Category Archives: Planet Earth

Adopt an Animal

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On Tuesday the BBC published an article on its website about the disappearance of the West African Lion. Evidently there are now estimated to be as few as 250 West African lions of breeding age and they compete for a mere 1.1% of the areas they used to call home, the rest of their former territory having been taken, inevitably,  by man. Instead of just repeating the comments I made in my last blog I wish, instead, to make a suggestion.

As a member of the World Wildlife Fund I am familiar with their adoption programme where people pay to adopt an animal of their choice whether it be a panda, a lion, a leopard or whatever for as little as £3 per month (check it out on https://support.wwf.org.uk). I have always thought that this is both a clever way of raising revenue and also an excellent means of making people aware of the plight of the world’s wildlife. Parents often make a gift of animal adoption to their small children so that they too can learn about what is happening in the natural world.

At the moment, following the excesses of Christmas, the shops are bombarding us with ideas for the next commercial rip-off namely Valentine’s Day. Typical advertisements urge us to treat the woman/man in our lives (in some cases maybe both, who knows?) to something special this Valentine’s Day. We are urged to do the predictable stuff, like treat her to a romantic five course meal in an exclusive restaurant, whisk her off for a night of passion in a luxury spa, buy her three dozen beautiful red roses plus all the other yawn-inducing, cliché-ridden unimaginative tosh.

My suggestion is this, instead of making some fat capitalist fatter still why not give your true love a year’s adoption of her favourite animal, courtesy of the WWF? You could adopt something personal to her such as a tiger cub, a cuddly panda, or a cute little polar bear.  Indeed any creature that takes your fancy and reminds you of your her although, be careful , adopting an elephant or hippo on her behalf might not be such a smart idea!

Playing God

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A recent report into the numbers of the world’s large predators, published in the Science journal, emphasises yet again what a dangerous game mankind is playing with nature and the world’s eco systems. Staggeringly, the report reveals that over three quarters of the world’s large carnivores, such as lions, tigers, wolves and bears, are in decline.

In Yellowstone Park, USA studies have shown that a reduction, through hunting and culling, in the numbers of the top predators, the wolf and the cougar, has resulted in an increase in the number of elk. This has led to a widespread destruction and loss of vegetation leading in turn to a reduction in the numbers of birds and small mammals living there.

In large parts of Africa the eradication of lions and leopards, again through man’s hunting and culling, has led to a huge increase in the number of olive baboons, resulting in large scale damage to crops and livestock, putting small farmers out of business and adding to food shortages.

We have to stop playing God, listen to these experts and learn from what they are telling us. It’s no use relying solely on governments and big business since they have other priorities, many of which are diametrically opposed to conservation.

It all comes down therefore to charitable institutions (and by implication, us) to actually try to do something about it. We have to do more than wring our hands in frustration or shake our heads in disbelief at these tales of destruction. If we really do care about our planet and care about the state it will be in when we hand it down to succeeding generations we have to put our hands in our pockets.

There are plenty of worthy charities out there, Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund to name but two, and I’m sure we can all find at least one that fits our own particular bill.

Lucky People

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Sometimes I don’t think we realise how lucky we are living in the west and in particular the UK. We have free health care, the protection afforded by a democratic system of government, justice provided by an ancient and time proven legal system and free education for our children.

If we fall on hard times the state will pay us welfare benefits and provide us with housing, yet still some complain that they have a hard time of it.

A reality check is clearly required for some and the easiest method is the simple act of turning on the news to learn about yet another country racked by civil war and strife, its towns and villages laid to waste, their occupants slaughtered and orphaned children starving to death whilst the survivors can anticipate nothing better than a life of constant struggle and suffering.

That should do it. Try it tonight whist enjoying your third meal of the day.

It’s in Their Nature

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Sir David Attenborough recently warned cat owners that, along with the frozen ground of winter, their pets represent the biggest danger to garden birds struggling to find food and survive the cold.  He went on to say that the solution, insofar as cats are concerned, is for their owners to fit them with bell collars so that birds will literally be able to fly for their lives as danger approaches.

In my experience, many cat owners need some convincing and indeed take the attitude that, as their fat spoiled moggies slaughter and rip apart yet another half-starved robin or blue tit, they can’t do anything about it. They shrug their shoulders and offer the explanation that “It’s only nature” and that their cats are only doing what comes naturally to them.

I’m sure they are right, it certainly is in a cat’s nature to stalk, capture, torture, torment and wipe out every creature smaller than they are. However, it can clearly be prevented by human intervention and the fitting of bell collars seems to me to be an eminently sensible idea.

If all else fails perhaps those of us concerned by the plight of our birds could purchase and install in our gardens a larger, more threatening bird to even things up a bit. Something like, oh I don’t know, how about a condor or a golden eagle? A bird whose primal urge is to hunt, kill and devour small mammals – mammals the size of your average cat.

As the distraught owners watch their beloved little moggies being carried away no doubt they will be comforted by the reply “Never mind, it’s only nature”!

Man-Made Climate Change

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Evidently, scientists are now 95% certain that human beings are directly responsible for causing climate change, the melting of polar ice caps and the continuing rise in sea levels. This is the main conclusion of a recent investigation by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Now I’m no scientist but it seems pretty obvious to me that over two hundred years of smoke-belching industrialisation, a hundred years of petrol-burning motor engines, seventy years of nuclear bomb testing, the continued eradication of millions of acres of jungle, the denuding of rain forests and re-routing of rivers will have caused immeasurable if not fatal damage to the planet.

And scientists are only 95% certain? Perhaps the other 5% still believe that the Earth is flat!

Protest (July 12th)

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Yesterday six female members of Greenpeace scaled the London Shard, Europe’s tallest skyscraper, to draw attention to Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, a hitherto virtually untouched wilderness and one of the world’s last.

 Of course, many will say how irresponsible these young women were to risk their lives in such a foolhardy manner. Others will protest that Greenpeace are right to draw attention to the way that huge corporations, built for nothing but profit, are destroying the environment and are exploiting the world’s resources without any thought for its welfare.
Greenpeace continue to highlight matters of grave concern to the planet that would perhaps otherwise escape our notice. For our own sake and for the sake of future generations, we should all be glad that they do.

More Destruction

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For most of this week Singapore has been suffering from the worst levels of smoke pollution in its short history. The problem was caused by the illegal lighting of forest fires by farmers on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. News footage has been quite shocking with a vast blanket of smog blotting out the sun. It brings back memories of the infamous London smogs of yesteryear when thousands of people suffered ill-health and even death due to the appalling levels of pollution. You would think that  mankind would have learned the lesson by now wouldn’t you? No? Neither would I.

Clearly nothing, not even the destruction of the planet, will stand in the way of man’s greed and avarice. Large forests all over the Far East, and not just Indonesia, are being cleared and destroyed to make way for the growing of palm plants. This is big business and world demand for palm oil is as strong and insatiable as ever.
It comes at a price though, as we are now seeing in Singapore, where pollution records were shattered this week, with the Pollution Standards Index reaching a massive 371. I don’t know too much about that index save to say that, like the Richter Scale with earthquakes, it acts as meter by which to measure the severity of the problem. And there is a huge problem, not just for the Far East but for all of us.
This is just another example, in a long list of misdeeds, of how we are destroying our environment, wiping out trees and plants, diverting rivers to form dams and obliterating wildlife as if there is no tomorrow. And the tragedy is, for our children at least, there may well be no tomorrow.

We have to keep the pressure on our government and other governments worldwide and it seems to me that the only realistic and effective way is to join pressure groups, groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. They have websites so all we have to do is find them on Google and pledge our support. We should all do it before it is too late.

Caring for the Planet

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What is it with people and litter? What makes a person drop newspapers, food wrappers, beverage cans or plastic bags on the ground or throw them out of car windows as they drive along the street? What gives some people the idea, if indeed they are capable of forming ideas, that they can just discard their rubbish wherever they want to?

It’s bad enough seeing garbage blowing around the countryside and perhaps even worse in  towns and cities, where rubbish bins, placed on most street corners for that very purpose, are simply ignored – try working that one out. It’s bad enough too to see the mess that responsible, decent  people have to contend with but what is far worse, for me, is witnessing the effect on our planet and the other animals with whom we share it.
Two things prompted this blog.  Firstly, whilst sharing an ocean side picnic with my girlfriend on a lovely sunny day over the weekend, I heard a clattering sound and looked up to see a large lizard shaking a Fanta orange can around. At first I thought that he was having a bit of fun but then quickly realised that he’d got his head stuck and was trying to shake it free. He was suffocating. I tried to gently remove his head  but it wouldn’t budge and his efforts became more frantic.
I rushed back to my car to grab my diver’s knife to at least puncture the can and give him some air hoping that I wouldn’t be too late to save him. Fortunately, whilst I was gone he managed to extricate himself and survived. Not so the little lizard in another can dumped nearby. He had fallen or climbed into the can and had drowned in the remnants of somebody’s drink.
The second thing was watching two beautiful turtles swimming in the ocean yesterday, having read an earlier account of how they, like so many creatures in our oceans, suffer from our disgraceful habits. The story I read told of how a turtle had been washed up on a local beach, close to death and of how, when the local vet carried out an emergency operation, he found a plastic bag in the poor creature’s stomach. The story had a happy ending since this turtle survived, unlike the thousands of turtles, dolphins, small whales and other creatures who die agonising deaths each year as they mistake our discarded plastic bags for jelly fish and other food.
There are so many more examples of our selfish and wanton behaviour both on land and sea and it all makes sad reading. When are we going to learn how lucky we are to inhabit this truly beautiful and wonderful planet? A planet that we share with millions of other creatures, all with an equal right of occupancy. We are only here for a short period of time and surely it isn’t too much to ask that, in that time, we look after our world? Not just  for the sake of the oceans, rain forests, deserts and jungles and all the creatures that inhabit them but for the sake also of succeeding generations of our fellow man.

Dog Food

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In spite of a worldwide moratorium on the hunting of great whale species Iceland is evidently set to resume commercial whaling next month. The target catch is the fin whale, the second largest mammal on the planet after the blue whale. The fin whale is listed as an endangered species and is stated by many experts as being close to extinction, though that is clearly of no consequence to either the Icelandic government or their main customer, Japan.

In the absence of any alternative human food source perhaps the hunting of whales would be understandable. Perhaps, though that is certainly not the case here. I may be mistaken, but I cannot recall any headlines relating to starving multitudes in either Iceland or Japan, can you?
The most sickening part of this story is the fact that the leading buyer of the whale meat is a company called Michinoku Farms, a Japanese company which specialises in the production of dog snacks. Apparently, affluent Japanese like to demonstrate their wealth by buying unusual and exotic foodstuffs for their pets and, in Japan, whale meat fits the bill perfectly.
We may be the most intelligent species on the planet but our intelligence is more than matched by our vanity and vacuity.

Free Pass For Fish

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Don’t you get tired of all this bad news? Anarchists and football hooligans on England’s streets, terrorist bombs in the USA  and the constant worry of Armageddon emanating from North Korea. Surely there must be something good  to report?  Well actually, there is and it concerns fish. Yes, really.

I’m lucky enough to live in a beautiful part of England, not far from the ancient River Goyt  which ambles peacefully through the gently rolling hills of the Peak District on its journey towards the mighty River Mersey. Some time ago I noticed some construction work taking place on the banks of the Goyt and assumed that a new bridge was being built. But no, it transpires that the Environment Agency are building what is known as a fish pass adjacent to a 7 foot weir as part of a nationwide programme to allow fish to move freely up and down our rivers and streams.
How wonderful, I thought! How refreshing that the Government has decided to use taxpayers’ money wisely for a change. Something actually beneficial to the country as a whole instead of ill-conceived urban development schemes, centres for 13th century Islamic art, welfare schemes for disabled Romanian lesbians with learning difficulties and other examples of politically correct nonsense that seem to have become the norm!
For too long now our countryside has been neglected by the urban-obsessed mandarins of power so this move is very welcome. I’m looking forward to watching the fish funnel into their pass on their way to exploring the scenery upstream.  The trouble is, nature being what it is, I imagine the local heron is looking forward to it too, stood statue-like in readiness as an easy meal comes cheerfully swimming around the corner!