Senior Lecturer in Energy Policy at the University of Exeter, UK. Researching change, inertia and public engagement in energy transitions. https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/19656-iain-soutar
What a weird word of use - ‘failed’. I failed to crash my car last week. I failed to miss my train yesterday. Etc. etc.
BusinessGreenEV100: Over 70 per cent of large corporates failed to purchase diesel or petrol vehicles last year businessgreen.com/ne...
Can this really be true? Astonishing if so. If this lasts it's a very bad sign indeed. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Former neo-Nazi activist selected as Tory candidate for Somerset council electionJoshua Bonehill-Paine, creator of satirical Crewkerne Gazette, has convictions including for harassing a Jewish MPwww.theguardian.com
"Kew Gardens has had a weather station since 1871. This July was, based on third party analysis of Met Office data collected at the site, the first calendar month on record where no rainfall was measured at Kew."
London's first month without rainPlus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?www.londoncentric.media
Wildfires at least twice as likely in France and at least 2️⃣0️⃣❎ more likely in Spain - @WWAttribution.bsky.social study “Climate change doesn’t light the spark for wildfires, but it certainly provides the fuel." @gredmondking.bsky.social
Fantastic to see the publication of the ACCESS Adaptation and Resilience Task Force's new report: "Putting people at the centre of UK climate adaptation and resilience", co-led by CAST's Prof Irene Lorenzoni (University of East Anglia) & Dr Rory Walshe (Government Office for Science). 👇
Putting people at the centre of UK climate adaptation and resilienceThis report summarises evidence on how placing people at the heart of climate adaptation policy and action can improve outcomes.www.gov.uk
Electricity costs much less on days with lots of wind or solar generation. Without wind and solar power, electricity would cost far more.
Renewables do unambiguously reduce wholesale power prices | Carbon CommentaryWe still hear assertions that adding renewables to the grid has increased the UK’s electricity costs. I looked at two sources of data and plotted one against the other to test whether there’s any trut...www.carboncommentary.com
Individual & systemic change are 2 sides of same coin. “…We suggest that social change arises from individuals’ agency within their roles in societal systems, and that this agency should be actively leveraged to achieve meaningful climate change mitigation.” www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Leveraging agency for climate change mitigation - Nature Climate ChangeClimate debates often frame individual behaviour and systems change as distinct pathways to action. We suggest that social change arises from individuals’ agency within their roles in societal systems...www.nature.com
Fun fact: as part of their Water Resources Management Plans, water companies are required to assess the full range of options for securing water supplies, which includes... ...towing *icebergs* up the Thames
Akshat RathiThis wasn't on my adaptation bingo card. "Romania used 180kg explosive to blow rock to divert water from drought-hit Danube to nuclear reactor." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
Can’t remember where you parked your car? Only 31,900 places to look.…🤔 Not bad as a metaphor for America in the Anthropocene…
Aaron Reichlin-MelnickI completely missed this. As part of Trump’s planned rebuild of Dulles (because playing with his toys is basically all he wants to do these days) he says he wants to build a parking garage that would be 60% larger than the current largest parking *lot* in the world?
Behind the bewildering transformation of British universities, are management consultants being paid millions Really proud to have this vital piece on our unis are being gutted from the inside by @jheathershaw.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale. Do read democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...
Inside Britain's university crisisAs teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeterdemocracyforsale.substack.com
Listening to Cory @doctorow.pluralistic.net always feels shocking, because he so clearly articulates an objective reality that is aggressively concealed by almost the entirety of the media industry, not least the financial press.
Frank Mc GirrExcellent long-form interview about AI. With Jon Stewart and @doctorow.pluralistic.net the writer and activist who coined the term "enshittification"—the process by which digital platforms gradually become worse for users as they prioritize profits and business interests. youtu.be/-dAIJRjb-Bw
There were 27,391 new UK solar installations in June 2026, the second highest monthly installations volume on record, adding 132 MW of capacity And we've got plug-in solar coming at the end of August! www.pv-magazine.com/2026/07/31/u...
UK solar capacity hits 22.8 GW as market prepares for plug-in launch - pv magazine GlobalThe UK added over 2 GW of solar capacity in the 12 months to the end of June 2026. With new plug-in solar regulations soon to take effect, a UK wholesaler boss tells pv magazine plug-in solar is a gre...www.pv-magazine.com
Almost 4 C warmer than average. Not pre-industrial average, but 1991-2020 average.
Nahel BelgherzeIt’s now official: June–July 2026 was the most anomalously warm two-month period ever recorded in France by a staggering margin. France is now virtually certain to record its warmest summer on record.
Just about made it to the end of the Netflix documentary, “Grenfell Uncovered”. Negligence. Greed. Injustice. It’s incredible to think that *nobody* has yet faced criminal charges for what happended. Instead, Eric Pickles was elevated to the House of Lords. #72
Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.
Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head saysLSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurancewww.ft.com
The Cognition Group in the Psychology dept at Exeter are at risk of redundancy because "basic cognitive psychology research does not align with the current priorities of funding bodies" If you think this is overtly wrong and misguided, please sign this open letter docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Open Letter in Support of the Cognition Group, University of ExeterTo Executive members of the University of Exeter, including Vice Chancellor Prof. Lisa Roberts, Senior Vice-President and Provost Prof. Dan Charman, Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean Prof. Sallie...docs.google.com
Mexico now exports more hardware for data centres than it does cars - quite the reshaping of an economy... New, with Christine Murray www.ft.com/content/ac32...
In January, I stopped using X as a communication channel because the platform facilitated the creation of illegal and deeply harmful images by its AI tool, Grok. I am renewing my call for all governmental and parliamentary communications to stop using X. The platform continues to facilitate
A deeply destructive and inexpert management consultancy class has emerged whose sole purpose is to shrink Anglosphere universities and to undermine their future - all the better to secure more work. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...
Inside Britain's university crisisAs teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeterdemocracyforsale.substack.com
New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...
Burnham's first mistakeThe problem with his education planopen.substack.com