Press releases about Cobra meetings mean nothing to northern communities who have been desperate for investment since the last time they were floodedThe recent floods have not only brought the effects of climate change to the fore – they have also ruined Christmas for many families. But the generosity of so many has shown that community spirit is alive and well throughout the north. I have seen at first hand people open their homes to strangers with nowhere else to go, and seen people who have lost much digging deep to help those who have lost everything.The prime minister’s “big society” is a woolly concept – a halfhearted attempt by David Cameron to contradict his political hero’s assertion that “there is no such thing as society”. But the tangible sense of community in the north of England as the floods have hit has struck many observers. In Cumbria (where I have lived for many years and am an MP), Lancashire (where I was born) and Yorkshire, there is something almost overwhelming about the level of mutual reliance, the selfless support for others, the resilience and cooperation and the strong community spirit. Continue reading...

From Davos and predictions of a chocolate crisis to the MRSA superbug in supermarket pork and the VW emissions scandal

Sir Philip Dilley, who spent Christmas in Barbados, criticised for failing to visit flood-hit areas to explain what his agency is doingThe head of the Environment Agency is returning from holiday in the Caribbean amid criticism about his absence from the UK as the body deals with some of the country’s worst flooding in decades.

Environmental and social campaigners are getting creative by using illustration, craft and dance to put sustained pressure on business and governments

It’s not exactly a festive read, but this analysis of the politics behind climate change deserves to be widely shared

Huge crowds flock to Mount Lofty botanic gardens, outside Adelaide, to experience powerful odour produced by rare flowering of the Titan arumNever has the smell of a rotting corpse been met with so much joy.Gardeners at Mount Lofty botanic garden, about 18km from Adelaide, jubilantly announced on Monday the long-awaited flowering of the extremely rare Titan arum, more commonly known as the corpse flower for its distinctive and distinctly unpleasant odour. Continue reading...

Value of sales for a sector that spans charity shops, vegetarian food and energy efficient lightbulbs, rose to £38bn in 2014Stronger sales of solar panels, electric cars and free-range poultry helped to grow the UK’s overall “ethical market” by 8% in 2014, a new report claims.However, the report’s authors warned that recent government changes such as cuts to subsidies for householders installing rooftop solar panels would make it tougher to repeat this growth in spending on low carbon home energy and cars. Continue reading...

Environmentalists say move puts health research funding charity ‘on the wrong side of history’The Wellcome Trust has defied fossil fuel divestment campaigners and increased its investments in coal, oil and gas over the last year.Campaigners said the news was “hugely disappointing” and put the health research funding charity “on the wrong side of history” after the global climate change deal reached at UN talks in Paris earlier in December. The trust did sell its £142m stake in Shell, but increased other investments including those in the mining companies BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Continue reading...

Prime minister said in 2014 lessons would be learned, but latest floods show he has continued to ignore red flag after red flag“There are always lessons to be learned and I will make sure they are learned,” said David Cameron after severe flooding affected thousands of people across the country. But that was in February 2014, when the prime minister was visiting the submerged Somerset Levels. No systematic review of flood protection ever happened.On Sunday, as terrible floods hit Yorkshire and Lancashire, Cameron said: “Whenever these things happen, you should look at what you spend, what you’ve built … clearly we should look again at whether there’s more we can do.” Continue reading...

Governments, activists and big brands like McDonald’s and Nestle are putting increased pressure on egg producers to raise their hens more sustainablyAmericans eat about 265 eggs per person per year, according to the American Egg Board, and roughly nine in 10 are laid by hens confined in cages with little room to move.That’s changing. McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, General Mills and Nestle all said this fall they are gradually switching to cage-free eggs in the US. Consumers are buying more cage-free and organic eggs. Laws in five states, including California, ban caged hens. Continue reading...

Properties at risk of flooding need to be waterproofed in a complete re-think of the UK’s flood defences, warns the Environment Agency. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, deputy chief executive David Rooke says increasing resilience and improving warning systems are vital in the face of future extremes in weather. Flood-risk properties need solid floods, waterproof plaster and to move the electrics up the wall, he addsPhotograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire

Vagastie, Sutherland This gaping landscape is a peculiar purgatory between mountain and moor, here and somewhere else. People call it the empty quarter. But empty it is notNear winter’s solstice, the sun doesn’t rise far here. It grasps above the skyline, then slinks the southern mountains in a tired arc, like a sentry pacing a watch-wall. During its six-and-a-half-hour march its light barely flickers the vast sky’s threshold. Darkness always seems close.In the rafters of Scotland, this gaping landscape is a peculiar purgatory between mountain and moor, here and somewhere else. Distant peaks, mirages of other places, prowl its perimeter as if pulled apart to make it. People call it the empty quarter. But empty it is not. Continue reading...

If we are going to walk the talk that came out of the Paris climate summit, it will be on the streets where customers liveIt’s been a busy few months for big global discussions on social and environmental issues. From the launch of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs); to a new vision from the EU for a circular economy; negotiations in Paris for the COP21 climate agreement; to a European refugee crisis triggered in part by climatic impacts in the Middle East.But as much as we may welcome the sustained attention to sustainability challenges paid by global leaders, companies and NGOs must not forget that many of the solutions we need to create a more sustainable world reside at a very local level. We may participate in a hyper-connected digital world but our lives are still grounded in locality. Continue reading...