In a remarkable outpouring of public concern an epetition calling on the government to cease its cull of badgers has, just now, passed 300,000 signatures (on the last day before it closes at 0738 tomorrow morning).
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Badger e-petition reaches 300,00 signatures
Truly commendable, but…….The Wildlife Trusts have over 800,000 members, and the RSPB just over 1 million (some overlap of course), so 300,000 does not seem a lot somehow ?! I signed right at the beginning btw, and am a member of both charities.
The Wildlife Trusts have publicised the petition all the way. However, I wonder how low the figure would have been if Brian May had not put the issue in the “spotlight” ?
Lancastrian – fair point. But you have to judge things by their peers – few epetitions have reached anything like this total. And it is aimed at the English government not the whole of the UK. But i take your point. This may mean that we are apathetic about everything…
Mark. Agreed. Apathy, in the end, will destroy all British wildlife, habitats more so. To roll out the old saying, “You do not know what you have got, until you lose it”…
Agreed.
Now we know (approximately) how many ‘soppy vegetarians’ there are in England
They will all soon be able to download THE SETT* REPORT – BADGER TB: UNMASKED to get the whole truth about Badger TB and the ISG’s RBCT
* SETT – Strategies for the Eradication of Tuberculosis Transmission
…. and Lancastrian’s old saying “You do not know what you have got, until you lose it” – this too includes Badger TB.
Trim, why is anyone who signed the petition a “soppy vegetarian”? I signed it and I’m not soppy and also eat meat, pretty sure some more on here are also meat-o-saurs too. It’s seems to be the tired old tory way to dismiss opposing view in a non-constructive/meaningless manner…sometimes it’s just better to breathe then flap your lips!
Hi Douglas
Please re-read – (approximately) ….
Cheers
might amuse https://twitter.com/CartoonRalph/status/374812130647609344/photo/1
Ralph
Have you tried ‘stand-up’?
Trimbush. You do of course mean Bovine TB do you not ? The answer to the whole sorry issue is better husbandry by the farming community. And I use the last two words very tongue-in-cheek ! Does the Foot and Mouth debacle of a decade ago ring any bells ?
“ring any bells?”
Yep. To this day, we don’t know who brought the virus into the UK – and we will probably never be told. The first outbreaks were near Otterburn, and the last near Sennybridge, as far as I remember
You appear to know as much about TB as you do Foot & Mouth – ZILCH
I do know that (some) farmers are very quick to blame anyone/anything else for their own failings. What astonishes me is the fact that these people can hold the rest of the country to ransom !
300,000 signatures is staggering – it is such a shame that as far as environmental issues are concerned, at least, we no longer live in a democracy.
Holding the country to ransom; we no longer live in a democracy.
What the??!! Just over 0.4% of the population signed a petition and this may result in a debate in parliament. That’s where it’s at.
Seems like a result to me – will the views of the 99.6% of the population who didn’t sign be heard?
I don’t really understand these petitions. This one resulted in a vote in Parliament when it reached 100,000 and Parliament voted against the badger cull. I don’t quite understand what happens now they have added a further 200,000.
So exactly what is democracy; it is certainly not about the will of the people all the time however many. “Your representative owes you, not his industry only but judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion” (Edmund Burke)
“what is democracy”
Among other things it’s when the West Lothian question remains unanswered
Maybe the 300k would have reached something really significant (10m?) if the “clever” people had really engaged with us ordinary blokes?
This approach appeared to have worked in Indonesia on my screen last night. Colin Stafford-Johnson a new hero. He seemed to be genuinely concerned for his subject and his film painted 3 trillion words. A true member of the temple of science?
Phil – I don’t think it is sensible to talk down this achievement. There is no doubt at all that Government will have taken notice of this very large expression of opinion. That doesn’t mean that it is going to change its mind – but it is a very significant marker. Adding another ) would clearly be good though!
Mark, I wasn’t talking down this achievement. I was and am talking up the failure (of the whole conservationist/environmentalist community) to engage with masses (10s of millions) of ordinary people. If they did Carlisle might not have been flooded in 2005 and the State of Nature report would not have been such grim reading.
As part of problem solving I was taught to explore all angles not just continue to plough a single course, often the most stupid sounding idea gets picked up and modified and expanded into something that really works (I really like the word “really” !!).
Your and Brian May’s efforts are magnificent but if we really now have 6 years to really start turning things round to stave of the ecocide that “Circus” pointed to in an earlier blog then will it be enough?
The six years comes from the commentary that introduces Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film “Home” written 4 years ago and was attributed to “Scientists”.
Einstein spoke about the “Temple of Science” and its occupants, John Fowles spoke about marrying Art and Science and a New Education (back in ’67).
I’m an ordinary bloke that reads all of this stuff and wonders why the contemporary “clever” people are so slow to implement what their fore-fathers wrote. Could it be the wool is being pulled over our eyes? Or is it paralysis by analysis?
My experience is there is an awful lot of contempt for people like me trying to add the voice of reason from the ordinary blokes perspective, is that where your community is going wrong? I think so, I can see it plainly on this blog. Only Ian Peters is prepared to spare some time for an ordinary bloke like me. The rest ignore or deride.
Only 6-7 thousand of the 300k badger signatures will have come from the dedicated band of nature lovers. They also signed the Hen Harrier and Stop Ecocide petitions. The rest came from a the efforts of a highly intelligent “Sleb” who fought his way onto our TV screens and reached out to the ordinary blokes.
Maybe Edward De Bono could be pursuaded to co-ordinate efforts of more and more Brian May types (who will appeal to one section of the celebrity worshiping community) to really get this thing moving. He did seem to offer that in my Sunday paper last week. You going to contact him or shall I. He’ll take no notice of me I’m absolutely sure of that!!
Failing that I’ll just soak up the remaining magnificence of the natural world and let evolution take its natural course. I’m up in North Berwickshire at the mo! The Bass Rock is just stunning – but for how much longer?
Phil – enjoy the Bass Rock!
I believe that it is decision-makers whom we need to influence – and the ‘we’ is we, the people. There is paralysis by analysis for sure. And there is ignorance. And there is a lack of caring. We can cut through all that if we raise our voices enough – but we have to raise our voices above other voices.
Mark, precisely – how you going to recruit enough of the people achieve it in 6 years? Right now would appear to be a good time to get in tune with ordinary blokes, as we approach the next election, and REALLY put the case for the environment/nature but where is Natalie Bennett on my screen? Last time I saw her I had to stay up late and watch her being beasted by that nice Andrew Neil bloke.
Part of the problem with “Paralysis by Analysis” is that it leaves you open to ridicule by the clever people on the other side because a) you all appear to be fighting each other for the top of the intellectual stakes prize and b) the ordinary bloke doesn’t know what you’re talking about and if you guys can’t agree on anything then doubt sets in. As a consequence we can be easily pursuaded you’re a bunch of demons threatening our way of life.
Keep it simple – Einstein?
Ian Carter in my Birds magazine presents a highly complex perspective on culture and tradition as opposed to a simple moral argument against killing things. I can’t disagree with a word he says. Buzzard vs Chaffinch vs Dark Eyed-Junco- its a no-brainer to me – a dead heat!
I argued for a member of the Crow family to be the cover of the about to published Gloucestershire Atlas. I was serious, not my usual humorous self! How ridiculous they, my fellow contributors, all chortled as if the commercial aspects of the book were the only consideration. What’s wrong with a Jay or a Raven? Intelligent and beautiful both – no?
Ian’s only failing in his piece is that he comes from a purely human angle as if we are the centre of the system and not the bio-sphere that evolved into the most amazingly complex tapestry over aeons to enable our existance and by definition without our help!! Similarly, the obsession with money, something my mate Fowles puts an insightful perspective on, was the overwhelming consideration for the Atlas team. Maybe the idea on the banner at the start of “Consumed” is worth putting about – Abolish Money? The Free World Charter could be a start – http://www.freeworldcharter.org/en – we could then pursue the subject matter in pure not financial terms. Hey what a hoot!!
Keep it simple, try to get the idea across that a healthy bio-sphere as a whole (not 50% of it) is the pre-requisite to all human activity not the other way around. Porritt understands that – he wrote it! Don’t beat him up because of disagreements over one ot two highly complex issues. All come together to present a simple, understandable, powerful case for the long term survival of the human race and, again by definition, the environment that sustains us. If you modern day clever people can do that you’ll have truly entered the “temple of science” and I’ll nominate you for nobel prizes, MBEs, Knighthoods etc.
The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven
by Guy Wetmore Carryl
A raven sat upon a tree,
And not a word he spoke, for
His beak contained a piece of Brie,
Or, maybe, it was Roquefort:
We’ll make it any kind you please—
At all events, it was a cheese.
Beneath the tree’s umbrageous limb
A hungry fox sat smiling;
He saw the raven watching him,
And spoke in words beguiling.
“J’admire,” said he, “ton beau plumage.”[1]
(The which was simply persiflage.)
Two things there are, no doubt you know,
To which a fox is used:
A rooster that is bound to crow,
A crow that’s bound to roost,
And whichsoever he espies
He tells the most unblushing lies.
“Sweet fowl,” he said, “I understand
You’re more than merely natty,
I hear you sing to beat the band
And Adelina Patti.
Pray render with your liquid tongue
A bit from Götterdammerung.”
This subtle speech was aimed to please
The crow, and it succeeded:
He thought no bird in all the trees
Could sing as well as he did.
In flattery completely doused,
He gave the “Jewel Song” from Faust.
But gravitation’s law, of course,
As Isaac Newton showed it,
Exerted on the cheese its force,
And elsewhere soon bestowed it.
In fact, there is no need to tell
What happened when to earth it fell.
I blush to add that when the bird
Took in the situation
He said one brief, emphatic word,
Unfit for publication.
The fox was greatly startled, but
He only sighed and answered “Tut.”
The Moral is: A fox is bound
To be a shameless sinner.
And also: When the cheese comes round
You know it’s after dinner.
But (what is only known to few)
The fox is after dinner, too.
Well I’ve just added up that I pay subscriptions to seven conservation NGOs and not one of them has tried to encourage me to sign any ePetitions or take any direct and peaceful action other than to send them money. Pick through all the good things they do at local or species level but also stand back to judge that nature in the UK seems to be heading south and I’m not suggesting migration either.
Time to cancel my standing orders, save my money and knit myself a balaclava perhaps and try and make some sort of difference out there? Is it just me feeling this way?
Robin – I think that you make a good general point.
” Is it just me feeling this way?”
Robin, nope! You and me have both spotted it and we didn’t need binoculars.
I’ve been banging on for some time now, but you won’t get much in the way of satisfying debate/answers amongst the more mature nature loving public here. We’re not clever enough.
But are the clever people really that clever? George McGavin last week suggested the swarm intuitively knows better than a handful of leaders (when relating swarm behaviour to human behaviour)!! Interesting idea? I look around the world and see leaders presiding over a total mess ecologically, economically and societally (look at the G20 agonising over the gassing of children – their one and only solution to bomb or not to bomb! haven’t we been there and done that – did it work).
Clever – I don’t think so, what are they promoting order (law) or chaos? Why not promote peace and justice for everyone and everything? Put the marketing man into reverse gear and see what happens?
I mentioned this site above http://www.freeworldcharter.org/en what do you think?
Robin, forgot to say, I have cancelled all of my subscriptions also except one – the WWT – thanks to my very first wildlife hero Sir Peter Scott who I know was a true occupant of the Temple of Science and whose spirit you’d hope has rubbed off onto current staff.
Judging by the efforts of Martin McGill and his collegues in attempting to save the Spoon-billed Sandpiper I’d say that is most definitely the case.