Robert Macfarlane

Is A River Alive? is published today. It’s about the lives, deaths & rights of rivers—& how our fate flows with that of water & always has. To the people & rivers whose ideas run through its pages: thank you so much. I think it might be the book I’ve been learning how to write…

1. I've adored the writing of @robgmacfarlane for years, frankly it's changed my life in many ways. I was so excited to listen to this as it's the 1st he's narrated personally. I had to pull over to finish it yesterday - his work often moves me to tears, but this was profound.

Hello—I’m hanging up my boots here on X for at least the summer. Come find/follow me on Instagram instead, where I’m also @ robgmacfarlane. 👇👇👇

After months of evidence gathering and countless hearings the House of Commons @CommonsEFRA select committee pulls no punches and gives the water industry and regulators both barrels. "The water sector is failing." "Root and branch reform of the water sector is now needed". "The…

Guess what happens when you mess with a retired audit partner at PWC? You get your ass handed to you on a plate, wouldn't that be right @YorkshireWater. All hail Stanley Root ladies and gentlemen. 👏👏👏

Hello! I am pleased to release my first music album for my Youtube channel ‘Flow’, in honour of my brilliant writer-friend Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane ). The five tunes here have been floating and forming in my mind for quite a few years now, all anchored in my love for…

The failure of our planning system for rivers, in one photo. The River Roding through Ilford is in the worst state of anywhere on the river: canalised in concrete, covered in rubbish, polluted with sewage & road runoff & forgotten about. So when a developer was given permission…

🚨 TELL YOUR MP TO SHOW UP FOR WATER! 🚨 On 18th June, MPs have a chance to speak up for our rivers, our environment, and our communities at a parliamentary evidence session. The Independent Water Commission could shape the future of water in the UK — but only if our leaders…

Only a short ways in & I’m already enthralled & altered by @RobGMacfarlane's newest IS A RIVER ALIVE? which is every bit as “spell-binding and life-changing” as @jorie_graham says it is.

Hello New York/Brooklyn — I’ll be @PioneerWorks_ on Wed 4 June to discuss the lives, deaths & rights of rivers, the histories & futures of water, & points between and beyond. Come along if you’re around! Tix & info here: pioneerworks.org/programs/rober…

Gaza is ‘hungriest place on Earth’ with all its people at risk of famine, says UN theguardian.com/world/2025/may…

Imagine water otherwise – @RobGMacfarlane (one of the deepest, most generous thinkers and most incandescent writers of our time) on the personhood of rivers and what makes something alive themarginalian.org/2025/05/30/rob…

I’m calling it now… the last goverment was until recently one of the worst of all time for nature, farming and food policies THIS GOVERNMENT IS WORSE And I have a little theory about what’s happening… 🧵

In Haaretz Hebrew, 22 May, former Israeli PM Olmert says he used to think that the mass killing of civilians in Gaza was a result of a "tragic war" & he denied the charges of genocide & war crimes, but now he thinks: it is an intentional annihilation. archive.ph/3vvOi

For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid into Gaza. The entire population is facing the risk of famine. Families are being starved and denied the very basics. All with the world watching in real time.

Heartbreaking. 💔 The government has rejected proposals to protect England’s chalk streams. The UK is home to 85% of the world’s chalk streams, rare, precious ecosystems found almost nowhere else on Earth. These rivers are our nation’s rainforest, crystal-clear lifelines for…

Israel has committed 'domicide' for decades. In 2023, I reported 60,000 civilian structures destroyed over nearly 50 years—mostly homes. Add extrajudicial killings, mass arrests/detention, Gaza massacres, constant theft and humiliation. Sanction Israel. Stop arming atrocities.

Is A River Alive? is published today in the US by @wwnorton. The beautiful jacket of living, writhing rivers is based on art by the great @StanleyDonwood. I feel deeply committed to the rivers, people & ideas in this book—& can’t wait to come to North America with it next week.

💥Five trucks after 2 months is not aid, it is a mockery. It is also one of the reasons Netanyahu's ministers are not abandoning him. They're in on the joke.

You can hear the pain in Nathan's voice. All of the rhetoric, all of the reports, all of the bullshit meetings, it's all nonsense. The River Wye is being killed. Governments, on both sides of the border need to get a grip.

Reading the new book by @RobGMacfarlane 'Is A River Alive?' Extraordinary writing, deeply moving and inspiring at a deep, gut level. May this book unleash a deep deep shift in iur relationship with the natural world. Read it! Please! Vital vital stuff.