Peggy Floyd

Peggy Floyd Imagination rules the world.

When Betsy Williams goes to the loo, she likes to know her p*e won't go to waste. For the last 12 years, she and her nei...
20/03/2025

When Betsy Williams goes to the loo, she likes to know her p*e won't go to waste. For the last 12 years, she and her neighbours in rural Vermont, US, have diligently collected their urine and donated it to farmers for use as fertiliser for their crops.
"We're consuming all of these things that have nutrients in them, and then a lot of the nutrients that are passing through us can then get recycled back into helping create food for us and for animals. So to me, it's logical," Williams says.
Williams takes part in the Urine Nutrient Reclamation Program (UNRP), a programme run by the Rich Earth Institute (REI), a non-profit based in Vermont. She and 250 of her neighbours in Windham County donate a total of 12,000 gallons (45,400 litres) of urine to the programme each year to be recycled – or "p*ecycled".
Windham County's p*e-donations are collected by a lorry and driven to a large tank where the urine is pasteurised by heating it to 80C (176F) for 90 seconds. It is then stored in a pasteurised tank, ready to be sprayed on local farmland when the time is right to fertilise crops.

Located off the coast of west Donegal in the Atlantic Ocean, the remote island of Owey (or Uaigh in Irish, meaning "cave...
13/03/2025

Located off the coast of west Donegal in the Atlantic Ocean, the remote island of Owey (or Uaigh in Irish, meaning "cave") is approximately 15 minutes by boat from Cruit Island, which is joined to the mainland via a short car bridge. There is no ferry service to Owey, visitors can only access the island by kayak or private boat. There's also no electricity or running water, so only the distant lights twinkling from the mainland hint of civilisation – and modern-day pressures – further away.
Last inhabited full-time in the 1970s, the island was home to around 100 residents and about 30 families at its pinnacle. But the lure of modern conveniences on the mainland led to a dwindling population, with the last remaining islanders leaving in 1977 and the place lying abandoned for more than 25 years.
I was spending a long weekend on Owey with the Wild Women of the Woods (Northern Ireland), an organisation of more than 4,000 members that aims to connect women from all over Ireland to experience nature and adventure together in wild, untamed settings. Outdoor enthusiast Rachel Pedder, who set up the organisation, wanted to bring the group "somewhere that was off the beaten track and not generally accessible".

However, it recognises that is going to be difficult. A key problem is heat pumps are typically more expensive than gas ...
06/03/2025

However, it recognises that is going to be difficult. A key problem is heat pumps are typically more expensive than gas boilers, even after the government's £7,500 grant. And because they heat water to a lower temperature than boilers, they work better in well-insulated homes with larger radiators or underfloor heating.
The committee says the government needs to consider schemes to help lower income households cover at least some of the costs of these changes.
The hope is that as boilers break down, consumers will replace them with heat pumps. The report doesn't recommend a ban on new boilers but says by 2035 all new heating systems should be low carbon.

Goossens convinced the Premier of New South Wales, Joseph Cahill, that an opera house would reshape the world's view of ...
27/02/2025

Goossens convinced the Premier of New South Wales, Joseph Cahill, that an opera house would reshape the world's view of Australia, that he had found the perfect site for it, and that they should launch "a grand competition, open to the architects of all the world, to decide exactly what manner of a building they should put there", said Philpott. "They made only one condition, that nothing quite so remarkable should have been ever built before."
Goossens himself would not get to see his ambition realised. In 1956, having just picked up his knighthood in the UK, he was detained upon his entry back into Australia, where his bags were searched and found to contain, among other things, smuggled po*******hy, compromising photographs and rubber masks. The resulting scandal, which involved affairs, erotica and witchcraft, completely scuppered the conductor's career in Sydney. He fled the country for Rome, traveling under the alias of Mr E Gray, never to return.

Some gulls are coming to live closer to people, adding human leftovers to their natural menu of fish, crabs, starfish an...
24/02/2025

Some gulls are coming to live closer to people, adding human leftovers to their natural menu of fish, crabs, starfish and earthworms.
The birds may be flocking to urban areas to find food to feed their chicks during the breeding season, switching back to a natural diet once their youngsters have fledged.
Alternatively, gulls may be relying on human leftovers for much of the year as the natural food supply dwindles.
"The fact is we just really don't know – there is very little data," said Dr Risely.

From fiery festivals to nature's most dazzling "sky-dance", interest in the night skies is booming, with "noctourism" po...
13/02/2025

From fiery festivals to nature's most dazzling "sky-dance", interest in the night skies is booming, with "noctourism" poised to be a major travel trend in 2025.
Interest in the night skies is booming. Booking.com recently named "noctourism" as a top travel trend for 2025, with their survey of more than 27,000 travellers finding that around two-thirds have considered going to "darker sky destinations" to experience things like starbathing (lying down and looking at the night skies) and witnessing once-in-a-lifetime cosmic events.
"The cool thing about night adventures is you see so many different sides to a destination, by just staying up late or rising early," says Stephanie Vermillon, author of the new book 100 Nights Of A Lifetime: The World's Ultimate Adventures After Dark. "Our senses are heightened, and there are things you see at night that you don't see any other time, so everything feels exciting and new."

Since its 1967 construction, Canada's "Calgary Tower", a 190m (623ft) concrete-and-steel observation tower in Calgary, A...
05/02/2025

Since its 1967 construction, Canada's "Calgary Tower", a 190m (623ft) concrete-and-steel observation tower in Calgary, Alberta, has been home to an observation deck, panoramic restaurants and souvenir shops. Last year, it welcomed a different kind of business: a fully functioning indoor farm.
Sprawling across 6,000sq m (65,000 sq ft), the farm, which produces dozens of crops including strawberries, kale and cucumber, is a striking example of the search for city-grown food. But it's hardly alone. From Japan to Singapore to Dubai, vertical indoor farms – where crops can be grown in climate-controlled environments with hydroponics, aquaponics or aeroponics techniques – have been popping up around the world.

In the BBC's inaugural guide to the best places to travel this year, we wanted to highlight the destinations experiencin...
28/01/2025

In the BBC's inaugural guide to the best places to travel this year, we wanted to highlight the destinations experiencing the opposite phenomenon. Each of these 25 spots is not only welcoming visitors and offering incredible travel experiences, but also using tourism to support local communities, protect the environment or preserve their unique cultural heritage. We compiled the list with input from BBC Travel journalists and some of the world's leading sustainable travel authorities, such as the United Nations World Travel Organization, Sustainable Travel International, the Black Travel Alliance and the World Travel & Tourism Council.
As tourism in many regions soars past pre-pandemic levels, and extreme weather and climate change reveal the fragile impermanence of many bucket-list destinations, travelling thoughtfully means considering where your trip can serve a larger good.
From trekking through a moonlike landscape in Bolivia to Arctic glamping in Greenland on the world's largest island, your next great adventure is just ahead.

Last week, a female killer whale was spotted off the coast of Washington State pushing the body of her dead newborn calf...
14/01/2025

Last week, a female killer whale was spotted off the coast of Washington State pushing the body of her dead newborn calf. The orca, known as Tahlequah, was observed doing the same thing in 2018 after another of her calves died in infancy. On that occasion, Tahlequah pushed the body of her offspring for 17 days, continually retrieving it and preventing it from sinking – an incredible feat given the fact that killer whales can travel an average of 120km (75 miles) a day.
Whales are not the only species known to carry the bodies of their deceased young. In 2021, Edinburgh Zoo reported that one of their chimpanzees, Lianne, had given birth to a stillborn baby and was refusing to let go, carrying the infant around with her within the zoo enclosure. Other highly intelligent mammals, such as dolphins and monkeys, have also been observed behaving this way.
"It's hard to see this behaviour without thinking of it through the lens of grief, partly because, as humans, if we lose someone we want to cling on to that person in some sense," says Becky Millar, a researcher specialising in the philosophy of cognitive sciences at Cardiff University.

Next, I consider the environmental quality of the decorations. I am re-using plastic beads from an old necklace, and I a...
09/01/2025

Next, I consider the environmental quality of the decorations. I am re-using plastic beads from an old necklace, and I always save scrap fabrics I like the look of from torn clothes, old tablecloths and sheets. The fabric for this project, though, is some old, shop-bought felt. To see what it is made of, I perform a burn test, setting fire to a corner of the fabric to see how it burns, and scrunch and cut the material a bit. The answer is unequivocal – it's synthetic. My heart sinks before I remember that I already own it and should use it then buy better next time. With the buttons, I can also remove the decorations before washing the jumper, to try to avoid potential polymers leaking from the material during a wash.
It may actually be best to spot clean synthetic jumpers rather than wash them, Hobson-Lloyd says, using things like alcohol-based sprays to get rid of smells. This is also good for jumpers with embedded electronics which risk being destroyed by water and which are otherwise effectively single-use, I think.

According to research by the environmental impact consultancy Edge, roughly one million trees are cut down worldwide eac...
25/12/2024

According to research by the environmental impact consultancy Edge, roughly one million trees are cut down worldwide each year to make toilet paper.
The pulp and paper industry is the world's largest consumer of virgin wood, using roughly 35% of harvested trees for paper production. This is driving deforestation, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, species extinction and widespread ecosystem disruption according to the latest Ethical Consumer report on ethical toilet paper.
Martin Odhiambo, a herbalist at the National Museum of Kenya who specialises in traditional plants, thinks the solution to the environmental impact of cutting trees for toilet paper may already be here.

"Plectranthus barbatus is the African toilet paper. Many young people nowadays are unaware of this plant, but it has the potential to be an environmentally friendly alternative to toilet paper," he says.

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