Enviro-Mentalist – Page 9 – An Ordinary Person's Views on Living With Minimal Environmental Impact

I’m not sure what to make of this…

Apparently Richard Branson has written on his blog that ‘businesses should stand up to climate change deniers’ according to an article in the Guardian. He is citing the case of Apple whose CEO recently told climate change sceptics to ditch their shares in Apple.

So, whilst I am sure that Sir Richard’s remarks will actually have an influence on other CEOs (otherwise there would not be so many quotes on LinkedIn attributed to him) and it is fantastic that someone with his clout is being positive about the need to move on in the climate change arena and go from debating to doing, I can’t help feeling that there is something a bit wrong here. After all, one of the messages that a lot of environmentalists try to get across is that flying is bad and for the founder of Virgin Atlantic, someone who made flying more accessible to the masses, to be talking about climate change seems a little bizarre. It appears yet another example of do as I say and not as I do (as he lives on an island now I can only assume that he has not minimised the travelling that he does, particularly by plane).

So, whilst I applaud anyone trying to make the world a more sustainable place, I wonder why it is someone like Richard Branson, rather than governments making these statements. Will the fact that Sir B. makes his money from areas that are inherently sustainable will lessen the impact of his message or will it just give more publicity to the climate change deniers instead of just pretending they don’t exist.

Is it going to be a good butterfly summer?

That apparently depends on the butterflies. There has been some dialogue on Twitter that has revolved around an old belief that if the first butterfly seen in a year is yellow, then it will be a good summer, if it is white it will be a quiet summer and if it is brown or orange it will be a terrible summer.

I am not sure where this piece of wisdom has come from. There are four butterflies that overwinter as adults; Brimstones, Commas, Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks. Therefore if you should see Brimstones first then the summer will be good, see one of the others and we are doomed to a watery summer, see a white butterfly and, I can only assume they mean an Orange Tip as they are the first white-coloured butterflies that are about, then it will be quiet.

I wondered if the reason for this was that Brimstones tend to overwinter outside and therefore if they are in a place that catches the sun then the air will warm up around them (they often shelter under dark coloured ivy) and they might be tempted outside if it is a particularly warm sunny day. However, the Small Tort and Peacocks tend to overwinter in old buildings and sheds and are therefore less likely to experience sudden changes in temperatures and probably wouldn’t notice an occasional sunny day. However, this doesn’t take into account the fact that Commas also spend the winter in the undergrowth so they should be out with the Brimstones. Maybe Commas need the weather to be a bit warmer, or maybe they are much less noticeable than a bright yellow butterfly catching the sun as it flits past so they tend to be overlooked. If the Orange Tips are out first then it must be April and hasn’t been particularly warm or cold so far and possibly a bit damp as they tend to spend the winter as pupae and then emerge to patrol damp verges and ditches to look for a mate.

Unfortunately I haven’t been keeping track of which butterfly I have been noticing first for the last few years – in Northamptonshire the Peacock has beaten the Brimstone for the last couple of years, but I wonder if that is because some have been overwintering in heated buildings and have come out in January. For those that are interested my first butterfly this year was a Brimstone seen on 7th March, with Peacocks and Small Torts turning up a couple of days later along with a lot more Brimstones. So, maybe it will be a Butterfly Summer after all (fingers crossed).

In my pond

Unfortunately my pond is in a north facing garden, so whilst everyone else is getting excited about frog spawn, I have to wait a few months until the fully grown frogs come to take advantage of my cool and shady pool. However, all is not lost because I have discovered that there are other things lurking beneath just waiting for me to find them.

I have recently acquired a microscope and am trying to find my way round it. Whilst other people could look at a slide and tell you all about the cell structure, or the type of creature that they have found I am currently satisfied to know the names of a few parts of a plant or to be able to focus the microscope without smashing the lens into the slide! In the near future I do hope to learn how to prepare sections of plant so I can prepare my own slides – but one step at a time.

After looking through some slides that I borrowed and, quite frankly, being not much wiser than I was I decided to grab some pond water and see if there was anything for me to find. I was quite excited to find some form of life wriggling around in the bit of water that I popped on the slide – although this was tempered by the fact that I worried I was slowly cooking the poor beastie. However, it fared better than the other little chap I found which I think I squished when the cover slip went on, although he did continue to twitch disconcertingly for quite a while.

Putting the guilt aside that I felt from this exercise I was pleased to get some OK photos out of the two little chaps, whatever they were.

Quick update – the chap or chaps at the bottom is a daphnia – I found it in an old biology book that I have.

Leading by example.

One of the quotes by Ghandi that is often cited, particularly within the environmental and sustainability world is

‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’

To be honest it is probably the only quote I can remember reading that is ascribed to Ghandi. However, it highlights an issue that I see quite often.

I am now lucky enough to work as a Sustainability Manager, I hesitate to use the word professional as I am not sure what constitutes professional sustainability. But, I digress. Although I have only worked in this area for a couple of years, a couple of things soon became obvious. Firstly, almost everything in some way comes back to sustainability – most things are linked; travel, food, climate change, population – you name it and I can probably link it into sustainability somehow. Secondly, some of the issues seem to be so obvious that you wonder why they are an issue at all. Why isn’t everyone changing their behaviour to preserve the planet – if not for future generations then at least so I don’t have to suffer in my old age?

But then, and here is where I really want to rant, I look around me at colleagues in the sustainability arena. I see pictures of them on holiday in places where they could only get to by ‘plane. Apparently it is their only vice and they do everything else sustainably – BUT this outweighs all the other stuff and then some! Others get out their latest iPhone, would not even consider cutting down on meat, don’t care whether their food is Fair Trade or locally grown. I could, and often do go on. I recently made a comment when a colleague was talking about their upcoming cruise around the caribbean to the effect that I can no longer go on a ‘plane. They thought that I was afraid of flying (for the record I’m not) – and were gobsmacked when I said that I could no longer fly for ethical reasons.

I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I do try to reduce my environmental impact as much as possible and don’t ask others to do anything or give up anything that I wouldn’t do or give up.

After all, how can I tell people about climate change, try and convince them to adopt more climate friendly behaviours and then jump on a ‘plane to fly halfway across the world for a holiday? It would be like being an overweight, twenty a day doctor lecturing someone on their unhealthy lifestyle.

What’s not to lichen?

I know almost nothing about lichens. In fact, up until a couple of months ago I actually knew nothing about them. So, I have been set the task of finding out as much as I can by the end of this year. I still haven’t worked out how I will do that, but I am on the case.

I now know that lichens are composed of a fungus (mycobiont) and an algae or cyanobacteria (photobiont) that exist in a symbiotic relationship. The jury is out as to whether the algae gains anything from the relationship whilst the fungus most definitely gets nutrients thanks to photosynthesis by the algae. However, the algae might gain a degree of protection from high light levels and periods of drought thanks to this partnership.

One of the commonest and most easily recognisable lichens in xanthoria parietina or the maritime sunburst lichen. This is a beautiful orange-yellow lichen with obvious fruiting bodies. It is the one that can often be seen in winter making the trees look as though they have yellow branches. As well as growing on trees it is also sometimes found on stone. It is also often seen on rooftops where the lichen gains nutrients from bird droppings. Lichens are well studied as indicators of pollution, some being more tolerant than others. The reason that there is so much of this sunburst lichen about, is that it is noted to be very pollution tolerant.

Lichens employ a couple of methods (some lichens employ both) to spread and reproduce. Xanthoria parietina uses just one of these methods, producing fruiting bodies as per other fungi which then release spores that are dispersed to establish new colonies if they can find a suitable algae. These fruiting bodies are obvious even to the naked eye.

At one time this lichen was used to treat jaundice because of its colour, but nowadays, in common with many other lichen, it is being investigated for other medicinal properties; in this case for its antiviral activity.

I learned today that Iachnis Io is more than just a pretty face

Thanks to Radio 4 and Butterfly Conservation’s Richard Fox. I am talking about the peacock butterfly, one of the four butterflies that overwinter in the UK and, along with the Small Tortoiseshell, the Peacock is the one you might come across in your garage or shed. (In case you are interested the other two butterflies are the Brimstone and Comma, both of which spend the winter in vegetation disguised as leaves.)

Apparently about half of the adult butterflies overwintering (they go dormant rather than hibernate) are predated and don’t make it through to spring. But, the peacock increases its chances threefold. Firstly the outside of their wings is dark, almost black making them difficult to see in the dark places they find for winter. In daylight their bright markings are thought to resemble eyes and either put off predators or cause them to attack the wings, away from their body. When they are attacked they flap their wings making quite a lot of noise (you can clearly hear them in the summer when they are feeding in the garden).

All these are things that I already knew about, but what I didn’t know is just how effective the defence mechanisms of the peacock are. Their bright colours and eye patterns just don’t help when their predators, often bats and mice, are usually looking for food in the dark. However, the clicking of their wings has been demonstrated to scare off mice and bats – after a close encounter with a predator the butterflies tend to move to somewhere safer to spend the winter. However, even more amazing, when they are out in the sunshine, not only do the bright colours and eyes help them see off predators such as blue tits, but they have apparently been shown to scare birds as large as chickens causing them to start making the same alarm calls as when they come across predators such as foxes.

I wonder what the chicken sees and thinks it has found? So, when you next see a peacock butterfly, don’t underestimate it…

An adventure on public transport.

As a Sustainability Manager and a self-confessed environmentalist I often feel very guilty about using my car to get to work. This was obviously not a problem when I could walk to work, but now, at just over 15 miles, it might take a while.

For various reasons, mainly relating to being a one-car family, I decided to try taking the bus to work last week. This was the first time I had caught a but other than for park and ride reasons in over 15 years. When I lived in Birmingham buses were so frequent on some routes that the timetable simply stated ‘every few minutes’ and I simply would never contemplate doing other than using public transport. However, Northamptonshire is a different kettle of fish and public transport in Daventry could certainly be improved.

Still, I was up for an adventure. I enquired about times and prices by email (why you can’t get this from the website I don’t know – it seems to be possible for National Rail, but not Stagecoach buses) and I received a response in less than an hour including a copy of the timetable. All was set. So, on Monday morning I diligently set off round the corner to catch the bus, nearly missed it because I suddenly realised that they might not stop at every stop and I hadn’t seen this one on the timetable, so ran to the next stop.

We went round the housing estates to get to the bus station and then round some more to get out of Daventry and on the road to Northampton. To be fair, once we were out of Northampton it was pretty much a straight route into town, with only a few stops on the way and we were at the Railway station within a few minutes of the promised time. The same was true of the journey back.

I can’t complain about the bus, or the drivers or the price – at £6.40 it was fairly comparable to the cost of petrol and not much more than a return would cost on the train from Long Buckby which I would have to drive to because the first bus to the railway station isn’t until 9am – but that is another rant. However, if there is more than one of you , then the costs are not so comparable. I did find it a bit disorienting as the windows were steamed up and at times I had no idea where I was, but that was because I was merrily catching up on some reading which is an advantage of going by public transport.

However, the things that put me off and that will stop me making this a regular journey and therefore lessening my green guilt are the frequency of the buses and the time it takes for my commute. There is only one bus an hour, which means that in order to get to Northampton in time to start at 8:30 then I have to leave home at 6:45. In the car I can comfortably leave 45 minutes later. I also have to leave work before 5pm which is not something I can do every day otherwise I won’t get home until after 7pm. On a normal day in the car my commute from door to door lasts 1 hour 15 minutes maximum. On the bus it is double that.

Don’t get me wrong, if I didn’t have a car then the bus is definitely a viable way to get to work, but if it can’t tempt someone who longs to be greener from their car, then what chance do the buses on this side of Northamptonshire have of persuading people that actually like being in their car to make that change?

I learned today … a bit about nanosilver pollution

OK, so this may not sound that interesting unless you are an environmental scientist, but hear me out – although I am going to save the best bit to last to keep you reading.

Silver is ubiquitous these days. Although its antimicrobial properties have been harnessed for medicinal purposes for centuries, it has more recently been found in socks, shower heads and various medical consumables such as swabs. Although, a recent study of silver containing textiles in Denmark found that a lot of the articles claiming to contain silver had no trace when tested in the lab (see Chemistry World July 2012) but I digress.

A lot of the ‘new’ silver products contain nano (aka very, very small) particles of silver and this is where the controversy has arisen. There has been concern raised about the effect of nano particles on the environment and human health. By their very nature of being incredibly small they can get to places that larger particles can’t reach and there is the potential that they may have different surface and chemical properties. Studies have shown that, depending on the method used to incorporate the silver into the textile or article, there is a high chance of the nano silver being released into the environment, especially if for example it is put through a washing machine.

The problem with silver escaping into the environment is that the property that makes it so useful – the toxicity of silver ions released from an item – is the very thing that makes it an issue – it is toxic to all organisms depending on the concentration.

There is a worry that the nano silver would get into the water course and pollute and kill everything in its path (OK, that’s an exaggeration but you get the idea). Not to mention that the sludge from sewage works is often spread on fields. However, there is a chance that this fear is unfounded. Firstly, it appears that the toxicity of the nano silver is due to the fact that, just like other forms of silver used in medicine since whenever, it is the fact that it is Silver and releases silver ions that causes the toxicity. The tiny-ness of the particles doesn’t make a difference to the toxicity.

Secondly, it is the free silver ions that are the problem. In the water course the silver tends to combine with sludge and forms silver sulphides – these are not soluble, so less of an issue.

Finally, when solid silver objects, such as silver spoons, are examined it appears that they release nano silver – so this is probably not as new an issue as previously thought.

However, I do have a cooler bit of knowledge that I learned today to share. In order to test for soil pollution worms are used. A clew (for that is the collective noun for a ball of worms) is put into a test chamber. On the one side there is lovely unpolluted soil, on the other there is the potentially polluted soil. Worms are so good at sensing when soil is bad that and should be avoided that they have their own ISO standard for determining the chemical quality of soil.

So, what is the worms’ verdict. When they are faced with soil contaminated with silver nitrate they won’t go near it and detect the silver straight away. Put them in front of some soil with nano silver and they take their time deciding that it isn’t a good place to be and that it’s time to run away. See, it was a fact worth waiting for.

Whilst the jury may still be out gathering evidence as to the environmental and health impacts of nano particles, the verdict of the worms is definitely in.

I learned today … about fairy rings

which is quite a coincidence as we were discussing this very topic at the weekend, except at that point I didn’t realise what they were. If you see a circle (or circles) of lush grass or indeed dead grass, then that is a fairy ring.

These are caused by fungus growing underground – later in the year you might see the fruiting bodies, aka mushrooms. If the grass is much greener and thicker that’s because the mycelium (the underground bit equivalent to plant roots) is adding nutrients, if it is dead grass then the the fungus is damaging the plant roots. Each fairy ring is caused by a single fungus.

The rings are thought to start from a single spore that grows outwards until it reaches a certain size (around a metre) after which they run out of nutrients in the centre and start to form a ring, with nutrients passed around the ring to the point where they are needed. If the ring hits an obstacle such as stone the bit by the stone will die and the rest will grow around it. However, if it hits a larger obstacle such as a path it will stop growing and die. There were many reasons postulated for this, but it was discovered that the fungi are very polar and grow in one direction only, therefore if the is blocked they can’t grow anywhere else and therefore run out of nutrients. If they run into another fairy ring they compete with each other and both die! Despite this there are records of some fairy rings that are over 100 years old. According to one article I read there is a fairy ring in France that’s 600m in diameter and thought to be over 700 years old.

Fairy rings are also found in woodlands where they are known as tethered fairy rings as the mycelium are attached to the tree roots. The fungi gives the tree water and mineral nutrients such as nitrogen that it extracts from the soil and in return gets sugars from the tree. The mycelium are often seen in borders where they look like a mould on things like bark chips. In fact, fungi are one of natures great recyclers, being one of the few organisms that can break down lignin from trees due to the complex enzymes they contain.

Although fungi are very diverse; there are around 5 million species worldwide compared with 400,000 plant species, in the UK there are about 60 species that form fairy rings.

As can be gathered from the name fairy ring, there is a lot of folklore associated worldwide with these mushroom manifestations, worryingly enough the legends seem to have continued into the twentieth century. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say it involves fairies and dancing and having to do all sorts of superstitious things such as running round the ring nine times with your cap on back to front if you find yourself in one of these rings.

I learned today … that Galen was green

Not in the literal sense, but I think that he was perhaps the first practitioner of sustainable healthcare. Although Galen (AD130-210) is well known as the basis for much medicine up until the 16th Century when his work on anatomy and circulation were proved to be inaccurate by Vesalius (one of my all-time heroes after Robert Hooke) and Harvey, he perhaps should also be lauded as one of the earliest sustainability managers. According to the historians on a recent R4 podcast Galen had perhaps one of the biggest recipe books for drugs and treatments, receiving recipes from across the Roman empire; most of these were plant based and some survive up to the present day. Not only did he prescribe remedies based on diet and exercise, but he also realised the effect of stress and mental health on physical health.

I think that if he were alive today he would definitely think that prevention was better than cure!