Climate change
The astonishing resilience of my beach paradise
Malindi I could measure my whole life in the summers I’ve spent on the beach in front of our…
Contraception is the answer to climate change
When last week’s IPCC report warned that the human race may soon have trouble feeding itself, my reaction was: duh.…
Pure hagiography – the BBC’s Extinction Rebellion: Last Chance To Save The World?
I’m beginning to feel like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers: almost the last person on Earth who…
The end is nigh: the rise of middle-class apocalypticism
There’s a lot of anger about — and it’s not pleasant. But at least it means people are engaged as…
For a passionate ecologist, Barry Lopez burns a lot of oil
It is more than a generation since the appearance of Barry Lopez’s classic Arctic Dreams. That book’s effortless integration of…
Oodles of fun – but unfair on climate sceptics: Kill Climate Deniers reviewed
Kill Climate Deniers is a provocative satire by Australian theatre-activist David Finnigan. The title sounds misanthropic and faintly deranged but…
Why we should listen to elephants
Laikipia, Kenya ‘An elephant has fallen over,’ said the man running up to me. My first thought was that…
How dangerous are barbecues?
Spires on fire Paris was lucky not to lose its medieval cathedral entirely, a fate which London suffered in 1666…
Why has Frankie Boyle gone so soft?
‘I spend a lot of time helping teenagers who’ve been sexually abused…’ — beat — ‘…find their way out of…
How climate change led to capitalism
At a dinner recently I was told the story of a Canadian billionaire (now defined in banking circles as someone…
If you liked Triumph of the Will, you’ll love Our Planet
If you liked Triumph of the Will, you’ll love this latest masterpiece of the genre: Our Planet. The Netflix nature…
Letters: the history of centrist parties does not bode well for the ‘breakaway seven’
The breakaway seven Sir: ‘In both parties there are fools at one end and crackpots at the other, but the…
Here in freezing Chicago we’re secretly rooting for global warming
One of the few pleasures of advancing age is that, no matter how awful some looming catastrophe may be, you…
No luxury has ever disappointed me as much as my wood-burning stove
When I first heard rumours that Michael Gove was planning to go round the country with his environmental Gestapo, ripping…
Dreaming of a white Christmas? Soon that’s all we’ll be able to do
I like a book where you don’t think you’re going to be interested in the subject, but then find it’s…
Ignore the global warming hysteria: hurricanes are not getting worse
When I land on the east coast of America, people tell me they’ve never met a Trump voter. When I…
Who hires the most stretch limos?
Global warnings How much time do we have to save the world from catastrophic climate change? 5 years (according to…
Why a Big Oil row tells us it’s time to stop fetishising experts
Something extraordinary and largely unreported has just happened in a court in San Francisco. A federal judge has said that…
The real reason for the fall of Rome? Climate change
Why did the Roman Empire collapse? It’s a question that’s been puzzling writers ever since Edward Gibbon wrote The History…
Notebook
I’m currently dwelling on past times. I have a film coming out based on the crazy events that took place…
Hostile climate
The subtitle of Al Gore’s new film is ‘Truth to Power’, which is supposed to give the impression of brave…
A brown coal plan that’s worse than Finkel?
The Victorian Government’s new Statement on Future Uses of Brown Coal, released earlier this month, is further proof that there…
Same old inconvenient drivel
Al Gore’s new film, An Inconvenient Sequel – Truth to Power, opens in Australia on August 10. What a pity.…
We didn’t have a real choice in the 1975 referendum. We do now
The comparison between the referendum questions — that asked in 1975 and the one which we shall be asked on 23…
The slow death of environmentalism
Would you describe yourself as an ‘environmentalist’? I would, mainly to annoy greenies, but also because it’s true. If your…
