Thanks to Mary Randolph- Freelance contributor and the Smithsonian magazine for the Headline.
I got to admit when I saw this headline at first , I thought of Cows, it was the Cows! I was wrong unsurprisingly.
Evidence shows in order to break down Methane in the atmosphere we need hydroxy radicals which are created with sunlight and various gases including air pollutants emitted from manmade processes such as nitrogen oxides. In other words we need pollution to reduce the Methane in our atmosphere.
A second factor was the role of Wetlands, the pandemic coincided with La NiαΎa, a periodic climate event that causes increased rainfall in tropical areas. Apparently the little methane producing microbes had a field day and saturated the atmosphere with more methane.
The solution, to this if there is one, is to increase the satellite imagery of these atmospheric gases to show what is happening. It’s just another way of those pesky little bugs getting on camera. The cows are not impressed.
Thanks to Sana Noor Haq and CNN World News Online for the Headline.
A 25 year old lawyer, Mahnoor Omer, is taking the Pakistani Government to court to remove tax from “sanitary products” and class the products as essential, which if you are a woman they are.
This is indeed a no brainer and also would give more women with low incomes the chance not to have to worry about leakages and to improve their all round reproductive health. More importantly it will raise the profile of women and the practicalities of being a woman. Presently, with import duties in Pakistan every woman faces a 40% surcharge on products they use while menstruating.
Mahnoor is the petitioner, while the case is being brought by her associate Ashan Jehangir Khan. They are following up on legislation that has been put in place already in India and Nepal. I wish them success.
Thanks to ITV News and Jonathon Brown for the Headline
I have absolutely no idea while Monaco living , Football Club owning Billionaire British Knight is concerning himself with the lower echelons of society who are scrubbing around at the bottom of the woodpile trying to get by. If that means they are economic migrants than so be it. What else are they supposed to do?
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a self-made Chemical Company business entrepreneur, he really is pretty unique and his like are not two a penny.Not many will live the life he has been fortunate to lead. He has sort of apologised to some people (the ones he offended and cannot reply presumably) for his use of language and I would agree with him that it was insensitive and that his choice of words were ill advised and he just couldn’t help himself but what was he trying to achieve by his careless use of words? A change in Government policy. A Trumpian ICE brigade roaming the streets sorting out these ne’er do wells who are living for free of hard earned tax payers money.” Dear Jim, do you pay tax?” is a question I’d like to ask him. Increasing poverty for people who are already struggling and simply cannot cope with what life throws at them. Does Sir Jim, give much to Charity and if so what Charities?
The profile of Manchester United Football Club is huge and Sir Jim has used it as a platform to do some poor people bashing. Anyone who can afford to go to a football match nowadays is pretty well off, so perhaps he thought he was talking to the converted and would gain a wave of support from the supporters. Thankfully he was told in no uncertain terms (that the Manchester United Supporters Club saw his comments as “very ill advised ” and “an embarrassment”, which really is Mancunian for “stupid old fool, keep your mouth shut if your brain isn’t in gear.”
So there we are Sir Jim , what you said was unecessary and remember posterity will remember you as a man who had no empathy for the poor , judging the misfortune of others and trying to use your influence as the owner of a very popular football club to basically hurt people who in reality are struggling to help themselves. They are actually a minority and we have enough resource to look after them as long as people like you pull your weight.
Thanks to Dan Martin and Ellis Maddison of BBC News Online for the Headline
The final piece of my trio today about “trees” , the pieces show what a varied role trees play in our lives. This particular tree , an oak was planted in 1967, in memory of the Great Sir Winston Churchill in the village of Cossington in Leicestershire.
Sad to say it is again a story of House Building and Development. One hundred and thirty houses are to be built by Bellway Houses in the village with the only access suitable to the development being blocked by the tree that was planted in 1967 ,which had to go because the planning permission granted in 2022 allowed it to be removed for the development to have suitable access from the main street. The villagers fought this decision and tried to save the tree to no avail.
This week the tree was removed , though the developer has offered it’s trunk to the villagers to carve a memorial from and have arranged for a sapling from one of the trees acorns to be grown and planted nearby ( I’d check the D.N.A if I were the villagers). Other acorns from the tree were saved and hopefully will be planted out too, in various locations in the future.( again might be worth checking the D.N.A) .
So I’m sorry that the tree has gone, there is no going back and it is very sad, so I can understand the tears.
Thanks to Sascha Pare and LiveScience Online for the Headline.
Basically the Chinese have ecologically engineered a forest around a desert that was increasingly getting drier and windswept and increasing the area of desertfication in the direction of human habitation.
In 1978 the plan to grow trees around the margins of the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts in order to stop s desertification in it’s tracks and it seems to be working. The desert is being transformed into a carbon sink by planting (and looking after )more than 66 billion trees around it’s edges and the plan is to continue this process until 2050.There is some evidence it is working , however, there is concern that it has not stopped the famous sand storms in the area. Still it is I think it is a positive ecological story.
AI generated image of trees being grown at the edge of a dessert.
Thanks to Maddy Bull and BBC Online News for the Headline.
A seed planted many years ago, between 1809 and 1815 by Mary Ann Brailsford which grew into a tree, the fruit of which was discovered by Henry Merryweather fifty years later.
The garden in which the tree stood was then owned by Mathew Bramley. It’s seedlings became the progenitor of the Bramely Apple, which we know and love today and is seen now on many supermarket shelves . Mary Ann Brailsford’s tree is therefore very significant and ideally it would be lovely for it’s location and health to be preserved.
The cottages and land that the tree is on is now owned by Nottingham Trent University and they have done a sterling job in keeping Mary’s tree alive as it has being diagnosed with incurable honey fungus, but the land does not suit the University’s future plans
If the land is sold the worry is that the tree and it’s location will be lost which in modern day land development is a distinct probability
Is it worth saving or should we accept that it would be a good idea to preserve it’s D.N.A in the Royal Horticultural Society’s massive store of plants and maybe grow a healthy tree to remember Mary, Henry and William’s contribution to apple posterity and have the tree located somewhere that people can visit it. Watch this space.
Thanks to Matt Simpson , Reporter Oxfordshire News Online for the Headline
The tea room at Grey’s Court in the Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys closed on Sunday afternoon(February 8th) suddenly and unexpectedly without the normal chalk on a white blackboard explaining what was happening and if the Cafe will reopen anytime soon.
Thanks to the probing for information by the intrepid Oxfordshire News the Management of the National Trust site have said the closure of the “Cow Shed Tea Room” was to make some “improvements and upgrades”to the very popular watering shed. The fact that it had to close early on Sunday I think means something broke suddenly and the spare parts have to come from the Czech Republic by Donkey Courier. Hence the delay. Though in true NT speak, everything is under control.
The very positive Management message from the National Trust is that they look forward to welcoming you back shortly , though they can’t confirm a date yet.
Thanks to Gem O’Reilly and Amy Clarke and BBC News Online for the Headline.
Gorne Wood is listed as protected Metropolitan Open Land containing 500 year old trees and endangered species.
AA Homes who currently own the land and have no planning permission to build houses on it thus the value of the land is not the Β£3million that they are asking but probably closer to the Β£60 ,000 that the local people have offered to take it off their hands and regain the space for them to enjoy which they have been unable to do for the last 25 years as various owners have sealed it off and let it go to waste.( probably helping the endangered species thrive).
I hope common sense prevails, London needs it’s green spaces whether or not Big Government tries to classify them as grey spaces, giving unscrupulous developers the opportunity to sell off the land with the promise of Housebuilding Profits.
It’s London today and the rest of the Country tomorrow, unscrupulous developers are everywhere, we are just not looking at our existing housing stock, it’s just build, build build and once it’s gone it’s gone. The infrastructure, the pollution and the decimation of nature is a long lasting legacy .
It seems like the World has gone crazy when a Human Rights Director has to resign from his position of 10 years due to a report that details human rights abuses in Palestine. Seems someone has got very sensitive about saying the Palestinians have a right to return to the areas that they were forced to leave.
What happened to the Human Right to Live and let Live? I think some of these Human Rights people spend too much time in Committee meetings.
Thanks to Seb Cheer of BBC News Online for the Headline
Salmon is expensive and it doesn’t go on trees, you can buy it from any supermarket and it usually says the Country of Origin, although sometimes it says of EU Origin, or it is packed in the UK and to be truthful North Atlantic Prawns could be from the Bering Sea and the Trawler had widened it’s trawl area to ensure a successful catch. They might be artic prawns because really without googling would you have known where the Bering see is? You do?Well clever ol’ you!
I was once in Waitrose and someone asked where the Bering sea was , I’m sure the chap said , oh yes they’re from North of the North Atlantic. Anyway I bet Artic prawns are juicier.
However if you say it’s Scottish then it better be” “Scottish”, definitely not Norwegian as the men who represented themselves as “Purveyors” of Scottish Salmon got into trouble with the Law and their main customer Aldi stopped using them and they went bankrupt and still have to appear in court. Hence the Headline News.
I don’t buy salmon, well maybe tinned salmon at Christmas ( heaven knows where that comes from), but I love those crunch sock-eye bones that almost melt in your mouth , a full on calcium crunch capable of stopping osteoperosis in it’s tracks. The bone crunching makes me feel like I’m Queen of the Jungle and once you’ve mixed it in a bowl with mayonnaise and plenty of black pepper even if there was the odd bit of sea lice in it you wouldn’t notice. Extra protein.
In truth it’s really Salmon farms that bother me, the pictures of sea lice on the farmed Salmon’s gills and the fact that they can’t swim half way around the World like a proper Salmon just puts me off. So although I buy a lot of fresh fruit and veg from Aldi( great if you use it up quickly ), I have never bought their cuts of fresh salmon , largely because of the pictures of sea lice. So smugly I can look at the other shoppers and think.
“Not me(we’ll forget about the tinned salmon)” and smile at them as I think to myself “Hhhmmn it might be from Norway. Have you seen those internet pictures.”
Still once this Headline spreads I bet the “Scottish Salmon” sales in Aldi dive, and my harmless thoughts about Sea Lice will pale into insignificance as people will have made their own minds up. The damage is done.
thenotsomightyom 