Robin

I was recently asked if we should replace the IPCC with something less flawed. My answer is that nothing else could inspire top scholars worldwide to volunteer years of their lives to produce a definitive source on the state of our climate, impacts, and solutions. We have to fund the IPCC.

Look, I know all the reasons we got here, but we really need to start seriously thinking about what we do in a world where The Markets punish whole countries for voting for decency, compassion, and fairness. We must stop pretending the capitalist machine is an objective, value neutral force.

Genuinely I don't know that it comes across to people who haven't been here to watch how almost unbelievable this was, just people taking something that looked impossible and dragging it kicking and screaming all the way to inevitability.

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth. Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

The kneecapping of the BBC Is a horrific exercise in avoiding to pay for anything and hoping “efficiency savings” are enough to get by. Just fucking fund the BBC properly.

0.1C of warming is ~222 gigatonnes of co2 now into perpetuity. Let's say now to 2100; just under 3 GT CO2/yr. Brazil's land-use emissions were up around this not long ago! Ambitious number but totally feasible, imo carbonimpactstracer.com#interactive-... climateactiontracker.org/countries/br...

Lula Goes HARD

Lula remains the undisputed greatest progressive leader of the era. So happy. Can’t begin to describe the difference this makes around the world, not just Brazil

I dropped this from something else I was writing but yes, my view is a major reason MPs put weight on casework is their other opportunities to do useful work are constrained, and if you changed that prioritises would shift docs.google.com/document/d/1...

You have to laugh at the sheer insanity of Turning Point UK being found to be organising literal contract killings and paid agitation at protests up and down the country and it barely even raises a flicker across the press. If that isn't 'terrorism' on some level I don't really know what is

My new favorite Han scholar is Fan Ying (106-144 CE): “He was successful in avoiding official posts until 129 when he was appointed Leader of Court Gentlemen for Miscellaneous Uses. After some months he feigned serious illness and returned to his home as Grand Master for Splendid Happiness.”

This is very, very good.

More bad, sad news about coral reefs:

Enoch Powell level bile and lies from the Times www.thetimes.com/comment/the-...

Reminded today of this all-timer from the early days of The Internet

✍️ Britain does have an economic model. It just happens to be a consumer website. I wrote something about the moneysavingexpert economy and why it's facing an existential crisis. And why this isn't just a UK issue... Have a read👇 edconway.substack.com/p/the-moneys...

The Guardian's homepage right now... 1. "UK approves Jackdaw gasfield in North Sea" 2. World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says

it is pleasant to read about whales through their own spectacles

In Brazil a few weeks ago I was very impressed with the Pix instant money transfer system. I could see why Trump attacked it, and also why Lula defended it so passionately. It’s costless and therefore profitess for Trump’s key supporters: monopoly capitalists. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pix_(pa...

Flávio Bolsonaro: "Lula, can you explain why 73% of prisoners voted for you?" Lula: "I want 100% to vote. Even your father."

In this “Jaws of Hell” roof boss from 12th-century Norwich Cathedral, dark spotted devil with long hair and cloven foot (at L) ushers condemned souls into the gaping fanged mouth of a hideous monster

This Day in Labor History: October 16, 1859. John Brown and a group of followers invade the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (today WV) to start a war and end slavery. Let's talk about this key moment in American labor history!

one of the biggest driving forces for the dominators pushing Ai software is "deskilling" if enough people forget how to do something, they'll be required to pay for the black box monthlyreview.org/articles/bra...

The Prince Charles Cinema Secures its Future The Prince Charles Cinema is thrilled to announce that we have signed a new 25-year lease with no break clause, ensuring our projectors will keep rolling for years to come. #YouSavedthePCC

Re the Sally Rooney news, I was looking up data on arrests under terrorism legislation the other day, and hadn't quite realised how utterly bonkers the effect of the Palestine Action prohibition had been. That big purple spike is basically all PA-related arrests.

A state that can't provide teachers but deploys police reveals where its priorities lie. My new sociological analysis in Social Europe, published as nationwide protests grip France today, examines the crisis of state power and democratic legitimacy. www.socialeurope.eu/frances-stud... #AcademicSky

Surviving Bronze Age timbers which are preserved at Flag Fen Archaeology Park in Cambridgeshire. The timbers formed part of a remarkable 1km causeway which was built across marshy ground. 📸 My own. #Woodensday #FlagFen #BronzeAge #Archaeology

Levick’s ‘Zoological notes from Cape Adare’ fill “125 pages of tightly written script ... from the arrival of the first penguin on 13 October to the last entry on 31 December 1911. The notebooks ... are rich in detail.” To put it mildly. His work...

The Parti Socialiste, once the dominant party in France, will not have a presidential candidate, and all that social-democracy will offer is a kind of Macronism with a slight left inflection

RIP Chris Wickham. Unlike so many historians who emphasise particularities and contingencies, he was the master of constructing grand, coherent, beautifully rendered worlds out of his evidence. This, from his 2021 Past and Present essay, is a masterpiece of historical writing.

In the vein of "public libraries could never be created today," a pitch for a calculator would get you thrown out of the boardroom. What do you mean, it just maths? Where are the ads supposed to go? How does it send usage telemetry back if it doesn't even have wifi? There isn't even a leaderboard.

"It isn’t point scoring that has delayed care reform, but disagreements on how to find the money and what to spend it on... What’s been missing is a leader willing to lead." I look at 20 years of failed adult care reform - and what Labour's proposals could miss By me, for @theleaduk.bsky.social

Morning 1884 https://botfrens.com/collections/90/contents/24895

If your kids are in school they’re constantly being prompted to “relate” to some text… listen to Anne

“When I look at the city of Paris I long to wrap my legs around it” - Anne Carson

I dunno man, maybe you could concentrate on producing good and interesting things people want to watch rather than trying to out-banal the lowest common denominator crap hosed at us everywhere else? (And make using BBC Sounds a less excruciating experience?) deadline.com/2026/10/bbc-...

The far right know that shaping the narrative with your own publishing platform is a great political tactic. Good example of them just being better at basic politics than we are.

Massive news - the world's largest deforestation project seems to have been halted by coordinated global campaigning The government of Indonesia planned to clear 4 million ha of rainforest on New Guinea, but will now refocus its farming and biofuel expansion on degraded lands instead

I am aware of the history of 20th century fascism and grew up around Holocaust survivors. When fascism returns, they said, expect indifference or outright cowardice from 90% of your friends, neighbors and colleagues. AND YET, it still shocks me to see this groveling cowardice in real time.

The rise of the gilet is such a tragedy

232. Lynd Ward's illustrations for a new translation of Beowulf in 1939.