MyEnviroMind

Leaders of the largest 7 economies, worldwide, will meet today to discuss the issues facing our planet. The G7 (Group of 7) is holding it's annual, informal talk in Sicily without any media present. The group has leaders from France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and the UK. We are being told that key discussions on the list today include international trade, climate security and prevention of terrorism. These talks come just a few days after the devastating attack in Manchester Arena on Monday 22nd May 2017. My heart goes out to those directly affected and suffering through their loss. My heart goes out to all those within our nation and beyond, because, what happened on Monday has repercussions for us all. It hurts our ability to allow equality for everyone. We can move beyond this violence and one day find settled ground. Terrorism is a global concern. We can all fight it - without the need for violence.   Taormina, city ho...

Twitter has unveiled me to so many days in the calendar that I had no clue existed! I'm sure I'm not the only one... Today is Endangered Species Day but, considering this event comes 3 days before exam week, I'm afraid this entry is going to be a bit brief. I only hope that other articles give you more details of this day and the honest publicity such a topic like this deserves. I hope they make us think. Really think. Think how closely entwined we are with the Earth; not only do we influence nature, we are a part of it. We are, in the grand scheme of things, a mere minority amongst the mass of biodiversity on this planet. A simple carbon store in it's whole entity. According to http://storiented.blogspot.co.uk , Showing less than 1% of all known species, this phylogenetic tree of life was created by David Hillis, Derreck Zwickil and Robin Gutell. It displays the evolutionary relationships of about 3,000 species. Hillis et al., Science, 2003 Think how much in...

Climate change and plastic waste. 2 hot topics from an environmental perspective, yet quite separate from each other in terms of their interactions & interdependency. Or so it may seem. In 2013, scientists spent 7 months travelling around the Arctic circle tracking plastic particles in the ocean. They're research estimates that currently "about 300 billion pieces of tiny plastic are suspended in these Arctic waters right now," according to The Washington Post ,  and the area has been dubbed the “dead end for floating plastics.” This means that the concentration of plastic in these waters is not only expected to increase because of increasing waste, but also because once it gets here, it is unlikely to leave. It's not fully understood how these microplastics will affect our ecosystem but one thing's for sure; the 8 million tonnes we, mostly North Americans and Europeans, dispose into the ocean each year will slowly creep up the food chain and it will effect...

Starting today, and for the 7 days following, ordinary citizens from all matter of communities are standing up from the bottom as one - making their voices echo loud and clear at the top. In New Mexico, people raised blue items to the sky as they stood where a river once ran https://globaldivestmentmobilisation.org/action-ideas/ The Global Divestment Mobilisation 2017 is a project kick-started by 350.org which aims to "solidify the association between climate impacts and the moral urgency to divest from fossil fuels," as well as initiating the process of divestment in regions where it's not yet happened. We know the climate is changing fast and we also know where the denials of man-made climate change are rooted. We know that the fossil fuel industry has spent whatever time and money it could on promoting climate denial, as well as channelling efforts to block climate action in order to secure their profits. The fossil fuel industry is strong. It's powerful and...

Sorry for not posting last week. There was too much going on in the world. So much in the news, so much fear, so much scrutiny. Our world just seemed so disjointed. But never fear, today I bring you good news! Live: Energy Consumption via the National Grid http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ Notice anything fishy about this photo? Take a close look at the coal dial. This is no phoney photograph. Yes, the UK's National Grid, as I type the blog, has no coal powered electricity running through it. Today is a fume free Friday as the National Grid are aiming to run for an entire 24 hours without coal - the first time since Britain's Industrial Revolution! It's not even a particularly sunny day so this is quite amazing. The British Industrial Revolution http://galleryhip.com/textile-factory-industrial-revolution.html The statement is astounding but, if we look a little more into what is fuelling today's electricity, we see nuclear and biomass topping the...

"I had to learn how biases can create a totally different world in the mind of the reader" - Professor Agnes Binagwaho - TEDx Skoll I read this on Twitter today and thought it should be valued as much more than a fleeting retweet. Over the years, I’ve come to realise how what we hear and see can so easily be manipulated. Many times by accident. In conversations and on the news, vital information can be forgotton, mispronounced or withheld. On the other side, the observer can also get it wrong through blanking information, misinterpretation or simply not knowing the background of the topic. As information is passed down and down through the crowd – what minute percentage can we actually trust? It’s the real-life game of Chinese Whispers. These are basic human mistakes. We have all done it on both sides; intended or unintended, biased or elaborating, good intentions or bad intentions. The blurry line exists when deciding whether a bias is a lie or not. Is it? ...

On the 24th March, China's State Forestry Administration listed 12 licensed ivory factories (out of 34) and 55 retail ivory shops (out of 143) that are to be closed by the end of March. Today, I believe! By the end of this year, all of these remaining businesses will cease, but is it enough? For China, this is step 1 in setting out a ban on ivory trade - making the act illegal throughout the country. Slowly but surely, this should but poachers out of business. Ivory ornaments for sale. Highly valued items could cost thousands of dollars Source: GETTY IMAGES Through history, we've seen a trend. As the overall economic wealth of a country has boomed, so has the demand for materialistic items so that people have something to squander their extra cash on. Despite how we scrutinise those people who demand such a valued material in our western world, we, in the UK, were in fact part of this trade once. Our ancestors did the same and we do ignore that fact. The African eleph...