38 Degrees has made quite a big impact in its short life. Its praises have been sung by people leaving comments on this site several times and I have suggested that readers of this blog should sign up to some of its campaigns. Let’s do it again now – how about signing up to its…
Category: Uncategorized
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…
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…
Ecocide
Today I am hoping to attend an event in London’s Supreme Court where there will be a mock trial for ecocide – a proposed new ‘crime against humanity’ Isn’t it an interesting idea – that a company or perhaps a government could be put on trial for destroying the natural environment? But wouldn’t we all…
Bits and pieces
– The Independent has come back to the subject of NE’s treatment by the coalition government and the need for an independent voice for nature – and this blog even gets a mention – do remember to go out and buy Birdwatch – if only to read everything else in it other than my first…
A natural solution
How do you feel about these two technological breaks-through which might change your life (if you live long enough)? Laser fusion is a way of forcing atoms together to make new atoms with the release of energy. Make a load of heavy hydrogen atoms come together to make helium and neutrons are released which produce…
Just a quickie!
I’ve been looking at the proofs of my first article for a well-known and excellent birding magazine. My first column as the Political Birder will appear soon. But where and when? Watch this space…. And I think that a reader called CaperKylie wins the prize (there is no prize) for the most amusing merger suggestion…
Are all Americans stupid?
I am, of course, only referring to American bird species. I ask the question because of a conversation I had back at the Bird Fair but first let me tell you about the Carolina parakeet. The Carolina parakeet was a native north American parrot that was widespread in the east of the USA when the…
Sharing or sparing?
A couple of my mates, and a couple of people I don’t know, have recently produced a paper in Science – the US-based not-quite-so-good version of Nature. They look at two versions of land-use and ask which is best as in the title of this blog. Starting from the point that we may soon have…
Do you trust them?
It’s all getting quite heated out there. And so it should – although it always looks bad if the government Ministers are the ones losing their tempers whilst the environmental campaigners are cool, calm and collected. But it’s not surprising, because the government is in a worse place over planning reform than it was over…