» Listings for October 2022

1. Bug the new PM: Save nature in your first 100 days of government

   Posted on 4:00pm Saturday 22nd Oct 2022

   Change.org has a petition called Bug the new PM:  Save nature in your first 100 days of government.

   The  Organic Trade Board began the petition which now has over 48,000 signatures.

   Nature is falling silent

   Nature used to buzz loudly but her voices are being silenced.  We need to shout loud and clear for nature, for the earthworms, ladybirds and bees.  They have no voice, and no choice in the pesticides and fertilisers that are being sprayed on crops which lead to their decline.
   
   

   
   Please sign the petition
   Bug the Prime Minister here
   
   

   Nature is vital

   Insects are vital to a balanced ecosystem.  They are food for other animals.  And one in three mouthfuls of foods depends on our pollinators – we’d be in trouble without them.
   
   

   And organic farming can help

   Organic farming works with nature and encourages our pollinators  such as lady birds, bees and butterflies.  So plant, insect and bird life is 50% more abundant on organic farms – wild bees are 7 times more on organic grain fields.

   Substitute pesticides for farming practices which are more sustainable and this could slow or even reverse the decline in insects.
   
   

   About the petition: Bug the Prime Minister

   On behalf of the UK organic industry and nature, the Organic Trade Board (OTB), its partners and 150 members are using the petition on Change.org to give nature a voice.

   It is asking that, in their first 100 days of government, the new Prime Minister commits to PROTECTING nature in policies. And represents the UK at COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, in December.

   Even step helps keep to the keyworkers of nature thriving, so please take this step and sign the petition.
   
   

   Please sign the petition here

    

   The illustration by Kate Pankhurst, a children’s author and illustrator.  Kate is also a relation of Emmeline Pankhurst, who was a Suffragette
   
   

   More information to take a look at
   
   Go Organic - the website for Organic UK, the Organic Trade Board
   

   Buglife  is dedicated to conservation, education and policy change to protect insects, bugs and invertebrates. Find out more about insects, bugs and invertebrates and how you can help

   Garden Organic – the charity points out there are 15 million gardens in the UK.  If they were all cared for organically, it would create far better environment for people, plants and wildlife!  Do check out their Peat Free pages – there’s lots of help and advice

   The Wildlife Trusts have an Action for Insects campaign with ways in which individuals, councils and schools can help

2. #DefendNature from #AttackonNature

   Posted on 12:00pm Thursday 13th Oct 2022

    

   Well, there’s never been a more important time to stand up for nature and make a real noise about it.

   Friends of the Earth emailed this morning.  Essentially, the UK is planning what they describe as a bonfire of the laws protecting our environment.

   Even in national parks, the UK government’s investment zones could concrete the countryside.  Developers would have a field day. Rules which limit river protection could go.  So could those protecting us from toxic pesticides.  If the Retained EU Law Bill goes ahead, Friends of the Earth say that hundreds of environmental laws could be torn up.

   Friends of the Earth have a petition urging us all to stand up for nature.

   Prime Minister Liz Truss is going all out for deregulation on a scale never seen before. 

   We all need to unite like never before and stand up for nature.  Over 70 organisations – including Friends of the Earth – have written to the government demanding a change of direction.

   Please join with them by signing and sharing the petition today.  

   I am quoting from the petition page:

   "To: the UK government 

   • Don’t axe the laws that protect our environment – commit to making them stronger instead. 
   • Protect nature in “investment zones”. Don’t let them turn into concrete jungles bereft of wildlife. 
   • Make planning rules work for people and nature - especially communities with limited access to nature."

   As Friends of the Earth point out, a recent YouGov poll found that 81% of UK adults believe that wildlife and the environment are under threat.  We need to stand up for nature.  Just over 80,000 people voted Liz Truss in as PM.  That’s a tiny amount compared to the number of nature lovers in the UK.

   Please sign the petition here

   Find out more about #DefendNature here

   Please take the 5 steps outlined by the Wildlife Trusts and contact your local MP and councillor.  We need to make some serious noise for nature.

   Please join in the conversation about conservation and the People's Plan for Nature... find out more and join in (by 30th October 2022)
   
   

   We need to protect nature.

   The Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust 
   have an appeal to save nature, including chalk streams.
   Find out more here
   
   

    

3. Stop Rosebank oil and gas field

   Posted on 5:00pm Wednesday 12th Oct 2022

    

   350.org have a petition about a proposed new and enormous oil field called Rosebank. 

   350.org say that if this Rosebank oil field goes ahead, the annual CO2 emissions would be more than those of the 28 lowest-income countries in the world put together.

   350.org say that the Government should help tackle the cost-of-living crisis and our climate by kick-starting a fair transition to renewables and mass-insulating UK homes.

   It says that the only way the Government will reject those Rosebank oil and gas field is if they see HUGE public opposition to new North Sea oil and gas.

   Here’s the Conservative party manifesto for 2019, when they won the general election.  Check out their promises on climate change and fossil fuels.

   The UK Government could be:

   • Investing money into renewables for everyone
   • Help fossil fuel workers transition to other jobs
   • Take insulation and energy-saving measures to help us through the cost-of-living crisis.

   (Personally, I think it could also remove VAT off all products which mean we use more energy from renewables from washing lines for the garden and clothes horses (use the sun and wind to dry clothes) to solar power and wind power.)

   Add your name now: Demand that Liz Truss rejects Rosebank and ALL new North Sea oil and gas!

    

4. Fauna and Flora International have an urgent appeal to help the Grauer gorilla in Kanyama

   Posted on 8:00pm Friday 7th Oct 2022

    

   Fauna and Flora International (FFI) have an urgent funding appeal at the moment.

   It’s to stop the crisis in Kanyama in the Congo Basin in Africa.  The area has been hit hard by poachers.  Gorillas drifting outside the Maiko National Park are being hunted. Not much could be done to stop it.

   The Maiko National Park is a carbon sink.  It helps to fight climate change, and regular local climate patterns 

   A huge portion of the habitat of the Grauer gorilla lies outside the boundaries of the national parks. These forest areas are vulnerable to deforestation. 

   BUT change has happened! 

   Thanks to a recent change in legislation, FFI have the opportunity to formally protect the forest area by Local Community Forest Concession Kanyama.  The forest will be managed by the local community.  Teams of community rangers will patrol it, supported by FFI.

   And Fauna and Flora International think this change – in legislation – could mean the turning point for the Grauer gorilla.  The Grauer gorilla is endemic to the area. If they are lost from the DRC, then they are lost forever.

   60% of the beautiful Grauer gorilla has been lost in just 25 years.  They have been hunted and eaten.  Their homes have been eradicated by illegal mining agricultural conversion and logging.  They risk infection from human-bourne diseases.  They are critically endangered (IUCN Red List). 
   
   

   

   Find out more about this appeal here
   Please donate here
   image credit: Lindsey/Adobe Stock

   
   FFI want to act FAST

   They want to make the most of the opportunity this change in legislation has given them.

   Now, they need donations.  

   The donations are essential to train and equip local people to become effective community rangers.  They can then go into the field, monitoring gorilla movements, patrolling the forests and removing threats.

   What’s more, a very generous donor has agreed to increase every single donation made to the project by 400% until £88,963 has been raised.

   Donations will pay for:

   • Community rangers and training
   • Urgent supplies and equipment
   • The establishment of a protected area
   • Community outreach and awareness raising
   • Surveying and mapping gorilla habitat
   • Personnel and operations

   Illegal mining businesses are increasing their interest in the forests day by day so the sooner we can get the rangers out there protecting it, the better.  The mining businesses will destroy the habitat the gorillas need and an influx of poachers will arrive. 

   The Congo peafowl (the national bird of the DRC) and the endangered Opaki are also endemic to the Congo basin.  It’s also home to the Ground pangolin. 

   Please help FFI help the gorillas and other species

    

    

5. Panorama: The Green Energy Scandal Exposed - on BBC1 on 3 October 2022 at 8pm

   Posted on 6:35pm Monday 3rd Oct 2022

    

   Take a look at Panorama:  The Green Energy Scandal Exposed

   The programme's website says that Drax power station in Yorkshire provides 12% of the renewable energy in the UK.

   It's received £6 billion in green energy subsidies from the government. 

   Reporter Joe Crowley looks into where the wood comes from.   

   We need our forests.   Wildlife needs the forests.

   Visit the programme's website to find out more.