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Toby Carvery restaurant facing eviction over felling of ancient oak tree
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Costa Rica’s Cloud Forests
Earth and Leaf Editorial – Cloud Forests and Climate Change We don’t know whether Costa Rica’s cloud forests can cope with climate change. We need to try very hard not to find out. They are incredibly important biodiverse entities. Lets work hard and lets hope … The cloud forests in Costa Rica are under growing threat from climate change. AFP Extract Shrouded in mist, dripping with water and boasting an extraordinary richness of plant and animal life, the cloud forests of Monteverde in north-western Costa Rica offer a glimpse into what seems like another world. With vines curling down from the trees, and orchids and ferns in abundance, it is…
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Amol Rajan talks to Chris Packham – Radical
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First Climate Tipping Point Reached
First Climate Tipping Point Reached – A Catastrophe for Coral Reefs Earth and Leaf Editorial This is the inevitable news that the first climate tipping point reached. It has come sooner than I perhaps hoped. We now have to change our behaviour. Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns. This means we must cool the planet starting now which is a phenomenal task. Links to Other Relevant Stories Bottom Trawling Destroys the Seabed 1.5 Degrees Climate Target is Dead 3 Coral reefs face long-term decline now…
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The Argyll Street Ash
A Dazzling Victory – Argyle Street Ash in Glasgow wins tree of the year competition Earth and Leaf Editorial This is the story of the Argyll Street Ash. It is interesting to note that noone is complaining about subsidence or damage to foundations in this case, yet the tree could not be closer to the buildings. Too often we see homeowners complaining that a tree is damaging their property and an often mature tree unnecessarily loses its life. The Argyll Street Ash appears to be causing no such problems. This surprises me a little as Ash trees are shallow rooted. Having said that most trees are shallow rooted, constrained by…
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Japan has opened its first osmotic power plant
Japan has opened its first osmotic power plant – so what is it and how does it work? Earth and Leaf Editorial This is the story of Japan’s first osmotic power plant. It is, it appears, a net supplier of electricity and uses the brine from a desalination plant that provides fresh water to Fukuoka. The plant uses treated wastewater and concentrated brine from a desalination plant, making it a sustainable method that produces constant, carbon-free energy. This one technology we will follow closely and post updates whenever we can. Links to Other Relevant Stories How does the Fukuoka plant work? Japan’s first osmotic power plant uses the process of…
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Fig trees may benefit climate by turning carbon dioxide into stone
Some fig trees can convert surprisingly large amounts of carbon dioxide into stone, ensuring that the carbon remains in the soil long after the tree has died. This means that fig trees planted for forestry or their fruit could offer additional climate benefits through this carbon-sequestration process. All trees take up CO2 from the air, and most of that carbon typically ends up as structural molecules used to build the plant, such as cellulose. Some trees, however, convert CO2 into a crystal compound called calcium oxalate, which bacteria in the tree and the soil can then convert to calcium carbonate, the main component of stones like limestone and chalk. Carbon…
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The Appalling Effects of Bottom Trawling
The Appalling Effects of Bottom Trawling Bycatch Up to 75% of the total catch, known as by-catch is discarded, dumped back at sea, dead for the most part. This might even include sharks, certainly the smaller ones such as young Tope or Dogfish, mammals, dolphins and turtles. Vegetation destruction Coral destruction Coral is found all around the world, much is still undiscovered. All coral is already under threat from global warming. The “white sand” beaches of Western Scotland are coral. It takes tens of years to grow and is smashed and destroyed in seconds by bottom trawling. Carbon release Watch the video again. Sediment disturbance is one of the appalling…
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Ban Driven Grouse Shooting
Ban Driven Grouse Shooting Ban Driven Grouse Shooting Ban Driven Grouse Shooting – End the Gaslighting Earth and Leaf Editorial This is the story of the Focus Keyword Links to Other Relevant Stories 1 2 3 Extract The Focus Key Word A much-loved Focus Key Word Thankyou for reading. There are many more articles in the Earth and Leaf Library. More . . . . . First Climate Tipping Point Reached The Argyll Street Ash Japan has opened its first osmotic power plant The Appalling Effects of Bottom Trawling Ban Driven Grouse Shooting Would you eat a Cockroach Randy Borman Scotland feeds people, England feeds birds Worlds Hottest Year Regenerative…
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Would you eat a Cockroach
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Randy Borman
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Scotland feeds people, England feeds birds
Farmer Focus 'Scotland feeds people, England feeds birds' is a provocative heading from the Farmers Weekly, but interesting all the same. Why? It is the view of a large proportion of farmers (not all) that the UK government is anti-farming. It is not. In order to save our world farming must adapt and change. That is what we are about at Earth and Leaf. John Playfair-Hannay represents a lot of farmers, claiming Scotland feeds people, England feeds birds. Have a read and make up your own mind.
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Worlds Hottest Year
TBC
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Regenerative Agriculture and Soils – Best Practice
Regenerative Agriculture Imagine a pastoral scene.. Cows grazing on lush green grass, a vigorous vegetable garden, and sugar maple trees dominating a distant hill. Now imagine a feedlot with thousands of cows trampling in the dirt, the smell of rotten eggs wafting from a manure lagoon, and a couple dead cow carcasses waiting to be hauled away. Would you prefer to live next to a pastoral farm practicing regenerative agriculture or a factory farm housing thousands of cows? For most of us, the answer is easy. But the answer is not so easy if the question is: Which system–regenerative agriculture or factory farming–has the greatest potential to reduce…
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The UK Needs More Grazing Livestock
"Is it really the case that the UK needs more grazing livestock not less? The answer is emphatically no. However the species variety needs to change, numbers must fall and the way they are managed must be modified dramatically. I fully realise it was part of a light hearted debate, but it is provocative. Professor Jude Capper should know better. I am very surprised that someone at this academic level deliberately misleads her audience on the formation of soil in order to support their own misguided belief that they are guardians of the countryside."
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Remembering Gerald Durrell at 100
I will be remembering Gerald Durrell at 100 which is what he would have been yesterday. I devoured Gerald Durrell's books as a child. I read the lot, several times over. I fell in love with nature and our environment long before I fell in love with farming. Our family farm was pretty unintensively managed. My life has gone full circle and now I am fighting for nature and farming.
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Upland farmers face huge cut in profit
Upland farmers face huge cut in profit. This is exactly what Earth and Leaf is about - fixing this problem. Of course, the headline Upland farmers face huge cut in profit" implies upland farming is profitable which is an interesting assumption. Let's get these farmers a decent income in return for a sustainable output. Keep farming families on the land, provide employment, reduce environmental damage, reduce carbon emissions and boost woodland and wildlife. By the way, its not just Yorkshire that will be badly affected. This is what our Shepherds of the Trees project aims to do and to do it we have to change hearts and minds.
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Improve carcase weight and meat quality
“Shorter lairage will improve carcase weight and meat quality. It is really all about stress and fear. The practice is inherently cruel. Transporting the animals long distances to modern “efficient” abattoirs is another factor. If we can, through sustainability and regenerative farming practices, de-intensify livestock production it will also help.” {Earth and Leaf Editorial} Shorter lairage will improve carcase weight and meat quality Shorter pre-slaughter lairage improves carcase weight and meat quality, study shows SHORTER waiting times before slaughter for cattle at Australian Country Choice’s Cannon Hill processing facility could produce a 4.64kg/carcase weight advantage, according to a new study. Shared across the wider Australian red-meat…
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Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs, US agency says
“If the Arctic Tundra is really emitting more carbon than it absorbs then we are in some peril. We simply have to dramatically reduce CO2 and methane production and do this very quickly. Even if you are a global warming sceptic you cannot take the risk.” {Earth and Leaf Editorial} Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs, US agency says The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon sink, the US National…
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Why grouse moors deliver more nature – opinion from the hunters
Tim Bonner on "Why grouse moors, not the RSPB, deliver more nature". This is a persuasively written piece of rank propaganda and is factually and massively incorrect. We have put this in the library in the hope that our members and subscribers will read this drivel and realise the enormity of our task. We have to educate and change hearts and minds. The article is a shocking propaganda piece for some of the wealthiest people in our country and an outdated and antiquated land management system. It also is taking a very unfair and unjustified pot shot at the RSPB. We need to ban driven gamebird shooting across the board.
