Tim Smedley

@timsmedley

That environmental writer. Editor of The New Climate medium.com/the-new-climate. Author of The Last Drop & Clearing the Air Climate columnist for @prospectmagazine.co.uk

2026 Siguiendo14.834 Seguidores1030 Publicaciones

Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y timsmedley.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· 21d

My garden rain gauge is beginning to look like a forgotten relic from the distant past. Covered in cobwebs. Discoloured by the sun. No rain in it for well over a month... 😮‍💨 #Drought

In urban Oxfordshire, England, a plastic garden rain gauge, covered in cobwebs, discoloured by the sun, due to heatwaves and no rain for over a month. Summer of 2026.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jul 13

Thanks for everything, Sam. 💔

'We both finds farts funny’: Sam Neill as Hec and Julian Dennison as Ricky, in a promo shot for Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jul 1

Logging in to LinkedIn increasingly feels like a Black Mirror episode...

LinkedIn DM, reads:
Hi Tim,
our remote roles as a way to make extra cash. It really is as simple as "do tasks to earn money" in three steps:
1. Create an account (must be US/UK/CA/AU/NZ based)
2. Take the assessment (if you pass, we'll notify you via email and you'll have access to a wide range of work)
3. Start earning up to $25 an hour!
Help us train Al via your area of expertise. We look forward to reviewing your application at the link below.

Mike from Black Mirror, 'Common People' episode.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jun 25

Reminder that this is how old white right wing males 'assimilate'.

Screenshot of x.com/CharlieM_OBE x.com/CharlieM_OBE

Tweet reads "Eating shepherds pie in Dubai"

16 Dec 2025 837.2k Views

Image shows him and partner taking a selfie, with assorted other similarly aged white people in what would otherwise appear to be a British pub. But it's in Dubai, UAE.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jun 9

If he's *that* old maybe don't take him then?!

BBC Sports headline reads; Risk of death to oldest man at World Cup.

Picture shows a smiling suprisingly young-looking man, potentially laughing in the face of death. Despite death's imminent arrival, apparently.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jun 4

A data visualisation titled "Average PM 2.5 concentration in Paris," showing a significant decline in air pollution over three time periods: 2007, 2014, and 2023. Credit: Airparif.

At the top, a horizontal color-coded scale indicates pollution levels in micrograms per cubic metre: 0 is light blue/green, 20 to 40 is yellow to bright orange, and 60 to 80+ is dark red.

The image features three side-by-side map panels of Paris:

2007: The map is dominated by intense orange and dark red lines tracing the road network, highlighting widespread, high concentrations of PM 2.5. White markers identify the locations of the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame. A "2 MILES" scale sits in the bottom left corner.

2014: The map transitions to a mostly bright yellow and light orange palette, indicating a noticeable reduction in pollution across the city, though major roads remain distinct in darker orange.

2023: The map is entirely bright green and light green, showing a dramatic drop in PM 2.5 concentrations down to much safer, lower levels across the entire metropolitan area.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· May 12

Handy garden bird feeder update from @rspb.bsky.social - time to put seed & nut feeders away now until November. And if you still have a bird table, ditch it for good. www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen...

Greenfinch at a bord feeder. Greenfinch numbers have dropped by over 65% in the last three decades, in part due to trichomonosis from unclean bird feeders.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· May 8

The closest we have ever had to a real life James Bond... If Bond used his talents to be kind to animals instead. #Happy100thBirthdaySirDavidAttenborough

Wildlife and #Scicom GOAT Sir David Attenborough looking dashing in a Tux.

Wildlife and #Scicom GOAT Sir David Attenborough looking dashing in a suit.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· May 1

Hot off the press, the latest The New Climate newsletter. In which I make this link, amongst other things... (Your click will support independent climate journalism) medium.com/the-new-clim...

Trump's latest gold-plated vanity statue

Remarkably in the same week, the latest Banksy statue appeared in central London, 29th April, portraying a Trump-like leader so blinded by his own flag that he’s about to march straight off the plinth.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Mar 17

Reader, I whooped! #spring

First horse chestnut tree leaves of the year I've seen budding

First budding broadleaf trees of spring, in sunshine.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Feb 8

Repost with a recent photo of yours that would make a good Album cover

Upwards shot taken directly beneath an electricity pylon, on a grey day. No filter used.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Dec 18

For any last minute shoppers, my book on solving the water crisis is 4.9 stars our of 5 on Amazon and 37% off - so get filling those stockings!! www.amazon.com/Last-Drop-So... (Other bookshops are available etc) #TheLastDrop

This screenshot shows an Amazon product page for the book "The Last Drop: Solving the World's Water Crisis" by Tim Smedley.
Release Date: June 17, 2025
Accolades: The Times Book of the Year pick
Review Quote: "Smart, sobering, and scholarly." — Steve Brusatte, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs
Pricing and Formats
Kindle: $11.99
Audiobook: $0.00 with free trial
Paperback: $11.99 (currently 37% off from a list price of $18.99)

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Dec 8

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Oct 1

And wind & solar will surpass gas generation (globally!!) any month now, having lagged by close to 20% just six years ago. This is rapid progress, people! As McKibben writes in Here Comes The Sun, “Everything is going wrong, except this one big thing.”

Line graph titled "Global electricity generation from wind and solar is quickly catching up to gas power." The vertical axis shows the share of electricity generation (%) ranging from 0% to 25%, and the horizontal axis spans from April 2019 to April 2025.

Two lines are plotted:

Black line for gas power, which remains fairly stable around 22–24% throughout the period.

Green line for wind and solar, which rises steadily from around 7% in 2019 to meet gas power at about 21% by April 2025.

The graph shows wind and solar generation catching up to gas by the end of the timeline, and set to soon surpass it within coming months. Source: Monthly electricity data, Ember.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Oct 1

Couldn't fit these @ember-energy.org graphs in the piece, but check out just how rapidly solar is taking off in Africa. You love to see it:

A multi-panel line graph titled: "20 African countries imported a record amount of solar panels in the 12 months to June 2025. Rolling 12 months imports of solar panels from China, megawatts." All graphs show a sharp increase in imports in 2025.

Each small graph represents a different African country, showing solar panel imports from January 2021 to June 2025. The countries shown are:

Top row: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC)
Second row: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya
Third row: Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
Bottom row: Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia

source: https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-first-evidence-of-a-take-off-in-solar-in-africa

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Sep 16

Shall we call it a tie? I mean Jesus, I *think* I'm straight but blimey...

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jul 27

Considering a piece on 'why is it all dystopia?' Can barely move for dystopian, cannibals-and-bunkers post capitalist takes. Can anyone recommend any decent utopian (or, you know, just a bit positive) near-future fiction...?

The Last Of Us: just one of a very long list of sci-fi descents into gun-toting anarchy post 'the fall'.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jun 30

Think my dog might be MAGA. Even in a heatwave he refuses to believe the "dogs can't regulate their own temperature" science, and suns himself regardless.

Climate-sceptical but very cute dog aggressively sunning himself on his backyard patio during a midsummer heatwave. Looks challengingly at the camera, as if ready to bark "screw you snowflake!"

Handsome Reform-adjacent canine, (white and tan mongrel, with purple rosette out of frame) provocatively suns himself against his own interests, on a garden lawn, shunning clear shaded opportunities.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· May 20

Ah Tim, just the man! I was wondering if this is increasing (warmer climate?)? Never seen a whole mature tree consumed like this until this year (local park last week, Oxfordshire).

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· May 7

The New Climate has just hit a new milestone: 20,000 followers!!! 😁🌍🥳. If you're not one of them, come join us at medium.com/the-new-clim.... (And if you are one of them, tell your friends!)

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Mar 11

Musk chainsawing his own share price 😁

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Mar 11

Gruesome link made between the mysoginist murders of the Hunt family and influence of Andrew Tate revealed during sentencing. Parents, if your sons show an admirarion of Tate, nip it in the bud now. It leads to violence against women. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5...

Screenshot of BBC livestream of judge sentencing in the triple murder of Louise Hunt, 25, and her sister Hannah Hunt, 28, with a crossbow and fatally stabbing their mother, 61-year-old Carol Hunt, by a violent ex partner.

Reads: Morgan reveals Clifford searched online for Tate's podcast on 8 July - the night before the attacks in Bushey.

She adds: "Andrew Tate can properly be described as a poster boy for misogyny, a poster boy for those who see women as possessions to be controlled.

"It is not a coincidence that it was Andrew Tate the defendant turned to the night before he would go on to commit these acts of violence against women."

Jurors were not told of Clifford's interest in Tate - the judge decided they might be prejudiced if the information was outlined to them.

But, lawyers told the judge, Tate had described women as "intrinsically lazy" and said there was "no such thing as an independent female".

The prosecution suggested Clifford had been motivated by the same sort of "violent misogyny promoted by Tate".

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Feb 14

Scenes! #Beavers #Rewilding

The moment the first beaver to return to Northamptonshire in over 400 years touches the water upon release.

The welcome team of volunteers, many who've worked and waited for 4 years for this moment, watching on (plus me).

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Feb 6

In case anyone else (like me) needed to Wikipedia it. Incredible parallels:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane. [screenshot section reads] Preparations
On September 4, the Weather Bureau's Galveston office began receiving warnings from the Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C. that a tropical disturbance had moved northward over Cuba. At the time, they discouraged the use of terms such as "hurricane" or "tornado" to avoid panicking residents in the path of any storm event. The Weather Bureau forecasters had no way of knowing the storm's trajectory, as Weather Bureau director Willis Luther Moore implemented a policy to block telegraph reports from Cuban meteorologists at the meteorological observatory of the Colegio de Belén in Havana – considered one of the most advanced meteorological institutions in the world at the time – due to tensions in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War. Moore also changed protocol to force local Weather Bureau offices to seek authorization from the central office before issuing storm warnings.[11]

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jan 15

I don't check my LinkedIn often, but glad I did today. This is such a good - and grim - point made on the reporting of the #LAFires, and indeed of society in general.

Megan Bungerorth posts on LinkedIn, 14 Jan 2025: "A note to editors on LA fire stories: don't erase working class people in your coverage.

In an otherwise solid news story about people engaging private firefighting companies to save their houses, a source recounts having to flee their Pacific Palisades home suddenly.

Their unnamed housekeeper came to tell him that there was a fire outside the front door.

"Without thinking, he and his wife scooped up their dogs and 3-year-old daughter, threw some belongings in their car and drove east, to take refuge in their second home by Lake Arrowhead."

WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSEKEEPER??!?!?! She was there too!" [Post continues but sceenshot ends there].

Link to OP: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/meganbungeroth_a-note-to-editors-on-la-fire-stories-dont-activity-7284666664497901571-sMC5/

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jan 13

This wasn't intentional, but the juxtaposition of the two lead stories on medium.com/the-new-climate - with the climate stripes leading into the LA fires - is bleakly fitting.

The two lead stories on medium.com/the-new-climate, 13 Jan 2025, contain imagery of the climate stripes descending from blue to dark red, directly adjacent to a story on the LA fires of a burning building at night.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jan 5

And a minor sidenote, but come on @propublica.org - let's at least add @bsky.app to the social share buttons. (Or even better, replace one of the now-compromised outlets)

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jan 4

We're such a weird fucking country that this is deemed an acceptable way to frame the news of a tragic death.

BBC News headline reading: Prince William shocked by death of ex-nanny's stepson in New Orleans attack

Edward Pettifer, whose step-mother Tiggy Legge-Bourke was Prince William and Harry's nanny, was among 14 killed.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jan 3

Sacré bleu!

In the Aldi middle aisle, an 'electric omelette maker' offers the promise of turning your eggs into two semi circular plastic door stops.

Tim Smedley@timsmedley· Jan 1

Piss off Dip, you're a laundry sheet! I don't want to know how many sodding washes I 'achieved'...