Originally posted on Annas Art – FärgaregårdsAnna: Så här funkar allemansrätten – how right of public access works En del på ja-till-förbifarts-sidan säger att exploateringen är bra eftersom det gör det möjligt för fler att bo nära naturen. Jag har svårt att få resonemanget att gå ihop av två orsaker. Om vi bebygger…
Anna’s latest offering about the campaign to save Trosa nature. Having visited Sweden myself it is particularly obvious to me that she is on the right side. My posts about Sweden can be found here: https://aspi.blog/?s=Sweden.
This is Anna’s piece, so to comment please visit the original.
En del på ja-till-förbifarts-sidan säger att exploateringen är bra eftersom det gör det möjligt för fler att bo nära naturen. Jag har svårt att få resonemanget att gå ihop av två orsaker.
Om vi bebygger naturen finns den inte längre kvar. Exploateringen innebär alltså inte framtida naturnära boende. Om vi bebygger natur som idag är tillgänglig för alla enligt allemansrätten minskar vi ju i själva verket tillgången för många att vistas naturnära.
Allemansrätten är en av de bästa rättigheterna vi har. Den öppnar för alla att uppleva naturen när som helst alla dagar om året. Både fattig och rik har samma tillgång till naturen. Ingen behöver äga egen mark för att få vistas där. För varje kvadratmeter vi tillåter till exploatering förlorar vi naturtillgänglighet för alla till förmån för några få.
An account of the three meetings at Marxism 2017 that focussed exclusively on climate change.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this latest post in my series about Marxism 2017. This post deals with three meetings from the event and also features some external links as well. This post features green body text because of the subject matter – headings still in red. This post features pictures in ’tiled mosaic’ form – to view them at full size left-click/ single finger push an image to open the gallery, and if you right-click/ two finger push you get a drop down menu that enables you to open a single image.
MEETING 1: FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE – JEFFREY HALL, SATURDAY – IAN ANGUS
The Jeffrey Hall is the second largest venue in the Institute of Education, with a seating capacity of 500. It was pleasingly full for Ian Angus’ talk about Facing the Anthropocene. This talk was accompanied by numerous slides. Here are the first few pictures:
Due to the size of the venue a speaker slip system in operation, and Martin (crouched) was assisting the chair to decide what order speakers should be called in.
From this start the speaker went on to define the anthropocene:
This what the Anthropocene is NOT
Note – current CO2 Levels are at 409-10ppm, with almost no one reckoning they can be stabilised below 450ppm and some talking in terms of 560ppm.
Before the Anthropocene the earth had seen five mass extinction events, and all evidence points to the fact that a sixth is upon us. Here are a few links to recent articles about this:
MEETING 2, SUNDA: A REDDER SHADE OF GREEN – MALET SUITE – IAN ANGUS
This was conducted in an informal style. Martin, chairing, asked Ian questions about his latest book (it is a good read btw) and Ian answered. After about half an hour questions were taken from the floor, and they were mainly excellent contributions. At the end of the meeting Ian signed copies of his book for those who were interested. Here are some photos:
The book – the only one I purchased at Marxism 2017 (there were many others I looked at)
PART 3: BUILDING THE MOVEMENT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE AFTER TRUMP WITHDRAWS FROM PARIS – SUZANNE JEFFERY
This meeting was in the session immediately after the second Ian Angus meeting, and before the closing rally. This was a really excellent meeting, with many people speaking from the floor about campaigns they were involved in, and the mood generally confident. Here are some photos:
Chair Jasmine and main speaker Suzanne before the meeting.Jasmine opening the meeting.Suzanne giving her talk.
AFTERWORD
This post being about climate change and by extension nature I have decided to end with some links courtesy of Anna who has produced some excellent stuff about nature:
A reblog of a story on whyevolutionistrue about the torture and killing of Laysan albatrosses, and the appropriate punishment for the perpetrator thereof.
I am in full agreement with Professor Coyne on this one…
My answer is “YES!”. An albatross is a sentient creature, if it could “choose” to remain alive or be killed it would take the former, it feels pain, and NYU student Christian Gutierrez, 19, inflicted a lot of pain on those birds living on Oahu:
[Prosecutor] Futa said she is asking for the maximum penalty for Gutierrez because of the cruel nature of the crime against the defenseless albatrosses, who are “peaceful and trusting birds and do not recognize predators.”
Laysan albatrosses are federally and internationally protected seabirds. The adult birds are as large as a human toddler and can live for more than 60 years. They nest on the ground and remain on their nests to protect their eggs and chicks no matter what approaches them.
Investigators say the birds were bludgeoned or hacked to death with a bat, and a machete, and shot with a pellet gun. Some of…
Welcome to the latest installment in my series about my holiday in Scotland. This one deals with the immediate area around the house where we were staying. It features pictures from a small walk on the Saturday evening, a longer walk on Sunday morning and the house itself.
Ferry Cottage is part of a large estate, the Balmacara Estate, which was given to National Trust Scotland in lieu of death duties in 1946 and has been administered by them ever since. As the name suggests a Ferry service used to run from just outside it. Here are some pictures…
Ferry CottageThe first of two maps on display at Ferry Cottage
A view through the kitchen/diner/sitting room area
THE FIRST WALK – LOCHALSH HOUSE AND BALMACARA SQUARE
Lochalsh House was pretty much rebuilt in the 1930s – a total of £230,000 was spent on it then, and it reflects that heritage.
Lochalsh House through the treersLochalsh House
Having seen Lochalsh house we went back in the other direction, and walked by way of a Visitor’s Centre to Balmacara Square…
WALK TWO – RERAIG
On Sunday morning we walked to the village of Reraig where newspapers and food can be bought. Rather than retrace our steps we walked back along the foreshore of the loch (under British law no one can own foreshore). Here are the pictures…
Info board in Reraig
One of many and various shells I saw – there is a special post coming about this aspect.
AMONG THE ROCKS
OUTSIDE FERRY COTTAGE
I subsequently ventured out again although I did not go very far. Here are the pictures…
Setting the scene for a series of posts about my recent holiday in Scotland.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this first in what will be a substantial series of posts about my recent holiday in Scotland. Although I still have a lot of photo editing to do from said holiday I do now have enough photos at my disposal to start the series, and I will look to interleave the rest of the editing with producing posts for you.
THE HOLIDAY TIMELINE
I travelled up on May 26th and back on June 4th. These two dates were entirely taken up with travelling (14 hours each way approximately). In between these two days there were:
Saturday – most of the day spent waiting for my parents to arrive so we could go up to the house that would be our base for the week, three miles from Kyle of Lochalsh.
Sunday – a quiet day featuring some walking in the immediate vicinity of the house
Monday – A walk to Kyle of Lochalsh, lunch there and a bus back. A quiet afternoon.
Tuesday – a visit to the Talisker Distillery on the Isle of Skye.
Wednesday – a brief visit to Plockton to book the a table at the Plockton Inn for supper, a trip to Applecross and then back to Plockton for the supper (the birthday meal).
Thursday – The Jacobite Rail Journey (steam train between Fort William and Mallaig, a section of railway known to vast numbers of movie goers as the route of the Hogwarts Express).
Friday – the final full day.
THE LOCATION
Kyle of Lochalsh is on the mainland of northwestern Scotland, very close to the Isle of Skye, to which it is nowadays linked by a road bridge. Ferry Cottage, where we were staying is located at Glaick (pronounced Glike), three miles from Kyle of Lochalsh. Here are some maps for further clarification:
SOME PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE AREA
Here are a few photos from the immediate area in which we were staying:
Kyleakin viewed from high aboveFerry Cottage, where we stayed.
Kyle of Lochalsh from above
These last two pictures show the stretch of shoreline that includes Ferry Cottage.
THOMAS’ CALENDAR CHALLENGE
I saw some quite amazing scenery while in Scotland, and it has become something of a tradition to produce a photographic wall calendar each year. A number of my Scottish pictures will undoubtedly feature. If in the course of this series of posts you see a picture that catches your eye as worth a place in the calendar there are two things I invite you to do:
Post a comment identifying the photo that has caught your eye and/ or…
Create a blog post about the picture that has caught your eye explaining what it means to you and why you think it should be included. If you do this I will reblog your post.
Should you succeed in convincing me to include the picture in my calendar I will give you credit for doing so. I end with two final pictures, the second of which is almost certain to be in the calendar:
A rarity – the lighthouse is framed twice over, once by the bridge and once by the masts of the boat in the foreground.This is the view across Loch Alsh from outside Ferry Cottage on a sunny day (yes, Scotland does have such things) with the additional feature of the world’s last remaining ocean going paddle steamer – this will almost certainly be in the calendar.
This is a collection of interesting things I have seen on the internet recently. They are grouped broadly in three categories, the second of which includes a few pictures I took today.
POLITICS
I start this section with an important open letter from Make Votes Matter. Below is a screenshot of the beginning of the letter. This is formatted as a link so that you can add your name to the open letter should you wish to:
My only link in this section, which forms a natural segue to the nature section, is to a thunderclap organised by Team4Nature and tagged #VoteForHopeVoteForChange. Below is a screenshot which also functions as a link:
NATURE
I am going to start this section with another thunderclap, before sharing a couple of recent posts from Anna that caught my attention and finally ending this section with some of my own photographs.
THUNDERCLAP: 30 DAYS WILD
This one has been launched by The Wildlife Trusts and the screenshot below links to it:
ANNA’S POSTS
The first of the two recent posts from Anna that I am sharing is titled “Which Future Do You Wanna Give The Next Generation?“. This post contains both Swedish and English text, and is in particular focused on the campaign to Save Trosa Nature. Here is Anna’s picture from that post:
The second post from Anna is titled “Old Tjikko” and starts by introducing us to the world’s oldest tree (9,500 years old since you ask). It concludes with a marvellous tree infographic which is reproduced below:
Time now for some…
PHOTOGRAPHS
These were all taken today…
Other than moving the tree pic to the top of the pile (see the end of the previous section for clarification) these are in the order in which they were taken (tree pic was no 6 originally).
This one is a bit blurry because it was taken very quickly.
I end this post with yet another reference to the rainbow coloured infinity symbol that Laina at thesilentwaveblog introduced me and many others to. The version below is an envisaged centrepiece for the front cover of the 2018 Calendar (see this post for more on my calendars) and features my name in white text incorporated into the symbol and the addresses of this blog and my London transport themed website in each loop:
Some of the best science and nature related pieces I have recently come across.
INTRODUCTION
Having started the day with a science related squib I finish it with a full length post concerned with Science and Nature. As this is a post where all the text will be the same colour please not that links are in bold and underlined. Before proceeding here is a list of all of today’s previous posts:
Yes another thunderclap for those of you who are on social media to support. Click on the screenshot below for more…
THE EDEN PROJECT
The Eden Project in Cornwall, of which I have very fond memories, has just added to its laurels by winning VisitEngland’s award for Inclusive Tourism. Thus I have two links, each accompanied by a screenshot to share:
I am indebted to WEIT for this. It is an app that is free to download. For more details please visit the WEIT article on this:
PART 2: SOME FANTASTIC EVOLUTION MEMES
I found these on twitter by way of their creator, whose twitter name is Lord Cropes. Below is the particular meme which caught my attention:
This is just one of 129 memes of this type that he has created, and you can view all of them by way of the website pinkheretic.com. Here is one more to further whet your appetite:
PART THREE: PHOTOGRAPHS
I finish with some of my own photographs:
An adult moorhen and two chicksAdult and two chicks close togetherClose up of a chick
De boende på Käftuddsvägen som sände in en skrivelse till Länsstyrelsen och där krävde att en miljökonsekvensbeskrivning bör ske för projekt förbifart Trosa/Infart Västra Trosa, som numera hänger tätt ihop med stora expansionsplaner för Tureholmshalvön.
Länsstyrelsen ville inte göra någon miljökonsekvensbeskrivning utan tyckte att deras gamla beslut från 2012 (före Parisavtalet 2015) fortfarande var tillämpligt.
Har ni frågor om gruppens försök att påverka projektet förbifart/expansion av Tureholmshalvön eller vill veta hur även ni kan agera för att rädda Trosas värdefulla natur åt allmänheten kan ni mejla anna@fargaregarden.se
The citizens in an area, that Trosa politicians and the biggest landowner wants to exploit instead of keeping as grand nature has filed an appeal. In Swedish you can read it here, or try to translate…
A post for “Earth Day”, which argues that every day should be Earth Day. Read, enjoy and please share.
INTRODUCTION
Today is “Earth Day”, and it is all well and good to name it so, but the truth is that we should by now be capable of realising that every day should be considered to be Earth Day. This post is therefore dedicated to “Earth Day” but also to realising the inadequacy of “Earth Day”. There is a parallel here with the various “Autism Awareness” days, weeks and months (yes there is one of each) and their unfitness for purpose which I written about elsewhere. All of my own text in this post will be in green because it is about nature. Links where they appear will be in bold and underlined.
INTRODUCTION TO “EARTH DAY” COURTESY OF LIVESCIENCE.COM
Four days ago I came across this excellent post about the development of “Earth Day” on livescience.com. It is simply titled “Earth Day: Facts & History“, and it is an excellent read. The screenshot below will serve as an aperitif:
A MESSAGE FROM SWEDEN
Five days ago Annaput a post sharing a poster created by one of her friends under the title “Power listen to the voice of nature“. Anna’s message in that post is simple and compelling. Below is her friend’s poster which inspired it:
Poster by Margareta Arnedotter Jansson
A THUNDERCLAP
This one is for those of you who are on any of facebook, twitter and/ or tumblr. I have shared it before, and on its final day I do so once again. It is titled “Birds Join Bees this Earth Day“, and focuses on the damage pesticides are doing to pollinators.
A GCSE IN NATURAL HISTORY
I consider this to be an excellent idea. Once again this is something that I have shared previously, and with eleven days to go until the deadline on this petition I do so again, considering it perfect subject matter for “Earth Day”. Pleasesign and share if you are UK citizens and have not already done so – let’s use today to get this past 10,000 signatures!
THE NETHERLANDS STEAM AHEAD WITH TRAINS POWERED BY GREEN ENERGY
ALL trains in The Netherlands are now powered by wind generated (i.e renewable) electricity. For more and a video (also embedded below) please click here.
CYCLISTS NOW HAVE THEIR OWN VERSION OF THE ‘BECK MAP’
Since he gained permission from his employers to unveil it to a wider public in 1931 Henry C Beck’s schematic diagram of the London Underground network, known colloquially as the “Beck Map” has taken the world by storm and become the template for public transport maps across the globe. Now, in it’s home city a Beck style map has been produced for the benefits of cyclists. There is a detailed article about this on indy100.comfeaturing this map, which is reproduced below for your benefit:
EVERY DAY SHOULD BE EARTH DAY
We need to appreciate nature and the Earth every day of our lives. One day per year is most emphatically not enough. We also need to remember to very important things:
1. There is no “Planet B” at this moment – if we turn this planet into somewhere completely inhospitable to Homo sapiens we have nowhere else to go.
2. Following on from that first point we need to always bear in mind that we need Earth more than Earth needs us.
To finish this post, save for a few of my own photographs I turn again to Anna, and a piece of artwork I have shared before which she created based on comment that I made on one of her blog posts:
These pictures of items that will be going under the hammer on the 22nd,, 23rd and 24th of May at James and Sons.
I travelled on this railway in my childhood, too many years ago to mention.
This picture, reminding us of where we and everything else on earth comes from seems an appropriate one to end the post.
Links an important petition and an important thunderclap. A couple of other nature related links, a classic nature related meme and some of my own photographs.
INTRODUCTION
A couple of big things to do with nature came to my attention today and I have decided to share them with you. In addition to the two major links there will be some of my own thoughts, a nod in the direction of New Zealand and some appropriate photographs of my own. As you will have noticed by now, the text in this post is green, and that is because it is a post entirely dedicated to nature. Links in the text will in bold and underlined, while images relating to other posts will also be formatted as links.
THOUGHTS ON NATURE
My own interest in the natural world and concern for nature are both lifelong. I literally cannot remember a time when these attributes were not part of me. Although I grew up in London I had a common practically on my doorstep, lots of natural history books, and of course being in London meant I was within easy travelling distance of the museums at South Kensington. In my childhood the Geological and Natural History museums were two separate entities, though they have long since been amalgamated into one museum, the Natural History Museum. Therefore you can imagine my reaction when I saw something on twitter about…
A GCSE IN NATURAL HISTORY
A petition on the official site created for petitions addressed to the UK parliament to create a Natural History GCSE has been launched. This means that it is only open to those among my readers who are UK citizens to sign, which I regret, but you can still view this petition (there is a screenshot below to whet the appetite) even if you are not a UK citizens. UK citizens please sign and share.
My next major link is to a…
THUNDERCLAP
To be part of a thunderclap you have to be on some form of social media (facebook, twitter or tumblr to be precise). This particular thunderclap is about the importance of pollinators and the fact that scientists have established that birds as well as bees are pesticide victims. If you are able to add your voice to this thunderclapplease do so. Below is a screenshot for further clarification.
Yes, this thunderclap is well ahead of target, as it should be, but just as the importance of pollinators cannot be overstated, so this thunderclap cannot ever be said to be over-supported.
A COUPLE OF FURTHER LINKS
Miles King over at anewnatureblog has today produced a splendid piece titled “Time to rename Defra the Ministry of Agriculture and Fieldsports” in which he reveals the extent to which our government is failing in its duties as regards the environment. Below is a screenshot of the section of the post dealing with the downright dishonourable Andrea Leadsom by way of introduction.
Now it is time for…
A NOD TO NEW ZEALAND
Jerry Coyne, author of the books “Why Evolution Is True” and “Faith Versus Fact”, and who also runs a blognamed after the first of those books is currently in New Zealand, and it is from there that this wonderful picture (click on it to view it in its original econiche) comes:
It is nearly time for some of my own photos, taken yesterday and today, but for the penultimate section of the post I share once again…
aspiblog 