Category: Blog
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An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: Notes from a premiere I attended six months ago
I have waited a long time to write this piece. It is about Eoghan Daltun and Gary Lennon’s film titled An Irish Atlantic Rainforest. Given the film’s continued success and now that it has hit the mass media on the RTÉ Player, it strikes me that maybe the best time to write this piece was shortly after I watched it. But the second best time is now. This is not a review as there are plenty of those, but rather…
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Let’s Talk About Europe’s Wolf Protection Laws
As you may have heard, the Standing Committee of the Berne Convention (an international legal instrument for nature conservation) decided to lower the protection status of wolves. This opens the way to lower their protection status across the EU through the Habitats Directive. The move had been on the cards for over a year, and I covered it extensively on my podcast in episode 163 last November. Back then, I spoke to five experts: scientists working in the fields of…
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Scottish Salmon Industry’s Environmental Nightmare Exposed
Scotland’s salmon farming industry aims to double its production to 300,000-400,000 tonnes by 2030. This ambitious target comes despite a 2018 parliamentary inquiry concluding that expansion shouldn’t proceed until environmental and welfare issues are addressed. As we examine the industry more closely, the problems become increasingly apparent, and they’re far more serious than most consumers realise. In Scottish salmon farms, 25% of fish die before harvest. This staggering mortality rate would be unacceptable in any other farming sector, yet it…
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Conservation Grazing: Balancing Food Production and Biodiversity
Conservation grazing is an increasingly popular approach to land management that’s catching on across the UK. It’s a method that uses livestock to meet conservation objectives, primarily by removing dominant vegetation to allow threatened species of plants, birds and insects to thrive. This technique is becoming more common on nature reserves throughout the country, with cattle, sheep, ponies and other animals being employed as four-legged conservationists. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Elise Sutton, a conservationist and livestock…
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The Myth of Historic Range in Wolf Conservation
As you might know, the European Commission is moving forward with the proposal to lower the protection status of wolves in the EU. This reliably sparks fierce discussions online. Here, I want to focus on a specific element of these discussions: the historic range. The term is used in various contexts, but the underlying argument is usually the same. It is used to argue that wolf population recovery in Europe is insufficient and, therefore, lowering their protection status is unsubstantiated…
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Hunters for Conservation, Goals and Ambitions
“Hunters are conservationists” or “hunting is conservation” are phrases that we hear so often that they might sound clichéd. I have discussed whether such generalisations are true or not countless times on my podcast. Regardless of your opinion, it is undeniable that hunters and hunting organisations across the world can and do contribute to great conservation work. The results of such work are even better when hunting and non-hunting organisations join forces to achieve common goals for the environment. After…
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Mark Avery’s Reflections – A Book Review
Mark Avery, a prolific author, senior UK conservationist, and independent campaigner, is well-known for writing book reviews on his blog. Those, like me, who read his reviews in search of their next book might be saddened by the fact that it would be awkward for Mark to write a review of his own work. So, someone else had to do it. You’re welcome. From what I can tell, about half of my audience are big fans of Mark and his…
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Are Polar Bears Going Extinct or Are Their Populations Doing Better Than Ever?
Lately, a few listeners sent me links to blogs and videos suggesting that polar bears are thriving, which, some argue, is concealed by environmental groups to avoid undermining public action on climate change. This is something I’ve heard before, so I decided to do some digging. Disclaimer: I’m not a polar bear biologist, so I’m open to corrections and feedback. However, I genuinely sought out relevant information. Here is what I found. It’s true that some polar bear populations are…
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Animal Welfare and the Environment: Is Meat Consumption Still Possible?
Nutrition and meat consumption are probably two of the most controversial subjects on the entire Internet. I’m really not sure how we arrived at this point, but here we are. So, before I share some of my thoughts about these subjects a few disclaimers are due. First, I don’t pretend to have a societal solution for balancing meat consumption with animal welfare and environmental concerns. My considerations are very much on a local and individual level. Moreover, I acknowledge that…
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Shore Angling for Rays Decades Ago and Now
Recently, several people suggested that in the past decades, it was a rare occurrence for anglers to catch a ray off the beach. The implication was that there was an increased abundance of rays nowadays which I found confusing, knowing the deteriorating state of biodiversity in our seas. So I contacted Declan Quigley, an independent researcher and a previous guest on episode 151, who has an unparalleled knowledge of historical records related to fish, fisheries and angling. I asked him…