Sustainababble

Latest Episodes:

#174: No More Cars May 25, 2020

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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

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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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

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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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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.

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