Category Archives: Planet Earth

Macho Men

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The hunt and slaughter of a lion, lured from the safety of his reservation in Zimbabwe earlier this week, cannot fail to have moved all right-thinking, decent folk. The fact that the lion, with his distinctive black mane was a well-known tourist attraction, had a tracking collar and even had a name, Cecil, seems to have made it worse.

The hunters (if we can honour them with such a title) lured the lion from his sanctuary with an animal carcass towed by a truck and once out in the open he was “fair game”. He was shot by an arrow, staggered on wounded for 40 hours and was then put out of his misery before being skinned and his head removed as a trophy.

Aside from the fact that lions, like so many creatures on this beautiful planet of ours, have been hunted almost to extinction by mankind, the sly calculating manner of Cecil’s slaughter is the part of the story that causes the most outrage.

The two local guides who charged the American trophy hunter $50,000 for the pleasure of the kill are now facing justice in the Zimbabwe courts and it is possible that the hunter and executioner will be extradited from the US to join them.

In an ideal world the punishment would always fit the crime and in this case if these three heroes really do fancy themselves as macho men and hunters how about dropping them off in the middle of Isis held Syria (armed of course – let’s give them a fighting chance, which is more than they gave the poor lion) and see how they cope.

That would be a better test of their machismo.

Essential Experiments?

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At the end of last week the Government gave permission for the construction, in Yorkshire, of what was termed “a puppy farm”  where Beagle dogs are to be bred for scientific experiments and  research.

In response to the National Anti-Vivisection Society’s contention (unarguable, you would think) that the decision will condemn the dogs to “a life of suffering”, the Medical Research Council stated that dogs were still “essential” for some medical experiments.

I remember, years ago, that Beagles were used to test the effects of smoking  (as if tests were necessary to demonstrate that smoking is bad for your health!)  but I had no idea that dogs were still used in medical experiments. Evidently “research” was carried out on 3,554 dogs in the UK  in 2013.

Although I find it hard to believe that there is no alternative to using dogs in medical experiments I really have no knowledge of the subject and I suspect most of us are the same. Surely, this is something that needs to be brought up for expert debate and public discussion, if only to learn the meaning of “essential”.

Does it mean essential in the sense that experiments on dogs could lead to the saving of human lives or essential for the safe use of women’s make up and the subsequent enrichment of cosmetics manufacturers?  One might be acceptable but the other not so.

It was only a week ago that our national newspapers were full of headlines featuring public demonstrations against foxhunting. Let’s hope the public  feels equally strongly about dogs.

Mother Nature Knows Best

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Amidst all the gloom and doom of the modern world came a quaint and uplifting story this week about goats or more particularly invasive plant-eating goats.

Evidently some canny farmers in the USA have discovered that goats have a taste for some of the most persistent and damaging invasive plant species on the American continent such as poison ivy, phragmites (a kind of reed) and even kudzu, the ultra-prolific and fast-growing “vine that ate the South”.

In the case of kudzu, the US authorities have been fighting a losing battle for over a hundred years and the chemical treatment and digging up of the land in attempts to remove kudzu have probably caused more harm than good. The discovery that goats enjoy eating it is therefore manna from heaven for both man and goat. No kidding!

Anyway, the point is this. How reassuring and comforting to be reminded once again that in spite of all our wonderful scientific breakthroughs, inventions and discoveries we are perhaps not as clever as we think we are and Mother Nature still knows best!

Saving our Seas

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Greenpeace revealed this week that one foreign-owned fishing vessel (a Dutch super-trawler with huge nets covering vast areas of the ocean) controls 6% of the entire UK fishing quota. Meanwhile approximately 5,000 small family-owned British fishing vessels, (comprising nearly 80% of the British fishing fleet) between them control just 4% of the UK’s fishing quota. It almost defies belief.

Fishing quotas were introduced in the 1980s to safeguard fish stocks throughout Europe and the fact that one large foreign-owned commercial vessel has the right to catch considerably more fish than the entire British small fishing boat fleet is nothing short of scandalous.

How and why have successive British governments allowed this to happen? No wonder so many family fishing businesses have gone bankrupt and no wonder our fish stocks continue to suffer in the face of these huge factory ships vacuuming up the ocean.

There is, however, a glimmer of hope since fishing quotas are due to be discussed and re-fixed next month, presenting our government with the opportunity to do something about it. Greenpeace have set up an online petition to put pressure on the government (https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/fair-fish).

Whilst we may be sceptical about the success of such petitions it is surely a worthy attempt to both protect the UK’s seas and prevent further struggling fishing communities from sinking into oblivion.

A Measured Response?

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The world’s news agencies, taking a breather from the horrors of the Middle East, have now turned their attention to the threat of the deadly Ebola virus, previously confined to West Africa, but now, so the experts say, a very real danger to all of us, wherever we may live.

It seems to be a particularly horrible and nasty virus with an equally horrible and nasty means of death to match. There is much concern in the USA, from where I am writing these notes, and that concern at times, judging by the extensive and endless media coverage, appears to be bordering on hysteria.

Sometimes I wonder how bad these things really are. Remember the herpes scare in the 1970s, the aids scare of the 1980s and the near paranoia a few years back over the predictions of a repeat of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic which killed millions world-wide?

I’m sure the experts know what they are talking about and their concerns are no doubt valid but if the virus spreads at the same rate as the panic I reckon my planned return to the UK, in a few days’ time, is looking increasingly doubtful!

Continued Destruction

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Earlier this month the Living Planet Report of the Zoological Society of London revealed that  in the last 40 years global animal populations have plummeted by 52 %. Put another way, during the course of half a human lifetime more than half of the world’s animal population has disappeared. Just pause and read that last sentence again.

Of course,  statistics are open to analysis since they can easily be distorted to suit a particular argument. Already, some experts are questioning the figures and are wondering how they can be so precise. What nobody has done however is dispute that the world’s animals, birds and plants are steadily disappearing at an alarming rate. Human efforts at slowing down, let alone halting, the trend are having little impact and this should be of great concern to every one of us.

This blog has highlighted the subject on a number of occasions but, no matter how many times it is repeated, it can never be emphasised enough. This planet is our home and home too to millions of other species, animal or otherwise. As the most powerful species on Earth human beings have a duty and a responsibility to ensure their safety and survival. The fact that we are failing in that duty and are in fact continuing to destroy everything around us is shameful.

As individuals, what can we do? In reality not a great deal; we can write to our politicians and to the CEOs of the large corporations responsible for over fishing and deforestation and demand action but how effective would that be? Taking collective action is, however, a different ball game and giving our support to pressure groups and organisations such as Greenpeace or the World Wildlife Fund is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. One thing is for sure, we can’t just sit back and do nothing.

Food Waste

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A recent report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation revealed that worldwide approximately 33% of all food is wasted at a cost of £500 billion.

Those are staggering figures when taking into account the fact that nearly one billion humans are classified as starving. Put another way that’s approximately three time the population of the USA or eighteen times that of the UK.

Food wastage occurs in many forms from supermarkets rejecting malformed (but perfectly edible) fruit and vegetables to spoilt Westerners overfilling their plates and gorging themselves at all-you-can-eat buffets before discarding half the contents of their plates into the rubbish bin.

Those who govern us don’t appear to have any bright ideas on how to solve the problem but in the case of supermarket waste the rules regarding size and shape of vegetables need to be urgently reviewed.

As for the rest of us a little more restraint might be a good idea.

A Step in the Right Direction

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The European Commission has submitted proposals to ban drift nets on vessels fishing in European Union waters. The aim is to protect the lives of dolphins, turtles and other marine creatures killed as a by product of this hugely indiscriminate method of fishing.

These drift nets, stretching for miles and known by conservationists as “walls of death” are responsible for the agonising deaths of thousands of animals which are of no commercial value to man but are of immeasurable importance to the ecosystems of our oceans.

This blog has been a consistent critic of the EU and much of what  it stands for but credit must be given where credit is due. These proposals are certainly a step in the right direction and should be applauded as such.

However, those who rule us must never be allowed to forget that further steps are still required (not least the whole scale reform of the fishing quota system) if we are to safeguard the future of our oceans and the animals within them.

Singing for Love

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We’re now well into  February and although winter is still with us our birds are definitely  getting ready for spring which is surely just around the corner. The robin is among the first to pair up for the breeding season and the sound of the little male sat on his frost covered branch is one of the earliest precursors of springtime.

He sits there proud as can be, bright red breast puffed out, singing his heart out, trying his best to entice a mate to flutter along and join him. Judging by the number of fledglings landing on our bird tables in the summer it seems to be a pretty successful ruse. A friend of mine tried it once but sadly without any success. His singing was ok but it all ended in tears when he fell out of the tree!

I like the robin, the national bird of England and an appropriate bird for our country; small, proud, feisty and defiant, punching well above his weight – like we used to do, once upon a time!

The Floods

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England has just suffered the wettest January in 248 years and February is not shaping up to be any better. Parts of the South West of the country have been under water since the start of the year, the West coasts of England and Wales have been repeatedly battered by continuous storms and the River Thames is about to break its own record for flood warnings. Farmers have lost their livestock, businesses have collapsed, thousands of homeowners  have lost their worldly possessions and the Met Office says that there is still no end in sight of this freak weather.

This is a humanitarian crisis of high proportions and what do our politicians do? They point their fingers at one another and look for blame, trying to score points while families try desperately to hold their lives together. Government departments accuse each other of incompetence whilst telling the media that it’s not their fault. And politicians wonder why we dislike them so much?

Forget the posturing, you idiots, and do something about it. Ensure that all of these poor people are re-housed and their possessions replaced and then take whatever steps are humanly possible to ensure that British citizens, their homes, property and livelihoods are protected against future calamity.

Oh, and if the Government is wondering where the money is going to come from, do as one sensible Member of Parliament suggested over the weekend; for this year at least, suspend payment of the billions of pounds we give in Foreign Aid – £11.5 billion in 2013. We have enough problems of our own.