Bivalve veganism is built on the philosophy that molluscs such as mussels and oysters feel no pain. But some say the scientific jury is still out
Alex Karol is fantasising about the next time she gets to slurp up some freshly shucked oysters. “I’ll have them with lemon juice, shallots, and a couple of drops of hot sauce. Sometimes, I have a couple with a splash of vodka,” says the London- and Toronto-based publicist. Cost curbs her craving for oysters to one meal a month, and so even just talking about them makes her hungry. “I really, really enjoy them – like, properly enjoy them. I wish that I had oysters every single day of my life.”
Oysters are not to everyone’s taste but Karol’s enthusiasm for the filter-feeding bivalves comes as a surprise – because she is vegan. She is otherwise strict: she does not even consume honey. But a few years back she found she was struggling to get certain nutrients in suitable quantities from plants alone, and someone tipped her off to the idea that you could eat oysters and still be vegan. It was called “bivalve veganism” – and Karol was sold.
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09/12/2024 - 02:00
Grand schemes, many backed by government, masquerade as taking action on the environment. They should be disowned
Let’s talk about perceptionware. Perceptionware is technology whose main purpose is to create an impression of action. Whether it will ever work at scale is less important, in some cases entirely beside the point. If it reassures the public and persuades government not to regulate damaging industries, that’s mission accomplished.
Managing perceptions is an expensive business. Real money, especially public money, is spent on fake solutions. Take carbon capture and storage: catching and burying carbon dioxide emissions from power stations, oil and gas fields, and steel and cement plants. For 20 years, it has spectacularly failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, its only clear successes involve enhanced oil recovery: carbon dioxide is used to drive oil out of geological formations that are otherwise difficult to exploit. With astonishing chutzpah, some oil companies have claimed the small amount of carbon that remains trapped in the rocks as a climate benefit. Though it is greatly outweighed by the extra oil extracted, they have, as a result, received billions in government subsidies.
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09/12/2024 - 00:00
UK government urged to change regulations so new homes incorporate solar panels, heat pump, high-grade insulation and battery storage
Building new homes to low-carbon standards would save the occupants thousands of pounds, new research has shown, as experts urged the government to change the regulations on housing development.
People living in a typical three-bedroom, semi-detached newly built house would save an average of £1,341 a year if it was equipped with solar panels, a heat pump, high-grade insulation and battery storage.
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09/11/2024 - 23:00
With Sweden issuing permits to kill a fifth of its bears, and Romanian MPs voting to double its quota, and the debate over hunting season has become a political issue
The forest was unnaturally still when Soňa Chovanová Supeková first picked up the bear’s scent. It was roe deer rutting season in southern Slovakia, and the hills below the Carpathian mountains were busy with tourists biking and foraging for mushrooms. Fellow hunters who had come face to face with bears had told Supeková the fear had been so great they could not lift their rifles. Sitting with her father, a hunter in his 80s who had killed a few bears, she found herself in a similar state of dread – she was out on that trip expecting to kill deer, and did not want to come on a bear unexpectedly.
“Fear permeated me … the smell penetrated to the tip of my bones,” says Supeková, the founder of the Club of Slovak Lady Hunters. But the bear never appeared. The next morning, the daughter-and-father hunting duo saw its droppings. “We breathed a sigh of relief only in the car.”
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09/11/2024 - 19:00
Climate Change Authority’s report didn’t even contain a recommendations section, let alone a command to eat less red meat
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The notion that “greenies” are coming for the Aussie barbecue and want to rip that eye fillet from your cold dead hands is a recurring culture war flash point for many conservatives.
Last week came a flood of media stories and furious commentary that claimed the government’s Climate Change Authority (CCA) had recommended people eat less red meat to bring down greenhouse gas emissions.
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09/11/2024 - 14:55
David Moot nabs ‘dream’ Cape Cod home next to eroding cliff in imminent danger of crumbling due to climate crisis
A man who says life’s too short to resist buying a home that might fall off a cliff in a few years has taken ownership of a house with a beautiful view that’s just 25ft (7.6 metres) from a sandy, crumbling cliff.
David Moot paid $395,000 for the house on Cape Cod on the Massachusetts coast and said he intends to enjoy it while it lasts.
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09/11/2024 - 14:45
Top nature writing honour goes to Late Light by Michael Malay, which explores modern Britain through the ‘unloved’ lives of eels, moths, crickets and mussels
A book that explores modern Britain by examining four “unloved” animals – eels, moths, crickets and mussels – has won this year’s Wainwright prize for nature writing.
Michael Malay, a lecturer in literature and environmental humanities at the University of Bristol, took home the award for Late Light, in which he tells his story of moving to the UK as an Indonesian Australian, drawing parallels with the lives of the animals he looks at.
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09/11/2024 - 14:34
Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, record amounts of oil and gas have been produced in the US in the past six years
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump clashed over fracking during Tuesday’s presidential debate. Here’s an introduction to the gas and oil extraction process that has transformed the US fossil fuel industry.
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09/11/2024 - 12:24
Move follows London museum’s links to Adani Group, which has partnership with Israeli arms manufacturer
Save the Children has pulled out of an event at the Science Museum in London after coming under pressure from its supporters over the institution’s sponsors.
The charity said it had decided to withdraw from an evening event called Journey of Life Lates on 11 September “following concerns from supporters about one of the museum’s sponsors, in the context of current public campaigns”.
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09/11/2024 - 11:25
Harris has a progressive record on climate but indicated a shift, probably to assuage voters in swing states
Kamala Harris stridently backed new fracking and expanded US gas production in comments that raised eyebrows among some environmentalists as, yet again, the unfolding climate crisis was largely overlooked during a set piece presidential debate.
Harris, in a televised debate with Donald Trump on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, rebuffed the former president’s claim that she will end fracking “on day one” if elected by touting booming levels of drilling during her term as vice-president, in which US oil and gas production has hit record highs.
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