Clouddog participant's article...

More coverage on Clouddog...

"If someone said the word ‘Clouddog’ to you, you would proably have the same expression that I did; slightly confused but a bit funny. But, Clouddog isn’t just a word that someone has made up; it has over the past three months become a name that most Year 12 students at HAHC would recognise. Clouddog is a charity founded by a woman named Teresa Brosnan. The charity aims to give teenagers the opportunity to realise how important conservation and protection of the
world is, before it is too late for them not to care. On the 9th of February, Teresa visited our school to tell us that Year 12 were being given the chance to apply for this opportunity.

However, the charity focuses on a rather more hands-on approach than boring lectures that have no impact on our lives. Instead we were being given the chance to apply to receive a scholarship from Clouddog to travel to South Africa for three weeks to find out for ourselves what it is really all about..." Read the full article by Kylie Coppin in The Haberdasher's Aske's Principal's Letter (page 5)

Learn more about Clouddog here.

Today's Wilderness View

Picture courtesy and © of Rachel Alltimes

Wilderness Foundation SA in The Herald today

NGOs join forces to protect Wild Coast

"FIVE environmental NGOs have joined forces in a bid to persuade government to proceed with development of the Wild Coast in a sustainable manner."

"The Botanical Society, the Endangered Wildlife Trust, the Wilderness Foundation, the Wildlife and Environment Society and World Wide Fund for Nature SA say they are concerned that current development in the region is rolling forward without proper planning."
- More ...

Discovery Channel Feature on Global Warming

Even if you can't get Discovery Channel then you may find their new mini-site on Global Warming interesting and informative. There is also an interactive section.

UK Government Energy Review - Response from the Wilderness Foundation

WIND FARMS “JUST A FIG LEAF FOR NUCLEAR POWER”

Onshore wind farms have become a costly irrelevance as a result of the Government’s Energy Review.

Expensive to consumers, and ruinous to landscapes and livelihoods, their only justification has been in providing a clean energy alternative – although with minimal savings of carbon gas emissions.

With the Energy Review now putting full focus onto a revival of nuclear energy, there can be no rationale at all for onshore wind farms – other than perhaps as a cynical fig leaf of green respectability to show that government is somehow reviewing and trying all other options.

A Moratorium on Wind Power
“Now that the Government’s strategy is out in the open, there must be an immediate moratorium for onshore wind power development” says the Foundation’s Vice Chairman Toby Aykroyd.

“It would be environmental madness to allow vast swathes of British countryside to be despoiled by industrial scale wind factories – merely in order to add a couple of percentage points of ‘clean’ generating capacity that is then dwarfed by a nuclear revival”.

Only two months ago, clear evidence was published showing the heavily negative impact of wind power on tourism in Scotland.

Yet, far from reigning in on wind development, Government is set to relax planning protection for rural landscapes even further – threatening to unleash a new wave of giant onshore turbines across the UK, with little opportunity for objection.

The facts bear out Aykroyd’s statement, with Renewable Energy set to contribute at most 10% of electrical output by 2010 – a maximum of only 7.5% coming from wind farms. Yet nuclear power, if it is to fill the “energy gap” left by decommissioning outdated coal fired and atomic capacity, would need to provide around 40% - probably a lot more to take the place of politically vulnerable gas supplies.

And that’s just electrical generation – itself only responsible for around 30% of carbon emissions, alongside transport (25%) and business (30%).

“A Diversion of Scarce Resources”

If the genuine aim of the government’s energy strategy is a reduction in greenhouse gas to tackle climate change, then onshore wind power can only make a very small difference.
It simply diverts scarce resources away from more cost-effective ways of curbing greenhouse gases such as better building insulation, tighter curbs on industrial and aviation emissions, and other forms of renewable energy - particularly micro-turbines and solar panels.
The Energy Review’s emphasis on these latter aspects marks a refreshing shift in policy, but resources will still be needed to make this effective.

Today's Wilderness View

Picture courtesy and © of Rachel Alltimes

Free Public Lecture Series - Conservation of the Grand Scale - Autumn 2006

Birkbeck, University of London is in conjunction with the Ecology and Conservation Studies Society organising a series of free public lectures:

All welcome. Free admission

The lectures will be held in Birkbeck Main Building, University of London, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX
For any queries, please contact e-mail: wright@britishlibrary.net; tel: 020 7485 7903, or contact e-mail: a.inniss@bbk.ac.uk; tel: 020 7679 1069

All lectures are from 6.30 to 8.30 pm on the following Fridays. Doors open at 6.00pm.

13 October ‘Conservation on a Grand Scale: what, why and where?’
- A scene-setting exploration of a 'landscape scale approach' to conservation
Dr David Bullock, Head of Nature Conservation, National Trust. Formerly NT
Nature Conservation Advisor; and Dr Stuart Warrington, National Trust.

20 October ‘Ministry of Defence Large Scale Conservation, including coastal and climate change issues’
- Ian Davidson-Watts, Head of Natural Environment, Defence Estates.

27 October ‘Rewilding: The Vision, Examples, Constraints and Benefits’
- Toby Aykroyd, Co-ordinator of the ‘Wild Britain’ initiative and trustee of the Wilderness Foundation; and Jonathan Spencer, Senior Ecologist, Forestry Commission.

3 November ‘The Foresters with Horns - large herbivores in the wildwood and modern naturalistic grazing systems’
- Keith Kirby, Forestry and Woodland Officer, Natural England, Peterborough.

10 November 'The Wicken Vision - creating a new wetland landscape in Cambridgeshire, - progress and problems'
- Dr Stuart Warrington, Regional Nature Conservation Advisor, National Trust

17 November ‘Landscape: does it help or undermine the cause of conservation?’
- Professor Adrian Phillips, former Director General of the Countryside Commission and former Chairman of IUCN's [World Conservation Union] World Commission on Protected Areas.

The Ecology and Conservation Studies Society aims to foster interest in conservation based on sound ecological principles by arranging lecture courses, field visits and meetings, and by keeping its members up to date on literature, new concepts, research and practical field studies techniques. Membership is open to all who have relevant experience and interests. Non-members are most welcome at these lectures series.
Web site : http://www.bbk.ac.uk/ce/environment/ecssociety/

Recent literature on Global Warming - New York Review of Books

In the most recent issue of The New York Review of Books:

"Jim Hansen is Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University's Earth Institute. His opinions are expressed here, he writes, "as personal views under the protection of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution." - http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19131

The following books are reviewed in the article:
- The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change
- Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change
- An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It

The latter also covered in one of our previous postings.

Tiger Evening Gains Silver

The private fundraising gala evening in aid of the critically endangered South China tiger, to be held on 26th September, has received a great boost thanks to the generosity of the famous Zimbabwean sculptor Patrick Mavros who has donated a silver tiger statue worth nearly £6,000. The sculpture will be actioned on the night.

You can read more about the effort to Save the China's Tigers here: http://www.savechinastigers.net/