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Monthly Archives: March 2014
Feed the World….. sugar till we are all obese.
We are told that Fat is the new normal and this is undoubtedly true. It’s another example of shifting baseline syndrome, also known as the “frog in the saucepan“. I have noticed my own waistline expand over the years … Continue reading
A Lenten Story: The Gamekeeper’s Gibbet, Biodiversity Onsetting and Confirmation Bias
spot the badger The Gamekeeper’s Gibbet Not so long ago, a walk in the country would entail this scene – a gamekeeper’s gibbet. Vermin would be presented by the estate gamekeeper, neatly strung on fences or hung from trees, as … Continue reading
Posted in agricultural pests, animism, badgers, biodiversity offsetting, blood sports, Defra, Owen Paterson
Tagged badgers, biodiversity offsetting, Owen Paterson
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Humans as Deicides – we killed our original gods and we have forgotten them
Straight Tusked Elephant I had been thinking about writing about this again and George Monbiot spurred me to write this, following another eloquent, passionate but depressing counsel of despair in the guardian yesterday. George argued that hominims had been driving … Continue reading
Mark Reckless MP for Lodge Hill rails against Natural England, Quangos, spiders, bugs and – vegetated shingle
Following yesterday’s blog on the latest machinations at Lodge Hill, I was informed that the local MP for the Lodge Hill area Mark Reckless, had not made any statement either for or against the development at Lodge Hill or the … Continue reading
Offsetting at Lodge Hill rears its ugly head again.
CIEEM held a conference on biodiversity offsetting last week, and I was lucky enough to be the first speaker. I had put in an abstract for a talk which was highly sceptical of offsetting and whether it would provide any … Continue reading
No targets and prescriptions – Conservation: The Knepp Way
wild daffodils on Knepp Estate (c) miles king On Wednesday I was privileged to spend a day at the Knepp Estate in Sussex, with Natural England Agriculture Policy experts – not that NE do policy of course. Other experts (and … Continue reading
Defra publish correct Bovine TB herd breakdown data – previous figures were inflated by one third
The Badger Cull has been found to be ineffective and inhumane according to Defra’s own expert panel looking at the Pilot areas in Somerset and Gloucestershire. The BBC report Prof Rosie Woodroffe, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London, … Continue reading
The Supergrass that betrays real Environmental Goods
I was intrigued by this headline in Farmers Weekly (where else?) – “£2.5M boost for grass that helps prevent floods“. What can it be? A panacea for all our flooding problems – is it superabsorbent? Is it a climate change … Continue reading
Solar Farms and Grasslands: A cautionary Tale.
Rampisham Down Masts Anyone who has lived in West Dorset for more than five years will immediately recognise the extraordinary landmark that was the Rampisham Down Transmitting Station. A large array of very tall Masts on one of the most … Continue reading
a new nature blog 