Jonathan Porritt cuts green groups down to size

Jonathan Porritt in a scathing article on his blog has accused the environmental movement of collectively betraying the public by not supporting the grassroots campaign to stop the forestry sell off. Strong words indeed coming from the former head of Friends of the Earth (whose former employer also does not escape his wrath). In a withering assessment of each he comes to the conclusion that they are either too concerned about their relationship with the Department of the Environment to criticise the sell off or they hope to gain from it. But is he right? Read more >>

The questions about Chilean mining which need to be answered

Today the Chilean miner Jose Henriquez and the President of Chile’s chaplain Alf Cooper I heard speak last week met with President Obama at a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Sadly the man organising the “34th Man” Tour, Michael Burke of the Church Mission Society, didn’t think it appropriate for Jose or Alf to answer any of the questions I put to them about what is needed to ensure such an accident never happens again. Questions such as who was to blame for the accident and what compensation had the San Esteban Mining Company paid the miners, why the Chilean government is closing down small mining companies while allowing big global mining companies like Anglo American Chile not to pay money to the governments reconstruction fund and the links between big global Chilean mining companies and the President of Chile’s election campaign. Read more >>

A government that cant see the woods from the trees?

The governments consultation paper on the future of the Forestry estate seems to have done the impossible politically and united left and right, town and country, young and old in opposition to its plans. But above all they have risked the ire of the big beasts in the environmental jungle.  Dame Fiona Reynolds, head of the 3 million-strong National Trust,  has pronounced that the sell-off was “a watershed moment in the nation”. The NT are important because they are considered to be the neutron bomb of the environment movement – they rarely go off but when they do so it has a devastating effect. John Vidal’s article in the Guardian on the subject is well worth reading.

Go tell it to the birds

This weekend half a million people will have participated in the RSPBs Big Garden Birdwatch.

So why did no one tell the birds in my garden? I put out lots of food, got myself a nice mug of hot tea and settled down for an hour to take part in Europe’s largest wildlife survey.

On a good day we always have a range of species in the garden. But today no one told the birds. So I sat there like a Great Tit waiting and waiting. And the result of all my efforts?

One robin, one chaffinch and one miserable Dunnock. Did anyone do worse than that?