Category Archives: Writing

On Monday 6th September 2021, 229 health journals from across the world began publishing an editorial calling for world leaders to take emergency action to transform societies and limit climate change, restore biodiversity, and protect health. I was a co-author and coordinated the editorial. It is likely unprecedented across three dimensions: never have so many journalsContinue reading “Coverage: joint editorial from 200+ health journals on climate change”

Wealthy nations must do much more, much faster  Lukoye Atwoli, Editor in Chief, East African Medical Journal; Abdullah H. Baqui, Editor in Chief, Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition; Thomas Benfield, Editor in Chief, Danish Medical Journal; Raffaella Bosurgi, Editor in Chief, PLOS Medicine; Fiona Godlee, Editor in Chief, The BMJ; Stephen Hancocks, Editor in Chief, British Dental Journal; Richard Horton,Continue reading “Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health”

Planet on Fire featured in exalted company on Ann Pettifor‘s list of the top 10 books for a greener economy in the Guardian. Check out the list here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/02/top-10-books-for-a-greener-economy-ann-pettifor-green-new-deal

The adults claim to be back in charge. In a time of Covid and COP, what a difference it makes. Relief and excitement are growing in equal measure as world leaders move beyond the chaos of the Trump era and talk up their commitments to acting on the environmental emergency. But a profound question hangsContinue reading “Climate targets won’t meet themselves”

Flora Parkin reviewed Planet on Fire in the LSE blog: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/internationaldevelopment/2021/05/04/book-review-planet-on-fire-a-manifesto-for-the-age-of-environmental-breakdown-by-mathew-lawrence-and-laurie-laybourn-langton/

A recent report painted a terrifying picture of our coming future: within decades, for every 1°C increase in the global temperature, a billion people will be forced to live in unbearable heat. Without change, we are on track for catastrophic global temperature increases of 3.5°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. This crisis isContinue reading “10 things you can do to change everything and combat the climate crisis”

Today is Earth Day and Joe Biden, the US President, has invited leaders of 40 countries to come together for a two day zoom conference to discuss the climate emergency. Seventeen of the countries invited are responsible for 80% of carbon emissions in the world. Biden is expected to announce his commitment to halve the carbonContinue reading “President Biden’s leadership on climate must be supported and applauded by health professionals”

The Polynesian island has intrigued generations of Western explorers and scholars. But much of what they had previously assumed is wrong In 1722, in a remote expanse of the Pacific Ocean, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen squinted out from the deck of his flagship at a triangle of land sitting on the horizon. Roggeveen hadContinue reading “What we know—and still don’t know—about Easter Island”

Left environmentalism struggles in the face of a disturbing truth: the global environmental emergency is going to get much worse no matter what happens, as scientists’ warnings about the future increasingly become the destabilising reality of the present. It is still technically possible to avoid a 1.5C temperature rise above the pre-industrial average, the goalContinue reading “The age of consequences: the future for which left environmentalism is unprepared”

The NHS is the model of how the state can democratise action on climate change. In looking for a path beyond the neoliberal state, we find one national institution that has always embodied the alternative to neoliberalism – the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS is Britain’s publicly owned and provided system of healthcare, freeContinue reading “The NHS shows the way in approaches to climate change”