Blooming February

Although nights have been cold and we have had frosts like this until the sun arrives, things are very ahead of themselves this year.

Blackthorn is blossoming everywhere. The Green Fingered Photographer has an interesting post about blackthorn with all sorts of fascinating information I never knew. He's also a wonderful photographer.

Although we often see daffodils in February, it's not normally as early as mid-February.

I even spotted one tree whose leaves were starting to come out, a hawthorn. Admittedly it was the only one I could see, nevertheless it was a surprise to see it.

One swallow doesn't make a spring, so one advanced February doesn't make global warming, but it does make you wonder. I can't remember the last time we had "proper" snow here.

Conflicts of interest

The BBC reported the other day that the Scottish Executive were of a mind to reject proposals to pass plans for a windfarm of 181 turbines on the Isle of Lewis, which has been widely interpreted as a rejection. However the Executive have strongly stated that they have not yet made up their minds. (From EDIE).

On the one hand, the local council are in favour of the scheme because they consider it will revitalise the economy of the remote area, creating in the region of 400 jobs. Campagners against the project say that it will damage wildlife and an important wetland site.

Lewis Wind Power, have graphics on their site which give an impression of what the wind farm could look like.

Map from Ordnance Survey Get-a-Map

My personal view is that we should consider the bigger picture, within reason, and remember that if climate change continues, there will be no wetland. I don't find wind turbines offensive to look at, in fact I find them attractive. I like their clean lines.

Photo from Flickr user laurenispum. Creative Commons Licence.

Another conflict of interest comes closer to home for me. Solar panels are being considered by the Vatican, and France is incorporating solar power into many of its schemes to reduce carbon emissions, but we aren't allowed panels because we have contrived to live in conservation areas in both England and France. So they wouldn't look pretty. We have already insulated as much as possible. Oh, and we aren't allowed double glazing either.

I do understand the planners' concerns, but some consideration must be given to the situation. They are talking about taxing people on the amount of rubbish they produce, but if they don't provide good recycling facilities in some areas, people in the area have a problem. Similarly if they don't provide the means to avoid rising energy prices, some will be penalised if they aren't allowed take action to use more renewable energy.

Moving the goalposts

It was blogging for the environment day yesterday, so only a day late...

African farmers have been encouraged to produce organic crops, both for the price premium they command and because, as the Soil Association says "Organic farming is better for wildlife, causes lower pollution from sprays, produces less carbon dioxide and less dangerous wastes. This has been proven in a number of studies."

Organic production is still gaining popularity, an example being Kenyan coffee producers. The farmers use farm manure instead of fertilisers and natural pest control. The process of becoming organic is slow but ultimately fully organic coffee earns farmers up to $20 premium above the normal rate for every 50 kilo bag.

It is expensive to convert for two reasons:

• During the first four years there is considerable drop in production and almost the whole crop can be lost.
• Farmers have to pay $4500 to be audited for certification.

Having made this sort of commitment, it is no surprise then to read that farmers in Uganda, Ghana and Kenya are worried at the Soil Association's consultation on the question of whether they should remove the organic certification from any product which is air freighted. Reading the summary, I think most people would seem to think that it is unreasonable to ban air freight outright.

It seems especially unreasonable when Africa as a holiday destination is becoming increasingly popular. How galling to see tourists flying in when you are not allowed export your goods by the same means.

Coals to Newcastle?

According to the British Summer Fruits website, British raspberries are available from the end of May until mid-September.

Surely, surely, there is somewhere to source raspberries closer to the south of England than this:

I cannot believe that it's economically viable nor can I understand how Tesco considers it to be acceptable to fly raspberries from the USA, considering all that has been said about the environment. And they are, after all, grown in this country. We haven't all be under water.

Problems with water again

On the first day of this month I posted about the fact that some places have too little while others have to much.

In the slightly less than three weeks since, there have been numerous instances.

• Families stranded after river floods in western Kenya
• NEPAL: Flood victims face disease, food shortages
• BANGLADESH: Government says flood conditions stabilising
• COTE D'IVOIRE: Floods wipe out water source for hundreds of people
• SUDAN: One million people may be affected by floods
• LIBERIA: Sea destroys homes in coastal communities

And in Mauritania, where they had been praying for rain, it started on 7 August and now we hear that the subsequent flooding has produced health and sanitation problems.

In spite of the floods in western Kenya, there are also worries about the falling levels of rivers, according to IRIN. Experts believe that the cause of it is deforestation which allows the soil to be eroded so that it can no longer hold rainwater which would seep into the rivers. Instead it just evaporates, or causes flash floods. The good news is that careful management, planting 4 kilometres of trees and monitoring usage, has started to have an effect and river levels are rising again.

There are similar concerns about deforestation in Burkina Faso where a campaign to replant started on 4 August. So far 3,500 trees have been planted. The report is in French.

Back to Kenya again, to listen to a doctor in Denver, Dr Pius Kamau, who grew up in Kenya. He gives an account of how his family's small coffee plantation has dried up and failed. Interesting the contrast he draws between Starbucks springing up on every corner while his mother couldn't make ends meet on her farm producing coffee beans. And he comes full circle when he wonders how much African wildlife or how many African tribesmen are killed by his lifestyle now.

Til taught by pain, men really know not what good water is worth

Water has featured greatly in the news recently. Too much of it in some places: UK, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Sudan, but not enough in others: Lesotho, Swaziland, Djibouti, and today we hear that the president of Mauritania has asked for national prayers to ensure the rainy season starts soon and provides enough rain.

Countries that have neither too much nor too little have other problems with it.

In Kenya, there is a worry that the Anopheles mosquito, which spreads malaria, will become adapted to living in polluted water and invade previously relatively malaria-free areas like Nairobi. Malaria is now the most common disease in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s slums.

Again in Nairobi, in another slum, there have been demonstrations protesting over cuts in the water supply. There had been cuts for five days in an effort to stop illegal connections to the mains.

In Jordan hundreds of people have been taken to hospital with severe diarrhoea caused by a parasite in the water supply. The parasite, Cryptosporidium, is resistant to traditional water treatment.

In Senegal a water channel running through the centre of Dakar, the capital, has become an open sewer. People, not realising it was intended as a recreation area nor understanding the implications of polluting the water, have dumped rubbish in it, so much so that the water has become stagnant in places allowing mosquitoes to breed.

It’s not surprising then that organisations such as WaterAid exist, whose vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.

When you read about people being delighted that they can go three times a day to collect clean water from a hand pump, you realise we sometimes need to take a moment to understand how much most of us take safe water for granted, whereas for large parts of the world it is a luxury.

A plague of locusts

Locusts are a type of grasshopper which can breed very rapidly. Swarms of adults or bands of nymphs can travel extremely fast up to 130km a day and the swarm itself can measure from one to several hundred kilometres in length, posing a serious threat to agriculture.

According to the FAO, locusts regularly cross the Red Sea (a distance of 300km). A swarm can hold up to 80 million locust adults in each square kilometre, and is capable of destroying a crop field in seconds. A small swarm can eat as much food in a day as 2,500 people.

This year’s desert locust problem has proven particularly bad after heavy rains around the Horn of Africa and the interior of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, providing suitable conditions for the locusts to breed.

As long ago as March of this year the FAO warned that there was a locust infestation developing in the Horn of Africa, which could cause a serious problem in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. It was the result of breeding from an outbreak in December in Eritrea.

In April the Yemen government was concerned but specialists said the locusts didn't pose an immediate threat, but that the next generation could.

By 8 May there was a further warning for Eritrea followed by one for Yemen where they had been seen laying eggs.

By 16 May locust invasions in Tajikistan had destroyed crops and cotton plantations over an area of almost 45,000 hectares. It is thought that this year’s locust invasion is related to the drought that has affected the area over the past two years. The locusts usually concentrate on mountain pastures and forests but when there is no grass as a result of drought they migrate to feed on agricultural crops.

In June Kyrgyzstan managed to combat the worst of a locust infestation in the south of the country they but remain as a threat in other regions. Locusts are a major current threat to Kyrgyzstan’s agriculture sector, which accounts for about one third of the country’s gross domestic product and 50 per cent of employment.

Also in June Yemen’s Desert Locusts Control Centre asked the government to increase its budget after the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said Yemen was facing its worst locust infestation in nearly 15 years. In collaboration with the Yemeni government, it is to launch a major eradication effort against desert locusts in eastern Yemen.

Today it was reported that a swarm of locusts had infested parts of Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast, destroying crops and other vegetation, "There are millions of them and they are spreading to most of the region's farmland," said Muse Gelle, governor of Bari region. "There had been reports of locusts for about a week but the main body appeared three days ago and is eating anything that is green."

As the UN Special Humanitarian Envoy to the Horn of Africa said, that area has suffered some of the most severe food shortages, which are increasing in intensity and frequency as a result of climate and environmental change as well as political conflicts and other factors.

Some of the figures from the various reports are almost unimaginable, so the devastation must be more so. As if those parts of the world don’t have enough on their plates already.

Climate change affects us all

I have a bad habit of reading climate change reports and looking at how it will have an effect on my own life. But I live in a part of the world which could adapt: many don't.

ActionAid is an international agency fighting poverty in 42 countries worldwide. They have published a report that says climate change is being felt very acutely by some of the poorest communities. (The full report can be downloaded as a pdf file).

Of particular interest to me is the report, that in Malawi 90% of the 6.3 million living below the poverty line rely on subsistence farming to survive at all. They are already farming in fairly extreme conditions, so any changes in climate have considerable impact. They are themselves aware that their food production has decreased because of frequent flooding and drought.

1. They no longer know when is the best time to plant. The rainy season used to start in October but during the 70s started moving to November and now starts in December. They therefore ought to be using a fast-maturing crop to allow for the shorter season but
   privatisation of seed companies means that hybrids developed are too expensive for many.
2. The change in rainfall has caused an increase in certain diseases such as malaria, cholera and dysentry. It falls to the women to care for the sick, and this then prevents them working in the fields.
3. The floods and droughts happen more often, leaving little time to recover and adapt.
4. Deforestation is increasing and existing laws to control it are not being enforced.
5. The decrease in livelihood is forcing more people to look for work elsewhere, which in turn is forcing women into unsafe sex, thus increasing the risk of HIV/AIDS.

These findings are echoed by the IPCC (Intergoernmental Panel on Climate Change) report which is a pdf file of 23 pages. See also this IRIN report.

We have snow!

Ce n'est pas normale, I am told and certainly everything has ground to a halt! All the neighbours are out with cameras so I have to believe them. The mairie has sent out the little tractor to salt and grit the roads, with minimal effect. I can't get the shutters open on the north side of the house because of frozen snow, but I haven't tried very hard. It does at least give us an extra layer of insulation.

Last year we had the river flooding which was quite spectacular, especially as a house on the bank opposite gradually became surrounded. I don't think anyone was in it at the time, indeed I suspect it's a holiday home because I haven't seen it occupied very often at all.


These extremes must be due to global warming, something I really do need to read/learn more about. We do our best but not in any concentrated way. We try to watch our water and electricity consumption. We use energy efficient light bulbs but I have to say they are so bulky and ugly that I am loath to put them everywhere. I am still guilty of having a bath rather than a shower but at least I try not to fill it as much as I did. We recycle fairly assiduously which is made easier here with doorstep collections twice a week - but is that defeating the object? I wonder how much energy is used with the lorries doing the rounds twice a week, compared with the savings. In England they are reducing the collections to once a fortnight, which has its own problems.

Last time we visited our son, he showed us the film of An Inconvenient Truth. It should be made compulsory viewing, but don't you find the people who should listen are always the ones who won't. It's made me want to find out more, but it isn't easy. It's a field of science which isn't all that familiar to me. I can look at biological/medical articles and see where the arguments may be weak but not so readily with this subject. I'll learn.