OneWingedBird
Beloved of Ra
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2003
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The human race is screwed.
Like a lamb to the slaughter: Environmentalist attacks 'ecological disaster' of sheep-rearing at hill farmers' meeting – and is met with stony silence
http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 79083.html
George Monbiot wants 'a change in incentives to encourage wildlife and allow biodiversity to recover'
MIKE GLOVER Sunday 09 March 2014
Its stark beauty may have inspired romantic poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, but for environmentalist George Monbiot, the Lake District has been turned by centuries of sheep-farming into something akin to a "chemical desert".
And so the controversial environmentalist could be forgiven for feeling a bit like Daniel in the lion's den as he took his message of "rewilding" the countryside to a hostile audience of about 100 stony-faced Cumbrian hill farmers.
In his most recent book, Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding, Mr Monbiot attacked sheep farming as "a slow-burning ecological disaster which has done more damage to the living systems of this country than either climate change or industrial pollution".
He has also described the Lakes as "one of the most depressing landscapes in Europe", arguing its "celebrated fells have been thoroughly sheepwrecked" and that there is "more wildlife in Birmingham".
It didn't go down too well at the annual meeting of the Federation of Cumbria Commoners, held at Newton Rigg agricultural college near Penrith on Friday.
The chair of the meeting, Dave Smith, who keeps sheep at Dufton, near Appleby, gave Mr Monbiot a "cordial welcome", but the packed hall greeted him with complete silence, rather than the customary polite applause.
The silence continued as Mr Monbiot tried to explain his theories, punctuated by the odd shout of "Rubbish!" and "S***!" when the debate became heated.
He said he was not advocating forcing people off the hills to rewild, or return the hills to something more like their natural state. "I would like to see a change in incentives to encourage wildlife and allow biodiversity to recover," he said.
He went on to describe Britain's uplands as an ecological disaster area and an extraordinarily barren environment, comparing the effect of sheep in the UK to cattle farming in the Amazon.
Britain's ancient woodlands were once widespread but today there was a "fetishist" desire to protect habitats like grasslands and heather moorland, which were devoid of natural species, he said. The lack of trees in the uplands, Mr Monbiot argued, had also contributed to flooding in lowlands, as seen this winter.
This point was too much for Will Benson, a Young Commoner. "Surely it is rain that causes floods, not sheep?" he interjected.
Mr Benson insisted uplands were far richer in wildlife than arable farms and also accused Mr Monbiot of "being provocative to sell your books", a suggestion that caused the writer to lose his temper.
And Will Rawling, chairman of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association, said the landscape had evolved as a working environment, producing self-replacing flocks of sheep that produced high-quality protein from low-quality grazing.
After the meeting, Mr Rawling said: "It was interesting the way he slightly modified his views. He sounded more reasonable than he does in his writings."
Mr Monbiot admitted he had found the experience nerve-racking. "I am not sure I have persuaded anyone of my views. I didn't really expect to. But it is possible we understand each other a bit more."
Anome_ said:and then you have some bunch of nut bags who want to start shooting them from helicopters,
Anome_ said:Whereabouts was this? Feral cats are a serious problem in much of Australia. Although, shooting them from helicopters is probably more problematic than shooting brumbies.
As with the brumbies, however, the damage they do to the environment is often overlooked by people who think cats are cute. (Don't get me wrong, they are adorable, but if you let them get outside, they kill things, even if they're well looked after and fed.)
AnacondaEq said:Anome_ said:Whereabouts was this? Feral cats are a serious problem in much of Australia. Although, shooting them from helicopters is probably more problematic than shooting brumbies.
As with the brumbies, however, the damage they do to the environment is often overlooked by people who think cats are cute. (Don't get me wrong, they are adorable, but if you let them get outside, they kill things, even if they're well looked after and fed.)
He didn't actually shoot cats from a helicopter (that would be quite hilarious...) He was contracted to shoot deer from a helicopter in the Scottish highland.
Stories like this have been doing the rounds for a quite while but tend not to hold up well under close scrutiny. This one, which first appeared a couple of years ago, was based on some rather pessimistic assumptions about how long a typical web search took, and the power consumed by the Internet’s infrastructure as search requests and returned data bounce around the web. Nevertheless, it prompted Google to publish energy consumption figures for its own network of server farms. Based on those figures further analysis suggested that a typical web search would, on average, produce around 0.2g of CO2, compared with the 7g of CO2 generated by a boiling a kettle.I have been told that every time one clicks onto a new web page the electricity used is equivalent to boiling a kettle. I find this hard to believe so could you please enlighten me?
Mark Nixon, by email
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/07/05 ... obama-epa/Conservatives Intentionally Modifying Trucks To Spew Black Smoke To Mock Obama, EPA
Conservatives eager to stick it to Obama and his pro-environment agenda think they have found the perfect way to do it: polluting the air in protest. They’ve begun modifying their trucks to spew out plumes of thick, black smoke with the hope that the smoke negates any benefits to the environment more fuel efficient cars would have done.
People so inclined start by adding huge chimneys and equipment to their diesel trucks in order to “trick” the engine into needing more fuel. The consequence – a giant toxic cloud of smoke thrown into the atmosphere. It’s meant to be an act of defiance against the president and his administration for having the audacity to want to help the environment.
The “art” of ostentatiously polluting with a truck is not new. Trucks with huge exhaust stacks have been around for a long time. The shift has been in how it’s perceived. Rather than just a way to have fun or show off, the practice has increasingly taken a political tone.
Calling themselves “coal rollers” and decaling their cars to read “Prius repellent,” these self-described culture warriors admit to targeting people perceived of as environmentalists, liberals, or even people who buy foreign-made cars.
According to Vocativ:
The ultimate highway enemy, however, are “nature nuffies,” or people who drive hybrid cars, because apparently, pro-earth sentiment is an offense to the diesel-trucking lifestyle. “The feeling around here is that everyone who drives a small car is a liberal,” says Ryan. “I rolled coal on a Prius once just because they were tailing me.”
YouTube has become littered with coal rollers eager to show off their latest attack on unsuspecting liberals. In one video, a group of kids carefully align their car directly in front of a Prius driving behind them. After getting the timing just right, the driver releases the smoke and the victim’s car is completely gone in a cloud of black smoke. The passengers laugh hysterically. As of this writing it has over 13,000. Others are even more popular.
Apparently, the sellers of coal rolling equipment have taken notice of this nice little bump in sales. They’ve jumped at the chance to sell their products to angry conservatives in the name of anti-liberalism.
Dave Weigel at Slate spoke with a seller who gleefully relayed what a boon Obama has been to his business (for all the wrong reasons):
“I run into a lot of people that really don’t like Obama at all,” the salesperson said. “If he’s into the environment, if he’s into this or that, we’re not. I hear a lot of that. To get a single stack on my truck—that’s my way of giving them the finger. You want clean air and a tiny carbon footprint? Well, screw you.”
These sellers now target potential costumers by specifically pointing out that the black cloud is a wasteful pollutant. As far as sales pitches go, that’s a new one on me.