Environmental Issues

[rynner2]

Another fishy tale:

Over-fished tuna in 'hot water', study finds
By Jennifer Carpenter, Science reporter, BBC News

Two more species of tuna have been added to the Red List of Threatened Species.
They join the Southern bluefin tuna - listed as critically endangered.
The report, published in this week's Science, is the first global assessment of this highly prized family of fish, which are at risk of being over-fished.
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) says there is a lack of resolve to protect against overexploitation driven by high prices.

Until this latest study, attempts to assess the health of scombrid and billfish populations, families of fish that include tuna and swordfish, have been carried out at a regional scale.
This study, which relies on the IUCN Red List criteria to judge the stocks' health, took a more global approach.
Of the 61 species of fish assessed, seven were earmarked as either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. All suffer from over-fishing, habitat loss and pollution.
Along with the two species of tuna, two mackerel and two marlin joined the Red List.

Per kilo, bluefins are among the most expensive seafood in the world.
"All three bluefin tuna species are susceptible to collapse under continued excessive fishing pressure. The Southern bluefin has already essentially crashed, with little hope of recovery," said one the the study's authors Kent Carpenter the IUCN's Marine Biodiversity manager.

Southern bluefin numbers have reached levels that are one twentieth of those recorded before industrial fishing began.
Atlantic bluefins have probably gone the same way, add the authors, while bigeye tuna is labelled "vulnerable".
"Tunas are highly migratory fish, swimming across ocean basins and between the waters of various countries during their lifetimes. Conserving them requires regional and global co-operation," commented Susan Lieberman, director of international policy with the Pew Environment Group in a statement.

What is more, tuna's restricted spawning grounds make them exceptionally susceptible to collapse if over-fishing continues, reports the international team of scientists.
And tuna's long lifespan means it would take their population several years to recover if fishing stopped altogether.

Pew's Dr Lieberman adds: "The IUCN Red List assessment reinforces that it is time for governments to live up to their responsibilities."
The report comes days before the tuna regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) assemble in in La Jolla, California for the Kobe III meeting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14066250

 

[rynner2]

Italy's elite are dismayed by vanishing beaches
Sand is trucked in to build up a coastline suffering erosion from storms, rising sea levels and development
Tom Kington Rome The Observer, Sunday 10 July 2011

The high cost and exclusive nature of Italy's best beaches cause regular disputes, but accelerating coastal erosion means some of them are now disappearing altogether.

Italian actors, intellectuals and the titled rich setting off for the beach this summer have been shocked to find that one of their favourite spots has all but vanished, thanks to encroaching development and violent winter storms linked to climate change. Traditionally, the cultural and political elites have soaked up the summer sun at Capocotta beach near Rome, which has a reputation for bohemian flamboyance and boasts Italy's only official nudist shoreline. But the golden dunes and beach huts have been swept away, leaving the literati fighting over a few inches of sand and how to rebuild.

"I realised something was happening three years ago when a beach kiosk from further down the sands floated past us in a storm," said Paolo Moscia, a lifeguard at the nudist section at Capocotta, which has drawn a mixture of gay bathers, ministers, musicians and hip film directors since Allen Ginsberg hung out there in the 1950s, and wild high-society drug parties gave birth to la dolce vita.

This year regulars arrived to find that their section was reduced to a trickle of sand and storms had engulfed 30 metres of beach, leaving the wooden restaurant renowned for its oysters and grilled squid close to toppling off the dunes into the waves. Moscia pointed at swimmers beyond the breakers. "This time last year people were strolling on the sand out there," he says. "If nothing is done, we won't be here in two years."

Experts blame development along Italy's rivers and the building of hydro-electric dams, which have slowed down the erosion of river banks and the flow out to sea of the tonnes of sediment and sand needed to replenish beaches after storms. "The Tiber sent 400,000 cubic metres of sand a year into the Mediterranean 25 years ago. Now it's down to 80,000 cubic metres," said Angelo Bonelli, head of the Italian Green party.

Francesco Lalli, a senior researcher at Italy's environmental research centre, Ispra, said Italy's beaches lost five million cubic metres of sand between 1950 and 2000. The losses caused by overbuilding are levelling out, he said, adding that there is now a suspicion that the storms chewing away at the beaches are more violent because of climate change. "Plus, we are seeing the initial effects of rising sea levels," he warned.

North of Rome, L'Ultima Spiaggia beach has fared no better than Capocotta. A long-time favourite of Italy's leftwing cultural elite, including the former prime minister Romano Prodi, the beach is tucked into the lower reaches of Tuscany. It is a retreat for philosophers, aristocrats and anti-Berlusconi politicians who convene every summer to eat wild boar and attend cultural conferences in nearby Capalbio, a medieval hilltown nicknamed "Little Athens". After storms left just a shallow layer of sand this spring, 15 metres have now been restored, thanks only to four truckloads of sand dumped by the local authority. But, according to the environmental centre Ispra, more than 1,000km of coastline is now eroding steadily.

Since the economic boom of the 1950s, working-class bathers from nearby Rome have flocked to the beach clubs of Ostia, near Rome. But they, too, are now watching their beaches slip away, prompting the regional authority to pump in sand scooped up from the seabed, part of a [euro]26m scheme to bring 350,000 cubic metres of sand ashore to fill the gaps on almost 400km of coastline.

For patrons of the Sporting Beach Club in Ostia, where forlorn lines of changing rooms that once stood 150 metres back from the sea are now buffeted by waves, the new sand cannot arrive soon enough. "My parents came here before me and I am sticking it out," said Ivana Paolini, 55, "but it's tough when you have to swim out to sea past concrete pillars holding up the changing rooms."

An expert at the environmental group Legambiente said beach clubs were partly to blame for losing the sand on which they charge sunbathers for the privilege of stretching out. "The dunes which advanced to replace lost sand are being concreted over by the clubs," said Giorgio Zampetti. "By building beach clubs to profit from the sand, people are ensuring that sand will vanish."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... ate-change

 

[rynner2]

Huge demand for fish empties British waters in just six months
By Lewis Smith
Monday, 11 July 2011

Britain's coastal waters are so overfished that they can supply the nation's chip shops, restaurants and kitchens for little more than six months of every year, research has shown.
Overfishing has caused so much damage to fish stocks across Europe that the quantity landed each year to satisfy the public appetite has fallen by 2 per cent on average every year since 1993.

So great is demand that next Saturday, 16 July, has been dubbed Fish Dependence Day – the day on which imports would have to be relied upon because native supplies would have run out if only home-caught fish had been eaten since 1 January. Last year it fell on 3 August, almost three weeks later, and in 1995 it was six weeks later.

Other European countries consume fish at an even greater rate and the EU as a whole reached its Fish Dependence Day on 2 July, compared with 9 July last year, with fishermen estimated to have landed 200,000 tonnes less than a year earlier. Spain became dependent on non-EU imports on 8 May, Germany on 27 April, Italy on 30 April and France on 13 June.

The demands made on UK and European fisheries are making them less productive, and unless they are better managed the supply of fish will dwindle and thousands of jobs will be lost, the report shows. Aniol Esteban, of the think tank NEF and the author of the report, said: "Eating more fish than our oceans can produce is playing dangerous games with the future of fisheries and fishing communities. Unless we change course, the jobs and livelihoods of many people in Europe and beyond are at risk.
"Our current appetite is putting our oceans under pressure. It's hard to understand why a country surrounded by potentially rich seas needs to import one out of every two fish that it eats."

As Maria Damanaki, the European Fisheries Commissioner, puts the final touches to proposals to reform the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which she will announce on Wednesday, Mr Esteban urged that the long-term health of fish stocks be given priority over short-term gains by fishermen.

"We need urgent action to ensure that jobs, revenues, food and the environment are protected from overfishing," he said. "Policymakers need to look beyond the short-term costs that could result from reform and give priority to the long-term benefits that healthy marine resources will provide for the environment, the economy and society. In a context of finite resources and growing populations, the current EU model is unsustainable."

The report, Fish Dependence, highlights growing concerns that Europe can only feed its craving by exploiting the waters of poorer developing nations – which can leave their fisheries depleted and the human population unable to access a valuable source of nutrition.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 11656.html

 

[rynner2]

America's reliance on the car highlighted:

'Carmageddon' set to bring chaos to Los Angeles
In the movies it has been hit by meteors and attacked by alien spaceships but now Los Angeles is preparing for what officials are describing as a real-life "Carmageddon."
By Nick Allen, Los Angeles
9:30PM BST 14 Jul 2011

A temporary closure of America's busiest road intersection, for 53 painful hours this weekend, is expected to bring unprecedented gridlock to a city already renowned for its epic bumper to bumper traffic jams.

Despite the impending, horn-blaring chaos few in the notoriously pavement shy City of Angels plan to walk, and many are taking to the skies instead.
Cut price $150 helicopter taxis are being frantically booked to get commuters to downtown and Los Angeles International Airport, and airlines are running "planepool" flights for the 40-mile hop between airports in the north and south of the city. Hundreds of plane tickets were offered at just $4 and sold out in hours.

Lance Strumpf, chief pilot of Briles Wing and Helicopter, which normally charters helicopters for $2,500 an hour, told his customers somewhat gleefully: "You can look at all those people stuck in traffic down below." More than 500,000 vehicles usually battle their way along the Interstate 405 mega-highway each weekend and it serves as an artery between the city and the sprawling suburban San Fernando Valley to the north.

Mike Miles of the the California Department of Transportation said traffic could be backed up for 64 miles as commuters desperately try to find shortcuts.
He said: "Even if we get the message out to half the people that still means 250,000 people are going to try to use that road." The somewhat banal reason for the closure oa a 10-mile strecth, in an area known locally as the Sepulveda Pass, is to allow the demolition a bridge as part of a $1 billion project to widen the freeway even further.

The road itself is one of America's most iconic and skirts the upmarket suburbs of Bel-Air and Brentwood, home to some of Hollywood's biggest stars past and present, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Marilyn Monroe.
In 1994 it was the scene of the bizarre low-speed car chase in which O J Simpson, then suspected of his wife's murder, inched along the freeway holding a gun to his head while police pursued him.

At the request of the police film stars including Tom Hanks, William Shatner and Ashton Kutcher have taken to Twitter to warn people not to get in their beloved cars when the closure starts on Friday night.

Hanks said: "This weekend, LA! Avoid Carmageddon, Gas-zilla, 405-enstein, Grid-lock-apalooza! STAY HOME. Eat and shop local! Hanx." Hollywood studios are sending film crews home early on Friday and cinemas are offering free popcorn to anyone who gets to a screening over the weekend.

Amid a flurry of business promotions Dr Arnold Klein, Michael Jackson's long-time dermatologist, is offering 25 per cent off Botox injections to anyone who makes it to his surgery.

Reality television star Kim Kardashian also took to Twitter at the request of the LAPD. After getting the closure date wrong twice she warned her fans to “stay away from the 405” this weekend.

The city has opened an emergency operations centre and hundreds of firefighters and paramedics have been deployed. Thousands of doctors and nurses at four major hospitals will camp out at work.

Posie Carpenter, of the UCLA Medical Centre, said: "We see this as being a disaster, only it's a planned disaster, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had few words of comfort for Angelinos. He said: "It will be an absolute nightmare. If you think the 405 is gridlocked during the week, you haven't seen anything yet". City council member Bill Rosendahl added: "This is truly a potential paralysis moment."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... geles.html

 

[rynner2]

Carmageddon: Los Angeles 'averts traffic gridlock'

Los Angeles residents appear to have escaped "carmageddon" - the severe traffic jams expected from the closure of a key stretch of highway during one of the city's busiest weekends.
Interstate 405, the main artery through the city, closed at midnight on Friday, for work expected to take 53 hours.
Workers plan to add more lanes to a 10-mile (16km) section of the freeway.
However, vehicles appeared to be moving freely through the nation's second-largest city on Saturday.

Transport officials say the highway is being closed to replace the 50-year-old Mulholland Bridge, as part of a $1bn (£600m) project to add additional lanes to a bottlenecked segment of the highway.

The Los Angeles authorities had recruited celebrities with large Twitter followings to warn residents of the closure.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead at the 405 highway says Carmageddon is in fact all going terribly well as the highway is empty.

With the impending chaos from the closure expected to grind traffic to a halt the authorities had warned motorists to stay off the road. Officials were optimistic that the public had got the message.
"The work is progressing, traffic is co-operating," said Mike Miles, a district director of the California Department of Transportation.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14168613

There's something about multi-lane highways packed with vehicles that shrivels my soul...

 

[rynner2]

The extinct species back from the dead and causing mayhem
The reintroduction into the wild of creatures like the beaver and sea eagle that had previously died out in Britain is endangering the countryside, an influential group of vets has warned.
By Jasper Copping
9:00AM BST 17 Jul 2011

Centuries ago they roamed Britain freely until they were hunted to extinction. So a campaign to reintroduce species such as beavers, wolves and bears to the wild may seem like a just crusade.
But an influential group of vets has cautioned against the "vogue" for reintroducing creatures that previously died out in Britain, arguing that such schemes could be an environmental "disaster".

A report by the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management, which represents about 550 vets who specialise in wild animals, describes reintroduction projects as "potential man-made threats to biodiversity". It says that reintroduced species can become "over successful" and take over habitats from other animals and spread disease.
"It is not sufficient justification to say they were in this country some hundreds of years ago," it says.

Among species to have been reintroduced from other countries in recent years, are the sea eagle (or the white-tailed eagle), the beaver, the red kite and the osprey.
Other species, such as the wild boar, are thriving, having been "accidentally" reintroduced by escaping from captivity. There are also proposals to bring back wolves and lynx to some parts of Britain.

Dr Lewis Thomas, the secretary of the association, said: "Our countryside now is so developed since we last had these species here that it has changed immeasurably. In a small country like ours they can have a devastating effect on the ecology."

He said the red kite, which was driven to extinction in England by the early 20th century over concerns they were killing livestock, before being reintroduced in a project in the 1990s, had now become dominant in many areas and was threatening songbird species.

"Supporters of these projects talk about so-called 'controlled' reintroductions, but you can't control things like the beaver or the wolf," Dr Thomas said.
"It is the impact on our current wildlife that is the worry. The reintroduction of the beaver would be a disaster for the ecology."
Beaver reintroduction projects have been criticised for the impact their dams can have on migratory fish as well as the increased risk of flooding they create.

Along with the red kite, animals which have been reintroduced in England in the past two decades are the corncrake, pool frog, large blue butterfly, the osprey and great bustard.

Reintroduction projects are increasingly common around the world as several governments, including Britain's, are legally obliged to consider bringing back native species to their former range.
The government agencies Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Countryside Council of Wales have all supported such schemes in recent years, calling them "essential conservation techniques".

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... ayhem.html

 

[rynner2]

Melting Arctic ice releasing banned toxins, warn scientists
Unknown amount of trapped persistent organics pollutants poses threat to marine life and humans as temperatures rise
Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk, Sunday 24 July 2011 22.19 BST

The warming of the Arctic is releasing toxic chemicals that had been trapped in the ice and cold water, scientists have discovered.
The researchers warn that the amount of the poisons in the polar region is unknown and their release could "undermine global efforts to reduce environmental and human exposure to them".

The chemicals seeping out as temperatures rise include the pesticides DDT, lindane and chlordane as well as the industrial chemicals PCBs and the fungicide hexachlorobenzene (HCB). All of these are know as persistent organics pollutants (Pops), and are banned under the 2004 Stockholm convention.

Pops can cause cancers and birth defects and take a long time to degrade. Over past decades, the low temperatures in the Arctic trapped volatile Pops in ice and cold water. But scientists in Canada and Norway have discovered that global warming is freeing the Pops again. They examined measurements of Pops in the air between 1993 and 2009 at the Zeppelin research station in Svalbaard and Alert weather station in northern Canada.

After allowing for the decline in global emissions of Pops, the team showed that the toxic chemicals are being remobilised by rising temperatures and the retreat of the sea ice, which exposes more water to the sun. The scientists' work is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Hayley Hung, at the air quality research division of Environment Canada and one of the team, said their work provided the first evidence of the remobilisation of Pops in the Arctic. "But this is the beginning of a story," she said. "The next step is to find out how much is in the Arctic, how much will leak out and how quickly."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... oxins-pops

 

[rynner2]

The extinct species back from the dead and causing mayhem
The reintroduction into the wild of creatures like the beaver and sea eagle that had previously died out in Britain is endangering the countryside, an influential group of vets has warned.
By Jasper Copping
9:00AM BST 17 Jul 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... ayhem.html

And now in France...

Row rages over calls for cull as wolves spread across France
By John Lichfield in Paris
Tuesday, 26 July 2011

The wolf, pursuing its lightning reconquest of France, has reached the Vosges Mountains on the Alsace-Lorraine border for the first time in 80 years.

After two decades of pro- and anti-wolf battles between nature-lovers, shepherds and politicians, even some supporters of the grey wolf (Canis lupus) are growing alarmed by the rapid progress of the world largest wild canine through the French countryside.
A mystery animal which has been attacking sheep in the Vosges since April has been identified by a remote-control camera as a wolf.

A handful of Italian wolves, which recolonised the French Alps around 1993, are thought to have multiplied to about 200 animals in 20 packs, reaching as far west as Cantal in Auvergne and as far north as Franche-Comté on the Franco-Swiss border, and now the Vosges. Within a decade, one expert predicted yesterday, the wolf could have ranged as far as the large forests just south of Paris.

A delegation of Alpine shepherds' leaders and local politicians will petition the environment minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, this week for the right to hunt wolves at will. Under the present rules, the wolf – protected under European law – can be shot legally only by government marksmen or by shepherds trained and licensed to defend their flocks from an actual wolf attack.

In practice, since the "anti-loup" code was agreed in 2004, only four wolves have been killed in France. Shepherds' leaders want the rules changed to allow them to organise hunting parties.
Daniel Spagnou, the mayor of Sisteron in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, wrote a blistering open letter to Ms Kosciusko-Morizet earlier this month, accusing her of "blindly following" the advice of environmentalists and allowing sheep flocks in high alpine summer pastures to be "plundered" by wolves.

The French government authorised the official hunting and shooting of a wolf in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence last weekend after 62 ewes fell into a ravine while fleeing an attack.
There have been 66 confirmed wolf attacks in France so far this year, compared with 86 in the whole of last year.

Pro-wolf groups say there is no evidence that attacks are "out of control", although some accept that the rapid spread proves tougher action is needed. Jean-Marc Moriceau, a wolf expert and the author of Men Versus Wolves, The 2,000 Years War, said: "We should organise a wolf parliament, bringing together shepherds, ecologists and government... We need a way of protecting flocks and managing the wolf population."
At the present rate of progress, Mr Moriceau said, wolves would reach the forests 50 miles south of Paris in 10 to 15 years.

Until the late 18th century, long after the last wolf was shot in Britain, wolves lived just across the Channel in the Pas de Calais. However, Canis lupus is not expected to knock on Britain's door any time soon. Western and northern France is no longer wooded or wild enough to sustain them.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 25946.html

 

[Mythopoeika]

I really fail to see the logic of re-introducing wolves.
Crazy.

 

[Kondoru]

Not if you worship them as many pagans do.

to me they are just an unsucessful dog

or an early stage in the making of a fur coat.

 

[rynner2]

The second post on this thread was about this problem:

British holidaymakers warned as 'killer seaweed' strikes Brittany beaches
Toxic fumes given off by rotting plants kill 28 wild boars
By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 8:10 AM on 28th July 2011

British holidaymakers have been warned to be on their guard against a thick blanket of slimy 'killer seaweed' suffocating the beaches of northern France.
The alert comes after the carcasses of 28 wild boars were found on a Morieux river estuary beach in Brittany.
All are thought to have been killed by toxic gas – as dangerous as cyanide – released by the seaweed as it rots.
Beaches around the estuary are popular with tens of thousands of British holidaymakers every summer.

The warning was issued by Brittany’s Cote d’Armor regional government which said the potentially deadly seaweed was ‘above a health alert level, but below severe danger level’.
Seaweed – which is a form of algae - is normally found on most northern French beaches. However, it releases hydrogen sulphide when it comes into contact with nitrogen waste flowing to the sea from intensive pig farms.

Two years ago a council worker on a seaweed clearing team was poisoned by gas and taken to hospital in a coma. A horse-rider also passed out and his horse died in 2009 after inhaling toxic gas.
Brittany marine biologist Alain Menesguen said: 'This is a very toxic gas, which smells like rotten eggs. It attacks the respiratory system and can kill a man or an animal in minutes.
'It is likely to be a feature of any area where intensive farming methods are employed.'

Morieux mayor Jean-Pierre Briens said: 'We are very worried for the health of visitors to beaches around here.
'How could we be anything other than worried when animals are being found dead?'

Over the past ten years, the French government has refused repeated demands from local councils to control how intensive animal farms dispose of waste.
Instead it has employed teams of workers to simply cart away the weed, which then returns the next year.

Environmentalist Jean-Frangois Piquot predicted two years ago that government’s clearing was not enough and the toxic algae would spread.
He said: There are about five beaches that are unusable in Brittany. The problem is getting worse.
'There is no doubt that farming is to blame. Brittany has 5 per cent of French agricultural land but 60 per cent of the pigs, 45 per cent of the poultry and 30 per cent of the dairy farms.”
'As our rivers are not long, the pollution does not have time to clear before the water reaches the sea. It enters a closed bay and the sunlight produces the seaweed.'

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1TOZCOIwp

 

[rynner2]

Third of freshwater fish threatened with extinction
Freshwater fish are the most endangered group of animals on the planet, with more than a third threatened with extinction, according to a report being compiled by British scientists.
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
11:00PM BST 30 Jul 2011

Among those at the greatest risk of dying out are several species from UK rivers and lakes including the European eel, Shetland charr and many little known fish that have become isolated in remote waterways in Wales and Scotland.

Others critically endangered include types of sturgeon, which provide some of the world's most expensive caviar, and giant river dwellers such as the Mekong giant catfish and freshwater stingray, which can grow as long as 15 feet.

The scientists have blamed human activities such as overfishing, pollution and construction for pushing so many species to the brink of extinction.
They also warn that the loss of the fish could have serious implications for humans. In Africa alone more than 7.5 million people rely on freshwater fish for food and income.

The precarious status of the species has been revealed in interim results from the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List assessment of freshwater fish.

Dr William Darwall, manager of the freshwater unit at the IUCN in Cambridge, said: "There are still some big gaps in our knowledge, but of the 5,685 species that have been assessed, 36 per cent of them are threatened.
"Compared to mammals, where 21 per cent are threatened, and birds, where 12 per cent are threatened, it is clear that fresh water ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world.
"Sadly, it is also not going to get any better as human need for fresh water, power and food continues to grown and we exploit freshwater environments for these resources."

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... ction.html

 

[rynner2]

Your goose is cooked: Canada variety to be placed on the menu and it's perfect with teriyaki sauce
By Valerie Elliott
Last updated at 10:00 PM on 30th July 2011

The Canada goose, one of Britain’s most hated birds, could soon be served as an alternative to turkey for the traditional Christmas dinner.
Natural England – the Government’s advisers on wildlife – want the law changed to allow meat from the bird to be sold for the first time in Britain.
The birds, with their distinctive black heads, are a common sight in parks and on lakes but are seen as pests.

They can already be shot and eaten, or given as a gift to cook at home. However, it is illegal to sell them. Restaurateurs who serve them can be fined up to £5,000 and face six months jail.

Natural England will make its recommendation to the Law Commission, which is conducting a review of wildlife statutes. It is believed that the law may be changed in time for Christmas.

Thousands of the birds are killed lawfully every year to prevent them from fouling parks. The low-flying geese are also the scourge of farmers and pilots as they feed on crops and are a hazard to planes.
Many in the countryside eat the gamey bird as a roast at home and don’t understand why it is not sold.

Natural England’s Matthew Heydon said: ‘It would make sense to allow them to be sold.’ But the RSPB’s Graham Madge called it ‘a dangerous development’.

Leading cook Prue Leith said the birds would be a useful addition to menus. ‘I would slow cook the legs, cut off the breast meat, grill it and serve with teriyaki sauce.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1Tfh9vhrx

 

[Mythopoeika]

I remember from the one time I ate goose meat, that it's horrible. It's very fatty.
I guess you could cook it, then remove all the fat before you cook it again in the teriyaki sauce...

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

I remember from the one time I ate goose meat, that it's horrible. It's very fatty.
I guess you could cook it, then remove all the fat before you cook it again in the teriyaki sauce...

Apparently, they're self-basting. I'd eat wild goose. Turkey and chicken are so boring.

 

[Mythopoeika]

They're probably the ideal bird to roast over an open fire because of all the fat, I guess.

 

[Kondoru]

Hurrah!

And good for you

Our local park destroy a lot of the wretches....but are still inundated with them.

 

[rynner2]

The ultimate insult for Clarkson: His view's been ruined by a recycling tip
By Jonathan Brown
Monday, 1 August 2011

It is a development that will be savoured by environmentalists. Jeremy Clarkson, patron saint of petrol heads and serial denouncer of "eco-mentalists", can look forward to a recycling depot being built within a Lamborghini Murcielago's braking distance of his country home.

And for the growing band of critics of the so-called Chipping Norton set – the Cotswold hub to a certain David Cameron, Rebekah Brooks and Elisabeth Murdoch, as well as the Top Gear presenter and his family – there is a second, equally delicious twist. The man behind the campaign to move the existing plant from near the village of Dean, where the Camerons live, to a site next door to the Clarksons is Lord Chadlington, a close friend ofMr Cameron and president of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association.

Clarkson, who owns a sprawling Edwardian pile with an excellent view of the proposed site, feels powerless to stop the development. "It seems that my local council is thinking of moving the town's tip right next to my back garden," he said. "Normally, this is the sort of issue I would raise with my MP. Unfortunately my MP is David Cameron and, at present, the town's tip is right next to his back garden. I think therefore he won't be very sympathetic."

Dean Pit, where residents queue each weekend to recycle their household waste, is to close at the end of September. Were the new recycling plant not to be built near Chateau Clarkson, another proposed site was close to the home of the outgoing News International chief executive Ms Brooks. In a rare piece of good news for her, though, that site was rejected by West Oxfordshire District Council.

Lord Chadlington, who takes his noble title from the nearby Oxfordshire village where he lives, and is better known as Peter Selwyn Gummer, founder of the PR giant Brunswick, is said to have paid for a study by a group of independent experts looking at possible alternatives to the current site.

Mr Clarkson's fate was met with delight by local Greens, who picketed against the decision to award him an honorary degree at Oxford Brookes University in 2005 because of his outspoken views on climate change among other things. When the ceremony went ahead, the presenter received a custard pie in the face from a protester.

"It's got to go somewhere and I couldn't think of a better person than Jeremy Clarkson," cackled Councillor David Williams, group leader of the Oxfordshire Green Party. "He permeates a laddish culture where you put your foot down and burn as much fossil fuel as you can. He asked our members one day if they thought it was hot, referring to global warming. He said 'You can blame me for that.' That sort of joke doesn't go down well. The local environmentalists don't like Jeremy Clarkson and he doesn't like them." 8)

Glyn Watkins of the group Chippy First said that some other locals did sympathise with Clarkson. "We don't see a great deal of him but he raises money for the lido which is used by Samantha Cameron and her kids," he said. "He also raises money for the hospice in Banbury. He does his bit.
"We hope he does complain to David Cameron but if he gets it moved it will be seen as a case of the old boys' act. He's damned whatever way he does it."

Clarkson on environmentalists

* "I've argued time and again that the old trade unionists and CND lesbians didn't go away. They just morphed into environmentalists. The red's become green but the goals remain the same. And there's no better way of achieving those goals than turning the lights out and winding the clock back to the Stone Age. Only when we're all eating leaves under a hammer and sickle will they be happy." (January 2008, Sunday Times)

* "These eco-people are the sort who were bullied at school. They have poor dress sense, limited social skills and they know they stand little chance of making much headway in the world, so they want it changed." (February 2008, Sunday Times)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/peopl ... 29674.html

 

[rynner2]

How to turn a roundabout into a meadow
Guerilla Gardeners have transformed Hogarth Roundabout in Chiswick, west London into a meadow.
By Ed Cumming
11:00AM BST 01 Aug 2011

If this summer you find yourself negotiating the busy Hogarth Roundabout by the old Fuller’s brewery in Chiswick, west London, chances are you’ll be going slowly enough to look out of the window. It’s worth doing. On the small triangle of land that sits snugly between six lanes of traffic, in the shadow of the A4 flyover, you’ll see a thriving meadow.

Poppies, cornflowers and North African scarlet flax sway in the breeze, bumblebees and butterflies go about their business and field mice scurry around. The roundabout is a kaleidoscope of colour, wilder and nicer to look at than any number of tired-looking council bedding efforts.

It’s the work of landscape designer Brita von Schoenaich, who for the first time has had her efforts sanctioned by authorities. In late April, with the help of Transport for London, which rotovated the soil for free, she and a small team scattered just under £300 worth of seed across the space, a mixture of native annuals and plants from North America, Africa and Europe.

The German-born Schoenaich has attempted this project twice before, with mixed results. In 1996, she had the idea to use the wasted green space for an innovative urban gardening project. “We wrote to the authorities,” she says. “And they wrote back saying 'we don’t have any money’. Then we wrote again saying we’d raised the funds, and they wrote back saying it was too dangerous. So we just went ahead and did it.”

For much of the next decade she was busy growing her design firm, Schoenaich Landscape Architects. But in 2006, she decided to try again, and once more had to go ahead without permission.

“We put a sign up saying: 'This was put in by the local community, please don’t mow it,’” she says. “They mowed it anyway. Not maliciously, I think, but just because it was their routine.” This accidental destruction was reported in the Evening Standard, and the ensuing minor outcry prompted the then mayor Ken Livingstone to write to Schoenaich, apologising. “He was quite encouraging,” she says, “but also said that we need to consider health and safety.”

This time around, thankfully, a local community organiser was on hand to help navigate the red tape. Jane Nissen, head of the Old Chiswick Preservation Society, got permission from Transport for London for this year’s sowing. A TFL team then offered to help out with some rotovation and training.

The result is a classic example of “guerilla gardening”, the activist movement whose principles were laid out in Richard Reynolds’ book, On Guerilla Gardening. He says Hogarth Roundabout is “inspiring”.
“It proves that with a bit of determination, a gardener who doesn’t let the bureaucrats get in the way can eventually make them see sense,” he says. “I hope it’s the start of many more beautiful, bio-diverse, wildlife-friendly habitats in our cities.”

Schoenaich also hopes the project marks a turning point. “These agencies are starting to realise that it’s not their land, it’s our land,” she says.
“We’ve shown that this kind of planting can be an alternative to traditional roundabout bedding. It’s cheaper, and starting from seed is far more sustainable than planting.” But expert planning is still crucial for a project to suceed, she adds.
“You need someone who understands the whole picture: what needs to be done when, what seed mixes are right for the soil, what the weed problems might be.”

Parks can benefit from this approach too, she adds. “What you see is just a native mix being used, and often used badly. This kind of planting needs to look neat around the edges, successful, deliberate.
“It’s important that people find it beautiful to look at. I think that they do. They enjoy the colour, and the change.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/ga ... eadow.html

 

[rynner2]

Shell fights spill near North Sea oil platform

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has said it is working to stop a leak at one of its North Sea oil platforms.
The leak was found near the Gannet Alpha platform, 180 km (113 miles) from Aberdeen, Scotland.

The company would not say how much oil may have been spilt so far, though it said it had "stemmed the leak significantly".
One of the wells at the Gannet oilfield has been closed, but the company would not say if production was reduced.
The company says it has sent a clean-up vessel to the location and has a plane monitoring the surface.

The leak was found in a flow line connecting an oil well to the platform.
Shell confirmed the leak was continuing but said it was being reduced and was "not a significant spill".

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change said it was in contact with Shell and investigating the incident in the usual way.
The department's spokesman added that it understood from Shell that there was a "finite amount of oil that can be dispersed" but stressed that regulators were taking the leak seriously.
The Health and Safety executive confirmed it was monitoring the situation.

A Scottish government spokesman also said it was monitoring the situation and would update ministers, adding that Marine Scotland, which manages Scotland's waters, was in close contact with key organisations including Shell.

A Shell spokesman said it was "managing" the leak.
"We deployed a remote-operated vehicle to check for a sub-sea leak after a light sheen was noticed in the area.
"We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it.
"The sub-sea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being de-pressurised," he added.
It is unknown how much oil may already have been spilt.

The Gannet oil field reportedly produced about 13,500 barrels of oil per day between January and April of this year.

Friends of the Earth Scotland said the spill showed the dangers of offshore drilling in the North Sea.
"Any spill, however small, should serve as a warning sign and encourage us to look to a clean, renewable energy future, rather than continuing to invest in dirty oil," said Juliet Swann, head of campaigns at the environmental group.

The field is co-owned by Esso, a subsidiary of US oil firm Exxon but operated by Shell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14513509

 

[rynner2]

Rivers run dry after lack of rain
The hot, dry spring is finally catching up on the country's rivers, with many now running at barely a trickle.
12:58PM BST 15 Aug 2011

Desperate rescue operations are under way on the River Teme in Shropshire where water levels have left brown trout, minnows, bullheads and young salmon trying to survive in tiny puddles of water.
At the other end of the country, villagers in Dorset say water levels on their rivers and streams are among the lowest in living memory.
And stretches of the River Kennet at Denford near Hungerford, Berkshire, have virtually dried up.

The River Teme crisis is on the section between Knighton and Leintwardine, near Ludlow.
Pictures have appeared on Twitter showing sheep being able to cross the river because it's so shallow.
According to official figures on the Environment Agency website, water levels are now below the expected depth for the river at Leintwardine and Tenbury Wells and only just at acceptable levels in Knighton and Ludlow.
Agency spokeswoman Jessica Campbell said "We have carried out a fish rescue operation because water levels are continuing to fall.
"The species of fish we have rescued include brown trout, minnows, bullheads and young salmon - obviously it is very important in the case of the salmon as they are juvenile fish."

According to the Environment Agency website, at Leintwardine the river is four centimetres below acceptable levels at 0.28 metres, while at Tenbury Wells the river was 0.4 metres deep, three centimetres below the lowest typical level.
The depth of the river at Knighton yesterday was 0.54 metres, one centimetre above the lowest level deemed typical.
At Ludlow the level was deemed acceptable at 0.93 metres, and at Burford figures were also in the typical range at 0.58 metres.

Ironically the river reached record depths of 5.22 metres in Ludlow during the floods of 2007, where a bridge on the neighbouring River Corve collapsed in swollen currents.
Carolyn Chesshire, who runs Lower Buckton Farm bed and breakfast and spotted the sheep crossing the river between Bucknell and Knighton said "The river is very, very low in places and the Environment Agency has had to come out to move fish downstream."

People in the small Dorset town of Mere are asking "Why have our rivers run dry?"
Two chalk streams, the Upper Shreen Water and the Ashwell Water, which are both tributaries of the River Stour, flow through the town, nestling in the beautiful Blackmore Vale.
Local resident Adrienne Howell, who has lived in Mere for almost 70 years, says she cannot remember seeing the streams in such a sorry state and a mill pond in Burton is completely dry.

Wessex Water blames low rainfall but townsfolk say the real reason is the company sucking too much water from the underground aquifers which feed the streams.

All that can be seen where ducks used to swim in Burton Pond are sad-looking cracked mudflats.

Even recent heavy rainfall has failed to raise the rivers to more than a muddy trickle.
Over recent weeks, it's got so bad that local people have set up dams to create pools after finding fish gasping for oxygen.
Ducks have been seen fighting over precious patches of water along the once fast-flowing streams.

Residents and Mere Parish Council have contacted Wessex Water and the Environment Agency but have yet to receive a clear answer.
Mrs Howell said "We are all very concerned because the rivers are practically dry. Fish are dying, wildlife is diminishing and the state of the water must pose a health risk with the resultant smell and flies."
She said many residents believe the rivers are dying because too much water is being abstracted from upstream.

"What I want to hear is that Wessex Water will show some responsibility for Mere's environment and take action to put right the damage that is being caused.
"Mere was blessed with an abundant supply of water but that doesn't mean this should be pillaged and the town suffer because of it."
She is concerned that summer droughts are being ignored because Mere's chalk streams are being wrongly classed as winterbournes.
She said she can remember a time when the rivers ran freely throughout the year.
"Wessex Water tries to claim they are winterbournes but history says otherwise. People wouldn't have built mills and sheep dips on winterbournes - there are five watermills in the locality."

Another resident, Ian Sheppard, has been trained to monitor rivers for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, but there is no longer a river for him to monitor in Mere.
Mr Sheppard, who has the remains of a once-thriving chalk stream passing through his garden, said the flow of local rivers has steadily diminished over the last two or three decades.
"The recent heavy rain has caused a small improvement but we're only talking about a foot-wide trickle passing through a ten-foot riverbed. If the river drops any more the fish will die.
"It is not just an environmental problem - the river used to be a village amenity and a tourist attraction, and there could be serious problems caused by the encroaching weeds. They're blocking the riverbed and we could be flooded if we get heavy rain in the autumn or winter."

A Wessex Water conservation officer visited Mere a few days ago and the company said it was investigating the situation.
A spokeswoman said diminished river levels could be attributed to low levels of rainfall.
He added "An Environment Agency investigation published in 2008 found no need to extract water at lower levels than we are licensed to do. However, our current levels of abstraction are much lower than what our licence permits."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... -rain.html

 

[rynner2]

Otters return to every county in England

Two otters have been seen in Kent, signalling their return to every English county following efforts to save them from extinction.
Kent was the only county found without otters in a survey of rivers across England carried out by the Environment Agency (EA) last year.
Since then at least two otters have been spotted, with holts on the Medway and Eden rivers, the EA said.

A survey on the Ribble in Lancashire showed a 44% increase since 2008.

Otter numbers fell as a result of toxic pesticides, which damaged their health and reduced their supplies of fish. They had almost disappeared from England by the 1970s.

Improvements in water quality, along with legal protection, has helped their recovery.
"The recovery of otters from near-extinction shows how far we've come in controlling pollution and improving water quality," said the EA's national conservation manager, Alastair Driver.
"Rivers in England are the healthiest for over 20 years and otters, salmon and other wildlife are returning to many rivers for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.
"The fact that otters are now returning to Kent is the final piece in the jigsaw for otter recovery in England and is a symbol of great success for everybody involved in otter conservation."

The otter survey of England, which examined 3,327 river sites between July 2009 and March 2010, showed the number of places with evidence of otter life had increased tenfold in 30 years.
But recovery was slowest in the South East, with conservationists predicting otters may not be resident in Kent for another 10 years.
Their return was also a "fantastic reward" for efforts by the agency to improve water quality, said Mr Driver.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14557381

 

[rynner2]

...vast swathes of the British countryside are now virtually a wildlife-free zone. Chris Baines, the man who invented wildlife gardening partly as a way of providing an urban refuge for our declining rural wildlife, has wryly observed that the best way to improve the biodiversity of an arable field is to build a housing estate on it.
:shock:

From this long article:

The curious case of Britain's wildlife revival
Otters and salmon have returned to our rivers, red kites are soaring over our motorways and exotic egrets are colonising our wetlands. So has British wildlife really made a comeback? Naturalist Stephen Moss investigates

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 45427.html

 

[eburacum]

Britain is, for the most part, a better place for wildlife than fifty years ago. There are fewer hedgerows, but more mature trees (especially maples and birch), many growing on former industrial land. Some species have certainly suffered, but others are thriving.

Environmentalists worry about the state of Britain's wildlife but the problems here are mostly trivial or non-existent- because all the polluting industry has moved to China and elsewhere. The problems haven't gone away- they have moved beyond most environmentalist's reach.

 

[Mythopoeika]

As a result of insecticide use by farmers, there are fewer insects than there used to be. As a knock-on effect, I think this is why there are fewer birds and other insectivorous animals in Britain.
To fix the problem, we need to be less efficient in our farming methods.

 

[ramonmercado]

As a result of insecticide use by farmers, there are fewer insects than there used to be. As a knock-on effect, I think this is why there are fewer birds and other insectivorous animals in Britain.
To fix the problem, we need to be less efficient in our farming methods.

or maybe we need less farmers: Shoot Peasants, Not Pheasants!

 

[rynner2]

To fix the problem, we need to be less efficient in our farming methods.

But with ever-growing populations, that ain't going to happen.

It's them or us. And after we've eaten the last skylark and fluffy bunny rabbit, it's on to cannibalism....

 

[Mythopoeika]

To fix the problem, we need to be less efficient in our farming methods.

But with ever-growing populations, that ain't going to happen.

It's them or us. And after we've eaten the last skylark and fluffy bunny rabbit, it's on to cannibalism....

This is indeed why we need fewer people...

 

[rynner2]

Meanwhile...

'Most-improved' rivers revealed by Environment Agency

A list of the 10 most improved rivers in England and Wales has been released by the Environment Agency.
The list includes the River Wandle in London - which was officially declared a sewer in the 1960s - the River Nar in Norfolk and the River Darent in Kent.

Ian Barker, head of land and water at the agency, said Britain's rivers were "the healthiest for over 20 years".
He said work with farmers, businesses and water companies to reduce pollution and improve water quality had paid off.
River habitats had also benefited from reductions in the volume of water taken by industry and farmers, he said.

The list also includes the River Thames in London, which was declared "biologically dead" in the 1950s, and the River Taff in south Wales, which once ran black with coal and was so polluted no life could survive.

Others include the River Stour in Worcestershire - previously famed for the rainbow-coloured dyes that flowed into it from carpet manufacturers - and the Mersey Basin, which was once called "an affront to a civilised society" by former government minister Michael Heseltine.

The EA has reviewed thousands of licences which cover the removal of water and is amending those which had resulted in environmental damage.
On the River Darent in Kent, for example, about 35 million fewer litres per day are now being taken than 20 years ago, increasing river flows and helping to support larger populations of wildlife including brown trout and pike, the EA said.

Mr Barker said: "Britain's rivers are the healthiest for over 20 years, and otters, salmon and other wildlife are returning for the first time since the industrial revolution.
"But there is still more to be done and we have plans to transform a further 9,500 miles of rivers in England and Wales by 2015 - the equivalent of the distance between the UK and Australia."

The UK must meet tough new European Union (EU) targets on the water quality and ecology of its rivers and lakes by 2015.
The EA - with partners such as Natural England - is targeting £18m of funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to help more rivers meet the new EU targets this year.

Environment Minister Lord Henley said England's rivers were "once home to many iconic species of wildlife".
"With Defra's £110m funding to help clean up England's rivers and the extensive work being done by the Environment Agency, water companies and landowners, we're already seeing fish and mammals, including salmon and otters, thriving once more," he said

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14710478

 

[ramonmercado]

To fix the problem, we need to be less efficient in our farming methods.

But with ever-growing populations, that ain't going to happen.

It's them or us. And after we've eaten the last skylark and fluffy bunny rabbit, it's on to cannibalism....

This is indeed why we need fewer people...

We could maintain a breeding stock of peasants for meat.