Thought for the day

Happy World Ocean Day

Happy World Ocean Day everybody! 

Today, people around the planet celebrate and honor the body of water that links us all - for what it provides and what it represents. Be a part of this growing global celebration by doing something good for our ocean: Change your ways. Change your perspective. Learn, become an ocean advocate and celebrate! Remember to "Wear Blue & Tell Two" (wear something blue to raise awareness for our oceans and share two facts about ocean conservation with folks you know) to celebrate today!

As another task for World Ocean Day, we would like to ask you to email us your reasons for caring about the ocean and the life it supports. We will incorporate our favorite reason into a blog and draw 5 winners from the submissions! So send us your reasons at contact@whales.org

More about Whale and Dolphin Conservation CLICK HERE. 

 

And to celebrate, below are my top five favorite sea creatures!

Mantis Shrimp - find out more about this crazy shrimp here

 

Killer Whale

 

 

Blue Whale

Sea Horse

Sea Slug

Re-posting: Scottish Environment LINK

LINK Hill Tracks Campaign

Nine of Scotland’s leading environmental organisations are appealing for help in preventing the spread of hill tracks.

Hill tracks are some of the most visible and damaging developments in rural Scotland. They are often crudely bulldozed through highly sensitive environments, doing irreparable harm to landscapes, soils and biodiversity, and contributing to the rapid loss of land unaffected by visual intrusion (which fell by nearly one-third between 2002 and 2009).

Incredibly, these tracks can often be constructed without any planning consent having to be sought, so their design and construction are not subject to any controls or public oversight – even within parts of our National Parks. While this exemption is only meant to apply to tracks constructed for agriculture or forestry, many are instead used for commercial stalking or shooting.

For many years our organisations have been campaigning to bring the construction of hill tracks into the planning system. Recently, the Scottish Government accepted that there is ‘compelling evidence’ of the damage caused by unregulated hill tracks, but still decided not to amend the legislation. We now have a short window of opportunity to persuade the government to change its mind and impose proper controls on all hill tracks.

Please help us to collect evidence of these tracks so we can make our case more strongly. While you are out walking or cycling, please take photographs of any tracks you find and send them to us using the form below.

(Photos which were taken since January 2011 are acceptable, but historic photos should only be submitted if you are sure that the track still exists. Note that tracks which are related to renewable energy or telecommunications developments will have been through the planning system already so these tracks are not a priority, but we can still use them to highlight bad construction practice! Please let us know if you think the track you have photographed is for one of these developments.)

Many thanks for your help!



The campaign is also supported by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland.

For more information and to submit your photos please CLICK HERE

Re-posting: Avaaz

Petition media for coverage of GMO letter from 800 scientists

Petition Major World Media Organizations to report on the open letter from 800 scientists to all governments concerning GMOs which explains why scientists are extremely concerned about the hazards of GMOs to biodiversity, food safety, human and animal health, while demanding a moratorium on environmental releases in accordance with the precautionary principle.

To read the open letter please CLICK HERE

The ISIS open letter is a long ago call for action from scientists ignored by the media and more current information from ISIS further supporting this call for action in present day can be found in the recent article, click here 

For more information and to sign the petition please CLICK HERE

 

Re-posting: Plantlife

Road verges are the bank we should be investing in

Every summer, Plantlife hears from despairing supporters, upset that a favourite flower-rich verge has been destroyed. In a matter of minutes, a bank covered in beautiful native species is reduced to a shorn strip. It’s heartbreaking stuff for us but even worse for our hungry pollinators and other wildlife.

1. Road verges are the life-giving arteries of the countryside, linking habitats and acting as vital corridors for wildlife to thrive on. They also represent a remnant of our native grassland which has suffered catastrophic losses over the last century.

2. They can act as buffers to some of the most impoverished areas, be they six lane motorways or intensively farmed fields.

3. Combined with railway edges they are the single most viewed habitat in the country, giving millions of people every day direct contact with the changing seasons and colours of the countryside. They also provide distinct local character to each region, from the flower rich hedgebanks of Devon to the heather covered moorland verges of Yorkshire.

4. When managed correctly road verges can support remarkable diverse collections of species. The good news is that good management often involve simply doing less, allowing the verge to develop and plants to set seed before cutting takes place.

5. Road verges can be genuine community reserves, people form close relationships with them and there is an army of volunteers who with training can act as the guardians for them.

To find out more, to sign the petition and to write directly to your council please CLICK HERE