The Environment

The UK’s national parks should not be considered “protected areas” unless the way they look after wildlife radically improves, according to a new report.

Internationally, the UK is leading calls to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 (the “30x30” target), but is failing to protect its own wildlife, says a report by the British Ecological Society (BES).

Protected areas such as national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) make up 28% of UK land, but only about 5% is effectively protected. The report recommends that they should not be included in the UK’s total in their current state.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/22/uk-national-parks-deliver-negligible-benefits-for-wildlife-aoe

Northern Ireland will need to lose more than 1 million sheep and cattle to meet its new legally binding climate emissions targets, according to an industry-commissioned analysis seen by the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/22/northern-ireland-faces-loss-of-1-million-sheep-and-cattle-to-meet-climate-targets

And what reducing grazing pressure does to the landscape
https://twitter.com/IrishRainforest/status/1517368273775562752

Environmentalists fear a toxic disaster is occurring on the seabed, and government denials seem less and less plausible

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/06/dead-shellfish-beaches-safety-secrecy-britain

Fucking horrifying :(

The inevitable* evisceration of Natural England.

Those who object to this may feel minded to write to their MP.

[*For this (mal)adminstration].

There is a war on nature. Dom Phillips was killed trying to warn you about it

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/16/dom-phillips-bruno-pereira-death-war-on-nature?CMP=share_btn_tw

https://twitter.com/j_syz/status/1550934025665187842

Fuck McDonalds

Luckily that is on Green Lanes where there is no pollution at all.

Also has this sculpture hidden behind the drive through

Fuck McDonalds

Are you planning on putting meat into a big Mac?

I can't understand why there isn't more action to tackle the amount of litter that gets thrown out of vehicles. Riding around the South Wales valleys recently the sides of the roads are carpeted with McDonald's packaging, cans of Monster, plastics of all sorts etc. So depressing, especially in areas that could be so much nicer, and preventable. Can't think of any other Western European country that would tolerate it.

Would make a good bike tag entry.

Wales was really bad. Of course people in cars are oblivious to it but when you're crawling up some hill it's really gross the amount of shit is along the side of the roads there. Cambrian 1A audax it really stood out.

It seems this is the official line:

I managed to speak with the franchise operator of McD Harringay, and the removal of the trees were not planned, the builders found serious subsidence and root invasion damaging the main drainage in and around the car park. As a result, they had to spend extra contingent budget to rectify it on the fly. Some of the trees were planted right on the periphery and too near the curb's edge and pavement causing them to lift and resulting in the uneven surfaces.

They are prepared to replant the same number of trees on site and if this is not possible, they will plant off site to replace the ones lost because of the unfortunate situation

I'm willing to bet that for whatever reason it won't be possible to replant the same number of trees on site.

Doesn't explain the horrible fake grass though.

It matches their horrible fake "food".

Earth overshoot day, today for the UK

Roger Hallam’s latest missive
https://twitter.com/rogerhallamcs21/status/1553133892860878848?s=21

Bleak.

No kids though, so I'm going out in a blaze of glory. Fuck this joint.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/05/diverse-farming-climate-wildfarmed-groove-armada

Nice concise piece about farming without fossil fuels

Everything'sfine.jpg

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2331542-uk-government-to-hold-back-data-on-state-of-biodiversity-in-england/

Windermere suffering from underinvestment and poor regulation

https://twitter.com/MattStaniek/status/1559087462869344257

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/29/environment-agency-tells-staff-to-ignore-river-pollution-complaints-age-of-extinction

^ grim

I know the news seems to be unremittingly grim on the Environment front (just look back over the last few pages of news stories highlighted and associated commentary), but it shouldn't stop you taking local action. TL;DR - local environment action done properly does help.

The long version. Five years ago some people where I live approached the Parish Council and pointed out that a small area of land they owned was effectively unmanged waste ground of little biodiversity value. They asked if they could take over the management, set up a community orchard and under plant it with native wildflowers. The Parish Council was happy to support the initiative. Eighteen months ago another group of interested local pointed out that what had formally been a small stream adjacent to the orchard land and which had been culveted for best part of a century could be opened up again and made into a albeit very small stream/wetland area. Again the Parish Council were happy to support this. With a minimum of charity donations and a lot of hard work from the community both projects were completed. I've been recording invertebrates in this small area now for about a year and the diversity of species that has returned is fantastic to see. Many of those that were involved in both project probably still don't know what they've managed to accomplish so I think finding ways to show them what they've achieved for local biodiversity is also important.