This is a spoken word piece that was performed at The Wobbly Shelf’s ‘Revolutionary Words’ event to coincide with COP26 in Glasgow. Content warnings: transphobia, queerphobia, eco anxiety. A queer revolution is coming. It is here tonight, it is across Dumfries & Galloway, and hopefully, it will spread across the thing we’re all trying to save from climate change right now: the planet. Saving the planet is inescapably intertwined with queer identities: as climate change affects marginalised com

Navigating social scenes is daunting for many, but for LGBT+ people there’ s an added layer of worry about how much of yourself you can express at social events. This apprehension is compounded for intersectional identities, as it can mean scouring social media posts or event posters to see if there is wheelchair access or a sign language interpreter, or trying to figure out it if a space is actively anti-racist and/or anti-misogynist – and that’ s only after assessing for economic or transport

This spring, Dumfries’ annual light festival, D-Lux Festival of Light, hosted a live-streamed video game-a-thon called ‘THE STREAM: VIVE!’ where experts discussed video games and mental health. This included ‘Speed-dating for Ghosts – a quirky gaming bash’ with gaming expert Gabe Elvery. D&GQ caught up with host Elvery to find out more about the intersections between online gaming and LGBT+ issues. D&GQ: How was THE STREAM: VIVE! event? GE: It was fun! It was nice to see the different things t

Movie love, the feels, fairy tale endings, whatever you call it, romance is everywhere: from love songs andsonnets, to movie genres and book covers, to TV show plot twists. Capital ‘R’ romantic love is generallyportrayed and characterised by a deep, mutual, lasting connection formed on an agreed commitment tosharing a life together. This type of love can be important, wonderful and meaningful. But it is not, by far,the only type of love, and it is definitely not the only love worth celebrating.

It’s February – which means not only is it Valentine’s Day, but it is also LGBT+ history month. But what is the history of Valentine’s Day, and where are LGBT+ people within this history? The jury is still out on the origins ofValentine’s Day. The name Valentine waspopular in Ancient Rome, leading to manyValentines - including a dozen sainted.Out of these, there are two Valentines thathistorians theorise could be the namesakeof the romantic holiday. Both the Valentinenamedmen’s biographies invo

The United Nations says the world has little time to adapt; the next decade will be crucial in completely rethinking global systems to be net-zero carbon emission to avert unreversible climate chaos. But how will big oil do it? Lucy Woods asks the experts what is being done, and if the great energy transition will be successful in time.

LGBT+ people are more likely to feel alone on Christmas, more likely to be adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and more likely to suffer from mental health illnesses than their cisgender, heteronormative peers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as Scotland goes into lockdown again, and restrictions are in place over the holidays, it is more important than ever for the Dumfries & Galloway LGBT+ community to look out for and support each other. Clinical psychologist, Cathy Richards told D&GQ

This winter, the charity Umbrella Lane teamed up with fellow Scotland-based sex worker group, SCOTPEP to campaign for LGBT+ voices to be heard by the Scottish government. From September to early December this year, the government held a public consultation titled, Equally Safe: A consultation on challenging men’s demand for prostitution, working to reduce the harms associated with prostitution and helping women to exit.

One inescapable difference between ClimateLaunchpad 2020 and previous years has been the monumental challenge of hosting an international event almost entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic is scary, confusing, and fraught with anxieties for both the health of loved ones, and the ongoing uncertainty of wider impacts, as always, the clean tech space has risen to the occasion and remained solutions-focused - despite facing a gigantic, complex problem. “We managed. We are

This year at ClimateLaunchpad the diversity of both ideas and participants has increased, with people from across the globe, from a vast mix of communities, with multiple perspectives working towards the same challenge: climate change. Among this years’ cohort, women and girls have continued to hold leadership roles, and as a result, are changing long-held narratives about gender and climate change.

With over 30 years’ experience in the aluminium smelting industry, Hjaltalín knows a revolutionary idea when he sees one, and when he met Dr Theodore Beck, a professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, he knew he’d found something potentially extraordinary. Hjaltalín met Beck a few times at the USA’s Minerals, Metals and Materials Society conferences. He had heard of the professor’s work and also knows Beck’s family back in Iceland. Beck’s idea was both “interesting and challenging,” says Hjaltalín. The academic idea Beck was working on, was to create a “completely new” aluminium process based on multiple vertical, inert or non-consumable metallic anodes and ceramic cathodes, with a lower temperature electrolyte (800C). The electrolyte dissolves the alumina into oxygen and aluminium, explains Hjaltalín.

“Climate change has always been in my mind,” says Nath. India is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change in the world, and its effects are already apparent. “We have rising temperatures, decreasing rainfall, and extreme weather events are becoming more and more common," says Nath. Coming from a family of wildlife conservationists, Nath has discovered that places she had grown to love had become increasingly marginalised over the last decade, especially in the race to development.

“If you are serious about the relationship between sustainability and poverty,” says Winthrop, “you have to take a grassroots perspective.” This is why Irish Aid is most interested in micro solutions, she says. The best way to create sustainable wealth and development is from the ground up, by “fostering innovation among subject matter experts,” she says.

Burford began his start-up career investing in the digital tech space over 30 years ago. “I was in my mid-twenties – and sometimes the start-ups crashed!” he jokes. But for the last 10 years, as a leading entrepreneurial coach at EIT Climate-KIC, Burford has focused on the world of climate change solutions. Burford made the switch all those years ago as “apps and that are great.” However, he knew climate change “is this really important problem that humanity needs to solve.”

Dunlop notes one of her first climate related successes was helping her father become “a climate activist warrior”. A Shell executive, her father extracted oil and coal. Over the family dinner table, Dunlop would tell him that his way of economic rationalising without considering people was, “absolutely wrong.” And it worked. “I have watched this total 180-degree change,” she says.

The energy sector is in the middle of a mass transition. The race to decarbonise and switch to renewable energy will present many challenges and opportunities throughout the global industry - including opportunities for international collaboration.

Skipping meals to talk to the media, aiming to get arrested – and still making it to your hockey game. These are just some of the tasks found on the to-do lists of campaigners in Canada who are putting everything on the line to fight for a liveable, just future. Lucy EJ Woods went to meet them. It’s late November 2019 and the pavements are buzzing in St Catherine Street, the busiest shopping area in Montreal, as retailers feverishly prepare for Black Friday – the international festival of material indulgence and opportunity for huge profits, which is just four days away.

Durham County is notably pro-renewables, despite being a mining community. The south facing rooftops are covered with polysilicon and thin-film solar panels. The rounded silhouette of hilly fields decorated with the spinning fans of wind turbines bobbing in and out of sight. Pont Valley sits within Durham, a rural area spotted with detached houses, horses and livestock. On Wednesday 26 February, it was 7 degrees and there were still clumps of snow and ice on the ground...

At the 2015 United Nations' climate negotiations in Paris (COP21), countries pledged to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C. But current policy is set to heat the planet by more than 3C. To help close this gap between promises and reality, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement - the piece of legislation responsible for setting up the mechanisms for a worldwide carbon emissions trading system - was to be finalised at the end of last year in Madrid, at COP25.

Across Europe, and many other places, people are laying their bodies down, facing arrest, calling for government action on environmental policies, including cutting fossil fuel subsidies. In Ecuador, people are putting their lives at risk to reinstate them. The protests were successful. After eleven days of unrest, seven dead, hundreds arrested and thousands injured, the government met with protesters for peace talks, and negotiated the reinstatement of fossil fuel subsidies in Ecuador.