In his acceptance speech when receiving the RSPB Medal, Professor Sir John Lawton FRS described the coalition government’s proposed ‘dismantling of the planning system‘ as ‘truly terrifying‘ and the ‘backpedalling‘ on climate change in George Osborne’s conference speech as being ‘deeply worrying‘. Sir John, who is an RSPB Vice President, Chair of the Yorkshire 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
RSPB AGM
Yesterday’s RSPB AGM was, for me, the most relaxed one I have ever attended, as I was there as an RSPB member rather than an RSPB member of staff. And the most difficult question I had to answer was ‘Mark – how are you?’. You do learn a bit by attending these events and keeping…
Francis Maude – misquoted
Francis Maude is widely regarded as the hard man of the Cabinet Office – if you look at the photographs of Cabinet Office Ministers he can’t even manage a proper smile, more of a ‘I’m coming to get your quangos‘ leer. Having said that, Oliver Letwin, who is a cultured gent and so tends to…
Guest blog – Peter Marren
Following his article in The Independent, and the flood of views on the subject that have washed through this blog, I asked Peter Marren whether he would like to comment on the views expressed so far. Here is his response: When you embark on a new venture you feel very alone, so it is…
The environmental content of David Cameron’s Conference speech
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Guest post on Friday – Peter Marren
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Peter Marren will be the guest blogger here on Friday – commenting on the discussion that has sprung up here since he dropped a pebble in the wildlife NGO pond with his article in The Indpendent newspaper. And the offer is open to the Chief Executives of any and all of the wildlife NGOs to…
Chancellor mentions environment shock!
George Osborne felt confident enough to say it as he saw it at the Tory party conference yesterday. “Yes, climate change is a man made disaster. Yes, we need international agreement to stop it. Yes, we must have investment in greener energy. And that’s why I gave the go ahead to the world’s first Green…
Planning for wildlife
It was good to see this story in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday. The RSPB have a legal opinion from Nathalie Lieven QC, the environmental barrister, who has “ no doubt the draft NPPF lessens the policy protection for SSSIs”. I wrote in comments on this blog on 9 September the following: ‘Although European designations…
Never seen that before
Last weekend I revisited one of the haunts of my youth – a place called Steart or Stert. And I’m going with Stert as I’ve always known it as ‘Sturt’ rather than ‘Steert’. As spotty teenagers at Bristol Grammar School we would, under the guardianship of masters Derek Lucas and Tony Warren, make two autumn…
Veggie
Today is world vegetarian day. Will that make a difference to you? I’ll be vegetarian today even though I am not vegetarian. But I am sticking to my self-imposed regime of four vegetarian days a week – and this year I think I am averaging closer to five rather than four. Why? Well the reason…