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LANDMARK REPORT SHOWS GLOBAL WILDLIFE POPULATIONS ON COURSE TO DECLINE BY 67 PER CENT BY 2020
WWF calls on governments to fast-track action on conservation, climate change and sustainable development New data released by WWF and ZSL (Zoological Society of London) today reveals that overall global vertebrate populations are on course to decline by an average of 67 per cent from 1970 levels by the end of this decade, unless urgent
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Trump pulls plug on Obama’s clean power plan
Jane Goodall calls Trump’s climate change agenda ‘immensely depressing’ Trump climate: Challenges loom after Obama policies scrapped BBC News–4 hours ago Opponents of President Donald Trump’s decision to scrap his predecessor’s climate change policies say they will organise a public campaign … EU leads attacks on Trump’s rollback of Obama climate policy The Guardian–15 hours ago
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‘More than 800,000 songbirds illegally killed’ on British military base in Cyprus – Robins and blackcaps are among the birds being trapped for food…
See The Independent online – The Express – The Guardian – BBC News
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Maxwell Knight’s cabinet gets a mention on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show
Tune into the BBC iPlayer and fast forward to 2:44:42 to hear Maxwell Knight’s filing cabinet mentioned in today’s BBC Two World Book Day show…
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The Vanishing: Europe’s farmland birds
The Head of Conservation for BirdLife Europe & Central Asia explains how intensive agriculture has made farmland birds one of the most threatened bird groups in Europe: ‘Once upon a time, they were all around us,’ laments Iván Ramírez – ‘sights and sounds as familiar as the dusky skies their flocks danced in or the
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In next month’s ‘Practical Reptile Keeping’ – The case of the hidden manuscript, James Bond & reptiles
Visit the Practical Reptile Keeping Facebook page to find out more. (Every month, Practical Reptile Keeping is packed with snakes, lizards, tortoises, amphibians and bugs. As well as stunning photographs, each issue features technical help, product information and health care advice to keep your pet in tip top condition). To any herpetologist who was alive
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About World Wildlife Day 2017
Half of world’s #wildlife was lost in past 40 years. Habit loss, over-exploitation, poaching & trafficking are main threats #YouthVoices #WWD2017 “The UN World Wildlife Day (WWD) is the global celebration of the many beautiful and varied forms of wild animals and plants on our planet as well as an occasion to raise awareness of
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Simon King talks about feeding the birds on BBC Radio Humberside
Representing Haith’s (as an Associate Director) Simon King discusses the merits of feeding wild birds this winter… Tune into the BBC iPlayer to hear the piece… or click here to open the iPlayer in a new window…
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Book update: A day’s research in London
John and Margaret Cooper joined Simon King to visit The Linnean Society (Piccadilly) and peruse their Maxwell Knight archive. Then, on to the Natural History Museum (South Kensington) to see The Maxwell Knight Library. In the evening, returning back to The Linnean Society for Founder’s Day. Thanks to everyone who helped make the day productive
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The World Is Not Enough According To WWF’s Living Planet Report 2016 (in fact, we require the ‘biocapacity equivalent of 1.6 Earths’)
There’s a real-life international power struggle and the antagonist is man ‘demanding more from the planet than it can renew,’ reports WWF in the Living Planet Report 2016 ‘Since the early 1970s, humanity has been demanding more from the planet than it can renew (see below). By 2012,’ writes WWF in the Living Planet Report
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Gorilla Pathology and Health, 1st Edition
John E Cooper is a member of a husband and wife team, from the United Kingdom. He and his wife Margaret (a lawyer, who is a contributor to this book and the forthcoming natural history book about Maxwell Knight) travel widely and lecture together in many countries. They have spent nearly twenty years living overseas,
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Did you know Maxwell Knight?
Did you know Maxwell Knight? #Nature #Conservation #BBCNaturalHistory #MI5 @NHM_London @wwf_uk @ZSLconservation https://t.co/gmvWcj9BjY pic.twitter.com/3hNBWLo5oc — Simon King (@SimonHKing) October 14, 2016 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js If you knew Maxwell Knight or have been influenced by him please share your story with us (it will not appear on this blog (or in the book) without your approval).
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Are butterflies slipping through our fingers?
The results for this year’s Big Butterfly Count are in and conservationists are already ‘scratching their heads,’ reports Butterfly Conservation. Over 38,000 counts were apparently completed and an almost unbelievable 396,138 butterflies were counted and – despite favourable weather conditions – 2016 will be a year where ‘common species saw their numbers collapse over summer.’ ‘Gatekeeper, Comma and
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Our wildlife is in ‘crisis’ – ‘56% of UK species are in decline’ and ‘165 species are considered Critically Endangered in Great Britain’
Our wildlife is in ‘crisis’ according to a new report launched this month entitled the State of Nature, which brings together data and expertise from over 50 organisations (including BTO, RSPB, WWF, ZSL, National Trust, Woodland Trust, Butterfly Conservation et al). Britain’s wildlife is in ‘crisis’ as ‘56% of UK species are in decline’ and
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The State of Nature 2016: One in 10 UK wildlife species faces extinction
Over 50 wildlife organisations have compiled a stock take (The State of Nature Report) of all our native wildlife and it reveals that more than one in ten of all the species assessed are under threat of disappearing from our shores altogether. In Scotland, one in every 11 species assessed is at risk of becoming
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“Is there to be no room for the Arts?”
“This is the age of science”, is the cry from ministries and other authorities, and it is true that science must play a large part in the lives of our future citizens. But do we truly want or need a nation of scientists where each person can claim that he or she has attained some
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Education: “It is the uninitiated that matter…
…They are the majority, and until more of them are made conservation conscious all or efforts will be wasted.” – Maxwell Knight (The Frightened Face of Nature – unpublished – Chapter XV). “Laws, rules and regulations will not themselves solve the problems of the future of wildlife,” wrote Knight in 1964 “It is only by education
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The beginning of something great? “Young people urge UK politicians to help safeguard nature”
“Young people” hit the headlines this week for all the right reasons – to share their 2050 vision for nature (#VisionforNature). Let us applaud these nature-protecting protagonists for making themselves heard above the daily noise of grumpy adults. They have spoken. Now, we must listen… …to what’s in the report written by the A Focus on
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Closed for Business: The Department of Energy and Climate Change #DECC #ClimateChange Find out why…
What does it say to the world when we (seemingly) downgrade our action on climate change? It says that we’re under stress as a country, and things are happening that we can’t control; uncertainty is piping its way through our veins. And in these conditions – when our backs are against the wall – we
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Why can’t we all become amateur naturalists?
It is nigh impossible to change the culture of a business let alone change the culture of a planet; however, it is possible – but everything’s against us. Which is why we all need to start today. Take, for example, the food that we eat: how on Earth (literally!) are we going to provide enough
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Ministers reject second request to use banned bee-harming pesticides
“Campaigners welcome decision to turn down National Farming Union’s application for ‘emergency’ use of neonicotinoids for oil seed rape, ” reports The Guardian today (8 July). Dave Timms, Friends of the Earth’s bee campaigner, described the government’s move as “great news for bees and other wildlife”. But he said the victory is at risk following the EU
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Chapter IV – goodbye to wildlife?
In this heartfelt chapter of The Frightened Face of Nature, Maxwell Knight drops his guard and invites the reader to consider the unthinkable – “the virtual disappearance of nature”. “Does such a question as that heading this chapter stem from the neurotic imaginings of a fanatic,” he asks, “or is it one that can reasonably be
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As long as there are two songbirds still singing, the percentage decline can’t get any worse
In just forty years between 1970 and 2010 the global Living Planet Index (LPI), which measures more than “10,000 representative populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, has declined by 52 per cent.” (source: WWF Living Planet Report 2014). The World Wildlife Fund’s and ZSL’s LPI report states that, “Habitat loss and degradation, and
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Maxwell Knight sang praises of the amateur naturalist
Maxwell Knight played a significant part in a number of fields; herpetology was his particular love and he produced a number of scientific papers on this subject as well as adding to national and local records and, through his books and broadcasts, encouraging an appreciation of reptiles and amphibians amongst the British public. The filing cabinet contains letters
What will you do now that you know?
The Frightened Face of Nature is a space for slowing down.
Maxwell Knight (1900–1968) is known in some circles for his work in intelligence (MI5), but that’s not really why his name appears here.
Long before ‘the environmental crisis’ became a headline, Knight noticed something many around him overlooked: nature was on the back foot.
It was his love of animals and the natural world, not his professional career, that made him pay attention.
Knight’s life, anchored in curiosity, observation, and attention to detail offers a way to think about how we see the world, and how easily we can stop seeing it at all.
The Frightened Face of Nature takes its name from an unpublished manuscript he wrote, which was found inside a secret cabinet.
Here, we explore stories and questions that don’t fit neatly into clickbait headlines — not because they aren’t urgent, but because they are complex and demand more than fleeting attention.
Knight’s perspective reminds us: Awareness isn’t passive. It’s an active choice.
So what will you do now that you know?
— Simon King FLS
