Chimney Meadows, on the banks of the River Thames near Bampton in Oxfordshire, is one of the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust’s biggest and most important nature reserves, vital habitat for otters and endangered wading birds. In 2004, with the help of its supporters, the trust (BBOWT) bought it, as potential development threatened. Now… Continue reading
Browsing Category Conservation
Sleek and silent killer returns to the skies of an English market town
A pair of peregrine falcons is raising a single chick on a nesting platform at the top of the 200 feet high County Hall in the centre of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. The falcons have been nesting here since 2011, and I don’t think our sense of wonder should diminish. All round the world, totemic… Continue reading →
Nespresso’s Clooney coffee ads to boost South Sudan farmers
Coffee pods are one of the social and marketing phenomena of our times. The dominant brand Nespresso continues to commission the matinee, or should that be mid-morning?, idol George Clooney to promote its coffee to a prodigious band of consumers who cannot, incidentally, all be women. 10 years on, and owners of the brand Nestlé… Continue reading →
National Trust puts a price on bluebells
A sea of bluebells in the woods in April and May is the most popular floral attraction of the year in the UK. They beat even the daffodil and the snowdrop, which can be cultivated in gardens. The bluebell is a survivor from our old countryside. Kew Botanic Gardens says almost half the global population of… Continue reading →
David Attenborough talks to President Obama
In May this year (2015) President Obama welcomed broadcaster Sir David Attenbrough to the White House for a televised discussion. In the interview, broadcast in the UK and US , Sir David asks the President why he cannot show a commitment to tackling climate change in the way previous presidents strived to put men on the moon. Obama… Continue reading →
Capital idea to put nature and the environment in heart of UK economy
This is how to put a price on nature. If landowners and developers want to build houses in beautiful, open countryside, they must compensate for the loss of habitat and wildlife by providing a piece of land of equal or greater size nearby, then pay to manage and enhance it so it becomes as ecologically… Continue reading →