Review: Queen of the Sun

Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us? (2010) is the newest docu-film from Emmy nominated documentary-filmmaker Taggart Siegel. Together with director Jon Betz, and whole host of bee-related fanatics, they tell the story of the global bee crisis, from Colony Collapse Disorder, to the Varroa mite, through to pesticides (and the recent ban on neonicotinoids).

The film starts off with a dancer covered in a swarm of bees; a fascinating phenomenon that occurs when a ‘queen’ is removed, and is thus followed by her swarm to a new location. Throughout, we meet bizarre, bohemian characters such as Yvon Achard, who states that anyone who does yoga, can in fact keep bees. He proceeds to stroke the swarming comb with his moustache. “The bees? They like it!”

By Migco (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Siegel and Betz also address the more serious aspects of bee keeping, discussing the exploitative, commercial pollination industry in the USA and the reliance on intensive farming as a big threat toward biodiversity. They speak to molecular biologists, entomologists, authors and philosophers about the history of bees, the social attitude towards beekeeping, and the problems facing our agroecosystems today.

Throughout the film there are picturesque images of natural landscapes, as well as detailed macro-filming within the hive itself. The life of bees is truly exposed throughout this 83 minute a film, long enough for us to get an emotional attachment with the movement, and to consider why we might want to help them ourselves. The film closes with a list of things you can do to help keep honeybees for the sake of man kind:

1. Plant bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs in your garden and yard.

2. Weeds can be a good thing

3. Don’t use chemicals or pesticides to treat your lawn or garden

4. Buy local, raw honey

5. Bees are thirsty, put a small basin of fresh water outside your home.

6. Buy local, organic food from a farmer you know

7. Learn how to be a beekeeper with sustainable practices

8. Understand that honeybees aren’t out to get you.

9. Share solutions with others in your community.

10. Let Congress know what you think.

You can visit the film’s official website here and watch the trailer here.

Furthermore, if you would like to learn a bit more about how you can care for ecosystems and be sustainable, please read my post about how to be an amateur environmentalist.

Greenwashing: Beware!

They come in many forms. Slogans, packaging and policies. Playing off your weakness and your fear for the environment, Greenwashers are using you. This sly form of advertisement ensures that you commit your attention, emotion, and money to an organisation that cares less about the environment than anyone.

What exactly are we talking about? ‘Green-washing‘, a term coined by a New York writer in 1986, describes the manipulative persuasion by an organisation that claims their motives, policies, and actions are environmentally friendly. In fact, they are probably trying to hide the fact they harm the environment.

By Teda13 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Need some examples? In 2008, energy giants E.ON requested the build of a new coal-fired power station in Kent. The first for 30 years, it would fire out 24 countries worth of emissions in 50 years. And to cover it all up, E.ON were in fact sponsoring the Guardian Climate Change Summit, held at in London that summer. Luckily, activists were on hand to make a scene of the whole ordeal.

But Greenpeace won’t always be there keeping tabs. Organisations are dedicated to ‘managing Green-wash’, so to speak, with some countries requiring data before any green terminology can be used, and issuing fines if products are claimed to be environmentally friendly without evidence.

By G patkar [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

But recently, I noticed that Emirates were calling for projects concerning conservation and environment, which they could sponsor. They even have a whole page on their website listing all the projects they fund. The airline company state that their “unique eco-tourism projects exemplify our commitment to sustainability”. Hmm…

You might argue that yes, organisations that do have major contributions to the environment, such as the carbon emissions from international airlines, should be the ones that make the biggest effort to conserve. But by sponsoring conservation projects, whilst making no obvious effort to reduce the actual emissions themselves, is of no significant help. It is not plausible; it is greenwashing.

You might have read that I am part of a team of biologists undertaking a conservation research Expedition to Madagascar. Partly funded by the Royal Geographical Society with IBG, we came to learn that the donation was in fact made by Rio Tinto, through the former organisation. Rio Tinto… “world leader in finding, mining and processing the earth’s mineral resources”. Right?

Next time you see packaging, slogans, and statements that make a claim for the environment, think carefully. If you notice something particularly fishy, you can expose them via the Guardian’s blog dedicated to Greenwashing and environmental propaganda. 

EU Bans Neonicotinoid Pesticides

After months of protest and international conflicts, today the EU ruled in favour to ban the use of harmful neoticotinoid pesticides. Hundreds rallied at Parliament last Friday, whilst the online social network provided 2.6 million signatures on a petition to the EU decision-makers.The European Commission stated that the ban must commence from July 1st onwards, and hopes to pave the way for more sustainable agricultural methods. Three neonicotinoid pesticides were banned for a 2 year period, including imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam.

By Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It is estimated that the pollination services provided to us by honeybees is worth over £18.5 billion annually in Europe alone. Providing invaluable ecosystem functions – that can’t be artificially replicated, we are reliant on bees pollinating approximately a third of the worlds crops.

What exactly are neonicotinoids? Apart from a hassle to spell each time, the insecticides are sprayed onto plants to deter insect predators from consuming them, thus comprimising yield and quality. Neonicotinoids are applied to the seeds before planting, and are then fully absorbed ‘systemically’ into the whole plant. Whilst deterring crop pests, bees ingesting the nectar from the plant whilst pollinating the crops, also ingest the neurotoxin. It has been noted that the neonicotinoid component affects their mobility, orientation, foraging, and learning. Another study noted an 85% reduction in production of new queens, as well as a reduced growth rate.

Some were adament that the current scientific evidence could not substantiate a ban at the present time. Other controversies lie on whether banning the product will simply elicit an increase in other, more harmful pesticides, whilst a reduction in crop yield will adversely affect the agricultural economy, and increase reliance on export crops. The Precautionary Principle states that research and evidence should fully support any environmental policy implementation; whilst the stakes are high, this has fittingly succeeded in holding off danger for the bees for a little while longer. What we really need is research into alternative farming methods, such as biological control, intercropping, or semiochemicals.

Environment 1, Pesticides 0.

Badger cull given the green light

 

By Paul Bransom (Image:Wind in the Willows (1913).djvu, page 326) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 

`Now, the VERY next time this happens,’ said a gruff and suspicious voice, `I shall be exceedingly angry. Who is it THIS time, disturbing people on such a night? Speak up!’

Badgers are, undoubtedly, an icon of classic, heritage, British countryside. For centuries, badgers have been the subject of controversy between farmer and nature lover, as a pest and as a flagship species. No less but Kenneth Grahame portrayed Badger in Wind and the Willows (1908) as a grumpy, hardy Tory who was, despite this, a caring and brave individual for his country companions (pictured right).

But in 1997, Sir John Krebs made the scientific link between the transmission of tuberculosis (TB) between badgers and cattle, thus acting as the carrier for this virus that was detrimental to the livestock industry of the UK. Since the discovery, government, farmers, and the public have been battling out to establish a sensible solution to this problem.

Tuberculosis in cattle (bovine TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria M. bovis, causing weakness, weight loss, and coughing. Spread by faeces and urine on farmland and cattle pasture, the disease can spread from cow to cow, badger to badger, cow to badger, and (wait for it…), badger to cow.

Badger continued his description on the men that used to live around his burrow to Rat and his friend:

 They’re not so bad really; and we must all live and let live. But I’ll pass the word around to-morrow, and I think you’ll have no further trouble. Any friend of MINE walks where he likes in this country, or I’ll know the reason why!’

Costing farmers and taxpayers thousands to deal with the disposal and treatment of infected cattle, the obvious option was to control the carriers; the common badger. At the small price of £50 million, the ‘Randomized Badger Cull Trial’ (RBCT) set out to decipher whether a badger cull would reduce bovine TB cases. Data concluded that culling would indeed reduce risk incidence by around 16% over 9 years.

Badger ecology reveals that the social living groups, known as ‘setts’, are very antagonistic and often changing, with territory scuffs common, thus enhancing the likelihood of spread. When badgers are culled, the setts are disrupted, allowing new territorial openings for badgers to explore new areas, taking TB alongside. This perturbation effect has meant that TB cases have significantly increased in non-cull zones. Motorways and rivers could potentially restrict this effect, although further testing needs to be done.

https://soundcloud.com/lonely-robot/grizzly-bear-sleeping-ute

So what’s next? Trapping badgers for to vaccinate individuals against the disease, as well as trapping them for shooting, is high on the agenda for conservationists and countryside-lovers; but farmers want a quick, obvious method to deal with the problem. DEFRA estimates that a pilot cull would cost the region of £100,000 a year, alongside policing that would cost £500,000 per area per year. 

But the situation is far more complex than first anticipated. Whilst the problem of badger perturbations exists, other complications affect the predictions and success of control options. Statistical modelling suggests that a combination of: the disease comprising multiple stages, including a lag phase; alongside the life-history of badger social groups; cattle herd movements; the transmission of the disease back to badgers from cattle; intra-herd cattle transmission dynamics; farm placements; sett territories and badger disputes; and illegal activities, may all be interacting factors affecting the final outcome. Thus, these could all affect the final management implemented, whether it be substantiated by correct evidence or not.

With the cull given the go-ahead for Autumn 2013, the public are still hugely against any action whilst farmers are already letting off steam. Many parties, most notably the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), have advocated the use of biosecurity for the prevention of TB spread. Biosecurity would involve proper physical barriers between the badgers and cattle in the field, including fencing and locked sheds; FERA showed that, when used properly, biosecurity can achieve 100% efficacy. There is clearly significant room for improvement and research into this simple solution, rather than the controversial cull in the schedule for Autumn. But, are we ready to lose one of our iconic, heritage animals whilst the countryside was originally for them, not for farmland?

`People come–they stay for a while, they flourish, they build–and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I’ve been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be.’

Forecasting Armageddon

Sustainability is the buzz word of our generation. With global human population on the rise, food shortages, natural disasters, and conflict are setting in. Oxford University’s Future Of Humanity institute published a study this March, setting out the ‘existential risk’ that may encourage long-term planning and policy implementation while we still have time. After discussing a huge range of possible influential factors, morals, and possible outcomes, the author, Bostrom, concludes:

Finally, it is possible that the cause will at some point receive a boost from the occurrence of a major (non-existential) catastrophe that underscores the precariousness of the present human condition. That would, needless to say, be the worst possible way for our minds to be concentrated—yet one which, in a multidecadal time frame, must be accorded a non-negligible probability of occurrence

This final statement confirms the thoughts of many, whom like me, are expectant of a serious catastrophe that may be the catalyst initiating the first steps to the stabilisation of Earth once more.

By El T [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Indeed we are seeing a myriad of problems threatening the human population. There are cries about transmissible disease in China, threats of nuclear war in Korea, significant and noticeable changes in the ambient climates of many countries, most relevantly here in the UK. It is almost as if we are losing control amongst the growing populations, conflicting attitudes, and corrupt governments.

By The picture was taken by Charles Levy from one of the B-29 Superfortresses used in the attack. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

An interesting remark made by Bolstrom concerns the rapid development of technology; he contends that experimental biotechnology and biogenetic manipulation may be the most dangerous threat to human existence; coincidentally we have heard outrage at the testing of such pharmaceuticals for the human-transmissible qualities in the avian flu virus.

Another study speaks in a similar tone about the crossing the ‘tipping-point’ through biological changes in global climate, speaking of the need for scientific climate forecasting and demanding global cooperation to tackle the threats.

Perhaps it is time that everyone got involved. For somewhere to start, click here.

£430,000 on the face of nature

A cure for cancer, an aphrodisiac, an antioxidant cleanser. The rhinocerous horn has been renown in traditional Asian medicine for centuries, although evidence for its actual medicinal properties is, in fact, nil. Despite this, the value of the horn is extortionate, reportedly worth as much as $250,000 in Vietnam; inevitably this has been the result of the illegal poaching of hundreds of rhino from African National Parks.

By Wj32 (talk · contribs) (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Thankfully, smugglers don’t have to go to Africa to deal with the nitty-gritty of rhino-horn poaching. Instead, individuals may visit their local museum or zoo and steal the horns that are kept on display, instead. Yesterday night, three men raided Ireland’s Sword museum, tying up the security guard and entering the store room. The thieves stole four heads from storage – removed from public display to prevent thefts like these. The heads were species of endangered black rhino and virtually extinct white rhino, each with 2 horns; together, the lot is approximately worth £430,000 on the black market (more than it’s weight in gold – or cocaine).

In 1993, China signed the CITES treaty for the removal of rhinoceros horn from pharmacological medicine, although illegal sale of the horn in the black market is still rife. Brian Walsh, columnist for TIME magazine online, comments that the illegal trade in wildlife somewhat resembles the international drugs trade, and that enforcement laws are required to actively stop the trade. 

Theoretically, decreasing the demand for rhino horn should curb demand. Consumers searching for rhino horn cures tend to come in the shape of wealthy, aged urbanites, purchasing specimens not only for personal use, but also as gifts for politicians and other wealthy elites. Worsening with the developing economies of China and South East Asia, the combination of wealth with the desire for some of biodiversity’s most unusual assets, seems deadly.

How else can we stop it? Many anti-poaching schemes have been discussed, some implemented. Such schemes have included the purposeful removal of rhino horns from individuals within the National Parks, and increasing the number of armed park rangers searching for poachers. More recently, the poisoning rhino horns with pesticides and permanent pink dye has been carried out; a cocktail which would cause severe discomfort for the consumer, and allow airport scanners to detect the dye to stop illegal trade. TRAFFIC, the illegal trade monitoring network, commented that this scheme would simple displace poaching intensity to other areas.

The UK is adopting a DNA database of rhino horns, conducted by the National Wildlife Crime Unit. The log of genetic information of all rhino horns in the country will provide a stable base of individual profiles. This follows an increase in rhino horn thefts from museums and zoos in recent years.

CITES has also proposed lifting the trade ban, which supposedly encourages illegal poaching, and introducing a legal market for rhino horns. The organisation would run the legal market, selling only to registered buyers, and the profits of which would be used to prevent illegal poaching. Controversial, the vote for the lift on the ban would require 2/3 majority of the member states to vote in at the 2016 convention in South Africa.

Review: Sensational Butterflies

Living in London has it’s advantages. The Natural History Museum annually host the Sensational Butterflies exhibit, allowing hundreds of exotic specimens to literally fly into your face.

Unfortunately, the organisers appear to have severely miscalculated the human capacity for the butterfly dome, and it’s quite difficult to restrain ones self stopping the 5 year olds trying to pick up the butterflies.

Some photos from the exhibition:

A male Atlas Moth, waiting for the females – My photo

Drying out the wings – My photo

The exhibitors place fruit out as platforms for aggregating butterflies – My photo

The exhibit is hosted in a big, white, heated dome, which resides outside the front of the grand Museum building in South Kensington. At the small cost of £4, the exhibit is very beautiful; a short, sweet, cheap treat for a resident, let alone a tourist. Open from now to September 2013, until next year. Clear here to read more or book online!

Review: Project Nim

Directed by the James Marsh – maker of the Academy Award-winning ‘Man on Wire’ – Project Nim (2011) tells the story of an unsettling attempt at the domestication of, and communication with, a wild animal. In the 1970s, Dr Herbert Terrace of Columbia University commissioned an experiment that involved the adoption of a chimpanzee into a human family, brought up to learn sign language in an attempt to develop inter-species communications. Thus Project Nim was born.

Taken from http://collider.com/project-nim-dvd-review/

Stephanie,  the mother figure of the family, breastfed Nim, allowing him to explore her feminine body-form to which Nim became increasingly interested by. Indeed Nim’s team was very bohemian, frolicking in the grass and even smoking marijuana with the chimp. But despite treating Nim like a human, his animalistic behaviours prevented the development of a more secure relationship. With time, Nim became increasingly more aggressive towards the ‘alpha’ male members of the team, regularly causing serious injuries that required hospitalisation and stitches. Incidences like these prevented teachers providing long-standing support for Nim and the Project.

With the failure of the project, the team lost funding and Nim was destined to join an institute. Having never experienced other chimps before, Nim was seemingly distressed upon introduction. Apprehensively, the trusted team coaxed Nim into the cage; they had let him down.

Nim soon developed what seemed like depression, and became increasingly aggressive “acting like a spoilt child”. What he needed was to socialise. However, at the time, LEMSIP (animal-testing) researchers were observing the possibility of taking Nim into labs, testing for human vaccines against Hepititis B. The original bohemian team were outraged, stating that only the press would give them any help. Fortunately, a lawyer got involved and, seeing that Nim was indeed brought up in a spacious human environment, his cage treatment at the institution was even worse. The monkey was released.

Image taken from http://tipptatler.ie/2012/01/controversial-science-experiment-relived-on-film-at-nenagh-arts-centre/

The bohemian team were pleased to then learn that a rehabilitation ranch in texas had bought Nim, quoting lines from Black Beauty as their entrance slogan. The ranch, originally designed for horses, was ill-equipped for their new arrival, and Nim became depressed again. The team installed a television for Nim, which he proceeded to destroy. The ranch eventually bought a female partner for Nim a year later.

10 years later, the female had fallen into ill health. Then, in 1995, LEMSIP closed and the ranch owners paid to take in several of the chimps that were consequently left homeless. Nim lived with his new companions for five years until he was 26, when he sadly had a heart attack and passed away.

A Quick Consumer Guide to Ethical-Eating

More and more people are getting involved in the environmental movement. Many are starting by making informed decisions about what to buy and where, with the switch from the corrupt, profit-driven corporate supermarkets, to sustainably-sourced, organic farmers markets. If you want to get involved, but need a bit of a head-start, read on for a quick summary of how you can switch your weekly shop to being a more environmentally-friendly.

Local produce

By _e.t from Saratoga, USA (O’ahu: Diamond Head and Honolulu.) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Next time you do the weekly shop, have a look at the countries that your vegetables are grown in, often displayed on the packaging. The first time I did this, I was shocked to find the abundance of stock sourced from countries like Guatemala, Kenya, and Spain. The demand for internationally grown foods contributes, inevitably, to climate change through green house gases released from their transport. We have the ultimate power to reduce these air-miles by simply choosing food thats grown a little closer to home.

Local produce can often taste better and is more likely to contain less pesticides, preservatives, and other harmful agents. Farmer’s markets are a good, reliable place to start (if a little expensive sometimes); if you are unsure of where your nearest farmers market is, try this local food directory, listing postcodes across the UK.

Seasonal produce

Anyone can tell you that flowers come out in spring, leaves die in Autumn. Fruits and vegetables are not naturally available throughout the year – the reason you can buy these year-round is because most are artificially grown or imported from abroad. Try and pick seasonal fresh food for better quality, and to help reduce your food miles and the looming threat of global climate change.

Preservatives

By doing the above, you’ll also reduce your intake of harmful preservatives and chemicals linked to Western diseases like cancer and diabetes. In addition, choosing locally sourced meat products, for example from a butcher or farmers market, can help this; a recent study found a rather disconcerting link between processed meats and adult leukaemia.

Animal welfare

By Maqi (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

The publics knowledge about battery farmed chickens is pretty well covered. But topics including antibiotic injections, growth hormones, GM-feeding, and unethical killed livestock are not regularly shown in the mass media. Eating less meat, less often, can help reduce the pressure for intensive meat farming. Alternatively, vegetarianism seems an easy answer. Read more here about my attempts at turning vegetarian.

Alternatively, choosing organic, free-range, and locally ‘grown’ meat can help. Look for symbols from the Organic Farmers Association, or Organic Farmers Growers on the packaging.

Fishing

With global fish stocks plummeting, now’s the time to be responsible about what fish you’re going to choose to eat, if any. A hot topic at the moment, unsustainable over-fishing, pelagic-trawling, and by-catch are posing serious threats to the marine environment. If you want to read more, check out the Fish Fight campaign, started by TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. If you want a pocket-sized card which has a quick summary of information for you to whip out at the fish section of the supermarket, download this document and print it off for reference!

Innovations

By Peretz Partensky from San Francisco, USA (Fresh Eggs Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

What else can you do? My recent article on urban foraging can help encourage you to look for alternative, wild sources of food. Growing your own food at the local allotments (or taking the surplus that’s often left for other growers to take) is an easy, organic, and practically free way of producing your own food, especially if you live in an urban setting. There has also been an increasing trend for insect-eating, with fast-reproducing, high-protein creatures have been feeding countries like Cambodia and Thailand for centuries. Tapping into this food source seems a cheap, sustainable way of feeding the growing population (so far)… In addition, you can consult the idea of getting some chickens to live in your garden, providing you with free eggs!

If you’re interested in reading more, try some of the links within the text. Alternatively, try here for a directory on ethical buying, or here for information about a new ethical supermarket to open in Brighton.

Let’s kill all our pets?

Since the recent story regarding the boy whose hand was mauled by a ‘fox’ in South London,  urban animals are bearing the brunt of human anger in our contemporary environmental news stories. Today, a 14-year-old girl was found mauled by a pack of ‘aggressive and out of order’ dogs, four of which were put down and are currently being examined for human remains. The notoriously aggressive breeds were alleged to include Staffordshire bull terriers and bull mastiffs. Concurrently, National Geographic have been hosting a debate on the eradication of unwanted feral cats, bringing threats to urban song birds and dangerous diseases like toxoplasmosis.

By Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore (pack of dogs upsetting birds.jpg) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

The keeping of domestic animals has a long and ritualised history. With increasing human populations, density of urban living, and popularity of companion animals in the household, the evolution of feral species within that environment is inevitable. Dogs, naturally, will aggregate into packs; any traveller in the streets of underdeveloped cities such as Rio de Janeiro, will engage you with anecdotes of domestic dog packs patrolling the dusty streets. The urban sprawl, in addition, has invaded the habitats of wild species, and animals including the urban fox have thus had to make their homes within our own environments. Whose right is it to pursue them by way of the mistakes we have made?

The Crufts controversy poses similar queries when the infamous dog show was dropped from BBC broadcasting in 2008 after a series of accusations toward the ethical treatment of the health of pedigree dogs. Genetic inbreeding resulting in physical suffering was the creation of human kind; how has a chihuahua descended from its aggressive, wild ancestor, the wolf?

I, Alfredovilla [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

These are concerns that must be addressed by policy makers in the near future in order to ensure a peaceful living with those animals that share the environment we live in. Human-wildlife conflicts are inevitable with a growing population, and will encourage active input from all parties; but in the age of environmentalism and conservation, it is important that these issues are addressed appropriately and carefully, with both sides concerned.