The European Investment Bank (EIB) agreed during its board meeting in Brussels yesterday (Tuesday, 6 February 2018) to invest £1.3 billion into the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project, increasing future EU emissions.

The loan is one of the largest spendings of public money in the history of the bank, and is meant to help complete the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), crossing most of Southern Europe. TAP will traverse Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before making a landfall on Italy’s southern shores. The planned pipeline is envisaged as the western leg of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC).

A 3500 kilometre long chain of pipelines starting in Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II offshore gas field, this project is designed to pump ten billion cubic metres of fossil gas to Europe annually, starting 2020. This is in addition to six billion cubic metres of gas that could arrive to Turkey as early as this year.

Climate crisis

The £1.3 billion loan approval follows the release of a study last week demonstrating that the Southern Gas Corridor – of which TAP is a part – could be as emissions-intensive or even more so than coal power.

A new study conducted by researchers from the Observatori del Deute en la Globalització and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia has found that the level of fugitive emissions of methane – the main component of natural gas and an exceptionally potent greenhouse gas – is highly likely to result in the Southern Gas Corridor’s climate footprint being the same of greater than the equivalent generated through coal.

The share of unintended releases of methane in the extraction and transmission of natural gas would range between 2.5 and 6 percent. Gas infrastructure with fugitive methane emissions above 3 percent is considered to be more emission-intensive than coal-fired power. The study concludes that the TAP and SGC thus raise the risk of amplifying, rather than mitigating, climate change.

In addition, the study shows that the annual emissions of the Southern Gas Corridor’s first stage alone would exceed the total emissions of Bulgaria in 2015, or even match Romania’s in that year.

Anna Roggenbuck, EIB Policy Officer at CEE Bankwatch Network, who commissioned the study, said: “As long as Europe continues to pursue the Southern Gas Corridor project, the findings of this study cast serious doubts over the EU’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis as a party to the Paris Agreement.”

Public money

In the past, officials at the European Commission and European financial institutions have argued the Southern Gas Corridor would actually help the EU meet its climate goals.

Miguel Arias Cañete, the Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, admitted last year that the Commission has not carried out any climate assessment of what is in fact the largest fossil fuel project the EU is currently pursuing.

He said at the time: “[Our assessment process has] confirmed the economic viability of these projects. The Commission has not undertaken any climate assessment of the SGC. However, gaining access to gas from new sources under competitive market conditions should enable countries in South East Europe to replace some of the most polluting lignite power stations with efficient gas turbines. This should bring substantial gains in terms of greenhouse gases reduction in the region.”

Over the past few years, a growing number of civil society groups across the world have warned that TAP and the entire Southern Gas Corridor project would be detrimental to the EU’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In spite of these calls, none of the institutions promoting or financing the Southern Gas Corridor have actively publicised a climate impact assessment on the TAP so far, and the European Investment Bank has now pledged £1.3 billion of public money into the project.

Xavier Sol, Director of Counter Balance, an organisation monitoring investment banks, said about the decision: “We witnessed today a historical mistake by the EIB, a self-styled green finance champion which has shown its true colours. The bank is showing its poor consideration of climate challenges, as well as its disregard to the problematic human rights situation in Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

Anna Roggenbuck, EIB Policy Office with CEE Bankwatch Network, stated: “This is symptomatic that the Southern Gas Corridor has been approved without EU institutions disclosing its climate impact.”

This Author

Arthur Wyns is a tropical biologist passionate about biodiversity and climate change action. He’s been involved in research teams all over the world, and recently joined the Climate Tracker team as a campaign manager. He Tweets at @ArthurWyns.

A “gentle and wise conservationist”. A “global authority on ivory and rhino horn trafficking”. And “one of conservation’s great unsung heroes”. These are  just a few of the tributes paid by environmental campaigners to Esmond Bradley Martin, who was found dead at his home in Nairobi on Sunday. 

The 75-year old American had worked for decades researching the markets for wildlife products across Africa and Asia. His research – most of which was published by conservation group Save the Elephants – included a 2017 report that found that the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was home to the world’s fastest-growing retail market for ivory, as well as a 2016 study that detailed how demand for ivory in Vietnam was threatening elephants in Africa. 

His work on the dynamics of illegal wildlife markets provided countries such as China with the hard data they needed to shut those markets down. It also informed many of the decisions following from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a global agreement that regulates trade in wildlife products. 

A terrible blow

Martin had once served as the UN Special Envoy on rhino conservation. Lisa Rolls, who leads the UN Environment’s Wild for Life campaign, said: “Esmond was known for absolute rigour and painstaking precision in his methodology and reporting. He was always willing to lend his decades of expertise to explore approaches to tackling the illegal wildlife trade with complete objectivity.

“Esmond’s commitment to securing a future for wild rhinos and elephants was steadfast. To lose such a gentle and wise conservationist in this way is a shocking tragedy.”

Maxwell Gomera, deputy director of UN Environment, said: “Very few knew much about these issues better than Esmond. Even fewer have pursued these issues with such dedication and commitment. The fight to save wildlife has lost one of its most committed soldiers.”

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save The Elephants, said that Martin’s work had been key in revealing that the price of ivory in China had fallen prior to the Chinese government’s commitment to close its legal domestic market. He was working on research in Myanmar when he died, he added.

“Esmond was one of conservation’s great unsung heroes. His meticulous work into ivory and rhino horn markets was conducted often in some of the world’s most remote and dangerous places…He was my friend for 45 years and his loss is a terrible blow both personally and professionally,” he said.

Deeply saddened

“He was a giant of a man in his field – quite literally, his tall, gangling figure and shock of white hair made him an unlikely undercover investigator,” said Greg Neale, editor-in-chief of The Ecologist and former environment correspondent at The Telegraph.

“But that was part of his role as he sought to understand the extent of the rhino horn and ivory trade, often putting himself at real risk in some of the world’s most lawless places to establish the economic and cultural background to the forces driving the rhino and elephant towards extinction.”

Tributes poured in as news of his death spread on social media. Save the Elephants (STE) Kenya tweeted: “We are deeply saddened by the death of wildlife-trade researcher Esmond Bradley Martin who died yesterday in Nairobi. A long-term ally for STE, passionate champion of wildlife and meticulous researcher, his loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him.”

Save the Rhino tweeted: “Shocking and sad news: Esmond Bradley Martin, investigator into the illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, found murdered in his home in Nairobi. Our thoughts are with his wife Chryssee.”

Martin was “a respected colleague and friend to conservationists worldwide”, WWF Kenya tweeted. “He remains an inspiration for us all @WWF. RIP.” The Elephant Crisis Fund said it was “deeply saddened”, calling Martin “a long-term ally, passionate champion of wildlife and meticulous researcher”.

The threat of murder

The news came just days after new data from campaign group Global Witness revealed that 197 people were killed globally in 2017 fighting environmental destruction from plantations, poachers and development.

The death toll has risen fourfold since it was first compiled in 2002. “The situation remains critical. Until communities are genuinely included in decisions around the use of their land and natural resources, those who speak out will continue to face harassment, imprisonment and the threat of murder,” said Ben Leather, senior campaigner for Global Witness.

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and the former deputy editor of the environmentalist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

The master of the Dwyryd Hunt in North Wales was today imprisoned for 22 weeks for the “barbaric” treatment of a badger in what the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) called a “landmark case”. 

David William Thomas, 51, of Cwm Bowydd Farm, Blaenau Ffestiniog, in North Wales, will remain under supervision for a year, was ordered to pay costs of £5,000, and disqualified from keeping dogs for an eight-year period. He had been a huntsman for 32 years, the court heard.

A second man, 25-year-old Jordan Houlston of Alexandra Road, Llandudno, imprisoned for 20 weeks, placed under supervision for one year and ordered to pay £600 in costs. He was disqualified from keeping all dogs for eight years.

Disgusting activity

Video surveillance footage showing “a badger was deliberately attacked by a pack of dogs” filmed by the RSPCA on 5 February 2017 was presented at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court. Images of fake setts – used to hold a badger for baiting purposes – and animal skulls were also shown to the court. 

Chief inspector Ian Briggs, from the RSPCA’s special operations unit, said: “This was a major and landmark investigation, in which the RSPCA caught a number of individuals red-handed in the act of using their dogs to barbarically fight with a badger. Footage of this nature is extremely rare, but lays bare the sickening nature of this cruel and gruesome activity.

“Badger baiting has been illegal for over 180 years, and it is sickening to find people still seeking to spend their time inflicting pain, suffering and misery on animals in this way. This was coordinated and carefully planned cruelty, involving dogs, badgers and foxes.

He added: “Sadly, badger digging remains a serious problem in our countryside. The RSPCA will not relent in bringing those involved in this cruel activity to justice, as demonstrated with this investigation, for which we’d like to thank North Wales Police for their support.

“This prosecution will be a warning to anyone involved in badger baiting activity. If caught, the RSPCA will act, and will seek justice for the animals involved. Put simply, there is no room for this disgusting activity.” 

Suffering unnecessarily

Eduardo Gonçalves, the chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Sadly it comes as no surprise that a huntsman has been engaged in other horrific practices involving cruelty to animals.

“David Thomas, who founded the Dwyryd hunt in 1994, and as both master and huntsman is effectively the entire hunt staff, should step down, the hunt itself should be disbanded, and the hounds relocated elsewhere. He shouldn’t be allowed any more opportunities to terrorise and kill wildlife.

“We have long suspected that the people behind hunts are involved in a range of animal welfare abuses involving the killing of animals for fun and this case illustrates the terrible savagery a small but determined minority of people are happy to inflict in the name of ‘sport’.”

Police and inspectors from the RSPCA seized 23 dogs days after the badger bating had taken place. They also found two foxes in cages, “terrified and suffering unnecessarily”. Eight more dogs were rescued from Houlston’s home.

The two imprisoned men Houlston and Thomas had been found guilty of a number of offences following a trial at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court, which concluded on Tuesday 16 January. Two others were charged under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and Animal Welfare Act 2006.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. He tweets at @EcoMontague. 

The master of the Dwyryd Hunt in North Wales was today imprisoned for 22 weeks for the “barbaric” treatment of a badger in what the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) called a “landmark case”. 

David William Thomas, 51, of Cwm Bowydd Farm, Blaenau Ffestiniog, in North Wales, will remain under supervision for a year, was ordered to pay costs of £5,000, and disqualified from keeping dogs for an eight-year period. He had been a huntsman for 32 years, the court heard.

A second man, 25-year-old Jordan Houlston of Alexandra Road, Llandudno, imprisoned for 20 weeks, placed under supervision for one year and ordered to pay £600 in costs. He was disqualified from keeping all dogs for eight years.

Disgusting activity

Video surveillance footage showing “a badger was deliberately attacked by a pack of dogs” filmed by the RSPCA on 5 February 2017 was presented at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court. Images of fake setts – used to hold a badger for baiting purposes – and animal skulls were also shown to the court. 

Chief inspector Ian Briggs, from the RSPCA’s special operations unit, said: “This was a major and landmark investigation, in which the RSPCA caught a number of individuals red-handed in the act of using their dogs to barbarically fight with a badger. Footage of this nature is extremely rare, but lays bare the sickening nature of this cruel and gruesome activity.

“Badger baiting has been illegal for over 180 years, and it is sickening to find people still seeking to spend their time inflicting pain, suffering and misery on animals in this way. This was coordinated and carefully planned cruelty, involving dogs, badgers and foxes.

He added: “Sadly, badger digging remains a serious problem in our countryside. The RSPCA will not relent in bringing those involved in this cruel activity to justice, as demonstrated with this investigation, for which we’d like to thank North Wales Police for their support.

“This prosecution will be a warning to anyone involved in badger baiting activity. If caught, the RSPCA will act, and will seek justice for the animals involved. Put simply, there is no room for this disgusting activity.” 

Suffering unnecessarily

Eduardo Gonçalves, the chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Sadly it comes as no surprise that a huntsman has been engaged in other horrific practices involving cruelty to animals.

“David Thomas, who founded the Dwyryd hunt in 1994, and as both master and huntsman is effectively the entire hunt staff, should step down, the hunt itself should be disbanded, and the hounds relocated elsewhere. He shouldn’t be allowed any more opportunities to terrorise and kill wildlife.

“We have long suspected that the people behind hunts are involved in a range of animal welfare abuses involving the killing of animals for fun and this case illustrates the terrible savagery a small but determined minority of people are happy to inflict in the name of ‘sport’.”

Police and inspectors from the RSPCA seized 23 dogs days after the badger bating had taken place. They also found two foxes in cages, “terrified and suffering unnecessarily”. Eight more dogs were rescued from Houlston’s home.

The two imprisoned men Houlston and Thomas had been found guilty of a number of offences following a trial at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court, which concluded on Tuesday 16 January. Two others were charged under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and Animal Welfare Act 2006.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. He tweets at @EcoMontague. 

The master of the Dwyryd Hunt in North Wales was today imprisoned for 22 weeks for the “barbaric” treatment of a badger in what the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) called a “landmark case”. 

David William Thomas, 51, of Cwm Bowydd Farm, Blaenau Ffestiniog, in North Wales, will remain under supervision for a year, was ordered to pay costs of £5,000, and disqualified from keeping dogs for an eight-year period. He had been a huntsman for 32 years, the court heard.

A second man, 25-year-old Jordan Houlston of Alexandra Road, Llandudno, imprisoned for 20 weeks, placed under supervision for one year and ordered to pay £600 in costs. He was disqualified from keeping all dogs for eight years.

Disgusting activity

Video surveillance footage showing “a badger was deliberately attacked by a pack of dogs” filmed by the RSPCA on 5 February 2017 was presented at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court. Images of fake setts – used to hold a badger for baiting purposes – and animal skulls were also shown to the court. 

Chief inspector Ian Briggs, from the RSPCA’s special operations unit, said: “This was a major and landmark investigation, in which the RSPCA caught a number of individuals red-handed in the act of using their dogs to barbarically fight with a badger. Footage of this nature is extremely rare, but lays bare the sickening nature of this cruel and gruesome activity.

“Badger baiting has been illegal for over 180 years, and it is sickening to find people still seeking to spend their time inflicting pain, suffering and misery on animals in this way. This was coordinated and carefully planned cruelty, involving dogs, badgers and foxes.

He added: “Sadly, badger digging remains a serious problem in our countryside. The RSPCA will not relent in bringing those involved in this cruel activity to justice, as demonstrated with this investigation, for which we’d like to thank North Wales Police for their support.

“This prosecution will be a warning to anyone involved in badger baiting activity. If caught, the RSPCA will act, and will seek justice for the animals involved. Put simply, there is no room for this disgusting activity.” 

Suffering unnecessarily

Eduardo Gonçalves, the chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Sadly it comes as no surprise that a huntsman has been engaged in other horrific practices involving cruelty to animals.

“David Thomas, who founded the Dwyryd hunt in 1994, and as both master and huntsman is effectively the entire hunt staff, should step down, the hunt itself should be disbanded, and the hounds relocated elsewhere. He shouldn’t be allowed any more opportunities to terrorise and kill wildlife.

“We have long suspected that the people behind hunts are involved in a range of animal welfare abuses involving the killing of animals for fun and this case illustrates the terrible savagery a small but determined minority of people are happy to inflict in the name of ‘sport’.”

Police and inspectors from the RSPCA seized 23 dogs days after the badger bating had taken place. They also found two foxes in cages, “terrified and suffering unnecessarily”. Eight more dogs were rescued from Houlston’s home.

The two imprisoned men Houlston and Thomas had been found guilty of a number of offences following a trial at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court, which concluded on Tuesday 16 January. Two others were charged under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and Animal Welfare Act 2006.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. He tweets at @EcoMontague. 

The master of the Dwyryd Hunt in North Wales was today imprisoned for 22 weeks for the “barbaric” treatment of a badger in what the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) called a “landmark case”. 

David William Thomas, 51, of Cwm Bowydd Farm, Blaenau Ffestiniog, in North Wales, will remain under supervision for a year, was ordered to pay costs of £5,000, and disqualified from keeping dogs for an eight-year period. He had been a huntsman for 32 years, the court heard.

A second man, 25-year-old Jordan Houlston of Alexandra Road, Llandudno, imprisoned for 20 weeks, placed under supervision for one year and ordered to pay £600 in costs. He was disqualified from keeping all dogs for eight years.

Disgusting activity

Video surveillance footage showing “a badger was deliberately attacked by a pack of dogs” filmed by the RSPCA on 5 February 2017 was presented at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court. Images of fake setts – used to hold a badger for baiting purposes – and animal skulls were also shown to the court. 

Chief inspector Ian Briggs, from the RSPCA’s special operations unit, said: “This was a major and landmark investigation, in which the RSPCA caught a number of individuals red-handed in the act of using their dogs to barbarically fight with a badger. Footage of this nature is extremely rare, but lays bare the sickening nature of this cruel and gruesome activity.

“Badger baiting has been illegal for over 180 years, and it is sickening to find people still seeking to spend their time inflicting pain, suffering and misery on animals in this way. This was coordinated and carefully planned cruelty, involving dogs, badgers and foxes.

He added: “Sadly, badger digging remains a serious problem in our countryside. The RSPCA will not relent in bringing those involved in this cruel activity to justice, as demonstrated with this investigation, for which we’d like to thank North Wales Police for their support.

“This prosecution will be a warning to anyone involved in badger baiting activity. If caught, the RSPCA will act, and will seek justice for the animals involved. Put simply, there is no room for this disgusting activity.” 

Suffering unnecessarily

Eduardo Gonçalves, the chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Sadly it comes as no surprise that a huntsman has been engaged in other horrific practices involving cruelty to animals.

“David Thomas, who founded the Dwyryd hunt in 1994, and as both master and huntsman is effectively the entire hunt staff, should step down, the hunt itself should be disbanded, and the hounds relocated elsewhere. He shouldn’t be allowed any more opportunities to terrorise and kill wildlife.

“We have long suspected that the people behind hunts are involved in a range of animal welfare abuses involving the killing of animals for fun and this case illustrates the terrible savagery a small but determined minority of people are happy to inflict in the name of ‘sport’.”

Police and inspectors from the RSPCA seized 23 dogs days after the badger bating had taken place. They also found two foxes in cages, “terrified and suffering unnecessarily”. Eight more dogs were rescued from Houlston’s home.

The two imprisoned men Houlston and Thomas had been found guilty of a number of offences following a trial at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court, which concluded on Tuesday 16 January. Two others were charged under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and Animal Welfare Act 2006.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. He tweets at @EcoMontague. 

The UK has already breached legal air pollution limits for the entire year, researchers have confirmed. EU rules say no site can breach the legal air pollution threshold more than eighteen hours a year. But one blackspot topped this in just thirty-one days.

Emissions of more than 200 micrograms of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) per cubic metre were recorded at Brixton Road in Lambeth, London, for nineteen hours since the New Year, King’s College London air monitors found.

Campaigners said that although mayor Sadiq Khan had improved things, Londoners still faced illegal levels of toxic air, and demanded the government act.

Broken the law

“Ministers have to get a grip and show they’re serious about protecting our health”, said Simon Alcock of environmental lawyers ClientEarth. “Londoners are still breathing filthy air on a daily basis.”

Oliver Hayes, from Friends of the Earth, called air pollution an “invisible killer”, and demanded “urgent government action to quickly and drastically improve air quality”.

He added: “It’s high time we reimagined our cities so that people – not traffic – come first. Our health, our sense of community, and our wellbeing depend on it.”

Last Tuesday, the European Commission gave the UK ten days to show how it would control air pollution or face the European Court of Justice.

And on Thursday, ClientEarth took Britain’s government to the High Court for the third time, forcing the Welsh government to concede it had broken the law by producing no air quality action plan.

Final warning

The environmental lawyers found the government had backtracked on a promise to introduce Clean Air Zones in major cities and delivered no plan for forty-five Local Authority areas with illegally dirty air.

James Thornton, the chief executive of ClientEarth, said: “Even now, eight years after the original deadline for compliance, thirty-seven out of forty-three zones across the UK remain in breach of legal air pollution limits.”

In November, the National Audit Office found nearly ninety percent of Clean Air Zones in Britain still breached legal NO2 levels, and that it would take another decade to bring them down – sixteen years behind schedule.

Britain has been in breach of the EU air quality directive since 2010. Last February, the European Commission delivered a “final warning” after sixteen areas, including London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow, repeatedly breached legal limits.

A February 2016 Royal College of Physicians report found air pollution caused 40,000 deaths in Britain each year, including 24,000 from Nitrogen Dioxide. In November that year, the European Environment Agency found Britain’s mortality rate from air pollution was the second-highest in Europe.

Dirtiest vehicles

Last year, the World Health Organisation found Britons were twice as likely as Americans to die from breathing toxic air. And 802 London schools and many hospitals were sited in highly polluted areas, the organisation found, “potentially putting some of society’s most vulnerable people at risk”.

Nitrogen Dioxide comes from car, bus and lorry exhausts, and may help cause asthma and other throat and lung diseases. It also aggravates these conditions, causing coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing, especially among children and the elderly, meaning some sufferers end up in hospitals and emergency rooms.

Sadiq Khan last year created two Low-Emission Bus Zones, requiring cleaner bus engines in air quality blackspots. The first began in March along Putney High Street, the second in December along Brixton Road, which last year breached the annual legal limit in five days.

Friends of the Earth are demanding a vehicle scrappage scheme, the end of London road-building projects, an Ultra-Low Emissions Zone covering all of London and a network of strengthened Clean Air Zones across the UK. Government research finds these Zones, which charge drivers of the dirtiest vehicles, are the best way to control air pollution.

This Author

Tim Holmes is an ‘active bystander’ and also researcher, writer and editor. He tweets at @timbird84.

The pheasant and red-partridge shooting season has just ended, so if like me you like animals and don’t want them to suffer, you will feel relief that you now no longer have to hear the distant shots of people out there who like to kill for fun.

But if you know a bit about the shooting industry – because you support organisations like the League Against Cruel Sports, perhaps – you will know that the suffering of pheasants and partridges is not confined to the time they are shot.

Most of them began life as chicks in other countries. They are then removed from their parents and transported long distances to a life of captivity in appalling cramped conditions.

Solitary wildfowlers

They finally end up being released in the countryside where a few days later they will be wounded or killed by a shooter, who pays for the privilege of becoming an executioner for a day.  

And those who miraculously survive the bird massacre may find themselves injured and unable to cope with a life in the wild. The wild is totally alien to them after being intensively reared in such conditions that even the most unscrupulous battery hen farmers would not inflict on their feathered prisoners.

But even if you are well versed on the evils of the commercial driven shooting industry I bet you have probably never put the mallard, the most common duck in the UK, as one of their common victims.

Wildfowling or Waterfowl shooting is the term used to describe the shooting of birds in wetlands and similar water environments, and perhaps because we use another term, we may not associate it with the shooting industry.

Some may think that solitary wildfowlers go to wetlands –hence talking about all this today – just to kill one or two ducks – and not for sport, but “for the pot”.

Those who pay

Surely they cannot be compared with the pheasant, red-partridge, and red-grouse shooters who stand in groups waiting for hundreds of birds to be driven to them by the ‘beaters’?

Compared with these, the lone water fowlers who just wait to see if a couple of naive birds are attracted to their simulated calls may be seen by some as more ‘forgivable’. But I don’t think they are.

The League Against Cruel Sports is opposed to the shooting of animals for sport, based both on a moral objection to killing for sport and also because of the unnecessary suffering that is caused by sport shooting.

These problems are particularly notable in – but are not restricted to – the commercial shooting industry. However, is shooting ducks and geese part of such industry?

Mallards, like pheasants, are now also bred in captivity for the purpose of shooting, and are also released so those who pay enough can shoot them for pleasure.

Lead ammunition

How many captive-bred mallards are part of the shooting industry? I don’t know, and I don’t know anyone who knows. What I do know is that the industry claimed in 2013, that it kills at least 20 million birds per year, and although 83 per cent of these are pheasants and partridges, one million of these are ducks and more than 100,000 are geese.

We know that mallards are the most prolific and heavily shot duck species in the UK, but how many of these ducks are captive-bred mallards, is not clear. Using a Freedom of Information Act request I asked the Government if they knew, but they replied that they don’t.

If you search the internet for captive-bred mallards to shoot in the UK you will find several companies that will provide that service to you.

But it is not only mallards and other waterfowl who are victims of the shooting industry in our wetlands. Everyone else living there is also a victim, because the poisonous lead of the wildfowlers’ ammunition is spread through the water every time a shot is fired and bullet dropped, ending up contaminating other creatures.

This is why lead ammunition has been made illegal in England and Wales for wildfowling, and for all shooting on or over wetlands (including foreshore) in Scotland and Northern Ireland. But who knows how much lead remains in wetland habitats from before the ban?

Yes, the pheasant and partridge shooting season has now ended. But if you are a mallard that happens to be below the high-water mark of ordinary spring tides, you can still be shot for 20 more days.

So, let’s spare a thought for the poor mallard and its charming quacking companions this World Wetlands Day, because many people, including me, have forgotten them for far too long. Here’s to the mallard, the forgotten victim of the shooting industry.

This Author

Jordi Casamitjana is Head of Policy and Research at the League Against Cruel Sport. 

Imagine that spring has finally arrived and you’re planning your weekend. The weather forecast looks great. You could go to the beach – but what if it’s closed because of an algal bloom? Maybe you could go for a hike – will the leaves be out yet? What might be in flower? Will the migratory birds be back? Oh, and you heard last year was bad for ticks – will this spring be better or worse?

We all take weather forecasts for granted, so why isn’t there a ‘nature forecast’ to answer these questions? Enter the new scientific field of ecological forecasting. Ecologists have long sought to understand the natural world, but only recently have they begun to think systematically about forecasting.

Much of the current research in ecological forecasting is focused on long-term projections. It considers questions that play out over decades to centuries, such as how species may shift their ranges in response to climate change, or whether forests will continue to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

However, in a new article that I co-authored with 18 other scientists from universities, private research institutes and the U.S. Geological Survey, we argue that focusing on near-term forecasts over spans of days, seasons and years will help us better understand, manage and conserve ecosystems. Developing this ability would be a win-win for both science and society.

The benefits of forecasting

Beyond helping people plan their weekends, ecological forecasts will improve decision-making in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and other industries. They will help private landowners, local governments and state and federal agencies better manage and conserve our land, water and coastlines, for example by warning of events such as pest outbreaks and harmful algal blooms. They will improve public health through better forecasts of infectious disease outbreaks and better planning in anticipation of famine, wildfire and other natural disasters.

Ecological forecasts will also deepen our understanding of the world around us, and of how human activities are altering it. Forecasting formalizes the cycle between prediction and testing that is at the heart of the scientific method, and repeats it on a much quicker cycle. It can accelerate the pace of discovery in the environmental sciences at this critical time of rapid environmental change.

New tools and technology

Big data is driving many of the advances in ecological forecasting. Today ecologists have orders of magnitude more data compared to just a decade ago, thanks to sustained public funding for basic science and environmental monitoring. This investment has given us better sensors, satellites and organizations such as the National Ecological Observatory Network, which collects high-quality data from 81 field sites across the United States and Puerto Rico. At the same time, cultural shifts across funding agencies, research networks and journals have made that data more open and available.

Digital technologies make it possible to access this information more quickly than in the past. Field notebooks have given way to tablets and cell networks that can stream new data into supercomputers in real time. Computing advances allow us to build better models and use more sophisticated statistical methods to produce forecasts.

Technical and social challenges

So far, though, ecological forecasting has not kept pace with advances in data and technology. In our article, we lay out a road map for accelerating the field by tackling the bottlenecks slowing us down.

Some of these bottlenecks are technical, such as better integrating the streams of data that are now available from many different sources, such as field studies, sensor networks and satellite observations.

Other challenges involve human choices. Ecologists need to spend more time engaged in two-way communication with stakeholders, rather than just pushing out the latest research to decision-makers. And we need better ways to transfer state-of-the-art research from universities to agencies and private industry.

Perhaps most limiting is that ecologists traditionally have not been taught forecasting concepts and methods. But as I have written, this situation is changing. There now are summer workshops and a growing number of university courses in ecological forecasting. Prediction is leading to new theories that aim to unify different parts of ecology.

With data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), scientists can compare the health of U.S. ecosystems over time.

Ecology’s choice

At the dawn of numerical weather prediction in the 1950s, scientists at the National Weather Service faced a choice. They could either wait to start forecasting until the underlying research, models and tools improved, or proceed immediately with making forecasts and learn by doing. They chose the second path. It proved harder than expected – but had they waited, they likely would have failed because they would have missed a critical window when experts and agencies were willing to make major investments in this effort.

Up to now, ecologists have generally adhered to the first, more conservative path. But in this time of rapid environmental change, the societal need and technological capacity for forecasting have never been greater. The forecasts won’t always be right, especially as the field develops, but failure is part of learning. The time for ecologists to start forecasting is now.

This Author

Michael Dietze, Associate Professor of Earth and Environment, Boston University. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

This book is beautiful, dramatic and striking: symbolic of its content. It is wisdom-filled, appropriately weighty and akin to an ancient bible. It engenders visions of dust-filled books of past times and lost cultures. Endangered acts as a modern day Noah’s Ark of imagery whose subjects, if we’re not careful, could soon themselves become of the past, ‘dust’. 

Photographer Tim Flach is no stranger to making animals a focus for his work. But here, the pictures are presented to provoke and engage the reader emotionally. Attuned to how humans regard animals, he presents pictures that pull on the heartstrings. 

Perhaps our experiences and feelings are not so removed from the animal kingdom, much of which is perilously close to extinction. But the photographer suggests that looking at how we ‘feel’ (sometimes a dirty word in scientific circles), and how we relate, is surely the way forward. 

Science and art

On first seeing the book and its several stylised images – and as an anthropologist and artist – I noticed an anthropomorphic response and my scientist side screamed, ‘contrived’! But the ‘artist’ in me acknowledged hyper-realist images on an extravagant scale.

The portraiture is profound, sad, insightful and quirky. Flach presents protagonist and photographer: passive and active as inextricably linked. His photos are eye catching and thought provoking: from the beauty of butterflies in flight, to the ethereal Sea Angel and the last living Northern White Rhino. Their stories unfold.

Photos were shot over the course of 20 months, though the book was years in the making. Flach has worked with experts and naturalists worldwide.

Scientist and zoologist Jonathan Baillie provides accompanying text along with Sam Wells, substantiating the story of each species. Condensing material for the book must have been excruciating. The book’s power comes in succinctly supplying an account that packs a punch, whilst allowing the reader space for personal interpretation. 

Endangered uniquely differs from previous work as it presents a staged, artistic snapshot in captive confines alongside animals recorded in their natural habitat. The Giant Panda is seen looking upon a spectacular natural habitat. But on closer inspection, the reader notices a corner shadow: a window, suggesting that all is not what it seems. Conserving animals in confines such as zoos is far from ideal. 

Outsider animals

The book encompasses the obscure, the ‘non-cute’, and the odd in appearance. The time is now for the ‘outsider animal’. In a world driven by appearance (applicable in both human and animal kingdom), these images show that all species are important, and highlight how interrelated planet and inhabitant is. 

Flach posits, “the most important message is that it’s not simply images of animals but that every aspect of our being is influenced by the natural world around us.

With over seven hours a day spent on the Internet, it’s clear we don’t have the same sensibilities our predecessors had to their environment. I want to point to the ecological drivers of humanity through portrayals of animals and I chose some candidates to demonstrate that”. 

The 180 photos in the book highlight the plight of a variety of species and the threats they face from poachers, the pet trade, habitat destruction, palm oil production, climate change, cultural belief, and business and industry keen to cash in on their aesthetic properties. Skins, bones, pelts, meat and eggs all are targets.

Wildlife and ecosystems are consistently threatened from all angles, and biodiversity is in decline. But daily planet doom-mongery can negatively impact.

Sentient species

Admittedly some species’ situation is so acute it appears futile to aid. But this book offers a better understanding of the bigger picture, literally and figuratively.

It is no use sitting crying (note to self) or blaming. People hold the power, by lobbying government and business, cooperatively working with communities, finding alternatives to poaching, seeking sustainable solutions. There are possibilities. 

Flach has made it his place to capture not just animal imagery, but emotion, environment, and the essence of human-animal relationships. He intimately, painstakingly and devotedly pursues the animal story. The book is a beacon, and the pleasure in his work is apparent.

Endangered is the perfect enthusiast or collectors book. Animals are heralded and held on high – not as trophies of poachers and hunters, but in the pages of a book – elevated and respected as the sophisticated, sentient species with whom we share the planet.

And whom hopefully we regard with greater consideration and wonder. It is the conversational book on conservation.

Endangered by Tim Flach

Prologue and epilogue by Dr. Jonathan Baillie, body text by Sam Wells

Abrams, £50

This Author

Wendyrosie Scott is an anthropologist and journalist focusing on design and creative communities. She looks at the positive partnerships between lifestyle trends & the​​ natural world.