🧵Yes, that’s right! The budget for cleaning up the illegal landfill waste to #rescuehoadswood is £10 million. 😲

c£3m of this is landfill tax (pocketed by the criminals) and VAT is c£1m. This cost doesn’t include the value of irreplaceable ancient woodland! 💔🌳🦌🦋🐦 (1/6)

22 yrs ago, while writing Mountains of the Mind, I studied George Mallory's original letters home from Everest in 1921, '22 & '24, in Magdalene College's archive.
Now they've digitised/published them all.
Fascinating, moving documents.
Open access here: magdalene.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/to-r…

'Something very interesting is happening in the UK to do with nature...': terrific to see this John Harris piece abt the emergence of a 'new kind of radical landscape politics', from land access campaigns to the Rights of Rivers movement. Yes!
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

This is (l to r) Sam, Reuben & Denzel of Elmhurst School in London.
They've learned the Jackdaw Spell from The Lost Spells by heart & here they are rocking it in the woods.
Poetry, outdoor learning, smiles, dance!
Will you give them a shout, tell them how awesome they are?

‘“It is an enormous scandal that many…in the industry know about, but nobody wants to talk about,” said the whistleblower.’

Flow-trimming, equipment-fixing, sewage-sloughing: the deeper we dive, the dirtier & less accountable the UK water industry gets. theguardian.com/environment/20…

Many of us feel furious about the state of the UK's rivers––but also powerless.
Now King's Legal Clinic have launched a 130-pp toolkit for change.
Citizen science, FOIs, reporting, legal remedies: it's all here.
It's brilliant.
Read it, share it, fight back!
kcl.ac.uk/legal-clinic/a…

'Here the delicate calls of marsh tits are becoming harder to find, as populations plummet. The story from this wood is being played out nationally, as human noise gets louder & the sounds of nature vanish.'
On the thinning & dimming of birdsong. Familiar?
theguardian.com/environment/20…

Publication day for Another England, by the always-inspirational Caroline Lucas — a book that tells another story about England & Englishness. I read it in proof: it’s brilliant. It delves deep & ranges wide, and re-thinks land, belonging & place in vital, urgent ways.

1/ I’m an Israeli academic. My community is still too silent about the war in Gaza. Following my viral tweet last month, this is the updated & expanded version of how I see things based on >1000 articles and 1000s of videos/images of the war. 🧵of summary conclusions:

“This is a death potion for the river…”.

Steve Backshall has commissioned private analysis of water from the Thames, results are in & they are horrifying.
“Treat the water as though it is a biohazard.”
Further analysis & rage from Steve below & on Instagram (@ backshall.steve)

The New School of the Anthropocene is a radical, trans-disciplinary, low-fee experiment in higher ed.
I teach there & find it a true convivium.
Applications are now open for 24-25; virtual/in-person.
Learn more about New School of the Anthropocene's ethos & apply here: nsota.org/intro

'A shy young girl, hiding her face behind her friend, said hesitantly––'the river has the right to sing'.'
A beautiful short Shrishtee Bajpai essay on river-rights & river-guardianship in the Ladakh region.
Here: vikalpsangam.org/article/walkin…

Government announces a £35m package to halt & reverse the slow death of the River Wye.
Much to welcome here, but as charles watson notes: 'There's a thundering silence on critically important actions such as banning new intensive livestock production units'.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

'I think one of the dullest things in the world is a letter filled with apologies for not writing sooner.'

Dorothy Wordsworth, from a letter to Lady Beaumont, 25 May 1804.

Weekend wonder for your ears: Cosmo Sheldrake's second studio album is out TODAY.
It's called Eye To The Ear, and it is sheer-pure straight-up music-magic.
Lichen, ocean, swallows, clouds––it's all here.
And 'Interdimensional' is a stone-cold classic.
found.ee/eyetotheear

No victory awaits Israel in Rafah. Only more death and destruction haaretz.com/opinion/2024-0….

Heard my first Blackcap singing not long after sun-up today, fresh in from North Africa. Liquid-metal notes, amid the glitter-chaff of the Goldfinches.
A real heart-lifter. They back with you yet?

200 yrs ago, William Blake etched these images of the 'River Spirits' of Albion (presently on display Fitzwilliam Museum).
The lower spirit swims gloriously free, frilled & finned.
The uppermost is, prophetically, today's river-spirit; a dying swan-being, a slump-necked naiad.

Drone footage of the illegally dumped landfill waste in Hoad’s Wood, nr Bethersden, Kent 💔🌳🌳🌳

This happened over July 23 - Jan 24 despite proactive community reporting 📢

Sign, share & RT to clean it up❗️

👉 change.org/rescuehoadswood 👈

Foreign Press Association presses again for immediate access to Gaza raising “questions about what Israel does not want international journalists to see”. The US administration has also pressed Netanyahu directly on the issue, still no change.