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Up very early, for me at least, especially after a late night yesterday at Peter Byck’s premiere for his 4-part docuseries Roots So Deep (that you can see the Devil down there) on regenerative farming, to catch the 7.46 train from Barnes Bridge to Waterloo. Then on by, among other things, the new Elizabeth Line. First experience of it – and was duly impressed. Then on to Custom House station and the Excel Centre for RESET Connect, a major sustainability event that is part of London Climate Action Week.

Did a panel session with Kate Norgrove of WWF and Lucy Siegle. Thinking we would be scratching around for an audience, having been in the exhibition area up to that point, we went through a curtain to find out speaking area seething – packed seating and scores of people standing.

Our theme was how to make business sense of the rapidly evolving nature and biodiversity agenda. Great session – and was energetically engaged, on that issues and others, by a nice young man on the return Elizabeth Line train.

Afterwards, talked to a number of participants, including two people from Brazil – who showed me yet another online network in their country that features me – though first I have heard to it – with something like 8,000 members. Amazing how one’s work can take on a life of its own.

Then back to Somerset House for a session with Jenny Poulter and Harry Wright of Bright Tide. Then a briefing for the team on the new Volans branding, which was very encouraging.

And then we all – except Harriet, who had damaged her foot and been raced off to hospital – went downstairs to the Somerset House Exchange to host our Corporate Climate Advocacy salon as part of London Climate Action Week. Great turnout, with a very engaged audience participating in a modified format discussion period – and excellent framing and moderation by Richard and Louise.

Swifts arced through the skies over our Barnes home as I celebrated my seventy-fifth birthday today. There were far fewer than I saw in Madrid a few weeks back, but they remain my favourite bird – even if they haven’t yet taken advantage of the swift boxes we put up as part of re-roofing project a couple of years back

Very striking to see how the number of birthday cards has shrunken over the years, to be replaced by a blizzard of email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp messages from around the world. And amazing, too, to see how any birthday with 10, 25 or 50 in it triggers the best in other people, if not always the recipient.

Plenty of those online messages asked what we were doing to celebrate – and I suspect my answer surprised many. Peter Byck came for lunch with his family, hotfoot from Phoenix, Arizona. I am attending the London premiere in Soho tomorrow for his new 4-part docu-series on regenerative farming, Roots So Deep. I covered his work on “Carbon Cowboys” recently via my Substack channel. And in the afternoon they recorded an interview for his forthcoming, The Peter Byck Show.

By way of celebrating the launch of my latest book, Tickling Sharks, I also posted a Substack article reflecting on. what I learned from the process of writing it. Along the way, I mentioned the fact that it was some sort of milestone birthday – and was promptly bombarded by global goodwill. I might do this again : )

My 21st book launches – marking the end of my first 75 years and of my first 50 years in the sustainability space

Delighted that, after a longish gestation period, my latest book is now swimming off under its own power. A short video trailer can be seen here. I am also beginning to pick up on related themes through my Substack channel.

The first of over 30 endorsements up front in the book comes from Dame Polly Courtice, founding director of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), She kindly says:

“John is a legend. Throughout my 30-year career in sustainability leadership, he has been a source of insight and inspiration. By extension he has influenced the thinking of thousands of senior executives on our programmes. This book offers a wonderful and personal reflection on the evolution of the sustainability movement and glimpses of what might be to come.”

And the book’s conclusion? We will see more change – for good and ill – in the next 15 years than we did in the last 50.

Across to Olympia from Somerset House to do a panel session for London Tech Week with Louise and Sammy Fry, Head of Climate at Tech Nation. Acoustics were rather challenging, but had some great discussions afterwards with people like Sammy and Oli Barrett. Intrigued to find out that Sammy’s grandfather was Clive Wicks, who I worked with at Earthlife back in the 1980s. Born in 1936 and despite a somewhat conservative background, Clive’s was always a usefully muscular voice on conservation issues.

Very sorry indeed to hear of the death of NASA astronaut Bill Anders, aged 90, in a flying accident. He took the Earthrise image in 1968 that helped set me off on the 50-year professional journey described in my latest, twenty-first, book – Tickling Sharks, out on 18th June. A heart-felt thank you, Bill.