I have a stake, or at least a pastry, in the story of the failed café chain Patisserie Valerie. In the early 1980's I was a wide-eyed student in Central London, having wandered in from the provinces (Essex). Soho was a short walk from the college and at its heart,...
Initiatives
Economic prospects for 2019: New Weather and the FT survey
Each year the Financial Times newspaper investigates the UK’s upcoming economic prospects with a survey of analysts. New Weather took part. Last year, says the paper, the survey’s predictions proved highly accurate. For most the uncertainty of Brexit now clouds many...
Bill McGuire joins New Weather and issues a major climate warning
The New Weather Institute welcomes Bill McGuire, the world leading academic authority on climate hazards to its team. Bill has been writing for New Weather for many months, and now he will be even more involved with our work on a rapid transition to a fair economy...
Smog Day fell as pollution rose & one of Europe’s worst air quality countries holds climate talks
The possibility of rapid transition comes from accepting how much we are a part of nature and its cycles argue Nick Robins and Andrew Simms and marking Smog Day is one way to reconnect On 5th December 1952, a great smog enveloped London, England, killing thousands,...
The Rapid Transition Alliance – evidence-based hope in a warming world
As scientists call for rapid, far reaching action to prevent climate breakdown, and warn that time is running out, a new, unique international initiative - the Rapid Transition Alliance - is launching to reveal the possibilities and our hidden capacities for making...
The hills are alive with the sound of progress
Lindsay Mackie writes about how a formerly poor, marginal corner of Austria made the transition to be a thriving green economy The Vorarlberg region of Austria didn’t start off with many of the advantages which have made other places rich in the modern world. No...
Smoking, drink-driving… is climate the next big behaviour change challenge?
A new report says climate change is a public health crisis needing behaviour change similar to smoking, drink driving or HIV/AIDS. Efforts to change public behaviour to address climate change must learn from the great campaigns of previous decades on smoking, drink...
The BBC admits it got climate wrong, but it’s yet to get it right
The BBC belatedly admitted mistakes over its reporting of global warming after public pressure and official censure. but the reporting of climate change is still inadequate argue Prof Bill McGuire and Andrew Simms What did it take for the BBC to admit that its...
Renewable energy at all hours, year round, globally? The models now say ‘Yes’!
There is no shortage of evidence for humanity’s environmental crises. Data from a global catalogue of recent extreme weather events warns of a climate emergency. But is there also evidence for optimism? Paul Allen, project leader for the Zero Carbon Britain...
Leaking water, draining finance: the case for putting water in public hands
In the middle of a heatwave and drought, it’s not just the leakage allowed by private water companies (as much as people actually use), but the money they drain from a vital piece of our national infrastructure that’s the problem, writes Miriam Stewart, from the...