Celebrities protest against Fracking - Leo Sayer, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono and King Arthur Pendragon

Leo Sayer says "No Fracking Way"

Celebrities around the world are joining the general public in campaigning to stop fracking, which term is a shorter way of saying hydraulic fracturing. British rock star and singer-songwriter Leo Sayer. who relocated to Australia, has moved away from pop to protest with his song No Fracking Way. Leo assembled a group of singers and musicians to support him in protesting at the Australian government's policy on fracking.  

Hydraulic fracturing diagram (Photo: Mikenorton)

This practice of mining for gas and oil disrupts neighbourhoods with increased traffic, pollutes the groundwater and environment with toxic chemicals, damages the landscape, is a threat to species of flora and fauna, and is even known to cause earthquakes. This is why so many people worldwide are saying a loud NO to it!

Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono and Artists Against Fracking

Don't Frack My Mother

Sean Lennon, and Yoko Ono head a cast of artists who recorded a humorous yet deadly serious protest song entitled Don't Frack My Mother. They are part of a team of Artists Against Fracking and are focusing their efforts on stopping fracking in the New York area, as a first step in a global campaign. Over 200 internationally famous singers, bands and stars of stage and screen have shown their support for this.  It is a very long and diverse list of celebrities from all parts of the entertainment industries behind this and names include, Lady Gaga, Beck, Paul McCartney,  Carrie Fisher, Beastie Boys,  Gwyneth Paltrow,  David Crosby, Ringo Starr, Roberto De Niro, Polyphonic Spree, and the Patti Smith Group.

King Arthur Pendragon

King Arthur at Stonehenge Summer Solstice (Photo Ann Wuyts)

Meanwhile in the UK, eco-warrior and Druid, King Arthur Uther Pendragon, who often features in the media due to his campaigns for Truth, Honour and Justice and who is titular head of the Loyal Arthurian Warband Druid Order, has spoken out against fracking. 

King Arthur shared these words on his Facebook page today:

"Twenty Years on from Newbury, Let not, 'Call me Dave' Cameron forget the passion and the numbers mobilized and let him not think for one moment that we will stand by and let his government 'Frack' this 'once green and Pleasant land' against the wishes of her People. She is 'our' land and will protect those who stand by her side. In Nature we trust, in Government we do not." 

By the way, there is an excellent book about King Arthur Pendragon, which he co-authored with C.J. Stone. The book is entitled The Trials of Arthur Revised Edition.

An here is Arthur in the trailer for a documentary about him.

Petitions to Stop Fracking

Please sign these petitions and let's do what we can to stop fracking!  

STOP THE SHALE GAS EXTRACTION!

SAY NO TO FRACKING!

STOP FRACKING NOW! 

The once Common Eel is now Critically Endangered

The European Eel is no longer common

The European Eel (Anguilla anguilla)  used to be known as the Common Eel, and when I was a boy this was an apt name, however, this is no longer the case because this species of eel is now listed as Critically Endangered. In 2010, Greenpeace International added this fish to its red list. 

European Eel (Photo: Public Domain)

European Eels have a most unusual lifecycle. The adults spawn in the Sargasso Sea and the baby eels travel across the oceans to return to fresh waters far far away. How they navigate is not understood. They drift as larval eels for around 300 days before transforming into a stage known as "glass eels," which occurs when they approach the coasts.  Eventually they enter estuaries in the UK and Europe and transform again into elvers in the fresh water. The eels travel upstream and will also travel overland in storms. They live in rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds where they grow much larger and are known as "yellow eels," but after between five and twenty years or more they become adults that must return to the sea. The final stage is known as the "silver eel," and these eels swim all the way back to the Sargasso Sea where they breed and then die.

When I was younger the European Eel used to be one of the most easily found freshwater fish. You just had to go to any river or stream and turn over a few stones and you would be likely to see young eels or elvers.  In Cardiff, where I lived, there is a weir in Llandaff, and every year countless thousands of elvers used to try and ascend it. To do this they would leave the water at the edge of the weir and slither up the mossy wet rocks and wall.  If you put a bucket or net underneath and disturbed the mass of young eels at the top you would quickly get a net or bucket full of them. That was how easy they were to catch. Nearly every rock in the river would have elvers hiding underneath it or larger eels.  That was then but it is a very different story today, so what has happened? 

One of many endangered species

Like so many once common species, the European Eel is now rarely seen in Britain today and its numbers have dropped very dramatically.  Since the 1970s, it has been estimated that eels reaching Europe have declined in numbers by over 90%, possibly as much as 98%. This is surely a warning sign that all is not at all well, when it comes to the natural world and the flora and fauna of the UK.

So what has gone so wrong and where have all the eels gone?  The reasons are many and include: overfishing, hydroelectric dams and barrages blocking the way for the eels to ascend and descend rivers,  parasites, pollution and changes in the currents in the oceans. Whatever the cause may be, the eels have gone, and with them has gone the food source for many species of water birds, including Kingfishers, predatory fish, like the Pike, and even some mammals too, such as the Otter.  The eel is an important part of a food-chain, and without it other species are sure to suffer.  

Saving the European Eel

Fortunately all hope is not yet lost for the future survival of the European Eel. Fish passes are being increasingly installed in rivers with weirs and dams, so that eels and other fish, such as salmon, are able to get upstream.  

The number of eels is being monitored and there are projects in operation to save the European Eel. Restocking inland waters with young eels is one method that is being put into practise. 

The Guardian has reported that conservationists have suggested that the decline in numbers of the species has been halted and possibly reversed.  I hope this is true but it is far too early to know for sure! 

Where does all the plastic go?

Plastic trash (Photo: Public Domain)

Where does all the plastic go? 

Into the sea, into the sea.

How does it get there, who threw it away?

Was it you or was it me?

Oceanic Gyres of Trash (Photo: Public Domain)

Plastic houseplants, why not real plants?

I saw the fake ones at the store,

Shoppers must want them, people must buy them;

I don't want to see any more.

It's not just hunting that'll kill the last whale,

Plastic will do it and it's a very sad tale.

What about the albatrosses?

They are dying out too,

They keep on fishing in the ocean's plastic stew.

These birds mate for life, only to watch their babies die,

From the plastic trash they feed them,

But they cannot understand why.

Remains of an albatross chick (Photo: Public Domain)

The plastic bag I bought, it very quickly broke,

If it ever gets burned there'll be poisonous smoke.

Plastic kills the turtles,

Plastic's eaten by the fish,

It is in the food chain,

And in the dinner on your dish.

Where does all the plastic go? 

Into the sea, into the sea.

How does it get there, who threw it away?

Was it you or was it me?

Paris’s Shortcomings: We Need Conservation, Not Conversation says David de Rothschild

Deforestation (Photo: Public Domain)

An excellent article entitled Paris’s Shortcomings: We Need Conservation, Not Conversation by author and explorer David de Rothschild, has been published by National Geographic, in which he talks about the serious shortcomings of the recent Paris conference on Climate Change. He points out the truly alarming rate at which our forests are being destroyed and species of plant and animal are becoming extinct daily. Nowhere near enough is being done to halt the ongoing destruction and nowhere near enough binding agreements have been made. It has been a lot more talk but not a lot of action!

David says: "...most experts agree that we are losing upwards of 80,000 acres of tropical rain forest every day. Factor in a statistic that says conservatively we’re loosing anywhere between 135-200 plant, animal, and insect species every day, and you realize that between now and 2020, we stand to lose 1,460,000,000 acres of tropical forest and 273,750 species!"

Beekeeper (Photo: Public Domain)

I hear what he is saying loud and clear!  It really saddens me to know how many species we are losing all the time.  You do not have to know much about nature to see that once common birds and butterflies are vanishing, as are honeybees, which we are told is due to Colony Collapse Disorder.

In the UK, most butterfly species are in rapid decline, as are formerly common birds like the House Sparrow.

House Sparrow (Photo: Public Domain)

Every time I talk to my elderly father, who lives in Cardiff, he complains about how he no longer sees birds like blackbirds, starlings, great tits, robins, green finches, wrens and hedge sparrows, all of which used to be regular visitors to his back garden.  When I have visited him I have seen for myself that these birds have gone.  So too have the swifts. These birds used to nest on houses in the street my father lives in. In May you would hear and see them all the way along the road but no longer is this the case.

I have recently blogged about the shocking decline in hedgehogs in the UK. They are now down to less than one million.  These animals used to be a common sight in our gardens at night.

So I know what David de Rothschild is talking about is true. We are losing species daily and we cannot bring them back.  Extinction cannot be undone.  Extinct means gone for good!

I thoroughly recommend De Rothschild's book The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate Change, and his Plastiki Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans.  This second book is about the voyage De Rothschild made across the ocean. He saw for himself that the fishes and marine life have vanished. Pollution by plastic and overfishing are destroying marine life daily and little is being done to stop this.  Too little too late is being done to stop the environmental destruction happening worldwide!

A Silent Spring for Seabirds

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Rachel Carson (Photo: Public Domain)

Rachel Carson's best-selling book Silent Spring gave a grim warning about the dangers of pesticides when it was published in 1962. It correctly predicted that DDT and other pesticides would take a terrible toll on wildlife, and in particular birds. Without birds singing it would be a Silent Spring, and hence the title.  Her book spurred on the environmental movement in a massive way, caused many changes and became a modern classic but it couldn't predict the extreme danger from plastic pollution that was fast approaching. In the 1960s when Carson's book came out less than 5% of seabirds had plastic inside them but by the 1980s it had increased dramatically to 80%.

90% of seabirds have eaten plastic

National Geographic has recently revealed in a shocking report by Laura Parker that today as many as 90% of marine birds have eaten plastic. That means most seagulls, gannets, shearwaters, terns, albatrosses, frigate birds, petrels, kittiwakes, razorbills, boobies, penguins and puffins are likely to have swallowed plastic. The birds mistake plastic for sea creatures and fish with dire results. They are unable to digest plastic, unable to excrete it and so the toxic material accumulates somewhere inside them. As the plastic builds up with each plastic item swallowed so the room for real food gets less. Plastic also contains toxins that can gradually poison a bird to various degrees and lead to its reproductive failure. Sharp-edged plastic items can puncture internal organs and lead to bleeding and death.

Washed up plastic trash (Photo: Public Domain)

This is happening worldwide because waste plastic is being carried down rivers, streams and sewers into the oceans, in addition to the discarded plastic rubbish from ships and left carelessly littering beaches and coastlines. Plastic is washing up on beaches and looks almost like dead fish. Plastic items including bottles, bottle-caps, cups, bags, straws, lighters, spoons, toys and pieces of plastic packaging are floating around or washed onto beaches and look like food to a hungry seabird. 

It is not just at sea because gulls that are so well-suited as scavengers, and which are increasingly colonising our cities and feeding from rubbish dumps are mistaking plastic for food too with disastrous results as can be seen in this video.

Seagull eating a plastic bag

It is estimated that by 2050 every seabird will have eaten plastic!

Albatrosses

Remains of a Laysan albatross chick (Photo: Forest & Kim Starr)

The magnificent albatross, in all of the species, is a type of seabird in which plastic pollution is causing widespread fatalities among the chicks. Parent birds are feeding all sorts of plastic items to their hungry babies not knowing that they are actually killing their young ones. The baby birds cannot regurgitate the plastic trash and cannot digest it either. The rubbish accumulates inside them and they become undernourished, stressed and eventually die.  The helpless parent birds can only look on in horror!

The following video shows how bad the situation really is:

Plastic in albatross chicks at Midway Atoll

All types of albatross are recognised as endangered species. Can you imagine a world without these birds? Can you imagine a world without seabirds where we can no longer hear the cry of the seagull?

Seagulls in flight (Photo: Public Domain)

 Can you picture rocky cliffs and islands no longer used as breeding sites for seabird colonies?  Plastic is one of the many serious threats to seabirds of all types and, the way things are going, it looks as if these birds are heading for extinction unless something can be done to halt their decline. 

Whales and turtles

Footage of whale who died after eating plastic bags

And it is not just the seabirds that are in danger because of plastic trash that they eat. Whales and turtles, as well as many other types of marine life are eating the material. Beached and dead whales are being found with masses of plastic bags and other rubbish inside them and turtles too are suffering the same fate of dying after consuming plastic. These marine reptiles eat the material after mistaking it for jellyfish.

Sea turtle eating plastic

Fly-tipping is illegal but on the increase - a sign of the times!

 

Illegally dumped rubbish. Photo by Steve Andrews

Fly-tipping or illegal dumping is on the increase in many places. It is unsightly, a potential health hazard, damaging to the environment and against the law.

Sadly our countryside, back lanes, roadsides and other areas of public space are getting filled with rubbish. Litter is bad enough, especially plastic items that can end up in rivers and drains and make their way to the sea where they can kill turtles, seabirds and whales, but all sorts of domestic and industrial garbage and waste materials are getting dumped. 

Plastic bags can easily get blown into waterways or end up in the branches of trees or stuck in bushes and hedgerows.

It is mainly domestic rubbish that gets so irresponsibly dumped like this but also materials from industry and construction gets thrown away too. Besides looking like the mess that it is, illegally dumped rubbish attracts rats and other pests, and can contain dangerous toxic materials that can be a serious health risk to animals and humans.

Large items, such as mattresses, old cookers and fridges, are just as likely to be dumped as bags of smaller types refuse.  Clothes, kitchen utensils, toys, garden rubbish, broken glass, carpets, rugs, bricks, building materials, televisions, tyres, broken flowerpots, tiles and furniture are some of the items and materials that are often thrown away like this.

Fly-tipping in Portugal Photo by Steve Andrews

The varied and beautiful countryside of Portugal, where I am now living, is so often spoiled by this serious problem. Back home in the UK the situation is just as bad. 

A report by The Guardian newspaper states that fly-tipping is up as much as by 20% in England after many years in which it was diminishing. 

Higher taxes on legally dumping rubbish at landfill sites, as well as cuts in local services are blamed for the problem. Closures of recycling depots and not as efficient local rubbish collection services have helped increase the problem of fly-tipping too. 

Although flytipping is against the law and local authorities will take action to prosecute offenders, it is often difficult to find out who the culprits are and much of the activity is carried out under cover of darkness. 

It is difficult to understand the people who care so little about the environment and the health of others with the eyesores they create with their illegal dumping of trash. 

Personally it makes me very annoyed seeing how this problem is getting worse. It really ruins my day when I am out enjoying a walk but come across a mouldering pile of refuse cast into an area of natural beauty!

So what can be done about this?  Of course, if we see it going on we can call the police, or if by some chance we know who is responsible then it can be reported. Unfortunately this environmental crime is so often carried out under cover of darkness.

Perhaps local groups of volunteers can be organised to help clean up countryside sites too? 

It is really such a shame and a sad sign of the times to see our rural areas being turned into rubbish dumps!

Detox For Your Home With Houseplant Decoration

Houseplants in window In Public Domain

Most people know that houseplants can contribute to a natural atmosphere, but they might be unaware of the fact that indoor plants can make them a healthier person. As always, being environmentally conscious is important, but we should also be thinking about how to bring the natural world into our living spaces using a variety of  houseplants for our own health as well as considering them for their natural beauty.

Indoor plants, as decoration, not only look good and add a splash of colour but they can actually help make your home a healthier place to live by cutting down on pollutants in the air. Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis), ivy (Hedera helix) and the mother-in-law’s-tongue or snake plant (Sanseveria trifasciata), for example, are all recommended for improving air quality.

Mother-in-law's tongue  In Public Domain

One way you can plot out your plants is by using 3D design software on the Internet. This method can help you with deciding where each type of houseplant is most likely to thrive. You can also get an idea of what space is available and how much lighting there is by using a bird’s eye view.

Natural light coming in through windows, as well as keeping plants in good condition, can enhance the foliage, casting some shadows that add depth and create some interesting visual effects.

Most houseplants look best against a simple and uncluttered background to provide contrast. Plants also help you scale the look of your rooms, as including bigger plants in your space ironically gives rooms a larger feel. The Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa) and the rubber plant (Ficus elastica) have been very popular for many years but they need the space to grow and really look their best.

Ficus elastica In Public Domain

You will be spending most of your time in the living room so this is a good place to distribute them. Plants have been proven to have positive effect on mood and they can help your relax. In fact your grandparents were probably resting by an aspidistra or cast iron plant (Aspidistra elatior). This traditional plant is easy to grow in the living room or lounge.

Cilantro leaves  Photo by Steve Andrews

Herbs like cilantro (Coriandrum sativum), chives (Allium schoenoprasum) and basil (Ocimum basilicum) can be grown for convenience in the kitchen and provide an array of health benefits. They also add a touch of natural charm to your home and flavour to your cooking.

The symbiotic relationship plants provide extend even into the bathroom. Ferns will benefit from the humidity and release oxygen into the air to help you wake up in the morning. The maidenhair fern in particular (Adiantum aethiopicum) loves cool damp air and has delicate pale green fronds.

Christmas cactus In Public Domain

You can even add a seasonal touch to your home by growing bulbs like hyacinths indoors in spring, and the colourful Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera species) will flower in the festive season.

Christmas cactus flower In Public Domain

Concert for Ocean Aid is an idea

Plastic rubbish on a beach

An idea based on Live Aid and Band Aid

I don't know about you but the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the appalling way the clean-up and stopping of the leak was handled really depressed me. I still cannot stop thinking about all the billions of sea birds, turtles, dolphins, fish and other marine creatures that will have lost their lives because of this tragedy, and the damage to the coast and marshland, as well as to the livelihoods of people who live in the States affected, is immeasurable.

Besides the ongoing ecological disaster, there is the very serious danger being caused by marine pollution by plastic. David de Rothschild sailed across the Pacific Ocean on 2009 on a catamaran made entirely from used plastic bottles and called the Plastiki. One of the main purposes of his expedition was to raise awareness of the pollution of the oceans by plastic waste.

All over the world people who are disgusted by what has happened to our seas are saying something must be done. I have been thinking deeply about it all and have come up with an idea based around the success in the past of the Band Aid charity single and the more recent Live Aid rock and pop concerts.

Ocean Aid the concert

The original idea for Band Aid had been hatched by Sir Bob Geldof, who with the help of Midge Ure, had assembled a collection of pop and rock singers to lend their talents to a charity single entitled Do They Know It's Christmas? It was recorded and released under the collective name of Band Aid.

Bob Geldof

It swiftly became a number one single. Singers involved included Bono from U2, Boy George, George Michael, Bananarama and Paul Young.

From this in 1985, Live Aid followed on and in 2005 there was Live 8. These massive charity concerts featured appearances by a host of internationally famous pop and rock stars and were screened worldwide so were seen by billions of people.

If such events could be organised to help benefit the starving and poor people of the world then why not a similar effort being made to raise awareness about the dangers to our oceans and to raise funds for their protection?

As to where the money raised would go that would have to be worked out. There are activist groups like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd that work on marine environmental campaigns but there are many more organisations that are concerned with keeping the oceans as they should be. Perhaps a new one could be set up inspired by the growing need for something to be done to protect the oceans and their ecosystems?

It is not just plastic pollution and the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is killing marine life. Overfishing, bottom trawling and over-acidification of the seas are all wreaking havoc too. Because the water is becoming too acid coral reefs are disappearing and along with them go the complicated and very beautiful ecosystems of life that depend on them.

Anyway, having come up with the idea I did a bit of "Googling" to see if the term Ocean Aid was already being used. I was very pleased to find that a team of people have thought like me and that Ocean Aid 2010 had already been organised.

That doesn't stop a much bigger global event or series of concerts at stadium-sized venues to also happen though. An Ocean Aid single could be written, recorded and released and possibly to be followed by an album of songs written specially for it. The concert or concert series could all be recorded both as sound recordings and as visual footage that could be broadcast on worldwide TV and sold later as DVD releases.

Then there would be Ocean Aid merchandising. The possibilities are endless.

I am sure very many stars from the world of pop and rock music would be only too glad to be involved in this. Film stars and other celebrities could appear on stage at the concerts too as special guests.

It would of course be a lot of work organising all this that I have outlined here, but it has all been done before and to great success. I am presenting here the seed of the idea.

What is needed now is Sir Bob or someone else with the celebrity status and power to make this happen! Now are we going to make this happen? Who can help?

Ocean Aid links

·        Marine pollution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

·        David de Rothschild's supporters and fans on Facebook
Facebook site for David de Rothschild's supporters and fans

·        The Plastiki Expedition
The Plastiki, a boat made from 12,500 Plastic bottles, sailing from San Francisco to Sydney on a mission to showcase waste as a resource and highlight plastic pollution.