🥁🥳 It’s our book of weirdos’ 3rd birthday. Thanks loads to anyone who has supported our work.
Against the odds & unbelievably, 45,000 copies have sold.
🇬🇧Published by Welbeck /Hachette
+ translated editions in 🇪🇸🇨🇿🇨🇳🇳🇱🇺🇸
#FunnyBumsFreakyBeaks
#KidLit
#ScienceBooks
#stem
📚
Wow!!!
Bristol Airport expansion has just been REFUSED by North Somerset councillors.
They voted 18:7 (1 abstained) essentially that economic gain does not outweigh catastrophic environmental impacts including climate change. A victory for climate justice over dinosaur economics!
Russia, China, North Korea…? No.
Britain.
A man was detained & searched by police in Cornwall this week for holding a blank sign at a royal visit.
The state of the U.K. in 2023 under repressive new laws to silence free speech & protest, imposed by the far right Tory Regime.
Climate activist Phil Kingston, 83, has glued himself to a train this morning at Shadwell DLR Station in London. “I’m doing this for my grandchildren.”
This will be his 13th arrest. Video shared by
@XRebellionUK
@ukhomeoffice
You should not be acting as a spokesperson for an MP or for the Conservative Party.
Also you made a false statement. Immigration is not illegal.
People are not illegal.
The Home Office should recognise & respect international law on human rights.
51 Brits have a virus, out of 66 million.
So now there's a 'war room'.
Where's the war room for the climate crisis, mass extinction & pollution?
36,000+ Brits die each year from air pollution
250k pa will die from climate change globally
15% of UK species at risk of extinction
I was told to sign a gagging order or walk when I was offered work by the
@bbc
- a non disclosure agreement (NDA) to silence me from ever speaking out or writing about anything that went on behind closed doors at the BBC. I refused. I pointed out things like this. I was told to
This is sickening to listen to - why does the media favour, promote, protect & enable men like these? Again & again, across the industry.
Media workers are widely forced to sign gagging orders (NDAs). If you refuse to sign them you are told to walk.
Such NDAs & the toxic sexist
Campaigners say there have been 100,000 people in London protesting about climate change this weekend. And yet
#TheBigOne
is invisible across all bar 1 mainstream media front pages & so far totally ignored by the
@BBCNews
app, BBC Twitter & BBC Instragram accounts.
🧵
I just walked past this on the Grand Union Canal in London.
What madness that it’s come to this!!!
Pumping air or oxygen into England’s waterways as a life support measure to stop wildlife dying because so much pollution has been pumped & leaked into ecosystems.
This video went viral today resulting in a Guardian story & the Home Office asking for the footage to be removed, claiming it “misrepresents the interaction” due to editing.
Nonsense. It reflects her beliefs & her politics. The public should know. The Home Office is just as bad.
This is chilling. The European Convention on Human Rights was set up with support from Churchill after WW2. It’s not ‘lefty’ & not ‘the EU.’
History /ideology behind ECHR: To prevent the serious human rights violations which occurred during WW2 ever happening again…
1/
Sudan has declared a 3-month state of emergency. Floods have killed dozens, affected ½ million people this year & damaged or destroyed >100,000 homes.
UN says many people need urgent help.
Rain in 2020 exceeds records of 1946 & 1988 & is set to continue.
Sites like this look pretty, but it’s skin deep. I call such examples celebrity flowers. Big bad environmental impacts.
It is alien for a wild meadow to look like Chelsea Flower Show, Gardeners’ World or a Hollywood scene.
True wild beauty has deeper layers & stunning complexity.
That people are more triggered by soup on a sunflower
Than millions dying from climate change
Than a million species going extinct
And carry on
Flying
Buying
Lying
Colluding
Scrolling
Denying
That a sunflower painting can be ‘worth’ £80 million
Life on Earth is worth more
Please sign this if you work in the media, share it even if you don’t. 🙏
This case against Julian Assange is a threat to journalists, government accountability & justice everywhere.
Ad in Tuesday’s
@Guardian
#JournalistsSpeakUpForAssange
Dear Richard, an idea: instead of shifting your $1 billion pile between tax havens, how about shifting some of it to HMRC and stop asking our Government for a bailout that will subsidise your massive contribution to climate change?
@richardbranson
A useful reminder that the plants you leave to grow are helping to cool your street. Even the tiny ‘weeds’ in the path cracks do a valuable job in cooling urban heat traps, as well as nourishing wildlife & slowing flooding.
Compostela, in Galicia, swelters under an unprecedented heatwave. The stone pavement of the historic centre is boiling hot, but not everywhere. Colonizing "lumpen" plant species are making cities more hospitable. Let's help them as the allies they are.
🧡💛💚💙💜🖤❤️
Good people will help find a way. Louise Michel is a rescue boat named after a feminist anarchist. It set off in secret & rescued 89 people in distress, including women & children.
Huge respect to
#Banksy
& skipper Pia.
#BanksyMcBoatFace
I’ve just read a nature blog about volunteers removing a grassy area with brambles & ivy 😭 replacing it with a seed mix for ‘pollinators.’
It was a butterfly haven 🦋BECAUSE 🦋of what they removed.
Please folk, get ecology advice, don’t believe the seed marketing people.
It’s almost as if the
#ToryRegime
is modelling itself on the Russian oligarchs who fund the British
@Conservatives
party and this U.K. Government, isn’t it?!
As a science journalist, I welcome this action. These billionaires sell poison. They frequently ignore, obscure and deny the truth on science and many social and environmental issues, parade science illiteracy and ignite hatred and prejudice based on lies. See thread.
BREAKING: Extinction Rebellion blocks News Corps Printworks and demands they FREE THE TRUTH
As the printing presses crank up,
#ExtinctionRebellion
groups in North London and Liverpool are taking on the titans of the media industry.
#FreeTheTruth
#WeWantToLive
#ChangeIsNow
This video went viral today resulting in a Guardian story & the Home Office asking for the footage to be removed, claiming it “misrepresents the interaction” due to editing.
Nonsense. It reflects her beliefs & her politics. The public should know. The Home Office is just as bad.
@jeremycorbyn
💔 You are a good man wronged Jeremy. We can all see that. Please start a new socialist party. Labour would come begging for a coalition & you would achieve more of what everyone on the left actually wants, a real movement. The unions & millions of members are betrayed to.
Might have been less harmful to play pin the tail on the donkey when mapping HS2 route, rather than ‘Let’s see how many irreplaceable ancient woodlands we can destroy’.
@WoodlandTrust
says 32 will be lost, 29 more damaged - calls to halt clearance.
Get your blank signs ready for the unelected King’s Coronation Day in May if you’d like to see
#ToryRegime
‘free speech’ warriors frothing at the mouths. 🤐
William & Kate's
#Cornwall
visit was secret until 6am. Even so, a protester was able to get there by lunchtime. If you don't have time to make a sign, a blank piece of paper will do. What's key is to
#MakeDissentVisible
so it can't be ignored.
#NotMyKing
#AbolishTheMonarchy
@JolyonMaugham
Jo, you continue to be one of best at fighting all the corruption. You are a public hero, thank you and please keep being a glorious pain in the ass. I love how much you annoy them.
🖤 Great news! Amazingly brave bat scientists risked remaining in Ukraine’s war zones with bombings going on all around them to save wildlife.
They’ve just released 1,000 noctule bats rescued from buildings over winter: “They have been hibernating in our 6 fridges for 5 months!”
British actor Benedict Cumberbatch joined Extinction Rebellion rebels in London on Wednesday night, preparing to sit outside all night to help the rebels hold Trafalgar Square.
#AutumnUprising
I’m told vaccine teams are in tears. The expansion of this cruel, scientifically deranged badger cull is not only a mass slaughter of a magnificent mammal that belongs here > cattle do, it confirms science illiterate politicians will do anything for power.
One year on, it seems lots of people still do not ‘get’ that
#DontLookUp
is an analogy of attitudes to climate change & biodiversity loss being driven by humans & science denial - they literally think it is about a fictional comet, nothing else. 🤦🏻♀️
#WakeTheFuckUp
Extinction Rebellion protestors outside the BBC Bristol office, have chained themselves to the gates, making a list of demands & calling on the BBC to improve coverage of climate change. No arrests so far.
@LBC
@NickFerrariLBC
Ferrari had the 72k figure in front of him so why lie & say it was a six figure sum?
Ferrari knew the tax subsidy claim was a lie so why say it?
Why use lies to incite listeners to hate strikers?
Why do you want renting tenants to be evicted from their homes?
You are poison.
Scientists in London today presented a declaration of support for non violent civil disobedience against government inaction on the climate and ecological emergency, signed by 400+ names including prominent professors.
Details & livestream:
What’s better?
🌳 60 million plastic tree guards?
Or
🌰 60 million genetically diverse wild acorns, hips, haws, hazelnuts, sloes, berries, samaras, drupes, pomes, arils, pods, legumes, capsules, achenes and other mast seeds growing by natural selection?
No I’m not accepting this as a new normal & nor should any of us. We were a thriving country with a functioning NHS & public services, prospering economy, better wages & clean water before the Tories & Brexiteers reduced us to a corrupt-fascism-led, dysfunctional Unicorn Kingdom.
@JewishLabour
@TheGreenParty
Hello
@jewishlabour
Is the Green Party’s “anti Semitism” in the room with you now?
You are right on one thing: there is nothing progressive about protecting racist genocidal Zionists.
Zionism is not Judaism.
Palestinians are Semites, by the way.
So let’s see you condemning
I wrote this before the police banned XR from London last night.
You don’t win a revolution by asking for permission. It’s a dark time in Britain’s history when we see the human right to protest for our children’s future and our living planet blocked.
Hiya. Long shot, I’m hoping some humans will see this post, sign & share my new petition to get private vested interests & dirty money out of politics for good -
eg fossil fuel barons, genocidal maniacs, dodgy PPE contractors, Russian oligarchs,
I’m seeing lots of alternative & justly angry messages about the
#Jubilee
- songs, graffiti, art, events & posters. Very strong feelings, understandable so, with Britain being so royally screwed & broke.
Plenty of cash to spaff at the top.
Fresh calls to
#AbolishTheMonarchy
🧵
Due to ongoing BP sponsorship by the
@BritishMuseum
& no clear promise to end it soon, I have this week turned down some really nice freelance work with the Museum which I’d have liked to do. Among other things, it would’ve fed into a high profile exhibition coming next year.
1/
.
@GretaThunberg
has just been arrested for protesting the expansion of a German coal mine.
Her expression suggests to me she knows exactly how ridiculous the police look. She can be certain she is doing the right thing, even if the law tries to say otherwise.
Solidarity.
💚 Look what happens when your Government isn’t stupid. New Zealand followed the best scientific advice. So now it’s not crippled by Covid. Next it’s investing in 11,000 jobs in biodiversity, habitat creation & alien species control, to rebuild better.💚
🌱Many folk can’t name the less loved urban wild flowers that cling on to life on paths & walls - downtrodden, sprayed & forgotten. Now rebel graffiti botanists are chalking up those lost names across Europe's cities - even though it is illegal in Britain.
We rely on plants for our survival. And yet hardly anyone wants to pay botanists. To help halt these extinctions we should
🌱Teach more botany & plant ID to adults & children
🌱Support herbaria & botanists doing research
🌱Record the world’s wild plants
❤️Great news. Meet Dil, the one-eyed bandit. He’s waddling about in my garden tonight. Thanks to hedgehog rescuers he has recovered from a dog attack - he was found injured among daffodils in Victoria Park, Bristol. He’s been fattening up and is now ready to return to the wild.
@JewishLabour
@TheGreenParty
If you cannot back up those allegations & accusations with actual solid evidence (not hearsay from unreliable newspapers) then you’ve just published libel.
That could be very expensive for you.
The largest ever fine to a UK company for a wildlife crime: £600,000 bill for Bellway Homes for destroying a bat roosting site in Greenwich, London.
A £20,000 voluntary donation will be made to the Bat Conservation Trust
@_BCT_
to tackle crime & save bats.
I’m told Roots Allotment have been asked to pause controversial work on part of a wildflower meadow beside Leigh Woods, Bristol, after complaints to police.
This is a known breeding area for UK Red Listed skylarks, and it is home to several other legally protected species.
But in most cases it is NOT illegal immigration. They are vulnerable people with human rights.
And the Home Office knows that. So they are trying to defend the indefensible.
And it’s not ‘swarms’.
For ‘swarms’ look at offshore tax havens & the Tories.
In light of all the submarine attention versus other ignored people lost at sea I've just set up this fundraiser to support amazing Sea-Watch volunteers who rescue refugees. I cried when I heard the news about the latest 700+ lost in the Med, including 100 children.
Let's help!
@ukhomeoffice
@SuellaBraverman
I’ve reported this Tweet for racism. It is not a person’s nationality that makes them a criminal. There are lots of British sex offenders of all skin colours & differing ethnic heritage. This is a low, pre-electioneering attempt to stoke divisive culture wars.
These beauties are among many extraordinary animals that feature in our next children’s science & nature book,
#FunnyBums
Moon moths use those wing ‘tails’ to trick bats, by deflecting their hunting echolocation signals, so bats miss their prey. Ingenius, and what stunners, too!
“Never under estimate just how thick this government thinks we all are.”
- Well yes, but sadly it appears enough people in Britain really are naive enough to believe all the endless Tory lies.
What a stunner! A female holly blue in my Bristol garden just now. There’s a lot of interesting old folklore around butterflies. They were symbols of the soul, of wishes and secrets carried on the wind, growth and transformation, magical flames, Russian witches & dream carriers.
🦇 Here is a puzzle and some good news on Britain's rare greater horseshoe bats: why are they now in Kent?
Story by me in today's
@guardian
I’ve worked a lot with bats and I marvel at these incredible little caped fuzz balls with their screaming noses.
👑 Protest knob mown on one of Britain’s most famous & prestigious lawns at the Royal Crescent in Bath. Just in time for a coronation party there on the big day. 🇬🇧
#MorningGlory
This is what genocide looks like. These are the 2913 Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military this month, as of Thursday, October 26. As the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza intensify, we recognize with horror and grief that this death toll is already inaccurate.
1/5
“Look - they hug your nose!”
A wild discovery with my favourite young botanist. And some lovely old names for hedge bindweed:
🌱Morning glory.
🌱Granny-pop-out-of-bed.
🌱Heavenly trumpets.
🌱Old man’s nightcap.
🌱Bride’s gown.
🌱Belle of the ball.
🌱White witches’ hats
In response to many comments on XR disruption in London, let’s reflect on some history.
@PeterHain
writes that when suffragette Emily Davison died in 1913 whilst campaigning for women’s votes, men apparently complained that their race day had been ruined.
@ukhomeoffice
Here’s the full version. She claims the U.K. has a ‘huge’ immigration problem.
Really? How? That’s opinion, not fact. Thanks to Brexit we have a labour shortage. Migrants contribute more to the economy than they cost.
Criminally stupid. I’m astonished & disappointed that even after declaring a climate emergency, growth & airport expansion are still valued above the millions who will suffer from the consequences of climate devastation. North Somerset recommends go-ahead.
All those BBC staff faces & voices beamed into your homes - unless things have changed recently they will have all signed up to silence any questionable or unfair goings on at the BBC, including abuse.
Hundreds of Bristol rebels marching in solidarity against climate change & extinction. Can you spot a famous face?
@XRBristol
&
@XrYouth
are occupying the city centre round the clock all week with peaceful protests, inspirational speakers, performers, a boat, camps & workshops.🌍
@bbcquestiontime
Why did you put unqualified Julia Partly-A-Sewer on a climate science panel
@BBC
? Wtf is wrong with you? Surely this breaches your Charter, to inform; & basic journalism standards, of honesty & accuracy. Are BBC staff this bought, this misanthropic, this science illiterate?
@darrenpjones
@BBCRB
@carla_denyer
I’m so done with Blue Labour.
This is desperate barrel scraping.
Why have a pop at the Greens for supporting clean air zones, especially when Labour’s very own London Mayor is under attack from Tories for supporting clean air zones?!
You sound like a Tory to me. You also
The BBC told me at the time the gagging order NDAs were compulsory. No exceptions.
My union challenged them at the time & the problems with media NDAs went to a Parliamentary committee hearing, which heard they were fairly standard across the media industry.
#MediaPatriarchy
Sorry. This is deeply concerning for a multitude of reasons, which are overlooked entirely by this one sided business story & its promoters. I don’t share the widespread celebrity/rewilder/ billionaire/novice nature lover enthusiasm I’m seeing here.
1/x
@GeorgeMonbiot
🙁I got similar vibes when I had a head injury. I couldn’t get through to 111 for hours. Alone & confused by shock & concussion, I wasn’t sure what to do. I finally made it to A&E, wearing a
#FuckTheTories
mask. Nevermind the rest, it truly made me the most popular person in A&E.
Scottish police charged a man for breaching the peace after he heckled Prince Andrew, who quit royal duties over his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
2 others face charges for anti-royal protests. Activists say arrests represent a "fundamental erosion of our democracy."
Wondering why millions of birds are missing? There are multiple causes - but here’s a big one. This is horrific. Millions are vacuumed to death annually across the Med.
This is a wolf spider carrying its babies.
The sparkles are their eyes, many creatures that need to see well in dim light have a tapetum lucidum which is a retroreflective tissue found in eyes.
Unsettling or exciting?
The other day I got called ‘pompous’ by someone who went to Eton. Well, only one of us comes from a broken home on a council estate & has a book with a bum on the cover. 😎
#WomenInStem
@ClassFestival
Wow! What a great feeling - holding a copy of our new book in my hands at last!
#FunnyBumsFreakyBeaks
explains & celebrates animal weirdness. Tons of science & wonder + important messages about difference & diversity.
Published March 4. 😊
Pre-order at
UPDATE: UK police confirmed at least 4 people arrested for protesting the monarchy and King Charles:
▪️ 1 man in Oxford who shouted: "Who elected him?"
▪️ 3 in Edinburgh, including a 74-year-old, a woman holding a sign and a man who called Prince Andrew "a sick old man."
@OwenJones84
I agree, the only reason WHY military men show footage of atrocities, regardless of whether the footage is true or false, is so try to justify the unjustifiable - more violence - to the public & governments. It is entirely about trying to chip away at people’s humanity & empathy.
🌱Pathways to endless curiosity!
Botanist Boris Presseq from Toulouse Museum has been chalking up life in the crevices, sharing the names and stories of what dwells at the urban frontier, to encourage interest from passers by.
It’s difficult to get young kids to eat any green leaves, ever, let alone ones that smell like mouse wee! 🤢
More eco-literacy would be wise but I think this story is more powerful if you replace the word ‘hemlock’ with the word ‘car’ or ‘car fumes’.
Just blocked 8 men. If you try to mansplain me, or like people who mansplain me, about what I do professionally, expect the same. If you don't know what science is & can't cope with me working in journalism AND science AND teaching AND being an author & mum, it ain't my problem.
The state of the NHS is down to political choice. While unions try to defend the NHS, its staff & the need for proper funding, the Tories continue to undermine it.
The Guardian is reporting “Ministers have asked the NHS pay review body to cap the increase in front line health workers pay to 2% in 2023-24”
So much for all the “independent” boll**** spouted by
@RishiSunak
and
@SteveBarclay
This is a political choice