We took part in the RSPB Big Birdwatch this afternoon (26/1/20)

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/20/uk-the-big-garden-birdwatch-25-27-january-still-time-to-take-part-and-provide-much-needed-data-over-half-a-million-already-registered-this-year-join-them/

to log all the birds visiting the (our) garden; just an hors monitoring selected at random over this weekend; but all the results from around the UK are sent in and analysed to put together a national ‘map’ of which bird species are on the increase or in decline.

Our hour started off really well with a visit by a Great Spotted Woodpecker – managed to grab a couple of quick, bad shots of him having a feast on the peanuts.

 

 

Lots of visitors over the hour including (more professional photos below) :

 

Woodpecker

 

Great Tit

 

Blue Tit

 

Long Tailed Tit

 

Robin

 

House Sparrow

 

Starling

 

Collared Dove

Magpie and

 

Blackbird.

 

It started to rain about half way through, which did not help; but we have now completed the results paperwork and it will be posted over the next few days.

An enjoyable hour just watching all the birds in the garden – amd knowing that your own watch results contribute to helping with the national survey of birds in the country. Would very much recommend –

Regards Mark

 

 

 

A former wildlifepark owner known as ‘Joe Exotic’ was sentenced on Wednesday to 22 years in federal prison for his role in a 2017 murder-for-hire scheme to kill a prominent animal rights activist, plus multiple violations of wildlife laws.

Joseph Maldonado-Passage was found guilty in April of attempting to hire someone to murder Carole Baskin, a prominent animal rights activist, according to the U.S. District Court for the Western District Court of Oklahoma.

Baskin founded Big Cat Rescue, a popular animal sanctuary based in Tampa, Florida, dedicated to abused and abandoned animals such as lions, tigers, bobcats, and cougars. Baskin was an open critic of Maldonado-Passage and secured a million-dollar judgment against him and his business in 2011, according to the indictment.

Maldonado-Passage, who owned an exotic animal park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, posted numerous threats against her beginning in 2012 on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. He then promised in November 2017 to pay $3,000 for Baskin’s death and promised thousands more after her death, according to the indictment. The person he promised to pay was an undercover FBI agent.

Baskin read a statement in court, posted to the Big Cat Rescue website and her YouTube page, that said she has spent most of the last 10 years “seeing every bystander as a potential threat” due to the barrage of threats Maldonado-Passage sent.

She asked that the court consider what would happen to her family if “this vicious, obsessed man is ever released from jail.”

“If he completes his sentence and is released, we will end up spending the rest of our lives, constantly looking over our shoulders, for a threat to our lives,” Baskin said. “I hope you will give us as many years free of that threat as you can.”

Maldonado-Passage was also found guilty of nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act after he killed five tigers in October 2017 because he “needed empty cages” to house big cats that were going to be boarded at his park.

He was convicted on another eight counts of violations to the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records for “interstate” transactions.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/wildlife-park-owner-joe-exotic-sentenced-22-years-plot-kill-n1120566

 

 

 

 

 

 

All information reproduced from https://freetibet.org/  – Free Tibet; London, England.

https://freetibet.org/ 

Tibet sees 27.7 percent fall in glacier ice coverage, research finds

 

China has lost around 20 percent glacier coverage between 1970 and 2010, while Tibet has seen a fall of 27.7 percent, research finds. 

China has lost around a fifth of its glacier ice coverage between 1970 and 2010, the national newspaper Guangming Daily and Chinese state news organisation The Global Times reported in December, citing “official research.”

The country had 60,500 square kilometres of glacier ice coverage in the 1970s but the figure dropped to 48,000 square kilometers in 2010, marking a fall of over 20 percent.

 48,410 individual glaciers existed in China during the 1970s but around 8,300 have disappeared.

The highest losses have been seen in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), where 7,680 square kilometres of glacier ice have reportedly melted. This represents around 27.7 percent of its glacier coverage.

Yang Wei, an associate research fellow with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research told The Global Times the main reason the glaciers have melted is global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

 

A second research fellow with the institute, Wu Guangjian, told The Global Times that the temperatures on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau climbed 0.4ºC per decade which is around twice the global average.

The news was one of the top ten most discussed subjects on popular Chinese communication website Wiebo during 23 December attracting over 160 million reads and 17,000 comments, The Global Times said. Many of those commenting on the article called for measures to reduce emissions.

The news comes after reports of unusual glacier collapses in Tibet, and projections by climate experts  of possible 4.5ºC to 5ºC warming in the Himalayas by the end of the century. 

Joseph Shea, a geographer and cryosphere expert at the University of Northern British Columbia, told Free Tibet he believes the changes are mostly a result of global CO2 emissions, particularly following “a century and a half of emissions from the biggest industrial countries in the world.”

Tibetans will be affected by the climate crisis, he added.

 

TAKE ACTION

In Tibet the Chinese Communist Party oversees what some have called the world’s largest open air prison.

The authorities have the power to switch the light on and off, peering into Tibetans’ emails one moment and making political prisoners vanish from their families and friends, apparently into darkness, the next. Help us push for Tibet’s hidden political prisoners to be found and released

 

https://www.freetibet.org/dark

 

 

Make big polluters pay for mass tree planting, officials say

 

 

Oil companies and airlines could fund 100m trees a year, says Committee on Climate Change

The planting of 100m trees a year in the UK to tackle the climate emergency could be paid for by new carbon levies on oil companies and airlines, the government’s official climate adviser has proposed.

The Committee on Climate Change also recommends banning the burning of grouse moors and the sale of peat compost to protect the nation’s bogs, which can store huge amounts of carbon. Voluntary measures have failed, it said.

The CCC’s new report concludes that fundamental changes in land use are needed to cut emissions from farming and get the nation on track to meet its legally binding target of net zero by 2050. It proposes cutting red meat eating by 20%, with the move to more plant-based diets freeing up a fifth of all farmland for new woodland.

The CCC’s plan for slashing emissions from agriculture also requires better management of manure, cutting methane from cattle with better feeds and growing crops that can be burned to produce electricity instead of natural gas.

The plan would cost £1.4bn a year but provide benefits of at least £4bn by cutting global heating and air pollution and improving flood protection and green spaces for people to enjoy. “That, in our assessment, seems like a price very much worth paying,” said Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC.

Lord Deben, chair of the CCC, said: “This is one of the most important reports that we have ever produced because a change in land use is absolutely essential if we’re going to meet [the legal] requirements of reducing to net zero by 2050. It requires immediate government action. We are in a race against time.”

The UK is preparing to leave the European Union and the bloc’s subsidy scheme, which provides £3.3bn a year to farmers based mainly on the area of land owned. The government has pledged that the replacement scheme will pay farmers public money for public goods, such as tree planting.

Other groups have called for radical overhauls of farmland, which occupies 70% of the UK. Rewilding Britain suggests that a quarter of the UK’s land could be restored to nature, while an RSA commission said the true costs of cheap food were the climate crisis and a health crisis. A former chief scientific adviser to the UK government said in December that half of the nation’s farmland needed to be transformed into woodlands and natural habitat.

The most eye-catching part of the CCC’s plan, according to Stark, is the proposal that new levies on fossil fuel suppliers, airlines and other carbon-emitting industries pay for the tree-planting programme. Farmers and landowners would be paid either via annual auctions of contracts to create woodland or from a carbon trading scheme, the CCC said.

The cost would be about £700m a year, Stark said. “You could imagine a world where that was all paid for from a fossil fuel levy, but that is a decision for the Treasury.” Such a system would mean the polluter pays, said Deben, but the aviation industry would still need to keep emissions at 2005 levels.

The National Farmers Union revealed a plan for agriculture to end its net emissions by 2040 in September, a decade earlier than the CCC plan. It requires no cut in meat eating or livestock numbers and no conversion of substantial areas of farmland into forest. It relies heavily on bioenergy crops removing CO2 from the atmosphere, which is then captured and buried after being burned.

Deben praised the NFU plan as a remarkable change. “NFU president, Minette Batters, has done a very significant job. But the truth is she hasn’t been able to include anything about diet and reduction in the number of animals”, both of which the CCC deem essential.

Stark said cutting the UK’s “scandalous” level of food waste by 20% was vital. Better food labelling and separate food waste collections would help, as well as linking charges for household recycling to the quantity of food waste, the CCC said.

The 20% cut in red meat and dairy consumption proposed by the CCC is much lower than other recent analyses which have indicated 80-90% reductions are needed. “It is some way short of the 80% or so reduction that’s recommended by the public health guidelines for red meat,” said Stark. The CCC focused only on the emissions cuts needed to bring UK greenhouse gas emissions to zero, he said, and not health or other pollution that livestock cause.

 

Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth

 

“There is no doubt we need a major transformation in farming and land use to tackle both climate and nature emergencies,” said Vicki Hird of the Sustain alliance, who welcomed much of the report. But she said the ambition on cutting meat consumption was low and warned that technology that could capture CO2 from bioenergy crops was untested in the UK.

Sandra Bell, campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “The way land is used and abused has been a big contributor to climate breakdown and loss of wildlife, and this is why it needs to change.” However she said the CCC’s woodland creation target needed to be twice as high.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/23/make-big-polluters-pay-for-mass-tree-planting-officials-say

 

,,, and across the Pond, we get …

 

 

Photo Credit: Dr. Bogdan

 

Put Reckless World Leaders on Notice About Climate Change

Posted by Tiffany White

 

 

Petition Link: https://forcechange.com/551493/put-careless-world-leaders-on-notice-about-climate-change/

 

Target: Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum

Goal: Combat climate change and protect our planet from imminent destruction.

Scientists have predicted that the Amazon rainforests could be approaching an irreversible “tipping point” in their survival. The planet as a whole may be approaching this same point of no return. As the leaders of the world’s major economies converge in Davos, now is the time to confront this crisis head-on.

 

 

While the World Economic Forum promises a focus on climate change at the Davos meeting, evidence of a true, worthwhile commitment is scarce. Opportunistic politicians around the world are throwing fire on this explosive crisis. The deforestation policies of Brazil’s president contributed to the raging Amazon wildfires of 2019. At the same time, the Australian president’s refusal to address climate change in meaningful ways has only exacerbated the infernos in that region.

 

 

 

And Davos’ 2020 keynote speaker, President Donald Trump, is preparing to tack revoked protections for wetlands and streams on to his 95-and-counting current environmental rollbacks. Just days before the Davos meeting, the president tweeted this mocking “advice” to New Yorkers dealing with rising sea levels: “get your mops and buckets ready!”

Without unified, true global leadership, humanity runs the imminent risk of destroying its own home. Sign the petition to hold these leaders accountable for ensuring this planet’s future.

 

PETITION LETTER:

 

Dear Professor Schwab,

The World Economic Forum recently listed climate change as an urgent concern amongst worldwide populations. For all of the differences and conflicts between countries and cultures, we all share this common enemy…an enemy of our own making. The time for talking has long passed, and the time for action is yesterday.

“Stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world:” this theme will drive Davos 2020, but a few speeches will not be enough. Do not let any one person co-opt this important summit or detract from its mission. Please carry this mission forward with purposeful intent. Let this annual gathering of world leaders be a starting point for a productive and proactive year where sustaining and safeguarding this world remains a top priority for earth’s economic powers.

The cost of inaction is far too high.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

 

 

 

 

US President Donald Trump has decried climate “prophets of doom” in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where sustainability is the main theme.

He called for a rejection of “predictions of the apocalypse” and said America would defend its economy.

 

 

 

Mr Trump did not directly name the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was in the audience.

Later, she excoriated political leaders, saying the world:

“in case you hadn’t noticed, is currently on fire”.

 

 

Environmental destruction is at the top of the agenda at the annual summit of the world’s decision-makers, which takes place at a Swiss ski resort.

 

 

Every year in the UK, the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has a special weekend where everyone is invited to participate.

It is called the ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’; https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/   and it allows anyone to spend just a hour in their own garden; or from the house etc; to log and count the types of birds which are visiting their area.

We are all ready to do our bit; taking part in this free count, which only takes an hour of time; a yet provides a huge amount of data to scientists who research how bird numbers and species are increasing or declining across the whole of the country.

 

 

What’s also very important – it links people with garden birds; tells them about care and how to provide types of food for the different types. A big win-win for the garden birds of the UK; and with over half a million people signed up for this years event, the data provided by the watch will be a massive insight or window into the bird situation in the UK.

 

 

There is still time to take part if you live in the UK – just follow the links we have given below;

Happy watching – Mark (WAV).

 

 

 

From the RSPB:

For over 40 years, we’ve (RSPB) have been asking you to count the birds in your garden – and you’ve been brilliant at it.

With over half a million people now regularly taking part, coupled with 40 years worth of data, Big Garden Birdwatch allows us to monitor trends and helps us understand how birds are doing.

As the format of the survey has stayed the same, the scientific data can be compared year-on-year, making your results very valuable to our scientists.

With results from so many gardens, we are able to create a “snapshot” of bird numbers across the UK. 

For four decades, the Big Garden Birdwatch has highlighted the winners and losers in the garden bird world. It was one of the first surveys to alert the RSPB to the decline in the number of song thrushes in gardens. This species was a firm fixture in the top 10 in 1979, but by 2019 numbers of song thrushes seen in gardens had declined by 76%, coming in at number 20.

Your results help us spot problems, but more importantly, they are also the first step in putting things right. This is why it’s so

 

 

Links:

 

How to take part – https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/everything-you-need-to-know-about-big-garden-birdwatch/

 

Attracting birds to your garden – https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/feeding-and-attracting-birds/

 

Birds to look out for – https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/birds-to-look-out-for/

 

 

How to take part

It’s so easy to take part. An hour with the birds is a wonderful opportunity to sit back, relax and spend time with nature. So, pop the kettle on, put your feet up and start counting!

1. Watch the birds for one hour
   Choose an hour between 25 and 27 January to watch the birds in your garden or local park.
2. Count the most birds that land at once
   Only count the birds that land in your garden or park, not those flying over. The same birds may land more than once, so you can avoid double counting by recording the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time – not the total number you count over the hour.
3. Tell us what you saw
   Every count is important, so don’t worry if you don’t see anything. Observing which birds aren’t around is as important as seeing the ones that are. You can submit your results online at rspb.org.uk/birdwatch from 25 January until 16 February.

If you’d prefer to send us your results by post, you can download a submission form from rspb.org.uk/birdwatch. Please make sure you post your findings back to us by 11 February.