Why fake grass is far from green in ways you might not imagine

Posted on 17 July 2022 by Ros Coward

Artificial lawns are higher maintenance than the adverts will have you believe … and they’ll burn your feet in this heatwave.

I count myself lucky having a very small garden in London. It won’t win any horticultural prizes and “No Mow May” is the perfect excuse for benign neglect. But it has grass, the shade of an old apple tree and a water feature, and, in this heatwave, it’s a sanctuary. Most people have the same instincts, heading for shaded parks. In heat like this, we all want grass and trees.

But I keep getting leaflets urging me to destroy my leafy garden and to landscape it with artificial grass, allegedly “almost maintenance free”. They show “gardens” with emerald-green plastic “lawns” surrounded by austere plant-free fencing. These lifeless green carpets are set off with paving stones and have concrete “planters”, bleak designs sending a message: no living creatures tolerated here.

Streets Ahead. What I’ve learned from my year with an electric car

Posted on 8 January 2022 by Ros Coward

Record sales and now news of a battery that lasts hundreds of miles. It’s getting better, but going green was tough, admits a reluctant pioneer.

This time last year my partner John and I celebrated purchasing an electric car by driving through London to see the Christmas lights without having to pay congestion or Ulez – ultra-low emission zone – charges. I gleefully tweeted that Regent Street, deserted in lockdown, seemed a London from a different era: empty roads and glittering shop windows.

This was my first moment of enjoyment of the electric vehicle (EV), whose purchase had been the source of considerable domestic tension. An eternal optimist, John was convinced we should dispense with a diesel car. The arrival of a grandchild, living at the opposite diagonal corner of London, tipped the balance. It would cut 30 minutes off a hellish journey.Advertisement

I mainly saw negatives. I liked my nippy BMW and had range anxiety. How far could we go before the battery failed? Would we be able to do long drives? Were our meandering journeys through France finished for good? “Of course we’ll go,” John said. ‘The French are way ahead of us when it comes to electric.”

Not in the Tesla price bracket we opted for …

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/08/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car

Nimbys are not selfish. We’re just trying to stop the destruction of nature

Posted on 4 July 2021 by Ros Coward

Developers use this laden word when they want to obliterate wildlife and its habitats, to demonise anyone who objects

If there’s one word in the English language that I’d like to get rid of, it’s nimby. The acronym – for “not in my back yard” – is often used by developers and politicians to deride local protesters who stand up to housebuilding. “Nimbys”, they claim, are self-interested, live in nice houses, in nice places and want to deny these privileges to newcomers. In my opinion, the word is a spectacular example of how language can stand reality on its head: developers are not champions of the people and those who oppose them are certainly not selfish.

Springwatch gives succour to our souls, but should it do more?

Posted on 26 May 2021 by Ros Coward

The BBC nature programme is good at engaging with the public but it fails to address the threat of human development

Springwatch is back, the BBC’s largest outside broadcasting event with regular audiences approaching 4 million. I’m among its greatest fans, having watched every series – and spin-offs, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch – since it began in 2005. But this year I’ve begun to worry about the gulf opening up between the wonderful richness on the screens and the urgent biodiversity crisis unfolding off camera.

Springwatch’s unique contribution to wildlife programming is its emphasis on citizen science. The audience is encouraged to observe and submit data about their gardens and local spaces, a model of environmental engagement. But deep down, Springwatch is rooted in the Attenborough tradition of nature programming: intimate stories of wildlife, focusing on nature’s eternal beauty and fascinating behaviours. What’s missing is coverage of the human pressures on their habitat.

Across the UK, environmental protest is surging. So why don’t we hear about it?

Posted on 4 April 2021 by Ros Coward

There are hundreds of local uprisings against developers – and it’s starting to become a national issue.

How many local environment campaigns does it take for the issues they raise to be recognised as part of a national problem? Ten? Twenty, maybe? What about 100? Surely national media and politicians would have taken up the issues by then.

As it turns out, there’s far more than 100 local environmental campaigns going on right now. In just two weeks, more than 280 different groups across the UK have registered on a new National Grassroots Campaigns Map. Rosie Pearson, one of the founders, is astonished: “When we set it up, it was really just to see what’s out there. But we quickly realised there’s a real hunger for sharing information, resources and support. We’re witnessing a huge number of local groups facing the same issues.”

I got a sense of the scale of this problem following an article I wrote about the assault on the countryside. I was deluged by local campaigns: Save Ferriby 2020, Save Culham Green Belt, Save West Grinstead, Keep Rookwood Green, to name but a few. But to see the visuals of this new map is shocking. There are huge housing developments and damaging infrastructure projects everywhere. It’s clear that these are far from localised disputes. They are fighting the same battles: against huge unsustainable housing developments engulfing small towns; against the loss of greenbelt or protected wildlife areas; and against hypocritical councils who declare a climate emergency in one breath and order the destruction of carbon sequestering trees or marshland in another.

The Fashion for Foraged Food

Posted on 15 June 2015 by Ros Coward

Food for Free

I’m fortunate to have a background where local food was valued. My father, who was not at all wealthy, was nevertheless a great believer in shopping locally. As convenience shops and supermarkets began to take over, he loyally supported the local fishmongers and butchers, seeking out high-quality local produce. I inherited his tastes – and habits – so have never felt alienated from local foods. Even so, my strong commitment to local foods turns out to have been very limited after all. Foraging for local wild food was way off my compass.

It never occurred to me that plants familiar on country walks were anything other than charming weeds. My awareness was only awakened by books like Richard Mabey’s Food for Free. In particular it took articles about thrillingly interesting chefs like René Redzepi from Noma and Simon Rogan from L’Enclume to awaken a real appetite for such food.

So last summer on regular walks in Kent, I began to gather and cook nettles, seakale, wild garlic and Alexanders.

http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article4406-food-for-free.html

Trevor Phillips and the Multiculturalism Debate

Posted on 20 March 2015 by Ros Coward

Trevor Phillips programme, Things we won’t say about race that true, has opened the debate about how integrated is our society and whether ‘multi-culturalism’ has allowed separateness and cultural isolation to flourish. Fifteen years ago, in October 2000 the Observer carried a debate between cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, and myself on Britishness as a result of the publication of a Runnymede Trust report. This report suggested that ’Britishness’ connotes racism and suggested ways of diluting it. Firstly Britain should be reconceived as ‘community of communities’. Then there should be a formal declaration that Britain is a multicultural society’. I criticised this . ‘To suggest ‘Britishness’ connotes racism is absurd, an attempt to wring a mea culpa from guilty liberals and nothing to do with advancing racial unity and equality’ ‘‘Multiculturalism’ is riddled with problems, and it is not racist to think so.’
This article was ahead of its times when it was received as an attack on a much cherished liberal orthoxody of multiculturalism.

To read the original article by me, see:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/15/britishidentity.comment

Cheap Milk & the ‘Lidlisation’ of shopping

Posted on 11 March 2015 by Ros Coward

Decent food isn’t cheap, and if the ‘Lidlisation’ price wars continue it could mean the end of grass-fed cows in our fields

Lidl, Asda, Aldi and Iceland have now cut the cost of milk to 89p for four pints, making milk cheaper than most mineral water. This is astonishing, given that milk is a food that is the end product of a slow, costly, and, hopefully, careful process of rearing animals and their fodder. No wonder the British dairy industry is now looking at ruin.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/13/milk-cheaper-than-water-what-happens-cows

Spying on carers risks damaging the trust we need to raise standards

Posted on 7 October 2014 by Ros Coward

Finding care for frail parents in their declining years has just been recognised as one of the most stressful decisions we will ever have to make. According to a new Care Quality Commission survey, it is more stressful than getting married or divorced or choosing children’s schooling. Central in this stress is the fear that carers might not just be inadequate but cruel – understandable given recent court cases exposing extreme abuse in care homes. But is the solution to use secret cameras to monitor carers? Or would this exacerbate stress by adding further distrust and creating a surveillance mentality towards work that essentially depends on good and trusting human relations?

While falling short of actually recommending that relatives should install surveillance cameras, the CQC is nevertheless endorsing their use by issuing guidelines for relatives considering such action. Andrea Sutcliffe, the watchdog’s chief inspector of adult social care, acknowledges that this is controversial. Some people, she says, will think of her as the “devil incarnate”, but she defends the guidelines as guidance for those who choose this route.

I certainly don’t think these suggestions are diabolic: they are a legitimate response to heart-breaking cases, like that of 79-year-old dementia sufferer Gladys Wright, whose abuse at the hands of “carer” Daniel Baynes was exposed by a secret camera; and it’s not as if surveillance in public spaces isn’t now routine. But nor can I embrace the move either.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/07/spying-carers-cameras-care-homes-raising-standards

Bucket Lists show people love Nature but don’t protect it

Posted on 23 July 2014 by Ros Coward

The ‘bucket list’ is a staple of contemporary publishing. There are books about “the top 100 wines you must drink”, “the 100 cities you should visit” or “the 100 walks you should do”. Most bucket lists are simply “100 things to do before you die”. So prevalent is this activity now that there’s a master bucket list website where everyone can post a list.

What’s striking is how frequently these lists are to do with Nature. The places most often chosen are those regarded as having extreme natural beauty: the Great Barrier Reef, the Amazon rainforest, the Galapagos Islands, Arizona’s Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, the Giant’s Causeway. The ‘sights’ also invariably include amazing natural phenomena: the Northern Lights, a meteor shower, a full moon (preferably during a full-moon party in Thailand), a total eclipse, an active volcano. Many experiences involve exposing yourself to the power of Nature, such as white water rafting, “floating in the Dead Sea” or “showering under a waterfall”. Some express a desire for close encounters with other species: swimming with dolphins, whale watching, riding an elephant, going on a safari, seeing the mountain gorillas, or, more dubiously, “hugging a koala bear” or “cuddling a tiger cub

http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article4195-the-bucket-list.html