Boris Johnson wasn’t watching Extinction – the facts last night even though his missus was, if a report, just a single sentence, in The Times today is to be believed. At the very foot of an article about how the UK would meet its net-zero target is the sentence ‘Plans to ban peat-burning appear to…
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Christmas is cancelled – but the grouse must be shot
A day at the races? No. An afternoon at the football? No. Jogging with six friends? Of course not. A day on a grouse moor? Of course old boy. Rich people travelling from the towns to the uplands, drinking and shooting and then travelling home? An epidemiologist’s nightmare! The track and trace records for these…
Extinction – the facts
Did you watch this yesterday evening? I did and I was a bit disappointed by it until it got onto the current and other pandemics. Yes the early part of the programme was interesting and beautifully filmed but there were rather too many talking heads whose soundbites were bookended by stunning or disturbing imagery. The…
RSPB calls out UK’s lost decade for nature – press release
UK failure on international environmental targets revealed by the RSPB on eve of major UN report RSPB analysis of the UK’s self-assessment reveals the picture may be worse than reported, raising doubts some targets have not been met and highlighting areas where the UK has regressed The UK must recognise the opportunity to make urgent changes at home…
Brood meddling of Hen Harriers – where next?
The daft government brood-meddling scheme, one of the most controversial so-called conservation actions of my time in nature conservation has always been controversial but following the recent news on Hen Harriers it is in even greater trouble. Brood -meddling (called brood management by its supporters) consists of removing young Hen Harriers from their nests, rearing…
Sunday book review – The Consolation of Nature by Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren
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It was the best of times (the most glorious spring ever), it was the worst of times (a tiny virus had cut us off from normal life) but these tales of three naturalists capture the contradiction that many of us experienced. Were we allowed to enjoy ourselves when hundreds were dying? Was it OK to…
Natural England Hen Harrier debacle
The story so far: The NE/DEFRA/Moorland Association/GWCT press release and this blog’s generous first take on it – 3 September RPUK’s take on it – 3 September A short RSPB statement – 3 September I try to make sense of things – 3 September How NE let the shooters talk nonsense because they don’t have…
Tim Melling – Grasshopper Warbler
Tim writes: the name warbler was coined by Thomas Pennant in 1773 so what do you think Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella naevia) was called prior to that? Well nearly a hundred years earlier in 1678, John Ray (in the first bird book in the English language) called it “The Titlark that sings like a Grasshopper, Locustella”….
Natural England misleads minister who misleads parliament?
The war of words over Hen Harriers reached a new low this week with Natural England feeding a minister, Rebecca Pow, inaccurate information which she passed on to Parliament, if the RSPB is to be believed – and I am sure they are to be believed. In yesterday’s statement from RSPB which laid out the…