Ben Goldsmith

The main problem with the Green Party these days is that they are utterly mental.

Chinese fishing vessel in Antarctic scooping up krill, right next to whales and penguins These ships track where the animals go to feed & take their food. The ship is Shi Dao, the same fishing vessel that was caught dumping oil into Fijian waters at a shipyard a few years ago.

Regardless of what happens in Europe and the U.S., the world is moving to EVs. There is nothing that western automakers can do to reverse this trend, and geopolitical risk in oil will only accelerate it. Either get good at EVs, or wither away.

‘Reimagining the Somerset Levels’ I wrote about this here: open.substack.com/pub/bengoldsmi…

'We're not getting rid of the water fast enough' I cannot emphasise enough how insane it is to spend barrels of public money pumping water out of a *wetland*. We are draining an ecological treasure to protect some of the crappest farmland in England. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

In fact we do; it may not be quite generous enough, but the English farm support budget is still substantial (~£2 bn per year). The only difference between our scheme and Europe’s is that our farmers are supported under the principle of ‘public money for public good’, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. The more good things you do on your land, the more public money you can access. By the way, New Zealand has one of the best farming sectors in the world, and they have no subsidies of any kind. So it’s horses for courses.

England is now the only country in Europe that doesn't financially support its farmers to produce food. Surely Trump's conflict in the Middle East and Putin's invasion of Ukraine show how utterly vital our food security is? The Government needs to wake up and back our farmers.

Mono-culture farming devastates the rest of nature. Farmlands continue to lose much of their wildlife, bees, birds, insects, amphibians. But each generation measures "normal" nature against what existed in their childhood; not what existed before. So we don't mourn the Auroch, Quagga, Eastern Elk, or drained wetland. We never knew them. We each inherit a slightly emptier world & call it normal, a shifting baseline syndrome. Humans are remarkably adaptive... dangerously so.

Governor DeSantis Signs Legislation to Protect Florida’s Coastlines x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Britain is on track to miss its legally binding nature recovery targets. That means fewer species, weaker ecosystems and risks to the food security we rely on. This isn’t inevitable. Labour can turn it around with a properly funded nature rescue plan.

Lead shot should be banned everywhere. Lead is toxic in water, in meat, in soil. There are non toxic alternatives. There are no good reasons for governments not to do this.

@HumanProgress What do the farmed fish eat? Mostly wild fish, right? So

For the last few decades, the annual wild fish catch has been flat, hovering around 90 million metric tons. Fish farming, however, has grown spectacularly. This is a win for humans, who now feast on record quantities of fish, and eases pressure on wild fish stocks.

🇧🇷 Amazonian turtles released in Brazil's Rio Negro Riverine communities and scientists release around 1.500 Amazonian turtles at Jau National Park, on the Rio Negro in the Amazon rainforest, as part of a program to assist in the reproduction of the species.

While we're discussing wildlife overpasses, let's discuss why they're important: They prevent ~97% of wildlife collisions They singlehandedly save wildlife populations (and migration patterns) They can save our country $10B per year BUT...they (should) cost $5-15M, not $100M

To be clear the wildlife bridge is a good idea. It's a no-brainer money saver. Either pay for the bridge or externalize the cost onto a bunch of different people's cars and lives over time. That's not to mention the loss of the animals lives. Don't let rampant corruption and weaponized incompetentence trick you into thinking good ideas are bad.

Forty years after the last one was poached rhinos are back in the wild in Uganda bbc.in/4sWhrT9

Protecting nature, in the end, is inseparable from the wellbeing of the people who live alongside it. If communities on the edge of wild places are not flourishing, then conservation efforts will always be fragile and at risk of unravelling. That is a theme that came through powerfully in my latest podcast conversation with Deli Saavedra. Listen to the full episode where ever you get your podcasts.

'Europe’s disappearing birds are a symptom of a broken food and farming system' euronews.com/2026/03/17/eur…

🌿🇮🇳 India reaffirms its commitment to biodiversity! The Seventh National Report (NR-7) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), showcasing progress on all 23 national targets. 📊 Highlights: * 98 Ramsar wetlands, 58 Tiger Reserves, 106 National Parks * 3,682 tigers (70% of global population), 22,446 elephants, 891 Asiatic lions, 718 snow leopards * First-ever river dolphin census: 6,327 dolphins Under the visionary leadership of Hon'ble PM Shri @narendramodi Ji, this milestone reaffirms India’s holistic approach to conservation and aligning with the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework for 2030. #IndiaForNature #Biodiversity #MissionLiFE #EkPedMaaKeNam @byadavbjp @moefcc

The Civil Rights Movement as we know it would have died in the cradle without Jewish Americans. Fact: Jews co-founded the NAACP in 1909. Fact: Jewish money kept the lights on (sometimes over 50% of the budget). Fact: Jewish lawyers stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Black lawyers in every major case, from Brown v. Board to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. They didn’t just “help.” They bled, marched, got arrested, and wrote the checks when most white America wanted us both gone. So when I see people online spewing “Jews are the enemy,” I remember who had our back when literally nobody else did. As a Black conservative, I will NEVER forget that debt. I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jewish people. History didn’t stutter, and neither will I. 🇺🇸✡️🖤

This is good news. Dartmoor has been desecrated by overgrazing in recent decades, the landscape is in appalling shape; and all the while buckets of publicly-funded ‘stewardship’ grants have been ladled out to those who have been doing the desecrating. Time for change.