MyEnviroMind

As the year of 2016 closes up tonight, I imagine our superstitions will breath a sigh of relief. It's been 'eventful' - I think that's a safe way to put it. We've been filled with highs and slummed through the lows - but it's not all over yet... I won't dwell on what's not been so great, what's been done has been done and now is the time to learn from the problems we've gone through and build on all the positives we've found. Just look at what Greenpeace has achieved in bringing us a safer and fairer world. We donb't hear enough of news like this. https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/content/change-your-mind-about-2016?source=em&subsource=8E692&utm_medium=em&utm_source=gpeace&utm_campaign=8E692 We ridicule the roller-coaster of the mad house that was 2016 - yet there were so many opportunities for us to be happy. To celebrate all the talent, bravery and admirable traits that is in everyone. This year we saw buck...

Merry Christmas to you! Happy Holidays! http://wardgossip.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_01_archive.html After the roller coaster of 2016, the time has finally come to kick back, hug a bit, laugh a lot and spread the joy as you celebrate a well deserved holiday this Christmas. It has been a somewhat interesting 12 months and I, for one, can't wait to forget about the uncertainties, forget about work, stress and just relax and have fun tomorrow. Except for the fear of a game of charades is getting close... We'll have music, some gifts and a heck of a lot of food. Something we shouldn't take for granted. According to 'Love Food Hate Waste,' the UK wastes around 15 million tonnes of food every year with about 7 million tonnes of food and drink coming from our homes every year.  Yes, there's waste in the shops. Yes manufactures throw good foodstuffs in the bin but, most of it comes from us. The website also says that the average household chucks £60 w...

“This is a concern for over a billion human lives,” the Dalai Lama said in 2015. The spiritual leader called for people globally to listen and act upon such an immoral, shameful and dismissive topic. No, this time it luckily wasn't terrorism. About 7,600 square kilometers of glacier in the Tibetan Plateau (about 18% of the total) has disappeared since the 1950s. The gleaming "roof of the world" retreats at an average of 247 square kilometers annually. My calculations tell me that this means it will all be gone in less than 200 years, with the primary cause still being climate change. However, this is assuming temperatures will stay as they are now and we all know that temperatures are destined to reach 5'C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century and we are only beginning to see a 1.5'C increase this year. The Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders said two-thirds of the glaciers in their country may disappear by 2050 because of climate change. ...

Can you smell that? Air pollution from cars https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar ticle/nitrogen-dioxide-no2-regulation-epa/ In 2013, 11,940 premature deaths were caused by NO 2 pollution - according to a recent report provided by the European Environment Agency. An estimated 9,400 of these occur in London alone. To put this into perspective, the UK has been told it has the 2nd highest deaths from this pollution within Europe, behind Italy. Of course, this is below the 21,000 estimated annual deaths in the US from air pollution, as may be found similarly in other countries around the world, but we must remember this statistic takes  all air pollution into account (CO & particulates etc.) and, no matter how much our population grows and we become more crowded, we still live on an island and the US population is almost greater than ours 5 fold. A great proportion of these emissions originate from the dirty fuel in cars we lavish and can be linked to lung problems. ...

One month until Christmas! Now, I'm not normally someone to promote the celebration of such a desired event before the appropriate time, however today is also Black Friday and I feel the two go hand-in-hand as some of the most momentous days of the year. Let's not forget the vital question though - does Santa think you've been good this year? This post will be published in the evening, but no doubt that most of the sales today will be hectically scrambled for in the last few hours of today; when the population of Britain all rush from work to the comforts of their home and streets of the cities, to exploit the deals on offer. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/black-friday-2015-best-beauty-deals-a6742491.html In the hustle & bustle of it all, it's easy to get swept into the moment and feel hurried and pressured by the array of deals into purchasing items that later on you may regret. Wait a moment. Let's think about what you are doing. ...

In 2006, that weekend welcoming show on BBC  Saturday Kitchen Live brought on a new segment - The Omelette Challenge. The young James Martin counted down "3, 2, 1,"... and just after that second, the egg-straneous race had begun. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pqqHhLS8teM/maxresdefault.jpg Alain Roux, Marcus Wareing & Nathan Outlaw take part in  The Omelette Challenge Since then, hundreds of chefs have clattered pans, and splattered food to the egg-streme - in a way almost as dire as my puns. In the challenge, chefs compete to cook a 3 egg omelette in the fastest time possible. It's sad to see that on a cooking show with such wonderful dishes, humble foodstuffs can be abused so radically, with the majority of these egg 'dishes' becoming inedible and presumably discarded. Abuse? Yes, abuse of our privilege in this developed and cosy nest of a home we live in. This is a cooking show I take it?  So chefs can showcase their talent, ideas and passion for co...

98 years after WWI deceased, we remember those who courageously staggered, galloped and fell upon the desolate land. Today is Armistice Day. http://www.vivaboo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/poppy-poppies-remembrance-veterns-day-November-11-3.jpg This is the day we think of those who have undoubtedly done so much and bravely done so with the sole purpose of protecting our futures. What heroes we have had amongst us. And hence, we take their message, their motive, their impulse into our daily lives by promoting peace and justice for the world. It was their only wish. And so people; we now come to a crossroads. Perhaps we have already turned to the right, but, there are many more to come. We must decided what routes are safest and which may have too many bumps and potholes ahead. (Excuse the metaphor.) President Donald Trump is perhaps now the most influential persona in global governance. And yes, his views are strong and somewhat provocative to many, many societies,...

Anyone guess what today is? It's the day we commence the COP 21 Paris Climate Agreement! Just 11 months after the world united, the first ever climate deal to gather both rich and poor countries with one climate mission comes in smashing the previous record set by the last major climate deal, the Kyoto Protocol, of 8 years. 196 countries (that's all the attendees) signed the pledge- even OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). This shows us just how extreme a threat climate change has become; not only are countries willing to change there ways, but those whose main source of GDP is from fossil fuels have seen and heard and felt  that we can't continue to live in the state we are right now. I've heard a lot of talk upon whether it's fair or not that rich countries are putting this into action when developing countries, essentially, need to develop. Some say it's hypocritical. I think if we really want to change, we will. Solar panel...

Halloween is creeping up on us! Time for some sneaky snacking and bloodcurdling baking. We all need a break every now and then - Half term for me hasn't come a moment too soon! Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that we should all forget our morality and ethics. Raise your hand if you are also a culprit of buying cheap, last-minute sweets and dishes in a rush. Once, twice. Maybe a couple of hundred times. We've all done it. And with Halloween being famed by kids for its opportunity to go reckless with sugar, the number of unsustainable, unhealthy and immoral sweets flying of shelves is the true horror of October. By 'unhealthy,' I don't just mean because of the sugar - everyone who is anyone knows that all sweet treats have sugar in them and, like I said, Halloween is a time of year to let loose and run wild! (within the law.) Nah I'm talking about those slightly dodgy products. Those unheard of, unregulated items that can be found in any place, ...

NASA has revealed that, as predicted, this year is holding some record-warm months - and there's no stopping here. It's not just September's heat that's triumphed this year; August & July this year have both tied as the hottest months ever recorded.  Not recorded since the 1900's. Not recorded for 50 years. No. The hottest months ever recorded.  Is it just me or are you getting a bit hot & bothered by this news too? The threshold of only a 1.5 degree C increase became almost in reach during February 2016 where temperatures were 1.34 degree C above normal. If we go beyond this mark, life on small islands will conclusively be flooded out. A higher population density will occur in cities as land will be lost and homes destroyed. I'd like to point out that this isn't just about loosing nature and protecting biodiversity. Ultimately, that is a major consequence of our ever-increasing temperatures. However, for those who may be more af...

You may or may not be aware of this. Recently our family, your relative, my friend, the Bornean Orangutan has been classified as 'critically endangered'. The critically endangered Indri This is the final stage  for any species before extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. Now why might this be? Everyone knows about the orangutan, unlike many of the other lesser-known species on the Red List such as the Indri or the North Brown Howler. They are a popular species too; if one is walking round zoos or researching wildlife examples for kids to learn, they are bound to stumble upon the Orangutan a numerous amount of times. So what has gone wrong? Well it all boils down to their habitat. As many budding biologists will know, Orangutans live within the rain-forest. As well as this, commonly lurking around the rain-forests in Borneo are Mahogany tree fellers, palm oil exploiters dirty businesses all round, and, as you...

This. Bill Nye, what a guy. I used to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy in my Year 3 Science class. Hearing him again brings an essence of nostalgia. It feels like an age. It makes me realise how long we've known about our world's danger, and pushed its screams to the side. How many opportunities we've had. How many times we've ignored. How many times we've 'tried'. But, no more negativity! Now is our chance to take what we've learnt and DO SOMETHING about it. Let's cease this one and last opportunity. Our only opportunity to make right what we did wrong. We can do so many things and make so many changes to our lives. It only takes a small nudge of positivity within us.  We're not that far but we are getting further and further away from a stable world. H _ M     :) Bibliography: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/climate-101

I've never been a history fanatic. I'll admit, every now and then I feel like checking out a museum or watching a documentary, but it's never been of important interest to me. Needless to say, that doesn't mean I can't appreciate an explicit, colourful and humorous timeline when I see it. Earlier today, I was checking out my Twitter feed and this popped up on my feed; 'Two charts show carbon pollution will end the era of stable climate. Only one is funny.' Now whomever created this was one of those clever, intuitive type. A bit long, I grant you, but just hold out until the end. You'll be grateful you saw it. I'd never seen any presentation of our situation like this before - what a fantastic way to do it! If only more people knew about it. Perhaps you could print it out, stick it in a classroom or pin it in the workplace. Just to get it seen. In busses, magazines, newspapers. It's eye-catching look & witty comments will grab the ...

'TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF AND MAKE A CHANGE' Ever feel like you're not being yourself? Like you're following a social consensus in order to feel self-assured and 'normal'? It's what the famous ones do, what the government allow. It's OK...? Well no. It's not always 'OK'. The fact is, nobody knows  what's right and what's wrong. That is why there's so much debate and confusion. So much anger, so much hate. We have juries for this exact reason. An example of mine is energy. The exponential population growth has resulted in an ever increasing demand in fuel for heating and electricity for appliances such as kettles, TV's and phones, which are now becoming part of routine life. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to prevent economic development and, believe me, I don't want to go back to medieval life where people just  survived  and struggled to live through the freezing Winter months - that is definitely not...

OK . So, in the news this week: 'MPs call for a ban on plastic microbeads.'  What are microbeads I hear you ask? What do they do? Why does it affect me? Microbeads can be seen here in toothpaste credit: www.medicaldaily.com Microbeads are small pieces of plastic, smaller than 5 mm, commonly made of polyethylene or even other crude oil products such as polypropylene and polystyrene. These beads provide shape and abrasion to products that need to scrub off dead skin, dirt and food. They are used in a vast range of cleaning & cosmetic products that we all use daily and their minute size means they can easily pass through our drains and water filtration systems until they float right out into the ocean. A single tube of Johnson & Johnson’s Clean & Clear facial scrub can contain up to 330,000 plastic beads. 100,000 microbeads can be washed down the drain, from some products, in just one application. So what's all the fuss about? I've never had ...

Hi *insert name of you who is reading this right now at this very moment in time*!, Well I don't really know where to begin... Thank you for choosing to come here out of your own free will I suppose! My name is Harriet and this is my little environmental blog. I don't really know what to expect, or what I would like to achieve out of this - I know blogging isn't going to stop the world's temperatures soaring & at most is probably a hypocritical action  - but I've known for a long time now that I've wanted to do something against it, something stronger than just switching a light off, something more influential than just looking disgusted at litter on the street and perhaps, in conversation, I hope to learn new ways that can make a change. Positively. For the better for longer. In what little time we have left, I would like to work with you and try, just a little bit, to save the world. That's a big ask. Although that goal seems unrealistic, of co...