ENVIRONMENT (Mini-articles) Index

The first national census of mammals conducted by Prof Stephen Harris of Bristol University shows that there are only 240,000 foxes compared with 250,000 badgers, which are a protected species. The fox population has long been considered healthy enough not to merit protection. The study's figures of 817,500 for the brown hare is evidence that the hare is still in marked decline.

Other findings relating to all 63 native and introduced mammal species pinpoint the vulnerability of Britain's bats. The greater horseshoe bat, with a population of just 4,000 is arguably following the greater mouse-eared bat into extinction. The weasel (425,000) and the stoat (462,000) remain in decline. But numbers of otters (7,350) and polecats (15,000), both of which had been reduced by pollution and persecution, are risng. The water vole (1.16 million) is also declining; red squirrels (160,000) continue to lose ground to grey squirrels; and the black rat (1,300) carrier of bubonic plague, is sliding unlamented towards extinction.

The study shows that the rarest mammals are much more numerous than the rarest birds, most of which have fewer than 1,000 breeding pairs. For exaple, there are 52 pairs of red kite, 75 pairs of marsh harriers and 424 pairs of golden eagle. The pine marten (3,650), one of the rarest and shyest animals, looks plentiful by comparison.

Newsletter of Job Society, May 1995

Now that terrestrial farming has ruined much of the natural environment and continues to extinguish thousands of species every year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is now proposing to do the same for many coastal waters.

It is calling for a large increase in worldwide fish farming capacity to supplement declining wild stocks of fish. The world's acquaculture industry is already worth $20 billion and accounts for around 20 per cent of the overall fish harvest. But most of the fish produced are freshwater species--so far only 5 per cent of farmed fish live in saltwater. The FAO estimates fish farming must double output in the next 15 years to 31 million tonnes just to keep up with population increases. With 70 per cent of international fish stocks either depleted or near collapse, fish farmers could be forced to expand even more rapidly in coming years unless fish is to become an expensive luxury in future generations.

The world's fish farming industry is in its infancy and at a stage of development reached by agriculture several hundred years ago. It is a more expensive method of producing fish--costing up to 20 per cent more for western consumer fish--and suffers from a poor environmental record in some parts of the world. Most fish farming occurs in south-east Asia where fish is a staple of the diet. Western countries such as Canada, Norway and the UK are leading the way into the intensive production of high-value species such as halibut and turbot.

Newsletter of Job Society, June 1995

Humanity has pushed the pace of extinction to thousands of times faster than the natural rate, the American Association for the Advancement of Science was told in February by one of the world's most eminent biologists, Prof Edward Wilson of Harvard University.

Using conservative estimates, he thought that the number of species doomed each year is 27,000. He called for a rapid survey of the world's flora and fauna to identify the most valuable habitats and those most at risk. Five per cent of the the Earth's land surface is burned every year. The tropical forests, repositories of most of the species of organisms, are being reduced by about one per cent of area per year. They now occupy 6 per cent of the land surface.

Coral reefs, the biodiversity-rich 'rain forests of the sea' are being destroyed at an accelerating rate. Most of the populations of organisms, species and races of species disappear before we can study them, in many cases before we can give them a scientific name.

One fifth of all bird species in the last 2,000 years have been extinguished with 11 per cent of the remaining 9,040 species endangered. More than half of the 266 species of freshwater fishes of peninsular Malaysia have been eliminated. In the US at least 2.5 per cent of bird species, 2.2 per cent of amphibians, 1.2 per cent of freshwater fishes, 1.1 per cent of plant species and 8.6 per cent of freshwater mussels have been eliminated. The deeply sorry tale continues . . .

From Newsletter of Job Society, April 1995

Holidaymakers used to the hazards of striking air traffic controllers, overbooking and half-built hotels now have a new one to contend with: breeding turtles.

A flight from Manchester to the Greek island of Zante on Sunday was delayed for nine hours to avoid disturbing protected loggerheads while they laid eggs on beaches near the runway. The island's authorities have banned night-time landings during the summer to give the turtles some peace. The result could be delays until August.

Tour operators know about the ban but the All-Leisure Airbus due to fly from Manchester developed engine trouble. Bu the time this was sorted out, the plane had no chance of reaching Zante before dusk. Not all those among the 200 people stuck in the departure lounge were sympathetic.

"I could not believe it," said one. "I just want to get my head round the fact that turtles on the beach have taken precedence over far-paying humans."

Turtles are particularly ponderous breeders. Although they mate at sea, females struggle ashore, plod to dry land, scoop out a hole and then lay some 200 eggs. This takes several hours, and light and noise puts them off. The problems do not end there. The hatched turtles burrow out during the night and head for the strongest light--usually the horizon over the sea. But if the strongest light is the airport runway they head towards that instead.

From an article in the Daily Telegraph, 20 June 1995

Even in the British Isles, which has produced some of the earliest and most outstanding ecologists of the world, and in which awareness of environmental issues ought to be greater than elsewhere, poisoning is happening on a prevasice scale, particularly on our coastlines.

Many coastal areas previously regarded as havens for wildlife are under threat from a build-up of poisonous metals, sewage and farm waste, according to an unpublished report for English Nature, the government agency. A detailed study of the country's 27 most important marine habitats reveals widespread breaches of pollution limits put forward by the government to protect species ranging from coral and spider crabs to puffins and pink-footed geese. Levels of zinc from the iron, tyre and waste industries have exceeded proposed standards in eight areas including the Dee and Severn estuaries and the Solent, all important sites for wildfowl and wading birds, including white-fronted geese and shelducks.

Breaches were also recorded for chromium from leather tanning and paint production; nickel from fuel oil and petrol; and phosphates from sewage and fertilisers that drain from farmland and are washed downstream. The report says that alge may soon grow so rapidly that the underwater oxygen supply is depleted, a process known as eutrophication. Anemones, eelgrass and sea slugs are among the species at risk, as well as baby fish that ultimately become the fishing stocks of the seas around our coasts. It is a lamentable state of affairs.

From the Newsletter of the Job Society, May,1995

A recent report from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports that every one of the world's major fishing areas has now either reached or exceeded their natural limits_and that nine out of every ten of them are already in serious decline. The world's fish stocks are nearing annihilation.

To try and produce a code of conduct to prevent this, ministers from over 100 countries attended a conference on over-fishing in Rome in March. At the same time, a bitter dispute was raging between Spain and Canada over Greenland halibut in international waters off Newfoundland which was threatening to come to an armed confrontation, with Spain authorising its warships to use "all means" to protect its trawlers.

Environmental groups argued that the resolution agreed at the FAO meeting contained few specific measures and relied on the goodwill of countries that had previously shown little interest in cutting their fishing fleets. "The major problem with the code is that it is designed to be voluntary: there is not one ounce of compulsion in it," said Mr Michael Earle at Greenpeace.

If the politicians can't solve the problems, then it is about time that the fishermen of the world got together and agreed sensible fishing quotas among themselves. If they leave the matter in politicians' hands, then their concerns will be traded off against other considerations nothing whatever to do with fishing--and, of course, the world's fish stocks will disappear.

Newsletter of Job Society, June 1995

You do suspect that mankind will eventully destroy the planet, do you not? If so, you will be among those deep greens who, like me, do not accept that the recent Tory party leadership election between John Major and John Redwood matters all that much. Saving the globe is of much greater concern than saving John Major.

Last week was more heartening. For a moment, the concerns of the earth moved us. I clapped when the TV man said that Greenpeace had won. The Brent Spar, ostensibly a redundant oil rig, but in reality a symbol of rampant industrialisation, would not be dumped in the deep ocean. Shell UK had been forced to change its mind. The British Government was irrelevant. Who could forbear to cheer?

Not everyone, it seems, if you read the subsequent comments. Sinking the steel and concrete monstrisoty would be the "best practical environmental option" according to 20 -- or was it 30? -- so-called independent scientific reports cited by Tim Eggar, Britain's Minister for Expostulation at Shell's Behaviour. Let us accept Mr Eggar's summary, while noting that by some happy coincidence the favoured option is by far the cheapest. We tree-huggers must also acknowledge that breaking up the Brent Spar and disposing of its toxic contents on land will not be a clean or simple affair. Also, if wind and waves destroy it while it is parked in a fjord awaiting an appointment at a knacker's yard, the consequent spillage would be severely destructive of marine life. Let us also take as read that the many accusation that the Greenpeace campaigners and their hanges-on, wildly exaggerated the environmental damage done by deep-sea disposal. We green Cassandras should go further. We should grant that the scientific and economic arguments in this case are, at best, finely balanced.

Why then, that feeling of elation at the Greenpeace victory? Settle down. I am about to tell you. Some of us fear that further industrial development, particularly in India and China, will so clog up the atmosphere that, in a century or two, global warming be the least of our problems. We dispute the poposition that the ability of capitalism to create ever higher mountains ofgf material goods will be of lasting benefit to the human race. We prefer giant Redwoods to John Redwood.

From the Financial Times, 1 July 1995