Almost twenty years ago I found myself sitting eye to eye with Nick Papadimitriou in the basement of an art gallery, just off Queen Square in Bloomsbury. It was our first day on a research project and we were both nervously rearing to write, even if science was not our primary concern. Over those weeks, I got to know Nick and admired his push-your-sleeves-up dedication to writing, and was intrigued by his wayward and somewhat wild side.

I enjoy eccentricity, so happily listened to Nick prattle on about Gilbert White, the Woodcraft Folk, and the mysteries of Middlesex. His tales of a marginalised, middle-aged man with glasses bearing a sort of resonance. And, the more he told his stories and repeated his often humorous schtick, the more I realised that Nick had everything he needed to become a successful writer.

Over the years Nick would often call round to mine. We talked about everything, and he would lend a helping hand in the garden; editing my first collection of poetry, playing with the assorted cats and dogs, and amusing the long-term boyfriends that might be around. Once, I switched on my recorder and let it run while we talked (http://www.samburcher.com/articles/notes-on/152-interview-with-nick-papadimitriou-november-2011.html) During another lovely day, I held my film camera on my lap as Nick talked about his latest project. (See below).

Read more: Lockdown Notes on Nick Papadimitriou

There is widespread concern about genetic engineering, and now the new generation CRISPR gene editing. People are becoming worried that labelling of food containing modified genes for human consumption may be removed and food standards lowered after Brexit. If the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified, the UK must abide by EU rules until December 2020, which states food containing GMO’s must be labelled. If the UK leaves without a deal, the relevant regulations will temporarily pass into UK law from 1st November 2019. However, these rules will then be open to immediate amendments with potentially far-reaching effects.

What is CRISPR?

CRISPR-Cas 9, or CRISPR for short, stands for Clustered Regularly Interspace Short Palindromic Repeats. It is an idea that genetic engineers have copied from bacterial communities defending themselves against viruses and foreign DNA. Cas 9 is a protein, that with the help of guide RNA, recognises and 'cuts and pastes' the sequence of DNA to be edited.

Just like the previous generation of genetic engineering uses a viral promoter to add itself to a DNA sequence, gene editing can change more than the target genes. The possibility of recombinant DNA producing changes to a large number of genes and making unwanted edits to other sequences is very high using this technology.

Read more: GM Human and Animal Farm?

A WHO staff member's parting salvo to the international health agency and its neoliberal approach to health Sam Burcher

Social scientist, Alison Katz has left the World Health Organisation (WHO) after 17 years of devoted service, condemning its “Let us live and let them die” attitude, which sums up the neglect of millions of people over the past three decades, suffering and dying from diseases of poverty, including notably HIV/AIDS [1]. She is the second AIDS researcher to leave within the past 12 months (see On Quitting HIV [2]).

“For over twenty years now, the international AIDS community has persisted in a reductionist obsession with individual behaviour and an implicit acceptance of a deeply flawed and essentially racist theory.” Katz writes. She believes that the narrow and totalitarian approach to AIDS by the WHO not only has had negligible effect, but also has betrayed public health principles and perversely forbidden exploration of any alternative perspectives. Like many others, Katz questions the exclusion of a plethora of co-factors known to increase biological susceptibility to infection by all disease agents, including HIV, among which are under-nutrition, poverty, powerlessness, and the basic necessities for a healthy and dignified life.

She believes that the WHO has fallen victim to neoliberal globalisation, and by default, to the economic interests of powerful nations and the transnational corporations. In an open letter dated January 2007 [3] addressed to Dr. Margaret Chan, the incoming Director-General of WHO, Katz set out seven key points to steer her focus back to serving the public, including the critical importance of addressing the commercialisation of science, and the close relationship between industry and academia as highlighted in Institute of Science in Society's discussion paper Towards a Convention on Knowledge [4].

Read more: “Let Us Live and Let Them Die”

5th August 2019

New developments in GM can sometimes seem very remote to those of us living in the UK, In part that is because we have been protected by strict EU laws about the cultivation and sale of genetically modified crops and foods.

Over the past twenty years or so commercial GM crops like the golden rice in Africa which was supposed to improve eyesight, but didn’t work, or rainbow papayas in Hawaii that contaminated 50% of non-GM papaya or flavr-savr tomatoes designed to not over-ripen but rejected by consumers worldwide, seemed too far away to be worrisome.

But this year, field trials of GM crops including potato, broccoli, brassicas and a false flax plant engineered to produce Omega-3 fish oil in its seeds have just moved much closer to home.

A fresh round of GM field trials, taking place until 2023, has recently gained approval from DEFRA - a signal that, post-Brexit, the UK is gearing up, once again to become a GMO nation.

Fish Oil in Flax

Rothamsted Research is growing Camelina sativa, a  member of the brassica family commonly known as false flax, in Hertfordshire and Suffolk. The plant, which is similar in appearance to its cousin, the yellow-flowered oilseed rape, will be subjected to a “pick and mix” approach to re-engineering with over 100 different elements that could be inserted in to the trial crops in multiple different combinations.

The oil pressed form the seeds is intended as feed for farmed salmon.

Fish farming is big business, netting some £600 million a year in exports for Scotland’s fishing industry alone. But salmon are top predators and their natural diet is smaller fish which are rich in a particular type of omega-3 oil known as DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid. Fish farms consume roughly 80% of all fish oil harvested from the oceans as fish, well beyond sustainable limits.

Read more: GMOs in The UK - Where Are We Now?

July 1st 2019

Lisbon is a city of lines: amarela, azul, verde, vermelho or red, blue, green and yellow. The simplicity of the network of fifty-five cool tiled stations is a weary travellers dream. I come down into my body from out of my head and feel safe from the prying eyes of a Metro line predator.

On the bus leaving the city the temperature reads 35 degrees centigrade, and thankfully dropping. The hills are yellow and the people are yellow and hot. The Torres das Amoreiras, also known as the Amoreiras Towers are standing to attention.The architect of these yellow fortresses of post-modernity became a standing joke when sex tapes showing him roughly buggering a succession of young girls in his Lisbon office were released onto the internet.

Renewables Revolution

An Atlantic wind is blowing through the hills and whistles noisily inside the bus's air conditioning system. Outside the tinted windows Nordex wind turbines are busily spinning megawatts of energy for a yellow city. Amongst the verdant native forests patches of drooping genetically modified eucalyptus and pine stand out like dry, sore thumbs dwarfed by plantations of steel windmills that produce nearly a quarter of Portugal’s electricity.

A revolutionary wind blows through Portugal. The Carnation Revolution in 1974 heralded the change from an authoritarian state to a democracy with barely a shot fired. It was thanks to the people who, despite being told to stay indoors, mingled peacefully with the insurgent army, putting flowers in their rifles and defusing hostilities. The spirit of freedom and self-empowerment lives on. No longer dependent on natural gas, 63% of the country’s total energy is provided by renewables; a carbon saving combination of on-shore and off-shore wind, wave and solar. (In January 2020, Portugal achived 100% renewable energy, a target other developed countries should be striving for).

Read more: Olliopolis - Lisbon - And Beyond

Monday 3rd June 2019

Extinction Rebellion has collaborated with folk singer Sam Lee and The Nest Collective to perform a musical rebellion in Berkeley Square. The song of a nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) was live-streamed throughout the Square to a large crowd highlighting the plight of a bird not heard in Central London for around three centuries and nearing extinction in the UK. The chart topping RSPB’s single featuring the songs of critically endangered birds was also heard. The assembly joined Sam in his re-worded rendition of the original song made famous by Cole Porter, and written in 1939 by Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin about the nightingale in it’s notional home.

Cosmo Sheldrake, the musician son of biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake and Buddhist overtone chanteuse Jill Purce, created a poignant soundscape by naming insects, amphibians, mammals and birds that have disappeared in what the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal has described as “biological annihilation via the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction.” Cosmo named the Atlas Bear, the Tasmanian Tiger and the Passenger Pigeon amongst many others, all now extinct.

A circle of candles representing the distinctive Extinction Rebellion logo lit up the glorious Square, where London Plane (Platanus x hispanica) trees have stood for 300 years. Participants were invited to take the candles on to other places and other protests. Satish Kumar, veteran editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine told the gathering that we can only save the Earth by taking personal responsibility. “What we do to Nature, we do to ourselves,” he said, praising the efforts of David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, and reminding us of Rachel Carson’s early warning about the effects of pesticides in her 1962 book Silent Spring.

Read more: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

“Nothing is being done to stop the environmental and ecological crises that have been ignored for decades by the politicians and the people in power. We will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer. Humanity is standing at a crossroads, we have chosen our path and we are waiting for others to follow. We will never stop fighting for the future of our children and grandchildren. “ 

Read more: Extinction Rebellion - Rebel for Life

A documentary film about people-powered change to be worked with, not consumed.

Down to Earth is the story of one family’s call to freedom after questioning the home, school, work system. As they quit the rat race we follow them on a five year journey in search of the wisdom of sages and shaman, or Earth Keepers, hidden in remote tribal communities of Australia, the Amazon, Africa, the Andes, India and Ireland.

Gaining access to tribes never filmed before in the outback, desert and jungle with just a backpack and camera each was no mean feat. Despite the different locations, the family kept making the same connections, having the same conversations, just with different faces. And the Earth Keepers sharing their insights and wisdom for the first time with outsiders acknowledge that now is “the time for change.”

We are family

The film grew from director Rolf Winter’s dream of finding a retreat in nature for his wife and three young children, then aged 6, 7 and 10 (see his TED talk below) After spending a year in Hiawatha Forest, Michigan they encounter Nowaten, a medicine man living there in isolation. He reluctantly agrees to being filmed, becoming the film’s main contributor.

Nowatan (He who listens) believes there is no purpose in living if you lose the land and forests. We depend on forests for our spiritual connection and wellbeing. People are lost because they have lost connection with nature, and we are all members of nature, he says. “Life is simple, we complicate it, take only what you need.”

But, as Rolf says, we can’t all go back to the forest. So the film asks how do we lead a connected life in a fast-paced world? Real change is only going to happen with a changed mindset of you and me. The diverse problems facing humanity can no longer be delegated to our politicians and scientists, who ultimately are a reflection of us, the people. The time has come to transform our lives and create a new story, our own story. How exciting!

Read more: Down to Earth