I News reports central London’s freshwater sources contain high levels of antibiotic resistant genes, with the River Thames having the highest amount, according to research by UCL.
The Regent’s Canal, Regent’s Park Pond and the Serpentine all contained the genes but at lower levels than the Thames, which contained genes providing resistance for bacteria to common antibiotics such as penicillin, erythromycin and tetracycline. Experts have called for more research into better water treatment methods as a result of the findings.
Kate Bradbury writes in the Telegraph – My new pond is the heartbeat of the garden. It’s only a few weeks old, the plants are still small and the grass I sowed around the edge is but a five o’clock shadow on its muddy banks. And yet it’s permanently busy: this week I can’t see for house sparrows, and have spent hours laughing at the newly-fledged chicks taking their first bath.
Two blackbirds visit regularly for a drink and a wash, there are robins, goldfinches and tits, plus a huge herring gull that jumps in with an enormous splash and swims around in contented circles.
Photo of wildlife pond at Highdown by Leonora (Ellie) Enking under creative commons.
The BBC report dealers looking to illegally export European eels from the UK have been exposed by BBC Countryfile.
Posing as a UK fisherman who had legally caught the eels on the River Severn in Gloucestershire, presenter Joe Crowley was approached by Chinese and Russian buyers and a UK exporter.
An export ban on the endangered species has been in place since 2010. The illegal trade has previously been focused on stocks in France and Spain but now smugglers have turned their attention to the UK, where glass eels can only be caught by licensed fishermen.
The I reports The health-food chain has become the first high-street retailer to banish wet wipes from all its branches internationally. Holland & Barrett is to stop selling wet wipes in all its stores, replacing them with environmentally friendly alternatives.
The health-food chain has become the first high-street retailer to banish wet wipes from all its branches internationally, putting pressure on other well known companies such as Boots and Superdrug to introduce similar policies.
The Times reports that washing machines, dishwashers and lavatories could carry labels showing how many litres of water they consume under government plans to prevent shortages.
Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said yesterday that within 25 years England could face a “jaws of death” situation in which there would not be enough clean water unless urgent action was taken to cut usage and reduce leaks. He told the annual conference of Waterwise, a not-for-profit body, that requiring products to carry a water efficiency label would be an effective way of protecting supplies.
The Independent reports that from the Thames to the Lake District, Britain’s iconic waterways are full of plastic pollution, according to a new analysis.
In recent years, scientists have found plastic scattered throughout the ocean, as far down as the Mariana Trench and even embedded in Arctic ice. But the new research shows the problem also exists closer to home, with up to 1,000 tiny pieces of plastic found per litre in the worst-polluted rivers.
Photo by Kate Ter Haar under creative commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode
Everybody who cares about wildlife will be gathering in central London on 22nd September 2018 for the first People’s Walk for Wildlife. And we know you care about wildlife because your reading this, so please join us there.
Watch this short video for one of the most passionate and yet down to earth explanations of why we have to wake up to what is happening to British wildlife and act. Chris Packham says of our wildlife population’s downward trends “those statistics about those declines become normalised. Like it’s just another part of the conversation”.
He continues “We’re in trouble, we’re in big trouble…… It’s time for us to act. I think it’s time for us to stand up and be counted, and to ask, politely, for things to be fixed”.
Please join this polite, passive walk (it’s not a demonstration or rally) and show your concern for what is happening to our wildlife – whether your interest is for birds, hedgehogs, dragonflies, ferns, trees, fungi or any other of the diverse, beautiful and essential plants and animals that keep our environment healthy.
If your interested in going and want to travel by train with other members of FNW please let me know so we can co-ordinate travel arrangements or arrange to meet in London.
10am: Gather – Reformers Tree, Hyde Park, London
12 noon: Infotainment
1pm: Walk
2pm: Finish – Richmond Terrace
