Save the Cambodian Rainforest - stop buying rosewood furniture!

This was my intervention at the United Nations on the illegal export of Cambodian rainforest timber to the USA and Europe. This is till going on even now and we have to try and stop this trade continuing.

Bolsonaro of South America is fuelling the burning of the South American forests.

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, South America, is fuelling the burning of the South American forests. How can we stop him doing this? He is putting the whole of humanity at risk at a time when this virus is at large. The wildlife can't escape a lot of the endangered species will be wiped out. Many tribes are endangered as they are living in harmony with the animals. There are many things we haven't even discovered in that unexplored part of the universe. It is very exciting in this crammed world that there is a part that not everyone has discovered!We look forward to those places we have not been to and we may discover things that are yet unknown!

Picture of Amazon Indians by Hans Schwarzkopf

Where are we going? What's happening?

The world is a very different place from week to week we are told one thing by Boris and that changes from day to day. It was Mothers day recently and I am lucky enough to have three children and heard from each of them, one in a London flat in isolation with his partner, one in Berlin with a dog called Mish Mish, and one in Dubai with three children of his own, schools having closed over there so they were at home and they had lessons to do from Monday; they are lucky enough to have a large garden with a swimming pool in it! The Climate is changing as they have had rain unusually today. They have been there for 20 years. A lovely place to stay in, the other grandparents are there with them, and as there are no flights home they have decided to stay. I hear this morning, things are difficult in Britain, we are getting mixed messages from the Government!

What would my mother, whom the children called Granny Owl, say were she alive - as someone totally computer illiterate she would be bemused! as I am!

I feel that we have left an uncertain future for the world as we know it. Perhaps people will stop rushing about and get to know the people next door and will slow down. There is a song to go with this. I am sure whatever music you enjoy will be the last thing to go! Today we hear that Boris and the Foreign Secretary have it as well. I listened today to "Thought for today," and we can hear a Dawn Chorus which couldn't be heard before as there was too much noise in the world! Maybe some will be seduced into realising that there is more to the world outside that they thought; maybe we'll all learn something more from this experience than we thought! When you see David Attenborough's Blue Planet and see the amount of Plastics left in the Oceans you think what have we done to this very fragile planet and is it all going to be too late! For many of the small islands yes it is too late.
Or is it?

The Demise of the Pangolin

How many people know what a Pangolin is? I was watching a programme on the Pangolin that were smuggled over the border in Malaysia alive but soon to die, and how many are there left? A lady had brought up a Pangolin and become very attached to this individual. Very few people have heard of these creatures, but I feel that they need protecting. This lady had brought up this individual and when she put her hand by it it began to suckle her hand, so you realise how much this individual meant to her. I saw a programme last night about these creatures nobody knows much about them, they are distributed throughout the rainforests of Asia                                                    

Plastic still a Problem

What can we learn from Kenya as they fine the population for using Plastic bags? Still the problem with plastics hasn't gone away and we hear that plastic pollution has even got to the South Pole and whales have been affected, some things are positive though. The people of the town of Penzance have all decided to all pick up plastics on a walk.
They have encouraged the children to get involved.

But a Gentle man from Iceland said that there were mixed messages from the supermarkets saying that there were no "Plastic Free" aisles in the Supermarkets and most of our plastics went into Land Fill sites! How can this happen? How do we get rid of the Plastics?

Some of the third world countries fine their population for using plastics, Kenya is one of these.
Very well-intentioned people are doing the best that they can. But it is unreal that we are losing the battle against the supermarkets. How do we rid ourselves of Plastic and we are told things that are untrue by the sellers? 20 years ago we didn't have this problem so what has changed, the use of plastics indiscriminately. It is similar to those things that you wish hadn't been invented but had so you have to make the best of them! Unfortunately Plastic was a great advance, So what do we do about the removal of this?

We all have to put our heads together and come up with a solution.

Plastic Pollution Free Penzance

Plastic pollution seems to be the central issue of the moment as it has been found even in the Arctic. I was watching the opening of the Winter Games and thinking about all the plastics that are are sent into the Atmosphere and the plastics that have been found even in the Arctic, there was the commentator showing a bird that had died with a piece of plastic tied round it's beak and the death of a  seal with a plastic band in round it's stomach.
After David Attenborough's Blue Planet 2 it became apparent that more people need to become aware of what we are doing to the planet though a great number are already aware that we need to care for this planet.  People are cleaning up the Plastic they find on the beach. Penzance is the town that holds the first Plastic Free Status Award - at least that is good news:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/05/penzance-wins-first-plastic-free-status-award-to-help-clean-up-beaches

Moving forward on Plastics

We are trying to get the most publicity in the local supermarkets the Sainsbury and Tescos, Aldi and Waitrose. How can we persuade the big Supermarkets to do what they have done in Holland and have an Aisle free of plastics. People are more aware of the problem and Penzance is one of cities that is committed to becoming plastic free!
We heard today Tuesday 16th 2018 that "Iceland" had made a commitment to go completely plastic free, which is a good start. There is a guy who is travelling in a boat taking samples of the sea and finding how many micro plastic beads there are in the sea; scarey.
What can we do about this or can I change things but with a couple of friends one gets the message.
People are becoming more aware of the situation thanks to Blue Planet and David Attenborough giving advice. This means that each one of us must do our bit and stop buying plastic, very easy to say but we have been so seduced by the use of plastics. We look at how we managed before the war then milk was delivered in bottles and you reused them. Far better!