Veronika Wild

The Pacific as seen from the air en route to Vanuatu In doesn’t take much reading to discover that oceans are in trouble all over the world. Just trying to write a bit of a summary about the main issues seems to be taking forever, so I am going to do it in three parts.  The first part will be about some of the threats to the marine environment itself, the second will  be about some of the effects on marine life and the last one will be about things we could do. At the end of each post there will be some petitions related to topics raised. Links to source material  and or further reading, will  mostly be shown in orange The Closing of the Commons There was a time when everyone believed that the earth was flat and that if you ventured too far out to sea, you would fall off the edge. Then, as ocean -going technology improved and the Magellans of the world ventured ever farther from shore, most people eventually came to understand that the world was round a...

Does the World Really need more Golf Courses? Donald Trump says the wind farm threatens to blow his dream of a 'global golf destination' off course. Photograph: Murdo Macleod in Severin Carrell , Scotland correspondent guardian.co.uk , Wednesday 18 January 2012 19.02 GMT Yes I know today's post was supposed to be about oceans and they are definitely in the news, so much so that I am still reading about them and haven’t had time to write. While you are waiting for that one, I‘m just going to have another cheap shot at Golf Courses which are not only proliferating in many parts of the world, but are also appropriating the commons. I might have to change my job description from Practising Geographer to Professional Whinger* [students not familar with this term are advised to look at the end of the post].  Donald Trumped Billionaire property developer, Donald Trump is not a happy camper. He wanted to build another large golf course next to o...

URGENT PETITION Reprieve   which assists prisoners on death row all over the world, is trying to stay the execution of Linda Carty who has been on Death Row in Texas for the past eight years.  Read her story here or watch it on YouTube  Then please sign the petition I can't go into the details now, or the rights and wrongs of the Death Penalty, but it would seem that there has been a miscarriage of justice here and the trial epitomises everything that is wrong with the Justice System in the hanging state. This woman is in fact a British subject and should at the very least have a fair trial. There are Australians in prison around the world too. To find out how you can help click Reprieve .org.au for more information.

 Instant Wetland. The Caption under T's  post reads "I always wanted a Garden with a Pond." It seems they are getting webbed feet up there in Canberra too. Having a frogpond is not such a bad idea. As well as creating a refuge for frogs, tadpoles keep algae down and the frogs get rid of mosquitoes and other pestiferous insects without the need for pesticides. Just a couple of Updates now as I have to go out, but before I do, I just want to give palaeontologists a plug too. (That's what T. does). It is through them that we know that Antarctica has been a refuge for animals and plants during past climatic upheavals and extinctions, what conditions were like and how things have been changing. I'm sure you never knew paleontology was as sexy as this. Could be an idea to get the crowds in at other museums. Victoria (as in the Australian State, not the long dead monarch or the Lingerie Mail Order place) has just turned down bottle deposit legislation. This is ...

Thousands of birds prepare to migrate at Lake Myvatyn, Iceland's Ramsar Wetland   Lovely weather for ducks! It’s been raining solidly since I hung the washing out yesterday. Makes me think of wetlands, as does a photo my prospective daughter- in –law just took in her backyard.  Victoria and New South Wales are experiencing devastating floods . Ducks everywhere should be celebrating especially as they don't seem to have too many other things to quack about these days.  I was going to write more on oceans today, but I have just found out that it was World Wetland Day on February 3 rd . Bet you didn’t know that. I didn’t either, though I read many electronic newspapers.  Not even the BBC news mentioned it until Feb 23, and even then I missed it. One of the dangers of the electronic news is that it is very much tailored to what it thinks you are interested in.  It is true that I haven’t specifically clicked on wetlands for about ten years, but that doesn...

My friend and I were both reading the same paper the other day, except he was reading it on his ipad and I was reading the paper version. Comparing the two,  you have to admit that you could get an entirely different picture. Is this what they mean by personalisation? Some of you will have noticed that I have put the Google translation service on my blog. A couple of years ago I tried Babblefish. While the results were hilarious, they were so bad at conveying the meaning of the words that I took it off again. Now that there are so many international readers, only about 6-8 countries tonight, but often more, I thought I should give it another try. After all, technology moves so swiftly these days. Well I just tested the German - the only language I could pass any judgement on, and guess what? It's still almost as bad, but it does translate keywords. If you also happen to speak another language, I'd be very pleased to find out how it compares in the other languages. I promise...

My main focus this week is on the Global Commons, those  places and elements which belong to the whole world, but, because they don’t belong to any one nation are not well protected. They include the air, the climate, the seas, our heritage of crops and medicinal plants, even our own genes. Of immediate concern is the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica.  While Antarctica’s landmass is now largely protected, this is not true of the surrounding waters. This year the 25 nations with claims on Antarctica will meet to decide their fate. While these waters contain a great diversity of marine life, they are under increasing pressure from industrial scale fishing and from activities such as deep sea mining.  With “85% of the world's fisheries classified as over exploited, fully exploited, depleted or recovering from depletion," commercial fishing vessels are moving to remote waters such as Antarctica's in search of fish (according to the UN's Food and Agriculture ...