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Environmental Issues

Rio 2016: Organisers threaten to move events out of polluted bay
23 August 2015 Last updated at 15:10

Sailing's governing body has warned that events at the Rio Olympics in 2016 could be moved out of the polluted Guanabara Bay.
According to an Associated Press investigation, levels of raw sewage pose a serious health risk to athletes.
A course inside the bay was closed for a test event because of floating waste.

"If we can't get the water to a level, then we'll move it to the Atlantic Ocean," said International Sailing Federation's chief Peter Sowrey.
Three of the courses earmarked for the Olympics are in the bay and three are in the Atlantic, with up to 1,400 athletes set to compete in water sports at the Games.

South Korean windsurfer Wonwoo Cho was taken to hospital during the week-long test event on Thursday, with his coach Danny Ok claiming the cause was "probably from the water" at Guanabara Bay.

Sowrey also complained he had received no data during the test event from the state body that monitors water quality.
"We are not happy as a federation from the reporting on the water,'' Sowrey said. "We're not getting the reporting we expected to get.''
Sowrey added that otherwise the test event had gone "pretty well" from an operational viewpoint.

Sailors in Guanabara Bay have reported seeing pollution including furniture and floating animal carcasses. :eek:
According to the AP investigation, the Rodrigo de Freitas lake, which will host rowing and canoeing, is also badly polluted.
Nearly 70% of sewage in the Brazilian city is spilled raw into its waters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/sailing/34034211
 
Long article:
The washing away of Cajun culture
By James Fletcher BBC News, Leeville

...
The land here in the Mississippi delta was created by sediment carried downstream by the river and deposited when it flooded. Then in the early 20th Century the US Army Corps of Engineers built a system of levees so that the Mississippi wouldn't breach its banks.

This made life a lot safer for people living along its course. But with no fresh sediment to build up the land, it has been steadily sinking.

Add in damage from the hurricanes that regularly ravage this part of the coast, from saltwater that creeps inland and kills vegetation, and from the canals dug by the oil and gas industries, and it's a slow-motion environmental disaster.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34053365

Plenty of interesting old photos to show the changes.
 
£100 million China Eden centre deal signed in Beijing today

By CMHazelMurray | Posted: September 20, 2015

THE EDEN Project signed an historic agreement today to create a spectacular new £100 million China Eden centre, in what will be its first big building venture overseas.

The UK-based educational charity has teamed up with the leading developer China Jinmao Holdings Limited to design and develop an iconic tourism and education project in the major city of Qingdao on the east coast of the People's Republic of China.

A contract was signed at the British Ambassador's Residence in Beijing in the presence of UK Business Secretary Sajid Javid, as part of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's visit to develop economic and financial dialogue with China.

The four signatories of the China Qingdao Eden Project Cooperation Agreement Signing Ceremony were Eden Project Ltd, China Jinmao Holdings Limited, Qingdao High-tech Industrial Development Zone Administrative and Qingdao City Construction Investment (Group) Co. Ltd.

Eden was represented by Executive Vice Chairman and Co-founder Sir Tim Smit and Executive Director David Harland, who have been working over the past 14 months on this historic deal for the project.
Following the signing, Sir Tim said: "It is humbling to be in such a great country as China and to hear your own Business Minister say such kind things about the importance of Eden and to have those words reflected in the ambitions voiced by both the Deputy Mayor of Qingdao and the Chief Executive of our partners Jinmao.
"It feels like we have been given the opportunity to do something very special and important and we are proud to take all that is best from the UK to forge new partnerships in China - for it is here above all other places on earth that the shape of our collective future will be set over the next 20 years."

Sir Tim has described China Eden as by far the biggest development for the Eden Project since it fully opened in a former clay pit in Cornwall in 2001.
He said the ambition for China Eden is to create a globally-renowned and iconic tourism attraction and centre which demonstrates the highest-quality sustainable construction practices - just as Eden has in the UK.

The stunning location for China Eden has stupendous views of the whole city. The project fits perfectly with Eden's key transformation and regeneration themes and will bring to life to a currently sterile and derelict site. Sir Tim said it has the potential to become instantly recognisable worldwide.

David Harland, after signing the agreement on behalf of Eden, said: "The support of the business secretary is hugely significant and appreciated, as was the support of UKTI and the FCO who have been at our shoulder the whole way.
"At a moment like this, we should pause on the achievement of Cornwall and doff our cap to the many people throughout Cornwall and the UK who went the extra mile to support us and who believed in us. There are many, many people including those working at Eden today who deserve to share the credit with us.
"We have embarked upon this adventure in the hope that it will provide a wider source of revenue - and will reach a global audience - to allow us to both support and grow Eden Cornwall which will, whatever happens, always be the mothership and the benchmark by which other projects will be judged."

http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/10...gned-Beijing/story-27833988-detail/story.html

Quite a coup for a glorified Cornish greenhouse! :D
 
Endangered Greater Horseshoe bat discovered on the National Trust's Penrose estate
Helen Dale, Reporter / Tuesday 22 September 2015 / News

SIX species of bats have been discovered on the National Trust's Penrose estate including the endangered Greater Horseshoe bat which has established a nursery roost in a disused barn.
There are only about 5,000 individual Greater Horseshoe bats in the UK with the species restricted to the mild climates of south west England and south Wales. This new site is only the fifth, and most southerly, recorded nursery roost in Cornwall and is of national conservation importance.

The discovery was made by Cornwall Environmental Consultants (CEC) Ltd, the trading arm of Cornwall Wildlife Trust. CEC were asked by National Trust to survey the bat populations in buildings around the stables at Penrose. The buildings have been monitored for Lesser Horseshoe bats for many years, but the National Trust needed to gain a full picture of how bats were actually using the buildings. The outcome of these surveys would then determine how to renovate the buildings.

CEC’s senior bat ecologist, Steve Marshall, found at least six species of bats present and more Lesser Horseshoe bats using more buildings across Penrose Estate than had previously been counted. However, the most momentous find is the new Greater Horseshoe nursery roost, an unexpected but exciting result of the survey.
Steve said: “Penrose is a very exciting find. It is fantastic to see such a significant bat species thriving and that the National Trust takes their responsibility to protect them so sincerely. I think they were just as thrilled as I was when we discovered them.”

etc...

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/new...National_Trust_s_Penrose_estate/?ref=mr&lp=11

The estate is a lovely place. There is a good walk from near Helston boating pool, which goes south through the estate and alongside Loe Pool, down to Loe Bar on Mounts Bay.

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Gatehouse to the estate.
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Penrose House
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The stables

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Part of the estate

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Overlooking Loe Pool​

(From Loe Bar you can follow the coast to Porthleven. A couple of photos of Loe Bar are at the top of this webpage:
http://cornwalltidesreach.weebly.com/man-pen-2.html )
 
Garden birds: Feeding brings blackcaps to the UK
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

Putting out birdfeed in Britain's gardens is shifting the migration of one particular winter visitor, the blackcap, scientists say.
Researchers from the British Trust for Ornithology used data from a 12-year garden bird survey in their study.
This revealed that many blackcaps from Central Europe had shifted their winter migration, partly because of the supply of garden food in Britain.

The findings are published in the journal Global Change Biology.
"This is the first time that we've shown that feeding birds actually influences the distribution of a bird species across a whole country," lead researcher Dr Kate Plummer told BBC News.
Until the 1950s, there were hardly any records of blackcaps being in Britain in the winter, but in the past 60 years, researchers say, the number has increased "dramatically".

"We saw that both [climate change and garden feeding] were driving this shift in migration [from the Mediterranean to Britain]," Dr Plummer said.
"Where there was a reliable supply of food, blackcaps were more likely to be seen."

Throughout the 12 year period during which the observations were gathered - by more than 14,000 volunteers submitting a weekly record of the birds in their gardens - blackcaps became more strongly associated with garden food supply.
"So it looks like like they're evolving to adapt to using this big supply of winter food," said Dr Plummer.

Graham Madge, from the RSPB, told BBC News that it was only because "people take such a keen interest" and "monitor birds in these surveys, that we're able to understand the impacts we're having on birds and wildlife".
"It's positive news that blackcap numbers are increasing here, but when it comes to house sparrows and starlings, unfortunately [in these same surveys] we're seeing massive declines," he added.

As for the blackcap's preferred variety of feed - the birds appear to particularly like fats and sunflower hearts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34274209
 
North Sea cod back on the menu, marine body says

North Sea cod has been taken off the Marine Conservation Society's (MCS) list of fish to avoid eating.
The UK charity had previously said cod should not be eaten because stocks were only slightly above sustainable levels.
It now says cod can be eaten as an occasional treat - perhaps once a week - and has removed it from its red list of endangered fish.

The new guidance follows a recovery in North Sea cod numbers and a planned increase in the EU quotas for the fish.
But the MCS warned that nine other stocks of cod remained on its list and said more work was needed to improve their numbers.
And it said cod may never fully recover to their peak numbers of the 1970s and early 1980s.
North Sea cod numbers collapsed during the 1980s through a combination of sustained overfishing and changes to the environment.

But the MCS has upgraded the fishery from red to amber, which means it is showing signs of improvement.
It said strict limits on catch sizes over the past 10 years were helping numbers to recover and said it could now be eaten about once a week as a treat.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34353621

This has been on the cards for some time. Fishermen have been pointing out for a while that cod are much more plentiful now.
 
Maybe this belongs in Conspiracy as much as the Environment thread, but here's an excellent documentary about the toll luxury golf resorts have on the environment:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06fpzm7/dark-side-of-the-greens

It's a follow up to a previous doc about Donald Trump and the Scottish Government ignoring environmental laws to build a golf course for a small amount of millionaires to use in Aberdeenshire. But this goes further, it's not just happening in Scotland, it's endangering land and democracy across the world. It will make you angry, the Croatian stuff is unbelievable. Ireland is next.
 
Wildlife thriving around Chernobyl nuclear plant despite radiation
High numbers of elk, deer, boar and wolves show long-term effect of world’s worst nuclear accident is less damaging than everyday human activity, say scientists
Adam Vaughan
Monday 5 October 2015 17.00 BST

Wildlife is abundant around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, despite the presence of radiation released by the world’s most catastrophic nuclear explosion nearly three decades ago, researchers have found.
The number of elk, deer and wild boar within the Belarusian half of the Chernobyl exclusion zone today are around the same as those in four nearby uncontaminated nature reserves.
Wolves, which are commonly hunted in the region because of their impact on livestock, were seven times as abundant with[in] the zone, according to a study published on Monday.

The findings run counter to previous hypothesises that chronic long-term exposure to radiation would hit animal populations.
“What we do, our everyday habitation of an area – agriculture, forestry – they’ve damaged wildlife more than the world’s worst nuclear accident,” said Prof Jim Smith, professor of environmental science, University of Portsmouth, and one of the paper’s authors.
“It doesn’t say that nuclear accidents aren’t bad, of course they are. But it illustrates that the things we do everyday, the human population pressure, damages the environment. It’s kind of obvious but it’s an amazing illustration of it.”

The explosion of reactor four on 26 April 1986 killed dozens of plant staff and rescue workers, and led to high radiation doses in the first weeks and months that had significant effects on animal health and reproduction around Chernobyl.
But after analysing previously unpublished animal track records and aerial surveys from Belarusian authorities and scientists, the authors of the study, which was published in the journal Current Biology, found no long-term impact to population numbers from the radiation released by the accident.
“Chernobyl caused a lot of human damage. The social and economical problems were huge. If you set that aside – if you can set that aside – it’s hard to argue that it’s really damaged the ecosystem as a whole,” said Smith.

The number of animals was probably lower before the nuclear accident than now, because the area was relatively developed, with industry, agriculture and hunting. While it was possible that radiation still had some negative effects on animals it was not enough to affect their populations, Smith said.

But Anders Pape Møller of the University of Paris-Sud questioned why the data had gone unpublished for decades and argued the rebound in populations was simply a sign of wildlife doing better across Europe.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/environm...und-chernobyl-nuclear-plant-despite-radiation
 
Millions of tiny plastic pellets threaten wildlife in Cornish seas
By WBJeff | Posted: October 05, 2015

Millions of grey and black pellets are posing a serious risk to marine wildlife off the British coast following a suspected plastic spill at sea.
The pellets, or "nurdles", are the raw materials used to make virtually all plastic items and have been found in huge numbers in recent weeks on several beaches across Cornwall.
Experts say they are often mistakenly eaten by wildlife and at least tens of thousands have been found over the past few weeks on beaches at Falmouth, Newquay, Mevagissey and Whitsand Bay.

The pellets are often overlooked because of their tiny size - an eggcup holds more than 500 making it virtually impossible to clean them up - but were a serious aspect of the marine plastic problem.
Claire Wallerstein, of Rame Peninsula Beach Care (RPBC), based in south east Cornwall, said: "Nurdles float and look a lot like fish eggs, which are a major food source for many species, so they're actually eaten by many marine creatures."

The pellets can disperse over vast distances and are found on beaches worldwide, from the UK to the remotest Pacific islands.
The last time RPBC attempted to remove, count and categorise every piece of plastic in a 25-metre wide Cornish cove, the final count included 401,230 nurdles.
They have also been shown to attract toxins in high concentrations from the surrounding seawater.

University of Exeter researcher Matthew Cole, an expert on microplastic consumption by plankton, said: "Nurdles are one of the most common types of plastic litter washing up on our shorelines.
"As with other small items of plastic, these nurdles can be mistakenly eaten by wildlife.
"Consumption of plastic can cause direct harm to animals, and there is a serious concern that such plastics could pass along the food chain - potentially affecting the food we ourselves eat too."

The tiny size of nurdles means they can easily be lost during production, manufacturing and transportation by either road, rail or sea. Unfortunately, little information is available as to where spills are taking place.
A growing number of UK plastics companies are signing up to a voluntary industry code of conduct (Operation Clean Sweep), under which they pledge to put in place simple and cost-effective measures, such as mesh covers to stop pellets being lost down drains. However, only a minority of firms have so far joined.

Sarah Archer from Fidra, a Scottish-based environmental charity that runs The Great Nurdle Hunt, said: "It's good to see some companies taking steps to prevent nurdle loss.
"However, with global plastic production increasing dramatically – up from five million tonnes per year in the 1950s to around 300 million tonnes per year now – the number of pellets produced and transported is growing fast. Spills of fresh nurdles, like the recent one in Cornwall, show this problem is far from being solved.
"There is much more that can be done to address this issue, and we would really like to see greater engagement with the shipping and haulage industries, as well as the plastics industry. Together, we are positive that real progress can be made."

Marine plastic in all forms poses a major threat to life in the oceans, affecting everything from plankton and coral up to whales. The UN says that at least 100,000 whales, dolphins, seals and turtles are killed each year, either by mistakenly eating plastic or getting entangled in it. An estimated 90% of all seabirds now have plastic in their digestive tract.

In the UK, every single fulmar (a type of seabird) from the English Channel area now autopsied is found to have plastic in its gut, while over 250 Cornish seals have been observed with plastic entangled around their necks.

http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Mi...n-wildlife/story-27924943-detail/story.html#1
 
Teaching farming in the Bronx
By Bill Hicks

If you had to choose the least likely location for the birthplace of a green education revolution, you might well pick the South Bronx in New York City.
Despite creeping gentrification, this is an area that is still synonymous with urban blight.
It is the most socially deprived district in the United States, with over 40% of residents living below the federal poverty line. It is officially the least healthy place to bring up children in New York State.

And yet this is where high school teacher Stephen Ritz hatched a food-growing project with his students that has been adopted in schools across the US and way beyond, picking up numerous awards on its way.
When we say food-growing, we're not talking mustard-and-cress sprouting on blotting paper in the corner of a science room. Mr Ritz's Green Bronx Machine (GBM) project produces a harvest of fruit and vegetables.
They are cultivated in high-tech indoor tower gardens, creating vertical cornucopias, with edible walls of raspberries, columns of kale and cucumbers, barricades of blueberries and broccoli.

It has grown over 35,000 pounds (15,900kg) of food. Some of it feeds the students and the teachers; plenty is taken home, and more is sold in the community at GBM farmer's markets.

It all started by accident, and its origins are the stuff of legend.
Mr Ritz had been working as a special education teacher and dean of students at Walton High School in the Bronx when one day his class received a gift: a box of 250 daffodil bulbs.

I Had a class of 17 kids, over-aged, under-credited, with a lot of assorted baggage, whether substance abuse, or criminal background, kids who were marginalised... I was dealing with discipline problems, and these bulbs looked like something kids could throw. I wanted nothing to do with them. I put the box behind a radiator and forgot about them."

Some time later there was a "huge argument" in the classroom: "It looked like it was going from bad to worse". One student ducked behind a radiator and pulled out what was now "a box of blooming flowers". The heat and leaking radiator water had forced the daffodil bulbs.
"This was a game changer. The boys wanted to give them to the girls, the girls wanted to give them to the boys, some kids wanted to sell them. But therein was this very teachable moment, and we realised then that we could grow something greater."

Mr Ritz channelled this excitement into a project, growing flowers for ornamental community gardens in some of the roughest parts of New York.
"We went on to plant 25,000 bulbs across the city, we went into gang areas that I never expected to see."

At the same time Mr Ritz was becoming increasingly aware of the terrible food that both he and his students were living on. Over a third of his students came from "food insecure" homes.
As he pointed out, for some youngsters it was "easier to get hold of an automatic pistol than an organic tomato".
Child obesity was rampant: "Kids were getting fatter and getting sicker. I had 200lb [14 stone, 90kg] sixth graders, and I couldn't accept that."
Mr Ritz himself was overweight from eating too many "99 cent lunches".

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34538641
 
Urgent coastal protection needed, says National Trust
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

As parts of the UK face the first of the wet winter weather, the National Trust wants action to manage threats to our storm-battered coastline.
In a new report, the Trust says the UK is "ignoring known risks of flood and erosion at the coast".
In England, just one in three coastal local authorities has long-term, informed plans in place, it claims.

The Trust cites examples of adaptive "soft engineering" and innovation, such as creating flood banks and reed beds.
It even encourages the design and use of moveable buildings close to particularly vulnerable, quickly-eroding areas of the coast.
The main thrust of its report is a call to adapt to the diverse challenges at different coastal locations.
Approaches like this should happen instead of continuing a tradition of building sea defences, which have perpetuated "a cycle of construct, fail and reconstruct", the Shifting Shores report says.

The National Trust is responsible for 700 miles of British coast and said: "As a nation we can no longer rely solely on building our way out of trouble."

The Environment Agency has previously estimated that 700 properties in England alone could be lost to coastal erosion by around 2030.
But building in at-risk areas has continued. In England in 2005 the number of buildings at medium to high risk from coastal change was 117,000 - by 2014 this had grown to 129,000.

Phil Dyke, coastal marine adviser at the National Trust, told BBC News that a lack of funding for local authorities had contributed to a situation whereby "there is no clear mechanism to help people whose properties are at risk".
"We should be thinking about adaptive responses," Mr Dyke told BBC News.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34771511
 
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Montreal begins massive sewage dump into St Lawrence river

Montreal has begun a controversial dump of 8bn litres (2.1bn gallons) of raw sewage into the St Lawrence River.
Officials in the Canadian city say that the project is necessary in order to replace old infrastructure in the sewage treatment system.

The operation has drawn the ire of people in Canada and in the US who have concerns that the river will be polluted with condoms and nappies.
The dump was delayed during the recent Canadian election.
Officials began releasing the raw sewage into the river just after midnight local time (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday, and say it could last about a week.
Citizens are being asked not to flush medication, condoms or tampons down the toilet while the operation goes on.

The diversion of the raw waste is needed so that workers can replace a snow chute - a large opening that funnels water from melting snow to a facility used to treat the sewage.
Officials at the city of Montreal have said the dump will have little effect on the fish population and will not affect the quality of drinking water for citizens.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34793636
 
^ That whole thing sounds a lot like lack of planning. ^
 
A local look at Shifting Shores:
Godrevy car park could fall into the sea in five years, study claims
By CMtgainey | Posted: November 12, 2015

A car park at a West Cornwall beauty spot could fall away into the sea in just five years, a new study has warned.

The National Trust have published a report, Shifting Shores, where it concedes that defences cannot 'hold the line' against erosion all across the Cornish coast.
The Trust is supporting a move away from defences to working with people and nature to assure that habitats and structures are out of risk.
It warns that in some areas that are vulnerable to severe storms and rising sea levels 'difficult choices' must be made as heavily concreting the coastline is no longer expedient.
The research conveys that the quantity of UK buildings at medium to high risk of coastal change has enlarged in the last ten years, from 116,518 to 129,013.

Speaking about Godrevy on their website, the National Trust has said: "The busy National Trust coastal car park at Godrevy in Cornwall is under threat from coastal erosion.
"According to recent surveys this erosion might make it unsafe for use within five years.
"Godrevy is one of our busiest coastal car parks with over 250,000 cars logged each year.
"The sheer number of cars coming to Godrevy presents us with great challenges in terms of managing the fragile coastal grassland and archaeological remains, which are easily damaged."

General manager, Bill Makin, said: "We want people to have a great time at Godrevy, but recent winter storms have brought home to us the increasing threat to access.
"Knowing that we could lose the current access road, coastal path and beach access, makes it all the more important that we work with others and take on board people's views."

Coastal marine adviser for the Trust, Phil Dyke, compiled the report.
He said: "We need to actively transform from maintaining old sea defences to working with natural processes, where and when it's appropriate, to conserve the beauty and wildlife of our coasts," he added.
"The nightmare scenario for me would be to end up in 100 years with a coast rimmed in concrete.
"It would just be a travesty."

More frequent storms, such as those which severely damaged the Cornish coast in the winter of 2013-14, make the coasts increasingly under threat.
The Trust also focussed on Environment Agency figures which argue more than 700 buildings in the UK could be lost to coastal erosion in the next decade and a half.

They also argue that more than a quarter of a million businesses and homes face high risk of flooding.
The report calls for urgent reaction from the Government to make sure all coastal areas are prepared for these challenges, warning that concreting the coasts is simply not the answer.

If you have any ideas about how to handle areas, such as Godrevy, you are invited to get in touch by emailing: [email protected]

http://www.cornishman.co.uk/Godrevy-access-road-unusable-years/story-28162960-detail/story.html
 
'Unidentified liquid' hits beaches near Penzance

A public warning has been issued after an "unidentified viscous liquid" was discovered on a beach.
Cornwall Council said the liquid may be "petroleum based" and warned the public to keep away from the area near Penzance.
The liquid has washed up in deposits between 2ft and 6ft (60cm and 180cm) along the high water mark from Marazion to Wherry Town.
The Environment Agency is investigating the exact nature of the liquid.

A council spokesman said signs were being put up warning the public to stay away.
Part of Long Rock beach is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, part by the St Aubyn Estate and part by Cornwall Council.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-34875709
 
This must be the quickest resolution of a mystery ever posted on FTMB!
Beach warning signs at Long Rock taken down as substance confirmed as dead seaweed
By cmjohnw | Posted: November 20, 2015

Signs put up last night on the beach at Long Rock by Cornwall Council warning people to keep away from chunks of an unidentified viscous substance are being taken down today.

The matter, found in deposits between 2ft and 6ft in length, was originally thought to be petroleum based but after analysis by staff from the Environment Agency, it was found to be naturally occurring.
A spokesman from Cornwall Council said: "An inspection of the substance washed up along the beach at Long Rock yesterday has confirmed that it is decaying marine algae (seaweed) and not a petroleum based liquid as previously thought.
"This type of material is naturally occurring and is routinely washed up on our beaches. As a result of this information the Council will be removing the warning signs which were erected along the beach last night."


http://www.cornishman.co.uk/Beach-w...en-substance/story-28211977-detail/story.html

:D :p
 
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Lead poisons '100,000 birds annually'
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

About 100,000 wetland birds are killed every year from poisoning by discarded lead ammunition, say scientists.
This is one of the conclusions of a report published on Thursday by the University of Oxford.
The report also suggests that the consumption of game shot with lead ammunition has a greater impact on human health than previously thought.
Scientists involved in the research say the evidence now supports a ban on the use of lead ammunition in the UK.

The report is a collection of research presented by experts who gathered at the Oxford Symposium on Lead ammunition last year. It includes findings from studies carried out by university academics and by conservation groups including the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and the RSPB.

As well as the impacts of lead on the environment, researchers have investigated the effects on human health of consuming game containing traces of lead ammunition.
Lord Krebs, emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Oxford, and former chair of the UK Food Standards Agency, told BBC News that there was "an overwhelming body of evidence" that lead used in hunting was "a risk both to humans and to wildlife".
"On that basis," he told BBC News. "The advice would be that lead shot should be phased out."

Ruth Cromie from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust told BBC News: "A lot of people are ignoring [the regulations]."
"And even where the law is being obeyed, it's possible for water birds to be exposed to legally deposited lead, so the issue is that the law isn't protecting birds from lead poisoning."

But shooting organisations in the UK see a campaign against lead shot as a campaign against hunting.
Christopher Graffius from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation told BBC News: "We have already reduced the amount of lead being released into the environment.
"And when it comes to human health, there are estimated risk management procedures. We have evidence from the Food Standards Agency that these are effective. So a ban is a knee-jerk response; it's not proportionate."

But Lord Krebs said that even the threat to human health from consuming wild game shot legally with lead was a concern.
"People who eat wild game regularly, particularly young children, are at risk of some adverse effects," he told BBC News. "It could affect their mental development."

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34861602
 
J.G.Ballard would have liked this:
Australia rains cause rare filling of massive desert lake
5 January 2016

Heavy rains have started to fill Australia's vast Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre and are bringing the desert to life.
Pictures captured by pilot Trevor Wright show water filling dry salt plains that lie 700km (435 miles) north of Adelaide.
The area around the lake has been inundated with rain over the last week, with falls of over 150mm reported.

Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre fills only a few times in a century. When this happens it is Australia's largest lake.
Subsequent rainfall both around the lake and in its vast catchment will determine how large the lake becomes this year.

Rivers that flow from south-west and central Queensland are expected to bring water to the lake over the coming months.
The lake's spectacular bird life is a major tourist draw and the area even has its own yacht club that holds regattas when the water is deep enough. :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-35203730
 
South African rangers kill two rhino poachers in Kruger National Park
Two killed in dawn exchange of gunfire at Kruger National Park as South Africa battles rhino poaching crisis
AFP
1:28PM GMT 05 Jan 2015

Rangers on patrol at South Africa's famed Kruger National Park killed two suspected rhino poachers on Monday during a dawn exchange of gunfire, a parks official said.
"There was a shoot-out and two of the three suspected poachers were fatally wounded," South African National Parks spokesman William Mabasa told AFP.
The third suspect escaped during the incident which took place around 5am (0300 GMT) in the vast park roughly the size of Wales.

South Africa is battling a rhino poaching crisis, with over 1,000 animals slaughtered for their horns in 2014, around 700 of them in the Kruger National Park.
According to the last statistics released by the government, 1,020 rhino had been killed in the country by November 20 last year – already a record-high even without December's numbers included.
The preceding year saw 1,004 beasts poached across the country.

The killings have prompted the government to adopt a plan to evacuate the animals from Kruger to safety zones, including neighbouring countries.

Demand for rhinoceros horn – which is made of keratin, also found in hair and nails – has skyrocketed in recent years, largely driven by the market in Asia, where the powdered horn is valued for its purported medicinal properties.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...o-rhino-poachers-in-Kruger-National-Park.html
 
Perranporth man fined for not picking up dog mess
15 January 2016

A man who refused to clean up his dog's mess on a beach has been ordered to pay almost £2,000.
Kevin Watch, 68, failed to clear up after his dog at Perranporth on the north coast of Cornwall and refused to pick up the mess when challenged.
He also refused to give his name and address, but the dog warden who witnessed the offence tracked him down.
Truro Magistrates ordered him to pay an £800 fine with £1,000 costs and an £80 victim surcharge. :eek:

Cornwall Council, which brought the prosecution, said the case "sent a clear message" to dog owners.
When the council learned the man's identity, he was issued with an £80 fixed penalty notice which was not paid and the matter went to court.
Watch, of Hendrawna Lane, Bolingey, pleaded not guilty to one count of being in charge of a dog and failing to remove faeces.

Following the case, heard on Wednesday, Allan Hampshire, head of public protection at Cornwall Council, said dog fouling "blighted" lives of residents.
He said: "This fine sends a clear message to the small minority of irresponsible dog owners that if you don't clear up after your dog, the courts will fine you accordingly." :twisted:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-35323472
 
Storms wash up birds and oil along Guernsey's coast
14 January 2016

Stormy weather has washed up dozens of seabirds and lumps of a white waxy substance along Guernsey's coast.
The States said the white lumps, which could be degraded oil or fat, have been reported in Grandes Rocques Bay and could pose a risk to dogs if eaten.

Animal charity GSPCA said birds have washed up covered in oil that has been stirred up from the sea bed.
The organisation said many more birds have probably died after washing up in inaccessible coves.
Oiled seabirds, mostly guillemots, have been found at Petit Port, Cobo, St Peter Port and at L'Ancresse.

Steve Byrne, GSPCA manager, said the oil had come from boats and ships in the English Channel over many years.
He said: "The weather has churned up the sea and brought the oil to the surface.
"Birds are tired in the stormy conditions and they can't care for themselves and either die or end up being rescued."

Elsewhere, Jean Bradford, from the South Devon Seabird Trust, said she has been told about a "handful" of oiled birds that have washed up at sites including Chesil Beach in Dorset and Whitsand Bay in Cornwall.
She said: "Most of them have died before reaching us.
"They were covered in oil, but I think battling against the stormy weather sealed their fate.

"If walkers find an injured bird, I would urge dogs to be kept away, as they often drive them back into the sea and the birds just go under the water because they can't fly."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-35310800
 
South African rangers kill two rhino poachers in Kruger National Park

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...o-rhino-poachers-in-Kruger-National-Park.html

It seems the Poaching Wars are hotting up:
Tanzania elephant poachers kill British helicopter pilot

A British helicopter pilot has been shot dead by elephant poachers in Tanzania, the conservation charity for which he was working has said.

The Friedkin Conservation Fund said Roger Gower had been tracking poachers on Friday in the Maswa Game Reserve when they fired on his helicopter.

One of his colleagues said he had been shot as he flew near the carcass of one of three elephants killed by poachers.

Charity founder Dan Friedkin said the organisation had lost "a dear friend".

The Foreign Office has confirmed the death of a UK national in Tanzania and said it was providing assistance to the family.

Pratik Patel, of the Friedkin Conservation Fund, said Mr Gower had been approaching the last of three elephants killed by poachers when he was shot.

He paid tribute to "a great guy, a great friend, a great pilot" who he said had loved working with Tanzania's wildlife.

Mr Patel said Mr Gower's main role had been flying people between the different camps on the reserve where he worked, but he had also flown daily patrols to support ground staff in their work against poachers.

Tanzanian MP Lazaro Nyalandu, a former minister for natural resources and tourism, said in a tweet that the incident had happened in the Maswa Game Reserve, which borders the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania.

He said Mr Gower had managed to land his helicopter, but died before he could be rescued.

Mr Nyalandu said: "RIP Capt Roger. You loved our country and I knew you on many flights we took together in defence of our wildlife heritage.

"Those poachers who killed Capt Roger are cowards, evil, and sad people. A fine-hearted individual gone too soon, and our hearts are broken."

Mr Friedkin said his charity was "profoundly saddened" by the death of Mr Gower - reported to have been a former accountant who qualified as a pilot in 2004.

He said: "We are committed to honouring Roger and his work. We are also committed to ensuring that those responsible for this attack are found and brought to justice.

"We believe that Roger can best be honoured by redoubling our commitment to protect elephants and our priceless wildlife heritage.

"This tragic event again highlights the appalling risk and cost of protecting Tanzania's wildlife."

The Friedkin Fund says elephant poaching is "especially prevalent" in Maswa, with rangers encountering ivory poachers "on a fairly regular basis".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35450490
 
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Two of Isles of Scilly declared 'rat free'

Two of the Isles of Scilly have been declared "rat free" after a scheme to protect sea birds saw more than 3,000 rodents culled.
The islands, located off the coast of Cornwall, began the scheme two years ago to protect eggs and baby birds from being eaten by brown rats.
Numbers of manx shearwaters and storm petrels had declined by 25% on St Agnes and Gugh in 25 years.

But colonies are recovering thanks to the rat eradication measures.
Poison placed in an agricultural pipe was positioned in 1,000 locations on the islands in order to kill the vermin.
According to international protocols, the islands could not be officially declared rat-free for two years after the last sign of rat was detected - making them officially free of the rodent on 13 February.

Jaclyn Pearson, from the RSPB Isles of Scilly seabird recovery project, said the seabird population was already starting to recover.
"Straight away we saw results," she said.
"The baiting was done in winter 2013, and in September 2014 we had 10 Manx Shearwater chicks. That's the first time in living memory that chicks have survived and it's clearly because of the removal of the rats.
"We didn't think we would have an uptake of storm petrels so quickly as they hadn't nested on the island for a long time, but we recorded five in 2015.
"So already the results are clear and they're beginning to bounce back."
A questionnaire among residents shows they're delighted with the results, the RSPB said.

The project cost £700,000 and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Union.
Wildlife Management International Limited (WMIL) from New Zealand was contracted to carry out the rat removal phase from November to March in "the most humane way".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-35569194
 
This is a very long article about a volunteer group, Black Fish, who gather information on illegal fishing activities to help the relevant authorities take action.

The Black Fish: undercover with the vigilantes fighting organised crime at sea
Illegal fishing controlled by organised crime is a growing menace, offering big rewards for low risk. But the seaborne raiders have a new force to contend with. An army of amateur sleuths are spending their holidays fighting back
Matthew Green
Wednesday 24 February 2016 06.00 GMT

http://www.theguardian.com/environm...th-vigilantes-fighting-organised-crime-at-sea

The mentions of coastguards in the article mostly refer to Italian coastguards, who apparently also cover Fishery Protection work. In the UK this is covered by a Royal Navy squadron, not HM Coastguard.
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/operations/uk-home-waters/fishery-protection

Also posted in the Lone Coastguard ii
 
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Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killing 1m people
Iraqis who built dam say structure is increasingly precarious and describe government response as ‘ridiculous’
Julian Borger World affairs editor
Wednesday 2 March 2016 07.00 GMT

Iraqi engineers involved in building the Mosul dam 30 years ago have warned that the risk of its imminent collapse and the consequent death toll could be even worse than reported.

They pointed out that pressure on the dam’s compromised structure was building up rapidly as winter snows melted and more water flowed into the reservoir, bringing it up to its maximum capacity, while the sluice gates normally used to relieve that pressure were jammed shut.

The Iraqi engineers also said the failure to replace machinery or assemble a full workforce more than a year after Islamic State temporarily held the dam means that the chasms in the porous rock under the dam were getting bigger and more dangerous every day. A contract with an Italian construction firm for carrying out urgent repairs has yet to be signed, but behind-the-scenes negotiations with Baghdad continue.

The engineers warned that potential loss of life from a sudden catastrophic collapse of the Mosul dam could be even greater than the 500,000 officially estimated, as they said many people could die in the resulting mass panic, with a 20-metre-high flood wave hitting the city of Mosul and then rolling on down the Tigris valley through Tikrit and Samarra to Baghdad.

One of the Iraqi engineers, now living in Europe, described as “ridiculous” the Iraqi government’s emergency policy of telling local people to move 6km (3.5 miles) from the river banks.

Nasrat Adamo, the dam’s former chief engineer who spent most of his professional career shoring it up in the face of fundamental flaws in its construction, said that the structure would only survive with round-the-clock work with teams filling in holes in the porous bedrock under the structure, a process known as grouting. But that level of maintenance, dating back to just after the dam’s construction in 1984, evaporated after the Isis occupation.

“We used to have 300 people working 24 hours in three shifts but very few of these workers have come back. There are perhaps 30 people there now,” Adamo said in a telephone interview from Sweden, where he works as a consultant.
“The machines for grouting have been looted. There is no cement supply. They can do nothing. It is going from bad to worse, and it is urgent. All we can do is hold our hearts.”

At the same time as the bedrock is getting weaker and more porous, the water pressure on the dam is building as spring meltwater flows into the reservoir behind it. Giant gates that would normally be used to ease the pressure by allowing water to run through are stuck.
“The machines for grouting have been looted. There is no cement supply. They can do nothing. It is going from bad to worse, and it is urgent. All we can do is hold our hearts.”

At the same time as the bedrock is getting weaker and more porous, the water pressure on the dam is building as spring meltwater flows into the reservoir behind it. Giant gates that would normally be used to ease the pressure by allowing water to run through are stuck.
“One of them is jammed, and when one of them is closed the other one has to be closed. They must work together,” Adamo said. “Otherwise, you get asymmetric flow and that speeds up the erosion.”

etc...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...n-it-could-fail-at-any-time-killing-1m-people
 
Berta Cáceres, the Honduran indigenous and environmental rights campaigner, has been murdered, barely a week after she was threatened for opposing a hydroelectric project.

Her death prompted international outrage at the murderous treatment of campaigners in Honduras, as well as a flood of tributes to a prominent and courageous defender of the natural world.

The co-founder of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (Copinh) was shot dead by gunmen who entered her home in La Esperanza at around 1am on Thursday. Some reports say there were two killers; others suggest 11. They escaped without being identified, after also wounding her brother.

Police told local media the killings occurred during an attempted robbery, but the family said they had no doubt it was an assassination prompted by Cáceres’s high-profile campaigns against dams, illegal loggers and plantation owners.

“I have no doubt that she has been killed because of her struggle and that soldiers and people from the dam are responsible, I am sure of that. I hold the government responsible,” her 84-year-old mother said on radio Globo at 6.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...eres-murder-enivronment-activist-human-rights
 
Plant some trees to save a town from flooding? Not a bad idea
Nick Cohen

Towns such as Keswick deserve proper protection from flooding rather than the shabby half-measures on offer at the moment

Walk through Keswick, Cockermouth and many other provincial towns and you experience a dislocating feeling that they are out on parole. The apparent solidity of their homes and businesses is transient. The next storm howling in from the Atlantic will send the waters pouring through them again.

Floods are no longer freak events but expected inundations. You count yourself lucky in Cumbria if winter passes and you stay dry; as you do in the Thames and Severn valleys, and along the east coast and Scottish Borders. Keswick, which I know best, was flooded in 2005 and again in 2009. In 2012, the Environment Agency built an embankment topped by an “innovative” wall made of glass panels beside the river Greta – a “superb demonstration of design and engineering working together”, its manufacturers boasted. The wall was meant to make flooding a once in 75 year event. It barely lasted three, before floods hit Keswick just before Christmas 2015.

The wreckage is still everywhere: ruined caravans washed downstream and 2-3cms of silt that the flood brought to town. Everyone is chasing the same surveyors and builders. Everyone is waiting for months for dehumidifiers to dry out their homes. Everyone is wondering if they can afford gigantic insurance premiums. Lynne Jones of the Keswick Flooding Action Group told me she would sit at night with a glass of wine and watch the river from her guesthouse window. If it comes over the barrier again, she thinks, she will have to find £10,000 before the insurance company will pay her a penny.

If London suffered like this, you would see action. But the capital sits snug behind the Thames Barrier, one of the most essential and far-sighted public works of the 20th century. Floods are what most metropolitan journalists and senior civil servants see on the news. We do not experience or fear them. ...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/12/keswick-cumbria-floods-forestry-commission
 
Indeed.
Or they should make a point of building the houses on concrete stilts.
 
This article came as a surprise to me. Despite my interest in all things nautical, I'd never heard of this before:
Nature studies: Pulse fishing is the 'marine equivalent of fracking'
The technique may be so efficient that it will cause whole areas to be “fished out”
Michael McCarthy

Conservationists are increasingly concerned about a radical new method of sea fishing being employed off the British coast, using electric shocks, which has been described as “the marine equivalent of fracking”.

Pulse fishing is claimed by its supporters to be the answer to many of the problems caused by traditional fishing with beam trawls in the same way as fracking, the hydraulic fracturing of underground shale rock formations to release the gas they contain, is said by its proponents to be the answer to our energy problems. Yet, just as fracking has triggered controversy about its side effects, the new fishing technique – which uses powerful pulses of electricity fired from towed electrodes into the seabed – has raised serious worries about its impact, especially as it has not been scientifically evaluated for damaging environmental effects, even though it is now going ahead on a large scale.
Pulse fishing’s electric shocks force commercially valuable bottom-dwelling fish and seafood such as sole and shrimps up from the seabed into the water column, and allows them to be easily caught in a trawl net. It has been taken up with enthusiasm by Dutch fishermen who fish in the southern North Sea and the English Channel, and has enabled them to increase greatly their catches of sole – their main target species.

It was brought in because it appears to have significant environmental advantages: it does much less apparent damage to the seabed than the heavy metal chains used in conventional beam trawling, and it is more selective with regard to target species, thus reducing the twin problems of bycatch (dragging up untargeted marine life) and discards (the throwing away of large numbers of unwanted fish, which has been one of the most heavily criticised aspects of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, or CFP). Most of all, because pulse fishing gear is much lighter than traditional trawling equipment, it reduces fuel costs by over half.

The fuel saving was the reason that Dutch fishermen applied to the European Commission to use the technique, even though electro-fishing was outlawed in EU waters in 1998. In 2009 the Commission issued a derogation, or exception to the regulation, which allowed member states to equip 5 per cent of their beam trawl fleets with pulse fishing gear, and in 2010 five Dutch trawlers converted to the new technique; the cost is about €300,000 a boat.

However, since 2011 the Dutch have dramatically increased the number of pulse fishing boats to more than 80, using an article in the revised CFP which allows projects “in support of avoiding unwanted catches in a fishery.” There are now more than 100 boats actively using the technique, including some Dutch-owned boats sailing under British flags – perfectly legally – which means they can fish in English waters.
The growing concern is that pulse fishing has been brought in so quickly that no proper scientific trials have been carried out on its possible side effects on wider marine life and the seabed – although the Dutch have promised this will be carried out as the fishing proceeds. “The problem is the scale of it,” says Jean-Luc Solandt of the Marine Conservation Society. “It’s OK to do a scientific trial with one or two boats in a completely scientific environment, but this is being carried out on an industrial scale. It’s gone way beyond what the original derogation allowed. It’s science being done on the hoof. It stinks.”

There are fears that the electric shocks may cause long-term damage to the sediments of the seabed and to non-target species, and that the technique may be so efficient that it will cause whole areas to be “fished out”.
“The nub of it is that we just don’t know what is happening,” says Jeremy Percy, director of Low Impact Fishers of Europe. “Yet The Dutch have just sprung it on the world. These guys have spent around €300,000 each converting their boats, so it’s not going away. This is the marine equivalent of fracking – it’s meant to be squeaky-clean and wonderful, but it may very well not be. The real problem is that we just don’t know.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says the EU regulations are designed to ensure pulse beams avoid adverse impact on our own waters and that it will consider evidence before supporting an EU decision to widen the use of this new technology.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...e-marine-equivalent-of-fracking-a6930671.html
 
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