Worcester City Councillor Alan Amos (Conservative) is quoted in the Daily Telegraph as calling gulls ‘vicious flying rats’. Apparently if people behaved like gulls do, then they would be arrested, but then, let us consider, shooting people for pooing on your car is illegal so shall we agree that gulls aren’t people, councillor? Natural England…
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Time jerks
Remember that tonight the clocks go back – actually you’d better check that, as I find it difficult to work out from first principles which way the time-change goes (I know, I’m a bit thick). But it’s definitely different tomorrow. I think that changing the clocks twice a year is one of the clearest examples…
Importance of peatlands for carbon storage
Europe’s peatlands are drying out – due to a combination of factors including human actions. And recent estimates of carbon stored in peatlands are twice as high as previous ones. Here is an accessible and useful account of these two papers with interviews with a range of scientists. Altogether peatlands are even more important than…
I noticed…
… the following quote from Inside Science (click here about 12min 40secs into programme); it’s one of those things that on the surface you think more people, more emissions, more resource demand, food demand, whatever it is but when you look at the numbers, we produce enough food in the world now to feed everyone,…
The population elephant in the room
About 10 days ago Ian Parsons bravely wrote a guest blog on the subject of population. It elicited a lot of comments as raising this subject almost often does. This post is not a reply to Ian, nor to any of the comments made, but simply comprises some developed thoughts, with some data, on the…
Bad deal for the environment
The Brexit deal on the table is a bad one for the environment. It moves the protections for the environment and workers’ rights out of the divorce agreement (which is a binding treaty, in effect) and into the polital declaration which is non-binding. This is the change to the level playing field that the Johnson…
New Networks for Nature in York
Comments Off on New Networks for Nature in York
The annual New Networks for Nature event starts in two weeks time – in York. Ticket sales end at midnight Monday 28 October – click here for details.
A deal? A bad one if so.
It is reported that Boris and the EU have agreed a ‘deal’. Jeremy Corbyn is reported widely as having said; From what we know, it seems the Prime Minister has negotiated an even worse deal than Theresa May’s, which was overwhelmingly rejected. These proposals risk triggering a race to the bottom on rights and protections:…
Back home again
I’ve been touring around the country for a few days, but now I’m back home for a while. I enjoyed seeing some scenery, some muirburn, some Harbour Porpoises, an Iceland Gull (thank you to the birder in the beach car park at Brora for letting me have a peek through his ‘scope), a male Hen…
Pine Martens in the Forest of Dean
The news that Pine Martens have been released into the Forest of Dean is good news – unless you are a Grey Squirrel (you aren’t are you?). The evidence is strong, and growing, that native Pine Martens see off non-native Grey Squirrels (and where they exist, allow Red Squirrels to recapture the woods) – see…