I’ve been thinking, off and on, about the marine wildlife riches around Pitcairn Island since the meeting at the Royal Society last week. It was wonderful to get some comments on this blog from Pitcairn Islanders too. I hope it’s not too presumptuous to think that the case for strong protection of the marine wildlife,…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Book review – Nature all around us by Beatrix Beisner, Christian Messier and Luc-Alain Giraldeau
This is a lovely little book: small in size but great in scope. It is subtitled a ‘guide to urban ecology’ but since ecology is the same everywhere it is a guide to ecology which has been approached through the everyday sights and sounds that surround those people who might think that they are most…
Guest Blog – Why we need to change if we really care… by Ralph Underhill
Ralph Underhill worked on planning casework and water policy at the RSPB for seven years, before joining the Public Interest Research Centre where he is working on the Common Cause for Nature project. He would like to hear your thoughts on this piece and would like anyone interested in the project to get in touch….
Butterflies in the landscape, and a Christmas present too
I’m sorry I can’t attend the launch today of a marvellous report by Butterfly Conservation. Landscape-scale conservation for butterflies and moths – lessons from the UK is a superb document about how to do nature conservation. Few of our UK conservation organisations could produce something so impressive in terms of demonstrating how to conserve threatened…
Biomass – dirtier than coal?
Last week I pointed out that every form of energy production has snags – and suggested that we should give a higher priority to reducing our energy needs. Here’s another example, and it’s rather similar to the situation regarding biofuels (described in Chapter 13 of Fighting for Birds). Using biomass to fuel power stations looks…