Wide awake?

John Urquhart (cities4people) writes:

'Dear all I enclose an email to The Journal, see below. Best wishes for 2019 John Urquhart email cities4people@environment.org.uk     ​From:  John Urquhart  <jurquhart.ou@googlemail.com> Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2018 at 14:24 Subject: 2019: Eat Sheep Wear Wool To: <jnl.letters@ncjmedia.co.uk> Dear Sir   “Extinction Rebellion” is coming to Newcastle this coming Thursday 3rd January at 6.15 pm at Brunswick Methodist Church Hall off Northumberland Street.  No doubt they will urge us to stop eating meat to reduce global warming.  But what about the millions of sheep on northern hills?  Their pastures absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and when they have eaten the grass they revitalise it with fresh dung.  Eventually the sheep are eaten by humans, whose waste products then end up sequestered in the sea or encourage more marine bioactivity.  In other words, this meat cycle promotes net carbon capture from the atmosphere.   Sheep’s wool is another way of storing carbon.  It challenges the present regime of artificial fibres which slosh around in our washing machines and fragments from them sluice out into the oceans to the distress of much sea life.  Why not check out your wardrobe and chuck out all garments that are spun from oil-based products, replacing them with natural fibre clothing?  When such garments are finally worn out they can be used as external insulation on buildings under rendering, producing breathable walls.  The resilience of wool is impressive.  Some years ago, I witnessed a sheep falling off a 60-foot cliff, land on its back, get up and walk away.  And how about the Durham viaduct of the East Coast mainline?  It has stood for 150 years thanks to North East pioneers who thought outside the box and built it on bales of wool!   Have a great new year – eat sheep, wear wool.   Yours faithfully John Urquhart

Copyright © 2018 Cities 4 People, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as you have previously shown interest in local environmental matters. Our mailing address is: Cities 4 People Bridle Path Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE3 United Kingdom

 (Re-published by kind permission)

Another year and still here

It has been a sort of mixed pleasure to see the open space I call 'Battlefield' these past years. It is still there. So am I. So I go on watching the trees develop (and blow down) hopeful, more hopeful in fact, that one day this piece of once unregarded space will be seen as more than a crossing point for pedestrians and cyclists and mere vacant possession, more of a green lung and, increasingly, wildlife haven and free space. A designation that protected it would be nice ...

Best Wishes to my lone reader for 2019