The Great Staycation – How the Coronavirus Pandemic Could Push a Rapid Transition to Creative Domestic Holidays

The reduction in travel during the pandemic and people’s willingness to find simple pleasures closer to home bode well for the ‘staycation’ – holidaying at home or in the home country – and for reducing carbon emissions.

The Death of Heathrow’s Third Runway Sends a Clear Message Ahead of Cop26

Today’s high court judgment is a vindication of everything climate activists have been saying for more than a decade: Britain cannot honour its national commitment to tackle climate change at the same time as building a new runway at one of the busiest airports in the world.

The Only Story

The date was Thursday, July 25th – the hottest day ever in Europe, part of a record-setting heat wave. Climate change, in other words. By the time we reached the airport the next morning for the long journey home, all the stories had melted in the heat and merged into just one story, one anguished question:

Where indeed, Mr. Gauguin, are we going exactly?

Smoking by any other Name

In the face of ever-worsening climate change[1], constant updates from the media on how quickly the Arctic is melting[2], and an utter failure of our society to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions (rather, we’re still increasing them[3), why do we continue to fly when few other activities in our lives create more emissions?

I Had to Take a Plane. So Here’s What We Did About it…

My flying to Mallorca released 417 kg of CO2 which will now be in the atmosphere for many hundreds of years.  The climate impacts of the decision will be very real.  So, on balance, worth doing?  It’s your call really.  Hard to say.  It was certainly a great way to communicate a Transition story of being aware about flying, of it being a big deal, of linking that to healthy, vibrant, resilient soils and to post fossil fuel farming, and its connection to vibrant, connected communities.