Robert Macfarlane
@RobGMacfarlane
Books: Is A River Alive? (WIP) Underland, The Lost Words, The Old Ways, etc. | Films: River, Mountain, Upstream | Nature, climate, people | Prof @Cambridge_uni
ID:835252426265481216
https://linktr.ee/robmacfarlane 24-02-2017 22:17:51
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🧵Yes, that’s right! The budget for cleaning up the illegal landfill waste to #rescuehoadswood is £10 million. 😲
c£3m of this is landfill tax (pocketed by the criminals) and VAT is c£1m. This cost doesn’t include the value of irreplaceable ancient woodland! 💔🌳🦌🦋🐦 (1/6)
22 yrs ago, while writing Mountains of the Mind, I studied George Mallory's original letters home from Everest in 1921, '22 & '24, in Magdalene College's archive.
Now they've digitised/published them all.
Fascinating, moving documents.
Open access here: magdalene.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/to-r…
'Something very interesting is happening in the UK to do with nature...': terrific to see this John Harris piece abt the emergence of a 'new kind of radical landscape politics', from land access campaigns to the Rights of Rivers movement. Yes!
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
This is (l to r) Sam, Reuben & Denzel of Elmhurst School in London.
They've learned the Jackdaw Spell from The Lost Spells by heart & here they are rocking it in the woods.
Poetry, outdoor learning, smiles, dance!
Will you give them a shout, tell them how awesome they are?
‘“It is an enormous scandal that many…in the industry know about, but nobody wants to talk about,” said the whistleblower.’
Flow-trimming, equipment-fixing, sewage-sloughing: the deeper we dive, the dirtier & less accountable the UK water industry gets. theguardian.com/environment/20…
Many of us feel furious about the state of the UK's rivers––but also powerless.
Now King's Legal Clinic have launched a 130-pp toolkit for change.
Citizen science, FOIs, reporting, legal remedies: it's all here.
It's brilliant.
Read it, share it, fight back!
kcl.ac.uk/legal-clinic/a…
'Here the delicate calls of marsh tits are becoming harder to find, as populations plummet. The story from this wood is being played out nationally, as human noise gets louder & the sounds of nature vanish.'
On the thinning & dimming of birdsong. Familiar?
theguardian.com/environment/20…
Publication day for Another England, by the always-inspirational Caroline Lucas — a book that tells another story about England & Englishness. I read it in proof: it’s brilliant. It delves deep & ranges wide, and re-thinks land, belonging & place in vital, urgent ways.
“This is a death potion for the river…”.
Steve Backshall has commissioned private analysis of water from the Thames, results are in & they are horrifying.
“Treat the water as though it is a biohazard.”
Further analysis & rage from Steve below & on Instagram (@ backshall.steve)
The New School of the Anthropocene is a radical, trans-disciplinary, low-fee experiment in higher ed.
I teach there & find it a true convivium.
Applications are now open for 24-25; virtual/in-person.
Learn more about New School of the Anthropocene's ethos & apply here: nsota.org/intro
'A shy young girl, hiding her face behind her friend, said hesitantly––'the river has the right to sing'.'
A beautiful short Shrishtee Bajpai essay on river-rights & river-guardianship in the Ladakh region.
Here: vikalpsangam.org/article/walkin…
Government announces a £35m package to halt & reverse the slow death of the River Wye.
Much to welcome here, but as charles watson notes: 'There's a thundering silence on critically important actions such as banning new intensive livestock production units'.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
Weekend wonder for your ears: Cosmo Sheldrake's second studio album is out TODAY.
It's called Eye To The Ear, and it is sheer-pure straight-up music-magic.
Lichen, ocean, swallows, clouds––it's all here.
And 'Interdimensional' is a stone-cold classic.
found.ee/eyetotheear
200 yrs ago, William Blake etched these images of the 'River Spirits' of Albion (presently on display Fitzwilliam Museum).
The lower spirit swims gloriously free, frilled & finned.
The uppermost is, prophetically, today's river-spirit; a dying swan-being, a slump-necked naiad.