Sustainababble

One day, not very far from now, we might look back at 2019 and think it incredibly weird that people weren't stuffing their gullets with cockroaches.Insects, we're increasingly told, are a fantastic source of animal protein without all the planet-f*ckery associated with meat production. But is anyone actually OK with eating loads of crunchy, spikey, crawly things? Does a bag of salted crickets compare favourably to pork scratchings? Happily, Ol is prepared to find out, so listen on to discover what a vegetarian chowing down on deep fried exoskeleton sounds like.What a time to be alive.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at

Even by recent high standards, some crazy big stuff is happening at the moment. Br- is about to actually -exit (or not), a general election is imminent (or isn't) and it's all so fast-moving that it will (or won't) have resolved between this week's babble being recorded and published. What *is* clear is that the planet continues to be imperilled and fixing it should be top of everyone's agenda, but isn't, largely because of all the uncertainty.WHAT ON EARTH'S GOING TO HAPPEN? We speculate, wildly.Also this week, XR get it a bit wrong, top babble from the aviation industry and Shell being, well, shell-ish.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @t

"Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides" said Cordelia in King Lear.Words with which the Royal Shakespeare Company are presumably familiar, and a sentiment that was perhaps front of mind when they recently told BP to shove their sponsorship dosh where the sun shineth not.Kierra Box, from activist group 'BP or Not BP?' joins us to explain how a bunch of stage-invading, ruff-wearing hippies gave the RSC no choice but to dish out a spectacular "it's not us, it's you" dumping to everyone's favourite oil major.Also this week, Extinction Rebellion are back. Does it matter if Boris Johnson slags them off? Are the public still on their side? Is that missing the whole point? We ponder.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustai

Boris Johnson has promised - PROMISED! - that good ol' Blighty is going to produce infinite clean energy within two decades. That's right, 'nuclear fusion' is just around the corner! But, er, is it really? And more importantly, what the HELL is nuclear fusion?Also this week, pine martens join the war on grey squirrels, and the poor loves at Cuadrilla retreat from Lancashire with tails between their legs. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

Prodigiously popular. Terrifyingly tenacious. Brilliantly bold. No silly, not Dave and Ol - we're talking about the globe-conquering, Inhofe-silencing Greta Thunberg. We investigate how come an upstart teenager from Sweden has tipped the global climate debate on its head. Isn't it all a bit - let's face it - odd? (in a good way). Are we right to pin so much of our hopes on her? And what happens when she's old enough for her haters to hate her to her face? Meanwhile the UK Labour party has signed up to net zero emissions in just over a decade. Shriek! Is that - whisper it - *too* ambitious? Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. V

We chat to an actual proper Harvard Professor, blessed with a brain as large as her laugh. Author, activist and splendid person Naomi Oreskes - crusading scourge of Inhofes everywhere - tells us why we should trust science (spoiler: because it's science). In a giggle-packed natter, Dave and Ol learn all about how science is done when it's done properly, how come so many Americans think climate change is a communist lie, and what you should do if your dentist smells of pork. All this, and Dave gets a proper telling off for his terrible interview technique - not before time. You can follow Naomi on Twitter @naomioreskes. Her new book, 'Trust in Science', is out imminently. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast &

When we go away the Amazon burns down, Boris Johnson becomes king, and London gets as hot as a farting hippo's bottom. Sorry about that. Now. Everyone's saying we need to plant more trees everywhere, which would be fine if we stopped torching and chopping down the ones we had. Have we got any hope at all of planting (at least) half a billion more trees? Does it let Big Oil off the hook if we do? And is the world ready for Dave's soggy willows? We investigate. All this, and some proper cheeky abuse of the concept of 'net zero' by the fossil fuel lot. And the farming lot. And the aviation lot. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. V

Basically all of us learn to ride a bike, but vanishingly few grown-ups regularly cycle, especially in 'car is king' Blighty.So why is pootling around on two wheels such a niche pursuit, when the benefits and beneficiaries are so varied? And are cyclists the red-light jumping, pavement-bothering lycra zealots the press would have you believe, or just, y'know, humans who ride a bike every now and then?We discuss.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

Someone needs to tell the UN to stop writing reports on the state of the planet. Their latest lolzfest, hot on the heels of 2018's IPCC report (aka 'Seriously, climate change is awks'), says humans are threatening A MILLION species with extinction. Tally ho!Fear not though, even in this bleakest of topics, babble was saught and - by jove - babble was found.Also this week, encourging news on the do-people-give-a-shit barometer, as a recording of birdsong soars up the UK charts and Australian voters give politicians a planet flavoured kick in the Uluru.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Ema

Heavens to betsy! The UK parliament has declared a 'Climate and Ecological Emergency'. Amazing, impressive, Extinction Rebellion-vindicating stuff. But, er, so what? And what now? And does it make those wonks telling the UK to eradicate (ish) emissions by 2050 wildly ambitious, hopelessly weedy, or somewhere in between?Also this week, Gammons getting angry with Percy Pigs, McDonalds customers failing to suck it up, and Chris Packham's majestic response to phallic abuse.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

Our clothes say a lot about who we are, but they also say "SCREW YOU, PLANET!" more often than not. Yup, clothes and fashion - like so many nice things - have some eye-watering environmental price tags.We peruse.Also this week, an update on the mega protest that is Extinction Rebellion, and some bizarre Babble-flattery from Shell.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

Glaciers are shrinking, which is not good. Not good for glaciers, not good for people who like sea levels just the way they are, and certainly not good for those keen to avoid literal AVALANCHES OF SHIT emerging from newly slushy ice.We pontificate.Also this week, eggs, Shell, and cars all making the news for reasons of varying smelliness. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

You're probably listening to this podcast on a device that's deliberately designed to break in not very long and will be nigh on impossible to tinker with when it does.Gone are the days when a bit of blu-tack and a fair wind ensured your prized possessions outlasted most relationships. We live in a world restless to upgrade our shiny new things to shinier, newier things. Why is that? What does it mean for the planet? Might there be - perhaps surprisingly - some environmental upsides?Clever person Duncan McCann from the New Economics Foundation talks to us about the 'right to repair' and reveals the inhoffery that goes on in the electronics sector. Read his splendid blog on the subject here: https://neweconomics.org/2019/01/demanding-a-right-to-repair.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sus

It's fair to say Brexit isn't going superbly. Recent goings on in the UK parliament have redefined the very notions of chaos, calamity and - yes - clusterf**kery.All very well, but it rather begs the question: if politicians can't sort out something as simple* as buggering off from yerp, how in the name of all that is holy are they going to fix climate change? Is the political system remotely up to this challenge, and if not, what then?Also this week, some massive Inhofes putting birds in equally massive hairnets, and capitalism solving air pollution like only it knows how: one facial at a time.* We know, we know.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Vis

Of the zillion eco topics we've covered on this podcast, none come any more 'I like to think I do my bit' than recycling. You know the drill:You: "GLOBAL CLIMATE BREAKDOWN INSECTAGEDDON AAARGGHH!"Your auntie: "Well darling, I always recycle my Daily Mail".Probably the one thing we can all agree on is how sodding confusing it is. Can plastic bags be recycled? Doesn't it all go to China? Should I bother rinsing my hummus pot when No. 62 routinely shove half a dead dog in their green bin?We chat to one man who knows the answers to all these rubbish (geddit?) questions and more, waste nerd, mega-brain and friend of the babble, Julian Kirby.Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff performed by Arabella.Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.comAvailable on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at s

Would you forgo having children because the future looks too bleak? A growing group of 'birthstrikers' have decided just that, speficially declaring "not to bear children due to the severity of the ecological crisis and the current inaction of governing forces in the face of this existential threat". It's clearly the most profound of personal decisions, woven through with complexity and heartache. To understand more about what Birthstrike is - and isn't - we talk to Alice Brown, long time listener to the 'babble and, more importantly, prominent Birthstriker. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Eco-guff read out by Arabella. Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Faceboo

Are we too clean? Is Ol clean enough? Should we stop using bog roll to save the planet? All these - ahem - burning questions and others are answered in a hygiene special this week.

Despite years of effort, bottomless pockets, and unwavering state backing, there's still nothing resembling a fracking industry in the UK. And for Cuadrilla, INEOS & co, things have been getting worse of late - earthquakes, crappy test results, trouble with the locals, not to mention a Government - outrageously! - failing to bend to their every will. At some point, surely, the flush is bust. So when can we call it? When can we whisper that fracking might actually be dead? Or is that a hopeless misreading of the situation? Also this week, delicious gourmet squirrels and Michael Gove being a weasel. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

Children, not thrilled about a dying planet and a compromised future, are rising up. In less than six months, one 15 year old's lone protest outside the Swedish parliament has snowballed into global classroom walk-outs. The #schoolstrike4climate's central message is that grown-ups need to start taking climate change seriously. Senior politicians, rather brilliantly making the strikers' points for them, have responded with sulky putdowns and verbal pats on the head. So what to make of all this? Are the kids hopelessly - if understandably - oversimplifying things? Is Theresa May actively trying to alienate the next generation? And does skipping school on a friday make the blindest bit of difference? Two haggard, irrelevant old geezers discuss. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of thin

Asad is, according to his twitter bio, a "general activist against all bad things". And then some. Currently the Executive Director of anti poverty charity War on Want, for 10 years Asad led Friends of the Earth's international climate work, putting justice and the voices of the global South at the heart of civil society's demands during UN climate talks. We chat to Asad about his decades of anti-racism activism, the failings of the environment movement and what can be done about it, and why a Green New Deal for America won't cut the mustard. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.