Three things the government must do to end the peat scandal
Paul de Zylva07 Feb 2025
If the government wants to restore depleted nature in the UK and reduce risks from climate breakdown, it must show a clean pair of hands on peat.
Why the government was wrong to ever allow banned neonics
Sandra Bell04 Feb 2025
Despite the ban on bee-harming neonic pesticides, the UK government repeatedly used a loophole to allow their temporary use from 2021 to 2024, against the recommendation of its own scientific advisors. The new government stopped this annual rigmarole in January 2025. It must now close the loophole and end all neonic use from now on.
It’s time we paid farmers properly, and more
Paul de Zylva10 May 2024
Paul de Zylva examines the unsustainable future facing many UK farmers and the factors that should be considered in creating a fair price for farming.
Ever-decreasing circles: 5 major warnings of nature’s catastrophic decline
Paul de Zylva20 Jul 2022
“The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed.”
Why we need more trees in the UK
Mike Childs, Paul de Zylva and Nick Rau22 Jun 20226.52 MB PDF file
More trees are needed to cool our cities, to make farming resilient, to restore nature, and to replace the UK's imports of timber which are having a devastating impact on wildlife-rich forests overseas. Can it be done, and done fairly? And how many more trees are needed?
Global Britain? 6 ways the UK can protect and restore nature
Paul de Zylva04 Oct 2021
What can the government do to restore nature here and overseas?
Why a hasty trade deal may not be good for us – or for the environment
Kierra Box, Trade Campaigner19 Aug 2021
What precedent might be set by the new Australia trade deal and what could it tell us about the future for UK environmental standards?
Faster, deeper and fairer carbon pollution cuts needed
Mike Childs27 Jan 2021
Faster, deeper and fairer cuts to carbon emissions than those recommended by the Climate Change Committee are possible and necessary.
Nine principles for using our land wisely at a time of climate and nature crises
Sandra Bell01 May 2020
How we use our land sometimes seems like a 1000-piece jigsaw where we need to put the right pieces in the right places - to cut climate emissions and boost nature. It’s particularly tricky because there’s more than one correct way to complete it. In this article I propose 9 principles that fit with Friends of the Earth’s approach to tackling the climate and nature crises here and overseas – a guide to completing the jigsaw.
Rewild our countryside and refarm our cities
Alasdair Cameron01 Apr 2020External link
Bringing more food production into our cities will have many benefits argues Alasdair Cameron
Post Brexit - the UK at the crossroads
Kierra Box, Trade Campaigner06 Mar 2020
The UK has left the European Union. Will the government make the right decisions to protect the environment?
Why the Agriculture Bill must support pesticides reduction
Sandra Bell13 Feb 2020
After being on hold for a year the Agriculture Bill came back to Parliament in January 2020. The government promises it will help farmers boost nature and tackle climate change. Will it help reverse the damage from overuse of pesticides in our countryside?
Planting more trees can help cut pesticide use
Sandra Bell17 Dec 2019
Planting trees on farms can help reduce pests and diseases and cut the need for chemicals.
Effects of pesticides on our wildlife
Paul de Zylva06 Dec 2019
It’s not only bees that are harmed by pesticides. We show how routine use of chemicals harms birds, earthworms, hedgehogs, frogs, wild plants and wider nature.
Cutting pesticides - is technology the answer?
Sandra Bell, Nature campaigner15 Nov 2019
In the first of a series of blogs on innovative farming I ask whether robots could be the solution to cutting our reliance on chemicals.