Being the Friends of the Earth Magazine Earth Matters' Front Cover

Last December, Friends of the Earth UK asked me if I would be interviewed for their magazine. I do quite a few interviews so said yes, thinking nothing of it.

The following week, Friends of the Earth asked if their photographer could come down to Bristol and take a few photographs. They wanted photographs of me ringing, so I fixed for him to come the following Saturday morning to Chew Valley Ringing Station.

The morning went like this:

8.30 am BBC Points West News camera crew and reporter Alice Bouverie to film about Black2 Nature

9.30 am Andrew McGibbon Friends of the Earth UK photographer with assistant

10.45 am Quick change of clothes from birding gear to trendy city clothes 

11.30 am Shopping with my friend in Bristol's Cabot Circus

With my trainer Mike Bailey and BBC Points West film crew

When Andrew arrived, he told me that he was shooting for the front cover of their magazine. That didn't phase me, as I thought he meant that I was going to be in a little box on the front cover with the other people being interviewed.

With Andrew McGibbon from Friends of the Earth

In January the magazine editor e-mailed my mum. She said that she just wanted to check a fact. I had said that I had been taken on my first twitch when I was 9 days old and she was just checking if it was meant to read 9 weeks or 9 months.  Mum had to e-mail back to say that I was right, they had taken me to the Isles of Scilly when I was only 9 days old to see a Lesser Kestrel!

I didn't hear anything more until the end of January, when Andrew tweeted me with a photograph of the front cover of the Friends of the Earth members magazine, "Earth Matters".  I was stunned and embarrassed to see my face on the front of the magazine with my quote "beauty all around me". Was that really me?

This was at a time when there were unpleasant things going on for me on Twitter, so this was amazing and made me feel above it all. The magazine hasn't been posted out yet though so all I had seen was this photograph.

The whole of that was unreal in itself, but the next thing was even more unbelievable.

A couple of weeks later, I had a previously arranged meeting at the Friends of the Earth Head office in London with Paul De Zylva who is very senior there, to talk about Black2Nature and the environmental sector. First, I got to look around their fantastic and trendy offices which are in an old printworks, with an igloo and treehouse for quiet and creative working. I definitely would like to work there and try it all out. 

As we walked around the office, everywhere I looked there were 4-5 magazines spread out on desks and tables, all with my face on them, starting in the reception. There were also huge TV screens around the office, all with my face across them.  As we wandered around, staff did a double take as they recognised my face but maybe didn't know where from initially. I also got to see Andrew, which was lovely. He said he was really proud of my cover and the full page photograph of my inside and said that he thought it was probably best Earth Matters cover ever! As a teenager, I was of course hugely embarrassed, but when I actually picked the magazine up and saw it in real life, I suddenly felt really proud. 

I doubt very much that I will be the front cover of a magazine like that again, but even if I am, there is no way I'll ever have the experience of walking around the Friends of the Earth offices like that and seeing my face everywhere. That was an incredible experience. Thank you Friends of the Earth and I would encourage you all to join up.

A couple of weeks later, the magazine was posted out to Friends of the Earth members and I started hearing from people I knew as they received their magazine. My image was full size on the A4 envelopes sending out the magazines. A teacher at school brought in the magazine and put it up on the staff notice board. It was great that so many people I knew were members of Friends of the Earth.

This is a link to an on-line shortened version of the magazine 

bit.ly/2mFMfYt.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 14 year old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of BAME people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

B-Lines

I have already written about the massive problem we have with bees disappearing.

Things are so bad, our bees are going to be wiped out like in America where 1/3 of bees have died.

The way that most farmers manage their land now is not compatible with the nature around them.

The Wildlife Trusts have launched B-Lines which is the idea of bee corridors connecting places.  The Avon Wildlife Trust have set up The West of England B-Lines Project which will create rivers of wildflowers across the countryside connecting the regions best wildlife sites.

The cross is where I live in Compton Martin on a B-Line

A map has been drawn up of our area and where I live in Compton Martin in the middle of a proposed insect corridor. My next door neighbour is a farmer and he and his family have been heavily involved in this project.

Farmers would have to maybe leave part of their fields through the summer and not spreading manure, which encourages  the grass to grow rather than the wild flowers. The B-Lines are wide strips of wildflower rich grasslands, linking existing wildlife area.

Bees and other pollinators are disappearing from our countryside because of a lack of wildflower rich habitats.  97% of the UK's grasslands have been lost since the 1930's.  The B-Lines will help wildlife move across our countryside, saving threatened species.

The project will work with landowners, giving advice and training with them already working with 37 landowners (including next door).

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig 

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She is looking forward to going Mountain Gorilla Trekking in East Africa in the summer and watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Flexitarian Bristol

This year my home city of Bristol is the European Green Capital.  It's the first time a UK city had been chosen.

Friends of the Earth Bristol are campaigning for Bristolians to make it a Flexitarian city.

Flexitarians choose to eat less and better meat with a richer variety of plant based food.  So for example, going meat free 3 days a week and then choosing local organic and free range the rest of the week.

The statistics are staggering:

For each day you go meat free, you reduce your water footprint by 1,300 litres.

Livestock account for 14.5% of all global emissions - more than all transport emmissions

80% of Amazon deforestation is attributable to livestock feed or grazing

When I spent 7 weeks travelling around Columbia, huge amounts of the land had been cleared for cattle.  It was shocking.

Bristol is already leading the way with a great food culture. As part of Green Capital, FOE want to green our palates by reducing the harmful impacts of high meat, fish and dairy consumption.

Being a Flexitarian city would be great because:

There would be more diversity of veggie food in restaurants

It will reduce transport emissions

It is healthier for you with half the population eating more than the recommended 70g of red or processed meat.  With less meat eaten, rates of heart decease, cancer and obesity would go down.

Switching to local, higher welfare producers the situation for animals and farmers will improve

I am already vegetarian but am planning to be vegan 3 days a week, after we get back from our East Africa trip over the summer.

Here are a few of my issues with farming methods used here and abroad :

Dairy cows repeatedly having calves so that they keep in milk

Huge udders almost touching the ground from being overmilked

Calfs taken away from mothers at a young age

Male calves cruelly produced for veal

The huge amount of land needed for grazing that is kept all the same and useless for wildlife

Caged chickens

Animals kept locked up

GMO feed given to dairy cows, pigs and chickens

Badgers killed because of apparent impact on cows farming

Foxes killed because of apparent impact on chickens and lambs

Wildflower meadows cut in early summer before pollinators finished with them

What are FOE going to do:

Flexitarian Award to increase number of restaurants that offer veggie food

Educating and supporting people

Campaigning for public money to be spent on sustainable food 

Getting meat agenda on the council agenda

Collaborating with small scale producers

For more information - www.flexitarian.org 

E-mails - hello@flexibristol.org

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig 

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She is looking forward to going Mountain Gorilla Trekking in East Africa in the summer and watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Where are our bees?

Bees are in decline. That is what we have been hearing and even someone on the street might have heard about this. The situation is drastic, which is why everyone needs to act now.

Bumblebee in my garden June 2015, Compton Martin, Somerset
Photograph taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

I recently wrote a guest blog for AFON and Beyond GM about GMO crops and their impact on our health and the environment http://bit.ly/1QeZqFL

One of the big impacts in the USA of GMO’s has been the decimation of the bee population, with one third dying since 2006.

One third of all crops in the US is now pollinated by hives of honeybees and without these would fail due to the loss of wild bees.  Farmers are now paying 20% more for the pollination of crops.

GMO crops are genetically modified so that their seeds are sterile. This is because under the patent, seeds must be bought every year and can not be re-used as is the case with natural plants.  The impact of these sterile seeds is that the pollen is sterile, which has been found to cause intestinal disease in honey bees killing them rapidly with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).  Another impact is the high levels of herbicides and pesticides sprayed on crops, killing not just bees but butterflies and birds who feed on the poisons.

Early Bumblebee in my garden June 2014, Garden Bio Blitz, Compton Martin, Somerset
Photograph taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

ICUN Report 2015 on bees

In this month’s BTOnews, the magazine of the British Trust for Ornithology, there was an article called “bee alert” in which they stated that the first ever assessment of all European wild bee species had been published by the IUCN as part of their European Red List of Bees and the Status and Trends of European Pollinators (STEP) project.

This is the first time that a report has provided information on all 1,965 wild bee species in Europe. 

It indicated the following:

9%         Threatened with extinction

5.2%      Likely to be threatened in the near future

56.7%  Classified as Data Deficient (because of lack of experts, data & funding has made it impossible to calculate their extinction risk)

12.6%    Have a stable population

7.7%      Have a declining population

0.7%      Have an increasing population

79%       Have unknown population info

Changing farming practices and increased intensification have led to large-scale losses of and degradation of bee habitats, one of the main threats to their survival...until GMO’s arrive next year.

Tree Bumblebee in my garden June 2014, Garden Bio Blitz, Compton Martin, Somerset
Photograph taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT)

This was set up because of serious concerns about the “plight of the bumblebee”.  In the last 80 years our bumblebee populations have crashed.  2 species have become extinct in Britain and others have declined dramatically.

There are 24 species of Bumbebee in the UK, which have different length tongues and so feed on different shaped flowers. 

They are declining due to a shortage of flowers to feed on and places to nest in the countryside.  In the last 60 years we have lost 97% of vital wildflower meadows.  However, 75% of our main food crops rely on Bumblebees for pollination.  Without Bumblebees, our whole food chain is under threat.

The bees kept by beekeepers are the one species of honeybee that we get in the UK and can only feed on open flowers. 

This is means that if we lose our bumblebee species, their ability to pollinate a variety of flowers can not be replaced by hives of honey bees.  In my area of Somerset, bee hives sitting in fields are already common, being used to pollinate crops due to the shortage of bumblebees.

Early Bumblebee in my garden June 2014, Garden Bio Blitz, Compton Martin, Somerset
Photograph taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

The European 2 year ban on some pesticides

In December 2013, the EU banned three pesticides linked to a decline in bees.  They were three neonicotinoids, clothiannidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxan.  Many scientists say that 2 years is not long enough to assess the impact of the ban, as crops flowering one year would have been planted and sprayed the year before, so the ban is only effectively for one year.

A June 2014 report by the World Conservation Union, found irrefutable evidence that bumblebee colonies are effected by these pesticides.  A University of London report dated September 2012 and University of Dundee report from 2013 both also found the pesticides had a detrimental impact on bumblebees.  I can't see how that is a surprise.

What can you do?

“Few people realise just how important bumblebees are. They are charming little things and a pleasure to see, but they also do an essential job which many people take for granted. If bumblebees continue to decline then we face ecological turmoil. Join BBCT today and support their important work”  

Chris Packham BBCT President

“Bumblebees are key factors to our wildlife. If they disappear many of our plants will not bear fruit. I am proud to be associated with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust”

Sir David Attenborough

• Sign the Friends of the Earth petition to ban bee killing pesticides http://bit.ly/1QFCCPG
• Join BBCT and get involved with their activities. 
• Plant a wide variety of bumblebee friendly plants. Our garden is a wildlife garden and packed with flowers ideal for different species of bumblebee. Even we could do more and I am going to use the BBCT “bee kind” survey to work our which flowers are missing to complete our bumblebee attracting garden.
• Make or buy a home for bees to hibernate in during the winter.

For more information

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust - bumblebeeconservation.org or @BumblebeeTrust

Friends of the Earth 

- The Bee Cause http://bit.ly/1GNnIXN

Early Bumblebee in my garden June 2014, Garden Bio Blitz, Compton Martin, Somerset
Photograph taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Early Bumblebee in my garden June 2014, Garden Bio Blitz, Compton Martin, Somerset
Photograph taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

About the writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol, UK and blogs about birding and conservation from around the world. Wader conservation is important to her and she is Ambassador to the global wader initiative World Shorebird Day. She is looking forward to Mountain Gorilla trekking this summer in East Africa and to watching penguins in Antarctica in December, which will be her 7th continent. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.