Everything's green except the cheese

Now I’m as green as the next man… as long as he’s not too green. But it’s all very well paying lip service to conservation – politicians show us the way. What about a practical approach?

A net benefit for nature

The "about" blurb for Naturenet includes the following: "Naturenet is a voluntary enterprise to provide a good online resource for practical nature conservation and countryside management." The website was started by the Isle of Wight’s countryside manager, for the very good reason that he couldn’t find anything already doing the job. But is there anything in it for the rest of us?

I had a look at the information about rights of way. I rather expected some general stuff about keeping clear of cows, together with large chunks of legalese. But no: they’ve written and published here articles about the subject in plain English. Whatever next?!

It’s the same with the greener bits. They don’t just tell you that it’s a good idea to plant a tree or a hedge on your bit of land, they tell you what would work best and how to go about it. Their blog is even funnier than this one (I particularly liked the bit about a Talking Heads album being all about the Town & Country Planning Acts – that had never occurred to me before. Just in case you don’t believe it, a YouTube extract is included).

If you want to be preached at about conservation, I can recommend some very worthy official utterances. If you want an approach which is down-to-earth and fun, Naturenet is for you.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Science". Naturenet is a Key Link.)

It’s not rocket science (actually it is, sometimes).

Because the Gateway’s "Science" category was getting a bit top heavy with Key Links, How Products Are Made has been moved to "Engineering", but this is not intended as a slight on what remains a great source of information.
Mind you, first impressions are not encouraging. A list of volumes 1 to 7 doesn’t give much away. And using the search box often takes you to a rather bewildering list of articles, some but not all of which are from this website. But be a bit persistent – it’s worth it.

I tried cheese. "How cheese is made" was first in the hit list, linking to an incredibly detailed rundown on the cheese making process, with diagrams, a reading list, and even some tempting adverts. Since I assume that the ads probably pay for the other stuff, I didn’t mind them, and they didn’t flash or pop or anything like that.

Now, where did I put my rennet?

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Science". How Products Are Made is under "Engineering".)


Picture credit: Herbert Hoskins/Juicy Orange