Category Archives: Planet Earth

Waste

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It was announced yesterday that, worldwide, we end up throwing away one half of the food we buy with, perhaps  unsurprisingly,  the USA and Europe proving to be the worst offenders.

According to many scientists, the Earth’s resources are stretched to breaking point and we are rapidly approaching the stage where there will be insufficient food to sustain the human race.
One of the biggest problems is clearly the rampant consumerism of the decadent West where supermarket aisles are jam-packed full of food at bargain prices (buy one get one free, for example) which prove irresistible to the average shopper. By itself there’s not a lot wrong with this but evidently, once we’ve hauled our purchases home, we realise that we didn’t actually need them after all and we end up putting half in the rubbish bin.
That is scandalous  and it makes our obesity crisis (see last Friday’s blog) even more shameful; and all this whilst a sizeable part of the world’s population starves to death. It’s morally wrong, of course it is, but will we do anything about it. Probably not, and that’s the sad part.

Healthy Eating

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There was a report on the BBC News yesterday that Italians are reverting to traditional recipes and homemade food in order to counter the effects of the recession. It makes sense because, if times are hard and you are strapped for cash how can you afford to spend money on dining out or creating exotic dishes at home? The town of Gioninazzo is evidently a step ahead of the rest of the country and holds an annual festival of food, set up 17 years ago by teenagers anxious to preserve traditional recipes which were in danger of being eclipsed by fast food and pre-prepared supermarket meals. The emphasis is on simpler eating and a greater use of local produce. What a great idea!

It seems to me that in this country too we have become so overly dependent upon fast food, takeaways and supermarket meals that many people have simply forgotten how to cook, even if they knew in the first place. Apart from the fact that regular consumption of fast food is clearly bad for you, full as it is of fat and salt, it is also expensive. Good healthy food is not expensive and all that is required is some imagination and failing that some education.

All state schools should feature cookery, or Domestic Science as it used to be called, in the school curriculum so that children of both sexes have the opportunity to at least learn the fundamentals of cookery. Evening classes for adults provided by the local authority would be a good idea too. It’s quite appalling that so many people are unable to even make an omelette let alone bake a loaf of bread. These basics were second nature to our grandparents and we need to bring them back (the cookery skills that is, not the grandparents!)

We need to open our eyes and as I said earlier to use our imagination. For example, last month I noticed some wild raspberries growing not far from my house. I picked the equivalent of about a dozen supermarket punnets and not only did I enjoy some delicious fruit but I also saved about £20! The amazing thing is that nobody else could be bothered to pick them whereas thirty years ago you’d be competing with about half a dozen rivals!

It is now the blackberry season but just count how few people actually pick them and how many blackberries simply die on the bushes. The same is true of apples. How many people harvest the apples in their gardens and how many people will pick the mushrooms that begin to fill our fields in September? How lazy and foolish we have become and how blind we are to the world around us.

Preservation

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Few would disagree that the world’s human population is spiralling out of control leading not only to irreversible damage to the planet but to the deaths of thousands of people every day through starvation and disease. Many leading scientists and environmentalists are warning governments that they need to act now before it is too late.

Last week one of the world’s most respected naturalists, Sir David Attenborough, when discussing the problems facing the planet and in particular the population explosion, said “People have pushed aside the question of population and sustainability and not considered it  because it is too awkward, embarrassing and difficult”.  When Attenborough’s career began in 1950 the world population was 2.5 billion and, sixty years on, it is now 7 billion. That increase has placed an incredible burden on the planet’s natural resources and, as Attenborough said,  “The fact is, if we don’t do something nature will. Quite simply, we will run out of food”. He emphasised that birth control is vital to not only help save the world but to prevent the horrific infant mortality rates in the third world.

It was therefore encouraging when it was announced last week that Melinda Gates, the billionaire philanthropist and wife of Bill Gates the Microsoft tycoon, would give £375 million to a campaign to provide contraception to women in the developing world. No doubt this will be unpopular with certain religious and liberal organisations but can religious or liberal beliefs ever be placed above the saving of human life?

It is estimated that 9,000 mothers and children die each day in the third world as a result of unwanted pregnancies and that reason alone has to justify the provision of contraception. Further, if contraception can lead to a reduction of the world’s population and the preservation of the planet then the argument is unassailable.

Destruction of the Oceans

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On May 21st I posted a blog about the wanton destruction of our planet and, of course, anybody with even the slightest interest in ecology is fully aware of what we are doing to the world around us. Barely a day goes by without some reference in the national press to the melting of polar icecaps, the devastation of rain forests or the wiping out of yet another wildlife species. Surely our politicians must also be aware of all of this and surely the Government must be trying to do something about it? I wonder though; is world conservation an important enough vote winner and do we, as a nation, care enough to do something about it? The answers, very sadly, are probably not.

Two recent news stories concerning the protection of the seas serve to emphasize once more that urgent action is vital if we are to prevent further destruction. The first story, published in yesterday’s Sunday Times, concerns the near annihilation of the North Pacific Right Whale whose numbers have dropped from approximately 50,000 before industrialised hunting began to somewhere in the region of 400 worldwide. The story follows the decision of South Korea, announced last week, to embark on a “scientific” whaling programme in the Pacific meaning, quite simply, the killing of whales for commercial gain. Will any of the so-called civilised nations (us, the rest of Europe and the USA for example) do anything about it? What do you think?

The second story, is somewhat closer to home and this, published in the Greenpeace Summer 2012 pamphlet, reveals the full extent of the denuding of fishing stocks in UK waters. It highlights the continued failures of the EU Common Fisheries Policy and specifically the scandalous quota system which has simultaneously brought several fish species to the brink of extinction and caused financial ruin to many of the UK’s fishermen, particularly those involved in “small-scale” fishing. Small-scale fishing boats, incidentally, are those of 10 metres or less in length.

Evidently, small-scale fishing boats comprise 77% of the UK’s fishing fleet yet they are only allowed to catch 4% of the UK’s fishing quota so it isn’t too difficult to see why so many British fishing communities are struggling to survive. The Common Fisheries Policy is due for reform this year and that is why Greenpeace are highlighting the plight of our seas and the fishermen who try to make a living from them. They are urging supporters to join their campaign, “Be a Fisherman’s Friend”, to try to protect the future of both the sea and the fishing industry.

The Government seem to be doing nothing so shouldn’t we show our support by joining the Greenpeace campaign (www.greenpeace.org.uk/faircatch) and also by lobbying our MPs, our MEPs and the UK fisheries minister (Richard Benyon) so that they are left in doubt that we do, actually, care greatly about what is happening to our seas.

Killing Our World

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We’ve been told so many times about the terrible damage we’ve caused, and are causing, to this wonderful world of ours, that we’ve almost become immune to it, reports of the pollution of the atmosphere, the destruction of the rain forests, the wiping out of whole species of animals and the denuding of the oceans. We mustn’t though because the problems are getting worse and as many scientists repeatedly tell us, the Earth is slowly dying. That is not scaremongering, it is not hyperbole but the simple truth.

A new book, “Ocean of Life” by Callum Roberts, confirms the dreadful damage wreaked upon our oceans and reveals that in the last 30 years mankind has caused more damage to the oceans and seas than in all  preceding time. It draws our attention to some terrible statistics such as the fact that we have already lost 75% of the oceans’ larger creatures like whales, sharks, dolphins and turtles. It reveals the irreversible damage caused by pollution to our coral reefs and paints a bleak picture of a time when there will be no living reefs left.
We know that we have virtually wiped out once plentiful fish such as cod and tuna but still we fish like insatiable monsters who can only rest when there is nothing left to destroy. Why is it that we can be so clever and so imaginative, inventing  cures for previously untreatable illnesses, design aeroplanes that can fly half way around the world without refuelling and construct buildings that reach up into the clouds, but when it comes to something as simple as preserving the world around us we behave like deranged Neanderthals?
Maybe it’s too late to do something about it, maybe we are doomed but I don’t think so. It is up to us to change our way of life and our habits, change what we eat and change our fuel to name but a few vital measures. It is up to us to lobby our politicians and tell the captains of industry how concerned we are about our impact upon our planet.
We are capable of change, of that there is no doubt, but what is required is the desire and the will to change. We can give our help to organisations like the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org.uk) to Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org.uk) and to other organisations like them. If we do nothing the legacy we leave to our children and our children’s children will be a permanent stain upon our generation and upon those before us. We will be remembered as the generation who took and took without giving back, the generation so obsessed with material wealth and comfort that we carried on taking, ignoring the evidence before us until one day our beautiful Earth simply collapsed and died before our very eyes.

More Cruelty to Animals

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Many people in this country, both vegetarians and meat eaters, are concerned by the inhumane slaughter of animals to produce halal and kosher food. Over the weekend a leading vet was quoted as saying that the increase in the number of animals killed in ritual slaughter was ”unacceptable”. So what is the problem?
In the UK we pride ourselves on our largely civilised views and way of life. Though there are some imperfections, we have a rule of law that substantially protects our freedoms, guarantees our historic rights and basically enables us to live with its full protection. We have a whole raft of laws, rules and regulations that cover not just the rights and welfare of human beings but also those of animals.
Even though most of us eat meat we are concerned that those animals reared for our plates do not suffer unnecessarily. By law, animals destined for slaughter must first be stunned so that they are technically dead before being butchered.  The one exception is the ritual slaughter favoured by Jews and Muslims for kosher and halal food respectively meaning that animals are killed simply by having their throats cut. The result is that they bleed to death in great pain and distress; and all of this for religion. Unfortunately, that isn’t the full extent of the cruelty (and no other word will do) since investigations have shown that many non-halal or kosher abattoirs up and down the land are breaking the law by not stunning animals, simply to save time and increase productivity.
None of this is acceptable and the Food Standards Agency, which has evidently set up a board meeting later this month to discuss the question of non-humane killing, needs to act quickly. I cannot see how any religious belief can justify cruelty to animals and I certainly cannot see how monetary profit can justify it either. We need to revaluate our attitudes to animal welfare and whilst we’re considering humane killing we need to look too at other issues such as how animals are reared before slaughter, and particularly the production of veal and the force-feeding of ducks to make  pate foie gras. We have to eat, but if we cannot prepare our food better than this how can we call ourselves civilised?

Animal Cruelty

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Evidently rabbit is back in fashion on the plates of UK consumers. The meat is high in protein, low in fat and relatively cheap so the attraction is obvious. In rural communities the value of rabbit has long been known and butchers have always sold freshly killed rabbit alongside game and the more traditionally farmed meats. In more urban areas rabbit has been something of a rarity but as our tastes have become more international and our habits influenced by television celebrity chefs rabbit is making a comeback.

So popular is it now that demand has started to outstrip supply and so suppliers and restaurant chains, running short of wild rabbits, are now buying farm-bred rabbits from the continent and particularly France. Rabbit is now said to be the fourth most popular farmed animal in the world. 
There’s nothing wrong with any of this since we all have to eat and the world’s population continues to grow. However, the pressure group Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) have recently investigated the methods of rabbit farming and the results of their investigation, like those a few years back into battery hen farming, are quite disturbing. 
They reveal that rabbits are forced to live in conditions so cramped and overcrowded that they barely have room to move and are sometimes unable to even sit down. One in five of the rabbits, or 20% if you prefer percentages, die in captivity and are simply thrown away as rubbish. This apparently doesn’t concern most suppliers, since as we all know rabbits are prolific breeders and in spite of the wastage the farmers are still going to get a good return on their investment.
The CIWF are doing their best to expose this practice and it is to be hoped that something can be done about it and that the welfare of these poor creatures is put above mere profit. In this country, unlike many others, we do have reasonably humane laws on the raising and killing of animals for meat. Those laws are not always adhered to but that is a question of policing and government funding. I am a meat eater and I am not ashamed of that but I think it should shame us all that animals bred simply to be killed for our consumption spend the whole of their short lives in constant suffering.

How much water do we really need?

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At last somebody has had the courage  to openly deride the nonsensical advice given to us on water consumption.  Dr Margaret McCartney, writing in the British Medical Journal, stated what most people with any degree of common sense have been saying for years, namely that the advice of the NHS to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day is complete codswallop – she actually used the word nonsense but both words apply!
For years now we’ve been bombarded with advice from successive Governments  (who presumably have been acting with the best of intentions) and the giant bottled water companies (who presumably have not!) to drink ridiculous amounts of water just to stay alive. The result has been that many impressionable folk never leave home without taking with them a large bottle of Evian presumably just in case they collapse choking in their local high street. Railway stations, airports and even shopping malls are full of people clutching plastic bottles as though preparing for a walk across the desert or an assault on Everest. Joggers, walkers and gym-goers are rarely seen without this life-saving implement prompting many of us to wonder how on Earth we survived all those water-free years of running, cycling, rugby and football training without ending up on life support machines.
Although it’s absurdly funny to observe the gullible clutching their plastic bottle like some cool and trendy  fashion accessory that is not the main issue. There is a serious point here and that is that we should listen to the advice of environmental groups who warn us of the damage caused by the disposal of billions of plastic bottles worldwide and the deaths of thousands of sea creatures like turtles, dolphins and whales who mistake bottles, along with plastic bags, for food. That might cause a few to splutter into their drinks.