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Rivers and streams, not stinking drains please
Here’s a topic very close to our hearts. We’ve experienced at first hand, the inconsistency, unfairness and impotence of token gestures by responsible authorities who are afraid or unwilling to tackle the real culprits and instead pick on easy targets. In our case, small, self-builders. The issue in question is river pollution by raw sewage. The source, as outlined in the following article, is overwhelmingly from livestock farming but local authorities have recently taken a hard line stance on any planning applications for private homes. We have a small river flowing through our land and we feel an enormous sense of protective guardianship towards it. Any suggestion of upstream corruption…
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The REAL Cost of Fashion
The following contains excerpts from the article The Environmental Costs of Fast Fashion by Patsy Perry, 8 January 2018. It’s tempting to bow to fashion pressure and replace our clothing as style and conformity dictate. It’s hard to resist the tempting deals in the January and other sales. But how many of us spare a thought for the impact of fast fashion on the environment? Fast fashion focuses on speed and low costs. But the price of delivering frequent new collections inspired by catwalk looks or celebrity styles is a high one. Pressure to reduce cost and the time it takes to get a product from design to shop floor…
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DO Sweat The Small Stuff
This post contains excerpts from the article, Detrimental Effects of Littering posted by Rehan Ahmad in EcoMENA, May 2018. In A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams introduced the concept of the SEP…Somebody Else’s Problem. Ford Prefect stated, “An SEP is something we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem…. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you won’t see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye.” But even the…
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Asphyxiation of the Planet
More than half of Earth’s rain forests have already been lost due to the human demand for wood and arable land. Rain forests that once grew over 14 percent of the land on Earth now cover only about 6 percent. And if current deforestation rates continue, these critical habitats could disappear from the planet completely within the next hundred years. The reasons for plundering rain forests are mainly economic. Wealthy nations drive demand for tropical timber, and cash-strapped governments often grant logging concessions at a fraction of the land’s true value. “Homesteader” policies also encourage citizens to clear-cut forests for farms. Sustainable logging and harvesting rather than clear-cutting are among the strategies key to halting rain forest loss.…
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Our Dying Oceans
Over 80% of marine pollution comes from land-based activities. From plastic bags to pesticides – most of the waste we produce on land eventually reaches the oceans, either through deliberate dumping or from run-off through drains and rivers. This includes: OilOil spills cause huge damage to the marine environment – but in fact are responsible for only around 12% of the oil entering the seas each year. According to a study by the US National Research Council, 36% comes down drains and rivers as waste and runoff from cities and industry. FertilizersFertilizer runoff from farms and lawns is a huge problem for coastal areas. The extra nutrients cause eutrophication – flourishing of algal blooms…