Beavers and Bees
Jul. 1st, 2014 09:08 amWild ones, in Britain, hooray! http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/first-wild-beavers-spotted-in-england-for-800-years-could-be-trapped-and-put-in-zoo-by-government-9574751.html Now of course, Defra wants to put them in cages, and some angling society is upset because they feel they have a 'right' to shoot them. Seriously. Our first wild beavers in 800 years.
Today, the government will be chewing over whether to overturn the EU's ruling in Britain and allow Syngenta pesticides to be used... I have emailed the PM to try to persuade him about the damage this could do to our already failing bee populations. One truly alarming thing I read yesterday is that urban bees are doing better than rural ones because they are less likely to come across deadly pesticides. It's so weird to think of the Green and Pleasant Land becoming a dead canvas. Just as the UN tries to give a clear focus on the connection between healthy environment and healthy humanity,(http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=7821) it seems Britain is still focusing on economy at the cost of ecology in a very 19th century kind of way. It isn't all about the government either. We, the people, don't want to know.
As I write this, I'm staring out of the french windows at all the gold and green - the latter added to by rampant and very happy parrots squawking in the trees. A very young fox just bimbled out into the garden, eyes blinking at the sunshine. It jumped about four feet on noticing me and one of the cats staring at it, and ran off, terrified, down the back lane. Another one, full grown I think, followed it less than a minute ago.
Life can be really pretty. I don't know why we have to mess it up.
Today, the government will be chewing over whether to overturn the EU's ruling in Britain and allow Syngenta pesticides to be used... I have emailed the PM to try to persuade him about the damage this could do to our already failing bee populations. One truly alarming thing I read yesterday is that urban bees are doing better than rural ones because they are less likely to come across deadly pesticides. It's so weird to think of the Green and Pleasant Land becoming a dead canvas. Just as the UN tries to give a clear focus on the connection between healthy environment and healthy humanity,(http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=7821) it seems Britain is still focusing on economy at the cost of ecology in a very 19th century kind of way. It isn't all about the government either. We, the people, don't want to know.
As I write this, I'm staring out of the french windows at all the gold and green - the latter added to by rampant and very happy parrots squawking in the trees. A very young fox just bimbled out into the garden, eyes blinking at the sunshine. It jumped about four feet on noticing me and one of the cats staring at it, and ran off, terrified, down the back lane. Another one, full grown I think, followed it less than a minute ago.
Life can be really pretty. I don't know why we have to mess it up.