol, after all. Topics include China's anti-inhofery, David Attenborough smashing capitalism, and confusing news about rice puddings and pumpkins. So strap in and enjoy a blitzkrieg of upbeat babbling. With absolutely no mention of the unprecedented ecological kneecapping unfolding all over the planet. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#186: Talking Climate Aug 17, 2020

It is just possible that yelling about wet-bulb temperature and the certain heat death of everything isn't as effective a climate communications strategy as some may think. So what is? Is there A Right Way to discuss ecological destruction? And can it really be true that conversations are opportunities to learn from each other, not just "win" someone round?We put all these questions and more to climate communications expert and friend of the babble Robin Webster, whose job as Senior Programme Lead: Advocacy Communications at the climate communications organisation Climate Outreach is to help people bang on about climate a lot more effectively.Possibly should have invited her on before now then...Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#185: Eco-anxiety Aug 09, 2020

What if a problem even greater than climate change or ecological collapse is our sense of powerlessness in the face of these crises? Is it our inability to believe we can do anything about the planet frying that is, above anything else, stopping us collectively sorting this shit out?That's the hypothesis of Clover Hogan, climate activist, founder of Force of Nature, and researcher on eco-anxiety, who joins us to get under the skin of the psychological responses to planetary nausing.For younger people, eco-anxiety is becoming particularly widespread and acute - with darn good reason, one might argue. So Clover guides two, er, less young people through the perspective of a generation staring at a distinctly un-rosy future and explores how we can, in her words, mobilise mindsets en masse. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#184: Robert Llewellyn meets Sustainababble Aug 02, 2020

Kryten is on the Babble! SMEGGIN' HELL!Robert Llewellyn is an actor and comedian who since 1989 has played angular faced mechanoid Kryten in cult sci-fi classic Red Dwarf. But he's equally well known for presenting the legendary Scrapheap Challenge and, for the last ten years, phenomenally popular YouTube electric car review show Fully Charged. It's like Top Gear, but without bellends or CO2.Once Dave and Ol get over the fanboy thing, Robert talks to us about all things whizzy tech and clean cars, based on 10 years' experience driving and reviewing the things. We learn how EVs might put all the mechanics out of work, why greenies getting upset about lithium and cobalt may be a wee bit misguided, and - talking of wee - just how long one has to cross one's legs between charges of the latest models.Oh, and why Jeremy Clarkson called Robert a very rude word indeed.This show is dedicated to the memory of Seb Patrick.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#183: Gillian Burke meets Sustainababble Jul 26, 2020

The BBC's Springwatch is a cultural institution in the UK, showcasing the extraordinary but often overlooked wildlife of these crumbling isles with warts 'n all realism (i.e. lots of baby Blue Tits getting munched). Biologist Gillian Burke has for three years been at the heart of the show's presenting team, earning the nation's affection for her passion and powers of communication as much as for her unblinking resolve in the face of uncooperative protagonists and innuendo-tastic co-presenters.Gillian is also a Black woman in an industry - conservation, nature TV and the environment movement as a whole - notable for its woeful lack of representation of people of colour.In a longer-than-usual episode, we hear Gillian's reflections on why those banging on about the planet - the Babble very much included - present so little ethnic diversity, and on the extraordinary Spring of 2020, a period that will surely be remembered for the elevation of racial injustice laid bare by George Floyd's killing and the Black Lives Matter protests, and when millions took solace in the natural world as the global pandemic raged.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#182: Roman Krznaric meets Sustainababble Jul 20, 2020

Are you being a good ancestor? Are WE being good ancestors? What the hell is a good ancestor and do I have to buy them a present? Public philosopher Roman Krznaric thinks these are the most important questions we should ask ourselves (well, certainly the first two) if we're to escape the 'tyranny of the now', the hideous short-termism dominating our lives and knackering the planet in the process.His new book ('The Good Ancestor: How to think long term in a short term world') explains how our brains are perfectly capable of serious long-term thinking, despite our apparent crapness at it, and sets out key principles for public decision making fit for the next century, not just the next news cycle. Shockingly, none of those prinicples includes reacting in fury to something on twitter you didn't know you cared about 30 seconds previously. Who knew?Check out the wonderful empathy museum, founded by Roman, and Neal Agarwal's equally magestic animation of just how deep the deep sea is, as mentioned by Dave in the show. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#181: Litter Jul 12, 2020

The instant we were allowed out again we covered everything in rubbish: plastic and cans and humous packets and, er, cool boxes and chairs. Why? Has four months of lockdown made us all beserkers, or is this just what it's always like and we'd forgotten? Who's doing the littering anyway? And what even IS litter? We investigate. Also, the Government's promising to give us cash to insulate our homes, which sounds like a good thing. And governments doing good things make us very suspicious indeed. Links to some of the things we talked about: Kirsty McNeil's piece talking about activism after coronavirus Chris Rose's investigation into the 'Crying Indian' advert Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#180: Being Ecofriendly Jul 05, 2020

"Smash capitalism" is among the least helpful answers people like Dave and Ol give when asked "So what should *I* do to help the planet?". But for most campaignery types, individual lifestyle change plays second or third fiddle to political action and corporate restraint. And - if we're completely honest - we're also luke-warm about personal behaviour change because so many of its proponents are such... hard work. You know, people who tilt their heads to one side and pity the poor soul yet to discover the wonders of £50 biodynamic toothpaste made from upcycled cow shit.HOWEVER, two things are also true: 1) the above question is one we get asked *a lot* and therefore feel like we should answer, and 2) Lianne Bell, entrepreneur and author of 'How on Earth can I be eco-friendly?', a new book on this subject, is very much not of the holier than thou eco-mould. Just listen to the workout she gives the bleep machine in this episode, for a start.We ask Lianne what our priorities, as individuals, should be, whether it's OK to go to a supermarket, why on earth so many breakfast condiments seem to end up on her face, and whether the mob should be in charge of recycling. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#179: Footballers Jun 28, 2020

Modern footballers eh? Spoilt, obscenely rich, carbon-guzzling narcissists who couldn't spell planet, let alone save it. They're an open goal for moralising and high-handery, or at least must have seemed so to the UK Health Secretary when he pooh-poohed players' high pay at the pandemic's outset (omitting, accidentally no doubt, to pass comment on the wages of hedge fund managers or the like).Well, we in Babble towers don't buy that. We're unapologetic disciples of the beautiful game, for all its flaws, and we can't help noticing that, far from conforming to (stereo)type, high profile stars of both the men's and women's game have led from the front on all manner of social issues of late, not least the environment.So this week we pick our starting 11* of poverty-tackling, environment-defending, racism-clattering footie heroes and ask: might they be rather better at campaigning than the 'professionals' are?Also in today's episode, a belching bumful of macro-inhofery from the 'natural' gas industry, and some world-beating sustainababble from the world's richest man.*In fact, we only had time for a five-a-side team, but do check out this Global Citizen piece detailing more players doing excellent things.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#178: Jonathon Porritt meets Sustainababble Jun 21, 2020

If you've taken so much as a passing interest in environmentalism in the UK, you'll have doubtless encountered the campaigner and writer Jonathon Porritt.Since the '70s he's been at the forefront of the wider green movement: prominent in the Ecology party (what became the Green party), running Friends of the Earth, advising the UK Govt and the likes of Kelloggs & Unilever how not to be gits, and now working with the school strikers.Raising eyebrows in the process, he also had a crack at persuading oil companies to see the light, before publicly concluding that they basically don't want to.Now, with his new book out - Hope In Hell: A Decade to Confront The Climate Emergency - Jonathon takes on his biggest challenge yet: 40 minutes of Paxman-esque grilling by the Babble. We think he just about survives the interrogation, but judge for yourselves.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#177: Q&A Jun 14, 2020

You asked, so we filibustered, obfuscated and prevaricated. That's right, just 177 episodes in we've dared to switch from 'broadcast' to 'dialogue' with the babble army, actively soliciting questions from our band of wise and forgiving listeners.We've hand-picked a tasting menu of succulent enquiries from the smörgåsbord submitted. Some are silly, some serious, but all are certified 100% free from sustainababble or inhofery. We're confident your bouche will be amused.Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in questions. Terrificly bigly big up to Julia, Anna, Simon, Claire, Shannon, Emma and Kayleigh, whose Qs we attempt to address in the show. Enjoy!Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#176: Nappies Jun 07, 2020

Poor wee infants can't help it but they *do* produce an awful lot of poo and wee. Ol should know, he's got two of the little, er, darlings. Problem is, said effluvia ends up in nappies (diapers), overwhelmingly 'disposable' ones - thousands of them per child. And the nappies end up in the ground, or being burned to make noxious air for us all to breathe. Yuck. What's a sleep-deprived tree-hugging parent to do? Fresh from his 1,045th day without enough sleep, Ol takes Dave slowly through the basics of why it's so hard to green his babies' bottoms, and why it probably isn't a good idea to apply a nappy in the way Dave thinks it should be applied. In other news, Dave's finally watched that controversial Michael Moore film everyone's losing their temper about - and he has Views on it. And it's the return of Sustainababble of the Week, courtesy of a supermarket with some very odd opinions on how its customers grill sausages. Show notes this week: shout out to Bambino Mio eco-nappies, who gave us the idea for the show in the first place; to @MilesKing10 on Twitter for exposing Tesco's peculiar thoughts; and to Dr Chris Newman for his splendid rap - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnmfuKZdQkI . Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella (who we forgot to thank this week, oops). Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#175: Swifts May 31, 2020

Swifts: bloody 'ell. The weight of a Creme Egg, Apus Apus spend their entire lives in flight; eating, sleeping and shagging on the wing before popping 6,000 miles north to a European roof for a rest and a spot of breeding.As evocative of British summers as drunk men fighting, screeching Swifts have returned to our skies and are bloody noisy - unless and until Ol gets his microphone out, of course.So with World Swift Day coming up (7 June) we get straightforwardly misty-eyed about these avian superstars, and only momentarily distracted by Kanye West.Special thanks to Gavin Gamble for his wonderful blog that inspired this episode. Big up to Patrick Aberg for swifts sounds scattered throughout. Kudos to Ruth Everett for the splendid swift drawing. And check out the RSPB's guide to making your own swift box if you'd like to help them not be dead.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#174: No More Cars May 25, 2020

A car-free future is hurtling our way faster than even the most ardent greenies dared dream, pre-Covid. Backed into a corner by a pandemic that simply refuses to stop being a dick, mayors throughout Europe are rapidly closing major roads to cars and building cycling infrastructure quicker than you can say “Eddy Merckz ate my chamois cream”. So momentous is this development that Dave even went out on his bike to see the transformation taking place in the city formerly known as Stinky London, and got all emosh in the process. Bless. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#173: Pangolins May 17, 2020

What the world needs in these troubled times is someone to blame. A scapegoat or, in this instance, a scapepangolin.For it turns out everyone's favourite curly, scaley, insect-snuffling-y, heavily trafficked nature weirdos are very much in the dock for unleashing Covid-19 on the world. But is all as it seems? Dave has read some SCIENCE, and reveals all. Also this week, an absolute thug of a plant. If you encounter Giant Hogweed, for pete's sake just give it whatever it wants and back away quietly.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#172: The BBC May 10, 2020

Central to British cultural life, if not quite as dominant as it once was, the Beeb still solicits widespread affection, a refuge of familiarity in these strange times. But many a spleen is vented over Auntie's perceived leftyness or rightyness, and its impartial, 'balanced' editorial stance in news reporting is frequently the subject of attack or riducule, not least in coverage of climageddon. So what really goes on when an angry man in a shed complains, and how exactly does celebrity climate denier Nigel Lawson get a platform on the Today programme? To find out, we speak to Richard Black, 25 years a BBC journalist and long-time environment correspondent. Richard currently runs the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit and is the author of Denied: The Rise and Fall of Climate Contrarianism. This episode contains a clip of "I'm proud of the BBC" by Mitch Benn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3q2iZuU5WM Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#171: Mark Lynas meets Sustainababble May 03, 2020

If the global pandemic is leaving you wanting more on the existential angst front, try dipping into chapter 6 of journalist and former activist Mark Lynas' new book, 'Our Final Warning', where you'll read that at six degrees of global heating "a wave of mass extinctions threatens life on earth". Theeeeeeere we go, that's the good stuff.The book, to an extent an updated version of 2007's groundbreaking 'Six Degrees', describes the most recent scientific understanding of what we can expect if carbon emissions don’t fall rapidly and temperatures continue to rise. Or, in other words, the civilisation-ending shitstorm that's in the post if humanity doesn't get its act together PDQ.We chat to Mark about what's changed - good and bad - in the twelve years between the two books, what Covid-19 might mean for global emissions, and why, despite it all, he retains a sense of optimism.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#170: Virus Apr 09, 2020

Look, we were supposed to be on a break, but then the world broke. So we're back for a remotely-recorded Covid special. Fair to say this virus lark presents a few challenges on the chuckle front. But despite all the mayhem there are as always Inhofes to be fingered and green shoots of optimism to be nurtured. We roll up our sleeves. Should we truck any sympathy with polluters trying to capitalise on it all? Are you a git if you're happy about the cleaner air and the rampaging goats? And how many pairs of lockdown pants does a chap need? All this, and Dave updates us on his career break plans. Suffice it to say, they've changed. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#169: Stop Mar 08, 2020

Shriek! One of us no longer works for an environmental charity. Is this the end? A more reflective / fewer-knob-jokes episode than usual. What happens when trying to change stuff gets all a bit bloody exhausting? How do we know whether anything we're doing is making the tiniest bit of difference? And - look, we KNOW it's a mid-life crisis, all right? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#168: Who Owns England? Mar 01, 2020

It's all very well wanting to plant trees everywhere and stuff like that but you need to own the land first. And we don't. Not only that, we don't even really know who does. But one man knows more than most. Superstar activist Guy Shrubsole spent a very long time digging into who actually holds the deeds to England's green and pleasant land and what he found was proper scandalising. In 2019 his book, Who Owns England, took the papers by storm - both left- and right-wing ones, for different reasons - and is just about to come out in paperback. Remember all the stuff about half the country being owned by a very small number of posh people? That was Guy. Guy tells us all about his adventures hopping over fences and trawling over maps, and makes us gawp and shriek at the sheer secrecy about who holds the real power over England itself. You'll be sharpening your pitchforks by tea-time. A fascinating chat with a campaigner and author whose work has been called "brave and important" by Robert Macfarlane. Guy's investigative website can be found at www.whoownsengland.org, and you can follow him on Twitter @guyshrubsole. Who Owns England? is published in paperback on 19th March 2020. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#167: Kate Pankhurst meets Sustainababble Feb 23, 2020

Children's author and illustrator Kate Pankhurst often finds herself addressing classrooms of kids, so she was completely at home chatting to Dave and Ol about her new book, Fantastically Great Women Who Saved The Planet.As the names suggests, the book bigs up a host of incredible women from around the world who have done more than most to stand up for mother Earth. Some are household names, but many aren't, despite their planet-saving (s)heroics.We ask Kate whether that's kinda the point of the book; that were our society and its cultural history somewhat less unequal, the legends of Wangari Maathai, Ingeborg Beling or the Chipko movement would be every bit as well known in classrooms as their male counterparts.Fantastically Great Women Who Saved The Planet is out now, published by Bloomsbury, and is the Booksellers Association children's indie book of the month for February.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#166: Chlorine Chicken Feb 16, 2020

Now that we've Br-ucked Off, Blighty can look forward to supermarkets chock full of chlorine-drenched poultry. Lucky us (lucky chickens).Why? Because that's how chickens are made in America, goddammit, and Donald Trump smells a finger-lickin' opportunity to sell stinky US chooks to a market newly liberated from Yerp's pesky animal welfare standards.Obviously that's about as far as our understanding of trade goes, so we got someone in to tell us more. Returning guest Sam Lowe (see babble #42), from the Centre for European Reform, joins us to defend his fascination with one of the nerdiest subjects in the world and patiently explain why it's actually quite important.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#165: Wildfires Feb 10, 2020

Australia's terrifying bushfires have made the climate emergency seem very real and very immediate. They've forced people everywhere to join the dots in ways previous 'yes obviously it's climate change' disasters haven't. Why? Does it really take a billion animals going up in smoke for people to give global apocalypse more than a passing thought? And is anything going to be different now, politically?Also this week, some truly biblical insect news from East Africa and a newspaper proving that, just occasionally, the least trusted profession can be a force for good.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#164: Climate Assembly Feb 03, 2020

In a hotel room in Birmingham, one hundred ordinary people are doing something rather extraordinary. For four weekends, members of the UK's Climate Assembly are discussing - in a polite, constructive, and very un-2020 way - how on earth we achieve what the UK government has decided we will achieve, i.e. naff all climate pollution in 30 years time.What's really special is that these people are not yoghurt weavers like Dave and Ol. They represent a cross-section of society, including climate sceptics, so should arrive at solutions likely to meet with broad public and political approval. In theory.To find out what it's like in that hotel room, and what David Attenborough is really like, we speak to the person running the whole shebang. Sarah Allan is Head of Engagement at the participation charity 'Involve', who are running Climate Assembly UK for six committees of the UK Parliament.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#163: Jonathan Rowson meets Sustainababble Dec 29, 2019

Chess Grandmaster Jonathan Rowson won the British Championship three times and has been the no.1 player in Scotland for basically ever. He's so clever, he's got a PhD in 'Wisdom'. That sounds like a joke but it isn't.Jonathan has written extensively about what it is in our heads and our societies that stops us being wiser, and is director of Perspectiva, an organisation that inspires Important People to examine real world problems with a deeper appreciation of the influence of our inner worlds. Problems like climate change, which is a principal theme in his new book, The Moves That Matter.So, fresh from an election all-nighter (this was recorded on 13 December), Dave and Ol try to conduct a conversation with a stupendously clever human all about philosophy, psychology and climate change. In addition - and why the hell not - Dave decides to **play** Jonathan at chess while conducting the interview. You can see how that went, move by move, here: https://tinyurl.com/babblechessSustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#162: Sustainabauble 2019 Dec 22, 2019

We don't want a lot for Christmas - there is just one thing we need: piles of festive eco-guff underneath our (potted, reusable) Christmas tree. Make our dreams come true! Let us share this year's Sustainabauble with you. Happy Babblemas. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#161: Five More Years Dec 13, 2019

Election 2019, then: Tories. LOTS of Tories. Boris is as delighted as pig in a massive pile of poo, and has carte blanche to sodding well do whatevs - including to the planet. Crikey, and indeed, Moses. What on Earth does all this mean for, well, Earth? Will the good green stuff the Tories promised ever actually happen? Is this the end for the climate movement? And if you're feeling a bit soggy and limp about it all, what's to do next? Dave and Ol haven't really been to bed, but the Babble never sleeps. Join us, and several cups of exceptionally strong coffee, for a post-electoral cuddle. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#160: Orcas Dec 08, 2019

It's possible that a terrifyingly high proportion of babble listeners haven't seen Free Willy, which, if the case, is truly appalling. Not being alive in 1993 is NO EXCUSE.Anyway, it's a film about an orca, and orcas - killer whales - are extraordinary beings, but beings we know bugger all about. So we decided to interview someone who knows rather more.Enter Shilpa Shah, strategist and blogger for the wonderful Orca Guardians organisation in West Iceland. Shilpa is, by her own admission, completely obsessed with these animals, not only because of their remarkable social structures and astonishing intelligence, but because of what they might be trying to tell us about... us.To find out more about Orca Guardians and their work, please visit https://orcaguardians.org/. You can even adopt an orca! https://orcaguardians.org/adoption-packages/ Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#159: Advertising Dec 02, 2019

"The gentle art of persuading the public to believe that they want something they don’t need", so a 1905 definition goes. Selling in 2019 is basically the same, except now there's the added by-product - yay! - of hastening planetary self-combustion.But what's it actually like selling stuff you know is bad news? Can the ad industry - increasingly staffed by the eco-anxious, after all - use its dark arts to save the planet? And is Mad Men basically a documentary?We natter to recovering ad man, and co-founder of The Comms Lab, Jonathan Wise, to find out.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#158: Floods Nov 24, 2019

Bits of northern England have been inundated by floodwater in recent weeks. Even the perpetually soggy Venice has managed to get somehow more underwater.It's grim as hell, flooding, made worse by the politicians stopping by with a mop and hi-vis. Grim, but not unpredictable. So why is everyone still reporting these events as if they're out of the blue? Shouldn't we start assuming they're going to happen more regualrly, and get our preparative shit together accordingly?Also this week, manifestos for the babble's THIRD general election make for surprisingly uplifting reading, and Coldplay kick blighty when it's down. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#157: Tories Nov 17, 2019

Chances are, if you listen to this podcast you're a bit of a lefty. And that's fine. And we are too.But lefties surely can't claim a monopoly on environmentalism, can they? There are plenty of non-lefties who say they care just as much about the planet, after all.So, in a demonstration of BBC-standard impartiality, we decided to interview an Actual Tory. It's only been 157 episodes, after all.Step forward Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network and former aide to Michael Gove, to give a passionate defense of Tory environmentalism. Crikey moses.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#156: Fireworks Nov 10, 2019

Whizz! Bang! No, not BoJo's pillow talk, but the sound of millions of home explosives polluting the sky and making pets' insides go gooey. With the annual Guy Fawkes celebration now behind us, we ask if it might be time to ban yet another thing that's fun.Also this week, seismic news in fracking world: it's actually been banned in England! We pause to celebrate this epic win, and thank the people who made it happen.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#155: Beavers meet Sustainababble Nov 03, 2019

In this special episode, Dave and Ol leave stinky London behind and head off to rainy, muddy Cornwall to try to meet some actual beavers. Without wellies. It's been 400 years since the humble but sodding impressive beaver was wiped out in the UK due to having nice-smelling undercarriages. Now, a handful of rewilders are starting to reintroduce them - including organic farmer, sausage chaser and beaver fancier, Chris Jones. With the help of Babble listener extraordinaire Abi, we visited Chris's farm to see these fabby rodents up close. Thanks massively to Chris Jones (@kernowbeaver) and Abi Beath for all the help. Abi's alter ego is singer/songwriter Abi Sofia, and two of her tracks are used in this episode - listen at https://soundcloud.com/abisofiamusic. Find out more about the Cornwall Beaver Project at @cornwallbeaver (Twitter) or @cornwallbeaverproject on Facebook. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#154: Eating Insects Oct 27, 2019

One day, not very far from now, we might look back at 2019 and think it incredibly weird that people weren't stuffing their gullets with cockroaches.Insects, we're increasingly told, are a fantastic source of animal protein without all the planet-f*ckery associated with meat production. But is anyone actually OK with eating loads of crunchy, spikey, crawly things? Does a bag of salted crickets compare favourably to pork scratchings? Happily, Ol is prepared to find out, so listen on to discover what a vegetarian chowing down on deep fried exoskeleton sounds like.What a time to be alive.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#153: What’s next? Oct 20, 2019

Even by recent high standards, some crazy big stuff is happening at the moment. Br- is about to actually -exit (or not), a general election is imminent (or isn't) and it's all so fast-moving that it will (or won't) have resolved between this week's babble being recorded and published. What *is* clear is that the planet continues to be imperilled and fixing it should be top of everyone's agenda, but isn't, largely because of all the uncertainty.WHAT ON EARTH'S GOING TO HAPPEN? We speculate, wildly.Also this week, XR get it a bit wrong, top babble from the aviation industry and Shell being, well, shell-ish.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#152: BP vs the RSC Oct 13, 2019

"Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides" said Cordelia in King Lear.Words with which the Royal Shakespeare Company are presumably familiar, and a sentiment that was perhaps front of mind when they recently told BP to shove their sponsorship dosh where the sun shineth not.Kierra Box, from activist group 'BP or Not BP?' joins us to explain how a bunch of stage-invading, ruff-wearing hippies gave the RSC no choice but to dish out a spectacular "it's not us, it's you" dumping to everyone's favourite oil major.Also this week, Extinction Rebellion are back. Does it matter if Boris Johnson slags them off? Are the public still on their side? Is that missing the whole point? We ponder.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#151: Fusion Oct 06, 2019

Boris Johnson has promised - PROMISED! - that good ol' Blighty is going to produce infinite clean energy within two decades. That's right, 'nuclear fusion' is just around the corner! But, er, is it really? And more importantly, what the HELL is nuclear fusion?Also this week, pine martens join the war on grey squirrels, and the poor loves at Cuadrilla retreat from Lancashire with tails between their legs. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#150: Greta Sep 29, 2019

Prodigiously popular. Terrifyingly tenacious. Brilliantly bold. No silly, not Dave and Ol - we're talking about the globe-conquering, Inhofe-silencing Greta Thunberg. We investigate how come an upstart teenager from Sweden has tipped the global climate debate on its head. Isn't it all a bit - let's face it - odd? (in a good way). Are we right to pin so much of our hopes on her? And what happens when she's old enough for her haters to hate her to her face? Meanwhile the UK Labour party has signed up to net zero emissions in just over a decade. Shriek! Is that - whisper it - *too* ambitious? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#149: Naomi Oreskes meets Sustainababble Sep 22, 2019

We chat to an actual proper Harvard Professor, blessed with a brain as large as her laugh. Author, activist and splendid person Naomi Oreskes - crusading scourge of Inhofes everywhere - tells us why we should trust science (spoiler: because it's science). In a giggle-packed natter, Dave and Ol learn all about how science is done when it's done properly, how come so many Americans think climate change is a communist lie, and what you should do if your dentist smells of pork. All this, and Dave gets a proper telling off for his terrible interview technique - not before time. You can follow Naomi on Twitter @naomioreskes. Her new book, 'Trust in Science', is out imminently. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#148: Trees Sep 15, 2019

When we go away the Amazon burns down, Boris Johnson becomes king, and London gets as hot as a farting hippo's bottom. Sorry about that. Now. Everyone's saying we need to plant more trees everywhere, which would be fine if we stopped torching and chopping down the ones we had. Have we got any hope at all of planting (at least) half a billion more trees? Does it let Big Oil off the hook if we do? And is the world ready for Dave's soggy willows? We investigate. All this, and some proper cheeky abuse of the concept of 'net zero' by the fossil fuel lot. And the farming lot. And the aviation lot. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#147: Cycling May 19, 2019

Basically all of us learn to ride a bike, but vanishingly few grown-ups regularly cycle, especially in 'car is king' Blighty.So why is pootling around on two wheels such a niche pursuit, when the benefits and beneficiaries are so varied? And are cyclists the red-light jumping, pavement-bothering lycra zealots the press would have you believe, or just, y'know, humans who ride a bike every now and then?We discuss.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#146: Nature Crisis May 13, 2019

Someone needs to tell the UN to stop writing reports on the state of the planet. Their latest lolzfest, hot on the heels of 2018's IPCC report (aka 'Seriously, climate change is awks'), says humans are threatening A MILLION species with extinction. Tally ho!Fear not though, even in this bleakest of topics, babble was saught and - by jove - babble was found.Also this week, encourging news on the do-people-give-a-shit barometer, as a recording of birdsong soars up the UK charts and Australian voters give politicians a planet flavoured kick in the Uluru.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#145: Emergency May 06, 2019

Heavens to betsy! The UK parliament has declared a 'Climate and Ecological Emergency'. Amazing, impressive, Extinction Rebellion-vindicating stuff. But, er, so what? And what now? And does it make those wonks telling the UK to eradicate (ish) emissions by 2050 wildly ambitious, hopelessly weedy, or somewhere in between?Also this week, Gammons getting angry with Percy Pigs, McDonalds customers failing to suck it up, and Chris Packham's majestic response to phallic abuse.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#144: Fashion Apr 22, 2019

Our clothes say a lot about who we are, but they also say "SCREW YOU, PLANET!" more often than not. Yup, clothes and fashion - like so many nice things - have some eye-watering environmental price tags.We peruse.Also this week, an update on the mega protest that is Extinction Rebellion, and some bizarre Babble-flattery from Shell.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#143: Glaciers Apr 14, 2019

Glaciers are shrinking, which is not good. Not good for glaciers, not good for people who like sea levels just the way they are, and certainly not good for those keen to avoid literal AVALANCHES OF SHIT emerging from newly slushy ice.We pontificate.Also this week, eggs, Shell, and cars all making the news for reasons of varying smelliness. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#142: Right to Repair Apr 07, 2019

You're probably listening to this podcast on a device that's deliberately designed to break in not very long and will be nigh on impossible to tinker with when it does.Gone are the days when a bit of blu-tack and a fair wind ensured your prized possessions outlasted most relationships. We live in a world restless to upgrade our shiny new things to shinier, newier things. Why is that? What does it mean for the planet? Might there be - perhaps surprisingly - some environmental upsides?Clever person Duncan McCann from the New Economics Foundation talks to us about the 'right to repair' and reveals the inhoffery that goes on in the electronics sector. Read his splendid blog on the subject here: https://neweconomics.org/2019/01/demanding-a-right-to-repair.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#141: Clusterf**k Mar 31, 2019

It's fair to say Brexit isn't going superbly. Recent goings on in the UK parliament have redefined the very notions of chaos, calamity and - yes - clusterf**kery.All very well, but it rather begs the question: if politicians can't sort out something as simple* as buggering off from yerp, how in the name of all that is holy are they going to fix climate change? Is the political system remotely up to this challenge, and if not, what then?Also this week, some massive Inhofes putting birds in equally massive hairnets, and capitalism solving air pollution like only it knows how: one facial at a time.* We know, we know.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#140: Recycling Mar 24, 2019

Of the zillion eco topics we've covered on this podcast, none come any more 'I like to think I do my bit' than recycling. You know the drill:You: "GLOBAL CLIMATE BREAKDOWN INSECTAGEDDON AAARGGHH!"Your auntie: "Well darling, I always recycle my Daily Mail".Probably the one thing we can all agree on is how sodding confusing it is. Can plastic bags be recycled? Doesn't it all go to China? Should I bother rinsing my hummus pot when No. 62 routinely shove half a dead dog in their green bin?We chat to one man who knows the answers to all these rubbish (geddit?) questions and more, waste nerd, mega-brain and friend of the babble, Julian Kirby.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#139: Birthstrike Mar 17, 2019

Would you forgo having children because the future looks too bleak? A growing group of 'birthstrikers' have decided just that, speficially declaring "not to bear children due to the severity of the ecological crisis and the current inaction of governing forces in the face of this existential threat". It's clearly the most profound of personal decisions, woven through with complexity and heartache. To understand more about what Birthstrike is - and isn't - we talk to Alice Brown, long time listener to the 'babble and, more importantly, prominent Birthstriker. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#138: Hygiene Mar 10, 2019

Are we too clean? Is Ol clean enough? Should we stop using bog roll to save the planet? All these - ahem - burning questions and others are answered in a hygiene special this week.

#137: Is Fracking Dead? Mar 03, 2019

Despite years of effort, bottomless pockets, and unwavering state backing, there's still nothing resembling a fracking industry in the UK. And for Cuadrilla, INEOS & co, things have been getting worse of late - earthquakes, crappy test results, trouble with the locals, not to mention a Government - outrageously! - failing to bend to their every will. At some point, surely, the flush is bust. So when can we call it? When can we whisper that fracking might actually be dead? Or is that a hopeless misreading of the situation? Also this week, delicious gourmet squirrels and Michael Gove being a weasel. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#136: School Strikes Feb 24, 2019

Children, not thrilled about a dying planet and a compromised future, are rising up. In less than six months, one 15 year old's lone protest outside the Swedish parliament has snowballed into global classroom walk-outs. The #schoolstrike4climate's central message is that grown-ups need to start taking climate change seriously. Senior politicians, rather brilliantly making the strikers' points for them, have responded with sulky putdowns and verbal pats on the head. So what to make of all this? Are the kids hopelessly - if understandably - oversimplifying things? Is Theresa May actively trying to alienate the next generation? And does skipping school on a friday make the blindest bit of difference? Two haggard, irrelevant old geezers discuss. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#135: Asad Rehman meets Sustainababble Feb 11, 2019

Asad is, according to his twitter bio, a "general activist against all bad things". And then some. Currently the Executive Director of anti poverty charity War on Want, for 10 years Asad led Friends of the Earth's international climate work, putting justice and the voices of the global South at the heart of civil society's demands during UN climate talks. We chat to Asad about his decades of anti-racism activism, the failings of the environment movement and what can be done about it, and why a Green New Deal for America won't cut the mustard. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#134: Green New Deal Feb 06, 2019

A new band of young Americans is organising to get the planet out of a death spiral and give decent jobs to people in the process. Hooray! The central demand - a 'Green New Deal' - is as ambitious as anything Roosevelt came up with, and spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a working class, socialist, woman of colour born in - gulp - 1989. Very much *not* Al Gore, in other words. We probe, ponder, and postulate this new phenomen, but mostly try not to get depressed about how everyone is so much younger than us these days. Also this week: Veganuary bringing out the bitter old man in Dave Iceland supermarket coming over all Inhofey American weather taking the piss Schoolchildren showing adults how to stop acting like children Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#133: Caroline Lucas meets Sustainababble Dec 31, 2018

Caroline Lucas - CAROLINE LUCAS! - is the UK's first and only Green MP, former party leader, former MEP, and pretty much the lone voice of sanity in any political debate. Oh and she got nicked for protesting fracking. And she wore a "No More Page Three" t-shirt in Parliament. And she pwned Jacob Rees-Mogg in a recent brexit debate. We're quite big fans. As another year of enviro-catastrophe draws to a close, Caroline chats exclusively to the Babble about trying to get shit done in Parliament, why there aren't more Green politicians around, what she thinks of Extinction Rebellion and why she remains positive, despite it all. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#132: Sustainabauble 2018 Dec 21, 2018

Deck the halls with boughs of Ollie! (And Dave). It's this year's Xmas Xtravaganza, and as always our sacks are bulging with ripest sustainababble. Turns out Baby Ol isn't getting any presents this year - particularly not bath salts. Whyever not? And can Ol remember anything about 2018 at all? We find out. All this, and we find time to dole out our Inhofe of the Year award, and splatter Cuadrilla's melons. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#131: Molly Scott Cato meets Sustainababble Dec 17, 2018

For the past 4 years Molly has been a Member of the European Parliament, from where she's championed all sorts of planet-saving causes. Now heavily involved in Extinction Rebellion, she's simultaneously breaking and making the law. We chat to Molly about protest, the Gilets Jaunes, hope, and of course squeeze in some pointy-headed green economics chat. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#130: Peat Dec 10, 2018

Occasionally on fire and forever associated with the word "bog", peat is many things to many people. Gardeners guiltily sprinkle it on petunias, while tweedy gun people gad about on it shooting grouses in the face. To the boss of Heathrow, however, it's the answer to all those knotty questions about carbon emissions, and to Michael Gove it's the inspiration for an outrageously smutty speech. Oh for peat's sake. We dig around to uncover why rotting plants are suddenly so important for the climate. Also this week, more planet-saving heroism from young people. Christ knows we need it. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#129: Climate Act Dec 02, 2018

It's ten years since the UK passed a law compelling politicians to save the planet from a fiery death. Given recent news, you'd be forgiven for thinking that law - the Climate Change Act - has all the potency of a eunuch. But is that fair? Was the point of the law really to immediately fix climate change? If not, what was it? And how come Ol thinks it's spiffing and brilliant and marvellous given, y'know, everything? Also this week, we visit Poland (figuratively) for some splendid babble ahead of the latest international climate shindig, and get momentarily confused about Lego. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#128: Extinction Rebellion Nov 26, 2018

Climate protest has a new headline act, and its name is Extinction Rebellion. Seemingly from nowhere, ER is gathering attention and supporters at breakneck speed, and is unusually straightforward about the state we're in. Hanging a 'CLIMATE CHANGE - WE'RE F*CKED' banner off Westminster bridge kinda straightforward. Far more interesting than its sweariness though is the movement's focus on civil disobedience. 'Join us, and be prepared to get nicked' seems to be the recruitment mantra, and it's working. Thousands of people are showing up, hundreds have now been arrested. Best of all Jim Davidson is cross. So will it work? Who's it trying to appeal to? What will happen next? Are these details even important when people are - not a minute too soon - getting seriously aggy about the planet? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#127: Electric Cars Nov 19, 2018

We hate to PLUG ourselves but in our opinion this is one of the best TORQUEs we've ever had: a GRIPping and wide-RANGEing chat about cars what run on batteries, not oil. While electric cars aren't a new thing, them not being a bit rubbish, frankly, is. But like a fizzling-out in the hard shoulder halfway to your in-laws, do electric cars still have a long way to go? We interview the brainily jocular James Murray - editor of whizzy website businessgreen.com - and ask: did your kids like hanging out in supermarket car parks all week? Does driving one make you feel like a berk? And is an electric car better than no car at all? We bring you all this, free of CHARGE. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#126: Alarmism Nov 11, 2018

There's every reason to be alarmed, but does it help? Does screaming from the rooftops about impending climate doom grab people's attention or make them switch channel? Does *not* sounding the alarm give a false impression that everything's kinda OK? It's a debate as old as the hills, but one reignited by everyone's favourite nonagenarian coming down decidedly on the "alarmism's a turn-off" side. Is he right? We discuss. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#125: Just Transition Nov 04, 2018

Most people get it: blunting climate breakdown means ditching fossil fuels. Which is inconvenient for the men and women who dig up, drill, refine, ship, burn, market or otherwise earn their living from those fuels. People with mortgages and kids and bills to pay. Tree-huggers like us may think a low carbon economy sounds just spiffing, but for a lot of people it probably sounds a like a P45. What do to? Does Spain have the answer? We chew this all over, including what's meant by the - it turns out - entirely straightforwardly termed 'just transition'. Also this week: guff from the UK's finance minister, and monumentally catastrophic 'everything's dying' news from animal world. Lolz. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#124: Work less Oct 29, 2018

Work can be massively tedious. But would doing less of it - e.g. working 4 days rather than 5 - really be better for the planet? How would we pay the bills? And what would we do with all that extra time? We chat to Aidan Harper of the 4 Day Week campaign to find out. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#123: Brazil Oct 21, 2018

Beautiful Brazil looks set to elect a git. He goes by the name of Jair Bolsonaro and he is bad news for rainforests and those that live in them. We ask our Brazilian chum Fernanda Balata whether her country has gone totally nuts. Closer to home, we tear a strip off the Government's Green Great Britain (and Northern Ireland) week. Shame about the fracking, eh. And yet with one of the Big Six energy companies apparently ditching fossil fuels forever, we find to our surprise that our cynicism glands may be running dry. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#122: 1.5 Degrees Oct 14, 2018

Climate scientists have piped up again! 2,000 international brainboxes report that the nitty gritty of *actually* doing what the world said it would do in Paris three years ago is, well, gritty. Very gritty. Like 12 years to avert irreversable climate catastrophe gritty. After a bruising few days taking stock of all this, Dave has a wobble and Ol - surprisingly - finds some glitter in which to roll this most monstrous of news turds. Warning: episode may contain FEELINGS. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#121: William Doyle meets Sustainababble Oct 08, 2018

As East India Youth, electronic musician William Doyle has been nominated for a Mercury music prize and travelled the world promoting two highly successful albums. But the physical and emotional stresses of his own touring led him to ask whether musicians and the industry at large in anyway faces up to its environmental impact, and how it might change. William joins us to discuss what can be done, why U2 aren't actually all that bad, and how ramming climate change down people's throats, muscially speaking, leaves a lot to be desired. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#120: Hedgehogs Sep 30, 2018

Poor little sods are in big trouble. We pick over the plight of our prickly pals and ask: whose fault is the demise of the hedgehog? What's Boycie from Only Fools and Horses got to do with it? And can Ol be trusted to look after a hedgehog in distress? We salute Chris Packham's march for wildlife and have a flick through his 200 things that should be done about it, and we find out what Auntie Beeb is planning to freak us out with next. All this, and putrid pig poo pots. Thanks to the BBC for the clip of Drowning in Plastic. It goes out on BBC One on Monday 1st October at 8.30pm and will be available to catch up on BBC iPlayer. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#119: Vybarr Cregan-Reid meets Sustainababble Sep 23, 2018

Vybarr is not only the most fabulously named babble guest we've had, but also the author of TWO incredible books about humans and our environment. His new book - Primate Change: How the world we made is remaking us - uncovers the extraordinary tale of how our environment has changed our bodies, from our eyes and teeth down to our toes, while 2017's Footnotes: How running makes us human reconnects us to our bodies and the places in which we live. We pick Vybarr's mega brain in a wide ranging chat, during which - as well as discovering how the treadmill killed Oscar Wilde - we learn that Dave is in fact no more than 25% Dave. And poo transplants get a mention. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#118: Heat Jul 22, 2018

There's a plan to make cold things hot - and hot things cold - using the lost rivers that wind under cities like London. Sounds like magic? Is magic. SCIENCE MAGIC. Just how *do* we warm ourselves up in winter without knackering the planet? Or should we just put a few more jumpers on and shiver? And what on Earth have we found in this pub's basement? We investigate with Alice Bell from 10:10 and Louise Waters from Scene. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#117: Trump Baby Jul 12, 2018

Trump Baby will fly! Remarkably, permission has been granted for a 6 metre inflatable, nappy-wearing, perma-tweeting, orange skinned crying baby to fly above parliament when The Donald makes his controversial visit to blighty. As TB prepares for lift off, the babble bags an exclusive chat with one of its creators, friend of the babble, Leo Murray. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#116: Solar Jul 08, 2018

Solar boomed in the UK a few years back, but now hardly any of it's going up. Which seems a shame what with this INFERNAL sunny weather. What's happened? Why are we stalling just as other countries go nuts for the most popular green technology? And where the hell are our solar powered flying cars, like we were promised? Never ones to pass up a cheese stick and some OJ, we crashed the Solar Trade Association's 40th birthday shindig to nobble some proseccoed solar-y types and find out whether the future really is bright. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#115: Population Jul 01, 2018

More and more people on Earth = nailed-on environmental catastrophe. Yes? We talk to Alistair Currie from Population Matters to find out. Dashedly thorny issue, this. Isn't the real issue how much of a mess rich people are making of the planet, not how many poor people there are? Is talking about population inherently racist? And short of nuclear war, what could anyone nice realistically hope to be done about it anyway? In our candid chat, Alistair takes all of that - and more - head on. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#114: Organic Farming Jun 25, 2018

Helen Browning is an organic farmer and Chief Executive of the Soil Association. For one very lovely summer's day, she was also our host and tour guide at her mixed organic farm in Wiltshire - introducing us to pigs, piglets and cows on the way. We ask Helen what organic farming really is, why the produce costs so much, and her views on Brexit, Michael Gove and pig slaughter. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#113: Periods Jun 10, 2018

There's no escaping that throwaway plastic menstrual products are just as bad for the fishes as throwaway plastic anything else. But what are the alternatives? Does anyone use them? And what the hell gives two men the right to blather on about periods? Thank the lord, they're not alone. Julia Minnear from the Women's Environment Network joins Dave and Ol to explain the 'Environmenstrual' campaign and answer all our exceedingly ignorant questions. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#112: Cricket Jun 03, 2018

Ooh, dash it. Seems we may have to add cricket to the very long list of things that climate change is going to nause up entirely. We investigate, once Ol has explained to Dave what cricket actually is. More rain? Bad for cricket. Hotter summers? Bad for cricket. And that's before we even start on the SQUIRRELS. Plus, plastics: why are the Europeans trying to wee higher against the wall than our dear old Michael Gove? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#111: Tourism May 28, 2018

New research suggests - somewhat irritatingly - going on holiday is four times worse for the climate than previously thought. Flying, lavish eating, hotel maintenance & souvenirs all add up to a speedo-tightening 8% of global CO2 emissions. So should we pack an extra suitcase of guilt on the easyjet to Magaluf? Can tourism ever be light touch, let alone beneficial for the places we go? And what the hell is an ecotourist when it's at home (or abroad, more to the point)? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#110: Shipping Apr 24, 2018

Captain Birdseye and his pals have finally come to the climate party. An unprecedented agreement - signed just down the road from Babble HQ - will see global shipping cut CO2 in half. About time too. We dig around below deck to see what's really going on, and try to understand why there are 29,000 rubber ducks floating round the world's oceans. Also this week, another glorious victory for the Babble campaigning machine. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#109: Neoliberalism Apr 15, 2018

'Neoliberalism', then. What the hell is it? Is it wrecking the planet? Is it responsible for Ol's hair? And what's it all got to do with the price of bees? Strap yourself in as mega-brain Christine Berry explains all. With the patience of a saint, Christine takes Dave and Ol through the basics. Yes, it's a real thing. No, it isn't the same thing as capitalism. And could they stop being such a pair of cretins, please? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#108: Carbon Bubble Apr 09, 2018

This week we meet one of the most influential people on climate change you've probably never heard of. Mark Campanale is Founder & Executive Director of Carbon Tracker, a think tank whose ground-breaking Unburnable Carbon report made the entire financial world sit up and go "oh, lordy, perhaps fossil fuels aren't so great after all". It also prompted Bill McKibben to write his epic Global Warming's Terrifying New Math article in Rolling Stone magazine, which quickly became one of the most downloaded climate pieces of all time and spawned an entire new activist movement. We quiz Mark on how all this came to be and what on earth a carbon bubble really is. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#107: Sheffield’s Trees Apr 02, 2018

Sheffield's gone to war with itself over its trees. Is it all Margaret Thatcher's fault? What have bunnies, squirrels and geckos got to do with it? And who the hell is Amy? We have a natter to splendid Sheffield tree campaigner, Fran Halsall. Also this week, Michael Gove's done another good thing. But how come we didn't have a deposit return scheme years ago? We smell Inhofery. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#106: Russia Mar 26, 2018

You'll have noticed that Russia is cross with Blighty for being cross with Russia for allegedly attempting to bump off a spy and his daughter. Allegedly. All this crossness has made people jittery about whether Blighty's gas supply might suddenly develop a mysterious... glitch. Could this actually happen? We find out. Also this week, rhinos (dead), coal mines (also dead), Tory keep cups (dear) and more fact checking with Big Dave. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#105: Batteries Mar 18, 2018

Scientists with beards have invented a battery. Trust us, it's more interesting than it sounds. Despite shameful scientific illiteracy, even the 'Babble gets that this invention - a rechargable proton battery, no less - is potentially Very Important Indeed and quite possibly planet-saving. We investigate. Also this week, Arnie pwning oil companies and the meat industry calling a spade an exquisite, thoughtfully re-imagined mastication aid. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#104: Cats Mar 11, 2018

Vicious, bird-killing machines totally devoid of conscience, or unfortunate scapegoats (scapecats?) for humanity's somewhat more ruinous ecological destruction? One thing's for certain: lots of people have VIEWS when it comes to cats. So this week we try to understand some of the facts (spoiler: cats are really good at killing), and wrestle with questions like: Can you be a greenie and have a cat without being a massive hypocrite? Can cats be vegan? Is Ol's cat a git? Also this week, less than ideal weather news from the Arctic. Gulp. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#103: Monkey Exhausts Mar 05, 2018

In 2014, ten monkeys were watching cartoons in a sealed chamber, into which ACTUAL SCIENTISTS pumped exhaust fumes from a VW Beetle. For four hours. Why? Who was behind it? And why did people get so much more upset about the gassed monkeys than about the hundreds of thousands of people dying early 'cos of diesel fumes? We delve deep to find out, trying to avoid being sued by evil car companies as we go. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#102: Students Feb 25, 2018

Good-for-nothing lay-abouts, potnoodling their future away while the rest of us do REAL JOBS and PAY TAX. Maybe. But do today's students in fact care quite a lot about the planet? Do they get taught about it? Do they get angry about it? Or is the spectre of a lifetime's debt and vanishing employment prospects more than enough to keep them occupied? And, most importantly, how do the yoof feel about the distinctly impoverished planet they look set to inhabit when their Top Shop discount finally expires? We quiz NUS president Shakira Martin, SOAS solar supremo Hannah Short, and some actual, living breathing (and smoking, mostly) students to find out. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#101: Straws Feb 18, 2018

Everyone's falling over themselves to stop using plastic straws. GOOD! Will this bring an end to the scourge of ocean plastic and save the ugly fish? Or will shunning straws be the beginning and end of efforts to kick our collective plastic habit? What if hating on straws distracts people from even worse environmental inhofery? Also this week, why no-one with a brain should be pleased about 'talking' orcas, and how the Babble saved ALL the elephants. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#100: A Century of Babbles Dec 23, 2017

BUMPER EPISODE! Because we've got two very large reasons to be merry. It's CHRISTMAS, so anything can happen - even, apparently, Liam Gallagher turning out to be the voice of the planet. And as the Babble finally hits 100, we look back on a ton of podcasts and ask: have things got better or worse? Does anyone remember any of the politicians that were around when we started? And why can't Dave still say the word sqwiwwel? All this, and Boris Johnson's been drinking nuclear waste, that charming Monsieur Macron's been putting other people's money where his mouth is, and someone's making electricity out of Ol's Christmas dinner. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#99: Ocean Plastic Dec 10, 2017

As Blue Planet II comes to a close, we ask if people having spent the last 7 weeks cooing at the pretty fishies will make any difference to whether they hoik Fanta bottles into the sea. Ol and Dave would walk the plank if Attenborough told us to - will anyone else? Meanwhile, a clothing company is suing the wobbly bottom off the President of the Free World, and the Conservative party are trying very hard to not be seen to be being nasty to animals. And: Bitcoin. What the hell is it? And can it really be responsible for killing polar bears? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#98: The Man From Shell Dec 03, 2017

In a first for the Babble, we talk to someone very much on The Other Side. David Hone is chief climate change advisor... to Shell. After 30 years in the energy industry he's written a new book, Putting The Genie Back: Solving the Climate and Energy Dilemma, in which he maintains that fossil fuels will be with us for many decades to come. "He would say that, wouldn't he?". Very possibly, but David is also unquestionably committed to finding ways to meet the Paris Agreement aims. So we ask how on earth he squares the 'more fossil fuels, less climate change' circle; what it's like trying to save the planet inside a company that's a life member of Inhofe Corner; and why gaffa taping CO2 in the ground is such a great idea. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#97: George Monbiot meets Sustainababble Nov 26, 2017

Environmentalist. Author. Guardian columnist. Campaigner. Brain on legs. We grab some time at home with George Monbiot, everyone's favourite font of wisdom. In a wide-ranging babblechat, we find out why everyone being so bloody lonely is knackering the Earth, and how we can come together and make it all better again. Can saying hello to our neighbours more often really save the planet? We also chat rewilding and the perils of being a professional miseryguts. And Ol sneaks in a question he promised he wouldn't ask, but did anyway. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#96: John Vidal meets Sustainababble Nov 19, 2017

For 27 years John Vidal was environment editor at The Guardian, scouring the world to bring underreported environmental issues to light. John talks to us about his latest story - the remarkable discovery of billions of tonnes of carbon-rich peat in the Congo basin - as well as some of the more hair-raising moments from his three decades of reporting on the state of the planet. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#95: Inside The Climate Talks Nov 12, 2017

Right now, a lot of hideously sleep-deprived people are in Bonn, Germany, figuring out how nations should work together to stop the planet frying. Thought this was all sorted out in Paris two years ago? Think again. To find out what really goes on at these annual 'COP' meetings, we interview Rachel Kennerley, Friends of the Earth's International Climate Campaigner. Rachel explains why the Americans are still causing trouble despite Trump's very public climate chexit, and why Fijians are surprisingly crap party hosts. She never quite explains why she's talking to us from the bathroom. Also this week, GOOD NEWS for the bees! Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#94: Community Energy Nov 05, 2017

Fancy getting your hands on a bit of lovely solar or wind power, while making friends and sticking it to the big energy companies? Course you do. So, er, why isn't community energy more of a thing in the UK? Is it the fault of that nasty ol' Government? In our first ever Babble panel chat, we meet Emma Bridge, CEO of Community Energy England; Leonie Cooper, Labour's lead on Environment in the London Assembly & chair of the Environment Committee; and Andy Hunt from Bury Community Hydro. Crikey! Also, listen to the end for the sound of two adults watching a bridge go up. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#93: Liz Bonnin meets Sustainababble Oct 29, 2017

We meet that Liz Bonnin off of TV and science to talk about the Galapagos Islands. It's far away, an ecological wonder, and slowly getting ruined by plastic. Liz tells us what needs to be done. In our exclusive chat at the Royal Geographical Society, we learn why anteaters don't need straws, why being green is trendy, and what keeps Liz feeling optimistic despite it all. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#92: Insects Oct 22, 2017

Insect numbers are plummeting and no-one knows why. What they do know is that the implications are, frankly, terrifying. Is it possible to get our heads round stuff like this without being paralysed by fear? What can we do? And why aren't our leaders even talking about it? This week's episode is unashamedly heart-on-sleeve, confronting the profound anxiety often triggered by a never-ending slew of diabolical environmental news, and wondering how on earth we remain chipper. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#91: Scotland Oct 15, 2017

Hoots! Scotland's banned fracking! Ol and Dave don their Tam o' Shanters and find out why. Elsewhere, there's more suspiciously good news, particularly if you're an elephant or you like making electricity out of poo. Even Theresa May's new clean energy strategy isn't terrible. We're agog. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#90: Apathy Oct 08, 2017

Is apathy the biggest barrier to stopping climate change? How do we persuade millions of preoccupied people to put climate into the "urgent/important" box? And do we need to convince the Inhofes to join our side - or can we save the planet without them? These questions and more are answered by ex-pollster and mega brain Leo Barasi, who joins us to talk about his new book The Climate Majority . You can order Leo's book at https://newint.org/books/politics/the-climate-majority/ Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#89: Germany Oct 01, 2017

Germans went to the polls recently and, somewhat astonishingly, elected a rather large number of fascists in the process. Nicht so gut. We talk to Kenneth Richter, an actual German, to find out what it all means and ask whether Germany and Mrs Merkel are the green heroes they're made out to be. Also this week, animals losing their shit. Specifically: otters, rats and hornets. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#88: Formula One Sep 24, 2017

Lewis Hamilton's jacked in the meat and dairy cos he's scared about the planet. We applaud, then ask: hang on, you drive pointless belchy cars for a living, don't you? In other news, say eh-oh to a magic bucket that will make it easier than ever to lob litter out of your car, and the offshore wind that's so cheap it's surprised even miseryguts greenies. Plus: why using a plastic bag in Kenya may now land you in the clink. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#87: Bruce Parry meets Sustainababble Sep 17, 2017

BAFTA award winning BBC presenter Bruce Parr, star of ‘Tribe’, ‘Amazon’ and ‘Arctic’, tells us all about his brand new film ‘Tawai: A Voice From The Forest’. As well as revealing the extraordinary stories behind the film - and what on earth a Tawai is when it’s at home - Bruce is candid in explaining some of the formative experiences in his own life. Check out the film at https://www.tawai.earth/ Additional music by David Szesztay, Ibuki Fkuda and Satellite Ensemble. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#86: Macron vs Trudeau Jul 03, 2017

France and Canada have bagged themselves two energetic young leaders, not only impossibly photogenic but also saying all the right things about the planet. Giggidy, giggidy goo indeed. But who's the greenest? Are they in fact very green at all? And does wanting to dig up and sell 173 billion barrels of oil slightly take the shine off the Swampy vibe? Also this week, Bond goes electric, a famous museum takes babbletastic, and finally PROOF that decaf coffee is worse than satan. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore – https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#85: Michael Gove Jun 18, 2017

He's back! The man who tried to ban climate change from the national curriculum has been anointed as Environment Secretary. Knickers are properly in a knot; yer Babble's on hand to see if this really is as bad news as all that. Meanwhile, Ol gets mushy about the return of a small rodent. Again. And does Donald Trump really think he's a modern day King Cnut? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme and other music by the legendary Dicky Moore - https://soundcloud.com/dickymoo Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#84: Election: Blimey Jun 10, 2017

Holy Moley! What just happened? And what does it mean for the planet and stuff? Fresh from an election all-nighter, Dave and Ol interview superbrain political campaigner, Liz Hutchins. Will a deal with the DUP be bad news for the climate? What next for Jezza? Will the yoof save us? And is Brexit still a thing? We find out. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft & Dream Themes. This episode also contains music from Tours and Podington Bear. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#83: Trump vs Paris Jun 04, 2017

A man of his silly orange word, Donald Trump has finally confirmed the USA will quit the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Aaargh! But just how sodding awful is this news? Ol's away, so Dave (and Arabella) chat to Amy Mount from the Green Alliance, trying in vain not to freak out too much. And with the UK election looming, we also natter about why on Earth the environment isn't getting a look-in in the leaders' debates. Is it all our own silly faults really? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft & Dream Themes. This episode also contains music from Daniel James Dolby and Blue Dot Sessions. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#82: Ivory May 28, 2017

Very many elephants get their blocks knocked off every year for ivory. Grisly business. But are the UK Government doing enough to stop it? And are your granddad's billiard balls to blame? We've also got some annoyingly damp seeds from Norway, and we try to work out if cuddling plastic out of the ocean is a good thing or not. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#81: Manifestos, again May 21, 2017

Yes, again. Ol, Dave and Arabella summon some enthusiasm for yet another election and pick out the manifesti-babble from the manifesti-chaff. Fracking, coffee cups, expanding Heathrow and cherishing the oil industry: it's all here. There's also cheery news from France, and we find out which food company is idiotically unrecyclable. All this, and there's even time for an ELECTION QUIZ. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#80: Fox Hunting May 14, 2017

FOXES BEWARE! Your days of not being chased by dogs and men on horses in red coats might be numbered, according to that nice Mrs May. But is fox death really a vote winner? Has the ban actually stopped any hunting? And was the law an accident in the first place? All this, plus ANOTHER way climate change has found to nark things up, this time by unlocking the ills of the distant past. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish. Hooray!

#79: Flying May 07, 2017

If YOU take a flight, are you a planet-wrecking bastard? Are some bastards more hypocritical bastards than others? And why aren't politicians talking about Heathrow any more? We chat to brainy aviation campaigner Leo Murray, where we also learn things about Richard Branson's coconuts. We've also time for a trip back to the early 80s for a warning about climate change that everyone ignored - and a chuckle at the Government's latest telling off about stinky air. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud, and all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#78: Shell knew Apr 23, 2017

A sensational report claims oil giant Shell took part in a vast bribery scheme that robbed the Nigerian people of over a billion dollars. We talk to Barnaby Pace of Global Witness to hear how the scandal was uncovered. Read the jaw-dropping report at www.globalwitness.org/shellknew Also this week, the UK Govt promoting planetary destruction and Chris Packham in the clink. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud, and all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#77: Kate Raworth meets Sustainababble Apr 16, 2017

What's wrong with economics? EVERYTHING. That's what Dave & Ol found out when they interviewed the brainy & bags of fun 'renegade economist', Kate Raworth. Kate explained that saving the planet means thinking like a doughnut, that the 21st century needs a new economics, sharpish, and that maybe books can save the world after all. Her new book, 'Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist' is out now. Kate's website is http://www.kateraworth.com, she's on twitter @kateraworth, or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/doughnuteconomics. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud, and all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#76: Dirty Diesel Apr 10, 2017

Everyone's being mean about diesel cars all of a sudden. Why? Weren't they supposed to be better for the planet? And why was Ol on the telly wearing a filthy tie? Also this week, massive Inhofery from a "think" tank in America, and Donald doing what Donald does. Sustainababble is your weekly podcast about the environment, with jokes. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud, and all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#75: Stanley Johnson meets Sustainababble Apr 02, 2017

Writer, politician, former Eurocrat, lifelong environmentalist, fearsome Remainer - oh yeah, and he's also Boris's dad. Dave and Ol chat all things Brexit with Stanley Johnson. Stanley tells us all about his hopes and (mostly) fears for the environment after Brexit, stands up for the great British newt, and tells us what he can see at the bottom of his garden. Sustainababble is your weekly podcast about the environment, with jokes. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Acast, Soundcloud, and all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

#74: Rules (& Squirrels) Feb 26, 2017

A bad time to be either a piece of green law and/or a grey squirrel. What's with all the war? We investigate. Plus, some Trump nepotism that may yet save us all from certain doom. And Ol orders a curry. Sustainababble is your weekly podcast about the environment, with jokes. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble (Apologies for the slightly sub-par sound quality on this episode. It's Dave's fault.)

#73: Geoengineering Feb 19, 2017

Mirrors in space? Artificial volcanos? Refreezing the Arctic?! Can we? Will we? SHOULD we? Dave & Ol embark on a terrifying interview with geoengineering expert, Duncan McLaren. We've also got some Babble from an unholy Caledonian alliance, and an Anti-Inhofe Inhofe from Down Under. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#72: Wasps Feb 12, 2017

Climate change = more wasps. Is it time we all stopped freaking out and started to love the little blighters? Plus, Microsoft Excel has a plan for the nation's newts - and clean coal oxymoronicism from our orange friend over the pond. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#71: Amazon Reef Feb 06, 2017

An ENORMOUS coral reef has been discovered hiding near the Amazon and - in a welcome development - it's not dead yet. We talk to Greenpeace's Sara Ayech to find out all about it. Also this week, spectacular eco-guff from a Cornwall councillor and we impose a Babble ban on Small Hands Orange Face. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#70: The Resistance Jan 29, 2017

Pipelines approved, climate plans deleted, environmental workers silenced. It’s a tad bleak in Trumpsylvania. But vast marches and spikey twitter protests are kicking off in response. We ask: do they make the slightest difference? Also this week, some truly spectacular Robin Hood themed fracking Babble. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#69: Northern Ireland Jan 22, 2017

What? Has a renewable energy scheme REALLY just brought down the Northern Ireland government? We interview Belfast's Niall Bakewell to find out more, learning that the nation is very far from as green and pretty as it looks on Google Maps. In other news, there's some immediate Babble from the new President of the Free World. And the data's in on climate for 2016, and it's bloody terrifying. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#68: Sustainabauble Dec 18, 2016

Hark! Sleigh bells! That can only mean one thing: FESTIVE ECO-GUFF! Dave and Ol stuff your stocking to the brim with seasonal blether, and some hypocrisy of the highest order. Also this week, the magical scarpering Transport Minister; the oil baron in charge of the USA's climate talking; and Ol's head is all big because he's done a good thing. All this, and there's still time for a terrifying prediction about what 2016 may still have in store. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#67: Standing Rock Dec 11, 2016

Nuff respect to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of North Dakota: they faced down the Man, his water cannons, and his plan to hoik a massive oil pipeline under their lake. But does the Donald make it only a temporary reprieve? In other news, several hundred acres of snow geese picked a bad place to stop off for some chips. And can Ol say three interesting facts in just 30 seconds? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#66: The Arctic Dec 05, 2016

20 degrees warmer than normal. Bugger all sea ice. WTF is going on in the Arctic? We interview clever person Dr Mark Brandon to find out. Also this week, heroic old people defending trees in Sheffield and a much deserved promotion for that nice Mr Inhofe. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#65: Babies Nov 28, 2016

Are children an unjustifiable burden on the planet, as well as noisy and financially ruinous? And why on earth are Ol and Dave talking about them all of a sudden? Also this week, the triumphant return of Boaty McBoatface and a new section dedicated to that nice Mr Trump. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#64: President Trump Nov 20, 2016

The world's most notorious climate denier is about to become the most world's most powerful man. AAARGH! Ol and Dave, back from their hols, are properly freaking out. Is it time to put away the placards and give up? Has America just doomed the planet? They interview American climate campaigner Janet Redman (@janetredman_DC) in search for some reasons to be even slightly cheerful. And, surprisingly, they actually find some. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#63: The Ethical Carnivore Sep 25, 2016

Is it only ethical to eat meat you kill yourself? We interview author and journalist Louise Gray, who spent a year doing just that. We find out what it's really like inside an abattoir, how likely you are to be a psychopath if you work there, and whether the thrill of the hunt is a real thing. And we ask: should everyone be prepared to kill animals if they want to eat meat? Louise's book, 'The Ethical Carnivore', is out now. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#62: State of Nature Sep 18, 2016

The UK's nature is in a state, say the country's biggest green charities, and they're blaming the farmers. Is that fair? Have farmers REALLY got beef with the hedgehogs and the bunny rabbits? Why? And should they have all their subsidies taken away? Plus, we interview superstar investigative journalist Kyla Mandel from Desmog UK about ExxonMobil's sneaky lobbying against electric cars. And is Dave going to have to eat grass until he's sick? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#61: Blackouts Sep 11, 2016

Is running the country on renewables REALLY 'fanciful nonsense' that'll make all the lights go out? How likely are blackouts? What causes them? And is YOUR fridge downloading nudey pictures when you're not looking? We talk to an energy expert with a large brain, Alasdair Cameron, to find out. Also, there's some major babble from burbling miners in Druridge Bay - and as the world's two biggest polluters ratify the Paris Agreement, why are there STILL so many reasons to be glum? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#60: Amy Liptrot meets Sustainababble Sep 04, 2016

Ol and Dave chat to Amy Liptrot about The Outrun, Amy's phenomenally successful debut book in which she discovers how the wild can restore life and renew hope. Recently out in paperback, The Outrun is this year's winner of the Wainwright prize for UK nature and travel writing, and Waterstones' September 2016 non-fiction book of the month. More importantly, it's bloody amazing, and you should buy it and read it. Photo of Amy Liptrot (c) The Orcadian. Songs featured in this week's episode include: Birdwoman by Poppy Ackroyd; The Silver Birch by The Magnetic North; Wasting My Young Years by London Grammar; The Creelman by Orkney Fiddle Gathering; Hyperballad by Björk; Wild is the Wind by David Bowie. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#59: Microbeads Aug 28, 2016

Very big numbers of iddybiddy bits of plastic in the sea, and it's all the fault of YOUR face scrubs. Should we ban microbeads? Who thought they were a good idea in the first place? And what's it all got to do with Dave's jam tarts? All this, and WOMBATS FIGHT BACK - not before time, by the sound of it. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#58: Biodiversity offsetting Aug 22, 2016

Bio-what? Good question. We find out, via mining in the article circle and the age old question "how many chaffinches equals one owl?" Also this week, bees related babble, a model Inhofe, and Arabella pronouncing a complicated word that Dave cannot. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#57: Grouse Shooting Aug 15, 2016

There's been a lot of squabbling about grouse shooting with Ian Botham and Chris Packham taking, er, shots at each other. Why? Can hunting animals really be good for conservation? We've got a revolutionary American township that's changing the law to stop the frackers, and we find out when a bribe isn't a bribe really. All this, and Dave's got a fact so good it gets its own feature. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#56: Mrs May Gets Busy Aug 07, 2016

We're back, and EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT. Where's Osborne gone? Who put Boris in charge of Foreign? And can we have our climate change department back please? Mrs May's been hard at work doing stuff, including irking the Chinese by delaying the new Hinkley nuclear plant. We ask: oh heavens, is that wise? All this, and there's an Olympic-sized bit of babble, and Arabella speaks in tongues. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#55: Air Jul 03, 2016

It's 60 years since the UK's Clean Air Act. Hooray! So why are so many people still dying from air pollution? Ol knows stuff, so Dave grills him. Not literally. There's an attempt to make sad pigs happy, and heavens-to-betsy, has the UK done something good on climate change? All this, and we laugh our knackers off at Boris Johnson. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#54: Brexit Jun 26, 2016

Wait, what? We left? WE ACTUALLY SODDING LEFT? Jesus wept. Brexit, then. Not only an ugly word, but, it turns out, an exceptionally ugly reality. We rake over the ashes of political and economic union to see if there's a glimmer of hope for the environment. Don't hold your breath. Also, Dave considers doing something VERY bad to old people. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#53: Fish Jun 19, 2016

Is the EU killing the UK fishing industry? Is Nigel Farage a fisherman's friend? And what the hell has Bob Geldof got to do with it? Dave and Ol interview piscine expert, Griffin Carpenter, to sift the facts from the fish-ction. They also discuss how to persuade an oil-fearing giraffe to move across a river, and salute naughty Volkswagen for giving up on dirty diesel. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#52: Football Jun 12, 2016

Everybody's going football-crazy, football-mad. But will the planet make it out of the group stages? We look at some spectacular eco-guff from UEFA and ask whether the beautiful game has a dirty underbelly. We heap praise on a cricketer standing up to the creamery, and Ol gets his head around a series of very large numbers. All this, and why have Norway banned cars? And what's sebum? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#51: Tigers Apr 17, 2016

There are a few more wild tigers than the last time we checked, but Dave and Ol are finding it hard to be cheerful. This week, they ask: is it curtains for the big cat? There's pricey whale sick and an octopus on the lam. And we interrupt Arabella to advise you that perhaps fracking doesn't mean what you thought it meant. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#50: Steel Apr 10, 2016

Is it steel vs the planet? Is the ongoing the crisis in UK steel REALLY all the fault of us tree-huggers? And should - and could - the Government do more? We investigate. In other news, why are the UK & USA playing nuclear waste tennis? And why is that wild boar glowing in the dark? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#49: Great Barrier Reef Apr 03, 2016

Australia's breathtaking natural wonder is currently experiencing more devastating bleaching than the Romanian footie team at World Cup '98. We speak to Professor David Suggett from down under to find out why. Also this week, bad times to be a chicken. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#48: Palm Oil Mar 27, 2016

It's Easter! But as you chow down on your choccy eggs, how "sustainable" is the palm oil that's almost certainly used? Are YOU killing orang-utans? Dave and Ol investigate. Another very big name divests from oil and has a pleasing pop at Exxon in the process, and a polar research boat is all set to be named something very silly indeed. All this, and if it wasn't already a bad enough time to be an ash tree, here comes some invading beastly beetles to finish them off. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#47: Robots Mar 21, 2016

Artificial Intelligence is here, and it's freakin' terrifying. Will the machines boot us off the planet for being the cause of all its problems, or are robots in fact the key to fixing climate change? Also this week, coffee cup babble, an all too familiar Inhofe, and a delicious lump of cheer from the newly liberated Tate museums. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#46: Dale Vince meets Sustainababble Mar 06, 2016

In the early 1990s Dale Vince was a New Age traveller living on a hill in Stroud. Now he is boss of the UK’s best known green energy firm, Ecotricity, which is worth £100m, and runs the world’s only all-vegan football club. Dave and Ol went to Stroud to interview surely the only man on the planet who's convinced footballers to eat tofu. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#45: Heathrow 13 Feb 28, 2016

Hot off the dock at Willesden Magistrates' Court, we interview Danni Paffard, one of 13 activists found guilty of - but not, it turns out, sent down for - aggravated trespass for occupying Heathrow's north runway last year. Also this week, we aggressively trespass on some badger babble, the pigs want their money back, and a Peruvian German has made a terrible mess of the Amazon. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#44: Nuclear Feb 21, 2016

Dave and Ol investigate nuclear power: it costs a fortune, but do we still need it to save the planet? And what have didgeridoos, cups of tea, and radioactive moggies got to do with it? There's some self-sustaining babble about beavers and some praise for apple-faced young Nordics. And what's this about councils being told they have to continue to invest in stinky fuels, even if they don't want to any more? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#43: Love Feb 15, 2016

It's Valentine's Day, so everyone's throwing money at card shops and calling it romance. But what does it mean for the planet? Should we give up buying roses? Will anyone remember to give lil' old Earth a cuddle? There's inhofery from the oil company we all love to hate, filthy babble from India, and yet another A-lister giving it to the PM. Lovely. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#42: Europe Feb 07, 2016

Lucky Brits will soon be asked if they want IN or OUT of the EU. What should you do if you love the planet? Ol and Dave grill an EU expert, Sam Lowe. We gawp at the UK Government pushing Chinese Weetabix onto the world, ask whether it can ever be OK to fly return to Germany just to make a point about train fares, and send a very cross message to Card Factory. All this, and what on Earth is happening to oil company profits? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble (special nod to the Don Bradmans, and their track 'Bill Oddie's Body')

#41: Whales Jan 31, 2016

They're big, wet and lovely. Whether they're washing up on our beaches or getting harpooned by naughty Japanese people, everyone's talking about whales - and so are we. This week Ol and Dave wonder why it is people get so gooey about whales, and dig into exactly how the heck Japan keeps getting away with killing and eating so many of them in the name of 'science'. All this, and the world's sexiest President finds himself in Babble Corner - twice. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#40: Space Jan 25, 2016

With Tim Peake, Star Wars, and NEW ACTUAL PLANETS dominating the news, we ponder why everyone's so gooey about space. And shouldn't the human race get its own house in order before sodding off to Mars? Leonardo DiCaprio gets an icecream, Dave gets irate about a mouse, and an exceptionally unlikely recipient gets this week's babble award. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#39: Planet Earth is Blue Jan 17, 2016

Dave's back from his holidays to find out David Bowie has died, the UK's lost killer whales it didn't even know it had, and the bloke in charge of flood prevention went on holiday by mistake. Lawks. There's a load of stinky air, fossil fuel barons suing Barack Obama, and the weirdest thing Donald Trump has done yet. And with Bowie-puns agogo, who is this week's - ahem - Starman? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#38: Tony Juniper meets Sustainababble Jan 03, 2016

To kick off 2016 we serve up an interview with writer, environmentalist and campaigner extraordinaire Tony Juniper. Dave and Ol ask if the recent Paris deal is much cop, whether sticking a price tag on nature is a good idea, and what Tony thinks 2016 will hold for the planet. Enjoy! Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#37: Technology Dec 27, 2015

Can technology save the planet? Dave and Ol interview tech journalist, podcast host & stand-up comic Kirsty Styles. We ask: do politicians have the remotest clue about technology? How do you inspire the people building dating apps to put their efforts into battling climate change? And is VHS a sexual disease? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#36: Best of 2015 Dec 21, 2015

A bumper festive edition! Grab a vol-au-vent, hijack the sherry and let Ol and Dave take you on a sleigh ride through the best bits of babble from 2015. What will be crowned sustainababble of the year? Who's the greatest #Inhofe of them all? And why does Ol hate donkeys? All this and much, much more in your end-of-year babble-sack of joy. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#35: Kindergarten COP21 Dec 13, 2015

Two big things happened in Paris last week. 1) Arnold Schwarzenegger (big) came to town, and took some kick-ass to climate deniers. 2) And then: crikey! - A climate deal happened! But is it any (kindergarten) cop? Will Arnie need to smash any more heads? Dave and a very bleary Ol investigate. There's anger from a Catholic, horticulture from Kim Jong-un, weasel words on Heathrow expansion, and a massive food company being caught a-babblin'. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#34: Billionaires Dec 07, 2015

As Mark Zuckerberg doles out his billions and Bill Gates takes centre-stage on climate change, we ask: will the ultra-rich save the planet? Can they? Should they? We've some spoon-faced cheek from the Prime Minister, and Jezza's brother's making a doofus of himself. Plus, a bloke who needs to stump up his 5p and get a new plastic bag sharpish, and some Schadenfreude in the direction of Volkswagen. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#33: The Climate March Nov 30, 2015

Grab a megaphone, neck a can of cider, and scribble weak puns on a bed sheet. It's march time! But hang on. Does marching through London make a blind bit of difference to the climate? We toddle along with a microphone to find out. Also this week: more coal cronies, cross carbon-capturers, and cooing over Caroline. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#32: France Nov 22, 2015

Listen very carefully, we will say zis only once: Ol and Dave are having a French-themed special. The horrific attacks in Paris have overshadowed the upcoming climate change talks. What's at stake from the climate COP21, and will clampdowns on protest affect the outcome? There's a ban on French lions and an airport that's very proud of its green credentials. All this, and Dave's finally won his prediction - or was there something unexpected in Amber Rudd's big energy speech after all? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

Extra: Sustainababble on the Weekly Economics Podcast Nov 21, 2015

Here's a bit of bonus Babble for you. Ol and Dave were chuffed and all agog to be invited to talk with Kirsty on the Weekly Economics Podcast. What's the intersection between economics and the planet? Does this Government get it? If not, why not? And what does it all mean for the climate talks in Paris? All of this while trying not to say anything *too* rude about politicians. To subscribe to the Weekly Economics Podcast and listen to back episodes, visit http://www.neweconomics.org/projects/entry/weekly-economics-podcast.

#31: Protest Nov 15, 2015

Protest. What's the point? Far better to sit down, wear a suit and be reasonable. We're not so sure, so we delve into recent green victories and ask: did angry hippies make any difference at all? Plus, the bosses of India and the UK are caught babbling like there's no tomorrow and Dave devours a 'fish swim bladder' live on air. Yuck. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble (Music from today's show: 'Let’s Get It On' by Marvin Gaye; The Muppets Theme Song; 'Erotica' by Madonna; 'Star of County Down' by Eddie Matthews)

#30: America Nov 08, 2015

Yee-Haw! Mega news from across the pond as Obama rules out tar sand pipeline, Keystone XL. Is this as momentous a moment in the climate fight as it seems? Won't Donald Trump just undo it all anyway? And is Obama really as green as all that? Ol's off with man-flu, so Dave interviews David Turnbull from US climate campaigners Oil Change International. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble (Music from today's show: 'Pipeline' by Dick Dale; 'Atmosphere' by Russ Abbott.)

#29: Meat Nov 01, 2015

Can a bacon butty really be as bad for you as smoking? Is meat just a no no if you're keen on the planet? Food and farming expert Vicki Hird joins us to answer these questions and more. Also this week, bees, Belgium and a bit of bother for Shell. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#28: Back To The Future! Oct 25, 2015

Great Scott! The future is actually here - so why are we still building stoopid concrete jungles and mega pricey nuclear power stations? Also this week Shell turn out to be vegan lovers and McDonalds are the planet's unlikely saviours. And Donald Trump. There's always Donald Trump. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#27: China Oct 18, 2015

Chinese Premier Xi Jinping is in the UK being preened at by David Cameron & co. We turn our Babble-lens onto China: do all hopes for saving the planet rest on its mighty shoulders? And is it environmental hero or villain? Meanwhile, an Alaskan governor wants to drill oil to pay for climate damages - and the multi-decadal wickedness of ExxonMobil is laid bare. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#26: Coal Oct 11, 2015

Yucky, yucky coal. Cheap and abundant, but kryptonite for hippies (and any poor soul who mines the stuff). Why? Other big questions this week: - why are all the animals having such a great time at Chernobyl? - are YOU accidentally eating TURTLE for tea? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#25: Naughty Volkswagen Oct 04, 2015

Such terrible behaviour! Ol and Dave spank the bottom of Volkswagen for fiddling emissions tests. But how bad is it *really*? Who should care? And is it the tip of the fume-y iceberg? There's a plastic bag charge with a trillion exemptions and a nice Canadian in a suit. Also: let's all laugh at Shell! Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#24: Chris Packham meets Sustainababble Sep 27, 2015

We only went to interview Chris Packham - star of Springwatch, Autumnwatch & The Really Wild Show! And his dogs. In our exclusive natter, we ask Chris whether there's any room for 'tradition' when it comes to protecting wildlife. We find out what he thinks about rotters who kill animals for fun, and discuss whether poor ol' pandas are indeed up an evolutionary creek without a paddle. Chris even finds time to tell us what he thinks about fracking. And, we ask him what his favourite environmental song is - or are they all indeed rubbish? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#23b: Dr Karl meets Sustainababble Sep 22, 2015

Blimey! Australia's legendary Dr Karl Kruszelnicki talks exclusively to Ol and Dave. Is climate change real? Is it going to be bad? What should we do about it? And whose fault is it that we're not doing enough? All this and some scientific explanations of how solar power works, and why marital relations can make you temporarily deaf. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#23a: Tony Abbott Schadenfreude Special Sep 20, 2015

Tony Abbott has gone! TONY ABBOTT HAS GONE! A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA-HA-HA! Ol and Dave bask. Episode 23b - an exclusive interview with Australia's @doctorkarl - follows later in the week. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#22: Refugees Sep 13, 2015

As the refugee crisis continues to mount, Ol and Dave examine claims from politicians that climate change will only make things worse - are they right? In other news, there's Vivienne Westwood gallivanting around in a tank, some Babble about trees, and an Inhofe we can all get behind. And Paul McCartney's Earth song sickens us to our very stomachs. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft and Dream Themes. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#21: So Long, Solar Aug 30, 2015

Bad scenes in the sunshine business as the UK Government sets fire to the solar industry. Ol & Dave are righteously angry about it. Plus, some avian mistaken identity from the Antipodes, and some rather unpalatable Schadenfreude for the Prime Minister. Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#20: Religion Aug 24, 2015

First the Pope, now 1.6bn Muslims. Religion is going ECO nuts. Can faith save the planet? Does it make a blind bit of difference? Are Ol & Dave going to hell? Sustainababble is your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#19: Happy Happy Joy Joy Aug 16, 2015

Panic not! We're back! And everything's gone rubbish! Donald Trump and Tony Abbott are happening. And the new UK Government is setting fire to everything green. How on earth do we stay optimistic? We interview professional climate optimist, Alice Bell, and get her top tips for not giving up and going home. This is the first episode of season two of Sustainababble - your weekly comedy podcast about politics, prattle and the planet. Out Mondays. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

Extra: Sustainababble Live! Jun 21, 2015

Here's an extra treat. Sustainababble Live! Caution - contains a few naughtier (than usual) words. We recently did a 15-minute set, live from the stage at the Hackney Attic. Thanks to Dave Pickering, Alice Bell & all at Stand Up Tragedy (@standup4tragedy / http://www.standuptragedy.co.uk) for having us! Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#18: Eurovision Special! May 18, 2015

It's Eurovision! And it's the last episode of Season 1 of Sustainababble! PARTY TIME! We're joined by songwriter Diego Brown (aka Adam) for a special BUMPER edition looking at green protest songs - why are they all rubbish? All that, and the usual slots: Australia being Inhofes, Boris being wiffly, and dodo news. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#17: It’s All Our Fault May 10, 2015

Well then. How did Ol's prediction that Ed Miliband would be prime minster get on? Pardon? Oh. So the Tories won. What does that mean for the environment, then? Is it REALLY all our fault? And is the performance of the Green Party a reason to be cheerful? Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#16: General Election May 03, 2015

There's an election on Thursday (I know, us neither!) so with chaotic coalitions round the corner we ponder what small parties can hope to achieve. Plus we confidently predict who will be the next PM. Also this week, babbly BMW, naughty Norway and climate-denying cheer. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#15: Nationalism Apr 26, 2015

What with St. George's Day and the rise of political nationalists, we look at whether nationalism is a good or a bad thing for the environment. Does loving your country mean you can't love the planet? There's Earth Day - 24 times more babbly than Earth Hour? Dr Tizer is this week's Inhofe, and the latest environmental / election news. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#14: Manifestos Apr 19, 2015

With an election brewing all the parties have their manifestos out, and BOY are they packed with Babble. This week, Dave & Ol devote pretty much an entire show - with Arabella on overtime - to picking through the egregious eco-guff being offered to the electorate by our politicians. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#13: Drought Apr 13, 2015

California’s drying up but Dave and Ol’s pun juices are flowing freely. The results aren’t pretty. Plus, aviation industry 'babble, undeterred seals, and annoyingly time-sensitive predictions. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#12: Leaders’ debates Apr 05, 2015

Why didn't the leaders' debates mention the environment at all? Do politicians not care? Do WE not care? Also, grim news for fans of an Arctic not being covered in oil, a climate change minister behaving badly, and a butterfly that looks like a cat. And Arabella's back! Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#11: Earth Hour Mar 29, 2015

Earth Hour, WWF's epic switch-off-yer-lights-athon, is a Very Good Thing, right? Well, maybe not… Also this week, BP's political donations smell as bad as you'd expect and Dave adds his customary cloud to apparently sunny news from Costa Rica. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#10: Death to Pandas Mar 22, 2015

This week, cute fluffy animals v the rest - are people only interested in pointless pandas and the rest of the charismatic megafauna? Plus, is a teeny island in the middle of nowhere really the UK's biggest conservation success story - and has the Chancellor's post-election Budget got *anything* good to say for itself? Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#9: Houses Mar 16, 2015

This week Ol's feeling mopey about the misery of trying to buy a flat in London. Shouldn't we just build lots of new houses everywhere? Also, celebrity buffoon will.i.am's been at the babble-aid, teaming up with Coca-Cola & Harrods to sell recycled backpacks that cost... oh, just wait till Arabella tells you how much. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#8: Politicians Mar 09, 2015

Our first ever guest! Political campaigner extraordinaire and squirrel nemesis Martyn Williams reveals secrets from elections past and explains why we should be pleased that the planet's problems are getting worse. There's also girl news from Exxon, snowballs in the senate, and a whole new meaning to the phrase 'dirty power'. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#7: THAT interview… Mar 02, 2015

Green party leader Natalie Bennett’s "excruciating" interview hit the headlines this week. For more auspicious reasons, so did president Obama and his Keystone veto. But are we putting too much stock in the actions of our leaders? Can the planet ever be saved by powerful individuals? Also this week, vaporising birds, burger tossing scientists, and a star turn from Ol’s five year old niece. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#6: Top Gear Feb 23, 2015

Top Gear petrol head Jeremy Clarkson has made greenie-goading something of an artform. But this week we detect mellowing in his menace, and wonder whether fellow tofu terrorisers Andrew Neil and James Delingpole perhaps hate hippies less than everyone assumes. There’s also a war on tiny fish, a Government plan to save the economy by “delivering cold” to homes, and shocking prediction news. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble

#5: Divestment Feb 16, 2015

Like Barry White puffing cigars on a bed of straw, this week’s episode is dangerously sexy. For your aural pleasure we undress #divestment, the steaming hot fossil fuel finance campaign, while Dave is decidedly blue about buses as a Government transport speech gets critiqued. We ponder if the weekend’s climate coo-ing by Cam, Mili & Clegg is the good news it appears, and take aim at a rich American who’s done a cartoon about breaking up with fossil fuels. And for some reason the words “Boris Johnson” and “testicle” appear in close proximity. Maybe sexy isn’t the word? All this, and there’s still time to go weak at the knees for our first listener email! Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble.

#4: The Oil Price Feb 08, 2015

In this week's episode Dave and Ollie talk about the oil price, despite not really wanting to and finding it all very complicated and difficult. Are lower oil prices bad or good for climate change? Does anyone really know? Anyone? In mammal news, they've got door-to-door squirrel deliveries and a disagreement about beavers. And what's this about the curious incident of the Government paying a company that makes and sells LED lightbulbs to start using LED lightbulbs? All this, and they find time to come over all Patrick Moore, pondering inexpertly whether climate change is being caused by supernovae (clue: it isn't). Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon.

#3: Facts v Fiction Feb 02, 2015

Sustainababble 3 then, and steam our underparts if it isn't a cracker. Dave and Ollie get reflective about the extent to which it's OK for people - in particular Americans - to treat scientific fact as an article of faith. While 'belief' in climate change is on the rise in the UK, what excuses can be found for fully half of the American public to think it's a wicked fantasy? They get their teeth into 'natural capital' - whatever the hell that means. And revel in the rise and rise of solar, which makes the Chancellor's underhand love-in with the frackers all the more galling. All this, and time to see how Ollie's prediction of a telling off for Cuadrilla went. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and here on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon.

#2: Frack! Frack! Frack! Jan 26, 2015

In our second episode, we drill into the controversial world of fracking. What is it? Why don't people like it? What's going on in Lancashire? And does the UK's biggest fracking firm sound like an evil lizard on purpose? There's talk of world leaders quaffing sturgeon while talking about how important it is not to wipe out endangered species, and momentary cheerfulness in the direction of the boss of the free world. And, is it really good enough to find climate science so complicated you rig up your own climate model on Microsoft Excel and get the Daily Mail to write about it? All this, and Dave leaning over Ollie whispering sweet frackings, all night. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don’t really know what’s going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and here on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon.

#1: We’re going to need a bigger swimming pool Jan 19, 2015

Sustainababble is go! In this debut episode, Dave and Ol get their head around whether the Earth's just a big swimming pool that we're stuffing full of crocodiles - and whether a controversial economist is right to say that it's fine to swap polar bears for larvae. And does the UK Government really think that economic growth is more important than the planet? All this and yet some reasons to remain cheerful, with clean energy investment on the up. Sustainababble is a weekly podcast for and by greeny types who don't really know what's going on. It comes out every Monday. Music by Dicky Moore from Bearcraft. Available on iTunes*, Stitcher*, Soundcloud, and here on the sustainababble website. Visit us at @thebabblewagon. * coming very soon. promise.

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