Off Topic The Environment

yorkshirehornet said:
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Selfishness, greed and apathy are the top environmental problems... .discuss

Incidentally he does have some pedigree:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gustave_Speth
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Good post Yorkie. You could add to this the difficulty which many people have in contemplating the 'post growth' society ie. the idea that we have enough already but what is now needed is a better redistribution of wealth. If the whole World consumed at the rate of the British, Germans, Americans etc. we would need the resources of 4 and a half planets - it is us who are not living in a sustainable way - If this scenario were taken onto the level of economics then the champions of 'austerity' (mentioning no names) would be saying 'live within your means', are we doing this ? The World does not belong exclusively to us though we act as if it did. I forget who it was that said this but it is so true that 'when the last bees have become extinct we will shortly follow behind them` The answer to this cannot only be a technical one ie. electric cars, windmills etc. This is a techno fix solution based on the idea that we can carry on producing and consuming at our present levels and rely on technology to supply the answer.
 
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Albert Einstein warned about “extinction of human society”
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“If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.” Albert Einstein.

He was speaking about the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet “all part of a huge interconnected ecosystem, each element playing a role dependent on many other elements, working in concert as a symphony. Should any part of the global body suffer, the whole body suffers.

Many people would be surprised to know that ninety percent of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down eighty percent in the sites researched, and that bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain.


Now he was not stupid......
 
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The French government has once again put back the decision on Hinkley Point. EDF cannot go ahead without government money, and to be fair they don't have any. The French public that have seen the cost of electricity rise beyond reason are not happy and wish that EDF would get it's house in order before taking a real risk of bankrupting themselves.
 
Today I received from SIMMER a very glossy leaflet showing how much it costs to dispose of my rubbish. Because in my small community we try hard to recycle as much as possible, the recycle bin overflows and the landfill bin is half empty. What is worrying however is that the recycled items are still costing us a lot more to dispose of than the stuff that just goes into a hole in the ground. The only thing that is cost effective is the re-cycling of bottles, of which there are plenty. There is still a long way to go before our efforts are rewarded by lower bills.
 
Cologne - I wonder what your views are on the current Juno mission. It is a tremendous achievement and helps advance our scientific and technical knowledge - but at enormous environmental cost. In favour or not?
 
Leonardo said:
Cologne - I wonder what your views are on the current Juno mission. It is a tremendous achievement and helps advance our scientific and technical knowledge - but at enormous environmental cost. In favour or not?
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If it moves faster than a horse and doesn't eat hay I'm not interested. I do not believe that the way forward in terms of reduction of global warming can be helped by technofix solutions - they create the idea that we can carry on consuming and producing at the present rate just with other technology. Also Leo, you know my underlying philosophy by now - the planet does not belong to us exclusively - and it does not matter what scientific discoveries come from a thing like this I cannot see such a thing as an achievement. The Swiss making the longest tunnel in the World impresses me a lot more because it means less traffic on the roads.
 
OK - not a surprise there - but thought that the scale of the intellectual achivement might impress
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072rnjc

Just watched the second of two programmes about the decline of seabirds in our region. Some areas have seen a catastrophic decline in birds such as puffins as their natural food the sand eel is being taken by mackerel. With the rise in sea temperatures due to shifts in the great ocean currents mackerel have moved further north and fed on sand eels. The population of mackerels has increased beyond imagination around Iceland and the isles around Scotland. This has led to a wiping out of stocks for nesting seabirds.

This has led to massive increase in the populations of birds which feed on larger fish such as the gannet.

If this pattern continues we will lose many of our niche seabirds, kittiwake, razorbill, petrel etc... and be left with the bigger common birds such as gulls, fulmar and the like.


The big question is .. is the rise in sea temperature cyclical and will we return to cooler seas in 10 years or so.... or has the impact of man led to a rising that will not return in a natural cycle?

Very interesting and informative programme. Well worth a viewing.
 
yorkshirehornet said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072rnjc

Just watched the second of two programmes about the decline of seabirds in our region. Some areas have seen a catastrophic decline in birds such as puffins as their natural food the sand eel is being taken by mackerel. With the rise in sea temperatures due to shifts in the great ocean currents mackerel have moved further north and fed on sand eels. The population of mackerels has increased beyond imagination around Iceland and the isles around Scotland. This has led to a wiping out of stocks for nesting seabirds.

This has led to massive increase in the populations of birds which feed on larger fish such as the gannet.

If this pattern continues we will lose many of our niche seabirds, kittiwake, razorbill, petrel etc... and be left with the bigger common birds such as gulls, fulmar and the like.


The big question is .. is the rise in sea temperature cyclical and will we return to cooler seas in 10 years or so.... or has the impact of man led to a rising that will not return in a natural cycle?

Very interesting and informative programme. Well worth a viewing.
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I watched that yorkie, and it struck me that the way the mackerel were being hoovered up, the stocks of them will be reduced very quickly.
 
There was a very good piece on Countryfile last night about how essential wild flower meadows are to help maintain a balance in the eco system. Thanks to EU funding new ones have and are being created to fill the holes left by fields being ploughed up. In this area I have seen hedgerows disappearing and age old pastures being used for cereal production. My farming friends now know that it is vital to keep such fields, but with less subsidy from wherever, it is not so easy when you are a traditional small producer.
 
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oldfrenchhorn said:
There was a very good piece on Countryfile last night about how essential wild flower meadows are to help maintain a balance in the eco system. Thanks to EU funding new ones have and are being created to fill the holes left by fields being ploughed up. In this area I have seen hedgerows disappearing and age old pastures being used for cereal production. My farming friends now know that it is vital to keep such fields, but with less subsidy from wherever, it is not so easy when you are a traditional small producer.
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yes so important..... and some of these hedgerows are a thousand years old.

Luckily in our hilly area of Limousin with a decline in farming many fields are being left and just get an annual cut. Overall however very worrying
 
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My daughter arrived in Dover last night at the start of a couple of weeks in the UK. The motorway was at a standstill for mile after mile with reports of people being stuck on it for 10 hours. It was all due to the French passport control in the port, all passports being scanned, taking 4 hours once you arrived in the port. The effect of all those cars belching forth fumes cannot be good. She left the motorway and threaded her way through villages, but said it was very slow on narrow roads, with lorries having to crawl around bends and houses. If strict passport controls were reintroduced after the UK left the EU, then the people of Kent have had a foretaste of what to expect.
 
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