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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 effects of bottom trawling. Ocean floor sediment stores billions of tonnes of carbon. Bottom trawling releases that carbon. Breeding ground destruction The Appalling Effects of Bottom Trawling We have of …
Ban Driven Grouse Shooting Ban Driven Grouse Shooting
John Playfair-Hannay
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.
Marianne Krasny
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 farming’s climate footprint?
Albie Matthews
“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.”
Daniel Grossman
The Amazons biggest trees are dying. Really? Forest coroners investigate. As tropical forests are degraded and decline at increasing rates the world over, the fate of these forests’ largest trees remains unknown. Big trees store a huge amount of carbon, so assessing their current mortality rates and causes of death (especially due to escalating climate change) is vital to calculating how much tropical forest carbon sinks could decline in the future. In perspective too, the biggest trees are quite likely to be the oldest trees. This in part may be why the Amazons biggest trees are dying.
Ella Creamer
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.
Eric Holthaus
Do nothing, that is the best climate resolution this year. Everything else we (you) do seems to make no difference. That must not stop us trying. I’d ask one small thing. Show your friends this website, it might just help.
Stuart Minting
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.
Sue Webster
“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 industry, the research findings could offer a way to improve economic returns for livestock producers and meat processors and improve meat eating quality for consumers. University of New England honours student Holly Speers found that reducing …
Dharna Noor
“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 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Tuesday. This drastic shift is detailed in Noaa’s 2024 Arctic Report Card, which revealed that annual surface air temperatures in the Arctic this year were the second-warmest on record …
Tim Bonner
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.
James McCarthy
Sheep have shaped our upland landscape in far greater ways than many of us imagine. Land clearances paved the way for Scottish deforestation. We have an unusually structured sheep farming system. Have a look at this article and then have a look at our links.
Euractiv.com with Reuters, Reactiv, Reuters
“Brazil has asked the European Union to hold back on implementing its deforestation law. The EU must get on with implementing the deforestation law, but in return we need to have talks about supporting Brazil to rehabilitate the rainforest and look at just transition for legitimate local Brazilian farmers but not huge agri-businesses like Cargill. The UK must also implement the same law and should also put tariffs on Soya from the USA.” {Earth and Leaf Editorial} Brazil has written to the EU to ask it hold off on implementing deforestation law REMOVED PHOTO (280) epa10180074 View of the fire in a farm the Brazilian Amazon, in the Manaquiri, Brazil, 09 September 2022(issued 12 September 2022). Deforestation and fires coexist, side by side, with the asphalting works of BR-319, the controversial Brazilian highway that is leaving a trail of devastation as it …
AP
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – 1 billion trees. At last. A government taking the crisis seriously. Planting 1 billion trees is still not enough. With dietary changes, every country in the world must do this and more. But we are over the moon here at Earth and Leaf, one comment though is why acquire the land from the farmers. Shepherds of the Trees!} {extract below} Denmark will plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish lawmakers on Monday agreed on a deal to plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest and natural habitats over the next two decades in an effort to reduce fertilizer usage. The government called the agreement “the biggest change to the Danish landscape in over 100 years.” “The Danish nature will change in a way we have not seen since …
Damian Carrington
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – climate crisis is to blame for extreme weather} {extract below} How do we know that the climate crisis is to blame for extreme weather? It is a crucial question: is the climate crisis to blame for the extreme weather disasters taking lives and destroying homes around the world. But it has not been an easy one to answer. How much is due to global heating, how much is just the severe weather that has always happened? The good news is that the scientific techniques used to untangle that question – called climate attribution – are now well established. The bad news is what they reveal: the studies show that the burning of fossil fuels has changed the climate so dramatically that heatwaves, floods and storms are now hitting communities with a severity and frequency never seen during the entire development of …
Oliver Milman
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – World’s 1.5C climate target deader than a doornail experts say. We need radical action. If this change accelerates earth will be uninhabitable in our childrens lifetime} {extract below} World’s 1.5C climate target deader than a doornail experts say The internationally agreed goal to keep the world’s temperature rise below 1.5C is now “deader than a doornail”, with 2024 almost certain to be the first individual year above this threshold, climate scientists have gloomily concluded – even as world leaders gather for climate talks on how to remain within this boundary. Three of the five leading research groups monitoring global temperatures consider 2024 on track to be at least 1.5C (2.7F) hotter than pre-industrial times, underlining it as the warmest year on record, beating a mark set just last year. The past 10 consecutive years have already been the hottest 10 years …
