IOL Newsletter editor Ken Ogilvie will be our regular GREENSCENE contributor

Greenscene - Summer 2010

Budding (S)pudding Disaster.

• Apparently the European Commission has given a German chemical firm, BASF, approval to introduce a genetically modified potato which has a gene that could resist anti-biotics such as those used to fight tuberculosis. Although approved for “industrial use” because ‘it would save energy, water and chemicals’ in paper-making, the skins could be fed to cattle which, it is feared, could develop resistance to antibiotics. A number of European countries are determined to resist its use and Friends of the Earth said that the Commissioner, John Dalli, who approved it had “ignored public opinion and safety concerns to please the world’s biggest company”. Dalli defended the decision by maintaining “stringent” controls would ensure none of the tubers would be left in the ground allowing altered genes freedom to develop elsewhere. Fine words but very difficult to guarantee one hundred percent efficiency forever.

Watch the Birdie

• Those of you who did not take part in the “Big Garden Birdwatch” on 30-31st Jan this year may like to know the results.  The RSPB who collated all the reports say that there were over 8.5 million birds recorded of 73 different species in 280,000 gardens. The number of some of the smaller birds had suffered because of the big freeze. In  particular, Coal-tit numbers fell by 20% compared to last year and Goldcrests by 75%.

Ocean Chemistry Losing Balance

• The journal, Nature Genetics, recently featured the findings of a survey which found that the rising level of CO2 in the atmosphere, which dissolves in the sea to form carbonic acid, was such that the acidification rate of the oceans was upto ten times faster than it was 55 million years ago  - which was the last time they became very acidic.
  It is also feared that such a rise will cause the world’s tropical coral reefs, often compared to the rainforests for their capacity to sustain a wide biodiversity (estimated at a quarter of all marine organisms), to begin disintegrating by the end of this century wherever CO2 levels reach 560 parts per million – i.e. that is double the pre-industrial level. It has been estimated that between 1800 to 1994 there have been about 118 billion tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere and dissolved in the oceans!

Gaia’s Bad Breath

• It has also been found that methane levels have been rising over the last three years, after an unprecedented heatwave in the Arctic, at such a rate that it is thought it could cause a runaway ‘global warming feedback’. Although methane’s effect is shorter lived than CO2 it is sixty times more powerful during its active phase (20 years) in retaining the sun’s heat and increasing global warming. The permafrost regions of the Arctic are loaded with methane and regarded as a ticking methane time bomb.

Just in Time

• The World Meteorological Organisation has agreed to a UK Met Office proposal to instigate a re-evaluation of the world’s temperature records (millions of ‘em) which go back 150 years to establish beyond doubt whether global warming is really here.

Playing It Cool

• The planet certainly seems to be a bit upset these days - not only evidenced in the frequency of volcanic activity either. Last winter a huge iceberg the size of Luxembourg (that’s 48 miles long, 22 miles wide and 1300 feet thick) decided it was time to go visiting ‘furrin’ parts and broke off the Mertz Glacier in East Antarctica. Trouble is that it may cause disruptive mayhem if it reaches and dumps its cold water over one of several critical parts of the Southern Ocean where circulation systems begin which transport heat and nutrients all over the globe including the Gulf Stream. Luckily there is more than one such vital place.
  Whatever did we do to deserve all this? Answer - too much!

St Kilda gets Bogged Down

• The remote and fantastically beautiful archipelago of St Kilda attracts so many visitors (now 5,000 per year) ashore on the main island, Hirta, these days that ‘measures needed to be taken’ after the military technology company, Qinetiq, based on the island to monitor missiles for the MoD, decided to shut its Puffin Inn to visitors. Work is to begin on the most remote ‘loo’ in Britain, to make the call of nature a less rough experience – or should one say, ‘more convenient’!

Washout Causing  Flutter

• Three wet summers in a row are putting five rare species of Britain’s butterflies on the danger list, says a recent analysis of 2009 data of 1,000 sites by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme which is coordinated by Butterfly Conservation and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The Duke of Burgundy, the high brown fritillary, the pearl bordered fritillary, Lulworth Skipper and the wood white are on the verge of extinction because long periods of wet weather at critical times in their life cycle result in low temperatures which makes it harder for them to get about, feed and multiply. Britain has only 59 regular breeding butterfly species compared with its Continental neighbours such as France which has 250; so any drop in our numbers is a more serious percentage of the whole. It is part of a gathering tendency as we have already lost five species in the 20th century. Commoner species are also having a rough time.

Too Hot to Handle

• In similar vein to the above, it was announced in late May by Birdlife International that the Alaotra Grebe of Madegascar became extinct. Biologists fear it may be symptomatic of a more extensive tendency dominating this century being called the Sixth Great Extinction because of the rate at which species are disappearing. There have been five other such cataclysmic extinction events in the past - using names borrowed from geology they were the Ordovician-Silurian (440 million years ago[mya]); the Late Devonian (360-375mya); the Permian-Triassic (251mya); the Triassic-Jurassic (205mya) and the most recent Cretaceous-Tertiary (65mya) when the dinosaurs and 75% of all species vanished due to a possible collision of a meteorite with Earth. The big difference about the Sixth is that it is man-made.

Ooooooh! Ghosties

• The rare ghost orchid (Epigogium aphyllum) last seen in Buckinghamshire in 1986 and declared extinct in 2005, mysteriously re-appeared in a Herefordshire oakwood last Autumn after an absence of 23 years in Britain - and no-one really knows why. Painstaking searches over the last twenty years just drew blanks - perhaps because its pale white colour and low profile makes it hard to spot from a disance greater than a few yards away. It can live underground for years and only pops up when conditions are exactly right for it. Naturally, botanists are over the moon about the discovery. Nice one.

Greenscene - Spring 2010

Wonderful, Wonderful, Copenhagen

• So…… just to remind you that COP15 was a cop out. Words fail one!
  The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 required the rich countries to make cuts in their carbon emissions but did not bind developing nations to make any reductions. The developed world  wanted a wholly new agreement to bring them (and the USA which withdrew from Kyoto in 2001) on board. No chance!
  The Met Office reckons that 2010 will be the hottest year ever recorded – shares in sunblock products could be good. An ancient ditty comes to mind: Whether the weather be cold, Or whether the weather be hot, Whether the weather be mild, Or whether the weather is not, We’ll weather the weather whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not.

Brief History of Climatalogy

• 1820 - Frechman Joseph Fourier was the first to become aware that the atmosphere traps the sun’s heat after it hits the Earth and rebounds upwards as infra-red radiation.
  1859 - John Tyndall showed that carbon dioxide and water vapour were the key molecules which trapped the heat in the atmosphere.
  1896 - Svante Arrhenius, Sweden, whilst investigating what caused previous ice-ages, called this process the “greenhouse effect”.
  1938 - Guy Stewart Callendar read old temperature measurements and saw that they had risen from the 19th century in unison with a rising trend of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere which he believed was the real reason for a global temperature rise.
  1958 - Following a series of USA annual measurements showing that CO2 was rising, Callendar contradicted the belief this had no effect in a paper which put the case for man-made carbon emissions linked to global warming.
  1988 - UN sets up an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with a major conference at Toronto on the changing atmosphere - the first proper awakening to the problem.
  2006 - The Stern Report on global warming warned that the cost would eventually be much, much greater if nothing was done to arrest it now.
  2007 -  The IPCC ‘Synthesis Report’, collated all the unassailable statistics researched by thousands of scientists from the 3000 pages of its previous Fourth Assessment Report into one 23-page document.

2010 –The International Year of Bio-Diversity

• 2010 is a special year for wildlife – watch this space.
  One item already happening is that the RSPB has shifted its focus a bit to include, with the help of conservation partners, endangered species of flying insects such as bees (including the short-tailed bumblebee now extinct in UK but thriving in New Zealand), hoverflies, moths, as well as crickets on its huge network of national nature reserves.

Ponds Worse

• A first ever national survey of Britain’s ponds by the charity Pond Conservation found that they were in a “terrible state”. Since 1996, the conditions in about 80% of them have become ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ signalling a marked deterioration in just over 13 years. Apart from their obvious fishy inhabitants, ponds are a vital habitat for the larvae of all kinds of insects, (e.g. dragonflies, damsel flies) and other fresh water species especially frogs which are in a bad way right now. Ponds have become harmed by pollution from flooding, agricultural fertilisers, neglected ditches and run off from urban sprawl. A big push is needed to clean up old ponds and create new ones. If there is one near you in need of attention, how about getting a group together to sort it out - making sure there is an informed person on hand to advise in order to avoid further unnecessary damage? Better still make a new one.

He’s Back

• A recent wildlife survey of waterways had good news for fans of Wind in the Willows. ‘Ratty’, hitherto the fastest declining mammal in inland waterways, is back in greater numbers than previously. An amazing 89 water voles were seen which is double the number for last year.

Tax Hollandaise

• It was announced in November that the Dutch might become the first European country to introduce a ‘green tax’ for car owners in a bid to ease congestion on its roads. Instead of the customary annual tax disk, drivers would be charged for every kilometre covered. How would they do it? By using Global Positioning Systems to plot the track of cars on the roads. This novel idea will be watched intently by other countries to see how it goes. Apparently Singapore already has a similar system operating. It is expected that car prices will drop by about 25% when the scheme begins in 2012. Possible charges may be 4p per mile and higher in rush hour times with even higher charges for higher CO2 emitters. Don’t tell Gordon! A crafty way of quantitative easing if ever there was!

Deep in Davy’s Locker

• We always knew that the least known part of this planet was the sea but recent expeditions by scientists using ‘autonomous unmanned submarines’ have discovered an unsuspected richness and range of species, from weird to fabulous, upto three miles down there in the deepest, darkest parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Over 17,650 new deep-sea species were discovered. The mid Atlantic ridge was a rich source of discoveries. Even the mud contained an unsuspected diversity of life forms with some new to science. Dr. David Billett of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton said that, “describing for the first time all the different species in any coffee-cup sized sample of deep-sea sediment is a daunting challenge.”

Mouldy Upbeat Kew

• In late November Kew Gardens received 400,000 fungi specimens to add to its already huge collection of 800,000 making a total of 1.25 million in all – it is the biggest collection in the world now. Bet you never realised there could be so many - neither did I. Some of these specimens will be used in research to develop life-saving drugs like statins (remember penicillin?) or disease-resistant crops.

GM in News Again

• Nothing is calculated to raise more alarm in us than news that science is meddling with the genes in our food and adding ‘things’ that we would have to eat - not to mention the effects of the pollen of such modified plants on surrounding nearby plantlife. But there is a novel twist to recent experiments in India where they believe that by taking out two genes that initiate the process of decay, the life of tomatoes may be extended from their current maximum 15 days’ lifespan after ripening to 45 days before they begin to go off. Just think of the waste that will prevent. Details published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences state that they used a process called ‘RNA-interference’ to “silence” the two enzymes and their genes which cause ripening. Needless to say, experiments will soon be afoot to try it with other fruits like mangoes, papayas and bananas. It is anticipated that there will be less controversy about this because there is no ‘alien’ addition to what we eat. Two-year-old banana anyone?

Greenscene - Winter 2009

Long, Long Ago

• Once upon a time way back in June 1975, a puffin was born on Rough Island off West Scotland. A human caught it and put a ring on its foot on the 28th. Another was born in June 1977 and also ringed. Amazingly both were caught again this year by the same person, Ian Buxton. The 1975 puffin is reckoned to be the oldest known puffin in Europe.

Watch Out! There’s Nasties About

• Rising sea temperatures, 17C, around the Moray Firth which is normally about 14C, enticed huge stinging common jellyfish from further south which, unusually, were over a half metre long. Thousands were washed up on beaches during this summer - so watch out next year. The usual Moon jellyfish seen up there is only about 10cm. Elsewhere the warmer seas around the UK coastline encouraged the lion’s mane jellyfish which has a very nasty sting and can be up to a metre across. These days the ‘jellyfish season’ around the UK can begin in April so be ready to spot them and report their arrival to the Marine Conservation Society. Other species spotted this year included the barrel, the beautiful blue and the compass – get your identification books out and be ready.

They’re Back - No! Not Arnie...

• Back in the 1950s to 1970s, the UK otter count dropped dramatically because of the poor state of most rivers, pesticides and being hunted. In parts of SW England, Wales and Scotland they managed to hang on. Now more enlightened attitues among farmers and water companies together with the aid of conservation groups is helping a revival of their numbers except in SE England. On the Isle of Skye near Broadford, there is a centre whose job it is to help young otters separated from their parents, and ailing older ones, to recover sufficiently, using minimum human contact, to be returned successfully to their native river haunts.

New Marine Pollutant Identified

• Scientific research has only recently established that the huge masses of plastic detritus floating about in the sea, previously believed to be chemically stable, is a source of unnatural toxic substances harmful both to humans and animals as it breaks down. When plastics are exposed to sun and rain they decompose into a range of chemcals called bisphenol and polystyrene-based oligomers. Crushed styrofoam releases styrene monomer known to be a cause of cancer. One large mass in the Pacific was estimated to be larger than the state of Texas. Samples of contaminated seawater from it contained 150 ppm (parts per million)

Life Gets Tedious - Innit?

• In case you missed it - in mid August a Food Security Assessment document published by Defra as a follow-up the a Cabinet report in 2008 called “Food Matters”, reckoned that we must begin to raise food production massively to avoid going hungry in future as climate change kicks in with all its attendant hostile implications of reduced energy resources, rising global population, depleted fish stocks, storms, floods and forest fires. A Goverrnment Sustainable Development Commission in July maintained that the current food production system was failing because it emitted too much greenhouse gas and neglected soil quality and water use. The UK situation might not be so bad but globally the situation was uncertain or unfavourable for ensuring everyone would get fed. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated that world food supplies needed to rise by 40% by 2030 and by 70% by 2050 to feed an estimated 9 billion people. The UK is currently 61% self sufficient; whether this will need to be improved upon is uncertain. Govt says we need to grow more ourselves but is not yet contemplating reducing imports. It is thought that being completely self sufficient might be risky if crop or animal disease were to hit us. Meantime they say, eat a healthier diet (less?), waste less and get your spades and garden forks out. Scientific research is seeking to improve our food yield and the unpopular idea of using GM food may have to be looked at again.

Buzz in Paris

• We have heard a lot about the serious plight of the honey bee recently. Estimates say that 28% of global food resources depend on bee pollination. But French bees apparently have found their Shangri La within the cities rather than the rural areas. French beekeepers in Paris discovered that their bees are living longer and producing more honey. All the small flowers in the city parks, gardens and in balcony window boxes create a rich environment. This contrasts with the countryside where the mortality rate is 30-50% believed to be due to monocultural practices, over use of pesticides, fungicides and fertilisers.

Rivers : Room for Improvement

• Even thought the water quality in English and Welsh rivers has improved for the 19th year in succession, 75% of them failed new ecological standards introduced by the EU. Only five (four in Northumberland and one in N.Wales) of the 6,114 rivers could be categorised as ‘pristine’ because they were furthest away from conurbations of industrial centres. The dirtiest were the Stour, Kennet, Lea, Medway and Thames. In all 2%. 117 of the rivers were found to be the dirtiest and bad for wildlife. This bad picture is down to the higher EU standards that became law in 2003 in the UK. But our Environment Agency says that water quality in many rivers has in fact improved with seven out of 10 English and nine out of 10 Welsh rivers earning ‘good’ or ‘very good’ results where chemical and biological levels were concerned.

New National Nature Reserve

• Kinder Scout, owned by the National Trust, was officially declared a National Nature Reserve in October – nothing to do with the fact it was where the 1932 mass trespass took place. It is the 223rd NNR to be established in England which earn this status because they contain the best examples of English natural heritage.

Long, Long Ago - 2

• Cranes used to breed in the Fenlands before their demise around 1600AD. They returned to the Norfolk Broads in 1981. Now they have settled back in the Fenlands with the arrival of two chicks born this July near Lakenheath. Good eh? Apparently it was an accidental spin-off arising from the creation of breeding places to tempt bitterns to settle in the area.

Greenscene - Autumn 2009

Eager Beavers

• Mid June saw the return of beavers to the UK after an absence of 200 years or more (opinion varies on that one). Ten from Norway were introduced to Knapdale Forest in mid Argyll after a fourteen year project to make it happen. There is enthusiasm on one hand for the return of a native species and misgivings on the other about the wisdom of the move because of the ‘damage’ they can cause when they begin building dams on rivers from the smallish trees they fell by gnawing through the trunks which also supply some of their food. The salmon-fishing fraternity fear it may prevent fish from reaching their spawning grounds up-river. The trial is to last for five years.

New Hot Books on the Hotting-up Climate

• With the recent step forward made by the G8 in agreeing to tackle climate change, though they do not say how as yet, the list of books below may be of interest for those wishing to improve their knowledge of the subject.
  1. Global Warming. The Complete Briefing by John Houghton. £25.99. April 2009.
  2. Why We Disagree About Climate Change. By Mike Hulme. £15.99. April 2009.
  3. Post-Kyoto International Climate Policy by J. Aldy & R. Stavins. £18.99. Aug 2009.
  4. Global Crises, Global Solutions by Bjorn Lomborg. £21.99. June 2009.

Hot Even Without a Collar

• The recent mid June update of the Met Office’s 2002 predictions about how climate change may affect the UK make uncomfortable reading for they will ‘affect every aspect of our daily lives’, according to Environment Secretary Hillary Benn. The central temperature figures of 4C, which could possibly reach up to 10C increase by 2080s, now have best-case and worst-case scenarios to accompany them. There are also for the first time, localised forecasts for the various areas with detailed projections of nasties like drought, winter rain storms and sea level rises.
  If you thought you didn’t need to adjust your lifestyle – think again. THE EXPERTS NOW ALL AGREE IT IS INEVITABLE.

SSSI’s For the Chop?

• Since SSI sites began 60 years ago (1949) because they had special importance for wildlife, their number has grown to 4000. Since 2001 expenditure involved has risen from £35.6m to £85.4 now. It is a struggle to keep all the sites in a “favourable condition” – 52% in 2002 and 85% by 2009. A Public Accounts Committee is looking at whether some of the sites can now be allowed to ‘sunset’. It says that DEFRA (Dept for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) must make better efforts to ensure the sites are better managed. Some are no longer relevant and some no longer deserve special protection. Let us hope that any ‘rationalisation’ will be done carefully.

St Kilda Reverses Evolution

• We all thought that the survival of the fittest meant that ‘biggest was best’ didn’t we? Recent researches over the past 20 or so years have shown that the Soay sheep on Hirta (the main island) have been growing smaller by 5%. A run of milder winters and earlier Spring times have meant that smaller lambs could now survive the harsh winters until the following Spring. It is thought that ecological pressures acting subtly on body size over short periods can combine with longer term evolutionary pressures to reduce the size of species in a type of ‘island dwarfism’ as seen in other species trapped on islands such as dwarf elephants and pygmy hippos. The process can also happen in reverse to produce outsize species such as the tall dandelion trees of Madeira, the giant rats of Indonesia and the giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands. Eat your greens guys!

Lid Comes off ‘Renewables’ Companies

• Interesting to see recently in July that two energy companies hoping to erect wind turbines in Norfolk near Diss were not as green as we are led to believe. One company wished to erect a wind speed measuring mast. The local planning permission committee pointed out that another similar company in the area already had such a mast and asked if they could not get together and share the data. The applicant company refused to consider it. So much for green ethics – it’s cash which is driving their operations.

Green Fuel

• Gliocladium roseum is a fungus that lives inside the South American Ulmo tree. So what you may ask? It is highly unusual it that it can make diesel fuel by converting plant cellulose into hydrocarbon fuel. Another possible solution to climate change? But research needs to get a move on. Lichen is slow growing.

 

Anochors are Whoa Boys

• The Seahorse Trust is fearful for the survival of our two native British seahorses, the spiny and the short snouted, which are in danger of extinction from boat anchors destroying their habitats. It wants Natural England to enforce the Wildlife and Countryside Act to ban anchoring wherever there is eel grass.

Greenspeak Camouflage

• One of the latest examples of how to prevent the populace from knowing what is going on came from Uttlesford District Council. Apparently a “multifunctional biodiverse green space network” means a field. Cor!

Greenscene - Summer 2009

Ring-Ding-Chirp

• In the month of May this year it will be a hundred years since someone dreamed up the notion of ringing birds to find out more about their habits and lifestyle. Until then no one knew much about those birds that vanished from these islands every Autumn - almost a quarter of the species. It was just assumed that they went south somewhere to warmer countries. It was only after a swallow, ringed by solicitor John Masefield of Cheadle in Staffordshire on May 6th 1911, was found by a Mr. C.H.Ruddock in Natal, South Africa in Dec 1912, that it began to be realised what incredible vast distances, 6000 miles in this instance, were being flown by migrating birds, many of which were tiny. Thereafter the idea of ringing caught on and was organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and our knowledge of birds grew immensely. For example, the Arctic tern flies to Australia (11,300 miles). The practice also helped us to discover their lifespans - a Manx Shearwater ringed in 1957 was found last year still alive at least 51 years old and reckoned to be the oldest ever known. Ringing has an added significance in these days of climate change as it allows us to measure the fluctuations in survival rates and changes in flight departure and arrival timings and in alterations to previously favoured destinations. For more info read “Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo” by M.McCarthy: pub:John Murray.£16.99.

Beauty Fading from OUR Countryside

• British migrating birds are vanishing at an astonishing rate we are hardly yet aware of. An annual census of British Birds taken jointly by the RSPB and the BTO since 1994, showed in 2007 that 37% of cuckoos, 41% of swifts, 47% of yellow wagtails, 54% of pied flycatchers, 60% of nightingales, 66% of turtle doves and 67% of wood warblers have vanished. The swallow is holding its own in the UK but not in Europe as a whole. A deeper, longer term, comparison based on 1967 figures shows that cuckoo numbers have reduced by 59%, turtle doves 82% and spotted flycatchers 84%. What used to be as regular as clockwork in the Spring is no longer so.
  Environmental degredation is not however confined to birds alone. The 2008 Red List  of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature showed that many other animal, insect, plant and flower species are in decline, on the way out if not already gone. The power of the worlds’ sinks, the rainforests and the oceans, to absorb CO2 is becoming less reliable and weakening too. It is too easy for those ignorant of the workings of the natural environment to see these figures and say, “well they don’t really affect us do they?”. But they are the signs that we are killing ourselves. Unwillingness to combat global warming is nothing less than humans committing suicide. Is Outdoor Learning doing enough to emphasise the need for human behaviour to change now? Is it spelling out the interconnectedness of all life to those who will one day have to contend with the devastating results of climate change? Did you notice how kitesurfers in New Zealand were being blamed for scaring off Bar-tailed godwits from their winter sanctuaries - and that after an amazing 7000 mile flight from their breeding grounds in Alaska? Old attitudes are now unsustainable - there are too many of us to continue behaving uncaringly under the illusion of being masters of the world.

Virtually Gloomy?

• Lord Stern’s recent statement that he under-estimated the rate of climate change two and a half years ago, when it was thought that temperatures would rise between 2-4C if nothing was done, has received corroboration. Apparently the latest (early March) computer simulations by the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research prepared for the British Climate Change Committee (did you know there was one?) show that present global efforts to combat climate change have just a 50-50 chance of succeeding in keeping temperatures below the disaster threshold of 2°C by 2100. The present level is 0.75°C. Let’s hope those now actually involved in the negotiations preceeding the Copenhagen UN meeting in December can grasp the significance of this and use it to achieve a hitherto elusive international agreement to sort it once and for all - because that is now the only hope for the planet’s (and our) salvation. The simulation shows that there will be a 0.5°C rise for every decade of delay henceforth.

Upbeat Peregrines

• In the 1960s the use of pesticides by agriculture reduced the numbers of breeding pairs of peregrine falcons to about 350. Being at the top of its food chain meant it received the concentration of the doses consumed by all those species below it. Somehow the bird discovered towns were a great place to be - lots of their favourite food about - pigeons etc. The present population is estimated at about 1500 pairs. Nesting locations include a former Birmingham tyre factory,cathedrals in Lincoln, Derby, Chichester; Cardiff clock tower, Manchester Arndale’s shopping centre and over a dozen pairs in London. Similarities between big buildings and their former nesting sites on cliffs and crags have helped their adaptation to towns.

New National Park

• In case you missed it - The South Downs, 627 square miles of undulating chalkland in Sussex and Hampshire, were designated Britain’s newest National Park on the last day of March 09. It has taken sixty years to come about since it was first recommended and has been upgraded from an AONB at last. The new Park Authority will be established next year - mustn’t rush these things!

Everest - a hgh altitude dump

• Our disrespect for the natural environment is starkly evident around Mount Everest these days as the tourist industry brings hordes to view or climb it to the detriment of its surroundings. I remember thinking on the day the news broke that it had been climbed at last, that it was a tragedy there was now nowhere special on this planet untouched by humans. Why couldn’t they have left it alone? Professional Sherpa Appa who has ascended Everest 18 times has embarked on one more ascent in April in an attempt to highlight and draw attention to the poor state the mountain is now in as a result of human disrespect shown in the amount of rubbish and cast off un-needed gear lying around all over it. Global warming is also playing its part as the snows are melting and the famous Khumbu icefall displays on-going breaking-up and serious deterioration. Appa and his forty strong team are carrying hundreds of bags in which they hope to carry back off the mountain the piles of human excrement and rubbish to be properly disposed of elsewhere. Everest is a sacred god to the Sherpas and the impact of commercialism on the mountain is very worrying. He hopes this expedition will help restore its spiritual aspect, its beauty and pristine condition.Would that so-called ‘civilised’ people felt and showed a similar degree of awe and respect for their planet generally.

Beach Bums

• The annual Beachwatch survey carried out by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) revealed that rubbish and debris has doubled since its first survey in 1994 - whereas in 1994 they found “only” 1045 pieces of litter every kilometre, that figure was now 2195 in September last. Various types of plastic items are the most common. For the lover of statistics - 5,129 volunteers searched 374 beaches and found 385,000 items over 176km of coastline. Wales had most (2634 per km), England next (with 2,242), Scotland (1,505) andN.Ireland (484). It appears that more than 170 species of animals including seabirds, turtles and whales die because they mistake plastic bags and other items for food. MCS felt it was time that Whitehall had a policy to tackle marine rubbish. One more example of how far we have travelled from the times when we cared for the natural environment. Look after it and it will look after you.

Whale of a Time

• Killer whales are partly to blame for a “catastrophic” decline in Scottish common (harbour) seals especially in the areas around Orkney, Shetland and Caithness. It is thought that the whaes are moving south from the Arctic  and Iceland to escape the effect of climate change. In 2001 there were 50,000 common seals in Scottish waters compared to 35,000 now. Grey seal numbers at 164,000 are 44,000 more than was thought which may be a factor in the poor showing of common seals which also suffer from the legal shooting of them to protect fish farms.

 

Greenscene - Spring 2009

BMC new Green Leaflet

• The BMC has recently issued its “Green Guide to the Uplands”- a good
  practice guide for walkers, climbers and mountaineers. The inside front
  cover states, “It contains essential information on the mountain environment and how you can care for this fragile upland landscape. Many of the principles are also applicable to the wider countryside and the coast”. This new publication is a welcome addition to the prime imperative, “love the mountain”.

Another Natural Wonder Discovered

• Hands up, who knows what a ‘gribble’ is!  No it’s not a new name for a
  grumpy oldie. It’s a small creature like a woodlouse called Limnoria
  quadripunctata that lives in the sea and is a pain to fishermen and yotties
  with wooden hulled boats and harbours with piers held up by wooden piles it just loves to eat. So what? The story doesn’t end there. Its appetite is to be harnessed as part of a £27m bio-energy research project looking to create ‘second generation’ biofuels which will be more environmentally friendly than current plant biofuels which occupy areas needed for food. The idea is to use plant waste like straw and wood and willow. Research at the University of Plymouth is hoping to reproduce the enzymes synthetically by isolating and extracting the enzymes which the gribble produces to extract sugars from the wood it eats. These sugars could be used to make biofuels like ethanol. Magic.

New Scottish National Park in the offing?

• Following a feasibility study, the residents of Hebridean Harris are to be
  balloted about whether or not the island should be designated as a national park. Benefits are quoted as extra full time jobs, tourism and conservation promoted and a regeneration of the island’s economy that would encourage families to remain on the island. Statistics for 1981-2001 showed a 24% decline in population and now 35% are over the age of 60 and there is a “dire shortage” of young people. If it comes off it will be the third Scottish National park.

Rum Buy-Out

• No not another binge drinking session. The beautiful Scottish island of Rum, was for long an island of mystery due to limited access imposed by the Bullough family until matters improved when it was taken over by the Nature Conservancy (now Scottish Natural Heritage) in 1957. It then became a wildlife reserve for its indigenous red deer, the world’s largest colony of Manx Shearwaters which nest high up the hills and later a successful breeding experiment with white tailed sea eagles. Now moves are underway to bring about a partial buy-out which would give the residents some measure of independence and control over their lives similar to the buy-outs in neighbouring Knoydart and Eigg in the 1990s. On Jan 14th all 17 on Rum’s electoral roll voted in favour of a buyout. Andrew Thin, SNH's chairman, acknowledged  that handing over Rum's tiny township, Kinloch, to the islanders would reinvigorate the island. It would allow them to create a vibrant tourism economy, attracting holidaymakers, yachts and new residents.

Strange events in Ennerdale?

• It is called “rewilding”, a plan formed by the Forestry Commission, National
  Trust and United Utilities who joined forces in a Wild Ennerdale Partnership in 2002 to allow the Ennerdale valley in the Lake District to revert to a wilder, richer and more bio-diverse state after decades and decades of forestry operations and intervention in natural processes. Sheep will be replaced by hardy Highland cattle and maybe bison (!), exotic trees removed and organic farming initiated. It has the blessing of Natural England too. It would be a long term project before ‘rewilding’ was properly established. Watch this space as they say.

Green Plan ‘B’ Coming Up

• With attempts at world cooperation (think Kyoto) barely making a mark on CO2 reduction and world ‘CO2 sinks’ (forests and the oceans visibly becoming less efficient at soaking up CO2, it was time to consider some other alternatives to buy time in the international drive to tackle global warming.  A recent survey by The Independent of scientists’ opinions regarding whether or not an emergency ‘Plan B’ is required to tackle global warming and CO2 emission increase had a mixed reception. But the majority (54%) did see it as a viable emergency back-up plan to save the planet from the worst effects of climate change. 35% of respondents were worried that it would distract from the main objective of cutting CO2 emissions. So it should complement rather than replace international political effort. The survey looked at the intervention possibilities of an ambitious ‘geo-engineering approach’ using the latest technology such as seeding the skies and oceans with chemicals to induce greater CO2 and temperature reduction but again opinion was divided. The Royal Society is to publish a report on the subject this summer.

Insects Rule the World - Not OK

• Honey bees’ numbers have declined alarmingly over the past year with over two billion bees, a third of the UK’s honey bee colonies, wiped out by causes as yet unclear although it is thought that disease caused by the varroa mite and unfavourable weather over the last two years are possibly the culprits. Bees pollinate over a third of all we eat and pollinate 50% of other plants required by birds and mammals. Without bee pollination all we humans would have of edible plant life are cereals and nor much else; meat and diary products are also heavily dependent on bee activity. Urgent research action is required to avoid a similar disaster this year before losses become irreversible with disastrous effects. Beekeepers marched on No.10 in October with a petition signed by 140,000 members demanding that the “paltry” £200,000 spent on research annually be increased to £1.6m annually over the next six years which is a mere 1% of the £825m that the bees earn for agriculture. Compared to the billions thrown by the Government into the rescue package for the ailing banks it is a pittance. Yet Defra said it couldn’t afford it. The varroa mite arrived in the UK in 1992 and now infests about 95% of hives. EO.Wilson, an American biologist once stated that insects are the world rulers; without them we die. Forget your distaste for nasty creepy crawlies. Bees are a wake-up call.

Greenscene - Winter 2008

UK Wildlife & Climate Change in 2008

• 2008 was a bad year for wildlife of all kinds says the National Trust following a month by month record it kept of its many estates and gardens. The cold late Spring and a second sodden Summer in a row was bad news for wildlife particularly insects like butterflies, wasps, bees, grasshoppers, crickets, crane flies and mosquitoes and those creatures that depend on them for food such as tits, nightjars and bats. The good news was that the weather hit certain kinds of parasites too which allowed some species like the ‘cabbage white’ butterfly and the Purple Emperor to flourish. The warm dry Autumn was good for fungi. All of which was a near-to-home reminder of how dependent all life is on the vagaries of the weather. Let’s hope summer 2009 is a good one - it is needed.
• The unheard of non-arrival of 8,000 Bewick swans in their annual migration to the UK from their breeding grounds in western Siberia indicated that warmer temperatures extended over there beyond the normal mid October time. Another example of wildlife telling us that, ‘fings ain’t wot they used to be’.

St Kilda Gets the ‘3Rs’

• Way, way out in the north Atlantic lies the group of islands called St Kilda
  with its largest, Hirta, about to be incorporated in a scheme that would
  have left the original inhabitants (before they were evacuated in 1930)
  ‘gobsmacked’ - to use a modern and totally inappropriate phrase. In the spirit of “Reduce, Re-use and Re-cycle”, Hirta has suffered the indignity of the imposition of a recycling bank and skips!!! Collection of waste will be thrice a year. One wonders what smirch on their characters the current year-round occupants of the island, military personnel who work on the tracking base, staff from the National Trust for Scotland and resident wardens for the Scottish National Heritage, read into this?

Grizedale Forest Classroom

• The Forestry Commission is setting up a “new outdoor education and learning network” across North West England and Grizedale Forest in South Lakeland will be a part of it linked with the Delamere Forest in Cheshire and Whinlatter Forest in North Lakeland. The idea is to take teachers and children out of the classroom setting and help them to learn more about the natural environment and its significance to everyday life. Sue Kennedy is the new Education Ranger at Grizedale.
  See www.forestry.gov.uk

Arctic Amplifying

• The Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world and is faster than was predicted - at least a decade ahead of its time a plotted rise of 3°-5°C is now linked to greenhouse gas warming caused by human activity. Autumn air surface temperatures are higher than expected because of the effect caused by increased melting of the Arctic sea ice creating more open, darker sea areas which are able to absorb heat whereas previously as white ice it reflected it back into the atmosphere. This effect is known as Arctic Amplification and may have already passed the point of no return scientists of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre now warn. It is now expected that the Arctic will be totally ice-free in summer by around 2030 and not 2070 as once predicted.

Hen Harriers harried by Grousemen

• A Natural England study based on six years of monitoring, A Future for the Hen Harrier in England?, reckons that the illegal shooting of hen harriers, the removal of their eggs and nest burning to help grouse numbers to thrive on the moors ready for the shooting season is driving the harrier to extinction. Birds fitted with satellite transmitters simply disappeared off the map when they left their Bowland Fells stronghold and flew off to the Pennines where there are many moors managed for grouse. Apart from the protected area of Bowland which saw two thirds of English 127 hen harrier breeding attempts, there were only 19 such in the rest of England.

Woodcraft Folk & C-Change Project

• Woodcraft Folk, now 10,000 members strong, have been around in the outdoor learning world for a long time - since 1925 in fact - a youth movement for the working class, in contrast to all the uniformed organisations then seen as middle class and towards the political right. They recently became the champions in the 2008 Efficiency Awards because of their C-Change project, begun in 2006 and designed and run for young people spreading energy-saving awareness to over 120,00 young people at events and workshops all over the UK. 85% of attendees said it had changed their behaviour in some way. A particular aim was to clear away the confusion surrounding climate change and show them what the individual can do in the fight to prevent climate change. See www.woodcraft.org.uk and www.switchonswitchoff.org

Climate Crunch vs Credit Crunch?

• By the summer of 2013 a global rise of just 0.8°C will have caused the
  Arctic to be free of ice. This climate event carries a more fearsome warning, and will be much greater in its effect than the recent global credit crunch could ever be. Although it is only 80 years since the Wall Street crash, it is about three million years since the Arctic was last free of ice. Only a year ago the EU’s leaders had agreed to reduce, by 2020, the EU’s CO2 emissions by the 20% minimum amount required to hold back climate change. A 20% rise in energy efficiency and a 20% expansion in renewable energy generation was also accepted. Ever since the credit crunch arrived these important considerations have become a matter for prevarication or been given the heave-ho. If we go beyond a two degree rise, global warming will begin to cause a serious deterioration in life support conditions. Any ability to redress imbalances will become a no no. The credit crunch will pale into insignificance unless we sort the climate problem first and drop our fatal, short-termist commitment to economic growth.

Green Fuel

• Gliocladium roseum is a fungus that lives inside the South American Ulmo
  tree. So what you may ask? It is highly unusual it that it can make diesel
  fuel by converting plant cellulose into hydrocarbon fuel. Another possible
  solution to climate change? But research needs to get a move on. Lichen is slow growing.

Greenspeak Camouflage

• One of the latest examples of how to prevent the populace from knowing what is going on came from Uttlesford District Council in October.  Apparently a “multifunctional biodiverse green space network” means a field. Cor!

Help for English Species Most at Risk

• Natural England (NE) is providing £5.5m to help save wildlife species deemed to be most in danger of extinction. This includes the habitats of natterjack toads, fritillary butterflies, sharks, buntings and twites. This government conservancy agency is also funding plans to preserve traditional orchards (scrumpers keep out) and hedgrows which will help hazel dormice - never heard of them have you? The rogue in the next paragraph sounds as though it will qualify for special treament too.

Watch Out - There Are Tree Killers About

• An  offshoot relative, Phytophthora kernoviae, (bet you can’t pronounce that first time around) of the mould, Phytophthora ramorum, that causes Sudden Oak Death, has been identified in SW England. It is thought to have the capacity to spread like wildfire through historic and ornamental gardens, particularly attacking wild rhododendrons and the European Beech among the 15 species it targets. Uprooting and burning affected plants has proved ineffective so far. There were 52 cases identified in formal gardens and the countryside by the end of July. Rare plants and shrubs are now at risk of being destroyed. Native bilberry bushes in Cornwall have also been infected. So far no one knows where it has come from and there is no known way of stopping it - a modern-day Triffid no less. It is able to spread beyond its key host, rhododendron ponticum, an exotic species from Asia and a popular import with Victorians and so is widespead in the UK. It is feared that woodlands and other habitats will be at risk from its ravages for decades.
  The exotic citrus longhorned beetle which came from China on Japanese Maple trees can kill trees and shrubs says DEFRA. Oak, beech, pears, roses and hibiscus are those at greatest risk. The beetle is black, 21-37mm long with white markings and long antennae. Phone 01904-455174 if you see one.

Healthy Heath

• Two years ago the 400 acres of Thursley Common in Surrey seemed to be wiped out by a fire along with rarities like Dartford Warblers, nightjars, woodlarks and the rare silver-studded blue butterfly. Sand lizard areas were also scorched
  The good news is that the blasted heath is recovering well. Local residents raised £8,000 to help rehabilitate one of the last and best remaining examples of lowland heath. Thursley also has damp areas favourable for sundew, bog asphodel and marsh orchid. Besides 126 silver-studded blues spotted recently, there were grayling and purple emperor butterflies; 26 species of dragonfly were recorded. The original group of bird species has also been improved by the hobby, merlin, peregrine and short-eared owl. Good! Eh?

The South West Where It’s All Happening

• There south west seems to be attracting all the natural history action at the moment. A pair of cattle egrets have reared a chick in deepest Somerset in an undisclosed location to add another species of breeding birds to the British list. It is a white heron with bright orange-buff plumes on the head and breast normally found in Africa perched on the backs of buffalos and is thought to have been tempted further north by rising global temperatures over the last few years. The related little egret came to winter here in the 1990s and first bred on Brownsea Island in Poole harbour (yes! the very same place where BP had his first Scout camp in July 1907). They have increased spectacularly over the years and now number hundreds of breeding pairs across Britain. Perhaps we may soon see the great white egret and the purple heron known to be nesting in Holland.

Puffins R Down

• The numbers of puffins on the Farne Islands off Northumberland have fallen by a third over the last five years and no one knows why yet. In 2003 there were 55,674 breeding pairs, but they are down to 36,500 this year - which came as quite a shock to the counting team of the National Trust which owns the islands. The puffins’ staple food is sand eels whose numbers are plentiful at the moment and predators are few on the Farnes, so the plummeting numbers are somewhat of a mystery. One theory is that “something is happening further out at sea during the winter” - perhaps storms are more intense because of climate change which could affect food supply at that time. This was the first downturn in numbers in thirty years and more research work will be required to solve the mystery. The Farnes are the largest puffin colony in England and the fourth largest in the UK.

Falling at the Edge of the World Too

• Elsewhere tumbling seabird numbers are causing Scottish Natural Heritage to consult on proposals to extend Special Protection Area boundaries by four kilometres around the seven sites of Canna and Sanday, North Rhona and Sula Sgeir, Rum, Flannan Isles, Mingulay and Bernera, the Shiants and St. Kilda - a marvellous area to go sailing if you ever get the chance. The proposals are controversial because some believe there is no clear scientific evidence to show why numbers are falling. And fishing interests are involved too. If rising sea temperatures were the reason by causing food stocks to move north then, it is claimed, extending boundaries would be pointless. SNH say that whatever the reason is for declining bird populations, it is still essential to protect the birds’ habitats. Not the first time that the needs of local industry clash with conservation aspirations.
  Scotland’s first Marine Bill is now published and out for consultation and comment.

Saving the World With Water

• Scientists in Boston Massachusetts Institute of Technology have recently discovered how to break down water into its constituent parts - hydrogen and oxygen - using a cobalt-phosphate catalyst and solar power in a cheap and simple method that now makes it possible to store solar generated energy as a chemical fuel. This could make a cheap source of transportable energy available to all and solve the problem of how to avoid the use of fossil fuels. As they say, watch this space.

LOtC - It’s nachur innit?

• A recent survey by BBC Wildlife magazine found that children have so lost touch with the natural world that they are unable to identify common animals and plants. Of 700 children aged 9-11 only half of them could identify a daddy-long-legs, oak tree, blue tit, frog, primrose or bluebell. The survey also found that playing in the countryside was their least popular pastime. For some reason, robins and badgers were less of a problem to 90% of them. Here is an aspect that the Learning Outside the Classroom project could tackle perhaps? If we want adults to care for the world they need to have developed a relationship with it when young, ensuring an affection for, and understanding of it. According to some “experts”, the gulf between children and nature is being caused either by over protective parents unwilling to let their offspring loose or hostile conservationists fearful for the damage they might cause. Which is worst I wonder? The small scale damage caused by the innocent ignorance of an exuberant youngster or the global harm caused by the ignorance of the adult business and industrial world?

Messing about in Boats being Messed Up

• Coping with the damage caused by problem foreign species, such as escaped terrapins or giant hogweed, to the 2,200 miles of canals and navigable rivers managed by British Waterways cost about £1m a year to keep waterways open, mend blocked to access to banks and repair damaged locks and bridges A list of the worst offending non-native plants and animals included Australian swamp stonecrop, water fern, zebra mussel, Chinese mitten crab, giant hogweeg, zander (a fish) and red-eared terrapin.

 

It Came From the Deep

• Just like the horror movie years ago, only it’s not a slimy, gooey, yuckie monster. Much worse!
  As the Arctic seas become warmer scientists have recently discovered the thawing seabed along the northern European and Russian coastlines is releasing “significant” amounts of methane, which is 20 times more potent than CO2, into the atmosphere. Some scientists opine that methane could be as much as a 100 times more potent. In the past it is thought that sudden releases of methane have produced rapid changes in global temperatures and dramatic climate changes causing extinction events of some species. Puts the credit meltdown into the shade.

Red Squirrel Good News

• It is thought that a recent survey of over 500 red squirrel corpses has shown that some of them may have developed a natural immunity to the deadly pox virus that reds catch from grey squirrels. Eight, previously exposed to the virus had died from causes other than pox infection. One captive red squirrel had survived exposure to the virus and given hope that an anti virus programme may become possible to protect the 140,000 reds thought to be left in the UK and of which 75% live north of the Border. As the virus is apparently not a 100% lethal, there is a chance the reds can stage a come-back. An estimated 2.5 million greys are in the UK following their importation from America in 1876.

Climate versus Credit Crunch

• Amid all the wailing and waving of empty wallets (except for thiose exhorbitant bonus earning executives) the thought occurs that this may be just what our planet needs - a breather from excessive growth and development. Or is that too much to hope for?
  

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