Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image Description: A natural landscape with dry plants and distant mountains Arnold Schwarzenegger once compared the fantasy of movies to the world which we might see materialise around us if CO2 levels keep climbing, and the greenhouse effect takes off: “I’ve starred in a lot of science fiction movies and, let me tell you something, […]
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Image description: Boris Johnson standing behind a podium advertising the UN 2020 climate change conference. The background is blue and features an artistic impression of the Earth. November 2020 was supposed to be the month when the eyes of the world would be on Glasgow for arguably the most important conference on climate change the […]
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Image Description: A picture of crowds of people in front of Hertford College buildings. Hertford College has today announced that it is committing to net-zero carbon emissions and a biodiversity net gain by 2030. The college has already embarked on short-term changes, and plans to imminently develop a long-term strategy. Short-term changes include reducing unnecessary […]
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Image Description: A black and white picture of the roof of the Radcliffe Camera. Student campaigners including the Oxford SU, Oxford Climate Society, Oxford Climate Justice Campaign and Oxford Nature Conservation Society have joined forces to welcome the University of Oxford’s new ambitious Environmental Sustainability Strategy. The strategy became University policy after being approved in […]
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Image description: The Houston skyline. The past twelve months have been exceptionally terrible for the United States in terms of natural disasters, even disregarding a certain pandemic. The extraordinary freezing temperatures suffered by Texas, which caused state-wide blackouts and dozens of deaths, were only the latest in a series of climate disasters that have tormented […]
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Image description: Alexis McGivern smiling, wearing a green scarf and a black shirt In our final week of Michaelmas Term, our ‘Student Spotlight’ series features Alexis McGivern, an aspiring conservationist and 1 + 1 MBA student at the University of Oxford. Her passion for climate change has taken her to the International Union for Conservation […]
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Image description: Slices of meat stacked towards the camera. A motion mandating the SU to lobby for a ban on beef and lamb in University catering services passed yesterday, with 31 votes to 9 and 13 abstentions. The ban would affect university-operated catering outlets and university-organised events, but not food served in college halls or […]
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Image Description: Ella Daish standing in front of a mural of a turtle As our ‘Womxn on the Move’ series continues, I was lucky enough to interview Ella Daish, a pioneering environmentalist whose activism has led to the removal of plastic in menstrual hygiene products across various supermarkets and manufacturers. Last year she was recognised […]
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Image description: Grimes live in Austin in 2012 You may have forgotten, but Grimes makes music. Now, a lot of her fans, myself included, have taken to viewing her recent affiliations with a side-eye. Contrary to what you find in the media, ever since her appearance at the 2018 Met Gala Grimes is more than […]
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Good news, air pollution is down due to coronavirus lockdown measures! Climate change avoided for now, surely? In the short-term, we will see a big drop in global emissions but, as we’ve already seen in China, once the outbreak is over and industrial production and transportation ramp back up, so do the emissions. Instead of […]
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We were warned this might happen – pandemics are not new, and we should have been ready. Yet, why were we left so unprepared? With the NHS having only 5,000 intensive care beds, one of the lowest rates per heads in Europe and half that of Italy, it will inevitably be overwhelmed soon. The number […]
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Nearly 800 University of Oxford alumni have signed an open letter to the President and Principal Bursar of the College, threatening to withhold donations until the college commits to divesting in fossil fuel companies. This follows a five-day occupation of the College’s quad by protesting students, which ended on Sunday 2nd February. The letter, which […]
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Jackie Brown reflects on the climate crisis close to home. On my journey home this Christmas Vacation, my plane descended into a landscape I no longer recognised. An unfamiliar sky where clouds had been replaced by a thick, impenetrable blanket that seemed to be suffocating everything beneath it. A blurred, dark outline of a city […]
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What is the relationship between modern films and climate change? Ask most people this question and they’ll say that there’s little overlap. Too few films have tackled the issue and cinema in general is often seen as a means of escape, a place to take a break from the real world. Others acknowledge that cinema […]
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Image Description: Pollution being emitted from factory chimneys Last year, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that we only have 10 years to avoid irreversible damage from climate change. Last week, world leaders failed to answer UN secretary-general Guterres’ request for renewable industry plans. This inaction is the reason why six million […]
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Having converted to a meat-free lifestyle in my first year at Oxford, I felt I could live with a level of environmental smugness – I didn’t need to feel bad about my personal contributions to climate change because I hadn’t eaten beef in a year and a half. However, deep in the depths of long […]
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Image description: Monument at Chernobyl I am afraid- desperately afraid- of global warming. For a period in February, after those few days when it was hot, so hot you could walk home from the club in a t-shirt because the air was climate-change balmy, and after reading David Wallace Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth, I became […]
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The UK government has set its most ambitious climate goal ever: a net zero emission by 2050. On 2nd May, the official adviser to the UK government, Committee on Climate Change (CCC), revealed this new target in a 277-page report. Its carbon budget even includes international aviation and shipping, typically not taken into account for […]
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The Wilberforce Club hosted an Alien themed drinks event in St Giles’ Church on 10th May in honour of the Oxford academic Dr Young-hae Chi, who has joined the society as a Senior Member. Dr Chi is an instructor in Korean at Oxford’s Oriental Institute who has spoken and written about the presence of invisible […]
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