I enjoy a walk in the countryside, being lucky to have many public footpaths on the doorstep.
I discovered a lot of these during 2020 & lock-down when I would walk nearly everyday, the weather being fantastic that summer as it has been this year.
The spring was particularly beautiful this year
The garden apple tree full of blossom produced a bumper crop of apples:
There seems to be a distinct lack of wasps buzzing around these.
Perhaps they came earlier this year. I've been told there were lots in the summer, although a report from a pub garden may not be an accurate assessment of wasp numbers.
On the coast I saw very few. Insect numbers, particularly butterflies, were all down this year according to a National Trust worker and insect expert. He spoke of a 'placebo' effect where by it appeared that there were lots of butterflies around due to one particular species (the meadow brown) all coming out during their breeding period making it appear to walkers that there are lots of butterflies around.
I wonder about this 'perception'.
This morning on radio 4 they reported that although last year butterflies had a dismal summer, it was much better news this summer according to the insect survey by 'citizen scientists' i.e people like you and me observing, in the garden or walking in woods who 'see what we can find'. They reported that the numbers have jumped this year from 7, being the average that people spotted last year to 10.3 butterflies in 15 minutes in parks gardens and green spaces across Britain.
I wonder if we are not just sticking our heads in the sand by simply sticking our heads outside and counting butterflies.....is this good Science or perhaps another example of the 'placebo' effect the expert was talking about
.......I also wonder what 0.3 of a butterfly looks like.
One thing he said which did make me think. He posed the question 'what would we have to lose before we stop and take notice and act......where is the line?' Would it be the swallow he said - would that be something that would have to disappear before we realise.
Also on radio 4 they talked about a new global project hoping to get people to map the ocean for microplastics.....basically taking samples to build up a large scale picture showing how much of our water has been polluted by them. A professor of forensic and environmental science described how it would be possible for anybody to take a sample of water from the home and analyse it for microplastics - 'citizen scientists' again - but what strikes me is the focus is always on collecting data and not very much on what can be done about it? I suppose we have to try.
later on there is a news item describing how another water company has been fined - not for polluting this time - but these fines are merely passed onto the customer.
And if companies are merely fined for polluting, how will this stop them. If they are making massive profits there can be no incentive to change their practice if their only penalty is a fine.
and watching this film the other night really did highlight how evil big corporations can be, if they can get away with it. 'Pollution for Profit' regardless of the cost to nature, animals and humans
PFOA - that's perfluorooctanoic acid - a chemical that was in Teflon.
It's what is called a 'forever chemical' which is a man made substance that cannot be broken down in nature so it stays in the environment forever.
Most of the drugs we take, including paracetamol, are also forever chemicals.
Makes you think........
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