101
@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…
102
@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/
103
@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…
104
@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.
105
@RobGMacfarlane
In today's Guardian, new research finds water companies are dumping sewage illegally into rivers at 10x the levels in official data.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
And in today's River Roding, gross proof of the charges 👇👇
When will @EnvAgency hold @thameswater etc. fully to account? twitter.com/riverroding/st…
106
@RobGMacfarlane
Huge ambition & vision.
200,000 ha of Highlands joined up to create a “vast nature recovery area”:
Afforestation
River corridor/peat restoration
Habitat-connection
Wildlife return
I’ll be walking across this region, from Shiel to Affric, next month.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
107
@RobGMacfarlane
Big plans to “re-wild” London: redshank & lapwing back along Thames, beavers in the marshes, nature corridors, micro-parks…
A reminder of how biodiverse cities are & can be, esp. with more blue & green space.
Good for humans, good for other-than-humans. theguardian.com/environment/20…
108
@RobGMacfarlane
Never much liked the phrase "kill two birds with one stone".
Last week I was introduced to the aviphile variant: "feed two birds with one scone."
Brilliant!
I'll leave the scone/scone pronunciation controversy well alone, save for saying it clearly doesn't rhyme with stone...
109
@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…
110
@RobGMacfarlane
The fight is gearing up against the Darwalls, the wealthy landowners who are, appallingly, trying to shut down the right to wild camp on Dartmoor.
The case goes to the Royal Courts of Justice on 12 Dec.
Come join the rally in support of @dartmoornpa & the right to wild camp.
⛺️ twitter.com/Right_2Roam/st…
111
@RobGMacfarlane
Turns out my Christmas present, like many people’s, is COVID.
Going to be a long & solitary Xmas period.
Would welcome recommendations to pass time/keep spirits up, esp podcasts: archaeology, geology, natural history, mystery, thriller & points beyond.
Go well & safely, all!
112
@RobGMacfarlane
Mesmerised to watch this female golden-ringed dragonfly—longest of UK’s dragonflies; lover of moorlands & peat-bogs—laying her eggs, one by one, in this delicate dipping dance.
Stained-glass lacing of her wings, beautiful banding of her body.
A perfectly engineered micro-craft.
113
@RobGMacfarlane
Teachers, parents, #edutwitter: a free 23pp "Summer Explorer's Guide" to The Lost Spells is out today, by @JohnEvajohn59.
Lesson plans, writing/art challenges,
outdoor learning, nature-literacy...
All with a glowing @jackiemorris Solstice daisy-sun!
Here: thelostwords.org/resources/
114
@RobGMacfarlane
Meanwhile:
"Our report clearly indicates that places where people live & work may cease to exist, that ecosystems & species we've all grown up with & that are central to our cultures & inform our languages may disappear."
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
115
@RobGMacfarlane
Moved by this discovery of 100s of skeletons in dunes of Whitesands Beach, dating back to 6thC.
Early Christian burials on this then-remote bay.
Buried w/ heads to the west.
And—the detail that pierces—white quartz pebbles placed on the graves of children. independent.co.uk/news/uk/skelet…
116
@RobGMacfarlane
The UK Red List of critically endangered birds is updated today by @Natures_Voice/@_BTO.
Red List now 70 birds long: doubled in 25 yrs.
New Red Listees inc. Swift, Ptarmigan, House Martin, Dunlin & Greenfinch (catastrophic drops).
"Wildlife is in freefall"
theguardian.com/environment/20…
117
@RobGMacfarlane
This, at last!! 👇👇 👏👏
And a thumping majority in the vote, too. twitter.com/Keeptheban_/st…
118
@RobGMacfarlane
A heads-up that, to my delight, Barry Lopez's masterpiece Arctic Dreams (1986) will be Book of the Week on @BBCRadio4 this week, starting 09.45am today.
The book––and the writer––that made me a writer.
Barry passed away in December this year.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…
119
@RobGMacfarlane
Out filming in a silver birch forest; frost & sun, geese overhead.
Bar(k) codes everywhere, scanning for beauty.
Fairy-tale-forest trees—& also among the first to re-colonise after the glaciers retreated at the end of the Ice Ages.
Watchful, tough trees.
Love silver birches.
120
@RobGMacfarlane
"In the English language alone, more than 7,000 names have been recorded for some 150 bird species in the British Isles."
Andy Gosler on how ethno-ornithology salvages & celebrates "the cherished, ancient relationships with nature that lie behind...names."
theconversation.com/there-are-over…
121
@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…
122
@RobGMacfarlane
160,000 Woodcock are shot each year in the UK.
UK population is c. 130,000.
Shooting season opens now, meaning UK breeding pop gets shot through Oct.
Best of all: stop shooting Woodcock.
Second best: push start of season back to Dec 1.
Sign below, follow @WildJustice_org. twitter.com/WildJustice_or…
123
@RobGMacfarlane
The fight hots up to prevent landowners the Darwalls from blocking the right to wild camp responsibly on parts of Dartmoor.
Case goes to the High Court on 12 Dec.
We'd love to gather more stories, photos etc of those who've camped out on Dartmoor.
Pls RT & add to thread below. 🙏 twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane…
124
@RobGMacfarlane
A few years ago I wrote a poem called “Heartwood” for the people of Sheffield, during the tree wars in that city.
Artist Tim Chalk has just beautifully lettered a couple of lines from the poem into this split trunk (heartwood is the darker central core, sapwood the paler outer).
125
@RobGMacfarlane
Vanishing point on an old railway line out in the Fens.
Seven or eight skylarks, singing their hearts out at all dark matter, lifting the spirit.
Heard skylarks yet this year? Where & when?
@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