Environmental Leadership tests!

Green groups set tests for environmental leadership.

Group members may be interested to see the Wildlife Trust taking a positive step in fighting for wildlife in Somerset. A full account of this action can be seen on the Trusts web site. Click here.

SOMERSET Wildlife Trust is joining forces with the UK’s leading environmental groups to throw down the gauntlet to the three main political parties on six critical environmental issues.


This initiative is supported by the CPRE, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Green Alliance, National Trust, RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, and WWF.



"The parties must develop policies commensurate with the scale of the challenges facing us in relation to climate change, the countryside and wildlife.

"The public and business want more from politicians. We hope that all parties will meet The Green Standard.”

Simon Nash, chief executive of Somerset Wildlife Trust, added: "We need strong leadership now to save our environment. And the public is ready to follow: concern for the environment now leads the list of public concerns at 44 per cent. But what does strong leadership mean? It means our leaders must commit to stitch the countryside back together to allow wildlife to adapt to climate change, and provide strong protection for our seas."

"It means getting planning right. It means getting urban regeneration right. It means getting farming right. It means getting the Marine Bill right. Above all it means boldness, vision and resolve."





The Green Standard: Tests for environmental leadership

UK action on climate change
Achieve reductions in UK carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of at least 3% year on year, en route to a low-carbon economy based on energy efficiency, renewable sources of energy and decentralised energy.

International action on climate change
Provide international leadership to restrict global temperature rises to 2°C and ensure worldwide emissions are falling by 2015.

Green living
Make it cheaper and easier for individuals to reduce their environmental impact through tax, regulation, information and other powers of government.

Natural environment
Protect and enhance the beauty, accessibility and wildlife of the environment in our countryside, towns and seas through incentives, regulation, investment and other powers of government.

Planning
Value, support and develop our planning system as a democratic tool for protecting and enhancing the natural and built environment of our countryside and towns.

Environmental tax and subsidies
Green the tax system by increasing the amount of revenue from taxes that reduce environmental damage, and eliminate environmentally perverse subsidies.



Further Information:


In an environmental leadership initiative, the groups, which command more than five million supporters, will address a panel of David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Chris Huhne MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary and Peter Ainsworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment and launch a series of tests against which they will judge the three main parties in the lead-up to the next General Election.

The nine groups behind today’s initiative will publish regular assessments of the main political parties’ environmental performance, and mobilise their members behind the tests.

The first assessment of the parties’ performance against the tests will be published in September this year, ahead of the annual party conferences. The final assessment will be published prior to the next General Election.

The launch of The Green Standard: Tests for environmental leadership will be on Tuesday 27 February, 10.30 -12.30, at Local Government House, Smith Square, London. The event will be chaired by Edward Stourton and spokespersons attending will be David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary and Peter Ainsworth, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment.

News update

I recently sent this email to about 80 members and friends of the Somerset
Wildlife Trust, Heart of the Levels Group for information.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
1) Here are details of our next public meeting on March 8th.

Farming and wildlife are inseparable in Somerset. We expect to hear how
FWAG spreads good practice that enables farmers to successfully utilise
their land to generate an acceptable income whilst managing their farms to
provide habitats and food for wildlife.We hope the meeting will help us
understand how this can be achieved.

Statement from the FWAG web site:

"The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) is the UK's only independent
and dedicated provider of environmental and conservation advice and
consultancy to farmers and crofters. Formed in 1969, FWAG has grown into a
network of 120 highly skilled Farm Conservation Advisers located within 55
regional and county groups across the UK."

************************************************************************************************************************

Farming and Wildlife in Somerset

a talk by Adam Lockyear from FWAG

Somerset's Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group

Thursday March 8th 7.30pm

United Reformed Church Hall, West Street, Somerton

All welcome.

Cost £1.50 including refreshments.

Free Parking in Somerton main car park

Presented by The Heart of the Levels Group of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

****************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************

2) We are pleased to pass on an invitation from the RSPB. We have suggested Sat April 14th . There will be a limit on the numbers that can be accommodated on any one visit but I'm sure we could arrange a second tour if
needed.


An invitation from the West Sedgmoor Office of the RSPB to join a conducted tour of their new reserve at Grey Lake and with the option to start with a tour of the West Sedgemoor Reserve famous for its heronry and water fowl.

"I recently lead a group from the Wells SWT around the Greylake Nature
Reserve and thought it would be a good idea to make contact and invite
yourself and the Heart of the Levels group on a guided visit too.

It would be great to meet the group and to show you the work that the RSPB
has been doing in this area, talk about our conservation management
priorities and have a look at some of the wildlife that is benefiting from
our work - as well as to hear your views and thoughts and priorities.

If you like we could also visit the West Sedgemoor Reserve and see the
heronry and the woodlands and talk about management for dormice, hedgerow
management for butterflies, hay meadows etc etc. The two reserves are only
15 mins apart, and we could spend 1- 2hrs at each site with a lunch stop
somewhere maybe?

I see from your website that you have a relatively full programme of events
in the near future - but if you like the sound of this, then suggest a date
and we will see what we can sort out.

Spring, summer or autumn or next winter would all be fine - there is plenty
to see/talk about at all times of year - although obviously some times are
better for access and for seeing wildlife than others!"

***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

3) I recently emailed our committee on the subject of finding members
who have completed the basic First Aid course and who will be prepared to
join our walks and reserve visits. This note is to extend the request to a
wider group of our membership.

"The local Red Cross run a basic first aid course. They ask for a donation of £35 per person for a one day course and will be running one on March 25th but need to know soon to confirm.
Please let me know if you wish to join this course or a future one if this
date is inconvenient. We do need some additional first aiders to be able to
organise walks etc. If you do the course there is no obligation to join our walks but
we hope you will, subject to availability on any given date."

Volunteering in Dorset during the Napoli ship wreck

It is interesting to read about the involvement of volunteers from Dorset Wildlife Trust in the aftermath of the shipwreck as sea birds became smothered in oil.
The link will take you to their volunteers newsletter web site. ( click on the post title)
There is comment on other more normal activities they get up to.

Avill Valley in North Hawkwell Woods , Exmoor National Park

If you know Exmoor you will probably know this location as Snowdrop Valley. The photographs taken on 15th Feb 2007 show some of the magic of this beautifully conserved natural wonder, but you really have to see it for yourself. It made me think of William Wordsworth's poem,written almost exactly 200 years ago, " I wandered lonely as a Cloud....". Having just read it again I am sure he could have written it after visiting this place. Lines in verse two say,

"Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance"
and again in verse three,
"I gazed- and gazed- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought"

But there is much more than just drifts of snowdrops. People travel 1000's of miles to visit rain forest but in this very steep sided valley in an area with good rainfall the walk shows an equally fascinating display of lichens, mosses, ferns and fungi and its right in our own back garden!. If anyone can identify them for me from the photographs I would be grateful.

Butterfly Spotters

This invitation to members of the Trust is shown on their web site. ( see link on this blog.)

The Heart of the Levels local group is particularly interested in encouraging our local members to take up this opportunity as we see the East Poldens as very much our local patch. We know our members visit the reserves in the area and it would be a great service to the Trust if they could play some part in this activity.

WANTED: Butterfly Spotters
WANTED: keen, fit and able volunteers to walk on sunny summer days, on some hilly reserves on the eastern Polden Hills near Somerton to count butterflies.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer butterfly recorder and can identify common butterflies (how about the one above?) please go to the volunteering opportunities page on this website or contact volunteer development manager Carolynn Jureidini, 01823 652400

Somerset Wildlife Trust 2006/2007

Presentation by Simon Nash, Chief Executive Officer for the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

As reported in my last post staff and volunteers were given a presentation at Trust HQ on January 12th 2007, of the Trusts achievements in 2006, the challenges already anticipated for 2007 together with key priorities for the next 12 months. Simon kindly made this information available for publication here.


Achievements in 2006

• Reorganisation and clarification of the "People and Wildlife" (PaW) team.
• Mendip project fundraising success and set-up.
• The Badger campaign.
• Huge expansion of our education work.
• Carymoor merger.
• Dedicated Volunteer Support
• Dynamic and solid fundraising team.

2007 - key challenges

• Climate Change….
• Unsustainable development.
• Maintaining organisational momentum whilst achieving consolidation.
• Communicating in a larger/more complex organisation.
• Generating sufficient income in a challenging and changing environment – its all about people as well as wildlife.

Priorities for 2007

• Sustainability successfully integrated across the organisation.
• Improved valuing of and retention of our members.
• Measuring our performance – and reporting on results (not process) – clearly showing what difference we make.
• Creation of a Wildlife Info service.
• Continued and improved engagement with volunteers.
• Carymoor fully incorporated into the Trust’s work; FC and Carymoor Education work ‘seamless’.
• Seamless working between SWT and SERC which will include a consistent GIS system across SWT and SERC, with more people using it.
• The Mendip Habitat survey.
• Success in getting trainees into environmental jobs sooner than ever before.
• Management of Visitor Centres refined to ensure a co-ordinated and well planned approach.
• Successful access project started on our reserves.
• Advisory work and Wildlife Sites project developed/re-launched after a long absence of capacity
• Successful Mendip project well on its way
• Successful campaigns and lobbying.
• Levels and Moors project well developed by end of calendar year.
• Tone Floodplain project scoping completed and, ideally, project started.
• Parrett Sluice to become "as dead as a Parrot"! and abandoned as a bad idea.
• Web-site revamped – more accessible.
• Continue to increase our influence, profile and effective working with partners.

We hope in our local group to be able to make a contribution to some if not all these challenges and priorities in 2007.

Starting the new year. 2007

It's been an interesting week. Started off trying to organise a committee meeting by finding a date that all or most of the committee can make. Settled on 18th Jan. Still needed a venue, now getting a bit urgent. Called at a local pub to see if it had space for us and decided it was worth a try.

Then on Friday visited the Trusts offices at Wellington for what could be called a team building event. Simon Nash CEO for the Trust gave a 10 minute power point presentation in which he reviewed achievements in 2006 and then looked at priorities for action for 2007. Quite a list which I hope to be able to summarise in another post soon. Those present in a standing room only meeting room included many if not all of the Trusts staff including representatives of the newly joined Carymoor team. The volunteers included several Area Group Chairmen, Reserve Managers and representatives of various special groups.

Motivated by meeting so many people all working to protect the future of wildlife in Somerset my next step into 2007 required me to leave home at 8am on Sunday morning to join a one day course in "Immediate Temporary Care for the ill and injured." This is what used to be called a first aid course a long time ago. The web site for the course provider (linked below) showed he had experience way beyond our local expectations but he certainly ran a stimulating days course.

http://www.cory-jones.com/index.php
http://www.cory-jones.com/first_aid_Health_and_safety_advice.php

In our modern world Health and Safety legislation requires us to demonstrate a duty of care for people, for example, that we are leading on walks in reserves. It was an 8 hour course from 9am till 5pm on what turned out to be a very fine Sunday. A significant level of commitment by all concerned which resulted in us all becoming "Appointed Persons". I'll leave the stories of terrible accidents and what went wrong with the First Aid for another occasion but such accounts do drive home the importance of the training.

As if that wasn't enough for one week I must follow up a few admin matters and be ready for our committee meeting in two days time!

I recently wrote to our committee to call a meeting and as an example of how we are progressing as we go into our second year here is part of what I said:


Dear all,
Hope you have survived the Xmas/New Year celebrations!
We need to get together for what we loosely call a committee meeting soon.
I'm going to see if a local pub is suitable or there may be some other venue you might like to suggest .
I suggest one of these dates : Tue 23rd or Thur 18th or 25th January.
We need to get our next public meetings organised.

Anything for the agenda?

While you are thinking here are some related current developments which we should (IMHO) have some overview on.
There is a big UN IPCC ( Climate Change committee) report due in Feb which will get a lot of press /media coverage on climate change and will give lots of food for thought on the issue.
All political parties are joining the debate. A lot of claims and statements are being made by "everyone and his dog".
A recent enquiry by the Guardian ( Guardian 3rd Jan http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/story/0,,1981779,00.html ) found that most local councils have no plans to encourage residents to cut carbon emissions apart from recycling.
I would like to write to all our local parish councils to ask them if they have someone who is given a role of dealing with environmental issues and wildlife matters and how they take a view on such issues. This is related to planning to a large extent.
There will soon be big changes( I am reliably informed) in our local Gov as Somerset goes to a unitary authority status. i.e. no district councils. More power to the Parishes!
I understand our MP is quite well qualified on green issues.
So I suggest we ask our MP to come and discuss with us, either as committee or at an open meeting, some or all of these issues and to tell us how he sees the situation.
I see this as simply a way to keep ourselves as well informed as possible and of course to ask questions. I'm sure we will be asked about these matters.
I've even had a gardening club asking me for a talk on climate change and gardens!!
Or we can just meet for a beer!
Finally you may be reassured that I am doing a First Aid course on Sunday at Fyne Court organised by the SWT. Afterwards I will need to practice on someone . Any volunteers?
RSVP

Carymoor Environmental Centre

It seems a life time ago but back on Dec 8th we went to the Carymoor Environmental Centre near Castle Cary for a Christmas celebration. Good food ,a well stocked bar, live music and chance to meet up with friends from our own group as well as people from the centre and other invited guests made a very pleasant evening. The photos show Peter Keggin and Hamish Craig (see below) and the lively group providing the music.
It was a significant event following on from the merging of the Carymoor Trust with the Wildlife Trust in a way that strengthens both. It gives us a valuable educational and advisory resource within reasonable reach of our area and there will be much of interest to our local members over the coming months. It was fitting that Peter Keggin on behalf of the Somerset Wildlife Trust publicly welcomed the new partnership and thanked Hamish Craig for the work he and the Carrymoor team had undertaken over the 10 years since its formation.

Typical arguments about global warming

From time to time I get into conversation with people who have doubts about what is happening to our climate, usually based on their observations about the weather and what is happening in their garden. To come up with well thought out replies is not easy and so I've looked up such answers on the " How to talk to a Climate Sceptic Guide" blog and as an example I am copying one such answers here. If you wish to visit the blog you can use the link provided on this post or click here:
http://illconsidered.blogspot.com/

This is what you will find as a typical question and answer, using the statement: Climate change is just a natural cycle..

Thursday, February 23, 2006

This is Just a Natural Cycle

(Part of the How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic guide)

Objection:

The current warming is just a natural cycle.

I always find this one a little amusing in the sense that you might as well call it "magic", because natural cycles do in fact have causes. So this is really just trying to insist that the climate science community is as ignorant as whoever it is writing this objection.

Answer:

While it is undoubtedly true that there are some cycles and natural variations in global climate, anyone who wishes to insist that the current warming is purely or even just mostly natural has two challenges. Firstly, they need to identify just what this alleged natural mechanism is because absent a forcing of some sort, there will be no change in global energy balance. So natural or otherwise we should be able to find this mysterious cause. Secondly, a "natural cause" proponent needs to come up with some explanation for how a 30% increase in the second most important Greenhouse Gas does not itself affect the global temperature.

In other words, there is a well developed, internally consistent theory that predicts the effects we are observing, so where is the sceptic model, or theory whereby CO2 does not affect the temperature and where is the evidence of some other natural forcing?

There is a fine historical example of a very dramatic and very regular climate cycle that can be read in the ice core records taken both in Greenland and in the Antarctic. A naive reading of this cycle indicates we should be experiencing a cooling trend now, and indeed we were very gradually cooling over the length of the preindustrial Holocene, something around .5C averaged over 8000 years. It is informative to compare those fluctuations to today's changes. Leaving aside the descents into glaciation, which were much more gradual, the very sudden (geologically speaking) jumps up in temperature every ~100Kyrs actually represent a rate of change roughly ten times slower than the rate we are currently witnessing.

So could the current change be natural? Well, there is no identified natural cause (and they have been looked for), there is no theory of climate where CO2 does not drive the temperature and the natural cycle precedents do not show the same extreme reaction we are now witnessing.

(That would be a "No")


Other Guides, by Category

posted by coby @ 2/23/2006 01:07:00 PM