As I am writing this I am sitting in the ferry terminal in Bastia, on the other side of Corsica from Calvi, where I spent a fantastic week of ‘Summer school’ (yes, even when you pass the 25-years-old mark you still go to school…). Firstly, what a fantastic place to learn. Placed in this idyllic settings we slept, ate and studied here, both in the classroom and in the laboratory. Did I mention the beautiful views we encountered in the walk to our sampling beach? And the fact that study breaks were swim breaks? And my morning trail runs… but that makes for another story... Back to the point: What was the school about? We spent one week at STARESO learning about benthic ecosystems (= the seafloor), which are intrinsically very connected to the pelagic system (= the water column). For example primary production by plankton in the water column is both dependent upon the nutrients released by the seafloor and will also bring some of these nutrients back to the seafloor realm once it dies off. So, as we can already see, ecosystem functioning is all in the fine balance. We need to further study these system to understand the balance, where are its tipping points? For example – some animals play a greater role compared to others in this exchange of nutrients, but we still know very little. And some of these same animals are disappearing quicker than others due to disturbances ( = human pressures!). And here the summer school comes in. The school was part of FaCE-it, a big project looking at the introduction of wind turbines over the scale of the whole of the North Sea.
Day 1 lesson 1: Scale is very important! So how do you measure these impacts? Classic/older approaches tended to focus on changes in species richness, diversity… However it is hard to place impact potentials to these metrics – species are changing worldwide.. so what? Lesson 2: Focusing on functioning is more important. But what is functioning? How do you measure it? As I mentioned at the beginning, nutrient exchanges between water and seafloor are extremely important. Nitrogen, Carbon.. the balance between these essential nutrients is what keeps waters clean, fish healthy, seafloors stable etc.. Goes without saying that maintaining the right balance will maintain essential services such as the provision of food and the maintenance of tourism. And here is where the summer school really did came in: we learnt many techniques to measure fluxes of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, metals and other nutrients from the water into the sediments. Learnt to see how species can contribute to these fluxes, from collection methods to laboratory to statistical analysis of such complicated data. We learnt how to use less-invasive methods such as cameras that can penetrate the sediment allowing us to gather quantitative data on the health of such sediments. Hey, we even learnt how to model fluxes of nutrients (O, C, N) in seagrass beds using complicated mathematics that were taught in an easy-to-understand way (perhaps the swim breaks to oxygenate the brain helped!). I am now ready to take it all on board and use these new techniques in my future scientific explorations. So watch this space. And in the meantime, remember, everything is connected. So respect the ocean and the surrounding land (all of it, it will connect somehow). The planet is providing for us, but it all hangs in a delicate balance. Until we understand more, let’s try to do our best to keep it in balance and keep it as clean as possible, as nature made it…
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Okay. First of all òet's have a look at the ingredient list on the back of the packs The picture at the top is of a common brand industrial soap, the picture at the bottom an handmade soap. Notice any differences?!
Let me break them down for you: The packet at the top (industrial soap) reads a mixture of chemical names including surfactants such as Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Sodium Palmitate and other chemical leathering agents, with a little bit of natural shea butter found mid list, and some CI numbers, which I learnt are colouring.. Now, let's have a look at the package at the bottom, the handmade soap, it reads mostly (99%) natural ingredients (oils, butters and essential oils..) with some sodium hydroxide, which turns out is just soda to make it basic/alkaline! So, without need for further explanation I believe that the handmade one is the obvious right choice to make when buying your bar.. Yes, they do come with a 'heavier' price tag, but you need to consider the price tag on your health. Moreover, a bar of soap lasts a very long time if kept correctly (i.e. dry after use)! And, you can shop smart and get it from discount shops or wait for offers in shops and stock up as soap doesn't really expire...!
Coffee.. chances are you are drinking a cup while reading this blog, while on a work break in attempt to wake up (it's mid week, it's hard I know!). The smell of coffee can be in itself a great incentive to get out of bed in the morning, and many of us (me included!) are 'coffee addicts'. Hey, I can't even put two words together in the right language before my first cup..
This addiction has helped the proliferation of many coffee chains and the culture of the takeaway coffee, and many of us are in the habit of grabbing a coffee on the way to work, or popping out of the office for one on our morning coffee breaks. Service station have coffee machines, making it easy to grab a coffee while we fuel up the car (we need fuel too, right?!). But something unifies the coffee chains, the service stations, the little shops allowing us this 'coffee convenience': Disposable coffee cups! They seem innocent, 'it's just cardboard right?' - i hear you ask. Mistake. Coffee cups are NOT recyclable: to ensure they are waterproof the card is fused with polyethylene, that cannot be separated for recycling, moreover the cups are often not even made from recycled material - as the way they are designed means one thin seam of card inside the cup comes into contact with the hot drink, meaning that they have to be made from virgin paper pulp. Hum, think about that. New paper and not about to be recycled. Statistics say 10000 coffee cups gets used in 2 minutes just in the UK! JUST IN THE UK! IN 2 MINUTES! Try scale this to include other coffee addict countries (USA? Other Europe countries drinking take aways?!). Saying this, I did came across a type of more sustainable cups at the Sea Shed Coffee & Surf: made entirely from plant materials and completely compostable. If you don't use a lid (plastic) you can be sustainable... So - it's possible! Perhaps a little more expensive, but who will pay for the environmental damages that we are doing?
Another, very simple solution, is to use a reusable cup. I am the proud owner of two reusable cups - one that fits in my car cup holder (for those fuel stops! and post surf/adventure warm up needs), and one bigger ones for my everyday needs. Added bonus - i can make my own 'take away' coffee at home saving some money as well!
The benefit of a reusable cup don't just stop at environmental benefit - some companies have incentives for you to bring your own cup so I am gonna give you two example of chains that have incentive scheme and what rewards you will get (valid in UK): Starbucks: a discount of £0.25 on your drink when you bring your own mug. Which is advantageous. Plus my local starbucks also charges me for a tall (their smaller size, and discounts it) for use in my humongous mug. So a considerable saving overall... Clements (in NI): double stamps on your loyalty card. You get a free coffee when you reach 10 stamps, if you get 2 stamps at a time... that's half price free coffee! Other chains such as Costa, Pret-a-manger, Cafe Nero and Paul bakery may have similar schemes, although I am not aware of them as I have not tried to use them personally so I don't want to give wrongful information. But go in and ask, Question your chain of choice on their ethics and what are they doing to ensure they are being as sustainable as possible. If demands for unrecyclable coffee cups decreases, maybe their production will stop. You have the power to make a difference, no matter how small you act. So now go buy yourself a pretty reusable mug that will be your daily companion for years to come! (I have one of the EcoCoffee cup and are amazing!) I recently came across an article about 'seaganism' - a vegan diet with seafood allowed. Doesn't seem much different to the 'pescatarian' diet to me, which is a vegetarian diet which also allows seafood on top of dairy and eggs, so basically only restricting meat consumption. I don't get it. I admit, or better confess, to have been a vegetarian for many years myself, with some flexibility whenever I returned home for short holidays, as my family found it too hard to comprehend, understand and even allow me, so had to close an eye. For various reasons, I have not been a vegetarian for a couple of years, and so I want to reassure all that this is not going to be a 'judgemental' post like many we see on the web nowadays. You eat meat, fish, dairy and eggs? So do I! However I am constantly trying to understand how to make this more sustainable. For example by eating less of all of the above, i.e. only one of them once a day, or have one or multiple vegan day a week. But back to the seafood - why is this old-school concept that eating from the sea is so sustainable still alive? We know well by now (or should) that the sea does not provide us with unlimited resources. Yes, is vast and extremely deep, and there is still so much that we don't know about it - yet we are depleting many fish stocks and we are fishing down the food web. And what about aquaculture? This is often considered a sustainable choices, farming fish so we don't deplete stocks.... but funny enough most don't realise that some fish feeds from aquaculture actually come from the meat industry, or we fish small fish (such as anchovies and sardines, which make for pretty great human food!) in quantities that are not as sustainable as many think! Not to talk about antibiotics, and the risk of farmed fish escaping and changing local gene pools, or even becoming invasive species.. There are all sort of ecological and environmental hazards associated with aquaculture. But - as you know, the aim of this blog is to provide some solutions, not just reiterate the problems. So here is how I try to be as sustainable as possible while eating seafood: - shop local. Find a local fishmonger, or a fishmarket. If you are lucky enough to live by the sea, go directly to the fishing boat when they come in, you will buy what is local and in season and support the local economy.
- Go small scale. The smaller the boats the lower the damage in my opinion and the greater the chance to help some fishermen and their family instead of funding some big company. - Variation is key. Try different fish, maybe some crustaceans, molluscs. Don't always eat the same things. Try something new, it's exciting to try out new recipes and new flavours, and you spread the - eat less of it - Get a whole fish, understand where your food comes from. Teach your kids. Take them to the market or to a fishing town/fishing harbour. I am a strong believer that the fish fingers culture and ready frozen fish fillets have taken us away from remembering where our food comes from, what our food is and was. - use the scraps. If you buy whole fish, head and bones can make great fish stock that you can freeze and use for other recipes later! - And moreover, buy only what you need, and realise that often less is more (this goes for everything...)
As a natural fibres advocate, I decided to scout for some good fabric for my sporty life.
Requirements: 1. durable 2. comfortable 3. good fit 4. not losing shape after a few days (goes with points 1 and 3) 5. breathable 6. not synthetic 7. good for the skin 8. ecofriendly 9. not breaking the bank! With the heatwave hitting Northern Europe and the UK this week, a post about boating couldn't go amiss. Who wouldn't love to be on a yacht in a nice bay in the sunshine as they are reading this?
But... do you know that you can have an environmental impact even if you have the most ecofriendly of sailing boats? Hope my sailing friends are reading this! So you left the harbour, the winds were in your favour and you have sailed all day, no engine and you finally arrive at your chosen bay to spend the evening - you prepare to drop the anchor... and here lies the problem
This is mostly a women-specific post but men, if you are here, please continue to read on!
Yes, you are guessing right - I am going to speak about what happens monthly to most women: periods! Something so natural and so normal yet so little spoken about. During this 'plastic challenge June' I would like to particularly put periods within the plastic issue. Excitement is in the air as I am getting ready (or not) to take part in this year #plasticchallenge organised by the Marine Conservation society. First things first let's have a look at what is it and how you can take part: Please register to take part on the marine conservation website: www.mcsuk.org
You will join a revolutionary movement and receive info! So how am I preparing? (am I even preparing?) - I am NOT buying plastic things in advance to avoid buying them in June (that would be cheating...) - I am, on the other hand, planning to do my shopping at the market and researching where will I find everyday life items (hello yogurt for breakfast... ) in plastic-free containers (glass jar anyone?). The mcs has a useful tip page (click here). - The MCS also has a shop for many plastic-free needs (although i haven't bought anything from it yet, so i cannot comment on delivery etc. But seems like a good place to start from if you have nothing in terms of eco shops nearby!) - I am prepared to learn and open my eyes and I know it will be tough, very tough, and i might need to swap a few things. And I am already a pretty conscious shopper... I believe that if as many people as possible will take the plastic challenge, not only overall plastic consumption over the month of June will be reduced but it will open our eyes and make us even more responsible in the following months! So ARE YOU READY for the challenge? T-1! Let's start tomorrow ! I will update you half way through to see how it going! And more updates on my twitter as well! Comment with any questions and ideas!
Brushing our teeth - we all do it (or should be) at least twice or three times daily, we are reminded by our parents to do so when we are young and further reminded by our dentists later in life.. and we do it, somewhat innately, a mechanic action.
We are supposed to keep the same toothbrush for a maximum of three months and then change it. This means the average person uses 4 toothbrushes per year, which multiplied by the average western human life spans makes it around 280 toothbrushes (Insert shocked face here). And apparently, since their invention in the 1930s, every single plastic toothbrush produced still exists somewhere on the planet! Not at all surprisingly considering plastic can have lifespan of thousands of years, and moreover we are not even sure whether it does biodegrade at all or just gets broken down into more and more microscopic pieces which can cause enormous damage to living organisms (including us humans!). 'What about recycling?", I hear you ask. For the answer, take a quick look at your toothbrush and notice how many different types of plastics are involved. So - unless you efficiently divide them all before throwing away (and even then I am not sure how many of the pieces would be currently recyclable material) it is impossible. Faced with these facts, and embracing a low-plastic lifestyle, I have been converted to trying bamboo toothbrushes. The ones I bought are from F.E.T.E (From Earth to Earth) made with bamboo handles (that might be useful to use in arts and crafts at the end of their life due to their nice design) and recyclable nylon bristles (that can be pulled out)! Before you continue on, let me clarify that this is not gonna be a post about weight loss diets - so those looking to obtain a summer/bikini ready body may not find this useful, however whatever reason made you click on this link I encourage you to continue on and, hopefully, get some inspiration. I want to talk about our diets environmental impacts If you watched the documentary "Cowspiracy" you are probably already somewhat aware of the environmental impacts of our diet If you haven't, or are just in need of a refresher, here are some facts: - With increases in "wealth" , refined sugars, fats, oils and meats are increasingly common in most diets - This dietary shifts will lead to an estimated 80% increase in greenhouse gases by 2050, just around the corner (Tilman & Clark. 2014) - Non-vegetarian meals are estimated to have 1.5-2 times environmental impact compared to vegetarian meals (Reijenders & Soret 2003) - The environmental impact is due to land-use change. With an increase of demands for animal produces more land needs to be created, leading to deforestation efforts. - Already around 75% of global agricultural land is used for livestock rearing and the production of crops to feed said livestock (Foley et al. 2011). We could use less land to feed humans on the same vegetarian sources of proteins (e.g. legumes, soybeans..) - Deforestation and land-use changes are a major source of biodiversity loss, perhaps even more than climate change! (Tasser et al. 2017) |
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