I was living in Paris when Christo wrapped the bridge. It looked amazing at night and by the time it was dismantled, it was covered in messages written by the 1000s that crossed it. I took my scissors down and amongst many others I snipped off a piece of the fabric.
I still have the souvenir somewhere.
Filed under Uncategorized
Filed under Uncategorized
I have noticed a distinct lack of bees here after our bush fires.
As well ,another large tract of land has been poisoned nearby. Even the much maligned lantana flower has many bees feeding from it.
World Bee Day – celebrated on May 20 – is a day adopted by the United Nations from the Slovenian Beekeepers Association to raise awareness of the importance of protecting and preserving bees and other pollinators.
It honours not just honeybees, but bumblebees (of which there are 21 species) and the 77 species of solitary bees, too.
Bees are most commonly known for honey, but these intelligent creatures are also behind most of the food we love – fruit, veg, chocolate and even coffee.
And Albert Einstein once famously said that “if the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live”. But why are bees so important?
Essentially, bees are crucial for the pollination of plants – pollinating a third of the food we eat and 80 per cent of flowering plants – many fruit, veg and crops that feed livestock depend on bees to pollinate them.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/20/joni-mitchell-where-to-start-in-her-back-catalogue
If half the effort
devoted to ‘conquering’ The Virus in such haste
were to be applied to ‘de-conquering’
the environment and mitigating climate-change,
we could say that we had matured a little
as a species. Instead, the War against The Microbe
is filling up the world with yet more plastic waste.
From Antony.
Filed under Uncategorized
Yesterday I watched three white headed pigeons dart out of the trees in a hurry.
I then found Fluffy feet, headless and a bazza hawk flying off .
Fluffy came to me from a rescue from a camping site. Her sister was a victim of a feral pack of dog attack 3 years ago.
She became my favourite and everyday when the hens were free ranging, she always came to the cabin door to be let in to do her daily rounds of my living space. Once satisfied she had found all crumbs on the floor would happily rejoin the other hens free ranging.
8 years she has been here………………………I will miss her.
Filed under Uncategorized
After the fires subsided here at the end of January we had little respite until the virus hit.
Conspiracy theories abound here. A 5 g protest in town yesterday..irony was the protesters were filming and taking photos of the Telstra towers on their 3 and 4 g mobiles.
When our fires raged here in Huonbrook and Night Cap National park our biggest fear was that our land lines for our telephones would be razed.
No mobile coverage here yet.
Our fears were heightened by the speed of the fire’s front and our already neglected phone poles and lines. Telstra does not maintain the phone lines which must mean they are being fazed out.
We have no choice and if the fire season becomes an annual event then we have to be ready. Already our rain fall for this time of the year has been below average and spasmodic therefore the rain forest is still drying out.
I see more herbicide use in the valley. Odd really as we are now on the verge of accepting yesterdays herbicide habits are contributing to bio diversity loss. See more on Insect declines globally.
Filed under Uncategorized
Days merge, sun is out, cooler nights so sleep is easier.
Media when I get up and 6 at night.
Bonfires, stacking and burning excess dried tree branches, summer started in August 2019.
Clearing turmeric leaves, harvesting pineapples, the sweetest yet, avocados from a tree that has been in the ground for 25 years, drought, smoke, heat and when the rains came its flowered and fruited.
And chilli, lots of chilli.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2020/apr/06/coronavirus-street-art-in-pictures
Filed under Uncategorized
Filed under Uncategorized
As I watch my garden rebound after the severe drought and fires, I marvel at natures ability to regenerate. My first spinach and avocado for my table, both spiced with abundant chilli.
Media is now limited to Radio National and Norman Swan and the updates on covid-19.
It is far greater now for the global human population where as our scary bush fires was more local although it was daily head lines everywhere around the world.
So after this virus peters out will there be real acknowledgment of how we humans are destroying our planet home. And start to take it seriously?
Nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis, according to the UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen.
Andersen said humanity was placing too many pressures on the natural world with damaging consequences, and warned that failing to take care of the planet meant not taking care of ourselves.
Leading scientists also said the Covid-19 outbreak was a “clear warning shot”, given that far more deadly diseases existed in wildlife, and that today’s civilisation was “playing with fire”. They said it was almost always human behaviour that caused diseases to spill over into humans.
To prevent further outbreaks, the experts said, both global heating and the destruction of the natural world for farming, mining and housing have to end, as both drive wildlife into contact with people.
My admiration goes to all front line workers, especially in our hospitals and paramedics.
Filed under Uncategorized
By Jane McNaughton Updated 11 minutes ago First posted about an hour ago
This map, created by Australian scientists, shows where soil is contaminated by glyphosate.
Supplied: University of SydneyClose
In a world first, Australian agricultural scientists have created a map that pinpoints global hotspots of glyphosate contamination.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in weedkiller Roundup, originally produced by Monsanto — a global company now owned by Bayer.
The map identifies environmental risk analysis and determines that Australia’s most affected regions are south-east New South Wales and central-west New South Wales continuing up to north-west Queensland.
Western Australia also shows various regions to have a medium hazard, as well as parts of South Australia and Victoria.
Lead author of the paper, Associate Professor Federico Maggi from the Sydney Institute of Agriculture, said the map wasbased on research complied over years of global study.
“The reason we produced the database is because there is a lack of understanding of the molecules used and the geographic distribution of the users,” he said.
This comes as international agencies discuss the future of the herbicide.
“The European Commission is investigating whether to extend [Roundup’s] licence, suspend the use of it, or ban it,” Dr Maggi said.
In Australia and overseas, there are multiple legal actions underway against agricultural chemical company Monsanto over claims that Roundup causes cancer.
But Dr Maggi said the jury was still out on whether the chemical was a health risk.
“The scientific literature is very much divided into those who bring evidence that it may have negative impacts, and those who state there are no visible impacts on human health,” he said.
The research found that glyphosate and associated by-products of the chemical were detected in the majority of the globe’s soil.
“It’s found nearly everywhere globally, and it is unpreventable because we found that environments that have not been exposed to this molecule before have a very low capability to degrade it,” Dr Maggi said.
By Jane McNaughton Updated 11 minutes ago First posted about an hour ago
This map, created by Australian scientists, shows where soil is contaminated by glyphosate.
Supplied: University of SydneyClose
In a world first, Australian agricultural scientists have created a map that pinpoints global hotspots of glyphosate contamination.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in weedkiller Roundup, originally produced by Monsanto — a global company now owned by Bayer.
The map identifies environmental risk analysis and determines that Australia’s most affected regions are south-east New South Wales and central-west New South Wales continuing up to north-west Queensland.
Western Australia also shows various regions to have a medium hazard, as well as parts of South Australia and Victoria.
Lead author of the paper, Associate Professor Federico Maggi from the Sydney Institute of Agriculture, said the map wasbased on research complied over years of global study.
“The reason we produced the database is because there is a lack of understanding of the molecules used and the geographic distribution of the users,” he said.
This comes as international agencies discuss the future of the herbicide.
“The European Commission is investigating whether to extend [Roundup’s] licence, suspend the use of it, or ban it,” Dr Maggi said.
In Australia and overseas, there are multiple legal actions underway against agricultural chemical company Monsanto over claims that Roundup causes cancer.
But Dr Maggi said the jury was still out on whether the chemical was a health risk.
“The scientific literature is very much divided into those who bring evidence that it may have negative impacts, and those who state there are no visible impacts on human health,” he said.
The research found that glyphosate and associated by-products of the chemical were detected in the majority of the globe’s soil.
“It’s found nearly everywhere globally, and it is unpreventable because we found that environments that have not been exposed to this molecule before have a very low capability to degrade it,” Dr Maggi said.
“All croplands globally are currently affected by these substances; the intensity of the chemical is variable,” he said.
Filed under Uncategorized
