Relatives face extinction

There are seven species of great ape and four of these are close to extinction. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classes the Eastern Gorilla, Western Gorilla, Bornean Orangutan and Sumatran Orangutan as Critically Endangered. That's one step short of extinct in the wild.

Another two - the Chimpanzee and Bonobo - are merely Endangered. 

The seventh great ape - Homo Sapiens - is increasingly numerous though whether our current numbers can be sustained is another matter.

The IUCN estimates the total number of chimps as 170,000 to 300,000 so there are more people in Enfield than there are chimps in the whole world. It estimates the number of bonobos at 30,000 to 50,000 so there are probably more children in Enfield than there are bonobos in the world.

Wasting the Water of Life

I want to recommend the work of Prof. Arjen Hoekstra, University of Twente.

Hoekstra invented the Water Footprint, similar to the carbon footprint, and has published vast amounts of data. He also has emphatic views:

In Europe, the average consumer’s domestic use is typically only 1 to 2 per cent of their total water footprint: the vast majority relates to the products you consume ... about 90 per cent of our global water footprint relates to food. About one-third relates to the production of feed for the animals we consume.

In California, for instance, the state’s biggest water use is for feed crops. Meanwhile, you have this drought going on, and all of the time the focus is on how terrible it is to have a drought. But the real focus should be on how stupid it is to have such a big water demand in a region where droughts are fully expected.

You can use less and less water per unit of production, but if your population is growing and your consumption booming, then that is simply not sufficient.

Because it imports so many goods, three-quarters of the UK’s water consumption is actually outside of its borders. And about half of that usage is not sustainable.  

We in northern Europe should realise that we are actually quite well off with water, and ask why we import water-intensive goods from water-scarce areas. It doesn’t make sense that we produce so little of our own food.

 All round the world we are mining water rather than recycling it. Ground water WILL run out and if we aren't ready we will all be in bad trouble.

Green Pioneer: Who Was Sir Peter Scott?

Scott was a sportsman, ornithologist, painter, TV presenter and conservationist. His greatest legacy is the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) which he founded in 1946.

Peter Scott was born in 1909, the son of the explorer Robert Falcon Scott and the sculptor Kathleen Bruce. As a young man his interests were art and sport. He became a noted wildlife painter and won a bronze medal for sailing at the 1936 Olympics.

In the Second World War he served with distinction in the navy and invented a camouflage painting scheme said to be so effective that it caused collisions!

In 1946 he founded the Severn Wildfowl Trust (now the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) at Slimbridge. It was here that he saved the nene or Hawaiian Goose from extinction by a captive breeding programme. The nene was later reintroduced to Hawaii – there are now c800 birds in the wild. Scott’s large painting of nenes in flight can still be seen at Slimbridge.

From 1955 to 1981 Look, his series of natural history films, appeared on the BBC. They included the first BBC natural history film in colour.

He received many honours and awards for his work including an FRS, the WWF Gold Medal and a knighthood

Scott left five enduring legacies:

• The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust which now has nine sites in the UK and an active conservation programme.
• The Hawaiian Goose, which he saved from extinction.
• The World Wide Fund for Nature, of which he was the founding chairman.
• The Red Data Books, which list the world’s endangered species.
• The tradition of natural history film-making to which he contributed strongly and which has encouraged untold numbers of people to understand and value the natural world.

Truly, a remarkable life!

For more information:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Scott
• Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (http://www.wwt.org.uk/)
• Courtney, Julia, 1989. Sir Peter Scott: champion for the environment and founder of the World Wildlife Fund. Stevens, Milwaukee.