Standing up for Nature
I have to admit that John (Johannes) Riutta’s excellent website, The Well-Read Naturalist, first came to my attention when he wrote a very kind review of my A Message from Martha, but I have been dipping into it regularly ever since. I like the ethos of the site ‘The Well-read Naturalist publishes reviews and news…
Today’s good thing from Michael Gove, they are coming thick and fast at the moment, is highly important. It aims to plug the governance gap on the environment once we leave the EU (if it happens). As has been pointed out in this blog many times, although all parties before the general election promised to…
This is an interesting and well-written book about farming and food. It is definitely in the farmer-sympathetic camp, which is fine but also gets close to being in the ‘agriculture is doing well’ camp which I find a little irritating. But I learned a lot from it and it is a good read. The format…
Tim writes: The Anna’s Hummingbird is about 10cm from bill tip to tail and weighs less than five grams. It was named after Princess Anna d’Essling the 19th century Duchess of Rivoli, wife of Prince Victor Massena and son of one of Napoleon’s Marshalls. It was named by René Lesson, a French naturalist who also…
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This is not a native tree but it has been established in Britain for around 2,000 years and the nuts have long been exploited by humans. They only ripen well in some years and, even then, only on a sub-set of the mature trees. Climate change may help as the tree is native to warmer…
I was part of a brief discussion the other day about lifetime offsetting. The idea of offsetting is probably familiar to you: we all do things that cause the emission of greenhouse gases (travelling is a prime example). Jumping on a plane increases GHG emissions and that increases the impacts of climate change. But heating…
Here in rural East Northants some of us will be going to vote a week today. I have my polling card already. I will be voting on this question ‘Do you want East Northamptonshire Council to use the Neighbourhood Development Plan for Raunds to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?’ – for…
Dr Therese Coffey is the junior minister at Defra. Now that Gavin Gamble’s e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting has passed 10,000 signatures Dr Coffey will need to sign off a government response. Yesterday the e-petition passed 11,000 signatures; tomorrow Dr Coffey will have kept Gavin Gamble waiting for two weeks for a…