51 h. ago ‘It shapes the whole experience’: what happens when you build a city from wood?

Transforming a former industrial area in Sweden will bring psychological benefits for future residents and reduce construction’s climate impactAlthough activity is high, it is surprisingly quiet inside the construction site of a high school extension in Sickla, a former industrial area in south Stockholm that is set to become part of the “largest mass timber project in the world” according to the Swedish urban property developer Atrium Ljungberg.Just a few months remain until students enter the premises, but there is no sound of drilling or pounding against concrete walls. The scent of wood is unmistakable, and signs of the material can be spotted everywhere – from glulam (glued laminated timber) columns and beams in the building’s frame to cross-laminated timber (CLT) slabs in the floors, ceilings and staircases. CLT, made by gluing together layers of planed wood into panels, offers strength and rigidity comparable to concrete but is significantly lighter and quicker to build with....

Politics

5 d. ago Activate climate’s ‘silent majority’ to supercharge action, experts say

Making concerned people aware their views are far from alone could unlock the change so urgently needed‘Spiral of silence’: climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realise it?The Guardian is joining forces with dozens of newsrooms around the world to launch the 89 Percent Project—and highlight the fact that the vast majority of the world’s population wants climate action. Read moreA huge 89% majority of the world’s people want stronger action to fight the climate crisis but feel they are trapped in a self-fulfilling “spiral of silence” because they mistakenly believe they are in a minority, research suggests.Making people aware that their pro-climate view is, in fact, by far the majority could unlock a social tipping point and push leaders into the climate action so urgently needed, experts say. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Australia’s student strikers for climate believed they could change their future. Where are they now?

Young people rode a wave of hope and power when hundreds of thousands protested with them in 2019. Then, momentum was lostGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastOn a stinking hot November day, seven years ago, Grace Vegesana and a handful of other young climate activists set up a small stage in a large square in Sydney’s CBD – and waited. Inspired by the first school striker for climate, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, the high school students decided to organise their own rally.Vegesana expected a hundred people to show up. Five thousand came. “It was like, oh my God, we’ve unleashed some kind of beast, people want more,” she recalls. In the months afterwards crowds doubled and then tripled. Continue reading...

Society

8 d. ago What is Youth Demand? Inside the activist group following in Just Stop Oil's footsteps

The announcement that climate activist group, Just Stop Oil, is effectively disbanded has allowed Youth Demand to become the new face of civil resistance. But what exactly are they demanding?

Politics

2 w. ago How 'Just Stop Oil 2.0' will ruin your summer: Now Youth Demand plot to bring London to a standstill as orange

Last month, Brits rejoiced when Just Stop Oil announced it was hanging up the orange hi-vis after three years of stunts - but a new kid on the block is bringing fresh misery in its place. 

Politics

3 w. ago What next for climate activism now Just Stop Oil is ‘hanging up the hi

After three years, thousands of arrests and a state crackdown on protests, the group is ending direct action after a polarising campaignOn the morning of Valentine’s Day 2022, Hannah Hunt stood at the gates of Downing Street to announce the start of a new kind of climate campaign, one that would eschew mere protest and instead move into “civil resistance”.Last week, three years and thousands of arrests later, in a neat tie-up exemplary of Just Stop Oil’s (JSO) love of media-savvy stunts, Hunt went to the same spot again – this time to announce the group would be “hanging up the hi-vis”. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Police raid London Quaker house, arrest six activists discussing climate protests

Police raid London Quaker house, arrest six activists discussing climate protests  Straight Arrow News

Events

4 w. ago Dozens of police officers batter down door of pacifist Quaker meeting house to arrest activists 'discussing climate change and Gaza'

More than 30 police officers made the arrests at a welcome talk held at the Westminster Meeting House at around 7.30pm on Thursday, March 27, according to Youth Demand.

Events