dragonfly1 topics

'dragonfly1' website written by Dr Henry Adams - Consultant Ecologist based in Cumbria, UK

For my TAR SANDS website click HERE

This is the "hub page" for dragonfly1 - linking to the variety of topics in this web-space. Last updated: Summer 2014

REFS/LINKS

TAR SANDS

FTA_threats

FRACKING

WATER in UK

Climate Change & Energy

'internal lobbying'

#2030decarb for #EnergyBill

SLACC TT
Facebook
Newsletters

ECONOMICS

LAPWINGS of Kendal Strawberry field 2013 Inquiry VIDEO of KSF lapwings PHOTOS of KSF Lapwing links

hub page for Kendal Strawberry Field & its Lapwings Facebook page for KSF and its Lapwings
PHOTOS of KSF

2013's most useful and readable book re tackling climate change: The Burning Question Most citable web-page: Unburnable carbon 2013 - Carbon Tracker

Do you know that multinational corporations are trying to secretively implace legislation that gives them the power to sue governments if their future profits might be reduced by democratic attempts to protect our environment, climate, wildlife, health and safety, human rights, employment rights, and attempts to resist privatization of our public services? If not, or you want to do something about this, please visit my web-page FTA_threats.

My work skills and experience: public profile in LinkedIn and pdf of extracts from my c.v.
My fieldwork in 2012 (examples): July - monitoring flora in upland hay meadows in the North Pennine Dales; September - NVC upland survey fieldwork on the West Pennine Moors.
Much of the past decade I have been monitoring vegetation on farms participating in agri-environment schemes - mainly in upland areas in Wales and NW England.

I am an ecologist not just out of interest in the subject but also out of a desire for conservation of wildlife and habitats - now under increasing threat internationally due to the increasing control of governments (eg of USA, Canada, UK etc) by large corporate interests (as shown by the failure of RIO+20 and climate summits, rainforest destruction for palm oil, the tar sands oil industry etc, etc), and in the UK more specifically also by wealthy land-owning/shooting interests and developers (as shown by the gagging and suppression of Natural England by shooting interests, the threat of sell-off of our woodlands, the loss of our countryside by unrestrained development (e.g. the draft NPPF), and now - the threat of fracking for shale gas and coal bed methane (CBM).

The aim of much of the information in the dragonfly1 webspace is to increase awareness of less well known threats to the environment (and social justice), which "powers-that-be" would rather we ignore, and to provide ideas by which we can try to counter such threats. Because corporate control of governments to maintain or enhance "business as usual" is both powerful and increasing - this should not be used as an excuse to give up trying, but as an added reason for trying - as apathy to its increase will allow it to increase yet further.

My tweets: www.twitter.com/@henryadamsUK)   My email address for website visitors: infox@dragonfly1.plus.com                My about.me page: http://about.me/henryadamsuk

My facebook: www.facebook.com/henry.adams.56                        My blog on WordPress: http://henryadamsblog.wordpress.com/    My Storify: http://storify.com/henryadamsUK

My photos on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/henryadams/

Videos I want to watch: on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user9223590 Current best on youtube: Don't FRACK Our Future - Doreen's Story    Bumblebee ID chart

Tweets by @henryadamsUK

My photos on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/henryadams/ & on img.ly (mostly hoverflies & ragwort) http://img.ly/images/henryadamsUK
to which I must add link to hoverfly Spaherophoria scripta by Nigel Pugh
Kendal & Lake District hills from The Helm

Kendal & Lake District hills from The Helm

Kendal with Lake District hills beyond, looking NW from The Helm (ridge on which the Helm Hill Runners train)

I suggest you scroll down or jump to section: 'Why is our present government a threat to our environment and to our future quality of life? (& even our existence - in the long term)'

My REFERENCES database - with LINKS:

1. From 2013 onwards:

NB: please first see if the topic you want is shown in the coloured bar of links near the top of this web-page (they are the most recent of my web-pages of reference-links).
(as this section below has not been updated for a year or so)

CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY LINKS & intro to Climate Change & Energy &:
Arctic Amplification & loss of sea-ice - how it affects UK weather (pdf) & #2030decarb for #EnergyBill (html) & John Ashton speech at RSA
WATER in UK
FRACKING for SHALE GAS & other unconventional gas extraction methods. < more date-specific (e.g. news & articles), Not date-specific: My FRACKING WEB-PAGE
TAR SANDS < more date-specific (e.g. news), &: less date specific
FOSSIL FUELs other than above - e.g. other bad actions by the fossil industry
CANADA FIRST NATIONS versus TAR SANDS
RAINFOREST destruction, BIOENERGY, palm oil, LAND-GRABBING
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, Food Sustainability and Land Use/Distribution - a pdf compiled by Brian Woodward (a WDM member) & Critiques of the G8 New Alliance - Google Drive
WILDLIFE & HABITATS & AGRICULTURE
PLANNING Strawberry Field LAPWINGS see fracking page for Precautionary Principle
ECONOMICS < more date-specific (articles etc in chrono. order), &: less date specific - incl. my introduction to economics, & links to e.g. websites, books, introductory articles on economics
GEOLOGY
MISCELLANEOUS
UNSORTED - NB: this can be worth searching as I'm often too busy to read and "file" all refs I'd like to.

LINKS to some of my many items within the dragonfly1 webspace: (unless otherwise indicated)

TAR SANDS - www.dragonfly1.plus.com home-page - mainly re tar sands (and e.g. the EU Fuel Quality Directive Article 7a - important climate change legislation).

The Alberta Tar Sands in Canada is the most extensive area of industrial environmental destruction in the world - and so many people have never heard of it - despite much UK investment into it - including of taxpayers money by bailed-out RBS (a "subprime" "carbon bubble"? Also - huge negative externalities unaccounted by investors).

2. ARCHIVE: (only download this pdf if you are certain you want to see pre-April 2013 reference-links, as it is a big file): My 2011 to c. Easter 2013 LINKS pdf cataloguing external links to refs, articles etc - BUT only to c. April 2013. Thus also see 2013 onwards links below. an occasionally to frequently updated dragonfly1 pdf which lists links to recent interesting or useful articles (or websites) - mostly classified into topic categories e.g.

BAD BANKS - zero morals, zero ethics, zero empathy, US: NEOLIBERAL GOP KOCH AFP TEA PARTY FOX NEWS DISINFORMATION ETC & UK connections, MEDIA DISINFORMATION, CLIMATE CHANGE, SOLAR PANELS, TAR SANDS ETC, ECOCIDE, CETA & FTAs Free Trade Agreements (can be a major threat to social justice, the environment etc), Other OIL / FOSSIL FUEL / FRACKING, FRACKING, PEAK OIL, RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION and BIOFUELS, ECONOMICS Inequality, ROBIN HOOD TAX, NEW ECONOMICS that work even if ZERO GROWTH, TAX DODGING RICH, PLANNING NPPF, WILDLIFE & HABITATS, Mining etc

OLD FILES:
PALM OIL power station (Avonmouth nr Bristol) OK'd by Eric Pickles - a big threat of further destruction of rainforests. Also read the green-coloured text for jan-feb12 in my blog http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/#Palm_oil - This gives the GHG emissions for palm oil biodiesel when Indirect Land Use Changes (ILUC) are taken into account.

NPPF1 - PLANNING 2011 - useful reference links and my comments re August 2011 draft National Planning Policy Document for "consultation" (until 17th October 2011).

Government's proposed planning changes in the NPPF are the biggest for decades, and the National Trust, CPRE and RSPB all agree they are a huge threat to the countryside.

NPPF2 - PLANNING 2011 - My 2nd letter re Gov's draft NPPF to Tim Farron MP (1st one brief; this one not brief - almost like a briefing!).

Fields next to Kendal Parks Estate (these fields include the Strawberry field - but for info specific to this field see links at top right of this page)

These are under threat from potential development in the new Local Development Framework.

The linked documents are designed to help residents protect these fields from development. 'Fields next to Kendal Parks' pdf to help Kendal Parks residents
My submission (in 2 parts) on SLDC website.
NB: 2012: if you care about protecting green spaces in Kendal and South Lakeland do visit www.green-spaces.org.uk to SAVE OUR GREEN SPACES

Why is our present government a big threat to the environment, and to our future quality of life? (& even our existence)

The ConDem government is a big threat to the environment not just in the UK but especially abroad, due to the over-riding aim of Osborne and certain cabinet colleagues to increase the power and wealth of the richest people and 'big business', by adopting a distorted form of 'neoliberal' ideology to deregulate and further empower big business interests (the interests of "The 1%", in #occupy terms). This is hardly surprising when you consider that over 50% of Tory funding in 2010 and 2009 was from "The City" - i.e. the financial sector (data from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism), and much of the rest is from other powerful big business interests. The LibDem influence slightly moderates the worst aspects of the distorted neoliberal ideology but nowhere near enough - especially regarding green issues (too many concessions made). Professor Beetham in his paper - The Unelected Oligarchy - describes how democracy is being undermined by the increasing power of large corporations and the financial sector over Government. (Link to his paper on pdf re NPPF). This decreases the democratic influence of "The 99%" on government policy and decisions - and validates the aims of the #occupy and anti-cuts/anti-austerity movements (e.g. of Occupy Wall Street and #occupyLSX in London) to regulate or limit corporate power and greed, and reduce economic (& political) inequality.

The threat to the environment of Osborne's distorted form of de-regulatory neo-liberalism is that of 1. pressure to roll-back existing legal protection of environments, habitats and wildlife and the power of agencies to use such laws (and gagging them from speaking out), 2. pressure to force on our countryside habitat-destructive projects ostensibly for "economic growth" and "improving infrastructure" but in reality to increase profits for his wealthy chums, and 3. to try and reframe our viewpoint on wildlife and habitats away from its intrinsic values and instead to being boxed within a neoliberal market frame of extrinsic values such as money - with 'the pricing of nature', so that nature can be commodified, marketized, and ultimately destroyed by the highest bidder, via for example the absurd concept of 'biodiversity offsetting' (as if ancient woodland can be offset by planting new trees elsewhere, as if the components of a complex ecosystem can be exchanged as if fungible assets - discarding years of ecological research on the dynamic connections between the components, as if the unique combination of elements of a 'place' can be reformed elsewhere).

Except where oligopolistic aims might be harmed, there is ostensible use of cherry-picked aspects of "market fundamentalism" ideology that insists that the free-market, unfettered by both the size and regulatory control ("red-tape") of government, is a cure-all mechanism for almost everything. [Though economists Milton Friedman & Hayek gave 2 differing approaches, they are only selectively used, and the alternative Maynard Keynesian advice is ignored or dismissed with or by an exaggeration or fear of increasing national debt as the worst bogey-man (actually its the huge private debt that's now a drag and threat to our economy)].

Some background economics history: It must not be forgotten that it was the deregulation of the financial industry in UK and USA (coupled with the freedom of banks to create money by increasing private debt) which unleashed the uncontrolled greed that caused the 2007-8 financial crisis, and with the aid of Osborne's illogical austerity* policy (and bank deleveraging mood) resulted in the economic state of flattish-lining recession that we have been in until the recent beginnings of a spring-back (but with the original flaws still in place - of debt-fuelled growth). However it must also be recognized that prior to Thatcher's deregulation and City 'Big Bang', there had been a big build-up towards dominance of a 'shadow' market system in parallel to the regulated market, based on the unregulated web of secret jurisdictions of the 'tax havens' (with The City of London at its centre) which had forced a decision of whether to control the parallel market to fit in with the c.1944-5 Bretton Woods regulatory agreement or to choose to "can't beat it so join it". Hardly surprisingly, Thatcher chose the latter de-regulatory option with ease as it fitted in opportunistically with her Milton Friedman free-market/de-regulation mind-set.

Shifting forward to the present - de-regulation of business to allow it to trash the environment is still seen by Osborne and neo-liberals as one of the keys for growth. And the present negotiations for an EU-US free trade and investment agreement - a corporate charter - is trying to legally enforce deregulation to the lowest common level, and to lock that in place by a legal straight-jacketing to scupper any new regulations (e.g. laws to tackle e.g. climate change and pollution) [also to legally enforce irreversible privatization of public services (to convert taxpayers money into share dividends for Tory voters and tax haven hoards)]. My web-page on FTA threats explains these points.

We must also not forget that economic growth is an intrinsic consequence of the damaging method in which most (97%) of our money supply in circulation has and is being created as debt-based money (aka "bubble money" or 'broad money') by private banks (not the Bank of England) in the form of debts (e.g. to fund mortgage 'loans'), and that this method in its present form feeds on consumerism and our finite natural resources, thus creating an underlying system-pressure to damage our environment, and to increase carbon emissions - unless growth can be de-coupled from resource depletion and emissions production, and the money-supply system courageously addressed (little hope of latter with Osborne in control) [More on ECONOMICS in my website, as I've "packed in" dense multi-concepts here - so I must provide more on economics to help the interested reader who would like explanations as to what I've condensed here].

But de-regulation is just one of the threats to the environment of Osborne and this government. Another major threat is the increased incorporation of big business tentacles into government and its departments - especially of fossil fuel interests: with good examples being frackers Lord Browne and Baroness Hogg in the Cabinet Office and Treasury respectively. Our countryside now faces the big threat of fracking-related pollution of aquifers (irreversible), of water-courses, agricultural land and the air we breathe [see FRACKING for action on this].

The increased control of our government by fossil fuel interests is also a huge threat to the future of life on this planet, via accumulating carbon emissions and their climate change consequences [see #2030decarb for #EnergyBill for action on this].

In October 2011 Chancellor George Osborne's anti-environment views became clearer in his Autumn Statement, when he said he regarded laws protecting habitats (e.g. EU habitats Directive) and thus wildlife as an impediment to economic growth:
Osborne's anti-green agenda splits Coalition - Green Living, Environment - The Independent 26oct11
George Osborne reveals his true colours on emissions – and they aren't green   Environment   guardian.co.uk 3oct11 Damian Carrington
And in Cameron's recent "re-shuffle" an anti-environment Tory MP has been appointed Secretary for the Department of Environment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/sep/08/open-letter-environment-secretary?CMP=twt_fd
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/osbornes-assault-our-environment-20120906
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/09/john-gummer-warning-green-agenda?CMP=twt_fd

Do all you can (e.g. via your MP) to speak up against threats to our environment and wildlife.

* Austerity:
The austerity policy has increased income inequality by reducing the real income of those on lower earnings, thereby reducing consumption/demand, so discouraging manufacturing investment and reducing tax revenues. There is no empirical evidence for austerity achieving its ostensible aims. Many non-city-type economists reckon national public debt should be paid off in the good times, and that in the bad times: appropriately-targeted government spending/investment can be of benefit in lifting an economy out of recession when business and banks are reluctant to invest [QE is wastefully inefficient and increases inequality even more: trickle-down doesn't work]. Oxford macro-economist Professor Simon Wren-Lewis has argued frequently against austerity in his blog 'Mainly Macro'. He said that the recent lift out of recession was not helped by austerity but the reverse: that Osborne had eased off on austerity recently which had helped, but before that the austerity measures had delayed recovery from recession.
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Oil companies These videos help expose some of the lesser-known wrong-doings of oil companies and their bribery of UK institutions to create a false image and help suppress exposure of such wrong-doings:
                                We do need a certain amount of oil - but we don't need to ignore ethical, moral and environmental concerns to get what we need.

                                SHELL   - human rights abuses in Nigeria                                                                        BP

Shell Death Rope - In Memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa from You and I Films on Vimeo.

Protest Exposes Shell’s Grim Record on Human Rights

by ben amunwa on november 10, 2011 Text below From www.platformlondon.org

Last night Shell came face to face with its grim record on human rights in Nigeria at a corporate event for London’s bright young entrepreneurs. Protesters in haunting costumes from London Rising Tide stormed the Shell Live Wire event, unfurling a large banner and distributing leaflets to event attendees.
The protest coincides with the 16th anniversary of the execution of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists for their campaign against the environmental and social devastation caused by Shell and the Nigerian military regime. In response to peaceful protests by the minority Ogoni people in Nigeria, Shell collaborated with the military in a series of brutal crackdowns in the 1990s that claimed the lives of thousands. In October 2011, Platform released a new report on Shell’s role in recent human rights abuses perpetrated by the Nigerian military. The report also reveals how Shell has fuelled conflict through payments to armed gangs in the Delta region.

The report: Counting the Cost: corporations and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta
Link to summary & download of pdf: http://blog.platformlondon.org/2011/10/03/counting-the-cost-corporations-and-human-rights-abuses-in-the-niger-delta/

My additions:

How an ecocide law could prevent another Nigerian oil disaster Environment guardian.co.uk 22aug11

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/22/ecocide-law-nigerian-oil-disaster

An abdication of responsibility Platform 15sep11 refers to article below on Shell & deregulation oil & gas:

http://blog.platformlondon.org/2011/09/15/an-abdication-of-responsibility/

Former Shell chairman James Smith to lead deregulation of UK oil and gas industry – Telegraph 7sep11

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8745063/Former-Shell-chairman-James-Smith-to-lead-deregulation-of-UK-oil-and-gas-industry.html - unbelievably bad! - to deregulate just when Shell leaks into North Sea and BP and other oil companies given go-ahead to do deep-sea drilling NW of Shetland!

Human Cost, Tate Britain Performance – First anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico disaster from You and I Films on Vimeo.

Human Cost, Tate Britain Performance (87 minutes), charcoal and sunflower oil 20 April 2011 – First anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

On the same day, 166 people who work in the arts published a letter in the Guardian calling on Tate to end its sponsorship relationship with BP. “In the year since its catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP has massively ramped up its investment in controversial tar sands extraction in Canada, has been shown to have been a key backer of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and has attempted to commence drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. While BP continues to jeopardise ecosystems communities and the climate by the reckless pursuit of "frontier" oil, cultural institutions like Tate damage their reputation by continuing to be associated with such a destructive corporation.

The massive cuts to public arts funding in the UK have left hundreds of culturally important arts organisations in a position of great financial vulnerability, which means that the debate about the appropriateness of particular potential corporate sponsors like BP and Shell is more relevant than ever. As people working in the arts, we believe that corporate sponsorship does not exist in an ethical vacuum. In light of the negative social and ecological impacts of BP around the world, we urge Tate to demonstrate its commitment to a sustainable future by ending its sponsorship relationship with BP.”

Email : liberatetate@gmail.com

http://www.liberatetate.org ‘End oil sponsorship of the arts’ on Facebook @liberatetate on twitter

Produced by "You and I Films"
http://www.youandifilms.com

Another video of an artistic event raising awareness of BP sponsorship of the arts and BP's less artistic effects on our planet: http://bpwhiteswan.org/
This website also gives links to other related campaign orgs (APE (Artists Project Earth), Art Not Oil, Art of Activism, Liberate Tate, London Rising Tide, PLATFORM (London), UK Tar Sands Network)

'Bribes, Favors, and a Billion-Dollar Yacht Inside the Crazy World of the Men Who Do Oil Companies' Dirty Work' "Journalist Ken Silverstein gained unprecedented access to a hyper-reclusive cabal of powerful billionaires." Tim McDonnell may14 Mother Jones "Ken Silverstein is a veteran journalist who has spent the last several years finagling his way into the traditionally hyper-reclusive world of oil fixers, gaining unprecedented access to many key players and amassing a portfolio of outrageous tales of bribery, exploitation, and obscene wealth. His book, The Secret World of Oil, hit shelves yesterday, and I spoke to him about how US companies continue to skirt anti-bribery laws in the high-stakes pursuit of oil. "

IAYE - an idea pre-2010 election for a least-worst way of reducing the deficit - an alternative to destructive cuts.

This is now "academic" - because it does not fit in well with the neoliberal conservative aims of the present Condem government - for severe cuts and de-regulation - to give big business more power

CWT photos on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/cumbriawildlifetrust/

http://www.itv.com/tourdefrance/

http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/websites_visited_2014_Jan.html
http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/websitesvisiteddec2013.html
http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/Monitors.html