The Importance of Nature

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We all want a world where our climate is stable, nature thrives, and where all people have health, happiness, and prosperity – it’s our human right, right?

Unless we change things, we are on track to breach the 1.5°C temperature increase limit set by the Paris Agreement by 2030. The breach risks irreversible environmental degradation and runaway climate change that will affect all our societies and economies.

An essential ally against the climate crisis is nature. We are losing nature at an alarming and unprecedented rate. For anyone who has been watching David Attenborough’s latest BBC programme, Wild Isles, you will know that Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

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Clive Cobie

Improving Soil Health with biochar

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It was the first experience I’ve had of using a retort kiln. Normally I use a ring type.

The ice crystals were glistening on the metal door as I pulled hard. It creaked with resistance as the morning sun shone upon what was left of the wood.  It had been reduced by half through a process called pyrolysis, (heating wood in the absence of oxygen).  The fire turns volatile oils into gases which heat the wood.

I always love that first encounter when I open a kiln, picking up a handful of charcoal and dropping it gently; listening to the tinkle as pure carbon cascades down while sunlight and left over heat create peacock blues or rainbow patterns over the blackness.

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Pollinator Highway

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As a child, I never understood the saying, “It’s an ill wind indeed that blows no good,” but I recently realised that’s what’s happening now.

I went to buy a thermal T-shirt, my current one sadly threadbare, but there were none to be had.  The assistant told me they had ‘overperformed’, because fuel prices are high and people are dressing up warmly at home rather than putting the heating on. Result!  I know people who, when working on the computer at home, take a break for a few minutes and go for a run, simply to warm up.  Loved ones are switching off the TV earlier than their usual habit and instead snuggling up in bed with a good book. Result!  People are jumping on their bikes or walking rather than taking the car for short journeys, and we’re driving more carefully because the roads are full of potholes. Result!

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Restoring kelp, eliminating single use plastic

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KelpDid anyone see the coverage of the Earthshot awards presented by the Prince of Wales in Boston earlier this month? They were awards given to organisations, companies or cities recognised as making a significant contribution to dealing with climate change, reviving our oceans, and other similar objectives. You can watch the whole ceremony on BBC iPlayer Earthshot Prize.

The winner in the Building a Waste-Free World category was a London based company founded in 2014 called Notpla (i.e. not plastic!) They have come up with a unique product made from seaweed – or kelp (to use the more scientific term employed by Sussex Wildlife Trust and local universities involved in the Sussex Kelp Restoration Project).

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How to Grow in Harmony with Nature

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Transition Horsham seed swapDid you know that farming more in harmony with nature can not only replenish the soil (without the need for manufacturing and transporting factory-made chemicals long distances in plastic bags) but can also produce crops throughout the year because different foods can be grown together, in the same way as they are on an allotment?

By planting a variety of a different crops each month, and especially by planting crops amongst fruit or nut trees, even more food can be grown in a small area.

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Sixty Years since Silent Spring (first published in West Sussex County Times)

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Silent Spring

Recycle. Repair. Save fuel. Care about Nature. They’re becoming mainstream now. But it wasn’t always thus.

Sixty years ago, things were very different. Big science and technology dominated everything. Problem with insects munching your crops? Destroy them with DDT! Want to get to the shops faster? Try our new ’59 saloon with fuel consumption lower than the Dead Sea! Everything was going to be newer, shinier, faster, bigger-and largely made of plastic.

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Child in Tree

A Fond Farewell for our Green Queen (first published in West Sussex County Times)

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children and natureAs one of her final decisions, the Queen chose to mark her Platinum Jubilee this year with the Queen’s Green Canopy, a unique tree planting initiative which invited people from across the United Kingdom to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee”.  The first wave of planting took place in the spring, and as we mourn her passing, how fitting it seems that the second planting season will be taking place, from October until the end of the year, creating a living memorial to a wonderful monarch who embodied dignity and wisdom, and who stayed up to date and informed in her serious passion to serve, right up until mere days before her passing. Read more

It’s Crystal Clear…We have a water crisis (first published in West Sussex County Times)

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Crystal glass and bees

A surprise from a zoom I attended last week was that many people are unaware that we have a real water crisis here in Horsham District, the first ever in the UK on this scale.  The huge water shortfall means that all building work is now on hold while solutions are sought.

Southern Water provide drinking water for over a million properties, and remove and recycle the waste water of almost five million people.  Quite a task!

Although we have 205 reservoirs, this provides only 7% of our water.  The majority comes from underground aquifers, with around 25% being taken from rivers.

The cost of this service from 2020-2025 is around £1,000 per property, with improvements ranging from digitisation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to re-vamping the 3,500 pumping stations and 40,000 kilometres of sewers.  Over a thousand options are being modelled including banning non-essential water use and building a desalination plant at Shoreham.

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The Importance of Rainforests (First Published in West Sussex County Times)

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RainforestI have been blessed to spend 20 years working in the Ecuadorian Amazon and Choco cloud forest, a world away from my home in Pulborough.

It has been like having parallel lives.

The UK has one of lowest levels of tree cover in Europe at 13%, globally ranking 136th out of 189 countries. Looking down from a plane over our green desert fields, we can see how few trees there really are with only tiny patches of ancient woodland remaining, maybe unaware that here in England our level of biodiversity is painfully low.  Although the woodland cover has doubled in the last 100 years this is mainly with non-native conifer plantations, where very little diversity can exist.

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Swift Action Needed: Citizen Science for Horsham Swift Box Project (first published in West Sussex County Times)

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SwiftsSwifts have been thriving for about 70 million years, when they would have been nesting in crevices in rocks and trees alongside the last of the Tyrannosaurs. But despite millions of years, something has now gone dramatically wrong, and UK numbers have plummeted in the last 25 years.

These extraordinary birds can remain in the air for three whole years because everything else apart from nesting is done on the wing.  Only when they reach maturity and start to build will they touch anything solid.

No other bird can fly faster in level flight. They eat insects, drink raindrops or water from a lake, even mating and sleeping on the wing, up near Earth’s stratosphere.  Their huge eyes are surrounded by bristles that act as sun visors and their feet are incredibly strong and so needle-sharp and tiny that they are unable to hop or walk, so they fly directly into the holes, cling to walls or slip into spaces where they can easily drop back out again.

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