Future Earth

Truffles at Dawn

2011-10-02T00:40:00.013+01:00

As dawn disolves the Transylvanian night tall, forbidding trunks of oak, beech and hornbeam emerge from the surrounding woodland. Bears and wolves live here and deep-seated fears from ancient myths lurk in the shadows. We shiver in the cab of the battered 4-wheel-drive that steers us past a local shepherd, his dogs escorting us noisily along the track. One resonant, silencing bark in response from the deep-chested hungarian vizslas in the back and we enter the woodland. The turreted landscape below is cloaked in low-lying morning mist and, as we cut the engine, the only sound is of silence as the dark forest wraps around us.

Released from the confines of the vehicle, smooth-haired "Matty" and wire-haired "Sisi" scope out the terrain, rustling through the carpet of dry leaves, noses down and tails on the level, at once alert, focused and joyful. They know their business and relish every moment. Cornell leads us along the forest track as morning light starts to percolate between the branches. No tangled undergrowth here; the canopy is high - oak driven upwards to match the skywards spread of the hornbeam, not wasting time or energy in side branches along the way. These are oaks beloved of carpenters and builders, straight and true, left to mature for a hundred years.

At their base are wraiths of movement. Matty is seven, has worked with Cornell since she was a puppy, and is a mistress of the art. He watches her closely as she quarters the gentle slopes, then pushes her quivering snout into the layers of leaf litter and pauses. Usually he is in time to mark the spot and feel amongst the leaves to collect the earthy brown truffle growing on buried roots. Sometimes she saves him the trouble and presents him with her find, collecting a tasty dog treat and a touch of Cornell's hand in recompense. Often she will dig enthusiastically to uncover deeper treasures. It has been unseasonably dry for nearly two months and Cornell is surprised that the moist vizsla noses remain so effective in the dry leaf mould. "It's easier when the snow comes" he offers "less competing smells, they find them more quickly".

Wire-haired Sisi is only two. In the forest shadows she disappears against the crackling leaves, camoflagued by a broken outline of silvery hair and constant movement. As if covered in tumbleweed and on a secret mission she goes her own way, emerging with earthy mouth that speaks of truffles known but not delivered. "I need to spend time with her on her own to train her properly" Cornell admits "but it is difficult to leave Matty home alone when we are going to the forest". Meanwhile, Matty is inadvertantly tackling the training of her canine companion herself. Digging into a promising lead at the base of a trunk, the two work together, but it is not a truffle that emerges in that soft vizsla mouth; it is, or rather it was, a velvety mole, woken abruptly to face its last day. Matty was not about to deliver that prize quite so easily, but Cornell guided her back to business. Sisi lagged behind, rolling luxuriously in the patch of late summer leaves, topping up her coat with aroma of mole.

Reluctantly leaving the forest to return to work and workshopping, we ease our way back along the bumpy track to the village, surprising a Roe deer, leaping over shrubby pasture and into cover. A forester for many years, these truffling excursions with his vizslas are Cornell's solitary lead-in to the hustle of the autumn day. We have intruded but we are grateful and carry delicious memories away - along with a couple of nodular truffles nestling at the bottom of our jacket pockets.

Cornell is part of a talented team helping local communities in rural Romania retain small-scale farming and traditional cultures by making them more profitable. Good for nature and for local economies alike, the Adept Foundation helps retain high nature value grasslands, working with a variety of partners including Fauna & Flora International.

Nurdles in paradise

2010-12-28T09:52:00.005Z

So, if you thought of nurdles at all, it may have been as a benign cricketing term ('nurdling into the gap' can be a good move for batsmen). Not so benign in this form. Take a good look at the small (approx 3mm across) pellets of plastic in this (8cm high) bottle. Look around you wherever you are and you are likely to see the same colours of plastic in household or garden goods.

These are 'nurdles' - mostly pre-production plastic pellets - collected in 20 minutes from a random metre square of remote beach on the eastern shoreline of Scotland. They are washed out of transport tankers and off docksides straight into the ocean and journey around the globe. Nurdles join micro-plastics from cosmetics and the many items of plastic garbage from our disposable society that are polluting our seas. They have been found choking small marine creatures that mistake them for food - and carry an additional payload of hydrophobic chemicals that attach to them in the ocean.

Suddenly "nurdling into the gap" takes on an altogether more sinister meaning for humans dependent on marine productivity. And if only plastic could be converted to Ashes as easily as the English cricket team's nurdles are in Melbourne this week.

There is no green without blue

2010-02-16T08:25:00.006Z

Adding Oceans to Future Earth's labels and highlighting this great site from the Blue World Alliance on the horror of ocean plastics.

The pic (packet was not planted) was snapped on the shores of West Kalimantan a couple of years ago- ancient natural roots despoiled by flashy modern rubbish.

A Handel on Copenhagen

2009-12-20T15:17:00.012Z

Last night, as the Copenhagen summit was struggling to conclude a deal on tackling climate change, my brother, son and I struggled through the icy streets of Cambridge to Kings College Chapel. Handel's Messiah reverberating around those majestic walls on a snowy winter's night is the closest approach to a religious experience for one whose religion is music.

But my thoughts were wandering, considering the stone masons for whom it must have been a life's work to chisel away the interior decor of vaulting colums to create the chapel in the 15th Century. Then, almost inevitably to the corridors of Copenhagen, and finding myself helplessly raging against the leaders of nations unable to subsume short-term perspectives for the longer term health of our shared planet. The words to Handel's masterpiece (penned by Charles Jennens in the 18th Century) started to assume a strange shape, with "Climate Change" replacing mention of the Deity ......

"But who may abide the day of (irreversible, man-made climate change) coming? and who shall stand when (climate change) appeareth? For (climate change) is like a refiner's fire.....

Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people.....
(Climate change) will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land; and (climate change) will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come...

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way. And (climate change) hath laid on (itself) the iniquity of us all.

Why do the nations so furiously rage together? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against (climate change), and against his anointed (the IPCC). Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped".

So, nothing new under the increasingly warming sun, then. Up to us now. Can we persuade our leaders to develop and enforce binding targets? Or will it end in tears and warfare? Will there be people listening to Handel in the Kings College chapel next Century? It might at least be a last refuge from the heat... those high ceilings and thick stone walls are as literally chilling to the body as the thought of "no deal" is to the mind.

The frog prince... from a croak to a chorus.

2009-11-20T00:01:00.008Z

As a young Cambridge graduate, HRH the Prince of Wales was mocked for talking to plants. Well 'listen up' folks... now beleagured tropical forests are talking to him and they picked the right person. Not only does he know his stuff about organic agriculture, but he has shown real leadership in tackling the rapid deforestation of the planet.

Without political inference or interference, just using his power to convene within both private and public sectors, the prince has set in place a process that provides a viable way of slowing rainforest loss while the world struggles to establish multi-lateral mechanisms and markets for the longer-term. A gathering at St. James Palace today also showcased partnerships that are testing the mechanisms of direct payment for proven results (combined with building capability for "REDD"). Presidents of rainforest nations mingled with world bank boffins, captains of industry and NGOs both global and local, and our own Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change. Some of my takeaway points:

President Bongo of Gabon talked about the "common good" represented by remaining rainforests, but suggested that some of the wealth of developed countries could be similarly regarded as "common good" and used to help the developing countries protect forests. Fair point.

All we need to stem the tide of rainforest destruction is 18-25 billion Euro over 5 years, well deployed. Less than bonus pots available to some giants of the finance sector. This would prevent 7 gt of emissions and turn the global emmisions graph from its rising trajectory back towards less damaging levels.

The window to decide to act is becoming smaller and coming closer. Explorer Pen Halow described the scary results of the Catlin Arctic Survey announced last month. Its thinner than we think and the potential loss of the world's arctic airconditioning system throws into even sharper focus the need to protect our tropical band of climate moderating rainforest.

So how do we come up with these funds? Well, Norway is ahead of us there - already supporting the Amazon Fund and a deal with the Government of Guyana to help them become a low carbon economy. We might need a few more women involved (HRH's gathering had heads of state, chiefs representing indigenous peoples & a diversity of skills on offer but no women speakers and only a few flickers of colourful clothing amongst the black crow suits....!) We might need to highlight biodiversity ... which just seems to be an underlying assumption, following seemlessly from conserved forests, but this is not entirely the case.

Most especially, we need a real deal from the leaders gathering shortly in Copenhagen. We need agreement and action. Amidst all the hurdles of targets and timetables, it could just possibly be that this "interim financing instrument" starts to look enticing and tempting as an offering to rally around. The croaking frog has sounded the alarm and orchestrated a compelling chorus of voices to that end.

The deal with dogs

2009-10-24T14:27:00.008+01:00

Emerging into the world this week, this hour-old beagle pup is destined to be a loved family pet. As such, she will be part of a mutually-beneficial relationship with her human family - reducing their stress levels and improving their health (see 'Dogs are good for you', elsewhere on this blog).

As she was born, an article in the New Scientist reported on calculations that average sized-dogs have a larger "footprint" on the earth's resources than most cars. While debatable, that would rather pose a dilemma for those of us enjoying the health benefits of canine companions, while also trying to be eco-friendly and care for the planet. Time to eat the dog then? Possibly so according to Robert and Brenda Vale who did the calculations, although they do include the question mark in the title of their Guide to Sustainable Living.

Eating dog meat is a tradition in several parts of the world, either for the various properties ascribed to it, or as an emergency food, as some polar explorers attest. Occasionally the dogs have their revenge, as eating the liver of sled dogs produces the condition Hypervitaminoisis and the explorer Mertz died from this in 1913. With such a widespread practice what, apart from avoiding the liver, is the problem?

Well, its just not part of the deal. The canine-human relationship has grown up around a variety of nee ds based on the dog's abilities to sniff out trouble or point out game. In much of the world there is now legislation prohibiting the eating of companion & working dogs, even in Korea and parts of China.

Too late for this one in Vietnam, however. And how long will our ethics within this trusting deal survive if things get really sticky?

(P.S. Predatory cats however are a whole 'nother issue, and I'll return to that when I've plucked up the courage)

Board(s should) walk

2009-10-15T21:21:00.004+01:00

Why a photo of a snail on the edge of a precipice? It is a corporate snail, moving exceeding slow, looking out over the precipice and seeing nothing. It has just ventured out from a bed of lettuce and has no idea that life is not all about readily available greenery.

I spent Blog Action Day talking to a Corporate Board about biodiversity, the environment, climate change and why they are relevant to their business. The Group is a household name in the extractive sector. They have taken an interest in these critical issues, have a thoughtful Chief Executive, dynamic senior managers and some knowledgeable staff, so why my state of frustrated depression?

Seems to me that, given the speed of change on our planet, too many Board appointments are already behind the times, their experience increasingly irrelevant. Even if they do make attempts to diversify the skills available to them, new voices can falter amidst the pompous, patronising pontificating of increasingly antiquated corporate arrogance. Problem is that Boards nurture their own nests..... like the UN, they become less and less likely to rattle the branches that sustain them. They regenerate themselves, like with like. If they move out, it is onto another Board in the city.

Companies need to wake up to this if we are to tackle the ecological and economic challenges facing us now. If you are a shareholder, take a good look at the Board and ask questions. If you are a staff member consider what channels you have to propose new skills that Boards might not know they need. And if you are someone who might diversify a Board's perspective - make it known! Change the corporate climate and contribute to the challenge of climate change.

We've stuffed up

2009-10-08T16:42:00.005+01:00

National Poetry Day UK - many thanks to Jilly Mcnaughton for this guest post:

We've stuffed up

We've chopped down all our trees

and burnt up all our coal

Our precious green wild spaces

Have lost their heart and soul

We drive around in cars

As if it doesn't matter

As our ecosystems wither

And our climate lies in tatters

So well you might ask "who are you?"

To give advice on REDD

When to this world of doubt and fear

You have the whole world led

"Who are YOU to tell US

What our lands are worth

Or the value of the carbon stores

That lie beneath our earth?

"You want the best of both worlds

As your carbon footprint shows

So you can keep your eco-pocracy

And save your climate woes"

But what we haven't told you

What you might not quite yet see

Is that we want to help you not repeat

The same mistakes as we

What our climate talks don't get across

What our leaders dare not say

Is that we've stuffed up! Desperate! guilty!

And need you to lead the way...

Passing the baton in the human race

2009-10-03T20:51:00.008+01:00

Over four million years ago our ancestral "Ardi" walked (yes, walked) around in what is now Ethiopia.

Over three million years ago "Lucy" died a short distance further south.

About 20,000 years ago, further down the Rift, on the western side in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, the "Ishango bone" was being used and marked by early hominids, teasing their decendents trying to interpret this early maths.

In the late 1980s, Greg Laden was tackling postgraduate research in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology in the Semiliki region of Eastern DRC. At the same time a 5 year old was running wild in this same region, where his family were working with chimps and gorillas.

The early gasps of the 21st Century took Hans Herren, President of the Millennium Institute as a guest lecturer to Cambridge University, scanning the horizon for our changing planet. One of his recommendations was that we needed more under 25s in positions of decision-making as the rest of us were managing to ignore the impending crises of climate, agriculture, energy, food security and population.

Today a group of under 25s gathered in the leafy surrounds of Imperial College's Silwood Park as Masters candidates, about to commit themselves to Biodiversity & Conservation Science, Evolutionary Biology, Population and Community Ecology, Environmental Technology and more. How many of them can be persuaded out of the forests and labs, into the corridors of power? At the very least, can they be sure to communicate and inform, not only by peer-reviewed science, but also by translating it to the voting public?

One of the new postgraduates was that wild child in eastern Zaire. He and top science blogger Greg Laden are now linked by the twittering blogosphere that is spreading general knowledge on evolutionary science in all its infinite variety. I have a sense of baton passing, and renewed hope that the current crop of conservation biologists will run that extra mile. Frustration though that the last crop did not manage to stop the finishing line being brought forward and the track being made into an obstacle course.

tck tck tck tck tck tck tck tck.....

2009-09-21T14:44:00.007+01:00

Global wake up call on climate change. So little time and so much to lose if the countries at the climate talks in Copenhagen this December miss the opportunity to take decisive action. The ticking clock (we are at 'one minute to midnight') is waking up people around the world and especially leaders who will be making decisions on a post-Kyoto framework.

Today there are at least 2,400 events taking place on 5 continents to raise awareness. They range from the diminutive nun with a yellow tambourine at Cambridge's marketplace "flash mob" (unable to get through to Gordon Brown on the phone) to the masked man on an Australian beach giving Kevin Rudd a wake-up call. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock...
(Check twitter @tcktcktck for updates).

Taking the Cake - a Test Match Special

2009-08-20T17:15:00.009+01:00

If neither a fan of cricket nor social networking, skip this one (please return later for a post on land use, flowers and sacrifice).

Ah - still with me then? Enjoy the sound of leather on willow (world except China, Americas and continental Europe) or the chorus of twittering tweets (U.S. and Australia) or both (U.K and Australia)?

What a delight to listen to Stephen Fry talking with Jonathan Agnew at tea on Test Match Special today and presenting this cake to the commentary team. The picture on the left was taken at Fauna & Flora International, for whom Stephen Fry has taken on an ambassadorial role. The picture on the right was taken by Stephen with his i-phone and posted on twitter - within minutes upwards of 10,000 people had seen and commented on it and for some of these FFI's work will stay on their radar. Stephen described twitter as a fascinating communication medium - one that doesn't gum up like other channels. Falling leaves in a forest .... occasionally one catches your eye and you pick it out of the ether, examine it and comment.

My excuse for posting this on Future Earth is a muse about how long cricket will last in centuries to come. The first international tour was supposed to be in France in 1789 but was cancelled due to the French Revolution. Will the last one be in this Century - cancelled by lack of fuel to fly or water to moisten the pitch? Meanwhile, today's competition (prize a slice of fry's fruit cake delight):

* For cricketers - "what does 5-50-20/20 make"?

* For social networkers - "what is the rationale for the 2 numbers under the batsmen's names on the cake above?"

Entangled bank - wildflowers rule, UK.

2009-07-27T10:58:00.009+01:00

An "entangled bank" in Kent stimulted Darwin's thoughts on survival of the fittest. This Sussex bank, snapped at Glyndebourne during the UK's 2 days of summer this year, has been set aside for wildflowers within a formal cultivated garden, and what a feast of diversity is there.

With the UK's 'set aside' programme biting the dust in 2007, and farmers no longer compensated for keeping land out of production, Defra has been consulting this year on how to retain the environmental benefits gained. They are favouring a voluntary rather than legislated approach through "A Campaign for the Farmed Environment’", encouraging the farming industry to promote environmental stewardship within its own parameters for good practice.

Good practice for wildflowers is not restricted to agricultual land, however. "Landlife" focuses on urban & urban fringe areas as well - providing seeds of hope perhaps for the cities of the future. Those cities will be exerting their own pressures on diminishing agricultural land though, and as the demand for global food security forces greater production pressures on our reserves of agricultural land, what will keep farmers on the side of biodiversity?

Condoms for footballers - yes, they can!

2009-07-23T12:18:00.017+01:00

Football has become a common language as well as a tradeable currency. In Banda Aceh recently I was astonished to see a huge billboard with Stephen Gerrard's face writ large - a role model for high standard Premiership football, now sadly tarnished as brawling Gerrard's face sprawls across the tabloids instead. Then amidst acres of Miombo woodland in remote northern Mozambique we came across a villager peddling an ancient bicycle and a team shirt that provided common ground for a long conversation.

It also provided inspiration for a project* that resulted in 100 "Alive & Kicking" locally-made leather footballs being delivered to the enthusiastic Peles-in-the-making in villages around Niassa Reserve. These young guys were bundling up plastic bags and tying them with local twine into ball shapes. If they had had access to condoms, they could have improved on this model themselves. African ingenuity is using blown-up condoms as the basis for bounceable balls - covering them in plastic and old clothing for strength. I suppose by preventing their use for the purpose intended (and setting aside serious considerations of poverty, aids, climate etc for a moment), they are also ensuring a continuing supply of African football talent in years to come!

* A collaboration between Martin Aveling, Alive & Kicking, Sociedade de Gestão e Desenvolvimento da Reserva do Niassa (SRN), Keith and Colleen Begg, Fauna & Flora International & Fauna & Flora International Inc.

Biodiversity - what's in a name?

2009-07-19T13:19:00.005+01:00

It seems so obvious to me. Diversity is good - healthier, stronger, allowing for rapid adaptation to new environments in an endlessly changing world. And the word 'diversity' is well understood, right? Certainly understood in relation to diversity amongst people - different cultures, genders, orientations and nationalities. It even has its own school of "diversity management" aimed at encouraging business and educational structures to retain a healthy diversity of skills and talents. Google the word and you will find it is the name of the dance troupe winning "Britain's Got Talent" this year, so the word has even percolated into the clubs and pubs of every corner of this small island. Britain gets Diversity.

So what happens when you add a descriptor - genetic diversity, cultural diversity - still understood. So what is the problem with biological diversity, or its shortened form of biodiversity? Nothing, according to the local team working to protect Aceh's forest biodiversity - even though it is a little bit difficult to translate (Keanekaragaman hayati or biodiversitas?). Nothing, according to groups like Local Action for Biodiversity, or the children celebrating International Biodiversity Day this year. It even has its own Convention. But apparently the word has a low recognition factor in the UK and we are being encouraged to use "Nature" instead. Naturally, if this will help reverse the dramatic decline in global biodiversity - which, according to a recent letter to the journal Nature *, we are not doing too well - this blog will change its nature and lexicon.

*(Published online 8 July 2009 | Nature 460, 163 (2009) | doi:10.1038/460163c)Governments fail to reduce global biodiversity decline)

Bacon chocolate (yes, read on)

2009-07-15T14:45:00.011+01:00

What the world has been waiting for - delicious bacon and delicious chocolate in one easy bite. Well, half the world, anyway. And guess what - made in America. Vosges stress their green credentials but make no mention of palm oil, so I await their clarification before making a recommendation.

Meanwhile, how do they fare on the good taste test? On the taste buds themselves, not quite "nul points" as the chocolate is good. But even our beagle, who refutes that chocolate is poisonous to dogs (and as customs officials know, any beagle can sniff out a micron of food in a 747 at several paces) turned her nose up at this one. Fails the metaphorical "good taste" test too - does the world need to add fatty, calorific, methane-producing pork to ethically-produced chocolate? Food insecurity at its most dire?

But then, how deep is my green? Perhaps more research is needed and I suspect it will entail my tasting all the Vosges products to develop a more informed opinion.

Charles Darwin's (very own) Rose

2009-07-13T13:57:00.010+01:00

Last year I bought three "Charles Darwin" roses & planted them hopefully in pots ready for this year's celebrations. Over the damp winter months they developed a virus; one died, but the fittest responded to TLC. Slender and delicate against the robust disease-resistant hybrids beside them, as summer took hold one presented a hopeful bud. Then, on the first day of the Cambridge Darwin Festival, this beautiful bloom emerged. Guess what? It has a broad, substantive head with overlapping layers of petals reminiscent of the crumpled, yellowing tissue in collecting boxes.

I will dedicate each bloom in this Darwin party year, and this one is of course for the man himself. You can follow his posts from The Beagle on twitter @cdarwin (and from his party people at the Festival on #DarwinFest). Anyone you would like to nominate for the next bloom?

A glove of novelists?

2009-07-12T20:50:00.012+01:00

You might expect your scientific mind to be stretched at Cambridge's Darwin Festival, but conversations at the Corn Exchange the other night stimulated the soul. (O.K., O.K, "soul" not proven concept - please accept as a metaphor). A veritable soul-fest, in fact. A.S. Byatt & Ian McEwan, introduced by writers and interviewed by writers, all united in admiration for the intellectual curiousity of Charles Darwin.

Collective noun for novelists? A stimulation of novelists? An interpretation of novelists? No - I'm settling on "glove". Abiding memory of the evening was A.S. Byatt wiggling her fingers in an imaginary glove inhabiting an imaginary character.... and smiling as she toyed with where it might take them. She insisted it was not puppetry, as did McEwan who described inhabiting his characters and looking around at what they might see, how they might affect others in the vicinity. Seeking insights into the influence of Darwin on their writing, the interviewers came up short - A.S. Byatt was persuaded back into a childhood fascination for the natural world and Norse myths. McEwan pondered on life, not as fate, but as a rolling series of coincidences and crossroads (including voyeristic window into the McE extended family re. different consequences for his wife and sister of the 11 plus exam) .

Apart from commenting that neither novelist would be enjoyed by Darwin (whose taste was restricted to the light relief of pretty heroines and happy endings) both were more easily persuaded to talk about current projects. A.S. Byatt is playing with surrealism and psycho-analysis as fertile ground for contrasting characters (and also still thinking of writing her own "Norse" myth). McEwan has a physically unattractive 1980s Oxbridge scientist using intellectual brilliance to increase his relationship "fitness" and allowing him to play with the struggle that artists and moralists have with fate v. chance and "grandeur in this view of life".

Hey, we know what they are writing this summer!

AS Byatt (DBE, novelist; author of Angels and Insects and Possession) in conversation with Professor Gillian Beer (DBE, University of Cambridge, UK author of Darwin’s Plots).

Ian McEwan (novelist; author of Saturday, Enduring Love and Atonement) in conversation with Professor David Amigoni (Keele University, UK, and author of Colonies, Cults and Evolution).

Global Allotments

2009-07-04T19:36:00.006+01:00

Between the White Nile on the left of this image and the smaller Blue Nile on the right, irrigated agriculture spreads across the Sudanese Sahara.
Today it may be for cotton fibre, tomorrow it will likely be biofuels, the day after tomorrow it will be for food.

But not necessarily for Sudan, or even for Africa, despite the impoverishment of people and patchiness of food supply across the continent. Huge areas of agricultural land are being "secured" in advance for wealthier nations or those betting on future value as food insecurity starts to bite. Hard to swallow?

Various reports are documenting this land grab and the International Food Policy Research Institute estimates between US$20 billion and US$30 billion are being spent yearly by rich countries on agricultural land in developing countries. John Vidal in yesterday's Guardian quotes Devinder Sharma, analyst with the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security in India, predicting civil unrest:

"Outsourcing food production will ensure food security for investing countries but would leave behind a trail of hunger, starvation and food scarcities for local populations," he said. "The environmental tab of highly intensive farming – devastated soils, dry aquifer, and ruined ecology from chemical infestation – will be left for the host country to pick up."

Lyre, Lyre

2009-06-21T12:50:00.008+01:00

Only click through to this youtube snippet if you have watched and marvelled at "Life of Birds". It is a reminder that someone, somewhere, can always improve on the original - even when the original is the amazing Australian lyre bird echoing its own demise, and the delightful Sir David Attenborough.

Now lets see if we can apply as much creativity to saving the Australian lyre bird as the clever digital manipulators have applied to this clip.

Beijing June

2009-06-18T09:31:00.004+01:00

Ahhh, now we see why industries in and around Beijing were shut down for three months before the Olympics - but Beijingites can't see very far. The haziness in this pic is nothing to do with the state of intoxication of the photographer (who can be followed on twitter @wisebartender) .

This morning in Beijing - we have been warned.

Crickets lovely Crickets

2009-06-14T17:01:00.009+01:00

Taste buds tired of potato crisps or carrot sticks? Try roasted crickets or deep fried spiders - possibly a more sustainable snack on our land-strapped planet. (For recipes click through from "Biting on Bugs")

From an ancient Chinese culture that has traditionally eaten anything that moves it is encouraging to see from Jonathan Watts some signs of a home-grown NGO movement emerging to challenge the decimation of endangered wildlife in the cooking pots of the country:

"The nascent NGO conservation movement is stepping in where the authorities have had limited success by monitoring markets and restaurants, reporting sales of endangered species and trying to change the consumer culture. Among the youngest of several small groups is the Asian Turtle Rehabilitation Project, established earlier this year to save the reptiles from the soup pot. The founding members say they are trying to cross the divide between the culture in which they were raised and the global conservation concerns they have been exposed to via the internet and schooling".

Hopefully not too late for tasty, tortured, troubled turtles and their ilk.

(Photo above copyright Dr. Stephen Browne, with permission).

Michael Crichton - wish you were here.

2009-05-31T16:23:00.015+01:00

The last episode of ER airing in UK this week brings to mind its creator Michael Crichton, who died early and unexpectedly late last year and - surprisingly perhaps - I want to recognise him as a conservation leader. I can hear the howls of electronic protest. In the latter years of his life, Crichton stirred up a hornet's nest with vocal challenges to what he saw as flawed science - see some of the reactions to his life and work on Science Blogs immediately after his death from cancer. But Crichton's success as a writer came from a thorough understanding of scientific process, combined with an ability to challenge preconception and an intuitive take on human behaviour. He listened , explored, observed - then projected ideas forwards or backwards in time, and drew us in to his speculation about what might change and how we might react.

My personal recollection of Michael Crichton derives from his exploration of the fringes of medical science as documented in "Travels". He was travelling to overcome writers block and it seemed to work as a host of bestsellers followed. One was "Congo", but his encounter with mountain gorillas in the Virunga volcanoes was 180 degrees away from the paddle-swinging grey gorillas of that book and subsequent film. We found them high up above Lake Ngezi, amidst the luxuriant greenery covering the slopes of Visoke volcano. The group was resting, belching, peering at the 6' 9" charmer in their midst, who sank down automatically to their level. He was fascinated, trying out the vocalisations, spotting the different characters, drinking in the moment. He didn't forget either. Some years later, when gorillas were surrounded by war and disturbance, he pitched in behind the IGCP in Virunga and the gorilla organisation at Tshiaberimu.

I find myself wanting to know how he would have reacted as the evidence mounts for what we are doing to our planet and what future scenarios we might anticipate or prepare for. I would have liked him to write a guest post for Future Earth, and wish he was here to ask.

Douglas, Darwin and Doubt.

2009-05-25T14:49:00.020+01:00

What did Charles Darwin and Douglas Adams share, apart from bushy eyebrows and endless foreheads? Doubt. Questing, relentless minds, restless, voyaging natures, and legacies for humankind from their struggles for meaningful existence.

Today, May 25th, is "Towel Day" in annual memory of Douglas Adams (a towel was his recommended 'must have' for a Hitchhiker travelling the Galaxy). Douglas hit something in the global psyche with his Hitchhiker's guide, but it is for his travels closer to home that I remember him. When writing "Last Chance to See" with Mark Carwardine, Monsieur Adams bumped in to Zaire (as was) on a plane full of missionaries, whose niceness made him "want to bite them", and who were discussing their rhino horn or ivory trophies. Douglas was affected by his time with Mountain Gorillas and continued to support their conservation:

"I watched the gorilla's eyes again, wise and knowing eyes, and wondered about this business of trying to teach apes language. Our language. Why? there are many members of our own species who live in and with the forest and know it and understand it. We don't listen to them. What is there to suggest we would listen to anything an ape could tell us?"

It was indeed Adams' Last Chance to See, but Mark Carwardine teamed up with Adams' friend Stephen Fry to give the rest of us (and celluloid posterity) a second chance (where they could find it) later this year - stay tuned and hitch up that towel for Mr. Adams today.

Ruth Padel

2009-05-17T21:47:00.017+01:00

Ruth Padel has been elected as Oxford University's Professor of Poetry (emerging as the fittest candidate in a trial of life typical of Oxbridge intrigues, perfected over 800 years of Don-dom). Darwin's great great grandaughter has also recently published "Darwin - a life in poems" to critical acclaim by the Guardian, from whom it can be purchased. Professor Padel has pledged to bring poetry and science closer together and use her profile to help protect the environment.

Here's an example of her work - from "The Soho Leopard", published by Chatto & Windus, London, 2004:

The Forest, The Corrupt Official and a Bowl of Penis Soup

How can I paint Winter Landscape with Temples
and Travellers, or Five-Colour Parakeet

on Blossoming Apricot Tree?
The oracle boxes are empty

and the Minister with a Brief for Charming Explanation
has signed a licence (to the army) for the forest to be cut,

ordered satin linings to his red kimono
and is drinking with the General

in what he says is the best restaurant in town,
attended by two fifteen-year old girls:

handpicked, translucent brown jade.
Black tree stumps cool on the mountain,

sawmills slide out planks a hundred an hour
and white ash blooms over the river

while the courtier treats the General
to tiger-penis soup, five hundred linu a bowl.

I'll paint the bare burnt mamillated plain,
Flame of the Forest in its white and scarlet,

jack fruits and jacaranda, the stag in the sky
and the naming of stars, the three definitions of twilight

in Yunnan province where white-handed gibbons
used to sing their love duets.

I'll paint the truth of illusion, a glossary
of atmospheric optics,

and Guanyin, Guardian of Compassion;
I'll pay particular attention to her smile.

Update 25 May - Padel resigns (shame).

Is the earth moving?

2009-05-16T00:27:00.011+01:00

A tremor of concern and excitment shimmied along my spine with the prospect of an imminent erruption where my heart still lies in eastern DRC. This is not the Heart of Darkness for me - it is the land of bubbling friendship, glistening turquoise lakes and staggering sunsets. The area around and between the romantically-sounding Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo volcanoes sees a breakthrough erruption every few years. Nyiragongo is like an upturned bucket full of a particularly fluid melt - when it breaks through the bucket empties rapidly and previous erruptions have devastated the lakeside town of Goma.

Signs of pending erruption? Of course the wildlife on the flanks of the volcano picks up the early warnings and starts to move - but with this fast-flowing lava, not quite early enough to act as the miners' canary. There are chimps in the forested older lava aroud Tongo (separated from the mountain gorillas across the road in the older, dormant Virunga volcano range straddling the borders between Rwanda, DRC and Uganda). There are local stories of chimps screaming and rushing for safety before previous erruptions. And what do the humans do? Those with knowledge and limited options sensibly prepare for flight. Those competing for the Darwin award pack a tent and prepare to hike up to see the erruption at close quarters.

"My" erruption happened around my birthday and was a memorable treat. The hike up to near the venting summit was exhausting and we pitched our tents on unforgiving old lava, but when little blobs of the molten stuff started burning holes in the canvas during the night we somehow found the energy to move. We were not alone - and with other happy, foolish, volcanic voyeurs
we gathered together to search - fruitlessly - for the couple that had disappeared as aerial detritus descended on the area destroying vegetation and building up a lethal substrate. They emerged from the forest 2 days later, miles away, dehydrated and facing a search/recovery bill. The sights however were staggering and the earth certainly moved for me - the colours, the force, the uncontrollable beauty. But when my boots started to melt I turned tail for Goma and a dip in lake Kivu.

So how imminent is imminent? An image of the monitoring station outside my house on the road out of Goma comes to mind. A monitoring station posing as a decaying behive surrounded by a hopeful fence that was regularly raided by local impoverished opportunists for the wire of which it was constructed. Fairly regularly its keeper would wobble up the lava road on his Japanese-funded bicycle and change the paper on the seisomograph, carrying the precious recordings back for careful analysis in mission control. Mission control had a dusty desk, an open bottle of Fanta, a kettle in the corner with a circular net carefully placed over the open tin of condensed milk sustaining the recorder and occasional visitors. Presumably the 2009 equivalent is digital and streamlined - someone please send me an update. Meanwhile, I leave you with this (accurate!) gem:

"The eruption could be tomorrow, or the day after — or at any other time," said Dieudonne Wafula, the head of Goma's Volcanological Observatory.

So, watch and wait then.

Australian Ants Rule!

2009-05-10T15:20:00.013+01:00

I thought I was through with Ant Analogies for a while, but couldn't resist this axiom from the Antipodes -

Australia has more ant species than the entire northern hemisphere.

An international study of 1003 ant assemblages on five continents (hey - celebrate scientists cooperating!) suggests that this is due to the equable temperatures of the lower latitudes, whilst climate changes 53-54 million years ago, amongst other factors, dramatically reduced northern ant diversity.

150 years ago Darwin postulated that the greater diversity of life forms in the southern hemisphere was related to a more equable climate. Ants also thrive in drier climate conditions, so my Australian friends might be comforted to know that, as the Continent runs out of water, at least Australian ants will be O.K.

Could Bill Bailey's "Insect Nation" be proleptically prescient?

(1) Darwin said nothing about more diverse and adaptable cricketers in the southern hemisphere but they seem to have exploited that niche as well.
(2) Future Earth is the 873rd blog to join the (bird heavy!) Nature Blog Network & is listed under the "Ecosystem" category. Be the first to visit & start Arjay's stats ticking. Please Let me know of any interesting blogs you find amongst the 872 others.
(3) Thanks again to Alex Wild for the Australian ant pic (Nothomyrmecia macrops).

Rove models and leonine leaders

2009-04-30T01:09:00.010+01:00

As The Apprentice illustrates with excrutiating clarity, leadership is an ephemeral quality, a master (or mistress) of disguise.

To mark President Obama's first 100 days in office, Future Earth recognises the greening of the United States of America and offers you two faces of conservation leadership from other continents:

Rove Model. Australian Rove McManus is indeed a Wildlife Warrior. A role model for using communication skills, knowledge, passion, humour (and, O.K. charm!) to good effect. He's out there for the wildlife of the world, and the people co-existing with it, having checked out the issues himself (ask him about presenting farmer-of-the-month awards in Cambodia).

Leonine leader. In Africa, Shivani Bhalla is the recipient of this year's "Young Women Conservation Biologists" award. Maybe she is another candidate for "World's best job", but it needs phenomenal persitence, perspicacity (and, O.K., charm again!) to make conservation gains for carnivores and reduce conflict with communities across their range.

So a grateful shout out to these three types of talent - or maybe a tremendous twitter ...@BarackObama @Rove1974 @Ewasolions

Ant Analogies (4) Getting aHead

2009-04-20T17:54:00.020+01:00

Meet Solenopsis geminata - tropical fire ant, a hot climate specialist found in hot arid regions around the world. It has spread globally through human commerce and is a major invasive pest in many regions, busily destroying biodiversity values on the way. Loves disturbed areas - a dead cert for a starring role as climate, population and food production find their convergent crises, I'd wager.

Now meet Pogonomyrex sp., a Genus of harvester ants from the deserts of northern and southern America. (Sadly no recent photos from Alex Wild this time, just the unattributed portrait from Wiki). Echoing Chandler in the sitcom "Friends" the connection between these two screams "Big Head, Big Head"! Fortunately a trio of scientists delved further, measuing the head size and shape of both polymorphic and monomorphic species. (Ed: Forget the Australian island "World's best job", surely being an Ant Measurer is a contender for the title?). Anyway, they detected signs that the polymorphic forms were a response to dietary change, and concluded that bimodal shape variation may be a common evolutionary response to seed processing.

The sting in the tail from this train of thought? What adaptations to specialised roles and tasks might serve our descendents if they need a different societal model to survive - assuming we are reconnected to forces of natural selection or technology allows us to create our own castes? Or will the big brains in our own big heads get us out of this mess first? (Ed again: my female descendents are O.K. with this, just so long as one caste all look like Hugh Jackman).

Ant analogies (3)

2009-04-19T23:25:00.012+01:00

Ant of the day (photo thanks to Alex Wild) is Myrmecia piliventris, the Australian Jack Jumper Ant, one of the Bulldog Ants. What might we learn from this feisty fighter? Well, to avoid it if possible - jack jumper ants cause more deaths in Tasmania than spiders, snakes, wasps, and sharks combined. The problem is that their powerful venom frequently causes allergic reactions and anaphylatic shock is not uncommon. Fortunately their biographer and analyst Simon Brown has made it part of his life's work to protect the rest of us.

Aside from torturing human invaders, their venemous punch is advantageous for hunting and fighting. Colony living, workers make solo foraging trips and carry back prey to the nest. They are territorial and fight readily.

Which is why they feature in Arthur Schopenhauer's classic "The World as Will and Representation" as as a paradigmatic example of strife and constant destruction endemic to the will to live". "..... the bulldog-ant of Australia affords us the most extraordinary example of this kind; for if it is cut in two, a battle begins between the head and the tail. The head seizes the tail in its teeth, and the tail defends itself bravely by stinging the head. " (Gordon Brown, are you reading this?)

His sad conclusion was that emotional, physical and sexual desires can never be fulfilled. F-ant-astic.

Ant analogies (2)

2009-04-18T15:04:00.013+01:00

Future Earth's Ant Analogies post was meant to be the start of a series about these Masters of the Universe, but inspiration went underground. Thanks to Alex Wild for bringing ants back to the surface with all their brilliant diversity - and unless he asks me not to, I'm featuring and crediting his fantastic photos in this antline of posts.

Ant of the day is from north America - Polyergus sp, Legionaire ants, often called Amazon Ants.

Polyergus are parasites on their hosts Formica ants. For detail see AntWeb but in essence, Polyergus cannot raise their own broods. They take over nascent colonies from Formica queens, allowing the host queens to live only as long as they are useful in building a critical mass of worker ants. Colonies also supplement the supply of workers with efficient raids on nearby Formica colonies - giving rise to anthropomorphic expressions of "piracy" or "slave raiding".

At the risk of alienating the science blogosphere, I think we can be too precious in deriding anthropomorphism. But that's for later debate. Instead of describing these behaviours in human terms, let's look at the models of existence that have evolved in 12,000 species of ants and see whether we might like to keep a few of them in our back pockets as options for our own existence on future earth. Another post tomorrow - exam term homework for selfish genes.

(P.S. Feast your eyes at http://www.alexanderwild.com/)

Palm oil free Chokolit for Easter?

2009-04-12T00:10:00.013+01:00

Ultimate feel good factor here - indulge in delicious chocolate this Easter knowing that you are helping wildlife and supporting an environmentally-friendly business. Louis Barnett was 12 when he started the Chokolit Company and, like many creative and entreprenneurial people, struggling with formal education due to dyslexia.

Many people achieve huge success despite dyslexia, including Richard Branson and (probably) George Washington. Many more struggle for a foothold on the educational ladder, their often intelligent and multi-layered minds working against the linear sequencing required for reading and writing. A few years ago I delved into the difficulties, delights and dilemmas of dyslexia, becoming convinced that we need to cherish dyslexia genes as they will help us survive - even thrive. Today's handicap, tomorrow's selective advantage.

So tuck into that Chokolit; I'd particularly recommend the "Biting Back' bar with the elephant on the wrapper. Premium Belgian Dark Chocolate with Chilli (and nary a smidgeon of palm oil). The chilli bit amuses me... concentrated chillis are quite successfully used as "pepper spray" to keep elephants off farmers crops in both Africa and Asia. Truncated pleasure.

Eggciting discovery in Cambridge

2009-04-11T15:07:00.006+01:00

A gift from the grave. Rising to public attention this Easter is a perfect present from Charles Darwin. The size and shape of a Frys cream egg, this little treasure's original owner was a south American Tinamou from Maldanado - a male Tinamou in fact, as it is the males of the Nothura that incubate the eggs. Tinamou are related to cassowaries, emus, kiwis, rheas and ostriches.

This specimen has been lurking since the late 19th Century in the Zoology Museum at Cambridge University where zoology professor Alfred Newton had deposited it. Like a neglected but secure deposit in a Swiss bank, modern curators discovered the egg that was one of only a very few bought back from the Beagle's wanderings. Newton was sent the egg by Darwin, through the intermediary of his son Frank, and the professor's notebook records that "The great man put it into too small a box, and hence its unhappy state."

Cracking.

Body language bonanza

2009-04-05T16:30:00.009+01:00

The Europe summits have provided a host of photo ops and what rich seams they provide for miners of body language.

This is my favourite, from the Independent today. The annointed, the boss and the wanabe. Anyone who has spent time studying non-human primates will have seen something similar in multi-male groups in their own habitats.

We are not so very different. Professor Filipo Aureli's research group has recently demonstrated that consolation between members of a chimpanzee group reduces stress and is not simply a technique for deflecting aggression. This is indicative of empathy, usually thought to be a uniquely human characteristic. On April 1st (naturally) a BBC report looked into calls by Aureli and others for the Great Apes to be re-classified as hominids and the suggestion that this should be exposed to public debate by the Linnean Society. Dr. Sandy Knapp, Chair of the Linnean Society Committe was asked for her opinion. "What makes us the same is more interesting than what makes us different" she said.

Is that an empathetic arm President Obama, or a confirmation of dominance, or a "thank you for the troops my friend"?

Who is with me that a mountain gorilla would be able to read its intent in a heartbeat?.

(Thanks to Aveling Artworks for permission to use this contemplative illustration).

Carbon Cha-cha-cha?

2009-04-04T09:57:00.010+01:00

The Cha-cha-chá and a host of sensuous latin fusion dances diffused out from Latin America and created an enthusiastic following around the world. Please, Latin America, consider carbon-carbon-carbon at the regional World Economic Forum in Rio de Janeiro next week (14-16 April) and set the rest of the World dancing to your tune. The summit will address "Implications of the Global Economic Crisis for Latin America" as well as "other serious challenges, such as climate change". In the region that hosts the Amazon, this add on for climate and carbon issues is nothing like enough and leadership is needed, from the World Forum, from Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who will open the meeting and from the other heads of state also part of the summit.

The forum has set up a climate task force, with business and "thought leaders". Worthwhile, but again, not enough, and possibly a distraction. It is focused on alternatives and adaptation - the 20%+ of the problem that could be solved by stopping deforestation and degradation is almost a throwaway line in the letter this group sent to the G20 leaders this week. Meanwhile, many of the companies listed are still looking to biofuels for renewable energy and ignoring the impacts on land use and natural habitats - thereby ignoring ecosystem services of water and biodiversity in addition to the carbon calculations.

Is "low carbon propserity" feasible? Certainly prosperity is a motivator, but so is survival and that has to take precedence. If the Amazon dies it is Giselle's "dance of death" that will be percolating out from the Americas to the rest of the world rather than the life-enhancing Cha-cha-chá.

(H)air force one

2009-04-01T00:19:00.016+01:00

Just 12 generations ago, Barack Obama's ancestor Thomas Blossom was born in the little Cambridgeshire village of Shelford, 20 minutes by car (3 by helicopter) from where Air Force One touched down in Stansted a few hours ago. The local Hair Salon called Hair Force One has been handed a marketing bonanza.

When young Thomas was a mere toddler, the Blossom family moved to the nearby village of Stapleford, thereby sparking a neighbourly feud 429 years later as each village jostles to claim this famous heritage of their Puritan resident.

Now Barack, Mr. President sir, sprinkle a little fairy dust over those G20 leaders please. Change has come back to old England.

Axolotl Anxieties

2009-03-30T16:08:00.012+01:00

Altogether now...... "Ahhhhhhhh" for the Mexican Axolotl. As with Bambi's big baby head and saucer eyes, it is the retained larval features of the Axolotl that deliver our response.

Endangered by degraded habitat and invasive predators, it was at least a comfort to learn that the Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology, the Darwin Initiative and the Zoological Society of London, are amongst those who have taken up international cudgels to support Mexico to retain this appealing neotenic amphibian. Move over Bambi, the Mexican Axolotl is surely the flagship species for our times (and just as cute).

(Thanks Biomes Blog for the alert)

Death by palm oil

2009-03-27T18:23:00.005Z

Elephants from the "Conservation Response Units" are called upon by farmers in the Indonesian island of Sumatra, when their crops are being raided by wild elephants from nearby forest. The captive ones patrol the forest edge and warn the raiders away. Sounds apocryphal but I've seen it working - and the balance between conserved forests and local agriculture is maintained.

Enter the commercial oil palm companies - even one that should know better, a subsidiary of the UK-registered company Anglo Eastern Plantations that is a member of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil. Not only is the company clearing protected lowland rainforest illegally in an area that has not been zoned for conversion to agriculture, but it has built a road through an elephant sanctuary. This opens up general access and last Tuesday two of the elephants were shot.

Something to ponder as you eat your ice-cream, spreads and other goodies loaded with palm oil - also recently shown to be suspect in terms of saturated fats. There are some sustainable plantations and some efforts by the food industry to comply. Good, balanced, recent info is supplied by Mongabay and the Rainforest Action Network. But basically the uncontrolled expansion of plantations across the globe is destroying biodiverse forests and peatlands, ecosystem services, orang utans, elephants and more. Leaves a rather bad taste in your mouth, don't you think?

Wild Dog for Wild Charity

2009-03-13T17:33:00.010Z

Beautiful wild dog limited edition print on e-bay for wildlife charity -
www.fauna-flora.org/latestappeal.php

Malice of forethought?

2009-03-12T09:59:00.007Z

Motherly monkeys and aggressive apes in the news again this week. Why are researchers still surprised when they find that other primates have complex minds and even more complex behaviours?

Much is being made of zoo chimp Santino demonstrating an ability to plan and prepare - collecting and fashioning stones to later hurl at visitors. This thoughtful planning for a future state is apparently "human-like" - "Forward planning like this is supposed to be uniquely human; it implies a consciousness that is very special, that you can close your eyes and see this inner world" says cognitive scientist Mathias Osvath.

Sitting under fruiting figs in tropical forests you can't help but wonder whether modern-day humans could move deliberately through tropical forest in a straight line for many kilometres to arrive at a fruit-bearing tree at the exact moment in a multi-year cycle that it comes through with forage. Hmm. I'd suggest you tap into the inner world of a superior ape to achieve this feat.

And if you want to avoid attacks on the way, take a baby primate for a spot of agonistic buffering. I would also recommend this technique if you are moving across border posts with far too many landrover spare parts.

Sad postscript for Santino - maybe he qualifies for a version of the Darwin award as this behaviour has taken him out of the gene pool:

"They have castrated the poor guy. They hope that his hormone levels will decrease and that will make him less prone to throw stones. He's already getting fatter and he likes to play much more now than before. Being agitated isn't good for him," said Osvath.

Be afraid, be very afraid....

2009-03-09T10:19:00.005Z

Step back Hitchcock, stand aside Bird Flu. This is the real horror of our time - scream more loudly. What do you think it is?

Out of breath

2009-03-08T18:51:00.005Z

Our breathing earth.... thought provoking simulation of CO2 emissions, births and deaths by country.

Voyage in a Beagle

2009-03-07T12:13:00.006Z

As light (night) relief to a serious post, thanks to Dan Stewart for this less-than-seaworthy beagle from Idaho (but Dan, its not just a dog, it's a Beagle).

Hotel run by Messrs Darwin and Fitzroy?

Darwin's Initiative

2009-03-07T08:03:00.013Z

The words Darwin and Initiative have a certain symmetrical resonance don't you think? This is a good news story - something of which the British Government can be justly proud. Something that rises above the competitive thrust of party politics. A generator of positive action on behalf of the planet that joins UK institutions in collaborative action with others around the world.

"The Darwin Initiative assists countries that are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) through the funding of collaborative projects which draw on UK biodiversity expertise".

Set up in the aftermath of the Rio summit as a response to the dawning realisation of what we were doing to the planet's biodiversity, the Darwin Initiative has now invested £65,350,757 in 602 projects in 145 countries since 1992. And the good news is that the more you dig into those projects the more you realise what an extremely cost-effective initiative this is. While millions, billions, trillions are being thrown around to maintain a leaky global financial infrastructure, these few millions are massaging the beating heart of the biodiversity goose that delivers diverse "ecosystem service" golden global eggs.

While apologising for that laboured metaphor, I cannot apologise for this unfettered admiration for the Darwin Initiative. Actually I have a couple of criticisms. Firstly, they spent so little on administration that the fund "over programmed" and is still catching up after a couple of lean award years. Secondly, the web site is informative but glitchy and rather governmentally boring - although if you delve into the project news you will feed your soul (I mean, of course, rational brain...!) and if you can get the Google link to work you can follow Darwin around the world this 21st Century.

Finally, its not enough. Appeal to the British Government - stop pouring multi-millions into the World Bank and other failing, greedy multi-laterals. This one works. Double, treble the funding. The good projects are there and the scheme is leanly well managed. Every pound you can spare from development or environmental budgets will return a fantastic investment in our future. Where else would you put it? How about transferring to the Darwin Initiative anything you can recoup from inflated pension funds of failed bankers?

Meanwhile, join the floating classroom in Ha Long Bay...

Travesty

2009-03-06T00:33:00.011Z

Spot the dogs, spot the bitches. Too much time, too little sense? Is this creativity or cruelty?

Travis - ty

2009-02-20T16:49:00.025Z

"Police said they had no idea why Travis attacked the woman as she got out of her car to visit Ms Herold".

Didn't they? Didn't they? A beating heart, a big brain and 15 years of frustration is why. All boiling up within a body battered by the years of munchies and medications administered by his American owner. It says something for his tolerance that he waited so long. As Franz de Waal, author of "Chimpanzee Politics" explains, this is normal behaviour expressed in an abnormal situation. Chimps, even overweight ones, also have twice the muscle density of humans - which means they are not bouyant enough to swim, but will always beat a human in unarmed combat, even muscle-bound wrestlers.

Fortunately, out of this sad, sad tale might come some sense. Legislators are marshalling their arguments to prevent people keeping "dangerous exotic pets" in U.S. States. All aimed at protecting humans - will it also protect voice-less sentient beings like the Great Apes from stupid, dangerous humans too?

R.I.P Travis.

Haiku for Darwin

2009-02-16T01:00:00.006Z

a wrinkled forehead
crystal clear criteria
unentangled thought

To compete or to cooperate? That is the question.

2009-02-13T00:31:00.016Z

The "Environment on the Edge" lecture on February 12th 2009 was packed to the gunnels. Professor Lord Robert May started slowly, taking the audience at New Hall College (now renamed Murray Edwards - today as ever, philanthropy underpins research and education) back into the relaxed lifestyle of the Victorian gentleman scientist. Digressing delightfully and digging around into the personal stories under the banner of "Darwin in his Day and in ours" Lord May gradually brought us round to our modern dilemmas as a human race. In a nutshell, now that we have so successfully dislocated ourselves from natural, resource-driven selection, what is to our selective advantage in the face of the dramatic challenges looming on this planet?

The answer, that resonated around the assembled company in interrogative questioning, was cooperation. Cooperation at a scale that we have not yet demonstrated, even in multi-lateral negotiations and certainly not in the United Nations. Social science, psychology, societal choice in training our youngsters for cooperative traits rather than increasing competitiveness, use of game theory to find the right mechanisms, use of modern communications to rustle up support... and so on. Can we do it? Cooperation requires accepting a compromise, something is traded. Two contexts allow cooperation to occur readily - apparent equity, and not very high stakes. Sadly (and fatally?), neither of these apply to climate mitigation negotiations. Sorry Darwin, not much to smile about on your birthday.

But we humans remain innovative and full of fun. During the lecture and subsequent dinner Cambridge was blanketed with a surprise snowfall (snow is always a surprise in Britain, especially to motorists) and I returned home to find my biologist son had constructed his own monument to the great man...

Darwin inspired - Henslow and the Cambridge Botanic Garden

2009-02-12T11:18:00.018Z

In the peaceful surroundings of the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, a small coniferous sapling (Pinus nigra) luxuriates in the hopeful winter sunlight after days of frost and snow. Visitors strolling along under the majestic branching canopy created by its older relatives bend down to peer at the plaque and realise that this young plant commemorates the achingly early death of Kate Stokes, a young natural scientist and explorer who worked with Fauna & Flora International and the Conservation Leadership Programme.

They might then turn their eyes to the spreading limbs of the older Pinus varieties around them. They might take note of the garden's "Discover Darwin" exhibits commemorating that earlier natural scientist and explorer whose birth 200 years ago we are celebrating today. Combining the two, they could learn that these very trees could claim to have inspired the thinking that led to Darwin's life's work. How so?

Well, firstly, as you can learn from the Botanic Gardens web site ... "the range of variants of Pinus nigra from across its range in Europe was planted along the main avenue by Professor J S Henslow, Darwin's mentor, in 1846 to demonstrate variation within a single species. It was this revolutionary theory that Darwin explored in depth by Darwin in Origin of the Species, published in 1859."

Secondly, it is possible that, but for John Henslow's recommendation, Darwin might never have set foot on the Beagle at all. Henslow wrote to Darwin in 1831...

"I have been asked by Peacock...to recommend him a naturalist as companion to Capt Fitzroy employed by Government to survey the southern extremity of America. I have stated that I consider you to be the best qualified person I know of who is likely to undertake such a situation. I state this not on the supposition of yr. being a finished Naturalist, but as amply qualified for collecting, observing & noting anything worthy to be noted in Natural History."

So, to all those other "unfinished" naturalists in the blogosphere or electronically connecting with your communities of interest..... get along to your local Botanic gardens, park, woodland, entangled bank or otherwise to observe, think, draw, comment, experiment ... and enjoy. Happy birthday Charles.

Darwin Made Easy - Edward Bibbins Aveling

2009-02-12T00:42:00.002Z

My case, dear reader, is that the work of Edward Bibbins Aveling was the 19th Century equivalent of this 2009 blogswarm. The man was a natural scientist, prolific writer and journalist, whose outpourings were presciently titled like crammer's guides of the 21st Century ...."The Student's Darwin", "Science and Religion", "Science and Secularism", "Charles Darwin and Karl Marx - a comparison", intruigingly "The Woman Question" and the one being tenderly cradled here by a modern-day beagle.... "Darwin Made Easy" (Published in London by the Progressive Publishing Company in 1889).

Having spent some time with Aveling's descendents (in whom the natural science genes still persist), I had heard that Edward Bibbins was a cad and a bounder, who had bigamously married Karl Marx's daughter Eleanor then entered into a suicide pact with her, without keeping his part of the bargain. Marx archive and English Heritage references tell of their "common law" marriage and of some suspicion surrounding Dr.Aveling about the circumstances of Eleanor's death.

Be that as it may, Edward Bibbins Aveling certainly helped a multitude of students and others gain access to Charles Darwin's great work. The first of three sections in "Darwin Made Easy" is devoted to "The Darwinian Theory", with Chapters on "Its Meaning", "Its Difficulties" and "Its Evidence". On the 200th Anniversary of Darwin's birth, I close with mention of his death, and Aveling's closing words on Darwin's legacy:

"...and as I end, have but to remind my readers that in every country but England the Darwinian hypothesis has passed into the region of accepted truths; that by the scientific men of England it is regarded as in that fortunate position; that nations sorrowed at his death as at that of their own citizens; that Du Bois Raymond could call him when dead "the Copernicus of the organic world"; that Huxley wrote of him "He found a great truth trodden under foot, reviled by bigots, and ridiculed by all the world; he lived long enough to see it, chiefly by his own efforts, irrefragably established in science, inseparably incorporated with the common thoughts of men, and only hated and feared by those who would revile, but dare not". What a gap is made in the world by the death of this man! Every nation has lost a citizen - a citizen that has done true work and has deserved well of the Republic.

He leaves behind him a vast and ever-increasing army of scientific children. All the young thought of the day is with him. The duty, the joy of these, and of us who are of them, will be to work out yet further the noble ideas received by us from him, and in some measure to endeavour by our numbers, our devotiion to truth, our enthusiasm, to atone for the irreparable loss the world has sustained in his death."

Purple prose indeed - but Edward Bibbins might be intrigued to know that the young thought of this day, 12th February 2009, in celebration of Darwin 200 years after his birth, is doing exactly that - even through the medium of his own great, great nephews .

Darwin and Dave

2009-02-06T15:55:00.008Z

Would Charles Darwin have been surprised by the interest and activities marking his 200th birthday? Surely so - an introspective and thoughtful man might hope that his theories would persist but assume that the theorist would fade into the background.

Knowing the impact of his work on creationist adherents, he might not be surprised that his conclusions would continue to attract criticism from that same corner, a century and a half after publication of the Origin of Species. He might have expected the creationist arguments themselves to have evolved, but they have only changed dispersal mechanisms and turned up the volume. So it was a genuine pleasure in Attenborough's "Darwin and the Tree of Life" on the BBC to see Sir Dave tackle this head on, pick apart the arguments and present the separate pieces of evidence so clearly.

So in the countdown to Darwin's 200 on February 12th (watch out for the blog swarm for Darwin 12-15 Feb), I'm celebrating our favourite octogenarian as well.

Flutter bys....

2009-01-05T16:10:00.001Z

It is 2050. Your great grandchild bends over the pile of discarded books while clearing out your shed or attic or store-room, and selects a faded tome. Brushing away the dust s/he traces the remains of the title... "Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies - 2008". "So they knew!" The exclamation cuts through the cloying, hazy heat and the sound of the windmill generators. "They had the data, they had seen the signs... why didn't they do anything?"

Two things about butterflies - they are attractive, disctinctive and available, so we have credible, detailed, temporal and spatial data from thousands of volunteers. They are also indicator species, whose diversity and abundance can demonstrate the health of a habitat and therefore its ability to provide "ecosystem services". Applying climate models (ranging from 2.4 to 4.1 degrees C of increase) to this extensive data set paints a depressing picture. But take time to look at that picture. Think what the butterflies are telling us and let's get behind those recommendations in the Risk Atlas before we flutter along by towards extinction ourselves.

Year of...... the Gorilla

2009-01-01T23:14:00.005Z

2009 has been declared by the UN and pals as the "Year of the gorilla" - and some hairy apes will be skating on thin ice at the Natural History Museum in London on January 15th, to launch the year to an unsuspecting public. Ho Ho Hoot.

Are gorillas in trouble? Yes.

Will the UN save them? No. Well..... if the multi-millions (check out the GRASP action plan - "Plan it for the Apes") they hope to attract to the UN Environment Fund were to be divided up amongst the beleagured champions on site, in their forested habitat, perhaps. The park authorities and NGOs working with them are the ones overcoming daily difficulty and using every cent, every penny, each yen to good effect. The UN agencies can certainly do their bit on the political and publicity front but need to learn a bit more about cost-effectiveness if the Ghost of Christmas Future is not to be a simian one.

"A mutt like me"?

2008-11-11T17:34:00.004Z

There he was, America's new President-elect, thinking he would have to start fending off the anti-war lobby, the anti-abortion lobby, the 'market forces' lobby, the 'drill-baby-drill' lobby and the odd pitbull in lipstick (lips seem to have gone a bit pale on that front however). Was it a deliberate distraction ploy from the issues of the day, to stir up the dog lobby?
Acceptance speech... "...the new puppy that will be coming with us to the White House...". You could almost hear the tital wave of "ahhhhhhh..." sweeping across the nation and beyond.
Press conference.... "hypoallergenic dog...". Hmmm, interesting - now just how hypoallergenic does it have to be?. Some very helpful insights here such as that from Patrick Mahaney, Pet Care Examiner. And then .... "a mutt like me". Well, he strikes me as a perfect pedigree, breeding true. So my new recommendation for those Obama girls is a beagle (actually a pair - one each) - calm under fire, fleet of foot, minds of their own and long, silky ears to cut off unfavourable comments.

Presidential Paws

2008-11-06T00:51:00.019Z

President-elect Obama's first good decision - a new puppy for the family moving to the White House. Perhaps he's read the Canine Charter and knows what that will do for family health and happiness amidst the pressures of the new job.

His first bad decision would be to listen to dog people about which breed would suit as whatever they chose there will be howls of disapproval. Of course it should be a Velcro Vizsla - a sleek and charming orator (just listen to all the singing vizslas on the web).

Nor should he listen to his Kenyan 'family' where dogs are mostly for guarding or hunting - apart from the stock of labradors fringing Nairobi which provide pampered prey for prowling leopards....

(For more of the intermittent canine posts on this blog click the "Man's Best Friend" link on the side panel.)

What can Obama do for the Great Apes?

2008-11-05T11:36:00.008Z

Finally, a U.S. President who is welcomed the world over, who has the intelligence, charisma and demeanour that mark out a leader, and who ......wait for it ..... understands what is happening to our environment.

The blogosphere is alive with this today, but my angle is this. After Obama has dealt with a crashing economy, restoring world relations and rebalancing the climate..... might he just be tempted to give a nod to his African and Asian heritage and the Great Apes that unite them? Now we just have to keep them alive until he can get round to it......!

Vote, vote, vote!

2008-11-04T01:56:00.010Z

Please, please, America - vote, vote, vote. My life in Africa provided a stark realisation of how precious this is and what a difference it can make. And if you are undecided, just ask whether you would feel confident about your country's engagement with the rest of the World with Sarah Palin as President.

Pines gain value on the climate exchange - a boost for boreal forest stocks!

2008-11-01T11:11:00.009Z

Boreal Forests (nickname "The Taigas"?): 1. Tropical Forests: less than 1?

At last, the underdog Boreal Forests (http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/boreal.htm) are gaining ground against premiership leaders Tropical Forests in the race to save the planet. So much global publicity and funding is focused on the carbon, biodiversity and water management roles of tropical forests that the boreal forests rarely get a mention. But here's some good news for this important biome - European scientists looked at chemicals called terpenes that are released from boreal forests across northern regions such as Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. Terpenes give pine forests their distinctive smell, and the team found that they react in the air to form tiny aerosol particles that condensed water vapour and doubled the thickness of clouds above the forests, reflecting an extra 5% sunlight back into space. Over such a large area, and in such a finely balanced system, this could be an invaluable contribution.

Fortunately for tropical forests they can also do some of this - just not quite so well. O.K. pundits, off you go. I sense a vigorous debate on the way, as the Boreal Forests fight to claim their place in history. Or, rather, on Future Earth.

Living planet?

2008-11-01T00:43:00.008Z

The latest Living Planet Report produced every couple of years by WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, measures the health of the planet's ecosystems and the extent of human demand on them.

In summary this 2008 "human demands on the world's natural capital measure nearly a third more than earth can sustain."

We have an increasingly start choice - do we just let competition sort it out (and would the "fittest" survive?) or do we collaborate to sort it out together, as we naked apes are supposed to be able to do? Whatever kind of society we want we don't have much time to ponder. Andy Dufrein's "get busy living or get busy dying" (Shawshank Redemption) has some resonance for humanity.

Dogs are good for you - official!

2008-10-22T09:55:00.016+01:00

My 100th post has to be a good news story and this one fell into my lap this morning. A Canine Charter is launched today that details the 10 top reasons why owning a dog can benefit human health and even recommending doctors to prescribe dogs as an antidote to human stress and depression.

For readers in parts of the world used to viewing dogs as a culinary addition to human nutrition - pause before you put the dog in the pot. Alive it might do more to help you survive and thrive through the depressive effects of global recession.

Perhaps not this one..

(Dis)united Nations

2008-10-20T17:53:00.008+01:00

Such a good idea, the United Nations. But then so is America (as the American writer John Gunther said "Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea") and look where that is going.

Didn't we see it coming, the economic nose-dive set off by a disconnection from reality in the minds of finance supremos? No - well, now you are in practice, watch out for the next one. In the minds of the securely tenured and over-compensated officers of the United Nations there is a similar disconnect from reality. Despite laudable and overdue attempts at reform the UN shows every sign of trying to maintain a global lifestyle rather than focusing on its constituents. An overstuffed bureaucracy unable to walk, let alone run - unravel the threads and start again Mr. ban Ki-moon.

Waste not, want not

2008-10-08T15:06:00.005+01:00

Alternative to charcoal helping protect gorilla habitat. Good to see this appropriate technology in use and all credit to the teams currently promoting it.

During a prolonged lull in the security mayhem of this central African hotspot a few years ago, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme and partners were presciently addressing this problem - setting up a buffer of trees around the Park and monitoring fuelwood use. (Building on the local networks of a health education charity, a "social marketing" campaign distributed both condoms and tree seedlings - and was irreverantly dubbed "pricks and sticks" by the team!) This living buffer of young trees was obliterated by waves of refugees and rising population levels, but perhaps reduced the severity of destruction and left some knowledge in its wake.

Going, going ......

2008-10-08T10:47:00.005+01:00

There are 5,487 known mammal species on earth and over a quarter of them are at imminent risk of disappearing. Actually there is one more.... and 8,000 individuals of that species are gathering in Barcelona for the IUCN Congress. According to IUCN (ex "World Conservation Union") these are " the world’s leading decision makers in sustainable development: from governments, NGOs, business, the UN and academia". Can we therefore breathe easily in our sleep, rest assured that this will turn the tide? Not if we leave it to IUCN - rather we have to follow all those worthies back to their home countries and support them in their endeavours there. IUCN meanwhile will be competing with them for funds to maintain a physical estate of offices and officers around the world and - if past decades are anything to go by - failing in its unique niche of catalysing action between government and non-government sectors. We are looking at a poor track record here..... a complete inability to lead the way in "mainstreaming" environmental issues globally or to support its members to do so.

But are there glimmers of light emanating from Barcelona that have nothing to do with the sparkling sunshine conference participants are bathed in? Yes - the forum has provided a platform for some NGO-business alliances to shout their stuff. They are demonstrating that value can be generated from conserved resources, and that we can make that value work for conservation of those same habitats and species. Business meets Biodiversity - not just as a risk to be managed, but as an opportunity.

Drilled, baby, drilled.

2008-10-04T11:57:00.009+01:00

What makes a scientist into a political obsessive? Denial of our impact on climate change, complete obeisance to the "free" market (which has suddenly become expensive for those whose energy and creativity provide the fuel to its fire) and creationism. All of which coincide in Sarah Palin. Question - can you train a Pitbull? Answer - to a certain extent. Douglas Burns' flow chart is not an unkind lampoon, but a sadly accurate depiction. Potential VP Palin (shiver) was "drilled, baby drilled" and didn't depart far from her coloured cards. Certainly not a debate. She looked at the camera and superficially aligned herself with "ordinary Americans". She had clearly learnt the names of 5 country leaders. (I admit this is a particular concern of mine, as a signed up member of the "I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin" Facebook Group). But what she doesn't know is only half the problem. She professes to be an Energy sector specialist but drill below the surface and you find only oil or gas, nothing on renewables or restraint.

Should we be worrying so much about the result of the US election next month? Probably not - the impact of the US globally is likely to be increasingly irrelevant. China anyway owns its national debt and is outcompeting its companies around the developing world. Its the Chinese leadership we need to be watching closely, and working out how to engage with them on the international stage if we feel democracy should form part of human governance in our future earth.

Are frogs swans or canaries?

2008-09-26T11:58:00.005+01:00

Serenading frogs led me to slumber almost every night in Africa. But are these evocative calls swansongs for our amphibian friends? The world might have to get used to missing frogs if their decline continues and in this Year of the Frog, venerable Sir Dave is coming to their rescue. In their declining years we might just hope that frogs show the resilience and determination that Attenborough does in his. (As an aside, BBC Radio 4 listeners will note with pleasure that Attenborough is the first interviewee to reduce lookalike Humphreys from a rotweiller to a puppydog). Our concern for frog declines is not altruism - in retreat from loss of habitat and a warming world they are less able to survive attack by pathogens. The loss of frog song could be the miner's canary of the modern world - alerting us to the danger of our own demise. Hang on in there treefrogs - and 82 year old Sir Dave - we need both of you!

Are you feeling lucky?

2008-09-19T01:33:00.012+01:00

"Are you feeling lucky?" Clint Eastwood's character asks in the film 'Dirty Harry'. Here on an increasingly dirty earth another IUCN world gathering is about to descend on Barcelona, and "Transition to Sustainability: towards a Humane and Diverse World " has been put together to this deadline.

It will need more than luck. Adams and Jeanreneaud argue that the two essentials (of a low carbon economy and a world that values nature) require a third companion to have any chance of planetary sustainability - social equity. What was that at the back? "Fat chance" did you say? Well think again... in this philosophical narrative of conservation we are reminded of the self-fulfilling politics of fear. "I had a nightmare..." might not have had quite the resonance, or stimulated quite the change, that Martin Luther King's dream managed to do. All very well and yes, we need inspiration as much as information - but both science and history indicate that we'll change the world only when the selfish genes kick in. Too late? Another soundbite pulled from the ether by these authors.. "there are no sewers on a spaceship".

If you are expending carbon to help save the world at the IUCN congress, you can offset intellecually by engaging in the "sustainability dialogues" around these issues.

And by the way is it, or is it not, the "World Conservation Union" - compare the mixed branding still on the IUCN website against comment on this post.

Darwin's busy bees

2008-09-16T17:14:00.014+01:00

Something is buzzing in south Kensington. Around the side of the Natural History Museum a giant transparent wasp nest is emerging- in anticipation of the Darwin 200 celebrations next year, the "Darwin Centre" - a 200 cell hive for 200 busy bee scientists is nearing completion. They are excited and they will be on show, doing their bit for taxonomy. Watch the promo video (and spot the deliberate error):

"Don't worry (about the rate of species extinction)" they say as "90% of all the species in the world are still to be classified". So its O.K. if we go extinct as long as we are monitoring our own decline is it? As the workers, drones and multiple queens settle into their new surroundings we will have to amplify the buzz of the promo video that connects what they do to conservation impact in the world around us. Yes, it can be about food, disease and climate change, but it is important that not all available funding resources are carried back to this particular hive, and that a clear "line of sight" to conservation of living biodiversity is created.

Meanwhile, watch the story unfold .... will some of the drones follow an escaping queen on her nuptial flight back to America? Are there lessons to be learned from the devastating decline of honeybees....?

Howl from the heart ...

2008-09-06T18:06:00.010+01:00

Wolves, bears, humans ..... be scared, be very, very scared.

Dances with wolves

2008-09-01T15:47:00.011+01:00

From Shaun Ellis with his wild wolf pack to Mrs Mattisson-Sandstrom with her champion pyrenean mountain dog, dog-human relationships are certainly deep, diverse - and dependent. We've been here before on Future Earth as I am fascinated by where we might go from here on out. I have my own hounds marked out as food providers, in conditions of global scarcity (one will pluck pigeons out of the air and the other will hunt down hares) which should ensure their survival as the resource crunch starts to bite.

Still 3 weeks to watch this 2-part exploration of where this symbiotic relationship comes from by Martin Clunes on the itv site. The bit I would like to explore further is the evidence that all dogs in the world will accept humans as part of a pack, where the only important factors are appropriate behaviour and relative dominance. All except the "Painted Hunting Dogs" of Africa, where the leadership role is genetically inherited. Canine nepotism?

Going for Gold in Ghana?

2008-08-25T14:50:00.006+01:00

Quietly, under the media shadows created by activities in Beijing and Georgia, a meeting of fundamental importance for the planet is taking place in Ghana. One of a series leading to "post Kyoto" agreements on Climate Change next year, it needs to go for Gold and not settle for just taking part - not something the UN has a great track record in. Blue sky thinking and innovative action rather than flying the flags of narrow national vested interests.

Personally, if we had to rely only on the U.N. in this arena, I'd give up now. Fortunately we have civil society knowledge and ingenuity as well as corporate economic drive to turn to as well. If they work together, rather than in opposition, they could provide some winning solutions.

Conservation Clarity

2008-08-19T17:09:00.008+01:00

What a trill..... Birdlife International et al have come up with a new language for conservation hoping that this will make life easier for its advocates. Now we can reduce complex systems to comparable components and make logical decisions on how to intervene. Ah ha.

That's the science, anyway. But as conservation is a social process guided by science, not the other way around, how far will this really take us? Who really makes those decisions? And what will they make of (I quote Dr Butchart) ".....common databases of conservation practice, enabling practitioners to share and compare......"

I have a request to make of the conservation lexographers. Can our conservation Rosetta Stone provide clear and unambiguous definitions in at least Chinese, English and Portugese of

(a) Biodiversity, (b) Ecosystem Services and (c) Going, going, Gone!

Spectres at the GM feast.

2008-08-14T00:54:00.012+01:00

Those blight-resistent potatoes growing quietly in an experimental agricultural plot outside Cambridge, those fields of golden corn fulfilling their genetically manipuated destiny of higher yield and disease resistance, those countries allowing policy change under the radar - you have been rumbled. HRH Prince Charles has thrown the spotlight back on Genetically Manipulated Food Crops with an impassioned, angry tirade of concern. But is he over-reacting?

On the plus side, food security is indeed the more important underlying factor, and there is little argument that creating an environment where small farmers can flourish around the world is crucial to global food security. On the other, in a land-constrained world, what is wrong with helping the evolutionary process along in food crops? According to many small and family farms, the problem lies not with the technology or its application, rather in the behaviour of the profit-driven large companies who insist that (going beyond return on investment) anyone seeking their GM seeds is required to use all their support services. Seeds cannot be saved either, so the customer is forced into repeat purchase.

Oh, I see. The real problem lies in the competetive behaviour that drives our global corporate economy. Well, as consumers we have shown that we can make Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility a competitive advantage for financial investors. So we can, if we combine efforts, insert the CESR gene into some of the biggest agri-tech brands and engineer a longer future for (our) life on earth.

Web World

2008-08-07T12:09:00.008+01:00

Future Earth is the sum of its web presence? (World map of 1001 weblogs)

Swamp(ed with) Gorillas?

2008-08-06T14:16:00.008+01:00

In his breathtaking film Swamp Gorilla Bruce Davidson captures the fragility and (although I baulk at my own anthropomorphism) loneliness of swamp-living western lowland gorillas in central Africa. On the edge of survival, beset by waves of disease and destruction, I wondered when I saw early scenes from this fabulous film whether they might be the last comprehensive record of another ape to vanish from all but our screens.

Not so, it would seem - surveys led by by the Wildlife Conservation Society have confirmed local knowledge (and Steve Blake's work in the 90s) by rustling up another 125,000 or so lurking further from the madding crowd. Yay! Can we rest assured then for their future? Not so fast - their sources of conservation support are at risk from budget cuts in the US government. In that great democracy, I hope its citizens will rally in support of central african forests and their primate inhabitants. After all, its our future too.

Primates in peril

2008-08-05T14:31:00.006+01:00

No laughing matter this, whatever the orang art featured here might indicate.

A report released today by the IUCN (World Conservation Union - howzat for a branding nightmare) revealed that 48% of the world's primates are in severe trouble. 303 of the 634 species are now listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN threat risk scale.

The report is being picked up by the media but will the news be taken seriously by the primate responsible, the human kind? There are heros and advocates battling against the odds, and there are some good news missives from the front line. The cost of saving an orang utan has been (simplistically but interestingly) calculated as £568.48 - a better investment in the future than a year's car tax or an airline flight one might, equally simplistically, assume.

Sense, sensibility and symbolism

2008-08-03T17:15:00.016+01:00

Charity begins at home as a released baloon, and ends up overseas in the belly of a turtle. A welsh charity for the homeless has finally settled on the release of biodegradable chinese lanterns as part of a fundraising drive after a proposed baloon release was criticised by the Marine Conservation Society. A replacement release of pigeons and doves was then stopped after being criticised on ethical grounds. What do readers of "Future Earth" think of the lantern release? A deal of unecessary energy expenditure in an energy-constrained world (bah, humbug) or beautiful symbolism of global connectivity (peace and love)? Either way, we can expect more of it as the tiger economies roar across the globe - this is a big thing across Asia and, sadly for the turtles, the biodegradeable lanterns are being replaced by more durable materials.

(And anyone who wants to help save our seas from uneccesary plastic can support the Marine Conservation Society's Coastal challenge - via the two intrepid canoeists navigating Raasay to Rhona).

The "p" word....(puffins 2)

2008-07-31T12:17:00.009+01:00

Concerned about declining puffins in UK (see Future Earth's Ppppppick up a puffin)? Don't let the "f" word's Gordon Ramsey near the Farne islands then.

(Credit to http://www.bjerrang.no for puffin pic)

"From the Mountains to the Sea"

2008-07-25T09:06:00.005+01:00

As one of the 1,200 or so conservation biologists who registered for the conservation biology bio-fest in Chattanooga Tennessee, I spent all last week bouncing between sessions on ecological responses of various creatures to our rapidly changing environment.

Amidst this sea of beards and beige, by the end of the week, the creature I was most concerned about was the conservation biologist him/herself. We all want to measure stuff, and at the moment we are spending a huge amount of time and energy on monitoring our own decline. Take all the data on "winners and losers" in our changing climate, put on a clean pair of shoes and hotfoot to the doors of policy makers, papers, tv and radio producers. Get the warnings out there and see if you can get the world to understand the word biodiversity before it becomes irrelevant.

Eye in the sky

2008-07-17T14:45:00.004+01:00

O.K. - last one - and you can find the other 27 most beautiful abstract satellite images of earth here. What artistic brushstrokes will a changing climate and burgeoning human population sketch on our future earth?

Eye of the beholder (2)

2008-07-13T08:20:00.003+01:00

Another one for you. Where is the beholding eye?

Beauty in the eye of the beholder

2008-07-12T14:05:00.006+01:00

Tell me what or where this beautiful image is, and I'll post the link!

"Waste not, want not"

2008-07-12T09:41:00.003+01:00

Don't you just hate it when those old parental sayings come into sharp focus - especially when they come back to you through the mouths of your politicians? And when you know they are right. How can we possibly be throwing away so much food in some societies - even the most selfish of interests should buy into this one. And if you buy either the environmental or economic arguments, you get the other one free - with collected health points thrown in along the way.

But a glimmer of hope on the recycling front from the centre of environmentally damaging incineration - Japan. Total recycling, no waste collection in the village of Kamikatsu. 100% recycling.... good effort. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.... or rather, in your bin and don't burn it.

Fabulous fences

2008-07-07T16:55:00.004+01:00

I've been watching this living fence for a year now, enjoying its responses to the changing seasons. It is layered Hawthorn, with a few Hawthorn trees left to grow on. Between the winter and summer pics above, a realisation that wooden fencing is increasingly in short supply globally has added a practical edge to my interest. Traditionally laid in winter, before the sap rises, the stems are severed with a billhook until they lean over on their own with just a small amount of tissue to keep the trees alive. Stumps and "pleachers" (the layered stems) send up new shoots which thicken and strengthen the hedge. Stakes at regular intervals and a woven layer of hazel sticks along the top ("heatherings") keep this living artwork in place - beautiful.

Perhaps not quite so obviously beautiful as living fences of rosa rugosa and some of the living fences in widespread use across central/southern America. The experience in Africa has been mixed (I have seen park managers spend years trying to reduce the invasive spread of "prickly pear" planted with all good fencing intention) but living fences are being reinvented in our carbon constrained world. There are downsides but generally living fences must be preferable to carbon-unfriendly metal & plastic n'est-ce-pas?

Back to watching the twigs grow....the screenplay for ."There will be Wood" is Future Earth's next offering to Daniel Day Lewis .

Where are the women?

2008-07-02T00:00:00.009+01:00

O.K. O.K. O.K. ..... for those reeling from waves of pixelated testosterone after the marvellous men (Darwin Dates, below), here's the oestrogenous counterpart of some wonderful women. Just my personal pick of four who have helped us understand the natural world, whether breaking it down into constituent particles or demonstrating its ecological connectivity at the larger scale - Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, Joan Root and Wangari Maathai.

And yes, they all bumped their heads against a glass ceiling but Wangari Maathai at least is living proof of being able to shatter it in this 21st Century. And your top picks from the pantheon of greats.. either sex?

Darwin Dates - 1st July 1858

2008-07-01T08:47:00.010+01:00

Exactly 150 years ago today, on July 1st in 1858, Charles Darwin's and Alfred Russel Wallace's joint paper, On the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties, and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection was read at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London.

As a young naturalist 21 years previously, on July 1st 1837, Charles Darwin started a notebook on the transmutation of species. Even though the reality of speciation and natural evolution gained widespread recognition before his death on 19th April 1882, there remain furious doubters to this day as those tending free expression on the Richard Dawkins website will attest. In the modern equivalent of a Linnean Society presentation, Dawkins is again presenting the case in "Dawkins on Darwin" this August on UK's Channel 4. And Saintly (adjective, no religious connotation...) Sir Dave is also preparing a homage to Darwin too.

And on Future Earth in 150 years time, will we have scuppered our brief evolutionary success by demonstrating our lack of fitness in response to a changing environment?

(Pics are Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace, Richard Dawkins and David Attenborough)

Rights and righteousness

2008-06-30T13:49:00.010+01:00

Liberal hacks are having a field day over corporate investment in Zimbabwe and British politicians are rushing to divest themselves of any dubious shareholdings. Superficially the criticism has resonance with the righteous, as outside investment can prop up a regime such as that of newly non-elected President Mugabe.

What are the alternatives however? The corporations who are there already, particularly those mining giants who have worked hard on their corporate social responsibility record, argue that they have made a commitment to their workforce and that pulling the plug would hurt that workforce more than the Mugabe regime. So, arguably a sacrifice for local stakeholders exceeding that of global shareholders. Who makes this call - the people themselves, the regime or the opposition who should by rights be in power?

And what of new investment - is this clearer cut? Companies are all having to conform to new rules imposing a 51% requirement for indigenous share ownership and there is fear that the current regime will profit from the new investment that has caused a particular outcry against Anglo American. Of course it will. It holds the strings of power and can sell off resources to the highest bidder; it is not constrained by the transparency of democracy nor the brake imposed by a freely operating media. I feel real angst about this one... as I know all that but would still prefer to see those companies that pay more than lip service to CSR (in fact those for whom it is CESR or Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility) out-compete the insidious aquisition of Africa by Chinese companies unconstrained (as yet) by an electorally-derived social ethos or concern.

Corporate gorillas (2)

2008-06-20T14:47:00.010+01:00

John Renesch in the current issue of The Ecologist provides "A systems view of corporate culture change" and illustrates his point by using 6 gorillas, a ladder, a hanging banana and a sprinkler system. The point is that cultural norms can become entrenched within human societies, even when they become dysfunctional and Renesch argues that economic growth might be one such norm that no longer has survival value. Unashamedly mixing metaphors, what would it take for us Corporate gorillas to change our spots? Understand and value complexity for a start - a Blindspot for some naked apes?

(If you value the real thing, support the owner of these pics - the International Gorilla Conservation Programme).

Buglife

2008-06-18T16:16:00.007+01:00

More words of wisdom from Sir David Attenborough (Life in the Undergrowth): "If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse."

23-29th June 2008 is National Insect Week in the U.K. and some of the endangered ones need our support. If you would like to know more about why insects and other invertebrates are crucial, underated ingredients of our planet's diversity, visit Buglife (and the buzz is that, if you join up during the week, it's at a discounted £1 a month for 18 months). And if your emotions are being excited by the thought of increasing your knowledge of invertebrate diversity, you are in good company. In Charles Darwin's own words.... "Whenever I hear of the capture of rare beetles, I feel like an old war-horse at the sound of a trumpet" . Go on, get out there and explore the undergrowth. Feel your sap rising. As the likely inheritors of the earth, there is clearly more to insects than their taste & nutritional value.

Sea clearly

2008-06-17T08:46:00.007+01:00

Casting an eye today on things marine (with the help of Violet the octopus above) I am swimming against the current of my usual stream of invective about Plastic in Paradise.

Only four years ago, I listened to a marine scientist taling about the new application of the "ecosystem approach" to undersea landscapes, and was astonished by how blinkered marine planning must have been to only just be discovering that connectivity and starting to use that language. Well, as global awareness about the state of our environment has risen since then, marine conservationists have been able to ride the crest of the wave and raise a flag or two in the public eye. All credit to the Marine Conservation Society - especially for providing clear information about what we can do in response even as individuals.

Something to watch closely around the world is leglislation that can follow in the wake of public concern. The creation of marine protected areas is such an obvious response as we look to regain a healthy sea for a healthy planet - but beset still by waves of indifference in public sectors unable to look below the surface of the problem. In the UK though, the legistlative process around the marine bill is launched and is setting sail. All voters and all those concerned beyond the shores of this small island can help provide a fair wind for its smooth passage.

Dead or Alive

2008-06-12T16:57:00.015+01:00

World Environment Day was not forgotten in Royal Circles either. Forests champion HRH Prince Charles launched a new web site for his Princes Rainforest Project. Saving trees one day, promoting cricket the next? These two interests converge nicely in the Australian Cricket Bat Willow Project.

By responsing to the increasing scarcity of Cricket Bat Willow - Salix alba var.caerulea - some canny Aussies set up one of those rare win-win-wins. A win for the environment (although I'm making a presumption on water); a win for business (with increasing global demand they must be literally quids in) and, sadly... (yet another) win for Australian cricket. And the Poms no longer have the opportunity of holding them to ransom by restricting supply. A level playing field indeed.

Atlas of Alarm

2008-06-11T01:06:00.010+01:00

In the time of Idi Amin Dada, Ugandans suffering the impacts of national economic decay bravely started wearing T-shirts with the message "Pray for my Country". Today, if you have a God, start praying for the Continent.

Then please, please turn to influencing its leaders - from family heads to local government to Presidents and Prime Ministers. Direct them towards the stark warning in the pages of "Africa - Atlas of our changing environment" just launched at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) by the United Nations Environment Programme. Satellite images three or four decades apart show the scale and impacts of environmental degradation, such as these declining water levels in Lake Chad. Persistent droughts and increased agricultural irrigation have reduced the Lake to one tenth of its extent 35 years ago.

Marion Cheatle, deputy director of Unep's early warning division, told the Ministers that the Atlas can show where and why action needs to be taken. Well, the (mostly) Gentlemen of AMCEN have been meeting every 2 years since 1985 and have various declarations and multilateral processes to show for it. Lots of policy, clearly not enough practice. But that's where you come in - bloggers all. Spread the word. Put pressure through the ballot box (or, where ballot boxes cannot speak for you, on those of your community who can). Take these issues from Environment Ministries to Finance Ministries. Take David Attenborough's advice and then elect more women.

And yes, pray for our Continent to the Gods of Climate Change, Population, Energy, Water, Biodiversity, Food Security and A.N.E. Other. There has to be just a glimmer of hope that the second edition of the Atlas in 2040 will show that we managed to reverse the decline?

Eco-friendly Nation?

2008-06-09T00:17:00.011+01:00

Oooops, missed "World Environment Day" last week. Ngovi Kitau spotted the opportunity however, and in today's Daily Nation is advising fellow Kenyans what they can do to combat climate change. Three practical suggestions in fact:

Firstly, stop the dumping of cars on Kenya that do not have eco-friendly engines.
Secondly look after Kenya's forests and send out students with saplings to plant at home.
Thirdly (quoted in full) "all Government ministries as well as private sector players need to embrace the International Organisation for Standardisation – ISO 14064 – standards for green house gas accounting and verification published on March I, 2006."

Thank you Mr. Kitau for demonstrating, as MD of a vehicle importing firm (presumably engines with the very latest technology?), that climate concerns can be good business too.

Back to Basics

2008-06-08T20:45:00.005+01:00

Did you celebrate "World Naked Bicycle Day" yesterday on June 7th?

The organisers around the world stress that it is about bicycle advocacy - drawing attention to transport that burns calories rather than fossil fuel. So yes, good on 'em (and no, cycling Arjay remains resolutely fully clothed) !

Just five years ago, I was crossing the street in Hanoi, with my eyes peeled as fleets of bicycles ebbed and flowed at a constant speed all around. Three years ago, I was crossing the street in Hanoi, with my heart in my mouth as a tidal wave of motor cycles had replaced the bikes. Now I'm told that I would take my life in my hands, as cars have started to replace the motorcycles. Scene repeated all over Asia - progress for some, regression for the planet.

So to those (naked or clothed) who choose pedal power over polluting petrol, thank you from Future Earth.

Biting (on) bugs

2008-06-01T23:43:00.008+01:00

Entomophagy is back in the news.

What's news? Insect-eating is common in many cultures in central & south America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Although, to modern Luos in Kenya it is considered soooo last Century; food scientist Francis Orech found that only people over 45 knew reliably where to find bugs, how to catch them and prepare them for eating. When they do, it is worthwhile - 3 crickets provide the daily recommended allowance of iron (how about that on the breakfast packets of the future?).

Ready to buy, fry and try? Try these recipies for inspiration. Hesitating? Ever eaten prawn, crab, or lobster? Why....they eat naught but trash, hoovering up detritus. Their arthropod cousins, however, often feast from nature's salad bars. Now there's a thought... I'm off to set up my new business - insect smoothies. Any suggestions for the brand name?

P.S. In case anyone is questioning the flippant use of "Bugs" here, yes "True Bugs" are a group of insects called Hemiptera but the term has been so widely hijacked to mean "creepy crawlies" that even the UK Natural History Museum uses it!

£40 billion? Going...... going.....

2008-05-30T15:34:00.007+01:00

Stern has done it for climate change, can "TEEB" (The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity") review, do it for biological diversity? Launched at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meetings in Bonn this week, TEEB demonstrates that the ongoing loss of ecosystems and biodiversity is costing the planet £40 billion a year - hitting the poorest hardest of all.

What do we need to do? Mostly the same things that will also reduce the speed of climate change (leaving aside the complexities of biofuels). Use less energy, consume (much) less per capita, waste less and conserve the natural resources we have. All of us. Will we?

One of the first crises to bite, and that might make us sit up and take notice, is the one that has been lurking unseen beneath the surface of the ocean - overfishing. The TEEB review demonstrates how all of the world's fisheries are likely to collapse within 50 years if current trends are not reversed. A billion people rely on fish protein. A few weeks ago I came across these two fishermen on the edge of the Java sea, picking miniscule remnants of the evening's meagre catch out of their precious nets. The sea from which they feed their families was letting them down - they were the "small guys" for whom the declining stocks meant immediate hunger and no prospects for their children. Thats a powerful fermentor of discontent spreading around the coastlines of the world.

Personal plastic

2008-05-28T16:20:00.012+01:00

Personal carbon might be logged on a personal plastic card and swiped at the point of purchase. More plastic in use around the planet. Could it be made from recycled plastic waste from Arjay's household - here's a months supply, and thats despite an effort to cut down, thinking of addled albatross chicks. Not as easy to recycle as we might like to think, these pernicious, persistent polymers proliferating prettily around the planet.

Personal Carbon

2008-05-27T11:37:00.005+01:00

Personal carbon trading - shelved on May 8th, brought back off the shelf before it could even gather dust on May 27th. Is this rapid return to prominence because it is a really good idea, despite its dishing by Defra, or to distract from political difficulty at the top? Cynacism aside, what do we think of it? Arjay is in two minds...

The negative one says it will be absolutely unworkable, absorb a host of effort on bureaucracy that could be more usuefully applied to beneficial activity, focus too heavily on quotas and distract attention from reducing use overall. Those who have experienced Government running a rationing scheme of any kind (my parents in wartime for example) knows it will lead to abuse and illegality too.

But the positve one wonders whether it will be worthwhile whatever the problems as a tool for generating awareness of the issues and behavioural change at the individual level. Spreading around the world, might it turn this row of motorbikes snapped recently in Indonesia back to a row of bicyles before they become a row of cars?

International Day of Biodiversity 2008

2008-05-21T16:27:00.005+01:00

Escaped your notice that Thursday 22nd May is the International Day for Biological Diversity and that this year's theme is Biodiversity and Agriculture? Really? Shame - and you with an interest in Future Earth, how can this be?

Ah well, we may have to admit that UN organisations and multi-lateral intergovernmental treaties do not act as effective or popular champions for anything, at least not anything urgent. But "Biodiversity and Agriculture" is urgent and we can only hope for a great groundswell of awareness and knowledge emerging from the global celebrations tomorrow (!) that will lead to wise decisions and behaviour change over competing land uses. "And pigs might fly" did I hear? Well, at least that would cut down transport costs and carbon expenditure even though we might expect a little more methane pollution along the way....!

Sweetness and Light

2008-05-19T10:36:00.013+01:00

The excited voices reached us across the clearing - the honeygatherers were already high on a rare sugar rush, hands sticky with fresh, wild honey, shaking their heads to ward off the angry bees coming out of their smoky coma and resenting the destruction of their hard labour. This treat had required scaling the heights of the gigantic baobab where the bees had constructed their castle safe from marauding honey badgers, filling its hexagonal vaults with the nectar gathered from the woodlands of northern Mozambique.

A sharp intake of breath - we had seen that that the honeygathers were oblivious to the large "tusker" - a bull elephant in his prime, mellow ivory tusks weighing down his weighty head, swaying slowly down the hill into the same clearing, just a few feet away through the scrubby trees. In an instant, he was alerted to their presence and paused, ready for action..... swinging surprisingly athletically on his heels and making the choice to move away, lifting the dust of Africa into the sunlit air.

Why is this moment in time on today's blog? Partly because I felt the cloying depression of what we are doing to our world and needed to lift myself back out of it with some sweetness and light! Partly because the question of food security is increasingly becoming part of our daily lives, and partly through the train of thought generated by the reaction to Barak Obama calling a journalist "sweetie"! "Honey", "Sweetie", "Sugar".... all sweet names for people we like - and depend upon.

Meanwhile, counting down...

2008-05-16T10:09:00.006+01:00

Living Planet / Dying Planet. The Living Planet Index out today according to the Independent, "shows the devastating impact of humanity as biodiversity has plummeted by almost a third in the 35 years to 2005.The report, produced by WWF, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network, says land species have declined by 25 per cent, marine life by 28 per cent, and freshwater species by 29 per cent".

It is not just evolution in action, as we are losing species at such a rate that we are cutting out the survival options that genetic diversity provides for humanity. Conserving vast chunks of natural habitat, so that ecoystem services survive, cleaning up and restoring the oceans - these we could do, but are we up for the challenge? Or, just like the last Easter Islander cutting down the last tree, will the last person on earth still be pouring fossil fuel into a Ferrari?

HRH - His Rainforest Highness - Prince Charles

2008-05-16T00:00:00.013+01:00

Three Cheers for HRH, sticking his neck out on what the world needs to do for rainforests and why. He is using his convening power and passion to good effect. The "Prince's Rainforest Project" is an 18 month attempt to jump start a connection between finance and forests, aiming to " find ingenious, innovative ways of paying the appropriate price for the ecosystem services provided by the world’s remaining great forests.” Since the launch in November 2007, the project personnel have been going around talking to programmes, politicians, business people and policy wonks. They are not actually doing anything concrete but are trying to help those who are to get the right funds to the right place before it is too late. More power to their elbows (or, as they say in parts of west Africa, more grease to their arms).

And while we are on conservation leadership, three more cheers for rainforest champions. Arjay's awards for:

Excellent communication of the issues to another Charles... Charles Clover.

Innovative action to Fauna & Flora International.

Courageous activists who tackle the political challenges in their own rainforest nations - such as Brasil's Marina Silva.

Worthies indeed, but what chance is there that all these efforts can succeed? HRH is suggesting 30 billion would halt forest loss. Maybe, but the devil is, as always, in the detail. The finance is already lining up, sniffing the next increasingly valued and diminishing commodity. The questions are also lining up... how much, when will it be paid, who to, how will accountability and incentive be linked....essentially who will benefit and when?

My greatest concern is that short-termism will prevail and that people will be marginalised by both markets and the tortuous multi-lateral processes governing them. Those making the political decisions now will sell out for front-loaded funds and people will not be able to benefit from the increased value of ecosystem services that will emerge. The complexity of finance flows within communities that depend on natural resources, and effective environmental governance at all levels could so easily be underestimated.

Pilot projects please - and well-funded pilots at that, so we can start working out the glitches.