Category: Environment

Fee Writes

The Power of Words.

Spin doctors – copywriters – marketing hype etc., all rely on the power of words to tell you a story.

The latest comes from the oil industry who have finally come on board with the whole climate thing. In other words, no longer saying it’s a hoax.
But now, especially in the U.S., since the new government is back into the whole ‘save the environment’ mode, big oil is getting the message out that ‘natural gas is now ‘low carbon gas’.

Come again?

Yes, you read that right. The ‘low carbon’ talk is being ramped up and being spun in all sorts of directions. ‘Low carbon solutions’ or how about ‘low carbon technologies’? These are the words that are currently being used.

Now methane (short-lived but 86 times more potent than carbon) is a massive problem. It comes from many different sources, including leaking out of pipelines or being burned off at refineries. By the way, methane emissions are increasing more rapidly than scientists thought, and in the past 20 years, it’s risen by 150%, whereas carbon’s gone up 50%.

So our friends at big oil want us to keep our eye on carbon and are getting us to believe that natural gas is the ‘good guy’ because it is ‘low carbon’. Don’t fret your beautiful head about methane – it’s short-lived, so not the worry.

It’s all bullshit. No matter what the industry or governments, for that matter, tell us. Coal, gas, oil, animal agriculture, rotting food all play an enormous part in the mess we find ourselves in as they all emit methane. And my money is on methane being the elephant in the room.

So ‘low carbon’ is just another play on words that is being spun to the plebs to get them to believe they are doing something that will help reduce emissions.

And on we will go – forever forward and upward with our emissions.

Research ref: Research.noaa.gov

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Fee Writes

A Bit of Red Seaweed Does the Trick

What do cows and red seaweed have in common? Don’t know? Neither did I until now.

I happened to catch a wee story about red seaweed the other day that made me shake my head … so I just had to put it under the category of WTF!!!

It appears that scientists have discovered that feeding this abundant red seaweed to cows will reduce methane by up to 90%! Of course they have! Scientists have been working on creating environmentally friendly cows for ages. God forbid if a person is denied the cow juice in their latte.

The seaweed is known as Asparagopsis armata, and it grows in N.Z. and Australian waters. (It may sound like asparagus, but it’s vastly different.)

My first thought was – ‘Truly? Are they going to harvest this seaweed and make another ecosystem suffer because of the love of cow’s milk?’

But then I sighed a bit of relief when I discovered that they would grow and farm it like any other crop.

As I kept reading the article, I discovered that this seaweed is good for fish farming too. Because it is a plant that feeds on the nitrogen produced by fish, fish farms could potentially increase the number of fish they farm.

Dr Meller (from this biotech company) said

“So, it is entirely feasible that a fisherman today in Southland could increase stocking capacity, decrease costs not having to move those pens around and have a third revenue stream of Asparagopsis that we would teach them how to farm, that we would buy back from them at cost, plus a margin of profit.”

He also said

“There are no environmental impacts from farming the native seaweed, and growing it helps in a small way to address ocean acidification.”

Maybe it is a way (shrugging my shoulders as I write) to help with the mess in the ocean??? I just hope the government continues to encourage reducing cow numbers and not make this an excuse to keep or increase the herd sizes.

I want to see ecosystems return.

You can read the article here: Seaweed

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Fee Writes

Environment | Health | Rants | WTF

Clean Water Plans for New Zealand?

Last week the Minister for the Environment put forward the Clean Water Plans for New Zealand.

What a joke that was!

The plan is to have 90% of rivers and lakes swimmable by 2040. That’s gone up by 10 years. From my understanding it was going to be cleaning them up by 2030, but now, again, the goal posts have been shifted.
Well, Massey University freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy says the Government is “trying to pull a swifty” with its new swimmable waterways plan.

You see it’s all about how much E-coli (and other stuff) is in the water. This is how I understand it:

540 E.coli/100mls of water gives the swimmer a 1 in 20 chance of getting sick. However, the Ministry of Health recommendation is 260 E.coli/100mls of water and that’s what it used to be. That would equate to 1 in 1000 chance of getting sick.

Big damn difference – again, shifting the goal posts.

read: Unswimmable Lagoon Now Swimmable

The problem is that the Government wants to intensify the dairy industry, meaning, more cows per herd and more dairy farms. Although I have no idea why – with the downturn of dairy and the rise of plant milks, dairy is definitely on the way out (albeit slowly).

The only good thing they announced was that all farmed waterways were to be fenced… however, yes, there’s a ‘BUT’ to this. – doesn’t have to be done till 2040!!!! How much damage can be done till then????
Besides with cows in paddocks, they’re still weeing and poohing and that eventually gets into the water table.

And one last thing he said? Don’t go swimming if there’s been a decent amount of rain. Instead of cleaning the water…..

“a big rainfall event that brings all the crap in.” – Nick Smith

If you want to find out more, head over to Stuff News “The New Swimmable Fresh Water Target”

What’s the water like in your neck of the woods?

Fee Writes

Environment | Food | Random

Cameras In Slaughterhouses – Well Done France!

I heard today that France has passed a bill that there are to be cameras in all their slaughterhouses.

Which got me remembering all the other things that France has done. So I have made a list (as I do).

They have introduced incentives to embed sustainability into French urban planning.
They are encouraging alternatives to conventional means of transportation such as self-service bike rental stations and car-sharing. They are also encouraging the use and maintenance of hybrid and electric vehicles as well as the necessary infrastructure to power them.
France became the 1st country to totally ban Neonicotinoids – the bee-killing component in pesticides. This measure goes above and beyond the E.U. ban put in place in 2013. The German company Bayer is not happy and, in fact, has a lawsuit pending against the E.U. Learn more It’s almost like France has put up its middle finger to Bayer.
France is the first country to ban plastic cups and plates and utensils. French law will require all disposable tableware to be made from 50% biologically-sourced materials. read more. And on the subject of plastic, they have also banned the common plastic bag (that’s the smaller and thinner type used in supermarkets). They will still have plastic bags, but they must be reusable ones which should cut down the numbers.
You know those little plastic bags you put the veggies/fruit in? They’ve been phased out as of the start of this year (2017).
The law also currently plans to have domestically compostable bags which should replace plastic fruit and vegetable bags too. Did you know: An average plastic bag takes one second to make, is used for roughly 20 minutes and takes up to 400 years to degrade naturally.
Food – The have become the world’s first country to ban supermarket waste and compel large retailers to donate unsold food. Let’s face it – there are heaps of places that will take donated food, not just the homeless shelters – what about schools, orphanages, old folk homes.
All the new buildings in commercial zones must now comply and have green roofs – that is to say, the rooftops must be partially covered in plants or solar panels by law.
And now – the cameras in slaughterhouses. Although France’s history of animal welfare is lacking compared to other countries, at least this is a real start. It did come about by the release of hidden video footage as well as a fair amount of protesting. Read more
To top this off a coalition of 26 French animal protection associations have combined to make sure that animal welfare is on the political agenda for the next presidential and legislative elections.

Our animals and our planet need us to get behind countries that are actually doing something. Yes, we need the “something” to be way more than what’s being done, and way faster, but, being the realist I am, I’m grateful for small wins.

Speaking about the environment. The EU, those pesky bureaucrats in Brussels who care for the environment, are putting all countries under pressure to reduce the consumption of plastic bags. Wish the same could be said for here Down Under!!!

Fee Writes

Animals | Environment | Random

The Wins Of 2016

Looking back on 2016 … it wasn’t too bad a year and we did have some wins.

There were some wonderful moments for the animals such as a group of little ducklings were saved by awesome firemen after they fell down a grate. Mumma duck was sooooo thrilled to have her babies back. And, firemen rescued swans from freezing on ice, not just once, but three times.

However, I want to look back on some of the “wins” that didn’t necessarily make the “headlines” but will make life a little easier on those animals who are constantly abused – that is: animals used for human purposes. So here’s my top 12:

Let’s begin with a statistic I think shows why many people are turning to a plant based way of eating.

94% of Americans believe it’s important that animals used for food aren’t abused. The way the industry is with factory farming, this is a good sign that people are starting to become aware.
In New Zealand battery cages are to be phased out by 2022, a great “win”. Unfortunately the egg industry managed to still have the cages by convincing the government to legalize the colony cage… still a cage, will be able to put more birds in – the campaign continues.
Around the world many groceries, restaurants and even fast food outlets no longer support caged eggs. In New Zealand, McDonalds announced its switch to only free range eggs in all outlets in 2017. Many others committed to a particular date.
In Australia the Woolworths supermarket chain went cage free and in N.Z. a campaign was launched for Countdown to do the same. Countdown is a subsidery of the above mentioned Woolworths.
In North America the “Right to Farm” is a law that was brought in to deny nuisance lawsuits against farmers who use accepted and standard farming practices. Well, the U.S. Humane Society along with other organisations set out to expose this law for what it really is : allowing farmers to use reprehensible measures like extreme confinement, mutilation with painkillers etc. They were able to stop this Right to Farm measures from being introduced into some State legislatures. Still a lot of work to be done.
The Blackfish Bill was passed banning SeaWorld and other corporations from imprisoning Orcas for profit. SeaWorld also announced that it would no longer have the Orca breeding program. I believe that the movie “Blackfish” has had a huge role in getting both these “wins”.
France became the 1st country to totally ban Neonicotinoids – the bee-killing component in pesticides. This measure goes above and beyond the E.U. ban put in place in 2013. The German company Bayer is not happy and, in fact, has a lawsuit pending against the E.U. Learn more It’s almost like France has put up its middle finger to Bayer.
And on the subject of bees, Canada is also trying to put in place a ban however, again Bayer has their lobbying hat on tight and the pressure is on. You can help by signing the petition: Save The Bees
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus ended their elephant performances and took the elephants off the road in response to growing public concern over how the animals are treated.
The number of Tigers, Pandas and Manatees all increased quite substantially which, if this keeps going, these animals will be able to come off the endangered list.
On another note – the environment … 40,000 New Zealanders, who opposed the secret giveaway of community water resources, celebrated when The Ashburton District Council backed out of negotiations with NZ Pure Blue – a deal that would have allowed the corporation to extract billions of litres of waters from the aquifers beneath the town. The message was loud and clear – the last thing the community needs is a bottled-water company sucking the town dry for profit, especially in a drought-prone region. Mind you, this applies everywhere – as is being witnessed currently in the U.S.A. with the town of Flint as well as the Dakota Pipe Line.
This was a story that absolutely delighted me.
The Australian mining company, OceanaGold, had a contract to build a massive gold mine in Cabanas, a country in El Salvador. Now this would have used the last remaining water source, so the country of Cabanas refused to issue permits. OceanaGold filed a lawsuit against El Salavdor. However, because of worldwide people power, the lawsuit was dismissed. But wait, there’s a bit of icing on this cake – OceanaGold had to pay El Salvador compensation and cover their court costs.

So I’ll end this post on that absolutely corker win… showing that the little guy can take on the giant.

You’ll be able to find lots of other stories on the internet, but these ones were either close to my heart, or a little different to the usual.

All my heartfelt thanks for supporting me with my journey this year. May your 2017 be blessed for you and your family and may we have many more “wins” so we can ease the suffering of the many animals who endure so much for us.

Thanks for dropping by, my name is Fee O’Shea. I’m a mother and grandma, an author and an Improver. I’ve got a resource website to help peeps go plant-based, I’ve scribbled six books centred around veganism, and have helped others write and publish their own stories.
But this blog is for my thoughts, my rants, raves, reviews and things that have grabbed my attention. From politics to social media to beauty, health and the environment. Fee’s Ramblings Over Coffee is written to bring you a smile or get you thinking. Enjoy.

Category: Environment

The Power of Words.

Spin doctors – copywriters – marketing hype etc., all rely on the power of words to tell you a story.

A Bit of Red Seaweed Does the Trick

What do cows and red seaweed have in common? Don’t know? Neither did I until now.

Clean Water Plans for New Zealand?

Last week the Minister for the Environment put forward the Clean Water Plans for New Zealand.

Cameras In Slaughterhouses – Well Done France!

I heard today that France has passed a bill that there are to be cameras in all their slaughterhouses.

The Wins Of 2016

Looking back on 2016 … it wasn’t too bad a year and we did have some wins.

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