Bluebirds over?

We are getting a few climate-related stories at the mo'. Some credible and worrying. Some... less credible and even more worrying because of what fall might follow the set up: 'Big climate impact' on UK coasts

I don't know, so I merely ask, but this - The coasts of Britain, especially England, are being eroded - seems hard to relate to this - Climate change is having a major impact on Britain's coast, the seas around the coast, and the life in those seas, a government-sponsored report concludes.

At least, from what I read here. I would have thought that erosion was a simple fact of geological life, be it by wind or water. Hence my being one of those dubious by folk gunning for compo when they bought their property on the edge without pondering (or getting a survey) what might happen as time passes.

The key is the extent.

That has not come across to me as well as it should. And hence allows some to mock as alarmist what is in fact an ongoing process.

I read on to find out more on how and where seas 'are becoming more violent', but though there was a lot else could not find anything much to back up this claim.

Surely if that is the main issue, it would help to substantiate it better? I roesume such data exists.

ps: I also didn't know until recently that the wartime song was penned by an American, and there are in fact no bluebirds in the UK.

Reporting news, or influencing... making policy?

It's a fine line. I have long considered Newsnight to be one of the few credible broadcast news shows left, but of late there's a lot that really makes me think another media plot is being lost.

First up is a rather odd notion of balance when it comes to their reporting of various members of various political parties not, as such, following various rules. A quick look at the show blog will see how this is going down. I, for one, was not ' glued to my seat ' on the rather minor distraction of the opposition party's possible admin/reporting failures, but a tad more interested in the role of a government Minister in setting up a shell company to conceal massive loans to come almost last in a key, if internal, election.

But as I was pondering the ever more defiant and desperate bunker-bulletins coming out of Auntie to try and prop up their editorial and journalistic standards, I happened across this, by way of a bit of news: Newsnight report leads to cotton ban

It struck a chord, because a wee while ago I cut out an ad about cotton, which bearing in mind the client was unsurprisingly upbeat.

Now, I don't know much about it, but I have this notion that it's not that great a crop eco-wise. For one, I believe (subject to confirmation) that it is water intensives. Hence a mission is embarked upon.

And this piece will form part.

Thing is, while I can appreciate the information, the whole ethical thing comes across just a tad to smugly as another luvvie ban-fest. Which in my book cannot be good unless the complexities are are all ironed out, as to assuage Western guilt in one small area can often have major negative influences in all sorts of others.