Blogs

So, another study has backed our warnings that biofuel production can increase not reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

New research, reported in The Times, found that biofuels derived from rapeseed and maize caused 70 per cent and 50 per cent more emissions respectively than fossil fuels.

Releases of one gas in particular, nitrous oxide, were double the level previously thought. Nitrous oxide is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Rapeseed is the main biofuel crop in Europe and in the US, the main ethanol crop is maize. The US Senate wants to increase maize ethanol production by sevenfold by 2022 which will cause greenhouse gas emissions from transport in America to jump by six per cent.

It is now vital that all bioenergy production is strictly controlled so that emissions savings are certain before the fuel is allowed to be produced.

The UK has promised mandatory checks from 2010 but that is far too late. The damage done between now and then from biofuels based on maize, rapeseed and other crops such as palm oil, soy and sugar cane, could be substantial.

What’s the point in biofuels if they increase emissions? It would be very serious if biofuels were allowed to hasten rather than hinder the damage already underway because of climate change.

For The Times report click here

 

First it was Russia and Canada racing for a lucrative slice of the underwater Arctic.
 
Now, according to Saturday’s Guardian, Britain is setting the pace in the hunt for new oil and minerals elsewhere.

Diplomats are preparing to lay claim to valuable natural resources on and beyond continental shelves outside of existing territorial zones around the Falklands, Ascension Island, also in the South Atlantic, and tiny Rockall, which is west of the Hebrides.
 
To assert new rights to underwater wealth, countries must lodge claims with the UN by May 2009. At stake, as a result of land scrambles worldwide, could be 2.7 million miles of ocean floor.
 
The value of underwater treasure is said to be immense, particularly given the finite oil left in known reserves. But what of the treasures above the sea, not least albatrosses and other seabirds being killed daily by longline fishing ships in waters around the Falklands.
 
The Falklands hosts the largest colony – about 380,000 pairs - of breeding albatrosses in the world, and whilst only one of the 22 albatross species nests on the Falklands, the UK bears considerable responsibility for the future of this bird.
 
Currently, one albatross is killed by longlining methods every five minutes, attracted onto baited hooks on or just below the sea's surface then drowned. These birds usually mate with only one partner so if one of the pair is killed, two birds, not one, are knocked out of the reproduction cycle. And albatrosses in the South Atlantic are declining faster than anywhere else in the world.
 
The RSPB is running a campaign to help the captains of longline ships reduce their seabird by-catch. There are simple measures captains can take which do not affect their haul.
 
We must do all we can to save these birds made famous by Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. While Britain’s diplomats strive to be first to the wealth beneath the sea, they should not turn away from the riches in the skies above.

Click here for the Guardian’s report

And here for the RSPB’s Save the Albatross campaign

 

The Guardian and Telegraph have reported renewed government support for GM crops although Environment Secretary Hilary Benn today denies any change in policy.

The papers say people are more aware of the environmental impacts of climate change and therefore more willing to accept the role of GM crops in combating them.

GM crops were all but banished from the UK in 2004 when farm scale trials found three of the four plants tested harmed wildlife. No strong evidence has been published to counter these findings.
 
We welcome Mr Benn’s assurance that GM crops will continue to be assessed individually.

Without this guarantee, it would seem odd that ministers appeared willing to promote these plants as means of countering climate change when so little was being done in areas that could achieve much more.
 
Money has been stripped from grant schemes that would make costly solar panels affordable to many more people. At the same time, the Severn Barrage is winning political support when other ways of harnessing the Severn's power could generate more energy (but be less of a PR event).

And most seriously, aviation remains above sanction for its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions with no appetite in government for curbing airport expansion.
 
The passage of time has not weakened public opposition to GM crops nor will it make the results of the farm scale trials any less damning. 
 
If the same crops are grown now, they will do the damage the experiments predicted. If other crops are proposed, they must be subjected to the same rigorous tests.

Click here for the Guardian’s report

Here for the Telegraph report

And here for letters in the Guardian from Hilary Benn and the RSPB 
 

 

There’s been another party going on in Paris, and it wasn't the one peopled on Wednesday night by joyous Scots.
 
One or two optimistic lovers of nature are celebrating new French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conversion to our New Way for Europe-wide farming. That’s the one where wildlife thrives alongside productive agriculture; where farmers take charge not just of how much they can sell but also of the species their land hosts and the way their land looks. Remember?
 
The President engineered a brilliant piece of media manipulation on Tuesday when he talked of reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. In, he said, was the promise of change after 2013 with talks beginning next year. In, also, was the warning that farmers could no longer rely on the subsidy prop but would instead have to work for decent market prices.
 
Out, however, was any chance of Europe-wide protectionism being in any way dismantled. And out was any mention of wildlife although the role of farming in helping combat climate change was at least given a passing nod.
 
This all sounds too familiar to our colleagues across the Channel, all too used to the policies of Sarkozy’s predecessor Jacques Chirac.
 
For food security, read support for EU production. For feeding the world, read boosts for French farm exports. For maintaining French traditions and landscape, read subsidies for French wine growers and for action to tackle climate change, read biofuels. Enough said.
 
Pretending to be interested in radical change may or may not be an improvement on the policies of the reactionary Chirac. But let’s wait and see before uncorking the Champagne.

Click here for the Financial Times’ report on President Sarkozy’s plans. 
 

 

Donnachadh McCarthy tells Independent readers of the harmful effects that garden fashions are having on wildlife.

McCarthy, who describes himself as a home ecologist, calls the laying of wooden decking in back gardens a barbaric practice - a bit harsh perhaps but there is no denying that a more natural, greener garden would be much better for birds and other wildlife.
 
The hectic lifestyles that many of us lead today leave little time for creating and looking after wilder gardens and decking and patios can make life much easier.
 
But what about having a bit of both? A small patch of grass or a slightly overgrown shrub or tree could provide a haven for a number of creatures without needing extra maintenance.

And there is nothing more therapeutic than sitting on the patio at the end of the day, sharing a quiet moment with a friendly robin or busy blue tit.
 
Makeovers might seem a quick and easy fix now but the natural look will always be in fashion.

Click here for the Independent’s report

And here for the RSPB’s garden wildlife A-Z

 

DEFRA’s Year of Food and Farming started yesterday with claims that a staggering 1.1 million eight to 13 years-olds have never set foot in the countryside, according to the Daily Mail. This is around one in five youngsters with 17 per cent more having only visited the countryside once or twice.

That means a third of children overall have the most fleeting of contact with the natural world meaning they miss out on all the benefits this can bring.

Contact with nature can shape the way children learn and contribute to their sense of, and wonder at, nature. It can also help improve a child’s physical and mental well-being so for this number of youngsters to be missing out is a tragedy.

The RSPB’s involvement in the Real World Learning campaign is as important now as ever and our aim of getting more children on our reserves, enjoying the benefits these visits offer, will go a long way towards ensuring children gain from their outdoor experiences and grow up with a healthy respect for the environment.

Nature needs young voices just as much as it needs older, wiser champions and seeing wildlife and wild places at first hand, is the only way to make words of new enthusiasts real.

Click here for the Daily Mail article

Here for more on the RSPB and of out of class learning

And here for details of school visits to reserves

 

Scientists are trilling at the prospect of fast growing fuel crops covering a fifth of our farmland and helping to hit targets for renewable energy generation, The Times reports.

Miscanthus grass, an Asian species, and coppiced willow trees will provide one third of green energy sources by 2020 they predict – good for the targets and good, they claim, for insects too.

But will they be good for birds?

A recent report for the RSPB and others, found that without safeguards, covering large areas of farmland with these tall crops could cause as much harm to wildlife as the switch from spring to autumn sowing and the replacement of hay with silage 35 years ago.
 
Farmland bird numbers plunged as a result of these, and other, widely used forms of agricultural intensification. And, despite the creation of green farming schemes since then, populations of many farmland species are still in decline.

Substantial subsidies are being made available to farmers keen to plant miscanthus and willow. But there has been almost no research on the impact of miscanthus on wildlife, which means large swathes of land could be swallowed up before we know what might happen as a result.

Bioenergy crops should be grown in a way that is sympathetic to wildlife. Why? Because these crops are being grown to help the environment and it would be a terrible own goal if they ended up damaging wildlife and landscapes instead.

If harm is done, bioenergy initiatives could hit the same buffers that wind energy projects have, setting back a promising technology in the fight against climate change.

Click here for the Times report

And here for more on the report for the RSPB

Our national broadcaster, the one we trusted for thorough investigation and impartial coverage, has bottled it.

Having promised honesty courses for its staff following the Blue Peter fiasco, the BBC has now caved in to pressure to drop Planet Relief, a programme with more potential than any before, to honestly highlight the disaster that is climate change.

If the BBC won’t do it, who will? There can be few, if any, broadcasters with better informed journalists. And there are none, other than the BBC, required to be a public service. The evidence for climate change is indisputable, and informing viewers about climate change is one of the most important public services there can be.

The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of the world’s top scientists, says that climate change is underway and is being caused by human activity.

Even President Bush has acknowledged climate change and the role of fossil fuels in causing it.

Such is the status of the BBC that it’s decision on Planet Relief questions the IPCC’s conclusions and elevates the views of crackpot scientists still disputing climate change.

The BBC has thrown away the opportunity to produce one of the most responsible and significant programmes in its history.

Click here for the full story

It’s a dog’s life, being banned, just because you’re a dog.

But that’s the implication of Australian research published today, which found that there are fewer birds where dog-walkers go walkies.

The range of bird species was down 35 per cent and the number of individual birds reduced by 41 per cent on sites near Sydney where the study was done. Humans walking alone also disturbed birds but caused less than half the disruption prompted by dogs on leads.

So what does that mean for the RSPB’s reserves?

We bar dogs from some reserves at some times of the year, for very good conservation reasons.

We let dogs kept under close control onto reserves through which a public right of way runs, and are happy to do so.

Elsewhere we ask that dogs be restrained from roaming freely for obvious reasons.

Most birds take flight at the least inkling of trouble, understandably so. Birds are the smallest and most vulnerable in most confrontations, so why take the chance? What we don’t know is whether those birds fly back once the danger has passed. They do, after all, when we close our back doors behind us having watched birds fly off as we walked past the garden birdfeeder.

Dog walkers in our experience are responsible types and we welcome visitors to most of our sites with or without their dogs. We ask for consideration for wildlife – wildlife comes first on nature reserves after all – but we will not now be banning any canine companions.

Click here for more on the research

 

The RSPB is doing its bit to limit the mushrooming development of palm oil plantations in one of the world’s poorest countries, Indonesia.

Work on the ground began at our partnership-run forest in the Indonesian region of Sumatra in April this year. This means the 250,000-acre site can remain one of the world’s best wildlife hotspots, and stay safe from palm oil cultivation.

The Independent reports today that palm oil is used in one tenth of supermarket products – from toothpaste to crisps to margarines – and that it is probably the most widely used vegetable oil. Indonesia is the world’s number two palm oil producer behind Malaysia.

The RSPB’s site in Sumatra, Harapan Rainforest, is in an area with large and numerous palm oil plantations and, but for our purchase of the management rights to the area, would also have been swallowed up by the furious race not only to stock the supermarket shelves but also satisfy the burgeoning demand for biofuels. Palm oil is used to make biodiesel.

The EU, which promotes initiatives to tackle climate change, is responsible for 20 per cent of palm oil demand, yet the destruction of rainforest in Asia and South America, to make way for its cultivation, is significantly increasing worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

We will soon be launching an appeal to help fund our investment in Harapan Rainforest, together with that by our counterpart in Indonesia, Burung Indonesia, and BirdLife International. More than 260 bird species in the forest will benefit as will Sumatran tigers, Asian elephants and a range of plants almost too numerous to count.

This is a ground-breaking project and one deserving of global support, not just to save wildlife but to contribute in a small way to the battle against climate change.

Click here for the Independent report

And here for more on the RSPB's Harapan Rainforest initiative

Find out how you can help here

Lake Chad in Africa is shrinking and its contraction is amongst changes highlighted in the updated Times Atlas of the World.

Lake Chad has retreated by 95 per cent since 1963 because of water extraction, increased population, overgrazing and less rainfall. This is bad news for Britain’s migrating birds.

Millions of birds including cuckoos, spotted flycatchers, wheatears and turtle doves fly thousands of miles annually, between wintering sites in southern Africa and nesting areas in Britain and other parts of Europe.

These birds have all declined, in some cases by more than 50 per cent. Problems finding enough food before they return to Britain are amongst the difficulties they are facing.

The Sahel region, where Lake Chad lies, is a major refuelling site for migrating birds. They stop here to feed on insects and berries. A shrunken Lake Chad means much of the vegetation harbouring this food has gone. Less food means underfed birds means fewer will make it to the UK.

We have already noticed, both through survey and anecdote, substantial declines of spotted flycatchers, turtle doves and cuckoos.

There are other crises these birds are facing – turtle doves are shot in southern Europe and the best nesting holes may be taken by the time spotted flycatchers arrive - but the drying of Lake Chad, the Sahel and the neighbouring Sahara desert, is still a major problem.

There are things we can do to help. We can continue to press the UK government to work with other governments to reduce global greenhouse emissions and check the symptoms of climate change including reduced rainfall.

We can press the Cypriot and Maltese governments to ban the hunting of turtle doves, most urgently in the spring before they have had chance to breed.

And we can urge farmers here to take up opportunities to retain and plant hedgerows and trees to provide more food and nesting sites for migrant birds when they arrive.

Lake Chad might seem a long way off but as the migrating bird flies it is not, assuming these birds have enough energy to get here and assuming they have a decent chance of return.

Click here for the report on the Times Atlas of the World

Click here for more on long-distance migrants