Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
A campaign in favour of ‘Green Trashing’ – a more environmentally friendly variety of the post-exam tradition – is to be launched next term. The campaign, which will be run by three college Environment & Ethics reps, will aim to encourage students to have trashings with as little adverse environmental impact as possible. Harry Holmes, […]
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Over the vacation, I took advantage of my free evenings and BBC license to catch up on David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II. Stories of the sea’s rich wildlife were intertwined with stark ecological warnings, and one night, as I watched a baby puffling’s parents clack beaks and kiss, I felt a sudden well of rage […]
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Danny Evans talks with FAIRR’s Rosie Wardle about the critical issues surrounding industrial animal agriculture and the meat industry. It is currently estimated that over 56 billion animals are slaughtered every year for human consumption (excluding fish and sea creatures), leading to 32,000 million tons of CO2 emissions. This equates to 14.5% of the world’s […]
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Oxford City Council have announced that they will start efforts to ban all non-zero emissions vehicles from the roads of Oxford, making the city the world’s first emissions-free urban area. The plan involves a gradual ban on petrol and diesel cars and vans from roads in the city centre, starting with Cornmarket and Queen Street […]
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“When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.” In her famous statement, Native American Alanis Obomsawin jabs at the deep contradictions at the […]
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Dangerously high levels of air pollution in the UK – often imperceptible as it very rarely resembles the smog of the 1950s – are proven to lead to many health complications and even death. Yet the current government has been regularly accused of intransigence over the issue, the Guardian going so far as to suggest […]
Continue Reading8 am: I wake up, feel groggy and grab a coffee on the way to the lab. For many of us students, coffee is the fuel that keeps us going. The UK goes through 5,000 coffee cups per minute and, despite common belief, only 1 in 400 is recycled. The popular to-go cup consists of […]
Continue ReadingIn his famous allegory of the cave Plato suggests that there are a group of people, prisoners, facing a wall, unable to direct their vision at anything else. Behind them lies reality, which has its true form projected onto the wall the prisoners are doomed to watch indefinitely. The prisoners only see the shadows and […]
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One of the most popular pages on the internet’s premier discussion platform and troll dungeon, Reddit, is r/ShowerThoughts. Its premise is self-explanatory – it acts as a space where users can post thoughts which came to them in the shower. These range from the controversial springboards for debate (‘Basic survival skills should be part of […]
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The most powerful man in the world, as of next January, thinks climate change is a ‘hoax’. Scary, isn’t it? But will his four year tenure as President of the United States give Donald Trump the muscle to hold back the green surge? For the majority of world leaders in developed or developing countries, the […]
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An Oxford resident walked away from Oxford Castle £750 better off this Tuesday thanks to a competition organised by the Go Ultra Low campaign, designed to raise awareness of the benefits of switching to an electric vehicle. Morgane de Salvage, 29, tracked down the money – the amount drivers typically save on fuel every year […]
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The Museum of Natural History is not the place you would usually go to enjoy art exhibitions. However, there have long been debates about the existence of a very strong bond between art and science, and the recent exhibition by Kurt Jackson proves this. Unlike in other parts of the museum, here you find paintings […]
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Thirteen protesters, including an Oxford graduate, who chained themselves together on a runway at Heathrow Airport have avoided jail sentences. This comes after they were found guilty of aggravated trespassing in January and warned to expect custodial sentences. The protestors belong to the action group Plane Stupid, who oppose plans to build a third runway […]
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Since returning from Canada in January, I can’t stop noticing one uniquely British taboo. Eating in restaurants, my family will sneakily ninja leftover food and bread rolls into bags under the table rather than face the apparent shame of taking home the food they’ve paid for. On the way to a play last weekend, one […]
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At the Paris Climate Conference Cameron declared “we should be taking action against climate change today”, but this virtue is not reflected in his domestic policy. In the eight months since their election the Tories have made drastic changes to the energy sector with far-reaching consequences. These changes are troubling for any hopes of a […]
Continue ReadingYes – Rachel Dunne High profile disasters such as Fukushima and Chernobyl have led to the vilification of nuclear energy as a highly dangerous method of energy production undertaken at a country’s own peril. This reputation is undeserved. It seems increasingly likely that nuclear energy will be a crucial part of the international effort to […]
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As I scanned my trusty £3 Sainsbury’s meal deal at the counter last Friday I realised the fateful day had come. No longer could I rely on glorious plastic bag to carry my every whim, at no extra charge. No more could I walk blindly on by whilst costlessly packaging my almost edible food within […]
Continue ReadingOver 60 Oxford academics have signed an open letter to the University, urging it to divest from fossil fuel companies. The letter, accompanied by a petition signed by over 1,300 students and alumni, claimed that the University “has a responsibility to show leadership in tackling one of the greatest challenges we as a society currently […]
Continue ReadingIn May 2010 David Cameron said that the coalition would aim to be the “greenest government ever”. Since then the government has had a somewhat mixed record on the environment, culminating in Cameron last year reportedly saying that he wants to get rid of all the “green crap”, according to an unnamed senior Tory who […]
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