The UK Government seems to have given up on the idea of selling off England's forests.
Nocton Dairies have not been given permission to build a huge factory farm for cows in Lincolnshire.
Japan has suspended its annual whaling cull after pressure from the environmental group Sea Shepherd
Plans for a polluting coal fired power station in Sabah Borneo have been abandoned in favour of renewable energy.
These victories have come about largely as a result of campaigning from environmental organisations and concerned indlviduals. But while we celebrate these successes there's still a lot of bad news for the environment:
Polar bears could be facing extinction
The Tanzanian Government seems intent on going ahead with the road through the Serengeti, despite international outcry and concern this road could end the areas great migrations.
This article shows how devastating a road can be if it passes through pristine areas of forest, those areas don't stay pristine very long.
It's good to see that people across the world are increasingly campaigning on these issues:
Amazonian peoples call on Brazil's president to stop the Bel Monte dam
It is vital to be engaged, to take part in campaigns. The first four links in this post demonstrate that campaigning can be effective, while links 5 - 7 to show how much more needs to be done!
And finally a question - can we find a balance that enables sustainable economic growth that allows us also to conserve wild areas and biodiversity?
As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks to other websites where you can find out more.
I heard about the forests and the cow farm on the news yesterday - that's good news. Not sure there's much can be done for the poor old polar bear - tigers are heading the same way too.
ReplyDeleteNice to see some good news. I was amazed and happy to hear the news this morning about the Japanese fleet. Other bad news though is how environmental terrorist Smithfields Foods has increased its penetration of the European (and British) market. The company's treatment of pigs is near criminal and everywhere Smithfields goes the environment suffers. Yes indeed - campaigning can certainly help - I couldn't agree more. I have written about Smithfields here: http://www.pauldoolan.com/2010/04/evil-of-smithfield-foods.html
ReplyDeleteA well balanced post.
ReplyDeleteYour readers might care (in the light of the tiger mention above) to support Helen Calcutt's Tiger, Tiger campaign. Richard Bonfield, the Poet-in-Residence for the Born Free Foundation has added his support.
wow..good news and still the problems show up. But I am ever hopeful we will get it together!
ReplyDeleteWonderful post - good to see some good news balanced with the never ending bad list, otherwise people just feel like giving up. Great message about campaigning.
ReplyDeleteI doubt any of those things would have happened without the campaigning. Otherwise the big money rules and big money rarely cares about the future.
ReplyDeleteI think the last 40 years, since the first Earth Day show that much progress has been made and more will be. Don't despair - keep working!
so glad for the good news and sad over the other. i'm not sure that we'll live to see a balance between economic growth and saving our wild areas. but, i am hopeful when i see so many demonstrating concern. hope all is well.
ReplyDeleteCaroline and Gabrielle - i had deliberately waited to find some really good news before writing this post; the bad news links all turned up earlier!
ReplyDeleteCaroline - thanks for the link to the Tiger project, I'll try and send them something.
Sandy - yes, tigers are in a bad way, I should have included something about them in this post, but I have posted about tigers several times in the last year,
PM Doolan - I read (and commented on) your article about Smithfield Foods. Bad news, thanks for sharing.
Kay, Rabbits' Guy, naquillity yes successful campaigning can g ive us all hope!
Good and bad news as always Juliet. A huge hurrah for the forests but now we have to worry about the oaks dying. I thought it was a disaster of unmitigated proportions when the elm trees died. I couldn't bear to lose the oak as well.
ReplyDeleteGreat news about the whaling and the factory farming of cows though. However we don't seem to be getting very far with climate change. Very sad about the polar bears. They have such a tiny, narrow niche in the environment that they will have nowhere to go.
Nice to see this run down, and that even little actions can add up to change.
ReplyDeleteAbout time we had some positive news! I too signed the forest petition just goes to prove that if we do campaign strong enough we will get there :)
ReplyDelete