Sustainababble

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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

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

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.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].

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.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].

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.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].