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@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…
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@RobGMacfarlane
"Contrast the silence from politicians and the absence of editorials in the billionaire press about [the arson attack] suffered by Chris Packham with the furious response to the protests by Insulate Britain." theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
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@RobGMacfarlane
The #FairyCreek protest against old-growth logging (inc. 1000-yo cedars) on Vancouver Island is ongoing.
Now Canada's largest act of civil disobedience.
1200 arrests
$9m in RCMP costs
Support: linktr.ee/TheRainforestF…
Follow on IG: @fairycreekblockade
vice.com/en/article/5dg…
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@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.
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@RobGMacfarlane
"The most astonishing element of the Elwha restoration is how quickly ecosystem changes can be reversed. Everything is connected. And with connection comes life."
Such an essay about such a story: a watershed's return to wild, fabulous life once un-dammed.
orionmagazine.org/article/a-rive…
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@RobGMacfarlane
"Though we live in a world made of gifts, we find ourselves harnessed to institutions & an economy that relentlessly ask 'What more can we take from the Earth?'"
Robin Wall Kimmerer's great essay 'Returning the Gift', re-published by @humansandnature. Yes.
humansandnature.org/returning-the-…
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@RobGMacfarlane
In 10-day isolation, seeing Greece burn, thinking (again) about the convulsive global response to the COVID crisis, contrasted to the calamitously slack, slow global response to the climate crisis.
Can anyone point me to good work comparatively analysing the 2 modes of response?
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@RobGMacfarlane
This story...
The oldest drawing of a ghost discovered on a 3500yo Babylonian tablet.
A man bound & led by a mortal lover.
If you light it, "the figures leap out at you across time."
From an exorcist's guide to returning unwanted spirits to the underworld.
theguardian.com/culture/2021/o…
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@RobGMacfarlane
Used this beautiful river as a path for a few hours today.
Along the way saw a kingfisher, a water-vole, a huge striped pike fanning over a gravel-bed, and…an otter.
The full-house of a chalk-stream in wonderful health.
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@RobGMacfarlane
Loweswater (Northwest Lake District) was a pure sky-mirror for a couple of days last week.
Everything doubled.
Photos by my Dad (@johntmacfarlane over on Instagram)
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@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
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@RobGMacfarlane
“Let the world be as horrified and as generous as we have been for Ukraine, to stop Afghan children dying right now.”
@UNOCHA twitter.com/EleanorMonbiot…
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@RobGMacfarlane
Up on the otherworld of Buachaille Etive Mor summit this afternoon.
Late-day light & roaming spindrift.
Big winds; drop & stop when the gusts came.
Up Curved Ridge, down through the main corrie.
Ravens & juniper with us up there, not much else.
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@RobGMacfarlane
First Swifffttttt of the year! At last!
High above the garden, pulling an audacious handbrake turn into the billowing wind. Joy...
Thinking again of Edward Thomas's lines in 'Haymaking':
"The swift with wings & tail as sharp & narrow
As if the bow had flown off with the arrow."
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@RobGMacfarlane
Very cool news: first baby beaver (“kit”) born in Exmoor since…a few years after Shakespeare died.
Now around six weeks old.
If it gets a name, I hope it’s better than his mother’s, “named ‘Grylls’ for her survival instincts.” bbc.com/news/uk-englan…
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@RobGMacfarlane
The great @billmckibben, clarifying as ever, with this epic @NewYorker essay re-framing the climate crisis with a rule to live by: in a world on fire, stop burning things.
newyorker.com/news/essay/in-…
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@RobGMacfarlane
For #WorldPoetryDay, the great Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska’s “The End and the Beginning”, translated by Joanna Trzeciak.
“After every war
Someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
Straighten themselves up, after all…”
poetryfoundation.org/poems/52955/th…
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@RobGMacfarlane
Young people, parents, teachers:
I'm a trustee of @Action4Conserv, a charity that works to inspire & connect 12-16 yr olds with nature.
We run free & fun week-long Summer Camps.
Applying's easy & applications are open here: actionforconservation.org/camp
🌱 Please spread the word! 🌱
@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