Sustainababble

Luddites, us greenies. People think it's an insult to say we all want to go back to living in caves, but - lack of wifi aside - lots of biosphere-botherers wouldn't say no.But innovation - thinking up whizzy new stuff to fix shitty old problems - really *has* to be part of the weaponry for the ecologically-concerned, doesn't it? Cycle lanes can't fix all the planet's problems, after all.We speak to two exceptionally whizzy innovators - Ayca Dundar and Francis Field - who've invented a new material, made from seaweed, that stops food rotting and prevents turtles getting packaging lodged where it shouldn't, thereby torpedoing food waste and plastic pollution in one fell swoop. In fact their invention - Solublue - is so good they're finalists in the international Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge, the winners of which will pocket €500,000. Nice little two up two down cave that'll get you, we hear.Also this week, big up to the folk at the Royal College of Psychiatrists who've produced some top resources on 'e

Hydrogen - one of those words that prompts people in environment world to nod sagely before quickly steering the conversation onto safer territory. Because honestly, no-one really understands what it is, what it's for, or whether it's terrible or brilliant or somewhere in between.Which is unfortunate, because Boris 'World King' Johnson has just come over all hydrogen-y in his headline-grabbing 10 point plan for a 'Green Industrial Recovery'.Hmm, what to do? Listen to yer Babble, that's what! Because, fearless truth-seekers and public servants that we are, we've trawled wikipedia on your behalf to find out what the hell a Hydrogen is and where to buy one. 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

The climate catastrophe isn't exactly hanging about, so do we really have time for fiddling around with democracy? Sure, giving people a say is nice, but what about when their say is, well, wrong? 70-million-people-voting-for-a-climate-denier wrong, for instance... We pose this connundrum to Becky Willis, Professor in Practice at Lancaster Environment Centre, and holder of a Fellowship in energy and climate governance. During our natter, Becky reveals herself to be luke-warm on the merits of a future Dave and Ol autocracy. Well, SOMEONE won't be offered a cushy job in our administration, is all we'll say to THAT.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 sustainabab

HE'S GONE! HE'S ACTUALLY GONE! THE TANGERINE TOSSPOT, THE BELLICOSE BELL-END, THE CLIMATE-DENYING CRACKPOT HAS ACTUALLY BEEN BOOTED OUT!Obviously he's not actually *gone* yet - presumably the next few months will be messy to say the least - but as of January next year Donald Trump will no longer be POTUS. Which is rather delicious.We celebrate by reminding ourselves of all the terrible, terrible things the Donald has done for the planet in the last four years, and by cracking open the single malt.Props to James Kelleher for his stupendous Scooby-Doo / Trump deepfake.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 Faceb

1 November is World Vegan Day, so what better time to meet the boss of vegan campaign group Viva!, the magnificent Juliet Gellatley.Juliet has been advocating veganism for decades. She's also been breaking into factory farms to film the horrific goings on there and share them with the world (though not the Guardian). We chat about some of the ridiculous questions Juliet's faced over the years (adding to the ouvre in the process, no doubt), why being vegan makes you good in bed, and whether Dale Vince (see episode #46) is going to win his bet that half the UK population will be vegan by the end of the decade.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.f

Winter is coming. You'd think we'd have been let off in 2020 of all years, but no. This most cyanide-y of bitter pills is sugared by an extra hour in bed this weekend (in Blighty at least) due to the clocks going back, which reminded us of an issue that periodically gets climate types all worked up: the fact that changing the clocks is, not to put too fine a point on it, batshit crazy.As in, why the HELL do we deliberately deny ourselves afternoon daylight and necessitate putting the lights on 60 minutes earlier than we otherwise would? Wouldn't it be fairly non-controversial to scrap this absurd custom and prevent a few coal plants firing up? No, no it wouldn't, turns out. Especially in Scotland.Exploring the issue inevitably leads us to questions like: What is time? What is the time? Is it time we stopped babbling on about something we don't understand? Is there ever a good time for golf?You get the idea.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky M

Who fancies dodging a wolf on the way to work? Or perhaps a lynx barging through your catflap while pelicans pinch the fish in your pond?If rewilders get their way, these animals - all once common in Blighty - will be familiar sights once more.But rewilding isn't just about reintroducing showstopping species, even if Boris 'Beavers' Johnson recently got in on the act. As much as anything, it's giving the land a break and letting whatever wants to grow just... grow. All very lovely, but can it be done while everyone stays fed? Will farmers let it happen? And can *literally doing nothing* really be an appropriate response to the ecological emergencies engulfing us?Alasdair Cameron (he off of episode #61) knows, and joins us to tell us about his own rewilding efforts in Somerset as director of the magnificent Somerset Wildlands, an organisation buying land in the Levels to make space for nature. Thanks to Joseph Monkhouse for his majestic soundscape of iron age Somerset levels. Watch the full youtube video t

We're back! And there's been a touch of news since we were last a-babblin'. Some of it actually not shit, too! So, this week Dave dons his Chris Tarrant mask to host the inaugral 'What The Hell Has Been Happening?' quiz. The only rule? Answers must not be gloomy. 2020 doesn't need any more gloomy Ol, after all. Topics include China's anti-inhofery, David Attenborough smashing capitalism, and confusing news about rice puddings and pumpkins. So strap in and enjoy a blitzkrieg of upbeat babbling. With absolutely no mention of the unprecedented ecological kneecapping unfolding all over the planet. 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.

It is just possible that yelling about wet-bulb temperature and the certain heat death of everything isn't as effective a climate communications strategy as some may think. So what is? Is there A Right Way to discuss ecological destruction? And can it really be true that conversations are opportunities to learn from each other, not just "win" someone round?We put all these questions and more to climate communications expert and friend of the babble Robin Webster, whose job as Senior Programme Lead: Advocacy Communications at the climate communications organisation Climate Outreach is to help people bang on about climate a lot more effectively.Possibly should have invited her on before now then...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

What if a problem even greater than climate change or ecological collapse is our sense of powerlessness in the face of these crises? Is it our inability to believe we can do anything about the planet frying that is, above anything else, stopping us collectively sorting this shit out?That's the hypothesis of Clover Hogan, climate activist, founder of Force of Nature, and researcher on eco-anxiety, who joins us to get under the skin of the psychological responses to planetary nausing.For younger people, eco-anxiety is becoming particularly widespread and acute - with darn good reason, one might argue. So Clover guides two, er, less young people through the perspective of a generation staring at a distinctly un-rosy future and explores how we can, in her words, mobilise mindsets en masse. 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

Kryten is on the Babble! SMEGGIN' HELL!Robert Llewellyn is an actor and comedian who since 1989 has played angular faced mechanoid Kryten in cult sci-fi classic Red Dwarf. But he's equally well known for presenting the legendary Scrapheap Challenge and, for the last ten years, phenomenally popular YouTube electric car review show Fully Charged. It's like Top Gear, but without bellends or CO2.Once Dave and Ol get over the fanboy thing, Robert talks to us about all things whizzy tech and clean cars, based on 10 years' experience driving and reviewing the things. We learn how EVs might put all the mechanics out of work, why greenies getting upset about lithium and cobalt may be a wee bit misguided, and - talking of wee - just how long one has to cross one's legs between charges of the latest models.Oh, and why Jeremy Clarkson called Robert a very rude word indeed.This show is dedicated to the memory of Seb Patrick.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky

The BBC's Springwatch is a cultural institution in the UK, showcasing the extraordinary but often overlooked wildlife of these crumbling isles with warts 'n all realism (i.e. lots of baby Blue Tits getting munched). Biologist Gillian Burke has for three years been at the heart of the show's presenting team, earning the nation's affection for her passion and powers of communication as much as for her unblinking resolve in the face of uncooperative protagonists and innuendo-tastic co-presenters.Gillian is also a Black woman in an industry - conservation, nature TV and the environment movement as a whole - notable for its woeful lack of representation of people of colour.In a longer-than-usual episode, we hear Gillian's reflections on why those banging on about the planet - the Babble very much included - present so little ethnic diversity, and on the extraordinary Spring of 2020, a period that will surely be remembered for the elevation of racial injustice laid bare by George Floyd's killing and the Black Lives

Are you being a good ancestor? Are WE being good ancestors? What the hell is a good ancestor and do I have to buy them a present? Public philosopher Roman Krznaric thinks these are the most important questions we should ask ourselves (well, certainly the first two) if we're to escape the 'tyranny of the now', the hideous short-termism dominating our lives and knackering the planet in the process.His new book ('The Good Ancestor: How to think long term in a short term world') explains how our brains are perfectly capable of serious long-term thinking, despite our apparent crapness at it, and sets out key principles for public decision making fit for the next century, not just the next news cycle. Shockingly, none of those prinicples includes reacting in fury to something on twitter you didn't know you cared about 30 seconds previously. Who knew?Check out the wonderful empathy museum, founded by Roman, and Neal Agarwal's equally magestic animation of just how deep the deep sea is, as mentioned by Dave in the sh

The instant we were allowed out again we covered everything in rubbish: plastic and cans and humous packets and, er, cool boxes and chairs. Why? Has four months of lockdown made us all beserkers, or is this just what it's always like and we'd forgotten? Who's doing the littering anyway? And what even IS litter? We investigate. Also, the Government's promising to give us cash to insulate our homes, which sounds like a good thing. And governments doing good things make us very suspicious indeed. Links to some of the things we talked about: Kirsty McNeil's piece talking about activism after coronavirus Chris Rose's investigation into the 'Crying Indian' advert 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 iTun

"Smash capitalism" is among the least helpful answers people like Dave and Ol give when asked "So what should *I* do to help the planet?". But for most campaignery types, individual lifestyle change plays second or third fiddle to political action and corporate restraint. And - if we're completely honest - we're also luke-warm about personal behaviour change because so many of its proponents are such... hard work. You know, people who tilt their heads to one side and pity the poor soul yet to discover the wonders of £50 biodynamic toothpaste made from upcycled cow shit.HOWEVER, two things are also true: 1) the above question is one we get asked *a lot* and therefore feel like we should answer, and 2) Lianne Bell, entrepreneur and author of 'How on Earth can I be eco-friendly?', a new book on this subject, is very much not of the holier than thou eco-mould. Just listen to the workout she gives the bleep machine in this episode, for a start.We ask Lianne what our priorities, as individuals, should be, whether i

Modern footballers eh? Spoilt, obscenely rich, carbon-guzzling narcissists who couldn't spell planet, let alone save it. They're an open goal for moralising and high-handery, or at least must have seemed so to the UK Health Secretary when he pooh-poohed players' high pay at the pandemic's outset (omitting, accidentally no doubt, to pass comment on the wages of hedge fund managers or the like).Well, we in Babble towers don't buy that. We're unapologetic disciples of the beautiful game, for all its flaws, and we can't help noticing that, far from conforming to (stereo)type, high profile stars of both the men's and women's game have led from the front on all manner of social issues of late, not least the environment.So this week we pick our starting 11* of poverty-tackling, environment-defending, racism-clattering footie heroes and ask: might they be rather better at campaigning than the 'professionals' are?Also in today's episode, a belching bumful of macro-inhofery from the 'natural' gas industry, and some wor

If you've taken so much as a passing interest in environmentalism in the UK, you'll have doubtless encountered the campaigner and writer Jonathon Porritt.Since the '70s he's been at the forefront of the wider green movement: prominent in the Ecology party (what became the Green party), running Friends of the Earth, advising the UK Govt and the likes of Kelloggs & Unilever how not to be gits, and now working with the school strikers.Raising eyebrows in the process, he also had a crack at persuading oil companies to see the light, before publicly concluding that they basically don't want to.Now, with his new book out - Hope In Hell: A Decade to Confront The Climate Emergency - Jonathon takes on his biggest challenge yet: 40 minutes of Paxman-esque grilling by the Babble. We think he just about survives the interrogation, but judge for yourselves.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovel

You asked, so we filibustered, obfuscated and prevaricated. That's right, just 177 episodes in we've dared to switch from 'broadcast' to 'dialogue' with the babble army, actively soliciting questions from our band of wise and forgiving listeners.We've hand-picked a tasting menu of succulent enquiries from the smörgåsbord submitted. Some are silly, some serious, but all are certified 100% free from sustainababble or inhofery. We're confident your bouche will be amused.Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in questions. Terrificly bigly big up to Julia, Anna, Simon, Claire, Shannon, Emma and Kayleigh, whose Qs we attempt to address in the show. Enjoy!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

Poor wee infants can't help it but they *do* produce an awful lot of poo and wee. Ol should know, he's got two of the little, er, darlings. Problem is, said effluvia ends up in nappies (diapers), overwhelmingly 'disposable' ones - thousands of them per child. And the nappies end up in the ground, or being burned to make noxious air for us all to breathe. Yuck. What's a sleep-deprived tree-hugging parent to do? Fresh from his 1,045th day without enough sleep, Ol takes Dave slowly through the basics of why it's so hard to green his babies' bottoms, and why it probably isn't a good idea to apply a nappy in the way Dave thinks it should be applied. In other news, Dave's finally watched that controversial Michael Moore film everyone's losing their temper about - and he has Views on it. And it's the return of Sustainababble of the Week, courtesy of a supermarket with some very odd opinions on how its customers grill sausages. Show notes this week: shout out to Bambino Mio eco-nappies, who gave

Swifts: bloody 'ell. The weight of a Creme Egg, Apus Apus spend their entire lives in flight; eating, sleeping and shagging on the wing before popping 6,000 miles north to a European roof for a rest and a spot of breeding.As evocative of British summers as drunk men fighting, screeching Swifts have returned to our skies and are bloody noisy - unless and until Ol gets his microphone out, of course.So with World Swift Day coming up (7 June) we get straightforwardly misty-eyed about these avian superstars, and only momentarily distracted by Kanye West.Special thanks to Gavin Gamble for his wonderful blog that inspired this episode. Big up to Patrick Aberg for swifts sounds scattered throughout. Kudos to Ruth Everett for the splendid swift drawing. And check out the RSPB's guide to making your own swift box if you'd like to help them not be dead.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell.