The Trump administration, under the direction of Andrew Wheeler (EPA director), have discarded the law which required the electricity generation to emit less CO2 which was going to mean that most coal plants would shut. Many people have argued that this is too hard on the coal plant owners. Nothing could be further from the truth: many of these plants were due to be closed in the near future anyway. Furthermore, this law would not have closed all coal plants, merely the dirtiest of them all. Not that it’s any surprise but this put paid to Trump’s claim of “clean coal”, a phrase that as far as emissions is stupid anyway
Continue reading “Donald Trump and Andrew Wheeler, the EPA director, are continuing with the destruction of any sensible climate change mitigation laws”Uranium mining within a tiger reserve
Nature reserves in India are rather different to what was set up in Africa. In Africa there are six nature reserves or national parks which have enough space to have a population of at least 500 Lions. If humans were to disappear from Africa tomorrow and reappear in 500 years these populations are likely to be big enough that genetic disabilities will have impacted this population.
Continue reading “Uranium mining within a tiger reserve”On the hunt for wild boar in the Forest of Dean
During half term I took my two children, aged 4 and 6, up to the Forest of Dean for a couple of days. As with many parts of Europe this forest is quite old and wonderfully wild. However this wilderness is helped by being far more natural than other forests in the UK. One of the many species that we killed off is highly important for forests as their hunting for food turns the soil and allows for regeneration. I am of course talking about wild boar.
Continue reading “On the hunt for wild boar in the Forest of Dean”Botswana lifted its ban on hunting elephants last month – this argument is more contentious even amongst conservationists than you would think
Botswana house around 135,000 of the 350,000 remaining elephants in Africa. In the past they have made a small but significant amount of money from these elephants by hunting, but a few years ago the president of Botswana stated that if they stopped hunting elephants and concentrated on photographic safaris they could make more money from their wildlife.
Continue reading “Botswana lifted its ban on hunting elephants last month – this argument is more contentious even amongst conservationists than you would think”Angola has committed 60 million dollars to the clearance of landmines within their national parks
During Angola’s long-running Civil War, many parts of the country had minefields put in place. One of these is an area that is going to be a part of the massive Kaza ( Kalahari Zambezi) Transfrontier Park. For Angola to be able to benefit from this massive reserve it needs to be safe for tourists to visit, and this requires the removal of landmines. Unfortunately over the last 10 years international financial support for this important work has declined by 80%, which makes the target is finishing the work by 2025 and extremely optimistic idea.
Continue reading “Angola has committed 60 million dollars to the clearance of landmines within their national parks”Theresa May has stated her walking holiday in the Alps pushed her towards zero CO2 emissions by 2050
The UK Prime Minister Theresa May has come out and informed us that part of the reason she pushed for net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 was the fact that when she went on a walking holiday in the Swiss Alps she could see the retreat of ice everywhere.
Continue reading “Theresa May has stated her walking holiday in the Alps pushed her towards zero CO2 emissions by 2050”Extreme Weather appears to be causing a feedback loop
Extreme weather in the form of floods, cool periods and heatwaves appears to be leading to an increase in the amount of CO2 being emitted because of the extra demand for energy to help with dealing with the effects.
Living alongside….. Lions
Lions are amazing animals to encounter while you are on holiday. They are fascinating animals and given their ability to hunt they hold a certain danger which we find exciting. But what about those people who live alongside Lions all year long?
Albino panda seen in the wild – extremely rare
Thought to be the first time, this albino panda was photographed in the world. While occasional pandas have been seen with brown rather than black patches on their body, this is thought to be the first time that an entirely white Panda has been seen.
Continue reading “Albino panda seen in the wild – extremely rare”News from the Hunting world
Lion trophies will not be banned from the UK
The British Conservative Party have gone back on a pledge to ban the import of lion trophies taken from hunting. In 2015 and 2017 the British government released statements stating that unless they saw a significant change in the hunting industry that this ban would come into place. According to widespread analysis there has been no change whatsoever, with a significant for the fall in numbers in that time. It should be noted that Zac Goldsmith, a prominent Conservative MP, has made a petition that 150 conservative MPs have signed that calls for this ban to go into effect.
Few British people hunt lions compared to certain other countries in the world and only an average of around six bodies are imported each year. However, the message it would send to the rest of the world would be highly important and would be seen as continuing the British line of supporting conservation worldwide.
The British government did state that this is constantly under review and lion bodies are only given the right to be brought back to the UK if they came from particular parts of the world. While I dislike the concept of hunting wild lions there are a few places, as I have argued in previous articles, where this is the only method to bring in enough money to continue to support the areas conservation. One such area is the Selous.
Cecil the Lion’s death bizarrely increased the number of British Hunters
Cecil the lion was killed a few years ago in a canned hunt (A lion raised in captivity, often allowed to be petted by tourists when young, released into a relatively small area, and usually killed within a few months) in South Africa. This hunting is totally unsportsmanlike and therefore does not seem to fit into the general ‘good sport’ rules of hunting. Lions are bred in captivity are often used financially to pose with tourists when they are young. When old enough they are released into a relatively small area, often without the skills to hunt for themselves, and are generally short by sportsman within a short period of time.
Despite the majority of the British population thinking that Cecil the Lion’s death was disgusting (as he was tempted out of a national park by meat being left out and then shot as soon as he walked across a line that he did not know existed) it would appear that this is not how it went across in hunting circles as it has had a significant impact with far more people going to take part in these sorts of unsportsmanlike hunts. While the number of lions hunted by Brits is significantly lower than the number hunted by Americans, we fall in 12th place in terms of the numbers of lion carcasses imported annually. This is not an area that I wish the UK to rate highly in the world.
Trump administration has reversed a ban on importing elephant body parts from hunts
Donald Trump has stated in the past that the hunting lobby was disgusting and it should be banned from bringing back trophies. Not long after Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, reversed this position announcing that each one would be reviewed individually.
This is in response to a suit filed by the safari club and the NRA against the blanket ban. It should be noted that none of these people are unbiased observers. Trump’s two sons are avid hunters as is Ryan Zinke.
Both elephants and lions have in the last few decade lost much habitat, and in the case of lions gone through irregular poaching epidemics. They have gone from being relatively numerous: in the case of lions 400,000 in 1950 down to under 20,000 and elephants 3 to 5 million down to around 415,000. This kind of dramatic collapse of numbers show they are highly threatened and given the continual poaching and loss of habitat this threat is only likely to get worse.
