Mark Eastes

Today sees the official launch of the Coast to Coast Path as a National Trail. Here in the Dales we installed nearly 3km of stone flagging across notoriously boggy peatland, upgraded 10 bridges, and installed more than 40 new fingerposts. Watch the film 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=QnutN3…

Justice for Lough Neagh: The First Hearing 👇 This week, River Action took part in the first hearing of a legal case which, for the first time, asks the court to decide whether the Northern Ireland government is doing enough to tackle the water pollution crisis in Lough Neagh... riveractionuk.com/news/justice-f…

And here's the full Isle of Sh*te picture. Total sewage spills last year. Check out the interactive map here: watershedinvestigations.com/find-out-whats…

Quite right too… and properly policed. If you live here, pay taxes here and have a real interest in supporting the party you believe is best placed and fits your values… if not I can only guess on motive…

Oh wow! This is why Reform walked out. This was next.

Me mouth painting my Gold Astronaut

Ahead of tomorrow's report on sewage releases, we've loaded data on discharges near bathing sites onto our Watershed Pollution Map for you to investigate & make your own assessment of how water companies are doing. Come on in, the water's lovely... share.google/NRIteMxqbvM7o8…

I’ve been doing this GP malarkey for nearly 20y now. It struck me today that the only way I can carry on practising the way I used to is if I do it at my own personal expense. It never used to be like this - there was enough time in the day for bereavement visits, wellbeing checks, proactive care, time with colleagues to discuss patients & build relationships. General practice today is decision making at the same speed as a shoot-em-up game. Today was just me for 55 same day requests for appointments, clinical supervision of three members of staff, medical student education, paramedic education and all routine needs for a population of 1250 patients. We’re fortunate to have personal lists - though the new contract doesn’t value the continuity at all - and that matters to me deeply. Leaving work at 7, I decided to pop in to a patient of mine that I’ve known for 14y. In their 80s, they’ve just had joint replacement surgery and are having a bit of a wobble. We had a chat, they felt better, we have a plan & I’ll check in next week. This is the kind of GP I want to be. My day would have been less frantic, I’d have eaten/urinated at a sensible time, and I’d would have been less snappy with the children whom I saw briefly before bed if there hadn’t been so much nonsense crowding my day: 25 mins on hold trying to get through to a specialist (and failing), an insurance company slyly demanding a conversation with me about a non-urgent issue because it saves them money, dealing with consequences of private tests not requested by me but with the inevitable ‘see your GP’ as disposition, missing discharge medication, delayed follow-up, inappropriate ‘GP to’ as the heart failure team have a waiting list - and much more. Commissioning gaps, poor clinical pathway planning, govt targets on access over quality, media perpetuation of entitlement over responsibility and disproportionate investment & expansion of specialists over general practice have caused this. This is not ‘part time’ GP working - as a partner that’s never a thing. This is expectations from everywhere without resourcing to match. We want to deliver the things we did 20y ago - that’s why we went into this. If you want your family doctor back then you need to support us - because we want to be that too. I’m a GP, but also a Mum, wife and daughter of aged parents. I can’t do this at my own expense any more, and nor should I have to. Arguments of laziness and greed always abound, but really what we need is a properly resourced service. Please stand with us - a fight is coming.

Know what’s annoying? Loyalty cards for “better” prices. Why should I hand over my personal data just to not be overcharged? If that’s the real price, make it the price. Charging more if you don’t sign up shouldn’t be allowed. And now it’s every shop , not only supermarkets 😒

Studies have found that farmers who plant wildflowers near their crops don't need to use pesticides as much. Wildflowers attract beneficial insects like ladybugs, lacewings, and parasitic wasps that feed on common crop pests. 🌻

grow one- eg here in UK Teasels grow well alongside traffic, make biennial herbaceous thicket five to eight feet tall, seeds feed birds & joints where leaves meet stem trap rain & dew for insects, dead plants trap particles and clean air

Garden too small? Not if you pollard or coppice trees regularly from young then they stay smaller, and stack those prunings as a wildlife refuge

Retweet ❗️ This is a Swift. sometimes they can end up on the ground. This is where they need YOUR help! Swifts arrive back to the UK from April/May to nest. 🪺 (A THREAD)

The UK could easily reduce the upcoming cost of the war on Iran by putting a cap on Energy Profits Simply limiting profits, salaries and bonuses to last year's amount and putting a 100% tax on any excess would reduce the increased costs by 2/3rds. Why isn't it being done?

More decades old deployment of solar. Love that this stuff is highlighted every couple of yrs. The US army had this in Iraq, first time round. Haiti earthquake in 2011 in think had mass roll out of this tech, even Welsh mountain rescue teams have had smaller versions for yrs

As a proposed oil & gas project looks set to drill directly through a chalk aquifer beneath the Yorkshire Wolds supplying drinking water to 900,000 people, David Eddy asks: Who is protecting our water sources? share.google/0ci0d5M1NXDFvA…

Our co-authored article. #Wind and #solar worldwide now generate 70% more #electricity than #nuclear. With each year nuclear adding only as much net global power capacity as #renewables add every two days, nuclear is facing the same challenges as fossil fuel: uncompetitive costs, stranded assets, a polluting legacy and severe competition from renewables. With all key international and national energy organisations and institutes agreeing that renewables will be doing the heavy lifting for the energy transition, the future backbone of the global power supply system will be renewable, sustainable and cost-effective. #Scotland has very great renewables potential and should play to its strengths. New nuclear is already too late and too costly for the climate and energy crises. thenational.scot/comment/259582…

New campaign launched today. Voters want determined action to reverse the accelerating decline in UK nature. Please visit the National Trust website to join in. National Trust urges public to lobby politicians to reverse nature ‘freefall’ | ITV News itv.com/news/2026-03-2…

Falling emissions alongside rising GDP show that growth no longer always equals more pollution and that net zero targets could be achieved without forcing economic stagnation. theconversation.com/why-decoupling…