Ptarmigan
Member
Perhaps I don’t
Interesting, so can we assume then that you have no actual evidence, or real arguments, to back up your attitude towards the evidence & findings of all those credible organisations?
Perhaps I don’t
The problem is that if you look hard enough you can find evidence that supports the arguments of both sides.Interesting, so can we assume then that you have no actual evidence, or real arguments, to back up your attitude towards the evidence & findings of all those credible organisations?
no you can assume that I don't want to interact with youInteresting, so can we assume then that you have no actual evidence, or real arguments, to back up your attitude towards the evidence & findings of all those credible organisations?
These credible organisations would be more credible of they factored in the affect of climate change and the run of late springs and wet cold summers we have been having. If the weather is cold and wet at animal breeding times numbers decline. This year had been a classic and I'm sure it will further hit wildlife numbers. The number of insects is very low and that is extremely weather driven and this knocks on and affects the animals that depends on then for food.Interesting, so can we assume then that you have no actual evidence, or real arguments, to back up your attitude towards the evidence & findings of all those credible organisations?
How many fungicides are used in U.K. arable farming
Of all the pesticides - fungicides are possibly the most damaging to a wide range of life
Soil health
Plant health
Animal health
Our health
Fungi are crucial to so many aspects of the natural world - nah, fudge it, let's just do another ear wash just to be safe
"“It is hard not to see a link between some of the bird number declines and drops in insect populations we are experiencing. There are very close correlations in many cases. But proving there is a causative link – in establishing the one effect is leading to the other – is much more difficult.”
We appear to be making tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life. If we lose insects, it all collapses
An illustration of the problem is provided by one of the few cases where a causative link between insect loss and bird-number declines has been established: the grey partridge, Gibbons said. “During the 70s and 80s, pesticides were killing off plants on which sawflies and other insects fed. Grey partridge chicks feed on these insects and so this process led to a decline in their numbers – and that has since become dramatic.” In fact, the grey partridge’s drop in numbers has brought its population to less than 5% of its figure last century.
The crucial point is that researchers were able to show that these twin declines were connnected by manipulating herbicide levels in places where chicks were being reared. When herbicide levels went up, insect levels went down and so did bird numbers. “That manipulation provided the causative link,” said Gibbons. “It was possible to change insect numbers and so see the impact. However, such research is difficult to carry out and is very rare.”"
In The Guardian today - 17th June 2018:
Where have all our insects gone?
very well said, much , more eloquent than I could manageThe trouble with these “reports” is that they, the newspapers and the organisations who have an axe to grind, latch on to the easiest target and embellish with wilfully ignorant glee rather than tackle the more complex issue which might upset their urban readership.
The favourite is hedge removal! Hands up who’s removed a hedge in the last 30 years? Now, hands up who’s planted one? I’m willing to bet my meagre, child reduced beer allowance that more have been planted in the last 30 years than have been removed, yet that stick is always taken out beat the farmer with.
Plant protection product and fertiliser use has consistently reduced year on year for the last 30 years, due to IPM strategies, legislation, increased organic area and land lost to development, yet we are supposedly using ever more of them?
Beetle banks, field margins, wild flower mixes, set aside (that was), endless NGO’s sending smiley faces around to “advise” farmers, yet farmers are still murdering the countryside?! Is it possible that all the smiley advice is actually wrong and that the powers that be are simply ignoring the real problem. There are too many people in the UK!
Housing, roads and roundabouts are the reason hedges are pulled out these days, not farmers. The inconvenient truth is that the over zealous protection of badgers are one of the key reasons hedge hogs and wild birds are in decline.
Domestic cats do more damage to bird life than even the most trigger happy farmer, but we can’t say that of course for fear of upsetting the crazy cat ladies who also donate their savings to the RSPB, once their half cat-eaten remains have been discovered.
There are more trees in the UK now than there has been for 400 years, but apparently the British landscape has been completely denuded of these vital pieces of countryside apparatus.
How many people patrol the footpaths that cross their land picking up rubbish and dog sh1t that the agriculturally outraged general public leave behind?
Now, I’m not saying that farmers are completely absolved of guilt on the environmental vandalism charge, it is far from a perfect system, but balance is needed in the reporting and those publishing these articles need to be held to account. But also the public, and government, need to accept some responsibility for the current situation. It is they who have demanded accessibility over seasonality, price over credibility, aesthetic quality over nutritional quality and convenience over knowledge, then lambast the farmer for obliging them.
Rant over![emoji56]
Again, you are referencing the 70s and 80s and presenting it in the context of today. Tiresome
https://www.giftofgrouse.com/2018/0...iversity-by-visiting-german-conservationists/
the trouble is, the sins of the 70's & 80's are yet to revisit us at some point in the future . . .
due to the actions of the past, we are on a tipping point of eco system collapse that future generations will not recover from
we are all fudgeed . . .
whatever we do now
it is too late
time to face your god, accept your responsibilities, bend over & kiss your arse goodbye
Again, you are referencing the 70s and 80s and presenting it in the context of today. Tiresome
https://www.giftofgrouse.com/2018/0...iversity-by-visiting-german-conservationists/
Report from 'Bird Life international, not from the 70s or 80s but - 13th June 2018.
The top five threats to birds!
No surprise to anyone, I'm sure, that Industrial Farming is the #1 threat to birds.
They clearly believe part of the solution is better controls when it comes to the use of Pesticides & Herbicides.
e.g. "In exchange for not using pesticides or herbicides, and refraining from hunting or logging, farmers receive a premium price for their produce."
Perhaps it's high time that this approach was tried in the UK.
So I maintain that this is not an old problem from the 70s & 80s at all, but rather a very real & present danger - today!
Interesting to note too, that you posted a link to a very biased article, about a region of Scotland with an absolutely dreadful reputation for raptor persecution & mysteriously vanishing Eagles.
It was clear that the wool had been pulled well over the german's eyes
Your bird life international report is a global report, so I presume that industrial farming in that context includes rainforest clearance for palm oil production, slash and burn farming, mono cropping in the plains of Eastern Europe and whatever China has gotten up to. It will also no doubt include netting of migratory birds done in the med. And you are tarring all farmers with this same brush, it is lazy, tiresome and ignorant.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s, began my agri career at the turn of this century. Throughout my entire career there has been a strong focus on environment and conservation. We have a wide range of biodiversity, utilise ICM, cover cropping, composting, beneficial species, and pay close attention to organic matter levels. To read your occasional sensationalist posts makes me think your are incapable of recognising anything not printed in the guardian.
"Those who cannot change their minds, will never change anything" Churchill
So basically, you don't trust The Guardian or The Independent, or any of their sources ... or the 50 different organisations who contributed detailed information for that report.
I assume then that you only trust reports that state that farmers have had no part to play in the decline of Insect, Wildflower & Bird species etc. in our countryside.
Perhaps you'd like to post a link to a study which clears farmers of any blame.