Non-motoring > Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right?	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Meldrew	Replies: 21

New Sat 9 Feb 13 11:10   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Meldrew

I have just read that the new £14million new HQ for the Durham Police Service has been halted since October because ONE great crested newt was seen on the site. The delay has cost £250,000; is this good value for money? I am puzzled by the public's approach to seals. I live near to the East Coast and the Regional BBC News has frequent reports about the rescue of seal pups, either orphaned or ill. They go to sanctuaries and nursed back to health which is all very kind and done by volunteers but what are seals actually for, in the big scheme of things? They are not endangered; SFAIK they have no natural predators, In the North Sea at least. Just going to cook a Findus Equine Bolognese and watch some rugger! Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 9 Feb 13 11:33   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Manatee

The purpose of seals is to provide orphaned pups, so that yumans can rescue them and become better people. Put another way, you either live in a society where at least some people give a toss about things they haven't a target for, or your vision of the future is bleak(er). Unfortunately I think the newt issue is probably bureaucracy rather than compassion driven. We get newts in the garden - not greatly crested as far as I know - and they seem pleasant enough to me, but I won't be alerting the council. Sometimes I wonder what people are for! Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 9 Feb 13 12:54   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - madf

We'll spend £millions protecting the odd newt . Meanwhile we pull up hedgerows, build on flood plains and use lots of pesticides on crops... Seems the right kind of balance to me: lots of newts and lots of flooded land for them, no birds, no insects . Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 9 Feb 13 15:21   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Armel Coussine

Few people have ever seen a newt especially in the wild, and won't miss it if they never see one. They are not the only life form in imminent danger of extinction or the most important or interesting one. They are said to be delicate and fragile and unable to live except in highly specific environments. But I just don't believe that they can't be preserved artificially and implanted in such environments to improve their chances of survival. It may be difficult, but it can't be impossible. The question is whether the newt-fancying element can afford the costs involved. It won't seem worthwhile to anyone else. It doesn't to me, although I approve of creatures on the whole. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 9 Feb 13 15:29   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Meldrew

"They are said to be delicate and fragile and unable to live except in highly specific environments." Sounds a bit like Posh Spice and others of her ilk! Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 09:53   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Cliff Pope

>> >> They are said to be delicate and fragile and unable to live except in highly >> specific environments. Not my newts. Whenever I dredge out weed from the pond there is a cascade of assorted wildlife including hundreds of newts. I let them most of them drain back into the pond before lifting out the weed and putting it on the compost heap. Those I miss seem to make their own way back to the nearest water. I often find them in wet grass. Not great crested, just the ordinary stripey kind, but endearing little creatures to watch. They have a funny way of paddling very slowly with their legs extended sideways, and then suddenly folding up their undercarriage and darting off, swimming like a fish. They seem quite tame - you can scoop one out of the water and let it sit on your hand, blinking. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 10:37   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - CGNorwich

They are said to be delicate and fragile and unable to live except in highly >> specific environments. That's very true. This one was unable to cope with change and has been left struggling , possibly facing extinction. www.newt.org/ Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 23:31   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Armel Coussine

>> This one was unable to cope with change and has been left struggling , possibly facing extinction. >> www.newt.org/ Heh heh.... funny the way these white-hope Republicans sort of implode like pricked balloons... Nothing wrong with them really. The problem is the obligatory discourse. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 23:16   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Armel Coussine

>> They seem quite tame - you can scoop one out of the water and let it sit on your hand, blinking. Excellent CP, how charming. I don't think we've got any round here though. I know I've seen one but I can't remember when or where. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 11 Feb 13 09:42   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - TeeCee

>> my newts. Are they very small? Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 9 Feb 13 15:21   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Dutchie

We be all living on boats soon and the newt is king.:} Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 10:18   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - madf

I would imagine newt would taste like frog.. rather like chicken. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 10:34   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Zero

>> The purpose of seals is to provide orphaned pups, so that yumans can rescue them >> and become better people. No, Seals do balance wildlife. If all the Whales were to accidentally form in a lump, the earth would go out of balance. The Seals act just like the weights on your wheel, moving around to counteract the lumping together of the Whales. Why do you think Elephants only live near the equator? If you moved them all up north there would be a severe wobble. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 15:45   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - legacylad

I bet a few polar bears would like to do a holiday swap to keep things in balance. The poor darlings must get ever so cold. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 16:20   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Cliff Pope

>> >> Why do you think Elephants only live near the equator? If you moved them all >> up north there would be a severe wobble. >> Hence the cause of the end of the last ice age, when all the wooly mammoths died out. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 16:29   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Zero

>> Hence the cause of the end of the last ice age, when all the wooly >> mammoths died out. Exactly. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 16:47   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - madf

>> >> >> >> >> Why do you think Elephants only live near the equator? If you moved them >> all >> >> up north there would be a severe wobble. >> >> >> >> >> Hence the cause of the end of the last ice age, when all the wooly >> mammoths died out. >> Rubbish They all held trunks and did ring a ring a rosies and all fell down.. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 20:18   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Lygonos

>> Rubbish They all held trunks and did ring a ring a rosies and all fell down.. Typical comprehensive school taught poppycock. They used to ring-a-ring-a-roses trunk to tail which had a gyroscopic effect that smoothed out the rotation of the planet. But after hearing there was horsemeat in their burgers they turned vegetarian. Then, due to the unpleasantness of holding each others tails with their noses, they stopped circling in this way, and the Earth's spin-axis moved from North-South to East-West over a few years and they died out, being unable to get used to the warming of their enviroments (augmented by their now vastly more voluminous methane-rich guffs). Fortunately Nigel Farage flew over from the planet Krypton and saved the Earth by tilting it back onto a North-South spin axis. This is why the modern day elephant votes UKIP. Last edited by: Lygonos on Sun 10 Feb 13 at 20:19 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 10 Feb 13 23:11   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - bathtub tom

I thought it was a conspiracy to keep all those wind-farms facing into the wind to keep the earth spinning? Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 11 Feb 13 00:07   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Armel Coussine

Of course that ghastly Livingstone did newts a disfavour by espousing their cause. Naturally any driver would associate newts with PITA road sabotage and long to galumph through their muddy weedy habitats in four wheel drives with huge swamp buggy wheels shouting YEE-HAH! Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 11 Feb 13 08:06   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - Cliff Pope

And of course fridges hadn't been invented then so they had nowhere to go. In any case their presence would have been detected by the custard prints. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 11 Feb 13 09:15   Protecting Nature - Do we have the Balance right? - madf

Meanwhile, Merseyside police catch a record number of illegal skunk farms - but not enough judging by some of the posts above:-) Reply to this message | Report message