Author Archives: Laurie

We have just over ten years to have a shooting chance at avoiding catastrophic climate breakdown. The scientific community has been unequivocal about this. Harmful greenhouse gas emissions – from vehicles, through power plants, to cows – must be nearly halved by 2030 to stop temperatures from rising by 1.5C since the 19th century, when industrial capitalism hitContinue reading “Britain has a historic responsibility to tackle climate change – and time is running out”

Greta Thunberg is one of the only public figures who is being honest about environmental breakdown. Her speech in the UK Parliament contained a litany of truths that are almost entirely absent from the political debate. The scientific community has unequivocally warned that we have to roughly halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to have a shooting chanceContinue reading “Theresa May must act on climate breakdown – or step aside for those who will”

Extinction Rebellion is meeting its first objective: to gain attention. Since its launch late last year, thousands of people have been arrested around the world as Extinction Rebellion groups have emerged in country after country, deploying direct action tactics to raise the profile of environmental breakdown. In this way, much of what Extinction Rebellion is doingContinue reading “Extinction Rebellion should be celebrated, not sneered at”

The domination of UK political debate by Brexit has entered its fourth year. In the media, all policy areas are filtered through its lens. In Whitehall, it consumes governmental capacity; on the streets, protests from both sides grow in number – large and small, peaceful and more violent. Battles have raged over the terms ofContinue reading “The Long Revolution”

The idea of a Green New Deal has captured imaginations across the world. For many, it provides an overall narrative neatly stressing the urgency of the major crises of our time. What’s more, in seeking to combat injustice while stemming environmental breakdown, it recognises the interrelation between these problems.  It has been astonishing and energisingContinue reading “A Green New Deal could signal a fundamental shift away from neoliberalism”

What will we think of our reaction to this heatwave in a decade? The narrative over the last few days has been predictably positive. As temperatures rose above 20C, we wore t-shirts outside and ate ice cream at lunch. The Daily Mail posted its customary pictorial of scantily clad women in London parks. The unseasonal weatherContinue reading “Climate breakdown enters its ice cream in February stage”

In 1962, American playwright James Baldwin wrote that “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Today, his words should give us succour. We need more than ever to face the reality of environmental change. I’m a researcher at IPPR, a think tank. We have beenContinue reading “It’s no longer climate change we’re living through. It’s environmental breakdown”