Why fake grass is far from green in ways you might not imagine

Posted on 17 July 2022 by Ros Coward

Artificial lawns are higher maintenance than the adverts will have you believe … and they’ll burn your feet in this heatwave.

I count myself lucky having a very small garden in London. It won’t win any horticultural prizes and “No Mow May” is the perfect excuse for benign neglect. But it has grass, the shade of an old apple tree and a water feature, and, in this heatwave, it’s a sanctuary. Most people have the same instincts, heading for shaded parks. In heat like this, we all want grass and trees.

But I keep getting leaflets urging me to destroy my leafy garden and to landscape it with artificial grass, allegedly “almost maintenance free”. They show “gardens” with emerald-green plastic “lawns” surrounded by austere plant-free fencing. These lifeless green carpets are set off with paving stones and have concrete “planters”, bleak designs sending a message: no living creatures tolerated here.

Streets Ahead. What I’ve learned from my year with an electric car

Posted on 8 January 2022 by Ros Coward

Record sales and now news of a battery that lasts hundreds of miles. It’s getting better, but going green was tough, admits a reluctant pioneer.

This time last year my partner John and I celebrated purchasing an electric car by driving through London to see the Christmas lights without having to pay congestion or Ulez – ultra-low emission zone – charges. I gleefully tweeted that Regent Street, deserted in lockdown, seemed a London from a different era: empty roads and glittering shop windows.

This was my first moment of enjoyment of the electric vehicle (EV), whose purchase had been the source of considerable domestic tension. An eternal optimist, John was convinced we should dispense with a diesel car. The arrival of a grandchild, living at the opposite diagonal corner of London, tipped the balance. It would cut 30 minutes off a hellish journey.Advertisement

I mainly saw negatives. I liked my nippy BMW and had range anxiety. How far could we go before the battery failed? Would we be able to do long drives? Were our meandering journeys through France finished for good? “Of course we’ll go,” John said. ‘The French are way ahead of us when it comes to electric.”

Not in the Tesla price bracket we opted for …

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/08/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car

Nimbys are not selfish. We’re just trying to stop the destruction of nature

Posted on 4 July 2021 by Ros Coward

Developers use this laden word when they want to obliterate wildlife and its habitats, to demonise anyone who objects

If there’s one word in the English language that I’d like to get rid of, it’s nimby. The acronym – for “not in my back yard” – is often used by developers and politicians to deride local protesters who stand up to housebuilding. “Nimbys”, they claim, are self-interested, live in nice houses, in nice places and want to deny these privileges to newcomers. In my opinion, the word is a spectacular example of how language can stand reality on its head: developers are not champions of the people and those who oppose them are certainly not selfish.

Springwatch gives succour to our souls, but should it do more?

Posted on 26 May 2021 by Ros Coward

The BBC nature programme is good at engaging with the public but it fails to address the threat of human development

Springwatch is back, the BBC’s largest outside broadcasting event with regular audiences approaching 4 million. I’m among its greatest fans, having watched every series – and spin-offs, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch – since it began in 2005. But this year I’ve begun to worry about the gulf opening up between the wonderful richness on the screens and the urgent biodiversity crisis unfolding off camera.

Springwatch’s unique contribution to wildlife programming is its emphasis on citizen science. The audience is encouraged to observe and submit data about their gardens and local spaces, a model of environmental engagement. But deep down, Springwatch is rooted in the Attenborough tradition of nature programming: intimate stories of wildlife, focusing on nature’s eternal beauty and fascinating behaviours. What’s missing is coverage of the human pressures on their habitat.

Across the UK, environmental protest is surging. So why don’t we hear about it?

Posted on 4 April 2021 by Ros Coward

There are hundreds of local uprisings against developers – and it’s starting to become a national issue.

How many local environment campaigns does it take for the issues they raise to be recognised as part of a national problem? Ten? Twenty, maybe? What about 100? Surely national media and politicians would have taken up the issues by then.

As it turns out, there’s far more than 100 local environmental campaigns going on right now. In just two weeks, more than 280 different groups across the UK have registered on a new National Grassroots Campaigns Map. Rosie Pearson, one of the founders, is astonished: “When we set it up, it was really just to see what’s out there. But we quickly realised there’s a real hunger for sharing information, resources and support. We’re witnessing a huge number of local groups facing the same issues.”

I got a sense of the scale of this problem following an article I wrote about the assault on the countryside. I was deluged by local campaigns: Save Ferriby 2020, Save Culham Green Belt, Save West Grinstead, Keep Rookwood Green, to name but a few. But to see the visuals of this new map is shocking. There are huge housing developments and damaging infrastructure projects everywhere. It’s clear that these are far from localised disputes. They are fighting the same battles: against huge unsustainable housing developments engulfing small towns; against the loss of greenbelt or protected wildlife areas; and against hypocritical councils who declare a climate emergency in one breath and order the destruction of carbon sequestering trees or marshland in another.

The Fashion for Foraged Food

Posted on 15 June 2015 by Ros Coward

Food for Free

I’m fortunate to have a background where local food was valued. My father, who was not at all wealthy, was nevertheless a great believer in shopping locally. As convenience shops and supermarkets began to take over, he loyally supported the local fishmongers and butchers, seeking out high-quality local produce. I inherited his tastes – and habits – so have never felt alienated from local foods. Even so, my strong commitment to local foods turns out to have been very limited after all. Foraging for local wild food was way off my compass.

It never occurred to me that plants familiar on country walks were anything other than charming weeds. My awareness was only awakened by books like Richard Mabey’s Food for Free. In particular it took articles about thrillingly interesting chefs like René Redzepi from Noma and Simon Rogan from L’Enclume to awaken a real appetite for such food.

So last summer on regular walks in Kent, I began to gather and cook nettles, seakale, wild garlic and Alexanders.

http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article4406-food-for-free.html

Cheap Milk & the ‘Lidlisation’ of shopping

Posted on 11 March 2015 by Ros Coward

Decent food isn’t cheap, and if the ‘Lidlisation’ price wars continue it could mean the end of grass-fed cows in our fields

Lidl, Asda, Aldi and Iceland have now cut the cost of milk to 89p for four pints, making milk cheaper than most mineral water. This is astonishing, given that milk is a food that is the end product of a slow, costly, and, hopefully, careful process of rearing animals and their fodder. No wonder the British dairy industry is now looking at ruin.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/13/milk-cheaper-than-water-what-happens-cows

It’s a nail in London’s coffin when gardens are covered over

Posted on 4 February 2013 by Ros Coward

The sterile fashion for hard surfaces instead of greenery is contributing to flooding and the disappearance of fauna

For the last six months the house opposite mine has been in the process of “renovation”. This means that, apart from its Victorian facade, every aspect has been “modernised” into a state of gleaming sterility. The finishing touches are being done now. The back garden is being concreted and the front garden covered with what looks like black bathroom tiles. Not an inch of ground has been left visible, let alone a hedge – indeed that was the first thing to go when the builders moved in. The developer is strolling about looking satisfied and the estate agent is in tow composing the brochure. But what he will doubtless describe as “finished to exacting standards”, I prefer to describe as another nail in the coffin of London’s environment.

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/04/london-gardens-replaced-hard-surfaces-disaster

Start talking rubbish

Posted on 10 January 2009 by Ros Coward

We should be asking why we are creating so much waste and how we can reuse it, rather than sweeping it under the carpet

News that the recycling chain has all but collapsed because of failed demand in China has produced the usual wringing of hands and a startling lack of alternative voices.

In terms of straight news reporting – last night’s BBC news for example, and today’s broadsheet coverage – the mountains of rubbish are presented as a “crisis” symptomatic of problems with the global economy. For the Daily Mail, this crisis is symptomatic of something else as well, not just a global crisis but proof that recycling is yet another pointless nanny-state demand on the already overburdened lives of the taxpayer. The paper hasn’t yet run the headline “Waste of time” but it can’t be far off.

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/recycling-credit-crunch

A tree is not just for Christmas

Posted on 18 December 2004 by Ros Coward

Our annual celebration of Nordic non-drops is a cause for hope

Shopping at this time of year is enough to bring out the bah-humbug in anyone. Those mountains of useless expensive stuff encapsulate what’s gone awry in our attitude to the planet’s resources. Yet amid this disregard for nature is one puzzling note. Carted home in gas-guzzling SUVs, swathed in energy-profligate lights, and presiding over heaps of gift-wrapped plastic, the presence of the Christmas tree raises a doubt. Is there, after all, a little place in our hearts that still cherishes the nature we so readily destroy elsewhere?

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/dec/18/environment.comment

Ros Coward

Journalist, Author and Academic // @RosCoward

Category Archives: Environment