It was just drizzling gently when I set out on my bike this morning. Despite all the recent rain - and we have had quite a lot in the last week - the Donkey Line was relatively puddle-free. I extended my ride so that I could pop into the Greenfield Tesco for stuff I’ve been unable to get at our local co-op store. (Over the last few years as people have posted photos of supermarkets with empty shelves, I have scoffed slightly at all the talk of shortages. Our local co-op has been well-stocked in most things, not the kind of stuff you might need for really fancy recipes but good on staples. However in recent weeks they have often had empty fruit vegetable shelves as well as problems with their chiller section leading to a shortage of dairy products and things like hummus and other dips.)
As I rode back from Greenfield to the market in Uppermill, the sun came out and I briefly considered taking off my waterproof. It was getting pleasantly warm again. It’s just as well I kept my waterproof on as this was just a brief interlude. In Uppermill I stopped off at the basement yarn shop - a tardis-like shop which looks as though it should be tiny but opens out inside to become a veritable Aladdin”s cave of yarn of different colours and thicknesses - to buy extra yarn for one of Granddaughter Number One’s projects. The owner and I had a little chat about the therapeutic value of knitting and other such craft activities. Then I emerged onto the high street to find my bike soaking wet. Clearly there had been a downpour while I was in the shop.
It had already eased off to a slow drizzle as I went round the market stalls but on my way home along the Donkey Line it got gradually heavier and heavier. Before the rain started in earnest I spotted a couple, he in a smart suit and she in a midi-length lacy white dress and a circlet of white flowers in her hair, having photos taken by lock gate outside the Brownhill Visitor Centre, with the viaduct in the background. Just married? Where had the ceremony taken place? Where were the admiring guests, friends and family? Just the happy couple - and very happy they looked - and a photographer with an umbrella standing by. I waited until they had finished, pretty sure they didn’t need or want a scruffy cyclist photo-bombing their day, before going on my way. I commented on the gloomy weather but the young man said it somehow made everything more special. Clearly a glass half full person!
And at least they managed the photos before the rain set in. And set in it certainly did. I have wet cycle gear, wet shies, wet panniers hanging around waiting to dry. So it goes.
Scientists now say a new epoch – the Anthropocene, marked by human impact on Earth – began in 1950s. It’s nice to know when we live! As well as all the other things we have done, still do, no doubt will continue to mess up the planet, it seems our litter dropping has led to more and more birds incorporating human rubbish into their nest building:
“Birds build nests with rubbish like cigarette butts, plastic bags and fishing nets, scientists say, raising fears for the safety of their chicks.
Research shows 176 bird species have been found to build nests with human litter, including items that hurt them and their offspring.
The study, published on Monday by a team of European scientists, reviewed research covering almost 35,000 nests and found birds had used human-made materials in nests on all continents except Antarctica.
“A wide variety of bird species included anthropogenic materials into their nests,” said Zuzanna Jagiełło, an ornithologist at the University of Warsaw and lead author of the study. “This is worrying because it is becoming increasingly apparent that such materials can harm nestlings and even adult birds.”
Here’s a more worrying report about more serious consequences of the rubbish we humans leave behind, from yesterday’s Guardian:
“Twenty-thousand Laotians, almost half of them children, have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since the Vietnam war ended. It is half a century since the US stopped bombing Laos, having dropped more than 2m tons of cluster munitions; decades on, people then unborn are still paying the price. On one estimate, it will take another 100 years to fully clear the country.
This is the true cost of cluster munitions. They are not only indiscriminate in showering dozens or hundreds of bomblets over a large area, but also have a lethal legacy because so many fail to explode, only to later be trodden on or picked up – often by curious children. For these reasons, more than 120 countries have signed the convention prohibiting their use, production, transfer and stockpiling.”
And yet America plans to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs!!
“Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, says it has given written guarantees that it will not use the US-supplied weapons in Russia, nor in urban areas where civilians might be killed or wounded. It will also record their use, to expedite demining when the conflict is over. The US claims its munitions are far safer than those used by Moscow, with dud rates “not higher than 2.5%” versus Russian devices that reportedly fail 30-40% of the time. Experts say test results don’t reflect real world conditions and that, in any case, the sheer number of submunitions still means a deadly aftermath.”
Well, we’ll see how that works out. We humans are a dangerous species.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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