Campaign to save Geronimo the alpaca beggars belief
Well at least the rain has stopped, it might not be that sunny or warm but it is dry. Having had 98 per cent of our annual average August rainfall in the first week, Sussex is now slowly drying out and harvest has resumed with some late hay being made; bullock hay as we call it, a euphemism for low quality. We have been pulling ragwort at Tillington and apart from the fence-lines we have pulled most of it; a bumper year for this bright yellow flower but easier to pull this year due to the wet soil.
As we look forward to some summer at last, we are now told that in addition to the much-feared climate change the moon might have a little ‘wobble’ in its orbit over the next decade, perfectly natural apparently but will affect tides, especially high tides, adding 50-60cm to the daily average high tide.
In farming, leading scientists warn that the current methodology for recording methane emissions from livestock is distorting our understanding of climate change. Farmed animals are touted as one of the leading causes of climate change, but as reported in this column before, scientists want methane emissions treated differently to CO2. Methane, they explain, is a ‘flow’ gas and breaks down within 10 years, whereas CO2 is a ‘stock’ gas, accumulating in the atmosphere and taking around 1,000 years to degrade.
The IPPC now officially recognises that it is wrong to treat these gases in the same way in its sixth assessment report; the first major review of climate science since 2013. It now acknowledges that the current carbon metric GWP100 is unfit for purpose when assessing the impact of short-lived greenhouse gases such as enteric methane. Many farming leaders commented that with increased productivity and fewer sheep and cattle in this country, we have already contributed to global cooling and further cuts to flocks and herds are unnecessary.
It beggars belief that a campaign has been launched to save Geronimo the alpaca; the media sensationally state that he has ‘survived his first week on death row’ and hopes of a reprieve are high; if he is killed and shown to be negative ‘there will be hell to pay’! Let’s just remind ourselves how many cattle have been killed this year after failing TB tests – 12,284, with 160,000 killed over the past four years.
Animal campaigners protested outside Defra offices in London and Dominic Dyer, former chief executive of the Badger Trust, joined the alpaca’s owner Helen Macdonald, calling for Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister’s wife, to intervene. Every farmer who has had cattle destroyed when tests show they are infected will sympathise with Helen Macdonald, but they had no choice and cannot question results and it has to be the same rule for all. No test is perfect, but a team of experts has been involved in the fight against bovine TB for years and while political decisions such as in Wales not to cull badgers, in the full knowledge that no country in the world has rid itself of TB without tackling wildlife, we fight this disease with the tools we have. Effective vaccine is still years away and therefore any animal failing the test is put down; unfortunately, Geronimo cannot be an exception to this rule.
Labour issues continue and chicken farmers have reduced numbers on their farms due to the difficulties in processing, as reports from the British Poultry Council show businesses reporting an average vacancy rate of 16 per cent of their total workforce. This is reducing the range of products and cutting back weekly chicken production by five to 10 per cent with all-year round turkey production back 10 per cent with turkey Christmas production likely to be down 20 per cent. This will bring in more imports reared to different standards at a time when government is pushing higher standards in this country. This increases our vulnerability to food shortages and higher prices down the line. The BPC is banging on the government’s door asking for poultry-meat supply chain workers to be put on the skilled worker list and the shortage occupation list and a seasonal agricultural scheme to be set up.
The 100,000 HGV drivers shortage in this country is now affecting grain haulage off farms as the combines roll. The increased wages, costs of fuel, tyres and machinery mount up and haulage companies are reluctant to move grain when more lucrative contracts, transporting other materials are available. Haulage costs are up by 10 to 12 per cent for fruit and veg; dwarfed by the 25 to 30 per cent increase in cardboard and higher wages; dairy haulage costs are up too.
As the Conservative Party begin to slowly turn against the Prime Minister over green policies and the idealism, as they see it, in combating climate change, the voice of reason in this present climate panic comes from Greta Thunberg! As long as we are brave we can avoid the worst consequences of climate change – it is up to us to take decisions based on scientific evidence, she said.
Greta bravely criticises the fashion industry over its contribution to climate change, widely believed to be the second-most polluting industry according to the UN and accounting for 20 per cent of waste water globally. Apparently it takes 7,500 litres to make a pair of jeans! That includes irrigating cotton crops of course, but then many pairs of jeans are attacked with cheese graters, steel wool, sandpaper or pumice-stone in order to make them look old by turning them into ripped jeans; the height of madness?
Back in the real world, the cost to the UK economy of getting to net-zero emissions while ranked 17th in the chart of global emitters at
1.1 per cent is considerable and will mean huge changes to everything we do. However, with
China at 28 per cent and the USA at 15 per cent, these two countries hold the key to all this. While countless countries are around one per cent or lower, with India at seven per cent and Russia at five per cent, Japan at three per cent, Canada, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia Germany, South Korea and Iran at two per cent; China and the USA will be the ones whose action or inaction decides our fate. How much faith do we have in these two reducing their emissions and how on earth do they come down to sensible levels, never mind zero any time soon? What changes do they need to make and can it be done in time; do they have the will? Can their economies withstand such huge change in so short a time? Cop26 this autumn, Boris’s big showcase will give us some indication, and while no one expects agreement there, or indeed evidence-based maps setting out the technologies each country require and by when, we might get a glimpse of where everyone is in terms of commitment.nWith just a few weeks to go, the UK has not done that either and while the Prime Minister hopes this is going to be a big event for him, many think it will not yield the necessary commitment from many and will be a damp squib. Our own government is too frightened to publish the sheer cost of the UK hitting its ambitious targets and until they do no one really knows how big this is.
Pic: Getty Images