Reform’s rise speaks to a deep crisis in Establishment parties – but relies on appealing to social and economic grievances the left should make its own, argues NICK WRIGHT
Greening the South Pole
Vegetation is growing at an alarming rate on Antarctica’s northernmost region, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Studying a moss bank on bare rock, Norsel Point, in the Antarctic Peninsula
This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
TODAY, we know Antarctica as a snow-dominated landscape, a continent covered with a permanent glacial ice-sheet. However, 41 million years ago, Antarctica looked very different: it was carpeted with lush forests that rang with birdsong with distant snow-capped mountains. That began to change 31 million years ago, as global temperatures dropped.
The transition is described by the palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday in his book Otherlands (2022). Soon (in geological terms, that is) the ice descended from Antarctica’s mountaintops, “spreading across the entire continent and forcing out almost all plants and animals.” Of Antarctica’s range of animals, only the emperor penguins were able to adapt at the right pace and retain their habitat on what became Earth’s most forbidding continent.
Antarctica’s northernmost point is the Antarctic Peninsula. Unlike the rest of Antarctica it is not completely icebound: only 80 per cent is currently covered by ice. But the remaining 20 per cent is usually rocky. Now, new research published this week in Nature Geoscience confirms that climate change is affecting Antarctica’s plant life.
More from this author
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
