What a a depressing state of affairs. The key line for me is…
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True for the most part but is the debate balanced by chemical run off from veg farming?
Clearly not in the case of organic farming, which is where the world needs to go.
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Although I agree with your position @Badger , in fairness organic farming can produce effluent runoff as well, just not pesticide etc runoff.
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Yes its how we manage the processes. O e could feed the other as crops weaken the soil so need replenishment from the animals next door.
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Green manures seem to be working very well on some organic farms. Sown in Autumn, left over winter to grow and protect the soil structure then harrowed in to fertilise the soil before planting the crop.
Manure should legally only be spread away from watercourses and at certain times of the year but this rule is ignored quite a lot.
There are different rules for fumier (manure) and lisier (slurry). Sometimes people are not aware of the difference and think manure has been spread illegally, when it is actually legal slurry.
Do you live in an area with dairy farming?
I still live in North West Norfolk, where there are a few dairy farms but mainly pigs and arable. We some rare chalk streams nearby which are treated appallingly by some of the landowners and the local drainage boards. We’ve just bought a house near Valence D’Agen and are gradually working our way towards abandoning the UK and embracing a new life there.
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Well welcome, I hope you manage to establish yourself here. But be aware that farmers are virtually untouchable here and do very much what they like. The environmental policing is very patchy and the fines are derisory so farmers don’t care. Even worse is that animal welfare standards here can be very poor.
(Several members on here will jump in and say their local farmer loves and cares for his/her animals like their children….but there is a lot of evidence from organisations like L214 to say this is not universal)
Thank you. Sounds a bit like Norfolk so we will feel right at home! Thank you for the welcome. 
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Well, no s**t Sherlock…
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Not many posts recently about the planet warming up.
Water and winter seems to have halted the thought pattern. Looks like 4 or 5 days of sunshine has arrived which should wake up the doom and gloom merchants 
Words like the temperature soared are bs in the same way as people used to post on hear the the pound “plummeted” when in reality it moved a cent or two.
In the UK, rising sea temperatures are having an impact, yes practically tropical, not.
Yes its a concern but the heat of the sun has a much clearer sky with which to warm the oceans than it used to because we have reduced so much of the polution.
The weather patterns have changed, the polar winds have reversed direction and next year NASA predicts more sun activity and solar radiation so expect more records to be broken.
More coral bleaching is from forever chemicals than a degree in water temperature and thats why so many places are banning sun creams due to their effect on corals.
Bleached, But Not by the Sun: Sunscreen Linked to Coral Damage - PMC.
But then some other scientist, probably paid by the sun cream industry who will counter the claim. Then there are a host of other forever chemicals poluting the oceans. The oceans are the lungs of the planet, they can sequester far more CO2.
Crikey even climate scientist cannot agree. But media get to sell one side one day and the other a week later. A volcano errupts and the ash cloud blocks out the sun and the temperature falls almost immediately. Its cooler on cloudy days but just as hot if you are up above the clouds on an airplane. Discuss.
TBH I think we’re well past the point of no return on climate and environment - maybe not so much in terms of still being able to turn around the damage but to do so the political will to improve things would have to be massive and all consuming. It simply isn’t there and won’t be until it is too late - in fact probably not even then.
I feel the same. I worry for my children. I am so angry that the people in power don’t care.
For once the people in power are no more to blame than the vast majority of the human race. We all have a life span and whilst I have children and grandchildren there is no point in me worrying about their future as In the grand scheme of things I can do bugger all about it. It takes more then a few worriers and do gooders to stop a juggernaut if in reality there is one to stop.
I do what the system tells me to do to ‘save the planet’ but not at the expense of enjoying my own life.
If that puts me in the ‘don’t care’ group then guilty as charged.
They do care - just that they put their own short-term interests above others.
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Pretty much sums up the human race then.
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