Ida-May Jones

The past few months have had a rough effect on the UK Wildlife. With ongoing arguments between the government, farmers and the animal loving community over the badger cull fiasco I decided to attend, and film, a rally against the cull taking place in Bristol. 

The story is blasting it's way around our internet as we speak, Melissa Bachman - a US TV presenter who stars in a series called Winchester Deadly Passion - has been bombarded with accusations and angry comments after posting a picture of herself next to a lion she has just shot and killed. A public petition has been created to ban her from South Africa stating: "She is an absolute contradiction to the culture of conservation this country prides itself on." But don't people know that this is an event that happens continuously in South Africa? Don't ban the girl, ban the sport! 

This blog post is not here to convince you to be a vegetarian... I am simply discussing my thoughts on the matter! Up until three months ago I ate meat pretty much every day of my life. As a child I was a fussy eater and it was only until a couple of years ago that I really started enjoying meat - especially a good steak... mmm!! But when I moved away from home again this year I made the decision to make some changes to my diet and cut right back to eating meat only once a week... I haven't touched meat since. 

This is a quote from 18 year old Boyan Slat talking on Ted Talks last year. He has a major concern - something that I wasn't even aware of until this week (thanks to a talk from UWE's biology lecturer Mark Steer) but should be shouted out far and wide: Plastics are getting into our rivers, waterways and eventually making it out into our oceans. In fact our oceans are so overloaded with plastics that a clean-up has been deemed virtually impossible... It's not just the big pieces, but over time these plastics are broken down into what is called "microplastic" - microscopic pieces that are causing irreversible damage to the environment.