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THIS IS BEN'S NEW BLOG ABOUT GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL GUBBINS

Knowledge is power......but beyond that I don't have a particular agenda to push here. I don't necessarily have answers to the questions our environment is demanding of us.....but I do have the desire to get more people talking about environmental issues even if we don't all see eye to eye.

Problems are unlikely to be addressed let alone resolved unless folk know what is going on around them. And to that end, information & debate are ultimately better than ignorance or sticking our heads in the sand.

PLUS....it's a beautiful, awe-inspiring and sometimes terrifying planet. Put some time aside to marvel at it.

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“a picture of how profoundly we are failing to have any kind of decent respect for our world: how our romance with nature has become sick and twisted.” So said Jonathan Jones this week in a piece entitled ‘Behold Mt Everest, reduced to adventure tourism’, which was a reaction to seeing this photograph of long queues on Everest last week (which undeniably contributed to four deaths in one weekend). The piece isn’t very long and is worth reading in full, but the bit I’d like to highlight is as follows: “The picture of Everest’s numerous ascendants reveals not only the excess of commercialised adventure tourism but the mind-warping impact of technology: why on earth do we believe there should be “progress” in ascending Everest? That this of all things should become easier and more accessible? We believe it because we believe everything is becoming easier, faster, and more democratic. Technological advances, better clothes, better oxygen supplies, make what once took years of planning and a nationally sponsored expedition possible for anyone with the cash – we assume. Nature, from being a terror, has become a tame toy in the modern imagination. Which is, of course, an illusion. Everest is not tame. The idea that it is controllable has been exposed once again as a spurious fantasy. Modern communications do not save you when you are too high for helicopters. The crowds queue past the dead and dying. This sad surreal image is not just about Everest but captures the delusions that hasten the world towards environmental catastrophe.” See also ‘World’s highest queue claims four lives’

“a picture of how profoundly we are failing to have any kind of decent respect for our world: how our romance with nature has become sick and twisted.”

So said Jonathan Jones this week in a piece entitled ‘Behold Mt Everest, reduced to adventure tourism’, which was a reaction to seeing this photograph of long queues on Everest last week (which undeniably contributed to four deaths in one weekend).

The piece isn’t very long and is worth reading in full, but the bit I’d like to highlight is as follows:

“The picture of Everest’s numerous ascendants reveals not only the excess of commercialised adventure tourism but the mind-warping impact of technology: why on earth do we believe there should be “progress” in ascending Everest? That this of all things should become easier and more accessible?

We believe it because we believe everything is becoming easier, faster, and more democratic. Technological advances, better clothes, better oxygen supplies, make what once took years of planning and a nationally sponsored expedition possible for anyone with the cash – we assume. Nature, from being a terror, has become a tame toy in the modern imagination.

Which is, of course, an illusion. Everest is not tame. The idea that it is controllable has been exposed once again as a spurious fantasy. Modern communications do not save you when you are too high for helicopters. The crowds queue past the dead and dying. This sad surreal image is not just about Everest but captures the delusions that hasten the world towards environmental catastrophe.”

See also ‘World’s highest queue claims four lives’

Tags environment Guardian Everest mountains mountaineering adventure tourism news Mt Everest

 Source Guardian

‘Windowledgers’, a new soap opera: Episode 1

Over the past few days I’ve sat watching the comings & goings of the house martins on my house…….and I’ve learned a great deal.  Essentially, I’ve learned that a rather fascinating (and yet comfortably mundane) soap opera is being played-out, just outside my windows.  Kind of like Eastenders actually……but with more swearing, more mud and more feathers.

Here’s a photo story I’ve cobbled together.

…More

Tags Fife Nature Scotland animals birds environment house martins lol photo story wildlife soap opera

Lower cave entrance Inside the cave, illuminated by lanterns Upper cave entrance

I found this on Tumblr just now and thought I’d re-blog it here too.  A nice photographic illustration of lava tubes.

fuckyeahvolcanoes:

Lava tubes are pretty cool. Wikipedia says, “Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like channel.” In other words, sometimes the exterior of a lava flow hardens while the inside is still molten, allowing the lava to move out of the hardened tube, creating a cave.

Check out Ape Cave, a lava tube south of Mount St. Helens in Washington that is 1900 years old. There are two entrances to this 13,042 feet (3,975 m) long tube. Choose your entrance carefully!

Tags environment geology volcanoes lava tubes Mount St Helens Washington Ape Cave

Reblogged from Fuck Yeah Volcanoes  Source fuckyeahvolcanoes

Buzzard trapping plan abandoned as government U-turns again

Buzzard trapping plan abandoned

The outcome many of us hoped for but didn’t necessarily expect.  But then again, this government is getting good at u-turns so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.

As a friend of mine just noted:

if we all ask hard enough do you think they will do a u-turn from being in government to err…… not?

Click on the title for the full story.

Tags environment wildlife animals buzzards birds RSPB Guardian Richard Benyon news conservation

Who what why: Why is there more oilseed rape being grown?

Why is more rape seed being grown this year?

I came across this article on the BBC website today…..which was a coincidence given I’ve been banging on about the vivid yellows in our fields this year.

It asks why there is so much oilseed rape being grown this year, and essentially attributes the boom to rocketing prices as it becomes more desirable for food, and to other producers in Europe suffering the effects of bad weather over the winter.

But apparently it has also been in flower longer than usual because of our cold spring.  Click on the title for the full story.

Tags environment oilseed rape farming agriculture news BBC weather

A sunny Sunday in Glen Devon…..with stunning views and a couple of pints

I’d been meaning to stop in Glen Devon for a walk ever since I got fed up of the endless roundabouts on the A9 through Perth.

Usually, returning from the Western Highlands I go through Crieff all the way to Perth and then south into Fife, but I eventually had enough of that unpleasantness and found a much more scenic and lofty route home.  Turning south at Crieff, you head through swanky Gleneagles and then climb up through Glen Devon, cutting through the Ochil Hills to emerge by Muckhart in Clackmannanshire.

Glen Devon is quite narrow and winding, and the road is prone to icing when it’s cold.  From my experience it also appears to be a favourite rally route for boy racers in Subaru Imprezas and motorbikers, unsurprisingly…….so don’t be surprised if either or both come rearing up behind you and impatiently hang on to your bumper.

But don’t despair.

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Tags Ben Cleuch Burnfoot Energy Forth Valley Glen Devon Green knowes Ochil Hills Ochils Perthshire Scotland Tormaukin Inn environment erratic glendevon hiking hillwalking landscape renewables wind farm windfarm geology

A week or so after the young starlings fledged and left the nest in the roof, the parents are busy tidying up and collecting fresh nesting material.  I’m not sure whether this means they’re trying another brood or not, or whether they’re simply making their own home a wee bit nicer after the kids wrecked it all and shat all over it ;-)

A week or so after the young starlings fledged and left the nest in the roof, the parents are busy tidying up and collecting fresh nesting material.  I’m not sure whether this means they’re trying another brood or not, or whether they’re simply making their own home a wee bit nicer after the kids wrecked it all and shat all over it ;-)

Tags environment starling nesting birds animals wildlife Fife Scotland silhouette

The hills are alive with the sight and sound of…….EVERYTHING!

The warm weather has sent the natural world here in Fife into an absolute frenzy.  After all that wet weather, the warmth and sun has prompted a surge in Spring growth: the trees and fields are a lush, vivid green; the land is covered in small flushes of purple and yellow where the first wildflowers have exploded into colour; and the skies are buzzing with birds racing to nest and fledge their first new chicks.

…More

Tags environment Fife Scotland hillwalking hiking Lomond Hills West Lomond Kinross Loch Leven Photography Green Hairstreak Butterfly wildlife nature Skylark Swallows Yellowhammer Water Avens Ballo Reservoir Bog Cotton Buzzard Crow Bishop Hill Glen Vale John Knox's Pulpit Mountain pansy

I’ve had house martins buzzing around the house for the past week.  I’ve never really seen them before so wasn’t sure what they were up to, but as the week’s gone on it’s clear they’re starting to build nests. This one is right outside my office window.  Yesterday there was nothing there, but you can now see how mud is starting to accumulate on the wall. It looks like I’m going to have a privileged view of their comings & goings as they rear their chicks…..so I will of course be posting updates on their progress from time to time :-)

I’ve had house martins buzzing around the house for the past week.  I’ve never really seen them before so wasn’t sure what they were up to, but as the week’s gone on it’s clear they’re starting to build nests.

This one is right outside my office window.  Yesterday there was nothing there, but you can now see how mud is starting to accumulate on the wall.

It looks like I’m going to have a privileged view of their comings & goings as they rear their chicks…..so I will of course be posting updates on their progress from time to time :-)

Tags environment birds animals wildlife photography house martin Fife Scotland nature nest

L.A. becomes largest city in the US to ban plastic bags

The Mother Nature Network reports that:

Los Angeles City Council has voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic shopping bags over the next 16 months at nearly 7,500 stores. The ban makes Los Angeles the largest city in the country to banish plastic bags at the checkout line, delivering a long and hard-fought victory to environmental advocates, and a headache to plastic bag manufacturers.

Every time I read about these new bans around the world I’m both delighted and depressed in equal measure.  Delighted that they’re growing in number but depressed at how rubbish we are over here re’ plastic pollution.

COME ON UK!!  CATCH UP!!!

Click on the title for the full story.

Tags LA Los Angeles United States ban environment mother nature network news plastic pollution sustainability plastic bags California

In all my years spent wandering the British countryside, I’d never seen an Emperor Moth…….UNTIL YESTERDAY! This one, a female I think because the antennae aren’t feathered, was settled in long grass near the summit of East Lomond in Fife. Emperor moths are unmistakable with their amazingly beautiful markings, which look freakishly like a mammal or bird face and are likely adaptations to ward off potential predators.

In all my years spent wandering the British countryside, I’d never seen an Emperor Moth…….UNTIL YESTERDAY!

This one, a female I think because the antennae aren’t feathered, was settled in long grass near the summit of East Lomond in Fife.

Emperor moths are unmistakable with their amazingly beautiful markings, which look freakishly like a mammal or bird face and are likely adaptations to ward off potential predators.

Tags environment moths insects emperor moth Fife Scotland wildlife Photography Lomond Hills Nature

Stop this mad move to capture buzzards and destroy their nests

Buzzard cull

The Tories have really outdone themselves this time.  Protecting a non-native species reared purely for shooting, by destroying buzzard nests……which they are required by law to protect.

‘This is state-sponsored persecution of a protected species to please some of the richest people in the country, pursuing a cruel, destructive and pointless activity. It is state spending for the 1% - or the 0.01% – which everyone else must pay for. It looks to me as if Richard Benyon (Environment Minister) is using public money to provide services for his aristocratic friends.’

I usually like to add my own spin and opinions on articles that come my way……but in this case I needn’t bother.  George Monbiot sums this insanity up perfectly and has a good stab at those in power.

Click on the title for George’s rant in full. 

EDIT: I changed my mind about adding my own opinion.  Frankly, it really is incredible that this is being proposed. In the Pentland Hills just outside Edinburgh, there’s a nature trail called the ‘Great Glen Mystery’ where kids (and adults I suppose) are encouraged to look through binoculars, listen to sounds, open their arms ‘this wide’, all in a bid to identify something ‘very special’ that has recently returned to the glen. At the very end you lift a wooden panel and there’s a photo of a buzzard along with some text explaining how they were absent for x number of reasons…..but mainly because of centuries of persecution.  It concludes with the good news that more enlightened attitudes and conservation efforts mean they have now returned to the glen.

Who on earth would want to start that persecution all over again?  Oh yes, the Tories.

Tags Conservatives DEFRA George Monbiot Richard Benyon Tories animals birds buzzards conservation environment hunting news pheasants shooting Pentland Hills Edinburgh

Hardly a heatwave by African standards, but 26C in Stirling today was enough for Blair Drummond Safari Park to get the ice blocks out for the lion cubs to cool down. Blue skies have remained over Scotland all week now, with the warm sunny weather set to continue for a while yet.  Everyone’s favourite beacon of insanity, the Daily Mail, has today been screaming ‘HOTTER THAN PARTS OF AUSTRALIA!’……obviously choosing to ignore the fact that it’s almost mid-winter outside of the tropics down there.  Cretins.

Hardly a heatwave by African standards, but 26C in Stirling today was enough for Blair Drummond Safari Park to get the ice blocks out for the lion cubs to cool down.

Blue skies have remained over Scotland all week now, with the warm sunny weather set to continue for a while yet.  Everyone’s favourite beacon of insanity, the Daily Mail, has today been screaming ‘HOTTER THAN PARTS OF AUSTRALIA!’……obviously choosing to ignore the fact that it’s almost mid-winter outside of the tropics down there.  Cretins.

Tags environment Scotland Stirling animals wildlife safari park Blair Drummond zoo lion lions news weather heatwave Spring Photography

 Source Daily Mail