The Green One

Christiania Normalizing the freetown

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 10:14:41 +0100

Christiania is possibly the biggest and longest running experiment in alternative culture and practices. This might not be the way that every one of us choose to live our lives but it represents the chance for people to live lives that are not the same as everyone elses. What would it mean tot he world if this were to be lost?

Ecuador�s Constitutional Rights of Nature

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:57:38 +0100

In September 2008 Ecuador became the first country in the world to declare constitutional rights to nature, thus codifying a new system of environmental protection.
Reflecting the beliefs and traditions of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador, the constitution declares that nature �has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.� This right, the constitution states, �is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people that depend on the natural systems.�

The new constitution redefines people�s relationship with nature by asserting that nature is not just an object to be appropriated and exploited by people, but is rather a rights-bearing entity that should be treated with parity under the law.

The hardest choice of my life

Sun, 16 May 2010 13:21:15 +0100

One of the hardest choices I have ever had to make is to look at moving to London for work.

This could mean not seeing a natural plant for months at a time. I'm not much looking forward to it but there must be some way to be green and earth right in the middle of a city...

Any ideas?

Snakes in a lab

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:00:55 +0100

Here is a great article that demonstrates and almost wilfull blindness by scientists that I beileve is slowing progress down.

BBC News - Cobra hood mechanism revealed by electrode study

Scientists have discovered exactly how cobras raise their menacing hoods.

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The story is sinple. A great study ahs worked out how the "hooding" actually works. The the article goes on to say that the same nerves and musles are present in non hooding snakes too.

"This is an example of evolution's remodelling [as] derived species emerge," said Dr Kardong. "There's been a change in the nervous system's control over these muscles."

Professor Young explained that cobras were not the only snakes to hood. "Several groups of unrelated snakes show almost identical defensive behaviour," he said. He now hopes to study how these other snakes raise their hoods.

Hello, can anyone else see the bleeding obviouse here? GCSE Biology anyone? Logic 101 too good for you? An introduction to populations in statistical anaysis too much like hard work?

There is the idea presented here that all these snakes "evolved" hooding on their own and that this used these existing adaptations.

Now the prevaling theory is that varience developed in life on earth through random mutations (changes). Okay so let's not debate that one here but let us remember that we are dealing with random. If you accept that random can introduce new information you must surely also recognise that it may also remove it too.

The assumption that complex is better is to impose an idiology on things that does not exist. Nature is not "working towards" it simple "is".

If a mutation that disabled, switched off or stopped a feature did not convey significant disadvantages within certain groups then that would not be purged from the genepool. Indeed sometimes it might be an advantage.

Think of humans we come in a variety of colours and there is no saying which colour came first. That different groups have different colour skin is without question. There is a good chance that we white humans are a mutation without the normal ability to pigment our skin. If you accept the prevailing "out of Africa" idea then this is almost certainly true.

Are we not told in school that humans once had tails. That we once had gills that parts of the body like the appendix are "left overs" from something else we don't have or use any more.

Why then is it so hard to grasp that hoods in snakes might have come before no-hoods.

My prediction is that future studies will show that hooding snakes all use the same of very, very similar mechanisms pointing back to a single hooded anscestor of hooded and not-hooded snakes.

Simple logic suggests it is the most likely outcome.

Me on health issues.

Mon, 5 Apr 2010 13:01:40 +0100

Lord Matt's Girth Watch

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The Future Of Sustainable Farming?

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:56:27 +0000

Vertical Farms (PHOTOS): The Future Of Sustainable Farming?

The idea for vertical farming was born in 1999 in a Columbia University classroom when Dickson Despommier, a professor of environmental sciences and microbology, offhandedly mentioned the idea to his students. Inspired by the idea, Despommier and his class made the first outline of a vertical farm in 2001, and created the website verticalfarm.com to chronicle their research.

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Southern Water wipe outs river for a small fee

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 14:27:16 +0000

The Environment Agency has prosecuted Southern Water for causing untreated sewage to escape from a pumping station for a period of over 14 hours last year killing hundreds of fish in a New Forest river.

The Bartley Water is a river that passes through the New Forest. It runs from Bartley to Eling where it becomes tidal and flows out into Southampton Water. The river is despite the damage an important recreational and wildlife haven, especially at the Eling end of the river. It is also home to many protected species of fish and a diverse community of invertebrates and river life.

Sadly however the pumping station failure, wiped out whole communities of river life over a two kilometre stretch of river, including pollution tolerant species such as leeches and midges. The sewage stripped the oxygen from Bartley Water and increased the ammonia level in the watercourse to almost four times the lethal limit for fish. In many cases the species cannot be restocked and will have to be repopulated naturally.

Members of the public alerted the Environment Agency and Southern Water to the incident on 30 August 2008 after witnessing fish in distress in the Bartley Water. Southern Water sent an engineer to the site and the pumps were finally restarted at around 11.30am the following day.Southern Water Services Ltd, who operates the Ashurst Bridge pumping station in Totton, Hampshire, appeared at Southampton Crown Court on Thursday 30 July 2009. The company pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined just �30,000 and ordered to pay costs totalling �3,575. This is equivilent to the income of arround 85 to 95 customers. Southern Water supplies water and sewerage services to approximately one million households in areas of Kent, Hampshire, Sussex and Isle of Wight. For a company that is accussed of being part of an industry that runs at unreasonably high profits this is unlikely to be little more than an acceptable running cost.

The presiding judge said the incident was very serious and that the sewage discharge was unacceptable causing substantial damage to the water course which resulted in considerable deaths.

David Robinson of the Environment Agency said: This incident had a devastating impact on wildlife living in the Bartley Water. It killed almost every fish downstream for at least a kilometre. We identified hundreds of dead fish that included brown trout, lamprey, stone loach, eels and the highly protected bullhead species. We�re grateful to the members of public that alerted us to the pollution of Bartley Water before it caused even more damage.

The incident is thought to have been caused by the failure of the primary pump and back up pumps at the Ashurst Bridge pumping station after a power surge blew a fuse. Southern Water did not respond immediately to the problem as their telemetry system indicated that both back up pumps were working as normal. The alarm system had also stopped working due to corrosion meaning that Southern Water received no warning that the storage capacity in a well at the pumping station had reached its maximum level.

David Robinson continued: Southern Water failed to prioritise the telemetry system at this sewage works despite its sensitive location. While the power surge which knocked out the pumps was clearly not the fault of the company the alarm setup was and correct measures should have been in place. Since the incident Southern Water has upgraded the response times for this station � had this been in place before the devastating impact on the watercourse could have been avoided.

Southern Water apologised for the incident and has reviewed its critical pumping station to ensure sufficient monitoring is in place to help prevent future pollution incidents. Additional alarms and early warning systems have now been installed at the Ashurst Bridge Works. Something this author sees as little more than making the right noises in a paperwork excersise that was cheaper than maintaining equipment correctly.

For example just two years ago Southern Water was fined �20.3m for poor service and deliberately misreporting information. This fine was easily absorbed by shareholders and not passed on as costs to customers who had been over charged with prices higher than they should have been. (Read More about the fine). By comparison a few thousand seems hardly worth talking about.

Members of the public are asked to report pollution incidents to the Environment Agency�s 24 hour hotline on 0800 807060.

[News Source]

The Bottled Water Scam

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 14:52:16 +0000

This article from the The Fun Times Guide to Living Green caught my eye today and I thought I'd share it.

The Bottled Water Scam - The Fun Times Guide to Living Green

Next time you grab that ice-cold bottle of water from the fridge, be sure to enjoy it. It is probably, in fact, not any more healthy than you're tap water and is packaged in a crude oil derivative. Yummy.

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A useful day out with kids.

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:20:22 +0000

I spent the day at a seed swap at a community allotment area today. Mostly this meant that I was planting a lot of things and using a book to tell me how to do it. Mostly this meant digging a lot.

Fortunately I was able to recall from reading the Vegetable Expert that I had seen the grub I dug up before. I was then able to identify it as a pest which chews up your roots and new shoots. This was entirely consistent with the fact that the area I had been digging had been grassy for quite a while.

The practical upshot of it all was that I had to dig over a second area somewhere else to give the birds more time to eat all of the aforementioned bug (whose name, typically, I can not recall).

Meanwhile my children had fun helping to mix sand for a clay oven and to plant seeds in trays. They should sleep soundly.

What Matt did next

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:35:13 +0000

I have more news than a single blog post should rightfully try and hold but here goes anyway.

I have been working out more and have been checking out health supplements. Additionally I have been looking into getting a small allotment patch with a friend towards which end I have purchased a shed load of books. Furthermore I have taken up a new role as guest blogging in residence here and will be willing to guest blog for others too.

Phew... one day I might even get to blog here on a somewhat regular basis.