Other News
Here are some more news items and long reads that you might find interesting

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• Plug-in solar panels could lower your electricity bills by around £70 to £100 a year.

• A plug-in solar panel system costs from around £450 to install.

• Renters and flat owners will need permission from their landlord / freeholder before installing plug-in solar panels.

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/plug-in-solar-panels/

A government report that shows the risk of global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity. The world is already experiencing impacts including crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks. Threats will increase with degradation and intensify with collapse. Without major intervention to reverse the current trend, this is highly likely to continue to 2050 and beyond.

To View:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696e0eae719d837d69afc7de/National_security_assessment_-_global_biodiversity_loss__ecosystem_collapse_and_national_security.pdf

More Key judgements

2. Cascading risks of ecosystem degradation are likely to include geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict, migration and increased inter-state competition for resources. Moderate

3. Critical ecosystems that support major global food production areas and impact global climate, water and weather cycles are the most important for UK national security. Severe degradation or collapse of these would highly likely result in water insecurity, severely reduced crop yields, a global reduction in arable land, fisheries collapse, changes to global weather patterns, release of trapped carbon exacerbating climate change, novel zoonotic diseases and loss of pharmaceutical resources. The Amazon rainforest, Congo rainforest, boreal forests, the Himalayas and South East Asia’s coral reefs and mangroves are particularly significant for the UK.

High

4. Ecosystem degradation is occurring across all regions. Every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse (irreversible loss of function beyond repair).

High

5. There is a realistic possibility that some ecosystems (such as coral reefs in South East Asia and boreal forests) start to collapse from 2030, and others (rainforests and mangroves) start to collapse from 2050. Low 6. All countries are exposed to the risks of ecosystem collapse within and beyond their borders. Some will be exposed sooner than others and are likely to act to secure their interests, particularly water and food security.

Moderate

7. Without significant increases in UK food system and supply chain resilience, it is unlikely the UK would be able to maintain food security if ecosystem collapse drives geopolitical competition for food. The UK relies on imports for a proportion of both food and fertiliser and cannot currently produce enough food to feed its population based on current diets. Countries best placed to adapt are those that invest in ecosystem protection and restoration, and resilient and efficient food systems.

There is something rather appealing about the little wooden insect hotels that have become increasingly common in garden centres and online. They look as though they are doing something positive for nature — a small contribution to biodiversity, hanging from a fence or tucked into a sunny corner of the garden.

But, as with many well-intentioned environmental products, it is worth looking a little more closely at what we are actually providing.

This is particularly relevant to bees.

The phrase wild honeybee can itself be misleading. In Britain, genuinely wild colonies of the European honeybee are now extremely uncommon. There may still be colonies occupying natural cavities — perhaps in a hollow tree, an old building or some other sheltered space — but their existence is difficult to quantify. Where such colonies are known to be present, beekeepers are understandably often reluctant to advertise their locations.

Most of the bees we see visiting our gardens are not honeybees at all. Britain has hundreds of species of wild bee, many of them solitary bees. These are the insects that some of the commercially produced “bee hotels” are intended to attract.

And this is where a little caution is needed.

Five potential problems with the mass-produced bee hotel

1. Roughly drilled tunnels

A nesting tunnel needs to be reasonably smooth and free from splinters and sharp fibres. Poorly finished holes can potentially damage delicate wings and bodies as bees enter and leave.

It is an unfortunate irony that something sold as a bee home can sometimes be poorly constructed for the very insects it is supposed to accommodate.

2. Treated or unsuitable timber

Not all wood is equally appropriate. Strong-smelling resins, paints, preservatives, glues and other treatments may make a product less attractive to insects and, depending on the material, could potentially present risks.

Untreated, naturally durable timber is generally a more sensible choice than a cheaply manufactured product covered in finishes whose purpose is principally to make it last longer or look attractive to us.

3. Damp and mould

Perhaps the simplest test is to imagine being asked to live inside it through a British winter.

If water can enter through the top, the wood may remain damp for long periods. Poor ventilation and persistent moisture can encourage mould and deterioration. For developing bee larvae, the conditions inside a nest are obviously important.

A proper roof, sensible orientation and protection from driving rain matter considerably more than decorative appearance.

4. Nesting tubes that are too short

Different solitary bee species have different nesting requirements, so there is no single “correct” tunnel length.

However, very shallow holes can provide limited nesting opportunities and may leave developing brood more exposed to predators and parasites. Simply drilling a few holes into a block of wood does not necessarily reproduce the conditions a particular bee species requires.

This is one of the problems with the idea of a universal “bee hotel”: bees are not one species with one set of requirements.

5. The decorative hotel

Perhaps the greatest danger is that we design these things for ourselves rather than for insects.

Pine cones, bark, straw and other natural-looking materials can make an insect hotel look wonderfully rustic. But attractive does not necessarily mean useful. Different insects have very different nesting habits, and some of the materials commonly included in commercial products may provide little meaningful habitat for the species they are supposedly intended to support.

In some circumstances, badly designed mixed-material hotels may even create convenient hiding places for predators and parasites.

Perhaps less is more

There is a broader point here.

We sometimes assume that helping wildlife means buying something labelled wildlife friendly. It doesn’t necessarily.

For many bees, the most valuable habitat may simply be a garden with flowering plants, undisturbed soil, bare patches where ground-nesting species can burrow, hollow stems left standing and somewhere sheltered from excessive disturbance.

And if you do want to provide nesting accommodation, a simple, well-made nesting block designed for the species likely to use it may be considerably better than an elaborate £20 or £30 “insect hotel”.

There is also something rather satisfying about making one yourself. A piece of untreated hardwood, properly drilled and finished, with a good roof and positioned in a suitable sunny, sheltered location, may do more for solitary bees than a colourful collection of pine cones and drilled timber assembled primarily for the garden centre shelf.

The important thing is not whether an insect hotel looks natural.

It is whether it actually works for the insects.

Perhaps the best approach is therefore to treat these products with a little healthy scepticism. Before buying one, look beyond the label, examine how it has been constructed, consider the materials and ask a simple question:

If I were a bee, would I actually want to live here?

Sometimes the most environmentally friendly answer may be to leave the money in your pocket — and let the garden do the work instead.

Philip Ferri

We are excited to announce the Our Shared Futures: Climate & Migration Community Film Festival 2025, curated by Counterpoints Arts in partnership with Earth Refuge, CMJ (Climate & Migrant Justice Organising Group), and City of Sanctuary.

Taking place 21-30 November 2025, to coincide with COP30 and Climate & Migrant Justice Day (22 Nov), this free, new community-powered film festival shares powerful stories at the intersection of climate and migration.

The festival features a curated selection of feature-length and short films from around the world. These films explore themes of climate crisis, displacement, colonialism, conflict, resilience, and hope – creating accessible entry points into urgent conversations that affect us all.

The government had previously indicated it was minded to weaken protections for National Parks. Happily they seem to have given way to public pressure and quietly dropped the whole idea.

https://www.cnp.org.uk/news/plans-to-weaken-protected-landscapes-duty-quietly-dropped/

A film about the impact of climate change on indigneous communities who find themslves in the front line of these issues through no fault of their own.

https://youtu.be/q9Hv7HFDIOc?si=d_Vqplbmyd6PEAuH