Revision of Local Conservation Politics

It's exam time; we're all starting to crack.

The following is the product of the last hour's revision session concerning the development of UK conservation legislation:

Local Politics and Conservation

In 1949 was the Nature Conservancy
The 1960s saw eco-popularity,
In ‘65 it joined the NERC
And split again in ‘73.
Research in the NCC
Is now CEH, which was ITE.

In ‘81 we had the W & C Act,
Opposed by NFU: True Fact.
In’ 89 it all went statutory
With the breaking down of the JNCC.
A ’92 summit was quite big in Rio,
BAPS in ’94 were backed by 2000’s CROW.

Natura 2000 and the Habitats Directive,
Ramsar Wetlands, quite effective.
NERC ’06 said each public body
Must be nice to the environment (like Bill Oddie).
NNRS and triple-Sis
Keep our country fairly nice.

Now, if only I can memorise that for the exam tomorrow...

A Green Government? I wish.

If you're reading this in the UK, I apologise for jumping on the bandwagon. If you're far away from the red, yellow and blue campaigns then think yourself lucky, it's given me quite a headache! At 7am tomorrow my alarm clock will go off and the polling stations will open. David Cameron can finally take a break from his slightly over-the-top continuous 36 hours (and counting) final campaign, Nick Clegg can, perhaps, give his face a rest from smiling non-stop for four and a half weeks and Gordon Brown might get a chance to visit an estate agent to suss out his potential new pad.

We don't really know who's going to be having dinner at Number 10 on Friday evening, but with less than 24 hours to go until the close of polls, I thought I'd have one last look at an important area of policy that's been almost completely overlooked under the big black clouds of the recession and volcanic ash...

...The Environment

The Conservatives start by saying that they will "make Britain greener by tackling climate change and protecting and enhancing our environment", which is interesting because the Liberal Democrats are telling me that "The Liberal Democrats are the only party in British politics that can and will put the environment at the heart of government" and Labour state that "the green agenda is fundamentally rooted in Labour values". This will be interesting; I naively thought it would be simple to get to the bottom of who has the best policies, but it looks like I'll need to be a bit more Sherlock Holmes.

As the recycling hasn't been collected in Cathays for the last fortnight I'll take a look at waste management. The Conservatives pledge to work towards a 'zero waste Britain' and promote recycling. Of course, recylcling reduces the amount of junk going to landfill, but in order to recycle, we need energy, but we'll come to that in a moment. Labour's website doesn't seem to mention waste other than in its opening blurb that states "By taking the action we need to tackle climate change and reduce waste we can drive economic growth", but maybe they'll redeem themselves in other ways. The Liberal Democrats are also pushing the 'zero waste Britain' approach and pledge to increase anaerobic digestion technology to generate energy from food and farm waste.

The Liberal Democrats also pledge to meet the EU 15% renewable energy target, no small task, would set a target for 40% of UK electricity to come from 'clean' sources, and would aim to improve energy efficiency in the public and commercial sectors by 30%, by 2020. All new coal-powered station plans would be halted unless they incorporated the best carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. They're not big fans of nuclear energy and would focus on renewables as a cheaper, more sustainable solution to the energy crisis. Conservatives, on the other hand, would create four CCS power plants, set legal limits on power station emissions, deliver a 10% carbon emissions cut from government activities within the first year, create an off-shore energy grid and encourage small-scale energy generation. I assume this means of the renewable variety rather than back-yard coal plants, but it isn't clarified in the literature. I hold Labour under rather more scrutiny in this area, as with 13 years in power we haven't yet seen the leaps and bounds promised to us, but maybe it's worth another shot, so I'll hear them out. They intend to stick to the 2008 Climate Change Act which requires greenhouse gas emissions to drop by 34% by 2020. They support 'clean coal' (*cough*) and nuclear power, and would like 15% of our energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.

In terms of protecting our biodiversity, I feel we're faced with an inadequate set of policies. Our current government mention it once: "Labour believes that the beauty and biodiversity of Britain’s countryside and green spaces enrich the quality of our lives", but then fails to mention how it intends to preserve it. It gets Brownie Points for introducing the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) which gave statutory backing to Biodiversity Action Plans, but it would be nice to know what, if anything, it intends to do next. It proposes to extend green belts and for 60% of development to be on brownfield land, but I wonder where they want to put the other 40%.

In their section regarding biodiversity, the Conservatives state that they want to reduce litter. It seems like this is probably more our responsibility than theirs, but I can't complain about good intentions. Perhaps they can wash my dishes whilst they're at it. They also want to plant one million trees during their potential term in office; as long as they're British natives I'm all for it (don't worry, I'm not going all British National Party, I'm only worried about invasive species). The Liberal Democrats worry me slightly in their use of the word 'could': "We will introduce landscape-scale policies, with measurable objectives which could include things like the promotion of biodiversity", however they do pledge to include gardens as greenfield sites in planning law, so that they aren't so easily built over by 'garden grabbers'. As our gardens support such a large amount of Britain's wildlife, this is particularly important.

I could go on all night, but by the time I'd finish the polls would be closed. For further information, check out the following (in alphabetical order!):
Conservatives
Labour
Liberal Democrats

Of course, there are other important issues to base your voting decision on, but hopefully I've laid out a few of the major 'green' topics of interest.

I'm still undecided...

The End of Tiger Blogfest, but Not the End of the Tiger

It's the end of the Tiger Blog Fest 2010, but if you're not quite sure why I'm going on about tigers, it's entirely my fault, so let me explain.

Since the onset of the Chinese New Year celebrations, we've been living in the year of the tiger. Numbers at tiger social gatherngs are dwindling, but it's not that they're not cool, or that nobody likes them; far from it. It's more that, as is sadly often the case, we've threatened their existence by removing their habitat and taking them from the wild for entertainment, 'medicinal' purposes and such specialities as 'tiger-bone wine'. To save you the trouble of googling it, tiger-bone wine is a drink made from the carcus of a tiger soaked in red wine. Seriously, a bottle of Blossom Hill from the corner shop does the trick, believe me.

That said, there's no point in being gloomy about these things, especially if you're a tiger, 'Carpe diem' and all that, so let's focus on the opportunities to give these beasts a helping hand. The WWF et al. have launched TX2, a campaign to double the number of Malayan tigers by the year 2020. Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? No. It would bring the numbers up to 1,000 individuals and ensure a bit of stability for a species teetering on the brink of uncertainty.

Positive thinking goes a long way, and the power of public support for a cause should never be underestimated. Get talking about tigers or get involved if you want to, just don't get complacent, because there's still a long way to go.

Tigers in Society...

You don't see many tigers in Cardiff. Or in Bournemouth. Or anywhere else in the UK really, but whilst pondering what to write about tigers it struck me that they're pretty much everywhere:

At the pub...


...at breakfast...


...and in the news...


...and they'll probably be lurking in those areas for some time to come. Make sure they continue to grace forests too. Check out this website for further information.

Tiger Tiger...

The Tiger Blogfest 2010 is a week where participating blogs write about tigers and the challenges we face if these magnificant creatures are something we'd still like to have gracing our planet in years to come.

As a little lead-in to a tiger-tastic week, I've decided to post a classic poem, 'The Tiger', by William Blake who is far more capable at describing such a majestic animal. Throughout the week will be various tiger-related postings, so check back for a selection of tiger-art, facts and features.

The Tiger
by William Blake

Tiger, Tiger, Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Pigeon Dance

Due to coursework commitments I have been unable to write anything at all coherent that doesn't involve titi monkeys/nocturnal song-bird behaviour/bats/climate change so I thought I'd tide you over with this incredible piece of television. Enjoy:

How to lose a bed

I've been away on camp helping to 'supervise' twenty-eight teenagers, although they probably should have been supervising the staff if we're honest.

Despite arriving several days late due to a wedding (and may I say what a splendid wedding it was too; congratulations to Diana and Adam!) I still managed to witness bowling, swimming, visits to various sections of an RAF station, tackling a high ropes course and a football match in which I scored a goal. Okay, so the goal-keeper may have let the ball past everso slightly on purpose, but we won't mention that bit. Thanks to National Rail's flawless logic, I also had the chance to visit five different train stations to travel what would have been a straight trip up the M40, had I driven.

One particularly tiring day, having just returned from the high ropes course at 10pm, I was quite looking forward to going to bed. It happened to be the night I was on overnight duty, sleeping in the office, and I'd just about made sure that everybody was in the correct accomodation and had ten minutes until 'lights out'. I returned to the office to flump down onto the less-than-comfy-but-perfectly-adequate-bed, to find that my bed had completely vanished!

The bed frame was stood on one end without any sign of a mattress, or for that matter the desk, chair or bedside cabinet that had been in the room quarter of an hour previously. Slightly puzzled, and cursing certain other pesky staff members, I went on a mission to recover the stolen goods. The majority of the furniture was retrieved from a utility room and the mattress eventually sprang out of a cupboard at the unsuspecting reverend!

The moral of the story? Constant vigilance! (And that means you too Bed-Stealers!)