Behaviour Change Cornwall is funding and launching a new campaign - with the backing of the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust (CSGRT), Seal Alliance and Looe Marine Conservation Group -…
Sites in Turkey, including the famous Gobekli Tepe, show that before agriculture, hunter-gatherers started harvesting wild grasses. They were using the ancestors of wheat and barley to make beer - crushing them up in big tubs and leaving them to ferment. They found hundreds of these tubs and even simple musical instruments. What were they doing - having a festival of course. At this proto-Glastonbury hunter gatherer groups would come from miles around to drink, listen to someone rock out on the deer-horn flute and enjoy themselves.
Lets start with the virus. Viruses are often seen as the evil bad guys, trying to thwart life at every turn - their name comes from the Latin vīrus referring to poison and other noxious liquids. In reality however viruses actually do a lot for us and our world and despite being often defined as ‘disease-causing agents’ (as bacteria first were).
Cornwall, a spear of rough-hewn granite thrusting out into the Atlantic, is unsurprisingly abundant in wrecks which contribute to the rich marine world around Cornwall’s coast. From the RMS Mulheim and Ben Asdale wrecked on the coast, to Shipwrecks sunk purposely like the Scylla off Rame Head all Cornwalls Wreck function as islands of biodiversity.
Eco-friendly changes you can make to have a more sustainable Christmas and make Santa as green as a Christmas tree again.
Like a medic overwhelmed with casualties, we triage. This means we must target the most deadly plastic in our oceans first - if we can't remove it all we must focus on the most lethal items and prioritise their removal from the environment.
Basking Sharks are the second largest fish in the ocean - enormous enigmatic sharks who glide along our coastline with a great dark triangular fin jutting out above the waves. Gentle giants - over 12 metres in length - basking sharks only eat the tiniest planktonic creatures at the surface, swimming with a gaping mouth open to filter out their microscopic meals. Surprising little is known about their habits.
Conservation campaigns often have little effect because they don't understand what actually drives human behaviour - they focus on changing attitudes through education, but often fail to actually change peoples behaviour. For example its much easier to use an education campaign to get people to think recycling is good, than to actually get them to recycle. Other psychological factors clearly are at play.
Plastic isn't 'bad' or 'good' - it is a both wonder material, strong, light and resistant (hence why it lasts) and without it we wouldn’t have a lot of things we rely on everyday. The problem is our over-use and poor disposal of it, which isn’t so wonderful
Whats better that popping a cork on some bubbly or a fine wine? Not much and especially not a plastic screw top. Bottle lids are one of the most common beach finds and one of the most lethal long-lasting choking threats for wildlife and our beloved pet dogs. Buying drinks with traditional cork stoppers is a great alternative, so feel good when you hear that pop.
