New government guidelines to protect sensitive areas from the risks of fracking don't go far enough, according to Harry Huyton, the RSPB's head of climate change. Although the government has protected Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AoNBs), National Parks and World Heritage Sites, the guidelines stop short of safeguarding wildlife Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
The document also allows companies to apply for a licence to extract shale gas in AoNBs and National Parks under "exceptional circumstances", but fails to specify what those circumstances may be.
I simply do not trust the government....
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Friday, 5 September 2014
BP Found Guilty of Gross Negligence
It appears that finally all the dead sea-birds have come home to roost on BP's doorstep. The NGO has received the blow it has feared for more than four years after a US court ruled that it was guilty of gross negligence over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill - a decision that could add as much as $15 billion to its costs for the disaster.
The ruling hit BP hard sending its shares spiralling down 6 per cent and wiping $9 billion off its market value. "BP's conduct was reckless" Judge Carl Barbier said as he handed out his decision yesterday in New Orleans. Needless to say BP immediately responded by saying it would take its case to the US Court of Appeals.
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform at the Macondo well in April 2010 killed 11 people and spewed several million barrels of oil into the sea over the next three months.
I remember at the time seeing horrendous footage and photographs of oiled sea-birds, in particular Brown pelicans, many so badly oiled they did not survive. One of the worst marine catastrophes of all time.
The ruling hit BP hard sending its shares spiralling down 6 per cent and wiping $9 billion off its market value. "BP's conduct was reckless" Judge Carl Barbier said as he handed out his decision yesterday in New Orleans. Needless to say BP immediately responded by saying it would take its case to the US Court of Appeals.
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform at the Macondo well in April 2010 killed 11 people and spewed several million barrels of oil into the sea over the next three months.
I remember at the time seeing horrendous footage and photographs of oiled sea-birds, in particular Brown pelicans, many so badly oiled they did not survive. One of the worst marine catastrophes of all time.
Simply heartbreaking
I have friends in the Gulf area. One of them runs a dog rescue centre that came close to closing. It relied on donations from locals, many of whom were hit hard by this disaster and did lose their businesses. Donations virtually dried up as a result of locals losing their incomes. The rescue centre were forced to lay off staff owing to a calamitous loss of income. When it came to compensation the BP attorneys based it upon the number of staff employed after the lay-offs. Despicable, but that's lawyers for you.
This hike in BP's fine would push its total bill for the disaster well above the $43 billion that it has currently accounted for to cover costs such as legal fees and compensation.
Don't expect any sympathy from me...
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Operation Turtle Dove
On the 100th anniversary of the extinction of North America’s Passenger Pigeon [Monday 1 September, 2014], the RSPB is highlighting the plight of the Turtle Dove, which is currently halving in number every six years.
Just like the now-extinct Passenger Pigeon, the Turtle Dove is a migratory bird. The species nests in the UK and Europe and spends the winter in Africa, south of the Sahara.
Tara Proud, of the RSPB, said: “The decline of the Passenger Pigeon is a strikingly similar story to the decline of our very own Turtle Dove, which currently is halving in number every six years. It’s too late for Passenger Pigeon, but 100 years on we don’t have to accept that Turtle Doves will suffer the same fate. Turtle Doves are the UK’s fastest declining bird species. For every 20 doves we had in 1970, we now only have one. At this rate, the bird’s UK extinction as a nesting species is a real possibility.”
Tara Proud added: “Together, we are identifying the primary causes of the decline through research right across their long migration. We then develop urgent practical solutions – such as advising farmers how they can provide food for Turtle Doves on their land.”
Just like the now-extinct Passenger Pigeon, the Turtle Dove is a migratory bird. The species nests in the UK and Europe and spends the winter in Africa, south of the Sahara.
Tara Proud, of the RSPB, said: “The decline of the Passenger Pigeon is a strikingly similar story to the decline of our very own Turtle Dove, which currently is halving in number every six years. It’s too late for Passenger Pigeon, but 100 years on we don’t have to accept that Turtle Doves will suffer the same fate. Turtle Doves are the UK’s fastest declining bird species. For every 20 doves we had in 1970, we now only have one. At this rate, the bird’s UK extinction as a nesting species is a real possibility.”
Operation Turtle Dove was launched in May 2012 to stop the Turtle Dove following the same path as the Passenger Pigeon and is a partnership between the RSPB, Conservation Grade, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Natural England.
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
Badgers - and this Disreputable Government
The last week has been terrible for badgers, and things are only going to get worse:
Tuesday 26th August: British Government quietly release plans to kill up to 1876 badgers in Somerset and Gloucestershire this year.
Friday 29th August: Badger Trust high court legal challenge against the badger cull is overturned.
Tuesday 2nd September: Badger vaccination projects are announced to be taking place around the country.
I don't approve when I see a story of vaccination being used to bury the real news of the imminent and unjustifiable murder of badgers.
Make no mistake, our nation is in uproar about what is being done in Somerset and Gloucestershire. More than 300,000 people signed Brian May's anti cull petition in 2013, but the cull continued. It claimed the lives of almost 2000 badgers, cost around £7,000,000 and the independent expert team hired to study the results described it as 'ineffective and inhumane'.
At this point, any sensible person would look at the overwhelming scientific evidence against the cull, the view of their own expert panel, the will of the people, and accept that they had made a mistake.
But not this government. Instead they fired the expert panel, and told the contractors to get the guns back out.
This cull is an abomination, which the government are pursuing at all costs and sweeping deftly under the media radar. Many still do not know there is to be a badger cull this year. It is up to each of us to share the truth. Please share the news of this imminent cull with friends and family:
Tuesday 26th August: British Government quietly release plans to kill up to 1876 badgers in Somerset and Gloucestershire this year.
Friday 29th August: Badger Trust high court legal challenge against the badger cull is overturned.
Tuesday 2nd September: Badger vaccination projects are announced to be taking place around the country.
I don't approve when I see a story of vaccination being used to bury the real news of the imminent and unjustifiable murder of badgers.
Make no mistake, our nation is in uproar about what is being done in Somerset and Gloucestershire. More than 300,000 people signed Brian May's anti cull petition in 2013, but the cull continued. It claimed the lives of almost 2000 badgers, cost around £7,000,000 and the independent expert team hired to study the results described it as 'ineffective and inhumane'.
At this point, any sensible person would look at the overwhelming scientific evidence against the cull, the view of their own expert panel, the will of the people, and accept that they had made a mistake.
But not this government. Instead they fired the expert panel, and told the contractors to get the guns back out.
This cull is an abomination, which the government are pursuing at all costs and sweeping deftly under the media radar. Many still do not know there is to be a badger cull this year. It is up to each of us to share the truth. Please share the news of this imminent cull with friends and family:
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Top Bird for Britain
Many countries have a national bird but Britain isn't one of them. David Lindo, known as the Urban Birder, is on a mission to find out which feathered friend holds the dearest place in the nation's heart. The poll runs until next month here
Me with David Lindo
With 20,000 votes cast, here is the top ten so far:
- Robin
- Barn owl
- Kingfisher
- Wren
- Blue tit
- Mute swan
- Puffin
- Hen harrier
- Blackbird
- Red kite
So why not take a minute to add your vote at the link provided above?
Monday, 1 September 2014
A Review on Martha
The Passenger Pigeon was once the most numerous bird on the planet, probably by a huge margin. The statistics that Mark Avery recounts on population size, breeding colonies, roosts and migrating flocks are simply mind-boggling, completely dwarfing anything we can see today. There were almost certainly somewhere between five and ten billion Passenger Pigeons in North America early in the nineteenth century.
Mark Avery provides a very useful digest of the vast literature on this species and comments on various aspects of Passenger Pigeon ecology, its dependence on native broadland forest and its mast production and statistics on population dynamics. He discusses habitat loss and the unbelievable slaughter of the birds (for food) in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
The story is a tragic one and well told, the story of a man-made extinction. Martha was the last surviving Passenger Pigeon and died 100 years ago in captivity, in Cincinatti zoo. Martha's message to us, so well reinforced by Avery, is that we should do our utmost to make sure that such an event cannot happen again.
Essential reading for anyone concerned with conservation, habitat change, loss of important food plants, modern farming methods and indiscriminate shooting. It is easy to say that the Turtle Dove will not become the new Passenger Pigeon - but can we be sure?
Mark Avery provides a very useful digest of the vast literature on this species and comments on various aspects of Passenger Pigeon ecology, its dependence on native broadland forest and its mast production and statistics on population dynamics. He discusses habitat loss and the unbelievable slaughter of the birds (for food) in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
The story is a tragic one and well told, the story of a man-made extinction. Martha was the last surviving Passenger Pigeon and died 100 years ago in captivity, in Cincinatti zoo. Martha's message to us, so well reinforced by Avery, is that we should do our utmost to make sure that such an event cannot happen again.
Essential reading for anyone concerned with conservation, habitat change, loss of important food plants, modern farming methods and indiscriminate shooting. It is easy to say that the Turtle Dove will not become the new Passenger Pigeon - but can we be sure?
Neonicotinoid impacts on birds
The catastrophic impact of neonicotinoid pesticides on bees has long been suspected but now it's becoming clear that they are hitting farmland bird populations too.
Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides in the world. They are toxic to most arthropods and they are widely applied as seed dressings because they act systemically, protecting all parts of the crop. Like so many pesticides used in the past they can persist and accumulate in soils and leach into waterways.
As a result of many studies, both in the laboratory and in the field, there is a widespread view among entomologists that neonicotinoid use has - in combination with the loss of flower-rich meadows, disease and mite infestations - contributed to the decline of bee populations. They are much less toxic to vertebrates and until recently evidence of any impacts on birds has been merely suggestive. However, a recent paper by Caspar Hallmann and his colleagues published in Nature has shown that decreases in bird numbers in the Netherlands shown by the Dutch Common Breeding Bird Monitoring Scheme have been most rapid in areas with highest environmental concentrations of neonics.
Read the paper here
Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides in the world. They are toxic to most arthropods and they are widely applied as seed dressings because they act systemically, protecting all parts of the crop. Like so many pesticides used in the past they can persist and accumulate in soils and leach into waterways.
As a result of many studies, both in the laboratory and in the field, there is a widespread view among entomologists that neonicotinoid use has - in combination with the loss of flower-rich meadows, disease and mite infestations - contributed to the decline of bee populations. They are much less toxic to vertebrates and until recently evidence of any impacts on birds has been merely suggestive. However, a recent paper by Caspar Hallmann and his colleagues published in Nature has shown that decreases in bird numbers in the Netherlands shown by the Dutch Common Breeding Bird Monitoring Scheme have been most rapid in areas with highest environmental concentrations of neonics.
Read the paper here
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