MyEnviroMind

Hello again! I have to own up; I haven't been blogging for a few weeks. I'll admit, it's been a quite hectic and whilst there's certainly not been a lack of topics to discuss (seemingly increasing climatic disasters and Trump's refusal to associate such events with climate change), I'm afraid A-Levels have started to take their toll. Yes, The Final Year of Sixth Form, The Pre-Uni Year has finally turned up. However, I'll still be active. I'm going to set myself a target to post 1 video a month, keeping the climate awareness rising. Hopefully, over this year we shall see a growing shift; a movement to a cleaner, greener more prosperous way of living for Earth. 80% world's energy still comes from fossil fuels and we still are not on target to stop the 2 degree temperature rise in order to prevent us stepping over the threshold. In order to see a change next year, when I return to blogging, we must make changes today. The decision starts w

Often I go on about the great wonder that exists on this planet. Right in front of our eyes we can see the Earth's dynamics; constantly changing season, shifting appearance and growing new species. I wonder how long our ancestors wondered about this? About the beauty of this Earth and how it continually flourishes. I wonder what it was like when we first discovered the Earth's natural cycle and how, on it's own, the Earth recycles its nature. Unfortunately, it seems that we did not get it right at first. In his book ' The Meaning of the 21st Century '  James Martin lists 7 misconceptions humankind has believed through the past (and a few still may today). Here are 3 of them: -  We believed nature's resources were unlimited. It's quite clear now. For thousands of years our localised view of the world taught us that the Amazon basin was always filled, forests supplied firewood and there were plenty of fish in the sea. However as globalisation grew ra

As each and every day goes by, we learn something new about ourselves and as we do, we change the way we think; paradigm shifts of the mind I dare name them. Over the last year writing these blogs, as I've accumulated more and more knowledge on these all sorts of topics (mostly through  TEDTalks ; I'm not ashamed to say!), I've gained wider perspectives and understanding of the revolutionary ideas that have changed human civilisations throughout history. From Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good and Bad Government to Socrates' realisation that no-one actually knows what they talk about and to Darwin's recognition that we are all part of Earth's natural cycle; a faint mark in evolutionary history. The works of these people are heroic to our society's thinking but, they are just that. Let's not forget, these people are people. Born and raised like us. "It's ordinary people who do heroic deeds." - Philip Zimbardo, 2008  TEDTalk

Hey there, long time no see! It's been a while since I last posted. These last few weeks have been somewhat hectic and confusing; both in my own life and in global news. So much so that not only have I struggled to find the time to write but, I've also struggled to hone down on one topic to write about. I'd like to try something different today. I'd like to break free from current affairs, the noise of political debates, and do a reflection. You may describe it as a refreshment of ideas or a reminde r of what matters to you most. To welcome you back, I'd like to present you with an image: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/stand+root What do you see? You looked at the image and probably saw a human (man or woman). In place of the legs were a mass of roots. Or, perhaps you saw the roots of a plant and, where you perceived the leaves and flowers to be, were the arms and the head of a human being. I'd like you to have another look now and try to t

Some say that money makes the world go around. If such and such is true then what can we do, I wonder, to make our journey enjoyable? We all know the American Dream of a journey, filled with laughter, love and smiles, the sort you see on holiday cruise adverts. How do we make our journey through life - day to day - just as satisfying? If you read last week's blog, you may be able to recollect how Bhutan has put it's people's welfare and environment at the forefront of all its policies. In this way, a place is created for people to achieve happiness. Complete satisfaction that is. Today, going off on a tangent from last week, I'm blogging about banks and building societies. In the developed world, we seem to put heavy emphasis on $, £ and €. It's unlikely that our core driver will ever steer away from money so, in accepting this we ask, how can money provide us with sustainable happiness? In a society that sits on the hands of the exchange rate, we rely on

Wedged between two of the most densely populated countries on Earth, China and India, lies the country of Bhutan. With it being oh-so easy to passively admire the Himalayan mountains and scroll to a new Photoshopped image online, would you stop and allow yourself to be surprised to know that Bhutan is the only country on Earth to be carbon-negative? Today I watched a 2016 TEDTalk presented by Bhutan's Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay. You can clearly see that his honesty and passion derives from the love of his nation and respect he holds for each individual life. With dignity, he spoke of the path Bhutan has taken and the morals kept at the root of all actions. This is a person proud of his culture, his country and all of humanity. In reality though, it's quite sad that after all this time, society is only just starting to take real notice of these Bhutanese role models.  Found on the walls of Thimphu's School of Traditional Arts are the words that citizens of Bh

Neonicotinoids - heard of them? Nicotine-based pesticides have been banned and un-banned since 2013. Now, there's chance for a re-ban as a new study emerges. These 'neonics' have been in use for over 30 years and the results of studies are extremely varied; some saying neonics have no affect on bees, others say that bee colonies will die because of their use. Could this study finally give us some answers to rely on? Well, no. Biology is nowhere near as straight-forward as the textbooks make it out to be. The £2.7m study was funded by 2 agrochemical companies. This alone makes me question the reliability of the data. Nonetheless, funding has to come from somewhere and at least one company could call out the other should any fraudulent activity occur.  Bee varieties typically found in Europe http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/identification/ Sample tests of neonic impacts on bees only occurred on patches of oil-seed rape in Hungary, Germany and the U

Whilst the line-up is building to a climax and the many thousands of festival-goers shuffle on piggy-back to get the best view of the stage, let's take a moment to look into the long-established 'green' status that Glastonbury boasts about. Radiohead at Glastonbury 24/6/2017 Credit: Anna Barclay http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/saturday-in-pictures-5/ Since it began in 1970, Glastonbury has gathered all it's milk, straw and cider from it's very own 'Worthy Farm' and profits have forever since been shared with the  CND , (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) Greenpeace , Oxfam and Water Aid . In this way, Glastonbury has taken a leading role, not only in how to deliver an incredible celebration of music but, also in how to celebrate the wonder of our world and support the range of charities which campaign for a world the owners strive for. They held their ethics at the forefront of what they did and did not let business plans, profits or even ego

Tragically we have been reminded in recent months about how swiftly a life can be cut off and just how brutal that can be.   Events that can only be explained with anger and bitterness, both inside and outside of UK borders, are putting our worldwide community to the test. Testing our strength. Testing our courage and testing our love & respect for one another.   It is difficult, after baring witness to these events, to step forward and be trustworthy with everyone. Our communities fragment and separate, setting in motion a catalyst for the process to happen again and again and again.   I find even the little things quite melancholy:  Desperate to get home after a day's work, sunken faces all spread throughout the train's carriage, you save neighbouring seats with bags. No-one dare ask you to remove it so they can sit next to you. Outside of your headphones, the carriage sits in a bleak silence. We dare not talk about the pain we have all endured.   Today

Honesty. This is YouTuber Prince Ea's 2015 video that captured the world's attention. You've probably seen this video before. But did you act on what he said? H _ M     :)   Bibliography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrzbRZn5Ed4

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 host of the G7 summit 2017 http

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