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@RobGMacfarlane
"Ice has a memory, and the colour of that memory is blue. It remembers in detail, and for a million years or more."
This is Utuqaq, a beautiful short film on ice's memoriousness & vulnerability, narrated in the Kalaallisut language of West Greenland.
emergencemagazine.org/film/utuqaq/
102
@RobGMacfarlane
10 yrs ago I wrote a book called Holloway w/ @Dan_Zep & @StanleyDonwood abt Dorset's sunken lanes––their histories, time-slips, ecologies.
Now a new project seeks to map the UK's holloways.
Please RT/reply with pics & locations, hashtagged #sunkenlanes
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
103
@RobGMacfarlane
River––a film I wrote w/ the awesome director @jenpeedom, narrated by Willem Dafoe––premiered this week at Telluride Film Festival.
Trailer here: youtube.com/watch?v=efHe-V…
Happy that the first reviews really seem to get what we hoped to achieve in the film.
collider.com/river-document…
104
@RobGMacfarlane
Thanks to my friend the legend @StanleyDonwood for letting me use a detail from his #WeStandWithUkraine-adapted linocut The Eraser as a new banner.
Follow him here/on Instagram: he’s about to sell a run of this print to raise funds to help refugees from the war. Gonna fly. 🇺🇦
105
@RobGMacfarlane
Number Crunching
@PrivateEyeNews
106
@RobGMacfarlane
An open letter to @iberojetair_es @privilege757 @TitanAirways @ukhomeoffice
The UK-Rwanda deportation deal is re-traumatising, racist, & must be cancelled immediately.
Our message to airlines: rule yourselves out of the Government’s dodgy cash for refugees deal #StopTheFlights
107
@RobGMacfarlane
"Books are tool kits: the things we learn from them can change our own lives, as well as the world."
Great @M_Z_Harrison piece on how childhood reading can shape a lifelong love of the living world.
Which books "awakened" yr "interest in nature" & how/why?
theguardian.com/books/2021/jun…
108
@RobGMacfarlane
Questioned for holding up a blank piece of paper; would be arrested for expressing polite public dissent from the (absurd, oppressive) principle of hereditary monarchy.
WTAF? There is *so* much wrong here. twitter.com/paulpowlesland…
109
@RobGMacfarlane
This is an excellent decision on mountain-naming, which will help the Welsh language thrive within & without Cymru/Wales.
Really well explained in Peter’s thread.
“Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.” (Wade Davis) twitter.com/GillibrandPete…
110
@RobGMacfarlane
For those still somehow unclear on the issue, here it is one more time: directing racist & other kinds of abuse at @monisha_rajesh, @chimenesuleyman, @ProfSunnySingh & others for *criticising a book* is wholly, grossly unacceptable.
Here, read this 👇👇
theguardian.com/books/2021/aug…
111
@RobGMacfarlane
20 years ago OTD, Scotland's Land Reform Act was given Royal Assent.
It's an inspiring piece of legalisation, which transformed access to land in Scotland & aligned it w/ Allemansrätten (Every Person's Right) of Scandinavia.
Details here: outdooraccess-scotland.scot
Now for England.
112
@RobGMacfarlane
Good news is hard to find rn.
Here’s some: the Elk, Beaver, Wolf, Brown Bear, Bearded Vulture & even Humpback Whale are making strong comebacks across Europe’s land/seas.
Meanwhile, our new gov. plans further devastation of our shattered biodiversity.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
113
@RobGMacfarlane
Wow. That red spike.
Huge auroral activity potentially visible rn *anywhere in the UK*.
If you can get anywhere highish & dark & away from artificial sky-glow, look north!
Thanks for the tip-off @robsaintjohn.
114
@RobGMacfarlane
“Only some 70 parliamentarians turned up to last week’s presentation on climate change led by Sir Patrick Vallance and other scientific officials. None of the Tory leadership candidates was among them…”. theguardian.com/environment/20…
115
@RobGMacfarlane
The state of England's rivers is a disgrace.
@WildJustice_org is taking the regulator @Ofwat to court for its perceived failure to monitor & act on sewage discharges.
There's a fundraiser underway to support this. 👇
Pls spread the word, follow @WildJustice_org
Change must come. twitter.com/WildJustice_or…
116
@RobGMacfarlane
“It is not the swimmer who poisons our rivers, nor the rambler who burns the moorland; when they took away our right to access the land, they took away our ability to protect it.”
The Trespasser’s Companion, out today.
More on the English access campaign:
righttoroam.org.uk twitter.com/nickhayesillus…
117
@RobGMacfarlane
Rare conservation #goodnewsstory: 119 hen harrier chicks have fledged this year in England.
In 2013, the figure was 0.
Fragile, hard-won progress for these beautiful, sky-dancing raptors. theguardian.com/environment/20…
118
@RobGMacfarlane
"Slime mold can solve mazes in pursuit of a single oat flake &, later, can recall the path it took to reach it. More remarkably still, slime mold...doesn't age & it doesn't die."
From this superb essay on the *astonishing* world of slime molds/myxomycetes: orionmagazine.org/article/what-s…
119
@RobGMacfarlane
“The resilience of aquatic seed banks is phenomenal. Given the right conditions, seeds that have been underground for decades can germinate."
Great story on how re-wetting of dried-up "ghost ponds" can lead to return of rare plant species, buried in mud.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
120
@RobGMacfarlane
With Ai Weiwei, Alan Bennett & Tamsin Greig, I’m part of Drawn To War, dir. @MargyKinmonth, a film abt Eric Ravilious (1903-42), whose art transformed perceptions of English landscape.
He died too young, serving as a war artist in Iceland.
Out this month: details @raviliousfilm
121
@RobGMacfarlane
John Keats on finding happiness in the modest moment (from an 1817 letter to Benjamin Bailey).
"If a sparrow come before my Window, I take part in its existence & pick about the gravel..."
122
@RobGMacfarlane
.@Kings_College has decided to ban swimming & water access at Grantchester Meadow on the River Cam & enforce with patrols.
Terrible decision.
The river here has been used by the community for centuries.
There has to be a better solution.
Petition 👇
change.org/p/king-s-colle…
123
@RobGMacfarlane
RIP the great Ronald Blythe—author of Akenfield & one of the most gently luminous 20th-c writers of people & place.
Ronnie died last night aged 100.
A beautiful obituary by @patrick_barkham.
I visited Ronnie at Bottengoms; he gave me two prints I treasure.
theguardian.com/books/2023/jan…
124
@RobGMacfarlane
Here's a short round-up of ways to help welcome & settle Afghan refugees arriving in the UK, with particular focus on the work of @Care4Calais.
Do share and/or reply with other suggestions of organisations or ways to help; I know I'd be glad to hear them.
theguardian.com/world/2021/aug…
125
@RobGMacfarlane
“Rivers are our life support system but we are literally pouring shit into them...you’d think keeping water clean would be job number one? But this government can’t even do that.”
@GeorgeMonbiot & @FrannyArmstrong’s must-watch Rivercide screens tonight. 👇
theguardian.com/environment/20…
@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