Living Planet Report Summary 2016

Living Planet Report 2016 Summary

Apocalypse Now

Donald Trump

Line 1: Pesticides and neonics, herbicides that make us sick that kill all other creatures dead of course are messing with our health, tumours spreading all around, kids cant breathe and the ground is being exhausted of all that's good all is turning to dust and blood. Billionaires will want to grow their mountain ranges of code, they'll process us and our souls into slaves to serve their goals. Work all our lives for a false dream that drains all our hopes then!!!!.......................all our rules and the things we serve will be removed 

Line 2: The birds and bees are dying and dead like canaries in the mines they have gone ahead and soon in a little while you and I will begin to strive in an immense struggle, where there's not enough to go round and within three meals!!!!......................all our rules and the things we serve will be removed 

HAPPY THOUGHTS HERE

Trump vs Clinton

What a choice, Black or blue, a zombie takeover or more war, left wing hate or right wing hate, rapid decline or slow decline?

There is another choice. Choose ourselves? We as individuals are world leaders, we are the masters, our consumer choices, our behaviour, how we influence the world in our own little way, the systems we support, the things we engage in, the support we give to each other, the thoughts that are going on in our heads and the way we choose to act on those thoughts.

Central leadership, central government is basically a by-product of a lack of self belief, The less individuals believe in themselves as the agents of change, as the masters of life, as the key to solutions - the more powerful central leadership becomes. The less we believe the more powerful and grotesque they become. Central power harnesses itself by doing all it can to break down self belief, to create an illusion of strength which is sustained by fear. A fear which if ignored has no real power- a fear which digs so deep into our sub-conscious, a fear of death, of loss of freedom if we do not do what they want. That fear is a self fulfilling prophesy- we are only in danger if we believe them. They will lead us to our worst nightmares.

The truth is there is an equality of power, each one of us have the potential to be as powerful as everyone else. True power is not measured on ownership, on popularity, on position, on privilege, True power is measured by the measure of our own ability to meet our own objectives, to reach our full potential, to be the best people that we can be within our own minds, to find peace, to find comfort, purpose and meaning.

Central power aims to destroy individual empowerment. It is part of the human condition to drift towards self destruction if not consciously checked. The purpose/advantage of conscious thought is for us as an animal to be able to defy odds, to defy the cruel indifference of nature and the lottery of maths and natural laws. We stand above all creatures on having that ability to such a great degree- to master/guide our evolutionary path. If we as individuals do not use that power we naturally drift to our ape like, hierachial pasts- violent, warring, un-democratic brutal, ignorant, pathetic. Society collapses.

Central power if unchecked will contort, will mutate into a dangerous and deadly force and it will do it everytime. History repeats itself. Collective memory wipes out the experiences of the past. Here we go again. Its time for true justice to rise as the nightmare crystallises into its full and horrific manifestations- a horror we can avoid to some degree if we act quickly.

Here's a song about central vs individual power. Our well being is primarily about our close relationships, being loved, feeling valued, being part of a society where we are important... and we are all important not just some of us. Despite our desire to have our most basic needs met, we might just wish to be alone with the things we love without putting much effort into that but we have to understand that we have a responsibility, we are all connected and our own well being is dependent on supporting others around us and appreciating what they do. To notice positive effort, to support it. Even central government has a true and just purpose, even heads of state have a use. They are there for us to challenge, to stand agaisnt, to keep in check, to not allow them to believe that they are more important. It is important for us to respect their authority but it is also important for them to respect our authority.

What's this got to do with birding, with nature? Every community is governed by the same principles and for a community to meet its objective, in our case to preserve nature for future generations, it is important to understand the natural order, the natural equality and natural laws.

The Conservation Zeitgeist

'As Michael Gove famously pointed out during the referendum campaign ''people in this country have had enough of experts". This was tellingly taken up by fellow Brexiteer MP Gisela Stuart who proclaimed that "There is only one expert that matters, and that's you, the voter". It appears that politicians, all too ready to pick up on the current zeitgeist, are aping the language of social media, where pithy opinion seems to be the main form of communication'Andrew Bason, Editor, British Wildlife Volume 28: 1 October 2016

Indeed! Human communication is now mainly through straplines, memes, gifs and images. Conservation organisations continuously talk about public engagement while seemingly ignoring the very large popular twitter accounts and facebook pages which are pro-nature and conservation and are the mass beacons to the people. Beacons which are not being utilised by the conservation NGOs. Groups that spring to mind include UNILAD, BORED PANDA, I F#ING LOVE BIODIVERSITY and popular radical activist groups that include ANONYMOUS and the softer 350.org. A Twitter account with a mass following that springs to mind is Team4Nature.

Of course there is a conflict of interest here between the conservation NGOs attracting public engagement in terms of new members to their organisations compared to real public engagement which is the organic mass mobilisation of ideas.

These public engagement social networks are newly evolved beasts. UNILAD- a lad's-mag type social networking site that has a massive cult like following, BORED PANDA- a youthful arts/humanities social network group. These are the power houses to the public and if conservation organisations or alliances such as the State of Nature Report Alliance want to communicate facts from experts to the public, those facts will need to be giffed and memed and then pasted through similar mass mobilisation platforms.

Conservation organisations working with working class lad groups, activists, young and cool demographically diverse communities??? Of course not!!. There is a middle class, middle aged, mainly white conservation elite which do not want public engagement at all. They want to maintain the status quo of conservation being owned by the NGOs rather than owned by the people and the popular movements. Their largely old, white and middle class paying members would be horrified by connecting to anything with the word LAD in it . The NGOs need the grey pound-this maintains funding to support staff and board members. It does not however engage the public at large, especially young or ethnically diverse groups. For the NGOs it mainly about the grey pound- an unsustainable funding stream considering they are literally all on their way out. The capitalists motives of this are so clear e.g. CEOs of conservation organisations are increasingly ex-corporate people e.g. the new CEO of the London Wildlife Trust is from IBM- a move which is clearly capital driven and nothing to do with mass mobilisation and public engagement.

When experts and facts are locked within this 'mafia' and are not connecting to the mass mobilisation apparatus it becomes apparent that one of the main causes of the conservation crisis is ineffective communication and lack of  instruction from the knowledge centres to the public. There is no or little connection between the brain and the cells.

The preservation of nature is the will of the people but that will is not being expressed.

The current Zeitgeist is that the traditional conservation NGOs are running out of funding, are forming alliances because they are struggling, trying desperately to preserve themselves and are spreading fear to make people believe that the establishment is the solution- when it is so clearly the problem.

This needs to shift to a message of hope, of revolution, of mass mobilisation and connection. This needs to shift from self preservation of the conservation community to self sacrifice and the handing over of power to the masses and new era of popular and mass involvement conservation- one way or another.

Last few days

A few bits from the last few days. Met up with Dave Campbell today to do a recce on some new net sites to expand the ringing effort at the farmlands. We had a male Pheasant in the sacrificial crop area and had a look at the new seeded area which is currently covered with 'murder tape' to scare off the Canada Geese. Then identified some areas on 100 acre and the wet grassland area that appear suitable for ringing.

Picked up two new keys for two new group members - so now we have all the keys out so hopefully the group will be running at full capacity. 

Hoping to set up regular meetings with Viridor to co-ordinate volunteer effort and increase public engagement. Made some progress with that this week too. Hopefully if we set up a well structured nucleus can start building a framework for local group involvement in management and public engagement. The official conservation and access management committee is still finding it's feet so hopefully can feed into that (i.e. for them to take all the credit and make out they had something to do with the success :-) ) 

Busy at work- got a big acid grassland restoration job to do for Martin on Mitcham Common, bits to do at Spencer Road and Wilderness Island nature reserves and also been looking at willow clearance and ground vegetation management at the farmlands. Also the busiest time of year for private work and got several tree preservation order jobs and large planting jobs. Still a very disappointing take up for wildlife gardening makeovers so something we really want to focus on next year- looking for a freelance ecologist to take this forward- anyone interested please let me know. 

 Green-brindled Crescent - a new one for me and only the second record for the farmlands 

 Gull sp. showing mixed characteristics between michahellis and cachinnans . A snouty looking individual, with pale eye, relatively dark upperparts (closer to mich), anaemic yellow legs, mirror on p10 only, black to p5 (reduced to a sliver across both webs), black on webs of p10 almost to primary coverts, 30% pale tongue on inner web of p9 and 'pearls' on p6 and p5. 

 Gulls going to roost. Did a Jackdaw, Ring-necked Parakeet and Gull roost count a couple of days ago- over 5500 Jackdaw, 8000+ gulls but only 500 Ring-necked Parakeets. 

 Spencer Road Wetlands- The Wandle Estate development is underway and the reserve is being well protected by Norman and in fact there have been some improvements via the s106 agreement for the development. 

Problematic Willows next to nearby housing at Spencer Road Wetlands. Sympathetic neighbours have agreed to retain the structure of the trees and avoid pollarding. Removal of dead wood, cutting back from neighbouring properties, lifting the lower canopy and thin excess growth should keep everyone happy, including the trees!

Location of satellite biodiversity areas within Hackbridge adjacent to Beddington Farmlands. All these sites have management plans to maintain and enhance biodiversity to form closer links with the farmlands, through Hackbridge and to the River wandle to provide movement across the urban area from the reserve and green corridors. Basically an interconnected network for willdife and also footpaths for people.. By creating more wildlife gardens in Hackbridge this also strengthens the biodiversity of the area- generating in theory a model of urban ecological management. Got a long way to go and a lot of enemies to fight. 

Hen Harrier debate

Debate here

A good example of how our democracy does not work. The Hen Harrier issue is about the over exploitation of the grouse moors, the contribution that makes to the ongoing increase risk of flooding (due to climate warming), the illegal killing of grouse-hunting birds of prey i.e. Hen Harrier and the over intensive rearing of stock to maximise the shooters bags.   

None of these issues were systematically debated or investigated in full. Instead it was mainly just a three hour information dump on all kinds of generic issues surrounding the management of grouse moors and highlighting all the positive aspects by a majority of stakeholders with a vested interest . It's a bit like a paedophile ring working in a school trying to justify themselves by advocating the principle of education, the benefits of the education system and the value it gives to society. A ring that then responds to whistle blowers by forming a committee made up of themselves to decide whether they are in the wrong or not. 

Three hour white wash, massive dump of words- job done. Business as usual. Turkey run democracy. Capitalists win again. 

Direct action, people pressure and activism is a necessary component of social and environmental change and the sooner the conservation movement and NGOs accept and openly support that, the quicker we can all start moving foward with this. 

Good Day at the farmlands

A good little day at the farmlands with Frankie and Glenn. Between us we had 1 Black Redstart, 1 Dartford Warbler, 9 Goosander flying north, 4400 Woodpigeon moving south west, 20 Fieldfare, 15 Redwing, 3 Stonechat, 6 Skylark, 1 Water Pipit, 2 Jack Snipe, 10 Snipe, 1 Red Kite, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel, 3 Redpoll, 15 Chaffinch, 40+ Linnet, 30+ Goldfinch, 10 Reed Bunting, 1 Chiffchaff and 2 Goldcrest.

Also Frankie found another new species for the farmlands pan-species list. 

 9 Goosander- the second highest number after a flock of 38 on April 13th 1954.

 4400+ Woodpigeon today- the first big push this year 

Clear skies and a light north to north west this morning. Woodpigeon weather. 

 Redwing on Hawthorn 

 Lapwing- over 30 around at the moment 

Great Black-backed Gull- 4-5 today, a small influx. Gull numbers are building further as we move towards full on winter. 

 Red Kite 

 Practising with the trail camera- caught this Great Spotted Woodpecker on the obs feeders 

 The final landfill cell- got one to two years of landfill left

 More restoration management plan works on the southern mound developing species rich grasslands

 'Lighthouse gall' on Ground Ivy- a new one for us