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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." 
Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
 


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Category: Environment

  1. Don’t miss: Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline

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    There’s a new series on BBC2 on Sunday evenings:   Climate Change:  Ade on the Frontline.

    Ade Adepitan looks at climate change and the impact it is having on the environment – however, he is also looking at some amazing people who are doing what they can to  help stop the pace at which is progressing and/or help the species affected by it.  He is looking for solutions to climate change around the world. 

    And he does touch on the fact he is flying around the world to bring this to us.  But unless we all find out what is happening in various locations and how people and wildlife and nature are being affected by climate change, there won’t be a story to tell. 

     

     

    Solomon Islands

    Ade starts off in the Solomon Islands and we see and hear first-hand from local people who are affected by rising sea levels. 

    Great Barrier Reef

    Adi heads to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the wonders of the world – and a breeding spot for the green turtle.   Because the world is getting warmer, so is the sand and that has meant that that nearly all the turtles being born are female.  This presents a major problem because it means that there are very few males being born.   Adi finds out about a project which is trying to cool the sand so that more male green turtles might be born. 

    One of the questions Adi asks is “how do we wean ourselves off fossil fuels?” 

    Rural Queensland

    He visits rural Queensland, a heart breaking visit because of the draught, and the city of Sydney where an amazing woman from Sydney Wildlife is working hard to help all the bats which have been affected by the terrible wildfires.

    Ozharvest

    And he visits the incredible people involved in Ozharvest – they collect food which is due to be chucked from the supermarkets and take it to a market where people can get it for free, to save it being wasted.  The young woman from Ozharvest says a simple thing we can all do is to plan what we need when we shop and buy just what we need.  When you know that people are going hungry in the world, that fact is made worse by the amount of food being wasted elsewhere – and when you add how much that impacts on the environment and climate change, that makes things much worse.

    Tasmania

    Finally Adi heads to Tasmania where plants – giant kelp - are being planted under the water as they excel at sucking up CO2 and also they grow at an incredible rate.  Their success is hampered by sea urchins so there is a project to try to encourage people to eat sea urchins so that we might gain control over them.

    He also sees how wind power in Tasmania could be used to power some of Australia’s mainland cities/places through a cable under the sea.

    We can turn things around

    Finally, Adi meets one of Australia’s top thinkers on climate change, an ex-Greenpeace employee, Paul Gilding, who warns that the plant is on the verge of total collapse.   He believes we can turn things around.  The key, he says, is to eliminate all fossil fuels by 2030.   Governments must have the strength to enforce it – and it is up to you and I, the people who vote them in, to put the pressure on and show them that they must get on with it. 

    Next week features Bangladesh and Bhutan – don’t miss it!   BBC2 at 8pm, Sunday 18 April 2021.

    Useful resources:

    Sydney Wildlife

     Ozharvest

    Turtle Cooling Project

    Giant Kelp Restoration Project in Tasmania

     

     

     

  2. International Beaver Day is on 7th April

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    The 7th April is International Beaver Day.

    Beavers can be quite controversial animals in the natural world;  personally I admire them for their incredible engineering skills.

    About 400 years ago, beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK but they are being re-introduced (with caution) in the hope that they will help restore our wetlands to their natural state and also reduce  the impact of flooding.

    Forestry England has produced this video showing why beavers build dams.   Their teeth are really quite something  (the beavers, not  Forestry England.)


    Now, a number of the UK's Wildlife Trusts have beaver appeals and they are Dorset, Derbyshire, Devon, Cheshire, Cornwall and Kent.

    The Wildlife Trust's website describe beavers as the engineers of the animal world and looking at the video above, it's easy to see why. 

    To support the Wildlife Trust's conservation efforts, you could Adopt a Beaver  either for yourself or as a gift for a nature lover!  You could also buy them this Give a Dam t-shirt:

    Give A Dam Beaver TopThis t-shirt is made from 100% organic cotton 
    and it's printed in the UK in a renewable energy powered factory.
    £19.00   Find out more about it

    Of course you should also take a look at the Beaver Trust.   I hope they won't mind me quoting their very exciting mission which is:

    "to recover Britain’s waterways and landscapes through the rapid and widespread re-establishment of beaver wetlands across whole river catchments."

    Their belief is that beavers are a practical, low-cost solution for long-term restoration.  They can help revesse the trend of extinction of British wildlife. You can see from their map where beavers are in the UK.

    Furthermore, the Beaver Trust reports that in the US West, land managers and scientists hare using beaver dam analogs to do three things:

    1. To heal damaged streams
    2. To re-establish beaver populations
    3. To help wildlife

    And they've seen positive changes in 1 to 3 years in many cases!   Find out all about it here

    Visit their website to have a good look round and see how you can  help.     

     

  3. Protect wildlife corridors in the UK

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    Green People sell organic beauty products for all the family.  I love their products and I also love the way they work with charities such as the Woodland Trust, Plantlife, the Marine Conservation Society.

    And they've emailed to say they need help.

    You see, their offices are located on the Knepp Rewilding Project.

    And the project is an amazing example of nature restoration.   Boar, deer, beaver, storks, the nightingale and purple emperor butterfly all call it home.

    The rare purple emperor butterfly needs this habitat

    But this biodiverse area is under threat.

    There are plans for a housing development of 3,500 right next door – and the fear is that if this goes ahead, wildlife won’t have the freedom they need to roam about.

    The new houses would effectively cut off the Knepp estate from both St Leonard’s and Ashdown forests.  The estate would, in short, be a wildlife land in a sea of housing.

    The peregrine falcon needs this habitat

    The Buck Barn development would also increase the traffic and pollution at the Buck Barn Crossing where the A24 and A272 meet.   This is a busy junction already.  I would mention that another developer has put in plans for 10,000 homes just east of it. 

    The Government keeps banging on about being environmentally friendly and how keen it is on being green, but that means nothing if it allows councils and developers to build on key wildlife corridors. 

    This beautiful turtle dove needs this habitat

    Last year, white stork chicks hatched on the Knepp Rewilding Project for the first time in 600 years.

    There must be another way to provide housing.  

    Please sign the petition to stop the development at Buck Barn and to give wildlife the corridor it needs and deserves to survive and thrive.

     

    Green People has a lovely range of sun care products for the summer!
    Green People has a lovely range of sun care products for the summer!

  4. New Appeal from the World Land Trust: Save Tanzania’s Coastal Forests

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    The World Land Trust has launched the first appeal for this year and this one is in Eastern Africa.

    The coastal forests there did cover an area larger than the UK – now, they would fit into half of Scotland.

    There are 400 forest fragments from Somalia to Mozambique and biodiversity islands that are full of endemic life.

    The Appeal Target:   £360,000

    The Trust is working to raise £360,000.   With help from these donations, their partner the  Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG)  can save a crucial wildlife corridor.   Elephants, leopards, lions and other animals are counting on us all to save this land for them.

    Roads are bringing cashew plantations closer and closer.  The animals need their wildlife corridor to be saved.

    About the Rondo Appeal

    The Rondo Plateau is a 900 metre table-top mountain.  It is a microclimate of misty forests, chameleons and bush baby primates whilst below it, big cats, butterflies and elephants roam. 

    And with all our help, the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group is going to create a huge protected belt around this ancient landscape.


    The donations will help safeguard a crucial wildlife corridor between the Rondo Forest Reserve and the Nyerere National Park.  49,000+acres (20,000 ha) of land will be protected.  The corridor will come in the form of 10 Village Land Forest Reserves, each under the stewardship of a village, and the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group will work with them closely.

    Which animals will the appeal help? 

    These animals are examples of those who need the Ronda route:

    • Elephants who need space to roam and who need their migration routes,
    • The African Lion and African leopard manage prey species – they must do this or animals such as the African Bush Pig would go unchecked, and devastate local farms.
    • The lions in the area need the land between the forest and shrubland to hunt or they would become extinct in the area
    • Leopards need forests so that they can store their kills up in the trees where other animals can’t get them.
    • The dwarf galago is a tiny endangered primate, who lives in trees and who needs the connectivity the Ronda land will give it.
    • The bearded pygmy chameleon is very vulnerable to habitat disruption – even the loss of a few trees could be one loss too many for some
    • The chequered elephant shrew’s population is very fragmented because of habitat loss so the subspecies is under real pressure

    We all need to act

    Please help protect these animals by protecting their homes today – and please donate to the World Land Trust’s appeal

  5. Do it for nature! Join the State of Nature campaign!

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    Do it for nature!  Join the State of Nature campaign!

    Why?

    Nearly half of the UK’s wildlife is in a long term decline.  15% of species are at risk of extinction.

    The Wildlife Trusts have emailed about a campaign to call on the Prime Minister to strengthen the Environment Bill to ensure it includes a LEGALLY BINDING TARGET to reverse nature loss in  England by 2030.

    The campaign is called the State of Nature. 

    They are doing this in a major collaboration with organisations across the environmental sector from the Wildlife and Countryside LINK Coalition.

    Examples of this campaign’s supporters include the RSPB, Earthwatch, Plantlife, The Rivers Trust, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, the Shark Trust, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust,  Four Paws, the Mammal Society, Butterfly Conservation, Open Spaces, National Trust, WWT, Woodland Trust, ZSL, the Marine Conservation Society  and a host more.


    So what’s the State of Nature campaign about?

    The UK is hosting the UN Climate Change Summit in Glasgow from 1 to 12 November 2021 so this is a good chance to lead the way.  

    The Prime Minister has called on world leaders to turn around the decline of nature by 2030.   


    But, Boris Johnson, words are meaningless

    We need you to lead the world by example and put this commitment into law.

    It’s no good saying you’ll turn the decline of nature around if you then destroy wildlife habitat for a theme park or allow a coal mine in Cumbria to go ahead or give oil and gas drilling the go ahead in the North Sea. 

    Nearly 100,000 people have signed it already but come on, everyone, we really need to let out a big noise for wildlife and let the Government know that we care.   The wildlife can’t do it – they are relying on each and every one of us.

    Please let’s push our Government to put its good intentions into law.   Words are meaningless.  ACTION is what wildlife need now.

    Please give wildlife your support today. 
    Please sign the petition here
    Thank you!


    Take a look at LINK – its role is to bring its members together on key issue and present a clear, consistent message to the Government, opinion leaders and the general public.