Translation for International readers

Because of all the international visitors I have introduce a translate app so international readers can read the blog in any language they want.

Pesticides May Impact Human Nervous System

Recent research by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found that Bee-harming and other pesticides may impact on the complex human nervous system.They hound that current safety guidelines for two pesticides—acetamiprid and imidacloprid—may be too lax to protect humans, especially the developing brains of unborn children.

 The finding is based on recent research published in PLoS ONE where scientists found that newborn rats exposed to the chemicals experienced movement issues, shrinking brains and weight loss.The EFSA recommends raising the safety limits of both the chemicals based on the research, though it notes that . However, the recommendation still has to be accepted by the European Commission.

Europe has recently installed a two-year partial ban on three neonicotinoids—imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam—due to research linking the pesticides to the collapse in bee colonies and other pollinators. Scientists have found that while the pesticides don't kill bees outright, they impact their nervous systems, altering behavior to such an extent that eventually whole colonies collapse. 

Thousands in El Salvador flee as volcano erupts

In the coffee-growing region of El Salvador thousands flee their homes as they hear a explosion coming from a nearby volcano called Chaparrastique.No one has been hurt, say the authorities

At 2,129 metres (7,000 ft) above sea level, Chaparrastique is the third highest volcano in the country.There are more than 20 volcanoes in the small Central American nation.

Flooding causes major disruption in Scotland

Homes have been left vacant as there owners flee from the incoming flooding, roads closed only empty cars in roads as torrential rain caused flooding across parts of Scotland

The floods started just before the Christmas eve and Christmas day causing major disruption in England & Wales rail and air services. One man had been killed when he fell into a river. The storm then went towards Scotland causing major disruption and damage.

The Environmental agency and the met office have put yellow warnings in places such as rain in Wales, Northern Ireland and south-west England.

Ways to recycle a Christmas tree

For nearly a month , your Christmas tree has formed the centrepiece of holiday celebrations. But now, as the New Year draws near, it's time to think about what to do with it. If, like millions of people, you chose a fresh cut tree, it's important to think long and hard about recycling. Just tossing it in the garbage is a depressing waste, especially when there are so many other creative options. Below is a list of the most creative ideas we've ever seen for repurposing Christmas trees. Although most of us will undoubtedly choose number one (the easiest option), the others will warm your heart as well.

Antarctic ship: New bid by a Australia ship to free Russian vessel trapped in ice

An Australian vessel has arrived in East Antarctica in a renewed bid to free a scientific mission ship trapped in dense pack ice since Tuesday.But bad weather has been is hampering efforts to reach the 

Russian Academician Shokalskiy, says the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).

Earlier rescue attempts by Chinese and French icebreakers were foiled by the thick ice.
Seventy-four scientists, tourists and crew are on the Shokalskiy.The vessel is being used by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition to follow the route explorer Douglas Mawson travelled a century ago.

The Shokalskiy remains well stocked with food and is in no danger, according to the team.
Despite being trapped, the scientists have continued their experiments, measuring temperature and salinity through cracks in the surrounding ice so things are normal on the shipapart from being trapped

 Expedition member Chris Turney earlier posted a video message online saying winds had picked up and it was snowing again.

Australia sends plane to monitor Japanese whaling

one of many Japanese research ships which caught more then 100 whales in southern ocean for what it called research

 The Australian government says it will send a surveillance plane to the Southern Ocean to monitor Japanese whaling ships.

The government hopes the aircraft will help prevent any more conflict between the whalers and environmentalists. But a campaign group says officials should be sending ships to stop - not watch - the Japanese annual whale catch.
                                                                                         
The International Court of Justice is due to rule next year on an Australian claim that Japanese whaling is illegal.Japanese vessels are already on their way to the seas around the Antarctic for their annual hunt for whales, a period that will last between January and March 2014.

Hot British summer led to ' explosion of wildlife '

The hot summer in the UK gave a much-needed boast to British wildlife which created a sudden explosion of wildlife in Britain.

  One example of this is the distinctive tree bumblebee - which only began to colonise in the UK 12 years ago - was seen north of Hadrian's Wall for the first time.

The cool spring also provided a long flowering season for snowdrops, primrose and bluebells.

The number of slugs was also dramatically reduced - which is something many gardeners are unlikely to regret

British bases in Cyprus are hotspots for bird trapping

UK sovereign base areas in Cyprus have become illegal bird-trapping "hotspots", according to research by The RSPB and birdlife Cyprus.

The have been monitoring bird-trapping operations on the island since 2002.

BirdLife Cyprus announced that, in that time, the scale of bird-trapping had increased by 54%.

Although it is widespread, the charity believed that some of the largest trapping operations were on UK soil.

The charity also hopes that its latest findings will persuade the Cypriot government to take action against the restaurants that are selling this illegal dishes.

But many people believe that as long as there is a demand for the dishes bird-trapping will continue.

Merry Christmas readers

Merry Christmas readers. I hope you all have a fun and happy Christmas and a happy new year.

Please share the word about my blog to everyone you know friends and family so we can spread the eco word to the world

severe weather warnings given to UK as storm hits

The body of a man has been found in a river in Cumbria, as severe weather batters parts of the UK.

Emergency Rescuers carried out an extensive search after a man was seen falling into the River Rothay in Ambleside.

Gale like force winds and heavy rainfall have halted the Christmas getaway for road, rail and sea passengers.

But airports in London have seemed to have coped with the heavy rainfall and Gale force winds, There were few flights delayed by the weather.

New measures in place to help shellfish waters

A total of 84 protected areas have been identified as part of efforts to support Scotland's shellfish sector and help ensure that sea animal is suitable for human consumption.

Steps will be taken to make sure the water quality in these areas from deteriorating anymore.

In July, all shellfish harvesting sites in the Shetlands were closed and mussels from the islands withdrawn from sale for a period due to the fact that High levels of naturally-occurring toxins were found by the Food Standards Agency.

The measures will allow Scotland to have a Sustainable future in the shellfish sector.

Australia cuts all government funding to environmental legal aid centres

A government decision to remove funding from environmental legal centres will expose communities to damaging development and reduce scrutiny on the mining industry,environmentalists have warned.

The attorney general’s officials has told the network of Environmental Defenders Offices that it will be removing the entire $10m in funding, over four years, announced by the previous Australia Labor government this year.

The existing $100,000-a-year stipend given to each EDO office, which has been provided for the past 20 years, will also be withdrawn, meaning all of the government funding for the environmental department will cease.

 EDOs operate by providing free advice to individuals and community groups on environmental law. As well as taking on legal cases, it handles advocacy and a helpline, which is used by around 1,500 people a year in NSW alone.

 Jeff Smith, chief executive of the NSW EDO, said the mining industry will be “breaking out the champagne” at the news of the funding cuts.

third week of December tips

 Feeling stuck inside this winter? So is the air inside your home. Recent research has found that air inside homes can be more polluted than the air in the largest, most industrialized cities.
Be careful when you clean. When you spray cleaners, pollutants are released into the air. Make sure to spray cleaners into a towel if not in a properly ventilated area. Also, never mix chemical products, especially chlorine bleach, with an ammonia cleaner.

½ of the uk suitable for fracking

More than half of the UK could be suitable for shale gas fracking, according to the government-commissioned report.
Under the maximum scenario, up to 2,880 wells could be drilled for oil or gas in a new licensing round, the report says, generating around 16,000 to 32,000 jobs.

Fracking – a process that involves splitting shale rocks deep underground - uses huge amounts of water, and in some places this would need to be shipped in by tanker. This means fracking will squeeze water supplies for local communities around the shale gas site.

Around ¾ of water will used for fracking flows back with the addition of extra water to be used again for fracking.

Greenhouse gases during the exploration phase could be up to 0.96 million tonnes of CO2 – totalling just over 15% of the UK’s emissions from all oil and gas production.

early Chirstmas present from anti fracking protesters

Anti-fracking protesters near Manchester dumped a massive wind turbine blade at the Gates of a drilling site on Monday, temporarily blocking access to the heavily defended area.

The site based in Moss in Salford, which is run by IGas, which has been given permission drill a borehole up to 10,000ft below the ground.

Around fifty odd campaigners, some dressed in Santa hats, put the 1.5-tonne, 17-metre long blade in place at around 5.30am and wrapped it in a big red bow.

Sandra Denton one of the protesters, said: “We’ve delivered this early Christmas gift to IGas to remind them that we don’t need damaging, risky and polluting energy sources like oil and gas to power the UK. The government and the big energy companies are planning to build a new wave of gas-fired power stations, partly fed by thousands of fracking wells across the British countryside.”

recovery in the arctic

Data from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft suggests there were almost 9,000 cu km of ice at the end of this year's melt season.

This is close to more than 1/2 in the corresponding period in 2012.

This is a rare piece of good news for a region that has witnessed a rapid decline in both area cover and thickness in recent years.

But scientists caution against reading too much into one year's "recovery".Part of this Recovery be put down to the greater retention of older ice.

This is evident particularly around the Canadian archipelago and North Greenland, where there is much more two-year-old and three-year-old ice than in previous years.

Second week of December Resolution

    

 If you read last week post you would know that I told readers to start a Eco-resolutions for the new year as well normal resolutions. This week set is for people who are ready to go the extra mile for environment and wildlife.

Intermediate Resolutions

1. Volunteer to clean up a park

This a great chance to do something great for community and make friends with new people who you may have never met or talked to.

2. Boil the amount of water you need

Many people boil more water then they actually need and as a result of this more energy is used by heating up the water. So try boil the amount you need

 next week's tips are for the superstars out there.

bar-tailed godwit equipped for climate challenge

The bar tailed godwit is a long-billed, long-legged wading bird which visits UK shores for the winter. Most usually seen in its grey-brown winter plumage, birds in spring may show their full rich chestnut breeding plumage.

The bar-tailed godwit makes the largest no-stop migration, flying a 11,000km journey from Alaska to New Zealand every autumn.It relies on the right type of winds to make this epic journey - winds that computer models indicate could become less favorable in the future.But scientists say the godwit's ability to judge weather conditions means it should rise to the challenge from climate change.

The bird leaves New Zealand in March to fly some 10,000km to feeding grounds in China and Korea. And then in May, the godwit undertakes a 6,000km trip to western Alaska to breed and nest, before returning directly to New Zealand across the Pacific in August/September.

Amur leopard

In the cold forests of far east Russia far away from the savannas of Africa lives a beutiful yet endangered subspecies of leopard called Amur leopard.

The Amur leopard is solitary. Nimble-footed and strong, it carries and hides unfinished kills so that they are not taken by other predators. It has been reported that some males stay with females after mating, and may even help with rearing the young whereas other wild cats leave their young.

With around 30 individuals still alive In the wilderness the WWF have declared they are a critically endangered species.So I ask you to share it with everyone you know so we can raise awareness for these lovely leopards please.

50 fruits a day

Researchers found that some monkeys in South and Central America eat as many as 50 different species of fruit a day.

A team from the University of East Anglia said that primate size and diet are closely connected.

They found that mid-sized species were the biggest fruit consumers.

Larger monkeys including Woolly Spider monkeys were more likely to eat leaves and foliage, they said.
The research has been published in the journal Oikos.

The scientists pulled together data from 290 studies of diets in primates in Central and South America spanning 42 years.

And while have a monkey have stereotypical associated with eating bananas, the researchers found it wasn't the most popular fruit in South and Central America.
Instead, fruits from relatively unknown trees were preferred.




Lovely tomato soup

        The perfect recipe for those cold winter days,To make the tastiest tomato soup you’ll ever experience wait until the tomatoes are at their most ripe and juicy.

        Ingredients

• 1-1¼kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1 small carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 squirts of tomato purée (about 2 tsp)
• a good pinch of sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.2 litres/ 2 pints hot vegetable stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes)

                                                         Method

1. Firstly, prepare your vegetables. You need 1-1.25kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes. If the tomatoes are on their vines, pull them off. Throw the vines and green bits away and wash the tomatoes. Now cut each tomato into quarters and slice off any hard cores (they don't soften during cooking and you will get hard bits in the soup at the end). Peel 1 medium onion and 1 small carrot and chop them into small pieces. Chop 1 celery stick roughly the same size.
2. Spoon 2 tbsp olive oil into a large heavy-based pan and heat it over a low heat. Hold your hand over the pan until you can feel the heat rising from the oil, then tip in the onion, carrot and celery and mix them together with a wooden spoon. Still with the heat low, cook the vegetables until they're soft and faintly coloured. This should take about 10 minutes and you should stir them two or three times so they cook evenly and don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Holding the tube over the pan, squirt in about 2 tsp of tomato purée, then stir it around so it turns the vegetables red. Shoot the tomatoes in off the chopping board, sprinkle in a good pinch of sugar and grind in a little black pepper. Tear 2 bay leaves into a few pieces and throw them into the pan. Stir to mix everything together, put the lid on the pan and let the tomatoes stew over a low heat for 10 minutes until they shrink down in the pan and their juices flow nicely. From time to time, give the pan a good shake – this will keep everything well mixed.
4. Slowly pour in the 1.2 litres/ 2 pints of hot stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes), stirring at the same time to mix it with the vegetables. Turn up the heat as high as it will go and wait until everything is bubbling, then turn the heat down to low again and put the lid back on the pan. Cook gently for 25 minutes, stirring a couple of times. At the end of cooking the tomatoes will have broken down and be very slushy looking.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, take the lid off and stand back for a few seconds or so while the steam escapes, then fish out the pieces of bay leaf and throw them away. Ladle the soup into your blender until it’s about three-quarters full, fit the lid on tightly and turn the machine on full. Blitz until the soup’s smooth (stop the machine and lift the lid to check after about 30 seconds), then pour the puréed soup into a large bowl. Repeat with the soup that’s left in the pan.
6. Pour the puréed soup back into the pan and reheat it over a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until you can see bubbles breaking gently on the surface. Taste a spoonful and add a pinch of salt if you think the soup needs it, plus more pepper and sugar if you like. If the colour’s not a deep enough red for you, plop in another teaspoon of tomato purée and stir until it dissolves.

 

Change in Govement stance on onshore energy

The government said  is to make big changes to the way it supports renewable energy in a statement

Ministers announced they will cut support for onshore wind and solar energy, but give more backing to offshore wind power.

Chief Secretary of Treasury, Danny Alexander described the shift in subsidy as "a rebalancing" and said overall spending would not change.But  Labour said "chopping and changing" pricing would be  bad for business.

The price producers are promised for onshore wind power and solar energy will be cut from 2015, while the amount paid for offshore wind power will be increased. The shift on wind energy comes ahead of Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement, which he will deliver to MPs on Thursday.

December's Theme

 
Hi readers , as the new month comes in we must get up all of our Christmas decorations and get ready for the cold days of December and the run up to Christmas holidays. So I am going to give you some good Eco-friendly tips so you can get ready for Christmas.

This Christmas, why don't you start a new Eco Resolutions as well as a New year resolution this new year. I will give some suggestions for your Eco-resolutions, your resolution can be Simple, intermediate and Superstar Resolutions. 

Simple Resolutions

1. Buy more local and organic foods

Because the closer foods are grown,the less food miles means the less toxic pollution as it is closer to you local shops

2. Donate to an environmental charity 

This is fun and simple way of helping the environment. There no need for you to do any hard work and you feel great afterwards.