Sustainababble

Election 2019, then: Tories. LOTS of Tories. Boris is as delighted as pig in a massive pile of poo, and has carte blanche to sodding well do whatevs - including to the planet. Crikey, and indeed, Moses. What on Earth does all this mean for, well, Earth? Will the good green stuff the Tories promised ever actually happen? Is this the end for the climate movement? And if you're feeling a bit soggy and limp about it all, what's to do next? Dave and Ol haven't really been to bed, but the Babble never sleeps. Join us, and several cups of exceptionally strong coffee, for a post-electoral cuddle. 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 [email protected].

It's possible that a terrifyingly high proportion of babble listeners haven't seen Free Willy, which, if the case, is truly appalling. Not being alive in 1993 is NO EXCUSE.Anyway, it's a film about an orca, and orcas - killer whales - are extraordinary beings, but beings we know bugger all about. So we decided to interview someone who knows rather more.Enter Shilpa Shah, strategist and blogger for the wonderful Orca Guardians organisation in West Iceland. Shilpa is, by her own admission, completely obsessed with these animals, not only because of their remarkable social structures and astonishing intelligence, but because of what they might be trying to tell us about... us.To find out more about Orca Guardians and their work, please visit https://orcaguardians.org/. You can even adopt an orca! https://orcaguardians.org/adoption-packages/ 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 [email protected].

"The gentle art of persuading the public to believe that they want something they don’t need", so a 1905 definition goes. Selling in 2019 is basically the same, except now there's the added by-product - yay! - of hastening planetary self-combustion.But what's it actually like selling stuff you know is bad news? Can the ad industry - increasingly staffed by the eco-anxious, after all - use its dark arts to save the planet? And is Mad Men basically a documentary?We natter to recovering ad man, and co-founder of The Comms Lab, Jonathan Wise, to find out.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 [email protected].

Bits of northern England have been inundated by floodwater in recent weeks. Even the perpetually soggy Venice has managed to get somehow more underwater.It's grim as hell, flooding, made worse by the politicians stopping by with a mop and hi-vis. Grim, but not unpredictable. So why is everyone still reporting these events as if they're out of the blue? Shouldn't we start assuming they're going to happen more regualrly, and get our preparative shit together accordingly?Also this week, manifestos for the babble's THIRD general election make for surprisingly uplifting reading, and Coldplay kick blighty when it's down. 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 [email protected].

Chances are, if you listen to this podcast you're a bit of a lefty. And that's fine. And we are too.But lefties surely can't claim a monopoly on environmentalism, can they? There are plenty of non-lefties who say they care just as much about the planet, after all.So, in a demonstration of BBC-standard impartiality, we decided to interview an Actual Tory. It's only been 157 episodes, after all.Step forward Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network and former aide to Michael Gove, to give a passionate defense of Tory environmentalism. Crikey moses.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 [email protected].

Whizz! Bang! No, not BoJo's pillow talk, but the sound of millions of home explosives polluting the sky and making pets' insides go gooey. With the annual Guy Fawkes celebration now behind us, we ask if it might be time to ban yet another thing that's fun.Also this week, seismic news in fracking world: it's actually been banned in England! We pause to celebrate this epic win, and thank the people who made it happen.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 [email protected].

In this special episode, Dave and Ol leave stinky London behind and head off to rainy, muddy Cornwall to try to meet some actual beavers. Without wellies. It's been 400 years since the humble but sodding impressive beaver was wiped out in the UK due to having nice-smelling undercarriages. Now, a handful of rewilders are starting to reintroduce them - including organic farmer, sausage chaser and beaver fancier, Chris Jones. With the help of Babble listener extraordinaire Abi, we visited Chris's farm to see these fabby rodents up close. Thanks massively to Chris Jones (@kernowbeaver) and Abi Beath for all the help. Abi's alter ego is singer/songwriter Abi Sofia, and two of her tracks are used in this episode - listen at https://soundcloud.com/abisofiamusic. Find out more about the Cornwall Beaver Project at @cornwallbeaver (Twitter) or @cornwallbeaverproject on Facebook. 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 [email protected].

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 Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at [email protected].

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 @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at [email protected].

"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: 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 [email protected].