Can golf courses help save threatened birds?

Environmentally friendly and rich in biodiversity are not phrases you often hear associated with golf course.

However they could be ideal places to provide sanctuaries for threatened birds and other wildlife.

In the past golf courses have been criticised by green groups for excessive water, pesticide and fertiliser use but a new joint publication, Birds and Golf Courses: A Guide to Habitat Management, marks a change in attitude by the industry.

The good news is there are golf courses across the UK, where wildlife friendly measures have been a success. Every golf course has the potential to be a sanctuary for wildlife, and to provide an important stepping stone for birds and other animals whose habitat is under threat.

The emphasis now is on encouraging more clubs to do their bit to help protect birds and other wildlife. For example planting native plants like heather and creating reed beds and hay meadows as well as reducing pesticide and fertiliser use can all make a big difference to birds like skylarks, woodlarks, and corn buntings.

Across the UK there is 140,000 hectares of rough and out-of-bounds areas on golf courses which could be managed for wildlife. This is the same sized area covered by all the RSPB’s UK nature reserves!

It’s good to know that there has been a growing awareness over the past decade or so that courses need to do more for wildlife. While there are some green-keepers who still put more water and pesticides on their courses than the environment can stomach, there are many golf clubs that are managing habitats for wildlife on their land.

One golf course owner who is blazing a trail for wildlife is Paul Stevenson, from New Malton Golf Club in Hertfordshire. As well as cutting down on chemical and water use he has used the 40 hectares of out-of-bounds areas on his course to create habitats for birds and other animals.

So next time you are out for a round, take a look around you and see what wildlife is watching the play. And if there isn’t any – ask the club to make their greens more welcoming.

AUDIOBLOG: Wine Tasting with Elly Munro

Every Monday we have an interview heard on PASSION for the PLANET.

How many times have you stood in a shop staring at a wall of wine bottles hoping for some inspiration, determined not to give in to the easy option of going for a Hardys, Gallo or Jacobs Creek? Do you know what you like when you taste it, but don't know what to look for to give you that taste? Then you need some top tips from wine expert Elly Munro. CLICK FOR INTERVIEW

You can hear more interviews on air and on demand at passionfortheplanet.com

Champagne and Sabres

I am standing in a cellar surrounded by over 20,000 bottles of carefully chosen wine. I have a bottle of Moet et Chandon Imperial in my left hand and a large knife in my right hand.

Slowly I run the blade up and down the neck of the bottle listening to the sound of metal against glass.



Then with a quick flick of the wrist the blade slices off the top of the bottle – cork and glass together - and Moet spurts forth foaming to the floor.

I have sabred my first bottle of champagne.



Andre St. Jacques is the world record holder for sabring having sabred 21 bottles in under one minute.

He is also the owner of The Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler in Canada. He is happy to teach anyone to sabre. You simply pay for the bottle of champagne, Andre will teach you how to sabre it (no extra charge) and then you have the rest of the evening to enjoy it.

Sabring is a French tradition dating back to the time of Napoleon. The Hussards, under Napoleon’s command, used it as a means of showing off their skill on horseback. They celebrated their victories by 'sabring' off the top of a bottle of champagne. As legend has it, these skilled horsemen would ride on horseback at a full gallop while brave (or foolhardy!) ladies would hold up the bottles. With over 100 lbs of pressure per square inch in a bottle of champagne, the sabre must strike the neck at exactly the right angle.

Needless to say, it’s easier when you are standing still and have a world expert at your side to guide you.

It’s worth visiting the Bearfoot Bistro for more than just a lesson in sword play. Their award winning chef Melissa Craig does a wonderful taster menu. You’ll get a number of courses each exquisitely served like a work of art of on a plate. Each course, as the name implies, gives you a taste of a dish, allowing you to try everything on the menu at one sitting!

As each course is served the waiter carefully explains what you are eating, where it has come from and how it has been prepared. There is also a different wine with each course, all from vineyards in British Columbia and all carefully chosen to complement the food. Each is served in a different shape or style of glass. And, like his foodie counterpart, the wine waiter explains each wine, why it has been chosen, which vineyard it came from and perhaps some personal anecdotes about the vintage or the growers.

As a vegetarian my meal looked and tasted as carefully thought through and considered as any of the meat dishes. In no way was I made to feel that somehow my vegetarian status meant I was being given a second rate meal (see my previous blog).

There are two desert courses to finish the meal – one served with a maple syrup whiskey and the other with a local ice Wine from Mission Hill. The whiskey is created as a blend of Scotland and Canada celebrating the area’s Scottish ancestry with its Canadian heart.

The ice wine is made by leaving the grapes on the bush until the first frost. This produces a grape very high in natural sugar. The grapes are crushed will still “frosted”. The result is a sweet desert wine that slips down the throat like nectar – beware it’s easy to drink too much if you have a sweet tooth.


The showpiece of the meal was the liquid nitrogen ice cream. It’s prepared at your table in a large metal bowl. First, in goes a jug of cream, this is stirred as ice cold liquid nitrogen is poured on top. The chef disappears in a cloud of dry ice and by the time it clears your ice cream is ready.

Like everything at The Bearfoot Bistro it’s a feast for all your senses.

Pushers of the 'doubt' drug.

Don't call them Climate Deniers.

They’re really 'Pushers' of a Drug called 'Doubt'.

I had a nightmare about deniers. Truth deniers, and how honest people can get drawn to them.

My field of speciality is a big muddy field: humankind’s collective denial (by their actions) that there's any real climate problem. In this muddy field it’s important to remember there are two very distinct types of 'denier' animal that you will encounter. With totally different response strategies needed.

Actually "doubt pusher" may be a better name than 'denier'. Get this:

Doubt is a popular feel-good drug.

Whether we seek escape from the pain of being part of the species that 'allowed' the holocaust, or escape from the dull ache that we are now complicit in mass suicide and the future deaths of billions including our own children, we seek escape, distraction, cold comfort.

These are big emotional 'charges' in the air Dave! But watch out when the climate taboo next crops up in polite conversation. We are talking about (or not talking out) latent near-universal abuse of our own children's Home planet. Hardly small talk :-)

So what are these two types:

My hero Miles Kington used to say "There are two types of people in this world. People who divide people into two types. And people who don't." Think about it. I honestly don't know why but this is one of my favourite sayings of all time!

Here goes:

Type 1 (or Class A!) Upstream - misanthropic - clever - bad - aware they are wrong - the doubt pushers

and

Type 2 (or Class B) The carefully selected victims and prey of Type 1's: infected and used - the smidgeon of doubt addicts

Now it turns out that doubt takers, soon become doubt addicts, and some fast become doubt pedlars. (And of course some pedlars become pushers.)

Pedlars of doubt experience new found or fresh popularity - for the welcome relief they bring (e.g. at dinner parties) to the throbbing headache of dealing with the climate reality backlog. Think David Bellamy - one of my childhood heroes - and someone I still believe to be a good man.

I don't think there are that many Class A's left - but they are very toxic - very clever - motivated - and often superb at hiding what they do.

All we can do is help expose them, and hold them to what they have said.

And we need to hope less Class B's will get infected/poisoned/duped. Which is more likely if we love them. (Class A's are usually immune to this tactic.) This is a big learning point. You won't love a Class A into the light.

What also gives me hope is belief that someone like Ann Widdecombe is not rotten to the core, she's just been duped. (Not at all easy to do in her case, and certainly not easy for her to admit.) She will get there eventually. She might want to listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He doesn't suffer fossil fools easily.



Dominic Lawson though - I struggle to give him benefit of doubt. Maybe I'm wrong. But I sense a man who justifies his immoral stance as being in some way 'right'. Extreme right maybe! History will judge Class A's harshly, very harshly indeed.

All we can do is calmly and courageously expose them, and hold them to what they have said.


Dave Hampton is The Carbon Coach. You can sign up to his newsletter, Co2mmunique by visiting the Carbon Coach website and view past issues.

Falling in love with an incinerator.

Is it possible to build something that is both highly functional & breathtakingly beautiful?

Is it possible to turn an incinerator into a work of art?

Is it possible to make the disposal of a city's waste a must see stop on the tourist trail?

The answer to all of these is YES.

And it’s been done – in Vienna.

The incinerator at Spittelau was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser and is a stunning piece of architecture. Much like all Hundertwasser’s buildings it’s eye catching, full of curves and heart stoppingly unique.

But it’s not just pretty – it’s practical too. It generates around 36,400 MWh of electricity each year from 263,200 m³ of waste deliveries, heating 190,000 homes and 4,200 public buildings, including Vienna's largest hospital.

In addition the DeNOx plant, which reduces dioxin emissions as well as the nitrogen oxides generating low-level ozone, is amongst the most modern in Europe. On average, all emissions from the planet are below 30% of threshold values.

Whatever your views on incineration as a method of waste disposal and power generation, you have to admit this is a stunning piece of architecture and proves that we don’t have to build incinerators, or power plants, that no one wants to look at. Personally, I’d have no problem having a building as eye-catching as this “in my back yard”.

But Hundertwasser didn’t just change the face of incinerators, he did it for toilets too!
The public toilets in Kawakawa in the Northland Region of New Zealand were also designed by him and have made the area famous attracting tourists from all over the world.

He also designed housing complexes and train stations too. All of which prove that with some imagination and a willingness to try we can live in cities that are both beautiful and functional. We don’t have to look out of the window and see ugly grey tower blocks, or squat metal prefab factories or public toilets that even the French would think twice about using.

Maybe, as a start, it’s time we all painted our houses bright colours and banished boring grey from our towns and cities, putting some life and fun back into living.

AUDIOBLOG: Anger Management with Michael Fisher

Every Monday we have an interview heard on PASSION for the PLANET.

We all get angry. Sometimes for good reason, sometimes we over react, other times we misunderstand what the situation is. Talking over differences is widely considered to be a good thing. But over the last few days Question Time [a TV programme all about talking about different views] has resulted in a lot of anger. When people can’t let go of anger, it becomes a real problem. That’s when Anger Management expert Michael Fisher can help. CLICK FOR INTERVIEW

You can hear more interviews on air and on demand at passionfortheplanet.com

We all need a hill to climb.

I’m visiting my family in Scotland this week. My sister’s house is at the foot of Tinto, one of the highest peaks in the Southern Uplands, and the most prominent landmark in the upper reaches of the Clyde Valley.

Tinto is a magnet for hillwalkers [moderate to difficult], and is also a prime location for paragliding and hanggliding. So far I’ve been sticking to walking. I climb to the top cairn most days I visit. No gym can compete with a climb up Tinto. Horses at the foot, sheep further up, birds flying out of the heather, and no crap dance music [I’ll come back to that in another blog].

One of the great things about Tinto is it attracts all shapes and sizes. The slopes are tough enough for serious walkers, but forgiving enough for the unfit to make it to the top, if they’re willing to invest a whole afternoon. If not, there’s a smaller cairn halfway up, where Tinto teases first time climbers with a “false top”. As you scramble up a particularly rocky part of the path all you can see above you is sky, then the rest of the climb, the steepest parts, reveals itself.

The determined push on, the puffed out settle for viewing Fallburn Fort, a superbly preserved circular hillfort with a series of concentric ramparts. Most people don’t notice it on the way up.

Then there are athletic visitors to Tinto. Track suited football and rugby players jog up and down the hill at weekends, and every November there’s a race. I just walk, but at what I believe to be a respectably speedy pace and I like to time myself and try to beat my best time [44 minutes to the summit]. The record for the race? 30 minutes. I’ve shied away from checking, but I suspect that’s up and down.

Regardless of how long it takes, the real reward for making it to the top is a stunningly beautiful view. 360 degrees of undulating shades of green. On a clear day, you’ll see Skiddaw in the English Lake District and Lochnagar in the Cairngorms.

However, what I really like about climbing Tinto is the camaraderie of the hill. Sometimes it’s a nod and a hi, sometimes it’s a ten minute chat, but everyone says hello … no matter how much they’re struggling for breath.

And then there’s the wind salute. I love the wind salute. The salute is a heads up for blowy conditions ahead. This is given by people [actually just men] coming down on a particularly gusty day [some days just standing up at the top cairn becomes an event worthy of Olympic Gold]. The wind salute starts out like a normal hand to temple movement, but stops at the chest, the palm silently expressing “like that!”.

We should all have a Tinto. Exercise is good for us, but even more important is being reminded that we’re surrounded by beauty, and that when we remove all the crap of modern living, people are great to be around.

Preventing Health and Environmental Catastrophes

Gordon Brown warns of 'catastrophe' if no climate change deal is reached in Copenhagen in December

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned of a 'catastrophe' of floods, droughts, and deadly heatwaves if world leaders don't agree a climate change deal this December. In a speech to the Major Economies Forum in London, which you can see below, Mr Brown has insisted there is no 'plan B' if agreement isn't reached at December's UN climate summit in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen talks aim to produce a successor to the Kyoto climate treaty, but preparatory discussions at the UN are stalled. The British government's critics say it is not doing enough on climate change and is in no position to lecture the rest of the world about it. Olly Barratt reports.





Drugs campaigners on benefits/dangers of prescribing heroin to addicts

I've just filed a package for on the recently published preliminary findings of a UK trial which has seen heroin addicts given the drug in an attempt to cut crime and help them deal with their addiction. It's an idea that's been the reality for some time in Switzerland but arouses strong emotions from people who support it, and those who oppose it. I've been speaking to Mary Brett from drugs campaigners Eurad, who is against moves to roll such a plan out in the UK - and you can listen to part of our discussion here as Mary tells me it's not a good idea. I've also been speaking to Claudia Rubin from drugs charity Release - you can listen to some of our interview here - she supports moves to a Swiss-style system following the 'success' of the UK trial.
Olly Barratt - UK correspondent.


FSN is PASSION for the PLANET's award winning news partner, providing global news from bureaus worldwide.

You'll find more from world news stories, plus analysis from FSN at FSN REPORTERS BLOG.

How to stay motivated after redundancy

We tend to think of our job primarily as a source income so if we are made redundant then it is easy to surmise that money is the only thing we are missing out on. However the daily routine of going to work also provides our life with other important ingredients such as discipline and human contact. When these factors are removed because a job is lost then motivational problems can set it.

It’s quite ironic that when we have a job we can spend a lot of time wishing we didn’t have to work but when it is gone we overlook all the different benefits that it adds to our life!

Therefore, in order to keep motivated when no longer working you need find other ways of building a disciplined routine and getting sufficient human contact.

When you are out of work it is very easy to get into a routine of going to bed late and getting up late. In the short term this might be fun and a welcome opportunity to rest and relax but eventually it can lead to a sense of despondency, lack of drive and even depression. It is essential to build a new daily routine to avoid this downside.

I’m not suggesting that you continue to drag yourself out of bed at 6am as if you were still at work and run out of the house a few minutes later clutching a piece of half-eaten toast. Instead, consider the ideas below:

• Decide to get up between 8am and 9am everyday and ensure that you are in bed by midnight.

• Arrange to meet up with a friend a couple of mornings a week so that you are forced to get up and out at a reasonable time. If you know other people who have been made redundant then you can all help each other to stay motivated.

• Decide on a time period each day that you will spend investigating the job market and making applications.

• Find ways to be around people even if you are not in direct conversation with them. When I first started working at home I really missed human contact. However I found that working in a café for an hour, or a public space, satisfied this craving for human company. This need not be an expensive pursuit. For example, spending an hour reading the newspaper in your local library every morning won’t cost a penny.

• Make sure that you are active as this will benefit you both mentally and physically. For example, you might decide to go out for a one hour walk before midday or perhaps you could dust down your old push bike and explore your local area on two wheels. Again, exercise does not have to cost money – fresh air is free!

There are also advantages to having a period of not working. Now you can take up that new hobby to which you previously never had the time to commit or you can resurrect an old hobby that you just hadn’t got around to for years. You can have more quality time with your family, watch your children grow up and have more time to pay attention to their needs. You can also contribute to your community; spending an hour or so having tea and cake with an elderly neighbour will be of great benefit to both of you.

This period of unemployment is a great opportunity to reclaim neglected aspects of your life. Then, when you do find a new job you can look back on this episode with fondness rather than despair. You might even find that you enjoyed taking time to smell the roses and determine to carry this principle into your new working life.

Cali Bird is a life coach, writer and speaker. Cali specialises in working with people to excavate their long lost goals and desires. She then helps them find a way to get started on these dreams whilst fulfilling their current responsibilities. To download a free ebook “Top Ten Tips To Lead The Life You Want To Lead” go to Cali's website.

Don’t save the planet – save yourself!

Saving the planet is not really about stopping Planet Earth from dying, exploding or somehow disappearing. It’s about saving our own skins. Pretty much whatever we do Planet Earth will still be here – it’s us (and many other life forms) that are the ones under threat.

So here are three quick and easy eco top tips…

1) Go Veggie. 25 calories of fossil fuel are used to produce just one calorie of meat protein. Vegetable protein requires 30% less energy, 100 times less water and seven times less land area.
Every time you eat a meat free meal you’re helping the environment.

2) Use the car for one less journey this week. Reduce your car use one journey at a time. It all adds up.

Every time you leave the car at home you are helping to reduce global warming and particulate pollution.

3) Take your unwanted clothes, shoes, toys and bric-a-brac to the local charity shop. Millions of tonnes of perfectly good, re-usable items end up in landfill every year.

So don’t add yours to the pile – donate it to charity and save the planet while helping a good cause.

AUDIOBLOG: SANDY McCUTCHEON and LIFE IN THE MEDINA

Every Monday we have an interview heard on PASSION for the PLANET.

With the weather getting chillier, the idea of moving somewhere warmer becomes an attractive thought. Author and broadcaster Sandy McCutcheon dodges winter by splitting his time between Australia, France and Morroco. Sandy has been renovating a riad in the ancient medina of Fes. He says it's not an easy thing to do, but one of the rewards is the rich culture he's had the opportunity to experience. CLICK FOR INTERVIEW

For more of Sandy's Views from Fes, read Sandy's blog

You can hear more interviews on air and on demand at passionfortheplanet.com

Sharing Nest Boxes

I saw this story today and thought it was just soooo cute!

From the RSPB:

Renting out one of your rooms or moving in with friends are options that many people have taken during the recession but it seems some wildlife has had the same idea.

At the time of year when we're urging people to put up nestboxes ready for next spring, a surprising number of unusual shared occupancies have come to light.

Our wildlife enquiries team has been encouraging callers to clean out existing nestboxes and to put new ones in position so they are in place for when birds start to 'recce' possible nest sites in the spring.

Some birds will start to roost in them in the next few weeks as the weather turns colder too.
And the number of extraordinary reports of some species doubling up in nestboxes in recent years has come as quite a surprise.

Barn owl nestboxes seem to attract the most unusual tenants, with reports of the generous bird of prey sharing their nest boxes with birds like jackdaws, kestrels (see image) and stock doves.

Many birds are furiously territorial, especially when raising their young. And callers have reported that some birds sharing a home are constantly harassed when trying to get into their house-share, making it even more bizarre that they should persist.

Other birds that have been spotted nest sharing are blue tits and great tits and both of these species have been seen sharing with pied flycatchers too.

Experts believe one reason for the shared occupancies could include multiple cavities in some nest boxes, leading to the birds fledging from one cavity and returning to roost in the 'wrong hole' that is already occupied.

Another reason could be because they have unwittingly laid their eggs in the active nest of another species.

There may also be a lack of nesting sites in some areas. Many larger birds that nest in holes in trees or in older, undisturbed buildings are having difficulty finding suitable nesting sites, as buildings are knocked down or converted.

Richard James, one of our wildlife advisers says: 'Now is a great time to put up new nestboxes or give old ones a clean ready for the next round of breeding in spring. Long before eggs are actually laid and chicks hatched, the adult birds will start to scope out possible nest sites.

'It's great to hear that people are getting so excited about unusual lodgers and although its quite unusual, it just goes to show you never know quite what you might find in your nest box.
'You could be providing a home for all sorts of strange houseguests!'

If you discover that you have two species sharing a box, you should put up another box elsewhere in the garden for next year. Both species might want to breed in the area again the following year, so adding another box will ensure they have their own space.

Richard says: 'When two species both have young in it will get crowded, so the adults might have to wait their turn. They would both appreciate another box!

'Different species have different nesting requirements, but the general rule of thumb is to position a nestbox so it isn’t easy for predators to get in, and try and face it away from strong sunlight and prevailing winds.'

Visit the RSPB website to find out more.

Is A Fulfilling Relationship Possible?

How can a relationship fulfil you?

It simply can’t.

The only person that can fulfil you is you.

So, the only thing we can work on is making sure that you are fulfilled, and that you do not need to look for fulfilment in anybody else, as this is a myth.

You have heard it so many times before; clear your own baggage before you come to a relationship.

If you leave your partner with the old baggage still there, you will take it to the next and run into the same problems in the new relationship.

Is that true?

Yes, it is, so how are we going to make sure you get rid of the old baggage?

You need to work on you.

The word “work” is so heavily loaded, so let’s just say you need to play on you.
Sound a lot better already?

You can get fulfilled relationships by making sure the first relationship of your life is fulfilled; the relationship with yourself.

How do you feel about yourself?
Are you married to yourself?
Daft question.

Are you your own best friend?
Another strange question.

Well, do you like yourself?
Sometimes, not always.
Ah, there is a place to start.

Do you think you could ever like someone else?
Yes, of course.

Do you have a best friend?
Yes…. Where are you going with this?

Do you have a spouse, partner, girlfriend/boyfriend?

Ok, so now let’s look at the following.
You are in the bathroom, brushing your teeth, squeezing a spot or two in front of the mirror. You look at your face. Mostly what you do, is look at it in a clinical way. A hair out of place here, bloodshot left eye, how can I remedy that? Rummage through cabinet for eye-drops, tilt head back, pull down lower eyelid and squirt a small drop of liquid into left eye, blink a few times, inspect eye in mirror again and yes, or is it my imagination? The white looks clearer and does not show any of the previous night’s bacchanalia that went on at my friends’ party.

Further inspection, down to the nose, oops! Forgotten to trim those hairs lately, they are getting out of hand and show their ends OUT of the nose, not a pretty sight. Well, shall we use tweezers, or just a pair of nail scissors to trim them down? Must get those blunt ended ones, as we have managed to nick the inside of our nose on so many times now, it is not funny. And it makes our eyes water for a few hours, especially when we have a cold, it totally defies our object of looking handsome. Anyway, trim the hairs against the odds, luckily did not cut ourselves. Don’t know how those girls cope with having their noses pierced. Can’t understand for that matter how anyone can get anything pierced, somehow. Carry on with inspection. Spot on chin can no longer be ignored, we rest one elbow on the shelf and squeeze the other in between the mirror and the chin. Too close, the mirror gets steamed up by the breathing from our nose. Breathing through mouth doesn’t help here, just means that a larger area is fogging up, not as thickly, but still enough to obscure the vision of the offending spot on chin.

All that self talk stuff going on in our heads. Tapping into the universal mind-chatter.

How about looking into your own eyes next time you look in the mirror? As if they are someone elses? Someone who you love deeply? What do you see? The eyes-mirror of the soul….where is yours?....the person who is looking at you from the mirror….just the eyes, remember?.....what beauty do you see…. Boundlessness….infinity…..look for it and find it.

Do once daily for 3 weeks and notice what is different…. Have fun with it and let me know your experiences at Brigitte@brigittesumner.com

Brigitte Sumner, Relationship Coach

Tell the chef to cook something proper!

“Oh for goodness sake, tell the chef to cook her something proper!”

I was so thrilled to hear this that I nearly leapt out of my chair and did a little dance of joy.

Why was I so thrilled? Well, I have this issue with pasta and risotto as the unimaginative de facto standard vegetarian option in pretty much every restaurant I ever visit.

So when I was invited to stay for lunch at C Restaurant in Vancouver while interviewing Executive Chef Rob Clarke, I explained that I didn’t eat meat or fish. The waiter started to suggest their one vegetarian option – the pasta. It was at this moment that Mr Clarke uttered the words I was so delighted to hear.

And what the chef came up with was amazing. Why it wasn’t on the menu already and why they chose tedious pasta instead, I cannot imagine.

My meal started with tiny bites of marinated fruits and vegetables on skewers. They were served standing upright on a glass tile, looking like multi-coloured flags of food. The main course was essentially “British Columbia on a plate”. The chef personally delivered it to my table and explained each item and where it had come from in the province. It seemed there was a delight on offer from almost every area, laid out on the plate like a work of art and with a good balance of vegetables and protein (unlike pasta or risotto which generally only contains carbohydrates and fat).

It just goes to show; this chef was far better than pasta. It’s a shame that so often vegetarians (or meat eaters who fancy a day off) are palmed off with sub standard fare. And Rob Clarke’s comment makes me wonder if in fact they are aware of this but perhaps choose the safe (lazy?) way out on their menus.

My plea to chef’s everywhere is don’t treat vegetarians as second class diners.

My experience of vegetarian food in British Columbia was generally excellent. I also visited (along with eight meat eaters) a seafood and sushi restaurant called Blue Water and we all tried a taster menu. Each course was beautifully presented and explained and wine chosen specifically to complement it. Quite often as a vegetarian I feel that I am missing out on the care and attention that a chef gives to meat eaters. Not so here. My food was carefully thought through, artfully presented and deliciously tasty.

I spoke to quite a few chef’s during my trip and needless to say we ended up having “the vegetarian conversation” (it seems to have become impossible for me to eat out without being asked why I am vegetarian, and do I find it difficult and do I miss meat, and what do I eat... ? etc). Each chef told me that if I didn’t like what was on the menu I should ask the chef to make me something else. They assured me that every decent chef has plenty of vegetables in the kitchen and can easily make a meat free meal that doesn’t involve pasta or risotto.

I’d been given similar advice by British chefs too, so when I recently visited the Cadbury House Hotel in Yatton I was ready to put it to the test. Cadbury House is a gorgeous hotel with a boutique feel. The decor is modern, elegant and a touch quirky. The spa is luxurious and the gym is well equipped. And the group manager Mark has some great tales to tell that will keep you entertained if you are lucky enough to get a chance to share a drink with him.

The restaurant prides itself on including plenty of local produce on the menu and I was looking forward to dinner and an imaginative vegetarian meal. Predictably the dish on offer was risotto, but that didn’t worry me as I was armed with my advice to ask for something else. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work as planned.

My main meal was a selection of the vegetable side dishes, which would have been OK (although I did feel a little as though I’d been palmed off with an “I can’t be bothered” meal) except for the fact it had large chunks of bacon in it! I think it’s fair to say they hadn’t taken any time to think about what they were serving me. Once again, a sad indication of the attitude of many chefs towards vegetarians.

There are of course plenty of exceptions. One such is The Harbour Cafe in Margate. This is a small seafront bistro that does the best Sunday lunch nut roast I have ever had. And it comes with all the trimmings of a traditional roast dinner. It’s worth going to Margate just for that. I’d also recommend that you save desert for a trip to the bandstand cafe on the beach and have a freshly cooked donut Brown Derby. Delicious.

AUDIOBLOG: Flirt Coach Peta Heskell

Every Monday we have an interview heard on PASSION for the PLANET.

We live in a world dominated by attractiveness. But how do we make ourselves more attractive? And do we need to bother? Peta Heskell is a Flirt Coach. CLICK FOR INTERVIEW

You can hear more interviews on air and on demand at passionfortheplanet.com

Does the Nobel Peace Prize make Obama a winner?

We're cheating a little with today’s entry, but I thought this blog by Dan Smith of International Alert was very interesting, so I'm posting it here for you to enjoy...

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has not done either President Obama or itself any favours by awarding him this year’s prize. It’s an award for promise rather than achievement. Read the citation and it sounds pretty much like saying, ‘We award the prize to the most popular man in the world because we like his views.’

The risk for Obama in this is that he is being set up for failure. Let’s face it, his June speech in Cairo on the Middle East was absolutely brilliant but he faces mountainous problems both at home and in the region before there is a real likelihood of success.

• On Israel-Palestine, neither of the parties is where Obama would need them to be in order to facilitate progress towards a final settlement. Indeed, “settlement” – there’s a word to conjure with. Until Obama can make his will prevail over that of the Israeli government on settlements, the path to a settlement is hard to see.
• In Iraq, fighting continues and escalated over the summer and his plan to withdraw US troops is not the same as either planning for peace in that country or actually achieving it.
• If Iran continues along its nuclear path the US will face some pretty hard choices and even if military action looks less likely from an Obama than a Bush adminsitration, it has signally not been ruled out.

Outside the region in Afghanistan, there will not be cuts in US forces, we’re told, so the choice is between steady state and increased numbers. Which doesn’t seem to betoken the achievement of peace any time soon.

On nuclear weapons, which the citation particularly emphasises, the vision of a nuclear-free world is bold, was shared by Ronald Reagan, and is certainly also a long way off.
Yes, so many things that Obama has said are really wonderful (though not all of them) but the issue of actual achievement is real, ugly and won’t go away.

Indeed, I suspect that through this autumn and winter there will be many people, not least among Obama’s Republican opponents in the US, who will take an increased pleasure from anything they can do to stymie and block his plans on any and all policies on international politics. At home there are some indications already that the award may hurt as much as or more than it helps. That may also be true for some groups in the Middle East and South Asia who are scepticial about the real deliverables from his many fine speeches or simply and straightforwardly actively opposed to Obama’s agenda.

And the difficult truth is that on climate and health reform, two big issues on which he wanted to deliver this year, Obama is finding it somewhere between impossible and extremely difficult to come up with the goods.

Meanwhile, in Oslo, the Nobel Commitee will contemplate its 2010 and after prize awards in the shadow of its 2009 choice. The prize was not awarded for achievement this year. Will it be next or has it been devalued?

Dan Smith, Secretary General, International Alert.


Dan has a regular blog and you can read it here.

You can also find out more about International Alert here.

Rubles for Wrecks and Christmas Lights

Russia's 'rubles for wrecks' car scrappage scheme to mirror 'cash for clunkers'

FSN's Moscow correspondent Anya Ardayeva has filed the following video report on the Russian government's 'rubles for wrecks' car scrappage scheme. Russian new-car sales are currently running at less than half last year's levels.

Christmas lights go up on London's Oxford Street.

Is this a record? I make it October the 8th today... Olly Barratt - UK correspondent.

FSN is PASSION for the PLANET's award winning news partner, providing global news from bureaus worldwide.

You'll find more from world news stories, plus analysis from FSN at FSN REPORTERS BLOG .

Orang-utans and map reading

Our close cousin is an incredibly intelligent animal. Did you know that he keeps a map in his head, which tells him where the fruit trees are fruiting and when – even more difficult when you consider that in the resource-poor environment that is the rainforest, some trees only fruit once in four years!

The young Orang-utan spends the first five to seven years with mum, during which time he learns where the trees are and when they fruit building up his mind map. This is why it is not possible to rehabilitate an Orang-utan to the wild. Captive orang-utans were always babies when caught (by murdering mum) and brought up by people, thus not developing a mind map. In the rehabilitation centre at Bohorok, the orang-utan does go back into the forest, but for the rest of his life he will always come back for food hand-outs as his lack of knowledge fails him in finding food. And he lives a good forty to fifty years.

This is also why ‘sustainable logging’ is rubbish – it murders 60% of the Orang-utan in the forest, because it takes out some of the fruit trees – and there is no alternative in their map. They starve to death looking for another fruiting tree and waiting for their next one to ripen.

The orang-utan is a very tough, strong animal. Living in the trees as he does, he actually has four arms and no legs. The hunters go after babies to sell them as pets. They will need to shoot mum about ten times before she actually falls out of the tree, and she can still hang on with two broken arms.

The only good news is that in the Leuser ecosystem that is home to most of the remaining Sumatran Orang-utan, the local population knows this and reports to our rangers anybody who has an illegal baby orang-utan. There has only been one case so far this year, which is a BIG drop, so we are winning this war.

It’s too late for a lovely Orang-utan sub-species that lived near Sibolga in Sumatra. Dark red hair, long fingers, highly intelligent, none have been seen for many a year. But in Leuser we have 7,500 of the main Sumatran species, and there are another 600 to the north that we aim to bring into the reserve next year. They are safe. It is a different story in Borneo, where there may be 11,000 Orang-utan, but they are scattered and in small bits of forest, reduced to eating oil palm nuts.

These fractured populations are not really viable. A female Orang-utan has a baby about once every 5 to 7 years, and will have at most 7 in her lifetime, so populations grow very slowly.

How do you recognise an Orang-utan researcher? By the missing fingers…. Occasionally we have had to relocate Orang-utan. We would tranquillise the ape high in the tree with a dart gun. As he gets woozy and sleepy, being very smart he comes down to the ground, where we can throw a net over him. These nets have centimetre thick, heavy nylon cords, but he will still bite through them like cotton. And when the researcher thinks he is asleep, and can start taking his measurements and samples, he is often just awake enough to nip the nearest finger…

Find out more about the work Force for the Forest are doing in Sumatra, where we have saved 7,500 Orang-utan in 25,000 square kilometres of forest, the last remnant of the great expanse that coated SE Asia.

Easy Listening on the Internet

We often get emails from internet listeners outside our DAB coverage areas pleading with us to make PASSION for the PLANET available on DAB where they live. Most say they love to listen, and would like to enjoy the station even when they're not at their PC. The answer is a Wifi Radio. It's just like a radio, but it picks up the stations from [no surprise here] your wifi. There are a number of products available, my personal favourite is the Evoke Flow from Pure, but it's about to be challenged by another sexy gizmo from Pure, the Sensia.

The Sensia is a fully connected internet, FM and DAB device, much like the Evoke Flow, but the Sensia also has an app store, so you can use it to check Twitter and Facebook. In fact Pure describe it as the “radio for the Facebook generation". However, I think its 5.7in capacitive touchscreen makes it more like the radio for the iphone generation. Have a closer look here.

The Sensia will be in the shops at the end of the month. If you don't fancy the look of it [or the £250 price tag], and would like something a bit less pricey and more traditional looking, we do heartily recommend the Evoke Flow.

Of course you don't need a wi-fi radio to listen on the Internet. On every page of our website you can launch our WebPlayer, which has a few wizzy features of its own. It shows title & artist details and gives you the option to buy any tracks you particularly like. The WebPlayer also provides details about interviews and features, including links for more online information.

CLICK HERE TO LAUCH THE WEBPLAYER

AUDIOBLOG: Zach Wright & fat reduction

Every Monday we have an interview heard on PASSION for the PLANET.

All this month we have a series of interviews with fitness expert Zach Wright. On air and online, Zach discusses various aspects of training and keeping fit. In this interview Zach talks about training and fat reduction. The whole series is available free and on demand online.

You can hear many more interviews on air and on demand at passionfortheplanet.com


On Friday we challenged you to identify THESE CLIPS OF MUSIC we play on PASSION for the PLANET.

Here are the answers ...

01 IAN DURY

SEX & DRUGS & ROCK'NROLL

02 DAVID BOWIE

[John Lennon on backing vocals]

FAME

03 SPIN DOCTORS

TWO PRINCES

04 TALKING HEADS

SLIPPRY PEOPLE [live]

05 BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE

[featuring Mick Jones of the Clash]

E=MC2

06 THE CLASH

ROCK THE CASBAH

07 THE POLICE

KING OF PAIN

08 SPLIT ENZ

I GOT YOU

09 THOMAS DOLBY

AIRHEAD

10 THE MONKEES

LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE

11 THE JAM

START

12 THE CARS

MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL

13 STEREO MCs

CONNECTED

14 SOFT CELL

TAINTED LOVE

15 ROBERTA FLACK & DONNY HATHAWAY

BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

16 QUEEN

WE WILL ROCK YOU

17 PAUL SIMON

LATE IN THE EVENING

18 OMD

JOAN OF ARC

19 CARLY SIMON

YOU'RE SO VAIN

20 ORANGE JUICE

RIP IT UP

21 BLANCMANGE

LIVING ON THE CEILING

22 KOOL & THE GANG

LADIES NIGHT

23 THE BEE GEES

STAYING ALIVE

24 GEORGE BENSON

LOVE X LOVE

25 DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES

I CAN'T GO FOR THAT (NO CAN DO)

Waste Not Want Not

Knowledge is a funny thing. You never know when you'll want to know seemingly useless information.

I've been making some new promos for the radio station. It involved gathering clips of music from tracks we play, and when I was finished I had a pile left over. So I thought "waste not want not", I'll use them for something else, and that gave me the idea for this blog.

Apparently "waste not want not" has been traced back to 1772, although the idea must have been around as long as we've been having ideas. The 1772 bit of information came from a Google search. I found what I was looking for easily, and was immediately grateful that someone had bothered to research and store that knowledge, but simultaneously amazed that someone could be bothered to research and store that knowledge. Which brings us back to my leftover clips of music.

I've stuck 25 of them together, how many artists & titles can you get? No prizes, just an exercise in retrieving some seemingly useless knowledge/memories you have stored in your head [or your friends' heads].

And if it helps ... there's one track by a made up band, one person appears on two tracks, one track is a live recording, and only one track includes John Lennon on backing vocals [he also co-wrote it].

All the tracks will be played over the weekend, so you can look at the text on your DAB radio or on the WebPlayer if you're stuck. I'll give you the answers on Monday along with the regular AUDIOBLOG.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE CLIPS

So there you go ... a reminder to make the most of resources, a plug for the radio station, a trip down memory lane, exercise for your brain, something fun to do with friends, and a reason to lure you back to the Blog. Waste not want not.

Thirst for change.

It's not always the case that the UK's domestic party conferences pique international interest, but this week was different: Gordon Brown'domestic difficulties, painkiller-gate, an impending general election, the Tories soaring in the polls - all of these have combined to mean there's been a strong interest overseas in the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

Olly Barrett spoke to Radio New Zealand's Morning Report (listen here).

Thirty-four-year-old Salva Dut lives in New York. He was one of Sudan's "Lost Boys", one of the many thousands of children orphaned during the country's 20 year civil war. For more than a decade, Dut wandered homeless with no news of his family. He wound up in Ethiopia, then Kenya, where he lived in a United Nations refugee camp for nearly six years before coming to the United States in 1996. New York correspondent Paige Kollock filed this report for Voice of America on how Salva Dut is now helping villagers in his homeland gain access to clean drinking water.

FSN is PASSION for the PLANET's award winning news partner, providing global news from bureaus worldwide.

You'll find more from world news stories, plus analysis from FSN at FSN REPORTERS BLOG .