The UK could be experiencing a once-in-a-decade wildlife phenomenon this year with a mass influx of painted lady butterflies, experts have said.

TV naturalist Chris Packham is urging people to take part in the world’s largest insect citizen science survey, the annual Big Butterfly Count, to see if the painted ladies are arriving in their millions to the UK’s shores this year.

The butterfly is a common immigrant from the Continent to the UK each summer where its caterpillars feed on thistles, but around once every 10 years there is a painted lady “summer” when millions arrive en masse.

Tropical

Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, which runs the Big Butterfly Count, said unusually high numbers have been reported across Europe over the spring and early summer with large numbers now spotted crossing to the UK.

The last mass immigration took place in 2008 when around 11 million painted ladies migrated to the UK.

Mr Packham, who is vice president of Butterfly Conservation, said the painted lady migration was “one of the wonders of the natural world”.

“Travelling up to 1km in the sky and at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour these seemingly fragile creatures migrate hundreds of miles to reach our shores each year.

“This butterfly undertakes an extraordinary 7,500-mile round trip from tropical Africa to the Arctic Circle every year – almost double the length of the famous migrations of the Monarch butterfly in North America.

Well-being

“Signs across Europe are looking very promising, meaning that 2019 could be a very good year for the Painted Lady with high numbers already being recorded across parts of the UK.

“The butterfly can turn up anywhere so please take part in the Big Butterfly Count and look out for them – you could be witnessing a once in a decade butterfly phenomenon.”

Participants are encouraged to spot and record 17 species of common butterfly, including painted ladies, and two day-flying moths in the UK during three weeks of high summer, to help experts see how the insects are faring.

Experts also say taking part in the count has benefits for those doing the count, with research showing that watching wildlife and spending time in nature can have positive benefits for mental health and well-being.

Counting

Mr Packham said: “The mental health benefits of spending time outdoors watching nature have been blindingly obvious to me for as long as I can remember.

“Immersing yourself in nature, even if it’s just for a few short minutes, changes your perspective, it helps you slow down and notice what’s going on around you and it opens a door to the overlooked beauty and drama of our natural world.”

Butterfly Conservation is being supported by mental health charity Mind to champion the benefits of spending time in nature, and is sponsored by B&Q.

To take part in the count, which runs from July 19 to August 11, people just need to find a sunny spot anywhere in the UK and spend 15 minutes counting the butterflies they see, and then submit sightings online at www.bigbutterflycount.org or via the free Big Butterfly Count app.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Trillions of cigarette butts are littered every year, posing a risk to plant growth, research suggests.

The presence of cigarette butts in the soil reduces the germination success and shoot length of clover by 27 percent and 28 percent respectively, a study has found.

Published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, the results also showed that the root weight was reduced by 57 percent.

Discarded

For grass, germination success reduced by 10% and shoot length by 13 percent, say the team led by academics from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). Most cigarette butts contain a filter made of cellulose acetate fibre, a type of a bioplastic.

But filters from unsmoked cigarettes had almost the same effect on plant growth as used filters, indicating that the damage to plants is caused by the filter itself, even without the additional toxins released from the burning of the tobacco.

It is estimated that around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year, making them the most pervasive form of plastic pollution on the planet.

As part of this study, the academics sampled locations around the city of Cambridge and found areas with as many as 128 discarded cigarette butts per square metre.

Control experiments contained pieces of wood of identical shape and size as the cigarette butts.

Pollinators

Lead author Dr Dannielle Green, senior lecturer in biology at ARU, said: “Despite being a common sight littering streets and parks worldwide, our study is the first to show the impact of cigarette butts on plants.

“We found they had a detrimental effect on the germination success and shoot length of both grass and clover, and reduced the root weight of clover by over half.

“Ryegrass and white clover, the two species we tested, are important forage crops for livestock as well as being commonly found in urban green spaces.

“These plants support a wealth of biodiversity, even in city parks, and white clover is ecologically important for pollinators and nitrogen fixation.”

Plant

She added that the filters can take years, if not decades to break down.

“Dropping cigarette butts seems to be a socially acceptable form of littering and we need to raise awareness that the filters do not disappear and instead can cause serious damage to the environment,” said Dr Green.

Co-author Dr Bas Boots, added: “Although further work is needed, we believe it is the chemical composition of the filter that is causing the damage to plants.

“Most are made from cellulose acetate fibres, and added chemicals which make the plastic more flexible, called plasticisers, may also be leaching out and adversely affecting the early stages of plant development.”

This Author

Nina Massey is the PA science correspondent.

The right wing think tank that commissioned a report labelling environmental activists as “extremists” who want to “break up democracy” has failed to reveal who funded the report.

The Policy Exchange, which has long refused to reveal its financial backers, commissioned retired terrorism police officer Richard Walton to write the headline-grabbing report. Walton was previously best known for his controversial role in police spying on the family of murdered schoolboy Stephen Lawrence.

Speaking about the report on the Today programme yesterday morning, Walton described Extinction Rebellion as a “hardcore anarchist group which want to break up our democracy”.

Organisational discipline

The report also speculated about the environmental group using violent tactics to further their aims in the future. Extinction Rebellion has used entirely non-violent protests to shut down city centres to draw attention to climate change and species loss.

When openDemocracy asked Policy Exchange how the report was funded, it didn’t respond to our questions. openDemocracy has also asked Shell, BP and ExxonMobile if they fund Policy Exchange. None have yet commented.

The report is co-authored by Walton and Tom Wilson, who works in the Security and Extremism Unit at Policy Exchange. In it, they argue that, had Extinction Rebellion flown drones over Heathrow – something the group chose not to do – it “may have crossed the threshold into a terrorism offence,” and add that: “Given the extreme objectives of Extinction Rebellion, therefore, it is not inconceivable that some on the fringes of the movement might at some point break with organisational discipline and engage in violence.”

Extinction Rebellion’s three demands are “Tell the truth” about the scale of the environmental crisis, “Act Now” to avert it and move “beyond politics” by founding a citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice.

openDemocracy also asked Richard Walton if he can comment on who paid for his report. He is yet to respond.

Controversial role

Walton, the report’s author, has previously come under scrutiny for his controversial role in police spying on the family of murdered schoolboy Stephen Lawrence. Speaking to openDemocracy about the case in 2017, Walton emphasised that: “I have quite simply done nothing wrong, either in 1998 or recently.”

While the Independent Police Complaints Commission found that Walton had a case to answer, the Metropolitan Police Professional Standards Unit and then Commissioner rejected the conclusion that there was a case to answer prior to his retirement – leaving Stephen Lawrence’s father “heartbroken”.

Walton also played a minor role in the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking. In 2009, he was staff officer to the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson – a role reported at the time as being hisright-hand man.

Stephenson was forced to resign as a result of the phone hacking scandal. Walton attended the meeting at which the Met decided not to investigate the Guardian’s initial phone hacking allegations, though he says he did not contribute to the meet.

His name appears twice in the official documents released by the Leveson Inquiry. There is no suggestion that Walton himself did anything wrong.

Walton also made headlines in 2017 when he wrote a report for the pro-Brexit group Veterans for Britain, which Walton told us he wasn’t paid for.

This Author 

Adam Ramsay is the co-editor of openDemocracyUK and also works with Bright Green. This article was first published on OpenDemocracy.

Down on the farm, a new grassroots initiative is being sown. It’s a simple idea for turning plots of land into sustainable and self-regulating ecosystems that can provide nutritious, healthy, organic food for local communities. It also brings those communities together to combat loneliness and engender a sense of comradeship and belonging. And it’s working.

The Food Forest Project is a small, newly formed organisation that has been established to help communities to plant food forests. But it’s not just about growing food for the local community. It’s also about providing food and habitats for wildlife – so it’s a win–win situation for all.

This article was first published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. 

The idea was conceived by Bristol-based Tristan Faith, a specialist in architectural conservation, who shared his vision with me by sketching the concept on paper: “It’s the idea of working with Nature to replenish itself nat­urally rather than over-working and depleting the soil.” 

Organic and biodiverse

Faith continued: “It’s all about creating a layered, self-regulating ecosystem. It starts with planting trees that grow to create a canopy layer that shades a mid-layer of fruit trees that in turn shade a shrub layer and a root crop layer, right down into the subsoil.

“Each layer creates a habitat for different species that enable natural predators to control the insects. It takes around five years for the complete system to stabil­ise and produce fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, and so on.

“Once it gets to that level of maturity no further intervention is necessary, because it then becomes self-sustaining.”

Faith’s vision remained a conceptual idea until he found a supportive farmer who kindly donated a suitable plot of land that met the criteria for the project.

The land, near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, had been heavily used as pasture for many years. Now the food forest being developed there is creating an organic, biodiverse area of natural habitat that will provide perfect homes for local wildlife.

Sustainable agriculture

The food forest also helps mitigate the effects of climate change, air pollution and the toxification of soil and water by creating natural spaces that capture carbon, regenerate soil and reduce run-off as well as stabilising erosion through the planting of woodland.

No pesticides or fertilisers are necessary once the natural seasonal cycles take over, and the enriched soil will enable organic fruits and vegetables to thrive. These products will then be available for the local community to buy by donation, helping to fund further expansion.

Creating a food forest requires a lot of careful planning if it is to thrive in a self-sustaining manner. Current food-production techniques tend to create huge wastage as well as depleting soil nutrients, so the project focuses on minimising wastage by means of a ‘closed loop’ system.

It has been calculated that a large quantity of high-quality and totally organic food can be produced in a small area with minimum wastage. Any excess products can be recycled naturally to further enrich the soil.

The project has another important goal. A large proportion of modern society has lost its connection to the natural environment. In recognition of this, the project has now joined forces with SAFE Collective, an organisation that works with vulnerable and abused young people.

Volunteers bring teenagers to the Shepton Mallet site to plant trees and crops and to learn all about sustainable agriculture and food production in a safe, inspiring and natural environment. Introducing vulnerable young people to these and similar activities helps build their self-confidence and shows how they have value in the community.

This Author 

Joe St Clair is managing director at World Sustainability Forum UK. This article was first published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. 

​​​​​​​Image: Food Forest Project. 

By some calculations, the planet has twelve years left. By other calculations, just seven years left. And according to Prince Charles, we have just eighteen months left. What’s at stake here is how long we have before climate crisis is irreversible. 

England declared a Climate Emergency in 2019. Followed by Ireland. The Pope declared a Climate Emergency. Some 7,000 universities and colleges around the world have united to declare a Climate Emergency.

China and India have not indicated any leanings to join in, as both nations are sitting on economies that depend on copious numbers of coal-fired power-plants. Neither nation has any intention of weaning-off coal. Both nations mention vague figures like reducing coal consumption by 2030 – far too late.

Third pole

Lying between the world’s most populous nations, China and India, sits Tibet—an occupied region, under China’s iron-fisted rule since 1950. Tibet is the forgotten part of the climate crisis conversation.

There is a lot of press about Arctic melting and Antarctic melting, but precious little about meltdown at ‘the Third Pole’, meaning the Tibetan Plateau.

This vast region does what the other two poles cannot—it supplies a dozen nations downstream with freshwater. In fact, the rivers sourced in Tibet supply freshwater to over 1.5 billion people downstream–which represents a fifth of the entire global population.

That supply of water starts with dripping glaciers in Tibet. Which are melting twice as fast as originally thought, according to recent research that compares spy satellite mapping from the 1970s with satellite mapping from today. 

Tibet sits on the largest area of permafrost outside of the Arctic and Antarctic–and that is rapidly thawing too, which could release large amounts of methane–a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than CO2. Tibet’s vast swathes of grassland are highly effective carbon sinks–and these grasslands are under attack from rampant Chinese mining ventures–which have accelerated since the arrival of the train in Lhasa in 2006. This has led to encroaching desert taking over grasslands.

Melting glaciers

Why does this matter? In the short run, rapidly melting glaciers do not pose a threat, except from major flooding. In the long run, melting glaciers pose a threat that has never been seen before—never in thousands of years.

If the glaciers vanish, the rivers of Tibet will run dry, only fed by monsoon rainwater. And the dozens of China’s megadams on the rivers of Tibet will cease to operate. Billions will be without river water.

China and India have groundwater supplies, but these have been tapped to the point where precious little remains.

Some scientific surveys say that fifty percent of meltdown of Himalayan glaciers is caused by CO2 emissions, with China responsible for around thirty percent of the global total for emissions of this deadly greenhouse gas, and India responsible for around seven percent.

The other 50 percent of meltdown could be due to the rain of black soot on the Himalayas, from both sides—from the Chinese side and the Indian side.

Black Soot, aka Black Carbon, is not a greenhouse gas, it is a rain of minute particles from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, wood, and from sources like diesel engines. Minute black particles, the PM2.5 particles, are highly hazardous to human health because they can get into the lungs—and stay there. Deadly for humans–and deadly for glaciers.

Black soot

Glaciers are adversely affected by the same particles, whether PM2.5 or PM10 versions. Black soot lands on the glaciers and stays there—which then attracts the sun. The ice and snow of glaciers reflect the sun, but the black particles absorb the sun, leading to more rapid meltdown.

Black soot is a totally solvable issue. If the burning of fossil fuels in both China and India were to stop, black soot would disappear. Improved cookstoves, for instance, can greatly reduce the impact of billions of people in China and India using wood, charcoal and coal for cooking.

But neither China nor India has taken any substantial steps to even reduce the output of black carbon from coal-fired power plants—despite both nations making pledges at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. 

On this basis alone, it is time to declare a Climate Emergency in Tibet. China has never participated in any mass demonstrations targeting the Climate Crisis, such as those sweeping Europe via school strikes for global action and Extinction Rebellion.

India has participated in such protest, with a number of NGOs involved. But a lot more needs to be done to galvanize politicians and leaders into action to solve the issue of meltdown in Tibet.

Otherwise, the planet faces a stark choice: our very survival is at stake. Across Asia, disasters like flooding and cyclones are becoming more frequent, resulting in hundreds of thousands of climate refugees on the move.

What happens in Tibet is much more than an Asian problem: it will have major impact for the entire planet. We no longer have the luxury of procrastination: the time to act is now.

This Author 

Michael Buckley is author of Meltdown in Tibet and the digital photobook Tibet, Disrupted. He has long researched environment issues in the Himalayan region.

Michael Gove is calling in the bosses of English water companies for a meeting after their efforts to protect the environment were branded “simply unacceptable”.

The Environment Agency’s (EA) annual report into the environmental performance of water companies found serious pollution incidents in England increased last year, and most firms are set to fail to meet pollution targets for 2020.

Overall water company performance has deteriorated, reversing the trend of gradual improvement in the sector since 2011, and in 2018 was simply unacceptable, the report warned last week.

Action

Mr Gove previously described the report as “damning”, insisting that “water companies have a responsibility to distribute our most precious natural resource, and must act as stewards of our environment”.

The environment secretary is now calling in the chief executives of the water companies, alongside regulators Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Consumer Council for Water and the EA to meet on Thursday.

The meeting will run through water company performance and the government’s priorities for the sector, as well as progress and planned action from everyone involved, officials said.

Next generation

Mr Gove is expected to say that while there are limited positive performances from water companies and an ambition to do better, he is not seeing enough immediate improvements on environmental performance, leaks and supply and customer experience.

The meeting comes after Mr Gove gave a speech at Kew Gardens on Tuesday, which may be his last as environment secretary, in which he said the role water companies were playing in ensuring rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters were in a good condition “is simply not good enough”.

He said the government’s priorities for the water sector were to secure resilient water supplies, protect customers from potentially unaffordable bills and make sure there was a cleaner, greener country for the next generation.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Michael Gove is calling in the bosses of English water companies for a meeting after their efforts to protect the environment were branded “simply unacceptable”.

The Environment Agency’s (EA) annual report into the environmental performance of water companies found serious pollution incidents in England increased last year, and most firms are set to fail to meet pollution targets for 2020.

Overall water company performance has deteriorated, reversing the trend of gradual improvement in the sector since 2011, and in 2018 was simply unacceptable, the report warned last week.

Action

Mr Gove previously described the report as “damning”, insisting that “water companies have a responsibility to distribute our most precious natural resource, and must act as stewards of our environment”.

The environment secretary is now calling in the chief executives of the water companies, alongside regulators Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Consumer Council for Water and the EA to meet on Thursday.

The meeting will run through water company performance and the government’s priorities for the sector, as well as progress and planned action from everyone involved, officials said.

Next generation

Mr Gove is expected to say that while there are limited positive performances from water companies and an ambition to do better, he is not seeing enough immediate improvements on environmental performance, leaks and supply and customer experience.

The meeting comes after Mr Gove gave a speech at Kew Gardens on Tuesday, which may be his last as environment secretary, in which he said the role water companies were playing in ensuring rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters were in a good condition “is simply not good enough”.

He said the government’s priorities for the water sector were to secure resilient water supplies, protect customers from potentially unaffordable bills and make sure there was a cleaner, greener country for the next generation.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Michael Gove is calling in the bosses of English water companies for a meeting after their efforts to protect the environment were branded “simply unacceptable”.

The Environment Agency’s (EA) annual report into the environmental performance of water companies found serious pollution incidents in England increased last year, and most firms are set to fail to meet pollution targets for 2020.

Overall water company performance has deteriorated, reversing the trend of gradual improvement in the sector since 2011, and in 2018 was simply unacceptable, the report warned last week.

Action

Mr Gove previously described the report as “damning”, insisting that “water companies have a responsibility to distribute our most precious natural resource, and must act as stewards of our environment”.

The environment secretary is now calling in the chief executives of the water companies, alongside regulators Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Consumer Council for Water and the EA to meet on Thursday.

The meeting will run through water company performance and the government’s priorities for the sector, as well as progress and planned action from everyone involved, officials said.

Next generation

Mr Gove is expected to say that while there are limited positive performances from water companies and an ambition to do better, he is not seeing enough immediate improvements on environmental performance, leaks and supply and customer experience.

The meeting comes after Mr Gove gave a speech at Kew Gardens on Tuesday, which may be his last as environment secretary, in which he said the role water companies were playing in ensuring rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters were in a good condition “is simply not good enough”.

He said the government’s priorities for the water sector were to secure resilient water supplies, protect customers from potentially unaffordable bills and make sure there was a cleaner, greener country for the next generation.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Michael Gove is calling in the bosses of English water companies for a meeting after their efforts to protect the environment were branded “simply unacceptable”.

The Environment Agency’s (EA) annual report into the environmental performance of water companies found serious pollution incidents in England increased last year, and most firms are set to fail to meet pollution targets for 2020.

Overall water company performance has deteriorated, reversing the trend of gradual improvement in the sector since 2011, and in 2018 was simply unacceptable, the report warned last week.

Action

Mr Gove previously described the report as “damning”, insisting that “water companies have a responsibility to distribute our most precious natural resource, and must act as stewards of our environment”.

The environment secretary is now calling in the chief executives of the water companies, alongside regulators Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Consumer Council for Water and the EA to meet on Thursday.

The meeting will run through water company performance and the government’s priorities for the sector, as well as progress and planned action from everyone involved, officials said.

Next generation

Mr Gove is expected to say that while there are limited positive performances from water companies and an ambition to do better, he is not seeing enough immediate improvements on environmental performance, leaks and supply and customer experience.

The meeting comes after Mr Gove gave a speech at Kew Gardens on Tuesday, which may be his last as environment secretary, in which he said the role water companies were playing in ensuring rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters were in a good condition “is simply not good enough”.

He said the government’s priorities for the water sector were to secure resilient water supplies, protect customers from potentially unaffordable bills and make sure there was a cleaner, greener country for the next generation.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Michael Gove is calling in the bosses of English water companies for a meeting after their efforts to protect the environment were branded “simply unacceptable”.

The Environment Agency’s (EA) annual report into the environmental performance of water companies found serious pollution incidents in England increased last year, and most firms are set to fail to meet pollution targets for 2020.

Overall water company performance has deteriorated, reversing the trend of gradual improvement in the sector since 2011, and in 2018 was simply unacceptable, the report warned last week.

Action

Mr Gove previously described the report as “damning”, insisting that “water companies have a responsibility to distribute our most precious natural resource, and must act as stewards of our environment”.

The environment secretary is now calling in the chief executives of the water companies, alongside regulators Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Consumer Council for Water and the EA to meet on Thursday.

The meeting will run through water company performance and the government’s priorities for the sector, as well as progress and planned action from everyone involved, officials said.

Next generation

Mr Gove is expected to say that while there are limited positive performances from water companies and an ambition to do better, he is not seeing enough immediate improvements on environmental performance, leaks and supply and customer experience.

The meeting comes after Mr Gove gave a speech at Kew Gardens on Tuesday, which may be his last as environment secretary, in which he said the role water companies were playing in ensuring rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters were in a good condition “is simply not good enough”.

He said the government’s priorities for the water sector were to secure resilient water supplies, protect customers from potentially unaffordable bills and make sure there was a cleaner, greener country for the next generation.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.