There really is head in the sand approach to politics by much of the electorate. Sadly our media , once hailed as the best in the world has reduced in many cases to party political one-liners with nor real analysis. Mind you fits with a view that keeps the masses under the thumb etc and feeds them scraps...
Conservative politicians are trying to stop a complete EU ban on bee-harming pesticides, despite the new environment secretary Michael Gove’s statement earlier this week, in which he said “I absolutely don’t want to water down” EU environmental protections. Neonicotinoids are the world’s most widely used insecticides but have been banned on flowering crops in the EU since 2013. However, the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) found in 2016 that use of the pesticides on all crops poses a high risk to bees. As a result, the European commission has proposed a ban on all uses outside greenhouses. In April, a major study found virtually all farms could significantly cut their pesticide use while still producing as much food, and that chemical treatments could be cut without affecting farm profits on more than three-quarters of farms.
Didn't know quite where ot post this.... Shocking and he has some association with WFC... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...actor-night-a7857811.html?cmpid=facebook-post I am pretty disgusted by this wanton act which has been condemned by pretty much everyone organisation etc
Good news...... The changeover will be interesting... How will peoiple in flats and terraced houses etc... charge their cars??
Found in Facebook - made me giggle... Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment. The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days." The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain: Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day. Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then. We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day. Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day. Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a r azor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back then. Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the"green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint. But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.
In my French newspaper today there was an article on how farming has changed over the past half a century. In 1960 there were 2,080,000 farms in the country, that by 1980 had been reduced to 1,240,000 and today it is 434,000. As you drive around the countryside you see vast areas where all the trees and hedges have been removed to make it economical to use large heavy machines. It is the same in many countries, but probably the numbers are more extreme here because of the legacy of Bonaparte giving everyone a parcel of land to support their family. There are many smallholdings springing up though that are selling their produce on the local markets. Generally it is good quality at fair prices. Using the land in a friendly way is our duty to future generations, and it can be done. Our local recycling centre wished to expand which meant that a 100 metres of hedgerow was lost. Permission was granted, but 600 metres of new hedge had to be planted before the old one was removed and building works could start. Although we cannot do much but protest about the large corporate farming enterprises turning the fields into desert, we can at a local level support the small enterprises that are far more friendly to our environment.
The CAP has been a disaster on many levels with most of the subsidies going to the very large farmers. The subsidies also make it difficult for third world countries to compete on the world market. Post Brexit, Gove has indicated the replacement subsidies will need to be earned by providing environmental benefits for the whole community. It will be an excellent opportunity to not automatically subsidise those large companies who dominate the farming industries.
Why oh why has the EU not made it a priority to demand all food packaging is recyclable, even if they had a five year plan to give companies time to adapt.
I have virtually no packaging that cannot be recycled already. This has come about over the past ten years following EU requirements. I don't know if these requirements are being followed in the UK as they are down to each country to decide. If they are not as you suggest then there is something lacking in the UK governments approach.
Due to much of the produce crossing national borders this issue should be Europe wide which does not appear too difficult to arrange if the will was there.
It was Europe wide, but it was left to individual countries to organize it in the best way for their own country. I would have thought that you of all people would have approved of that approach. You will find that much food that crosses borders is actually not packaged until it reaches the country where it is sold. I would get and write a letter to your MP about this if you think the government is being tardy in doing something.
Understandably the UK government is rather tied up at the moment dealing with some dodgy johnny foreigners
My bio-degradable bag for recyclables is filled every couple of weeks. My one for rubbish which cannot be recycled and is only half the size could go for a month and still not be filled.
Considering the amount of the earth's surface that is covered with roads, this is an interesting development. http://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-40805733/could-solar-roads-help-generate-electricity It is expensive at present, but if it was mass produced would become cheaper.
How sad it is that this theme is always pushed to the sidelines by distractions like Brexit. A thorough waste of energies and time which has both the UK. and the EU locked into years of negotiations when there are so many more important things which should be on the agenda. Always I hear about growth, of this or that per cent - all parties appear to consider it as 'good', and something to aspire to - even the Greens fall into this trap by presenting the Green New Deal and alternative energy as the way forward, yet that is also growth. A type of techno fix solution which presumes that we can cure the problems of one set of technology with another, and allows us the illusion that we can go on consuming and producing, as before, just with different technology. A kind of techno fix solution. Where is the criticism of the idea that you can have such a thing as unrestricted growth with finite resources ? How can I take a person seriously who has solar panels on his roof if the same person flies on holiday 4 times per year ? The biggest tragedy is this - or rather the biggest distraction. The whole thing of Brexit is just one more distraction. It allows us to gloss over the hypocrisy of Germany. Here we have a country, and a chancellor, which is taking the high ground on environmental issues - pointing the finger at others, yet Germany is the only country in the west with rising Co2 emissions. We have a chancellor who is playing host to climate conferences and scoring political points for it - yet who has been protecting Germany's car industry for years. A country which believes that it can be 'Export World Champion' yet also a pioneer in environmental protection. And the tragedy is that because of distractions such as Brexit nobody is picking up on this. My fear of Brexit is about 95% environmental. A result will be that Britain will be trying to sign free trade deals Worldwide - the EU. will have to compete by doing the same, and the result is even more growth, even more production, even more needless consumption, more TTIP style arrangements which restrict our democracy even more, and lastly more pollution. Never do we ask the question that we might just have too much trade in the World already. That what is now needed is not more growth but rather a more just distribution. The actual amount of World trade, measured in ship's tonnage, is more in one day than for the entire year of my birth. In other words it has increased nearly 400 times over - are we 400 times richer as a result, have whole countries been lifted out of poverty as a result ? I think not.
