Brayley Small

On my radar: climate change, sustainable living, inequality, politics, pesticides, corporate tax avoidance, electoral reform, #StopFundingHate

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

Dr Charlie Gardner, conservation scientist at the university of Kent, explaining that the U.K. government has no plan to protect us from the coming food crisis that even farmers are now warning about. Largely ignored by media also.
@andyburnham @UKLabour @yvettecoopwr @edballs @AngelaRayner @bphillipsonMP @bbcnews @skynews @lbc @itvnews @itn @campbellclaret #wildfires #climatechange

[Roger Hallam @RogerHallamCS21]

1/2. The most important sentence of our time

"People don’t realise that we can’t make it get better again."

It never goes back into balance - that option is not longer available.
https://t.co/rZ8OCuK7Cs

You either have a revolution to stop it getting worse, or it gets worse and worse and worse. Sometimes you have limited options in life. There is no reverse option. We are not Gods. The elites fucked up and you thought it would all go away if you just tried to forget about it and keep watching Netflix.

Bad idea.

https://t.co/QQgRI8es8q

[Double Down News @DoubleDownNews]

I Questioned Israel: 48 Hours Later I Was Sacked @SangitaMyska https://t.co/VfoHJKr1aZ

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

🚨🔔Let’s be very clear.

SCIENTISTS ARE TELLING US CLIMATE CHANGE COULD THREATEN OUR ABILITY TO LIVE ON THIS PLANET.

That’s not what the media is conveying to its readers and viewers.

Demand the media platforms scientists and not just talking head journalists.

@bbcnews @skynews @itvnews @gmb @BBCr4today @bbc5live @DailyMailUK @thesun @thetimes @lbc @Daily_Express @Telegraph @talktv @gbnews #heat #heatwave #wildfires #hot #summer

[Stephen Barlow @SteB777]

As I keep trying to get across, the climate crisis, is not anthropogenic climate change, but the refusal of our political leadership to heed the science. That is why we have a full-blown climate and ecological emergency.

There has only ever been one effective solution to stopping anthropogenic climate change and that has been to rapidly phase out the burning of fossil fuels. This was known 40 years or more ago. It is not a new discovery. There were no uncertainties about this.

Likewise, the only solution to the allied biodiversity and ecological crisis, was to stop destroying natural habitat, overfishing the oceans etc.

But all this would have mean a change to business as usual, the unfettered pursuit of economic growth, and the pursuit of more personal wealth by the richest people in the world, billionaires etc. This is why our political leadership, have not appropriately acted, because billionaires and big corporations pay very well, for politicians to ignore what they are doing to us. It is an utterly corrupt system.

Just take climate change. If the world's governments had started progressive phasing out the burning of fossil fuels when the UNFCCC was signed in 1992, as was expected. There would be no climate emergency. It really is as simple as that.

Our political leadership deceived us, they conned us. They falsely claimed to be creating a transition away from fossil fuel burning. The term transition is rarely used now, as it is crystal clear that they never had any serious plans to phase out fossil fuel burning, they just wanted the public to believe that.

[All day Astronomy @forallcurious]

Put August 12 in your phone now. Genuinely.

Before sunrise, six planets spread across the sky. Afternoon, the eclipse. After dark, the Perseids Meteor shower.

Four events on one day, NASA says, and the new moon that same date keeps the sky dark enough to actually see the meteors.

You don't need a telescope for most of it. A field, a coat, and twenty minutes for your eyes to adjust.

[Amazing Physics @amazing_physics]

After traveling 9 years and covering 3 billion miles, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft got this shot.

The icy mountains of Pluto.

[Roger Hallam @RogerHallamCS21]

On BBC’s HARDtalk 5 years ago, I was slammed across the board for saying billions of lives were at risk. The liberal climate movements tried to refute and play down the existential risks. The last few months have shown ever more clearly that I was right.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

"My personal pride and joy." That's how Peter Mandelson described the Palantir deal he brokered.

The whole thing stinks. Kick Palantir out of our NHS, now.

[ECIU @ECIU_UK]

'Brutal' harvest could be worst on record

Dire forecast has sparked calls to factor domestic food production into the current debate about Britain's national security, as it currently relies on imports for 40% of all food consumed
https://t.co/ZjXhgIwRpw

[ECIU @ECIU_UK]

Revealed: major oil firms make $93bn profits amid war and climate crisis

Iran conflict windfall over three months reignites calls for companies ‘cashing in on human misery’ to pay for environmental damage
https://t.co/kbWz6Tmuej

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

GP Dr Veena Aggarwal @veena1992 speaking alongside Zack Polanksi on the climate crisis,

"The climate crisis is a health crisis. As a GP, I have been seeing firsthand the health impact of the recent heatwaves. Ambulances are so stretched, we couldn’t get an ambulance for a patient with sepsis or another one with very low oxygen levels because the ambulance service was completely overwhelmed."

"And indeed, the London Ambulance Service saw its busiest ever recorded day during the heatwave in June, on the 26th of June. That’s even busier than during the days at the height of the COVID pandemic emergency. We’re seeing people having more asthma attacks, having flare-ups of their chronic lung disease so extreme they need to be in hospital."

"More people having heart attacks, strokes, or having falls and collapsing due to the heat, especially those who are frail and more vulnerable. We’re seeing people having mental health crises which increase when there’s a heatwave, and lots of people’s kidney function worsening and needing to be hospitalised as a result."

"And this is an issue of inequalities, as the most vulnerable people, such as those who are elderly, people who have learning disabilities, those who are homeless or have pre-existing heart, lung and kidney disease, are getting very dehydrated and needing to be admitted to hospital."

"The hospitals are also completely overwhelmed. Many people are suffering from heat stroke, even just from being inside their houses, because our housing isn’t set up for these temperatures, and people are becoming lonely and isolated because they can’t leave their homes to go outside."

"And many activities are being cancelled. In addition, the NHS is not set up for these temperatures. GP surgeries and hospitals have seen failures of critical infrastructure for their IT, for their phones and for operating theatres."

"Operations have had to be cancelled due to this in hospitals and the buildings aren’t designed for the heat. And this is leading to both patients and staff suffering from illness as a result of this heat inside our buildings. The official data showed that an extra almost 3,000 deaths occurred within just one week in June during the heatwaves."

"And that’s almost double that which was recorded in the same season in 2025. In Europe, those deaths are 14,000 in that same period. We need to act now. The climate crisis is a health crisis."

[Your Party @thisisyourparty]

Britain right now is a nationwide crime scene.

Three droughts in five years.

The fossil fuel industry left its fingerprints on every dried-up river in England, and every politician who took their money is an accessory

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Zack Polanski, "Today I was in Oxfordshire, standing in the aftermath of the devastation caused by a wildfire. Trees reduced to charcoal, cars turned to burnt out wrecks. The smell of smoke still lingering in the air on the site of what was once a thriving local business now reduced to ash."

"Wildfires, literal scorched earth and a looming sense. And I really want everyone to hear this. This is only just the beginning. And today, as temperatures fall at the end of yet another extreme heat alert, we know that if it rains now, the soil being baked dry means it's much more likely to flood."

"These days feel exceptional. But what we are living through right now are likely some of the least extreme summer temperatures we'll experience in our lifetimes. Today I am sounding the alarm and I'm laying out a plan."

"Because last week, while a wildfire the size of 200 football pitches was raging across Suffolk, I called on, Prime Minister Burnham to act urgently to address the crisis. I suggested a COBRA meeting being the very least he could do."

"And six days later, with another heat alert just having ended, we have still heard next to nothing from the very top of government. No emergency briefings, no new plan and precious little detail about how this government will protect people from the crisis."

"It is putting lives and livelihoods at risk across the entire uk. So today I'm delivering a reality cheque. We are facing the biggest threat to this country since the Second World War."

"I'm setting out what Prime Minister Burnham can do now to tackle the crisis and I am challenging him to act with the urgency we need. You will hear today from those on the front line of this crisis and they will lay out what they have dealt with in the past few weeks."

"And to them, on behalf of the entire country, I want to say thank you. Extreme weather is now the new normal and without action, the impact on the people of this country will be unimaginably grave."

"The threats we face are three hold first, the threat to the safety of the population. Almost 3,000 people have died from the effects of extreme heat this summer. And we know that older people and those with pre existing conditions are particularly at risk from these dangerous temperatures."

"Those are the people who have been forced to stay at home for days on end, windows, curtains closed, trying to wait out the extreme heat. And these are the people who are most likely now to have grieving families whose bodies were under such intense strain and trying just to stay cool that their kidneys and their hearts could no longer cope."

"Meanwhile, wildfires have seen hundreds evacuated from their homes, while many thousands more wait anxiously with Flames on the horizon and smoke in their lungs. We've seen across Europe how bad things can get."

"Hundreds of thousands evacuated, half a million acres burned. The sheer scale of the devastation is hard to comprehend, but we need to look it in the face, because this is only a taster of what's to come if we don't act now."

"Second, we face a threat to our food and water security. Farmers are now warning we could see food shortages after flooding followed by drought has decimated crops. And despite farmers working really hard through the nights to avoid the heat, food production is grinding to a halt and our food prices are set to rise."

"Half of England is experiencing serious drought. And across the country, 8 of our water reservoirs are at risk of running dry. Privatised water companies they've failed to build a single new reservoir to since 1992, are, losing nearly 3 billion litres of water a day from leaky pipes."

"That's five times more than a nationwide host pipe ban would even save. The threat is so severe that the UK's National Risk Register warns that if we have three years of exceptionally dry weather like this, we could face water rationing."

"These aren't distant possibilities, they're very real scenarios and they are coming straight at us down the track because finally, we face a threat to our very way of life. Parents unable to take their children to the playground because the slides are so hot it could burn, their skin off."

"Temperatures so high they keep us inside for days for the sake of our health. Cities feeling like ghost towns, parks turned into deserts. We only have to look across the Channel to France and Spain to see what faces us in the years ahead."

"Europe is heating at, twice the rate of the rest of the world. Wildfires, droughts, deadly floods. The scenes we have seen play out on our TV screens are, frankly apocalyptic. And yet the response from our government is to pretend none of this is happening."

"It is an astonishing dereliction of duty from those whose very first responsibility is to keep all of us safe, and from the media. With some brilliant and notable exceptions, we have seen more clamouring for North Sea drilling in the last few weeks than actually raising the alarm on climate breakdown."

"While our country has come together, people have offered shelter to those who have had to leave their homes due to wildfires. They've checked in with older neighbours to care for those who are sick because of the heat. But the government. The government have been far, far too quiet on what is an emergency."

"So today you will hear from some of those on the front line of this crisis and Those with vital insights into how we face this threat. A doctor, a firefighter, someone who served this country in the armed forces, and someone who has dedicated his entire career to our precious nature and wildlife."

"It's experts like these that this government should be bringing to the table to design a full scale emergency response. So I want to step out from this big picture and look at some of the urgent steps that Prime Minister Burnham needs to urgently announce to protect people right now and keep us safe from what we know is coming down the track."

"In the immediate term, we need to keep people safe from extreme temperatures. That means a free accessible cool space in every local area. And financial support for households so they can heat proof their homes. Second, we need a robust wildfire prevention strategy."

"A fire service with the resources it needs to tackle blazes when they come. And that must include firefighting helicopters when needed. And not again ever seeing the shocking sight of requiring a charity to step in to contract a private firm to help fight fires."

"And this should all be funded by taxing the fossil fuel giants who are profiting from fueling these infernos. And finally, to secure our water supply, prevent droughts and protect our food system, we need to bring water back into public hands."

"Right now, money is flowing out of our hands into the pockets of shareholders, just like water is flowing out of those companies leaky pipes in the middle of a drought. Every single penny households pay for their water needs to go back into strengthening our infrastructure, building new reservoirs and protecting us from the droughts of the future."

"We know that these extreme temperatures, these deadly wildfires, are being driven by the burning of fossil fuels. The sad reality is decades of inaction of politicians allowing fossil fuel companies to profit from pumping out deadly emissions have guaranteed the extreme weather we are seeing right now."

"And we will see for the rest of our lifetimes. But there is still time to stop total breakdown. So let me speak directly to the Prime Minister. If we are to secure a livable future for our children and for our grandchildren, there can be no new drilling for oil and gas."

"On this, the, the science is crystal clear. As politicians, we have a moral responsibility to do what is right for the people we serve, even when it's not politically convenient. And I know that whatever our differences, we both care deeply about the people of this country and the future of our planet."

"So when the time comes, I hope you will have the courage to be truthful, be brave and hold firm to your party's commitment to no new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, including both Rosebank and, Jackdaw."

"Now, some will say we can't afford to make these changes. These last few weeks are showing we can't afford not to. We are facing an existential threat. People are dying. People are scared."

"It is time to act. And when we do, we won't just avoid the worst effects of climate breakdown. We will lower bills permanently, help our communities thrive, and give a grounded sense of hope for generations to come."

[Andy #Rejoin #Climatejustice #NHS @andycorneys]

For anyone who has climate anxiety my advice is this. Read the science & accept it. Once you do that you’ll see how close to death we are & why if our leaders continue to fail we’re screwed. Once you accept the inevitability of our predicament, you’ll be ok & become a protester.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Powerful speech by Naturalist Chris Packham speaking alongside Zack Polanski on the subject of Climate Change,

"To the disappointment of many, football didn’t come home this summer, but to the pain and suffering of millions, climate breakdown has. And our government and media response has displayed a total dereliction of duty in a time of extreme crisis."

"As we’ve heard, in May and June there were 3,000 deaths attributed to the heat domes that have hung over the UK. Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, stress on the heart and kidneys, and of course those mental health issues that you’ve just talked about."

"In Europe, the figure is somewhere between 14,000 and 20,000 up until the end of July, and it’s expected to double by the end of this summer. So we’re looking at potentially 50,000 deaths across Europe."

"If these deaths had been the result of terrorism or a pandemic, the government would have cancelled its summer holiday, it would have held COBRA meetings, and there would be public information campaigns the likes of which we saw during COVID, designed to protect us in this time of crisis."

"And yet what do we get? We get rumours of possibly more drilling for oil and gas, and we get articles in the Telegraph which suggest that we ought to adapt to a Mediterranean climate. If that isn’t reckless and irresponsible, I don’t know what is."

"What we do need at this point is to listen to the science, not to the ongoing malevolent raft of mis- and disinformation that’s perpetuated in politics, in public life and certainly across social media."

"If we listen to the science, we see that the climate models that were devised in the 1990s have actually proved to be pretty accurate. But those who do try and transmit the information to us, people like the IPCC, which are often derided as alarmists by the right and the far right, have actually been too cautious."

"What we see, for instance, when it comes to the heatwaves, is that they are occurring more quickly and more regularly than those models suggest. We’re updating the science as it happens. What we also see is that it’s not just a lack of water which is leading to the drought, although that might seem painfully obvious. It’s actually being exacerbated by extremely high temperatures."

"And that has an impact on the environment, the environment that I care so much about and we are all dependent upon. Across the world, there have been 35,000 wildfires. In the UK, there have been 66 major wildfires. But let’s not focus on 66, because that sounds quite a small number. In one fire and rescue service, Berkshire, they’ve attended over 250 outdoor fires so far this summer. So the number of grass fires and so forth is going to be significantly higher than that."

"Drawing upon an underfunded, under-resourced organisation at the front line of dealing with a crisis that is impacting all of us. So lives have been lost, homes have been destroyed, businesses have been ruined. The clean-up cost – just look at Palisades in America – is incomprehensible. We simply can’t afford it."

"And then from my perspective, the damage to wildlife, which has got scant mention, of course, because as ever we put human interest first because they’re most immediate. And you might think, well, Chris is bound to bang on about the wildlife because he loves the birds and the bees. Yes, the birds and the bees, which form resilient ecosystems which allow us to produce the food that we eat. We have to protect nature in order to protect ourselves."

"So you might think, okay, the UK, the wildfires – they’ve all been out there on the heaths in Suffolk, they’ve been burning patches of heathland on the Isle of Wight. Not many homes have been destroyed. Well, the Ordnance Survey say that 1.8 million homes are at risk in the UK by looking at their maps and seeing which homes are adjacent to areas which have significant wildfire risk. 1.8 million homes at risk. So far, compared to Europe, we’ve just got away lightly and we’ve just been lucky."

"How many firefighting planes do you think that we’ve got in the UK? How many firefighting planes in the UK, exactly? Zero planes. Which is why, as Zack said, when that fire was burning at Dunwich, the National Trust had to hire a helicopter and pay for it to drag water out of the sea and dump it on that precious piece of habitat, because there are no firefighting planes."

"Is there a public warning system in place which will tell people when there’s a risk of wildfire so that they can be prepared to evacuate and have evacuation plans in place? Well, do you know what? There is. It’s available to the fire and rescue service, but it isn’t available to the public because it’s deemed to be unreliable. Is it unreliable, or is it just a bit too scary? We couldn’t even instigate a ban on disposable barbecues."

"Okay, there are the problems. What about the solutions? Because look, there’s no point in just pointing out the problems. What we must do at this point is offer people real and accessible opportunities to be part of a solution rather than an ongoing part of the problem."

"Well, the first thing already: we’ve got to enact far more rapidly that transition to renewable energy for energy security, to reduce the cost of energy and its volatility that we’ve seen constantly across the world this year, which is having a significant impact not just on the cost of oil, but on the cost of living and global economic stability. It would also generate jobs, as it has in those countries that have invested significantly in those industries, most notably China. Talk of drilling oil – Rosebank, Blackbird, Jackdaw – is simply madness. We’ve got to just stop oil."

"We also need a transition in the way that we eat. This is intricately important when it comes to protecting the environment, everything that lives there, and ourselves. We need a transition to a plant-based diet. It’s healthier for people. If any of you have had bacon or sausage for breakfast this morning, do you know that you’ve ingested a category A carcinogen? That’s it – as toxic as tobacco. You may not. You may have just enjoyed your sausage and bacon. Why do you not know that processed red meat is actually really bad for you?"

"Animal agriculture is responsible for 12% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. It is also the leading driver of biodiversity loss. That biodiversity, that richness of life, that resilience in those ecological communities which we use to produce our food – we’ve got to change the way that we eat and produce that food, and we’ve got to provide sufficient support for farmers through that transition. And at the moment, they’re not getting that. In fact, they’re getting less and less and their life is becoming increasingly difficult."

"We’ve got to address the mis- and disinformation, and we’ve got to do that with positive information campaigns. We’ve got to have people’s minds on the front foot so they know what’s true before they hear the lies. Then they will question the lies. Otherwise we know what happens. If you tell a lie frequently enough, it eventually becomes the truth, and that’s what we’re suffering from. We can’t afford net zero? We can’t not afford net zero. And we’re beginning to see that that’s the case."

"We’ve got to sort out the media. I’ve been fantasising this year that we could perhaps criminalise climate denial. We should certainly criminalise irresponsible journalism. I’ve highlighted the Telegraph, but I’m going to leave you with something that I read on the BBC yesterday: ‘How to survive a heatwave wedding.’ How to survive a heatwave wedding. Point number five: beware of buttercream. This popular wedding cake ingredient is likely to melt if not kept cool. Likely to melt? A bit like my patience and all of our hope."

"It’s time for bold, brave, informed leadership. And we are not getting it. We need Andy Burnham to step up before we and our only home burn down. Thank you."

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Crop yields down, our countryside scorched and over 2800 people are dead due to this summer's heatwaves.

Meanwhile fossil fuel giants are raking in record profits.

We must end this rampant profiteering, and cut fossil fuels from our energy mix as soon as possible.

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

When can we start prosecuting people for climate change?

Politicians
Fossil fuel companies
Fossil fuel lobbyists
Journalists, owners, editors and broadcasters for misinformation and lies

[Bees Be Best @BestBittyBee]

@MrMatthewTodd

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

And what happens when heat waves or floods affect other countries crops?
We are sleepwalking into an unimaginable calamity.