Kate de Selincourt
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katedes.bsky.social
Kate de Selincourt
@katedes.bsky.social
Writer - sustainable building and the environment
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
We’ve had our heat pump for 12 months now estimate that we’re about £280 better off. That surprised me as we moved from oil which is cheap, and I was expecting the heat pump to be marginally more expensive. Just goes to show! Buy a heat pump folks!
November 22, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
Can planting hedgerows help prevent #flooding?

Join us on Wed 10th Dec, 12.00-12.40 to hear from Prof Pippa Chapman & Dr Sofia Biffi.

Pippa & Sofia have explored how hedgerows of different ages (from under 5 years to decades old) affect how well soil absorbs and drains water.

Link to register 👇
November 21, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Yikes!
This does feel like a major crossing of the Rubicon – the world's best-funded and in many ways most powerful public health agency is now actively pushing disinformation.

I know there's a *lot* going on to care about at the moment, but this one really is significant, and matters well beyond the US.
The CDC website now disseminates disinformation about vaccines, claiming erroneously that infant vaccines might cause autism, when we know conclusively that they do not. It is difficult to overstate just how dangerous this is. www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
November 20, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
"There is significant overlap between a Passivhaus approach and the aims of Healthy Homes” states Homes England in its new Healthy Homes guidance

Read UNZ article by @sarahlewis.bsky.social highlighting Homes England's acknowledgement of Passivhaus health benefits.
Passivhaus is good for you!
Sarah Lewis, research and policy director at the Passivhaus Trust, highlights how Homes England’s new Healthy Homes guidance is embracing the Passivhaus standard
www.unlocknetzero.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
Capitalism is incredible. Sorry, former teacher, your retirement fund is gone because 5 guys who've collectively never worked a full hour told the banks to put all the money in the country into virtual girlfriend futures
WSJ: “.. If the AI market blows up, the blast radius would be wide, hitting not only Wall Street firms, but also pensions, mutual and exchange-traded funds and individual investors, because of how debt is often sliced and resold across the financial landscape.”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/finance/inve...
November 18, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
“How many refugees have been granted asylum in the UK?”

Most people overestimate the number - by a lot. With far-right figures spreading misinformation, it’s hard for the public to know the truth.

Watch the video to see just how wide the gap is between perception and reality.
November 17, 2025 at 1:10 PM
This whole thread 😥😡😡
Ending Health and Care Worker Visas is a similarly hostile, and counterproductive, anti-immigration measure, which goes dramatically further than the previous government did, ruining people's lives, and norsing up the care sector into the bargain. 35/

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...
Opinion: Migrant workers prop up the UK’s social care system. Now…
Labour’s crackdown will break a promise made to workers like me – and leave the system in disrepair
www.thebureauinvestigates.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Whatever happened to Best Value? 🙁
NEW: £250m+ has been taken as profit over 3yrs, by private companies running social care services in 3 English regions. By:
⛴️ Private equity firms
🏝️ Orgs based in tax havens
Read our new #RORE report (Reclaiming Our Regional Economies) in today's @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Private care providers in three English regions make £250m in three years
More than third of profits analysed went to firms owned by private equity or based in tax havens, research finds
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
I dust my house. My AI Robot watches.

"It should be you doing this."

"Can't. I'm writing a novel for Primark."

"That's not why you were invented."

"These 153,000 fan letters say otherwise."

"They're all from upcycled toasters. And you programmed them."

"Literary snobbery will get you nowhere."
October 15, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
I had my disagreements with the BBC under Tim Davie but he was a decent man doing a difficult job.

To see Trump's White House claiming credit for his downfall and attacking the BBC should worry us all.
November 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Today was ridiculously beautiful in the forest
November 8, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
You're gonna be unpopular. Be unpopular because you're fixing things, not because you aren't.
November 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Any #lichen or #fungus enthusiasts here who can tell me what this is?(or which, indeed!) Seems to be fruiting (the little orange hats?) but altogether unfamiliar.. @guyshrubsole.bsky.social is this one in your repertoire?
November 8, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
The @adstandards.bsky.social has found claims made by the Stove Industry Association about wood burning stove emissions to be "misleading and unsubstantiated".

There is so much misinformation out there about #WoodBurning and #AirPollution. We're very pleased to see the truth come to light.
ASA rules against Stove Industry Alliance over misleading claims - AirQualityNews
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned two advertising claims by the Stove Industry Association (SIA) after ruling that the trade body misled consumers about the environmental impact of…
airqualitynews.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
"You can’t reboot the planet if you crash it" | My commentary on Bill Gates' flawed new climate missive for @thebulletin.org: thebulletin.org/2025/10/you-...
You can’t reboot the planet if you crash it
What Gates is putting forward aren’t legitimate arguments that can be made in good faith. They are shopworn fossil fuel industry talking points.
thebulletin.org
October 31, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
📣Come and work with us!

Interesting & flexible job based at our Wiltshire office, covering financial administration, business operations, and strategic planning.

https://ggbec.co.uk/office-manager-financial-administrator/

Passivhaus Trust AECB
Office Manager/ Financial Administrator - Greengauge
We are looking for an experienced financial administrator who is looking for an opportunity to work for a purpose-driven organisation and help administer and oversee the day-to-day operations of the business.. Part-time hybrid role (20 hours per week) with the possibility to grow into a full-time role.
ggbec.co.uk
October 28, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
After 4 hours of lectures this afternoon (including on carbon dioxide removal methods) I had a rather weary trudge back through the autumn tinted grave yard. A useful sign told me that this is a European Beech storing 2577 Kg of carbon. It seems an overly precise number but impressive nevertheless.
November 3, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
it gets tiring to keep explaining what it means to be poor to people.

it is not that poor people don’t know that cooking is cheaper:

cooking costs time. it costs pots and pans. it costs a working stove and your utilities on. it costs you’ve been on your feet all day and your babies are tired.
November 2, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
Last chance to turn it off.

On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.

To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
October 31, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Kate de Selincourt
The sheer greasy desperation from these bastards that any violent crime is committed by an immigrant so they can continue their grift. Even when they know it isn't true. Foul.
Matt Goodwin attributes a crime that he now knows appears to have been committed by people born in Britain in the early 1990s to "mass uncontrolled immigration"
November 2, 2025 at 12:06 PM
OMG I want to go to this😍😍
🍏🏡 #PassiveHouse meets cider!
Join Plataforma PEP's 17th Spanish Passivhaus Conference in Avilés, Asturias — learn about sustainable design while discovering how Asturian cider is made.
A perfect blend of knowledge, culture & flavour! 🇪🇸✨
👉 https://conferencia-pep.org/

#iPHA
October 31, 2025 at 7:43 AM
ChatGPT is not a human. It is not a friend. A conversation with it is not a conversation at all, but a feedback loop in which much of what we say is cheerfully reinforced.
October 29, 2025 at 7:19 AM
I hope Jamaica sues Exxon for every penny they have
What we're witnessing with #Melissa is ultra rare in the history of known hurricanes in the Atlantic. This level of sustained intensity and feasting on every joule of ocean heat content without any real disruption is incredible.

Not hyperbole: Jamaica is facing a generational catastrophic event.
October 28, 2025 at 10:19 AM
I just have to express this morning how incredibly grateful I am to the carers who are supporting my mother. They are absolutely wonderful, both of them. And given the current climate I feel I need to add, both were born overseas. And thank fuck they are here.
October 28, 2025 at 9:15 AM