Intruder a Llama

“One farmer has spent 18 months surrounding his 4,500 acres with ditches and barriers to deter criminals from hare coursing and fly-tipping.
Others are using animals including geese, llamas and dogs as a low-tech alarm system, much as landowners did hundreds of years ago. …
Thefts of large numbers of lamb have raised concerns that stock is being stolen for slaughter and processing outside regulated abattoirs before illegally entering the food chain.” https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/06/farmers-using-medieval-methods-to-combat-rural

Barmier llama farmers, though calmer with balmier weather, still raise a lamb at farm harmers…

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The Fun in Funding

“As well as taking a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) approach to financing the Thames Tideway, the government offered a “contingent financial support” package which guarantees public money when certain parts of the project go wrong. It’s this transfer of liability first to the consumer, and then also the taxpayer, which helps lower risk and attract investors. A similar package may be offered to nuclear developers. …
Ian Byatt, a former head of the Ofwat, said: “If a company has a big capital project it should put money aside to fund it. Thames [Water] hasn’t done that — it’s paid out every penny in excessive dividends and left Londoners to pick up the bill for the new sewage tunnel.”” https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/08/06/new-nuclear-plants-funding-regulated-asset-base/

Shares in new nuclear for all!

Vegetarian Threat

“Moral obligation towards animals varies widely as a function of how an animal is perceived, its functional role in society, and its relationship with humans. The vast majority of respondents (90%) felt morally obliged to show concern for the welfare and interests of dogs (a companion animal), but only 51% felt the same about pigs (a food animal). …
The stronger the dominance [human supremacy] beliefs the more likely appealing (e.g., chimps) and unappealing (e.g., snakes) wild animals, companion animals (e.g., dogs), and food animals (e.g., pigs) would be morally excluded. …
However, the effects of vegetarianism threat [if people perceive the rise of vegetarianism as a threat to their way of life] were more specific and only emerged for certain animal categories. Stronger vegetarianism threat predicted lesser moral inclusion of food animals, but not of companion animals and unappealing animals.” https://www.kent.ac.uk/news/science/18514/people-who-feel-threatened-by-vegetarianism-more-likely-to-care-less-about-animals

Cognitive dissonance proved to be a very strong predictor of caring less, i.e. I care less about people who fear a lifestyle based on compassion.

Sites of Special Sporting Interest

““Construction of the new golf course [formerly known as Foveran Dunes SSSI] involved earthworks, planting of trees, greens and fairways, drainage, irrigation and grass planting,” states one of the reports released by Scottish Natural Heritage inspectors. “This has affected the natural morphology of the dunes and interfered with natural processes. Most of its important geomorphological features have been lost or reduced to fragments. Nearby marine terraces have also been reduced to fragments.”” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/29/donald-trump-golf-environment-sssi-damaged-broken-promises

The promised 6000 jobs haven’t materialised, nor the amenities. On the plus side, Highland Council has recently approved a similar golf course at Coul Links, a designated UK Site of Special Scientific Interest, European Special Protection Area & Ramsar international wetland.
We should wait to ‘see what happens’ and welcome further information to the evidence base. We should avoid drawing any parallels or prematurely concluding that short-term mercenary proposals always trump legal conservation protection.

The Growth of Growth

“Earth Overshoot Day – which marks the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate – has moved forward two days to 1 August, the earliest date ever recorded. To maintain our current appetite for resources, we would need the equivalent of 1.7 Earths. …
Thirty years ago, the overshoot was on 15 October. Twenty years ago, 30 September. Ten years ago, 15 August. There was a brief slowdown, but the pace has picked back up in the past two years. On current trends, next year could mark the first time, the planet’s budget is busted in July. …
Replacing 50% of meat consumption with a vegetarian diet would push back the overshoot date by five days. Efficiency improvements in building and industry could make a difference of three weeks, and a 50% reduction of the carbon component of the footprint would give an extra three months of breathing space.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/23/earths-resources-consumed-in-ever-greater-destructive-volumes

A proud day as our growth in guzzling has so overgrown that for the next five months we are in the red. Fear not, resource intensive work, leaving no stone unturned, has already begun to grow a spare earth.

Facefrack

“Fracking companies are using social media surveillance carried out by a private firm to strengthen their cases in court by discrediting activists using personal information to justify banning their protests. …
By applying for injunctions against “persons unknown,” the fracking companies prevent individual protesters from being able to defend their case in court as individuals. This potentially gives the companies a litigious advantage.” https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vbj4qb/how-fracking-companies-use-facebook-surveillance-to-ban-protest

Fracking companies tried to infiltrate the groups with a high pressure mix of water, sand and corrosive chemicals, but didn’t even succeed in creating any splinter groups.

Fire and Ice

“Climate scientists said the Arctic and other areas that were once relatively fire-free are likely to become more vulnerable.
“What we’re seeing with this global heatwave is that these areas of fire susceptibility are now broadening, with the moors in north-west England and now these Swedish fires a consequence of that. …
Both these areas are typically mild and wet which allows forests and peatlands to develop quite large carbon stores. … When such carbon-dense ecosystems experience aridity and heat and there is a source of ignition – lightning or people – fires will happen.”” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/18/sweden-calls-for-help-as-arctic-circle-hit-by-wildfires

When your deep freeze is on fire, it’s time to stop guzzling.