Dec 9
The argument that cocaine users are destroying the environment is
rapidly leading its proponents into a spiraling abyss of irony and
incoherence: If you're into charlie, snow, or a few lines of snort,
Colombia's Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón has a message for
you: your cocaine use is a "predator of the rain forest" and a serious
threat to human life. "Cocaine use requires a disposable income
and during the week many users drive hybrid cars and recycle. Then, on
the weekend, he or she destroys everything they believe in," Calderón
said. [Huffington Post] Wait, what!? Did he just say that cocaine users are successful and
well-educated? Shall police start profiling Prius drivers for drug
searches? I remember the good old days when cocaine was supposed to
make you steal things and kill people. I can't even begin to imagine why you'd argue that cocaine is part
of a healthy lifestyle if your goal is to make people stop doing it. If
all this is true, then we can conclude rather easily that the problem
with cocaine is how it's produced and sold (which can be changed)
rather than what happens when people use it (which cannot). The two options are 1) illicit cocaine cultivation in the
rainforest, or 2) regulated cultivation somewhere else. There is no
third option in which everyone agrees not to do coke. If you wait for
that to happen while the rainforests burn, you're a bigger part of the
problem than the party people who drive Priuses. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2008/dec/08/are_cocaine_users_killing_the_ra
Dec 9
Green Drive Woodland is the biggest wood land area that Fylde
Borough Council manages with assistance from the Friends of Green Drive
group. In consultation with the group the Council's parks team will be
taking a look at the wood lands with a view to improving it. As part of the works some of the trees in the woodland area will be felled to encourage new growth. Councillor
Simon Renwick, Cabinet Member for Community Services said: "As with all
woodland areas it is very easy for them to become overgrown which then
poses a threat to the area. By felling some of the trees we will be
able to give the remaining plant life a chance to establish itself
better making the area much more stable." The management plan for
the area will then be updated to include plans for new tree planting in
the future to extend and rejuvenate the popular walking spot. The
Friends of Green Drive, and possibly other environmental groups, will
be involved throughout the process to ensure the works do not detract
from the character of the area or spoil the key features that visitors
enjoy. A representative of The friends of Green Drive said: "The
Friends of Green Drive help Fylde Borough Council in its day to day
management of Green Drive, which is a heaven for wildlife and is
enjoyed by so many people. We welcome this initiative as we are
becoming concerned that many of the large trees, some planted 150 years
ago, need attention which beyond the 'friends' capability."http://www.fylde.gov.uk/NewsArticle.aspx?id=SXF90A-A7826B93&cat=1524
Dec 9
Dressed in thick weatherproof dungarees, neoprene Hunter boots, woolly hats, and toting Deuter backpacks complete with integral-insulated sitting-mat for lunchtime, the children evidently don't notice the weather. The only time anyone mentions temperature all day is to exclaim "I'm a bit hot now", after a bit of energetic drumming on a pile of logs. It is 3C (37F) and there is ice on the ground from a recent snowfall. The children will be outside all day. "Small children don't notice the weather," says Cathy Bache, 48, a former drama teacher who started the Secret Garden nursery in September last year after four years as an increasingly outdoor-bound child minder. She now has 14 children attending two or three times a week in a wood above a village 15 miles from St Andrews. Because of the high staff/child ratio, the cost of Secret Garden is slightly more than a traditional nursery, at £34 a day per child. For the first time since Bache's nursery began, she has let a journalist follow the children into the woods to see how they fill their days. The children start to gather in the park of a local village from 8.30am and by 9.30am are beginning the walk up the hill to get into the woods by 10am. Activities are determined largely by what the children want to do. Bache and her assistants may instigate some creativity with nature, but only those who show an interest need to get involved. Most of the time is spent in imaginative freeplay. At 11.30am the children sit on their insulated mats and open their lunchboxes. There is often a lot of discussion about the contents, just as in any nursery. There is more freeplay after lunch and a snack at 2.30pm until the children start their walk back to the village at 4pm and a pick-up between 4.30pm and 5.30pm. "They just play, they don't have that adult perception that weather is either good or bad," Bache says. "Last January I woke up to a ferocious gale: a tree had come down in my garden. I thought we might have to keep the children inside. But every parent brought their child prepared for the wind and rain, so we found a sheltered dip in the woods and spent the day playing in it - after the children helped me to saw up the fallen tree."http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5308533.ece
Dec 9
A new research paper (see abstract below) on the behavioural
patterns of forest elephants has dealt a major blow to the myth of
'sustainable logging' in the rainforests of the Congo Basin. One of the
areas specifically referred to in the paper as being negatively
impacted is covered by the concessions of Congolaise Industrielle des
Bois (CIB) that is currently being 'pre-assessed' for FSC certification
by Rainforest Alliance SmartWood. CIB has already gained FSC certification
for two of its five concessions in northern Republic of Congo, which
together cover 1.3 million hectares of once pristine rainforest. The
earlier two concessions were certified by SGS, and it is not known why
CIB has decided to now switch certifier. Although SmartWood has circulated notices of its intent to carry out
a 'pre-assessment' of CIB's Loundougou concession from December
2nd-9th, the company does not feature on the Rainforest Alliance's
website under 'ongoing assessments', and neither is there a Country
Certification Assessment Standard for Congo. Exactly what SmartWood is
conducting its 'pre-assessment' against is therefore not known. Unfortunately for SmartWood, which is no doubt relishing the
prospect of breaking into the potentially highly lucrative Congo Basin
certification market by issuing the new CIB certificates, the elephants
of northern Congo are amongst the most researched in the world.
Numerous studies have shown how they play an absolutely critical role
in the forests' ecological processes, such as through the dispersal of
tree seeds in their dung, and creating disturbed areas in which forest
plants can regenerate. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which has led
much of the research in northern Congo, has decribed the role of
elephants as being akin to 'forest engineers'. Any process, such as the building of logging roads, which serves to
threaten the distribution or activities of forest elephants, is a major
threat to the ecological balance of the forest itself. The new research
shows that elephants are critically limited by the opening of roads
which they are highly reluctant to cross, particularly those outside
strictly protected areas, and therefore retreat to un-roaded areas. http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2008/12/07/Congolaise_Industrie
Dec 8
May the beginning bring an end so their can be a beginning again!
