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The Conference of Colleges, a forum for the colleges and permanent private halls (PPHs) at Oxford to deal with matters of shared interest and common purpose, have published a report on 21st May detailing a range of sustainability practices in place across the collegiate University. The report showcases the numerous actions that the colleges and […]
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Image Description: three bitcoins against a black background. PROPOSITION (Anjali Kawa) For many, the rise of cryptocurrency marks a method of returning financial power and security back to the people. The ability to take advantage of markets – which usually take advantage of us – has convinced at least 2 million British people, including some […]
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Image description: a brown grasshopper. Large-scale insect breeding for human consumption is thought to represent a sustainable solution for growing food demand. With climate change, loss of biodiversity, and rising pressure on resources posing a threat to current food supply chains, new systems are needed to ‘future-proof’ meals and address food inequity. In order to […]
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Image Description: Banners that read ‘climate justice for all’ and ‘Stop HS2’ “It’s not politics, it’s science!”. For years now, this has become something of a mantra for a whole swathe of different movements. Coronavirus is the latest example, but long before that, it was embedded in the discourse around climate change. There, as with […]
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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: Graphic of the virus with “COVID-19” text overlay An Oxford University expert believes coronavirus may have come into existence before its outbreak in China. A senior associate tutor at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) at Oxford, Dr Tom Jefferson, stated that the virus was found to have existed elsewhere long before surfacing […]
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Image Description: A canal in Venice, Italy If I had a pound for every recent reference to Defoe, Camus and their novels about plague…. Granted, A Journal of the Plague Year and La Peste respectively, are certainly too close to home at the moment. Resorting to history – in this case, its reflection in literature […]
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A university-wide Environmental Sustainability Strategy has been put to a consultation. The consultation is in the form of a survey, available to all members of staff, academics and students, that closes soon on the 14th of April. The strategy, outlined within the survey, contains a number of proposals intended to aid the university in reducing […]
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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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Image description: Mother and child smiling at each other With Veganuary only barely over and Donald Trump’s attack on Greta ‘prophet-of-doom’ Thunberg in Davos still ringing in our ears, it is impossible to forget our duty to treat the environment with respect. This is all the truer for those who have passed St. John’s […]
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Amongst the more attention-grabbing recent headlines: the Coronavirus, Trump impeachment and Brexit, you may have overlooked the more pedestrian announcement (pun intended) by Oxford City Council of its plans for a zero emission zone or ‘ZEZ’ for short. Entry to this zone, which includes Ship Street, St Michael’s Street, New Inn Hall Street, Queen Street […]
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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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There is nothing that twenty-somethings love more than a good trend. The latest and greatest topic making its way through the media is climate change, and it’s about time that eco-consciousness left the realm of hipsterdom and into the mainstream. Caring about the planet is for humans, not just hippies. It doesn’t matter what I […]
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Kerry McCarthy is the Labour MP for Bristol East and has had her seat since 2005. She has been vegan for over 25 years and campaigns tirelessly for ethical improvement and better ecological sustainability as well as national health issues. She kindly invited me to Portcullis House in Westminster where she shared her own reasons […]
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Globally we kill 74 billion animals a year. 80% of farmland on Earth is used for livestock, where the process efficiency of fodder crop nutrients ending up in the meat we eat is horrifically low. The production of one kilogram of steak requires 15,000 litres of water and 15% of all our greenhouse gas emissions […]
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To say Trump’s wall is controversial is like saying leaving the EU has been a minor nuisance. The associated government shutdown has been wreaking havoc across America, including the science sector, where data has been lost, researchers are struggling without pay, and science as a whole is losing out. However, conservationists and environmentalists are worried […]
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Oceans make up nearly three quarters of our planet’s surface and are home to over 300,000 currently described species, with an estimated 95% of the total number yet to be discovered. But just how important are these species and why should we care to protect them? Life underwater is so fundamentally important to our existence […]
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Coming from a French family, I was looked at in befuddlement when I announced my transition to vegetarianism two years ago. In a country where meat is the centre-piece of a meal, the question my grandparents asked me was ‘So what will you eat then?’ Yet within those two years, I have observed some – […]
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Photo credit: Theilr (CC BY-SA 2.0) When confronted with the question “Would you eat insects?” the average student shudders in disgust, memories of bush tucker trials flashing through their head. Indeed, most people in the West are reluctant to stray far from the pork, beef and chicken we are accustomed to – treating less conventional protein […]
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