Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s fine. It’s not their journey to make sense of. It’s yours.
All posts by Keith
Treeconomy
How much is that tree in your street worth? Or the one in the park where you walk the dog? Probably a lot more than you think: it could be a five figure sum.
An article in last week’s New Scientist looks at the ways in which a value is beginning to be put on trees, especially urban trees. As the article is behind a paywall, here are some extracts to give you the flavour.
What the Victorians didn’t know [about London’s giant Plane trees] was how bloody big they get … Nor could they have appreciated the true value of the trees, beyond their hardiness and handsomeness
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[Now] “treeconomists” have begun to put a fair price tag on trees, accounting for the services they provide, from keeping our buildings cool to preventing skin cancer.
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[But] trees come at a cost … they must be constantly looked after … particularly … in cities, where ageing or diseased branches can fall on people and property, and roots can break up pavements … [which is why] Sheffield has generated protests … with its chainsaw massacre of 5500 trees, with another 12000 at risk .
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What is important is the trees’ economic benefits … an existing method … which focused on a tree’s aesthetic contribution to a landscape. This typically generated value … in the hundreds of pounds.
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[A] new method, which attempted to capture trees’ worth as an amenity, taking into account their attractiveness and how they accentuate or diminish a sense of place … called Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (CAVAT), it starts by multiplying the cross-sectional area of the tree’s trunk by a unit price … that relates closely to what the tree costs to buy, and which goes up with inflation … augmented … to take into account the tree’s species, visibility to the public, local population levels, the size and condition of the leaf canopy, the suitability of the species for its site and the tree’s life expectancy.
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iTree attempts to price up the environmental services trees provide. It combines local weather and pollution data with tree metrics – including trunk girth, species type, canopy size and sunlight exposure – to calculate the value of the services the trees provide. These range from the pollution they remove from the air to the carbon they store, and the run-off into the sewage system they prevent by soaking up rain.
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[There are] four core benefits trees provide: soaking up air pollution, storing carbon, saving money on energy by shading buildings in summer and cooling them in winter, and avoiding the emissions associated with the production of that energy.
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Treeconomics has used iTree and CAVAT to calculate the worth of urban trees across the UK … [in] Hyde Park [they audited] the park’s 3174 trees, including 1188 planes … iTree estimates, their environmental services are worth £208,916 per year. The bulk of this … is the “social damage” cost of the pollution the trees prevent.
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Because the park is in such a densely populated area, and because the trees are large, visible and highly suited to their setting, the amenity value of all the trees there is huge: £52,378 on average for each London plane.
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The next step [is] a tool to help plan tomorrow’s forests … iTree Species, allows an urban forester to rank the environmental services desired in a new planting scheme, including reducing air pollution, wind and ultraviolet light. After plugging in these characteristics, alongside the hardiness required to cope with local geography and weather, and the predicted mature size of the tree, the software produces a ranked list of recommended species.
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If a lamp post falls down or is damaged, people expect it to be replaced – it should be the same for a tree … trees get larger and provide more value as they get older, meaning they need to be preserved, not replaced.
And that makes almost no mention of the importance of the biodiversity supported by many trees – everything from aphids and pollinating moths to crows, all feeding, and feeding off, each other.
No, trees are not valueless. And they can’t be instantly replaced. Planning authorities and developers please note – removing trees for your convenience, even if they are replaced with saplings, is just not OK.
Yes, I’m Fat
In an article on BBC News website over the weekend one woman talks about how she feels about being fat. I found it interesting because so much of what she says chimes with how I feel. Here are some of the things she says and which I share (plus a few tropes of my own).
Feeling good about your body isn’t always easy when you are overweight.
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Quite literally, I am the elephant in the room.
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I am fat, there’s no getting away from it.
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I don’t think there’s a single part of me … that is small.
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Society has its own sort of perception of people like me – we are disgusting, fat, slothful, lazy, incompetent, stupid.
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[H]ow could you be that fat? The answer is simple – a lack of control, a lack of confidence …
Yes, I have a lack of self-control; it isn’t good enough now but it was much worse years ago when I first put on weight. It is partly down to the lack of confidence but it’s also, in part, the anxiety and depression.
It’s kind of sad that I’m comforted by food rather than other elements in the world.
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The eating combined with my osteoarthritis and other disabilities doesn’t help – the additional weight on the joints isn’t a positive impact.
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I did swim, but don’t any more.
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“Just lose weight.” I hear that all the time from family, friends, colleagues, doctors …
It’s not rocket science – I know that … but that means effort, doesn’t it? It means having to motivate myself and persevere … I can’t …
I can’t because mostly the depression acts as a complete roadblock. I wish it didn’t, but despite trying just about everything available I’ve not yet found a way through the roadblock.
What is also for many oversized people, me included, is that the brain doesn’t internally know one’s real size. The brain still thinks of you being your normal size and doesn’t adjust for your new size. So you don’t (instinctively) realise how much space you take up. You have this internal picture of yourself the way you were (or should be).
People are constantly judging me … I am a reflection of something that they could become. They tell themselves that they’ve got control, they’re sensible, intelligent and no way would they ever get to my size. But let me tell you, I was you once and you could be me.
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The only person I can hold responsible for my position is me. However, I refuse to accept the size I am. This is not who I was meant to be.
If I accept it then I’m telling myself that I’ve given up and I don’t want to give up.
I don’t want to be normal because normal is boring. I just want to be the best of myself.
I wish it wasn’t thus. I don’t like being the size I am. I understand the risks. I know all the things I should do to combat it, and if I could do it I would have done long ago. But having looked at, and thought about, the problem in depth, the first thing that has to happen is to fix the depression and other mental issues. That is a huge challenge, and I’ve not yet found the key to unlocking it – I wish I had!
Gendered Loos
A story in the Guardian earlier this week quotes “feminist academic” Germaine Greer as saying publicly on Channel 4 TV that all public toilets should be gender-neutral.
Now I don’t like Germaine Greer, her strident attitude and many of her apparent beliefs. But on this I have to agree with her. Why can’t toilets be gender-neutral?
I recall when I was a graduate student (mid-1970s), I was a student rep on the university’s accommodation sub-committee and we were debating the possibility of having mixed corridors in student residences. Not just mixed blocks with single sex corridors of rooms, but actually mixed corridors. This was put up for debate by the university housing department as a way of better utilising the available accommodation. None of the student reps had a problem with the idea, nor did the younger university staff; in fact the only objections came from a couple of stuffed shirts at the top of the housing department. As we all pointed out: bathrooms have doors which can be locked, as do student rooms; and we all have to live in the real world with mixed genders. So how are student residences any different especially when many students choose to live in mixed-gendered flats/houses.
(I don’t know if this was implemented as I left before the start of the next academic year.)
How is this different from having mixed toilets, even if the toilets are “public conveniences”? Our local swimming pool has a mixed gender changing room with cubicles. How is this different from mixed toilets? We live in a multi-gendered society. It’s not as if we’re asking pregnant or menstruating women (or indeed anyone else) to perform their ablutions without any screening; and yes, I do get why they wouldn’t want to.
So you think you (or the children) might see something they shouldn’t. Oh, please! For a start we all know what’s under my t-shirt and jeans, and your t-shirt and jeans, so why the fuss. And kids have to learn about what’s under those t-shirts and jeans, and the bodily functions, sooner or later. How much better for them to learn in an open environment where they can be properly, and age-appropriately, explained by a parent, grandparent etc. – or in an educational environment like a school?
Yes, OK, public toilets tend not to be the most pleasant of places, but we make them that way. Men’s loos are supposedly worse than women’s – until you talk to people who run clubs who’ll tell you the women’s loos are often much worse than the men’s. So we all need to be more civilised. And maybe the thought that the other gender – who, of course, we want to impress – are watching might get us all to smarten up our ideas.
If gender neutral (or should they be “gender inclusive”) toilets are such a bad idea how is it that many public organisations like theatres and museums, let alone many companies, are going this route? And how come “disabled access toilets” are always non-gendered?
I don’t buy all this division of facilitates, any facilities, by gender. For all me we’d have mixed gender changing rooms with no cubicles. I just don’t get the problem, and I never have. I can’t be doing with it.
So I have to concede that Germaine Greer is right: all public toilets should be gender neutral.
Ten Things
This month something slightly more topical in Ten Things …
Ten Things I did Over Bank Holiday Weekend:
- Hosted a literary society pub meet
- Prepared a meeting for next week
- Ate fish & chips
- Drank too much alcohol (not all at once!) and enjoyed it
- Did more work tidying up my rebuilt website & blog
- Completed two prize crosswords
- Won £2.50 on the lottery
- Read the latest New Scientist and a railway magazine
- Started on reorganising and rejuvenating the plants on our tiny patio
- Tried (and failed) to get a 10 year old laptop working satisfactorily
Auction Oddities
We’ve not had a selection of the eccentric and downright weird auction items recently. This is mainly because the last couple of sales at our local auction house have been on the dull side. However here is a selection of the best oddities from the March and April sales.
A charming set of eight buttons, each styled as a Victorian watch face, the numerals linked by swags of flowers, each button 2.6 cm Image
A collection of wooden plucked musical instruments Image
A Royal Albert Flowers of the Month part tea service, an orange lustre tea service decorated with romantic couples, a Royal Doulton toby jug The Walrus and the Carpenter D6600, a small quantity of souvenir ware, a Japanese vase and a safety deposit box and contents
A Victorian entomology cased and glazed set of pinned moths Image
As so often that isn’t quite what they mean!
A nice collection of mainly wood and metal ware including cased set of chessmen and dominoes, 19th century wooden box present from Loch Fyne, 19th century hand painted tea caddy, a collection of alabaster eggs in wicker basket, religious wares, 19th century inlaid stoneware desk paperweight and candlestick, set of three hand painted wooden candlesticks, wooden bowls, letter racks, milking stool, a box of hand tools, brushes, two copper jelly moulds, etc.
An old red plastic telephone, a box of tea and magazine cards including Valiant, old magazines including Rin Tin Tin, Tweety, Sylvester, Look and Learn, and a signed card from Dave Clark of “Time, The Musical”
A mixed lot including a 1906 copy of The Temperance Party paper, a fashion print, cigarette cards, silhouettes, two folders of official slides of medieval frescoes in Yugoslavia, a quantity of silver-plated commemorative spoons, miniature porcelain and a 1938 copy of The Daily Telegraph, etc.
A green plastic carton containing a miniature horse and trap, powder boxes, a decorative spoon, hat pins, a pair of stylish early 20th century door handles, a shell purse, lighters, a model alpine house, photo album, etc.
No allocated
But it has an Image!
A child’s vintage Lilliput typewriter, cased men’s grooming sets, a ladies vintage shoe stretcher, a silver plated sugar sifter, a cased set of M Dobson binoculars, a cased Greenkat telescope and a decorative horn
A good lot of pewter in three boxes comprising a 17th century style candle wall sconce, table wares, tureens, dishes and bowls, steins, an art nouveau butter dish with liner, a jelly mould, toast rack, a pair of pricket candlesticks, coffee pot, etc., a box of reference books on collecting including pewter and money boxes, and a Victorian folding deckchair
Not Allocated
Another which also has an Image!
A most interesting collection of 38 Friendly Society ceremonial staff heads in brass, mounted on wooden stands
A Victorian pottery jardiniere stand supporting the bust of a lady
That could have been better phrased!
An old metal trunk with labels containing blankets
I’m still puzzled as to how to get a blanket in a label
A vintage Nativity set, a pair of vintage scales, two large table lamps, a small oak stool, a vintage record holder and a large vase
Three bamboo and rattan tables, a wickerwork basket, three towel rails, a lampstand, a rocking horse and a glass-fibre boot stick stand
As so often it is the odd juxtapositions that make many of these stand out, despite the lack of crap taxidermy.
More anon!
Something’s Rotten
I am appalled at this story from yesterday’s Guardian:
Rotten results: Sainsbury’s drops project to halve food waste
I’m especially appalled at the stupidity of people that they just cannot be arsed to do better than this.
And here’s another “cost of food” story we (yes, including me) quietly ignore:
What is the true cost of eating meat?
These are such good demonstrations of how, as a species, we’re so self-centred that it’s going to destroy everything.
On a slightly different tack, here’s another example, this time from Scientific American:
Global Tourism Has a Bigger Share of Carbon Emissions Than Thought
Like three times bigger! FFS.
Someone please explain to me how anyone can genuinely justify any of this.
Gah! People!
Urban Tree Festival
Anyone who follows along here will know the importance I attach to trees: they create shade, help clean up urban pollution, support a whole raft of important species from aphids to squirrels and owls, provide us with fruit and nuts, as well as giving many of us a great deal of pleasure. Urban trees are especially important as there are many studies showing that a green environment is important for life enhancement.
So I’m pleased to see the announcement of the first ever Urban Tree Festival in London.
The event, which runs over the weekend of 18-20 May, is promising a series of urban tree-related events across London including tree identification, street tree walks, and a close look at London’s Mulberry heritage.
Most of the events are ticketed (via Eventbrite); links are on the Urban Tree Festival events page.
H/T IanVisits
Bank Holiday 20 Questions Meme
Just for a bit of time-wasting amusement here’s a twenty question meme for the end of a bank holiday weekend.
- Name a food that you can’t stand but which most people seem to love. Butternut squash.
- Name a food beginning with each of your initials. Kale. Custard. Marmite.
- Who is the most famous person you’ve met? Author Ian Rankin.
- What was the last thing you read? This screen.
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Get rid of the depression because pretty much everything else would follow from that.
- What vegetable do you most hate? Sweet potato.
- What superpower would you most like to have? Omnipotence – with that you can do anything else.
- What would you love to be an expert in? Doing nothing.
- If you could make any discovery, what would it be? The secret of immortality. Let’s face it, none of us really wants to die.
- What would you like to have named after you? A dung beetle would probably be most appropriate. Or a wasp. Yes, I’ll settle for an annoying wasp.
- If you could meet any figure from the past or the future, who would you meet? Elizabethan composer William Byrd.
- What was the last thing you put in your mouth? Earl Grey tea.
- Are you a good influence? I very much doubt it; indeed I might be worried if I were.
- Does pineapple belong on pizza? Definitely not; neither does peach, unless you’re making a specifically fruit pizza. (Must sometime write up my method for fruit pizza.)
- Something that’s worrying you at the moment. Diabetes.
- One skill you don’t have but wish you did. The ability to magically attract money. Well, who wouldn’t!?
- Tell me one unpopular, but entirely logical and far-sighted opinion you hold. The private car (van, etc.) should be banned. Yes, it would be tricky, but it could be done and it needen’t be as horrendous as you might imagine. (I must write an essay on this sometime.)
- Do you ever write in pencil any more? Yes, actually quite a bit of the time: old programmers always write in pencil.
- Do you wear rings? Yes. I’m currently wearing three: wedding ring, silver wedding anniversary ring, and a copper ring. Oh and my original (very worn) wedding ring on a chain round my neck.
- Tell us three things you did today? Tried (and failed) to get a very old laptop working. Started reorganising the patio. Made a chicken salad.
Nobody is tagged, but join in if you want – just leave a comment here with a link to your answers so we can all enjoy them.
Welcome!
Welcome to the new Zen Mischief site!
If you have landed here it appears that the migration from our old site has been a success. Thank you for your patience during the transition.
So what has changed?
- The driver for the change was to make the Zen Mischief Weblog part of this front page.
- That means the look and feel is slightly different, although the blog navigation is still in the right-hand column.
- The static pages still exist and are now linked from the left-hand column.
- The short site description and the current quote now appear at the top of the left-hand column.
- A few of the old static pages have been sunset; the rest have been revised; and there is some new content.
- If you trawl back through all the old blog posts then you’re likely to find some missing images; I’ll correct these as and when the opportunity arises.
- Oh, and you may need to update your bookmarks/favourites.
And that’s about it. Everything else should be much the same, and hopefully normal service can resume.