December 10th, 2009
On Saturday Richard Brooks and Malcolm Brooks planted 204 trees for the Tree O’Clock BBC tree planting world record attempt. The result of the attempt is not in yet but K International was happy to be involved and hope to plant another 100 trees very soon.
The process of planting trees is not easy; it takes care and a lot of hard graft to get the job done. Firstly, they prepared the ground by digging a trench 75 yards in length, 12 inches deep and 8 inches across. Whilst doing this they dug up all sort of interesting items.
“This was fun because there was lots of old stuff in there, under the ground, bit like being on Time Team.” Richard Brooks commented.
Next the baby tree had to be checked and trimmed. A protective wire/plastic was then placed around the small tree to keep it safe from animals. It is imperative that the trees are protected to survive. Then the tree was planted in the trench.
Everyone at K International is eagerly waiting to find out if the Tree O’Clock world record attempt has been a success. All contributions must be logged on the BBC Breathing Places website by Friday 11th December to count towards the world record.
People in Northern Ireland have already set a world record - the most trees planted by 100 people. This world record is for trees planted by hand, by no more than 100 people, at a single site, within a single hour.
Tree O’Clock teams at three sites set out to break the existing record of 18,124. Guinness World Records have verified that each of them achieved this.
So if you planted a tree get onto the BBC Breathing Places website, follow the instructions and be a part of this amazing tree planting world record attempt.
Tags: BBC, BBC Breathing Places, Environment, Guinness World Records, K International, Tree O'Clock, Tree Planting, trees, World Record
Posted in Charity, Environment, K International, Television, trees | No Comments »
November 27th, 2009
25th November – 6th December
National tree week started back in 1975 and is the UKs largest tree celebration.
It is a great opportunity for communities to do something positive for their local treescape. Lots of events will be going on around the country, with more than a quarter of a million people getting their hands dirty helping to plant trees in their local area.
On Saturday 5th December the BBC are attempting a world record for the most trees planted in a day. The tree planting world record currently stands at just over 650,000 trees planted in one day. In aid of Tree O’clock two of the guys here Malcolm and Richard Brooks will be planting 302 trees. The trees planted will be a mixture of native species. If they can plant 200 in one hour they will receive a commemorative plaque from the BBC.
For those who are new to the log blog, K International are a language translation company based in Milton Keynes. We care about the environment and we are doing our bit to make our company carbon neutral. In 2008 we pledged to plant 50,000 trees over the next 5 years, this year we have planted 6,250 on a 2.5 hectare site and are on track to hit target with many more trees going in next year.
This week is about appreciating the humble tree and recognising what they do for us. So grab your wellies and a spade and muck in on 5th December from 11am – 12 noon.
Have a look at the BBC Breathing Places website and check out Tree O’clock.
Maybe you could pledge to plant a tree yourself in your garden or somewhere in your local community. On the website there is a list of hardware stores and garden centres that are giving away free trees for details see the BBC Breathing Places website.
Tags: BBC, Community Event, K International, Nature, trees, World Record
Posted in Environment, Television | No Comments »
November 25th, 2009
According to results released by Defra last week 30% of UK beaches failed to meet guideline standards which were set 30 years ago.
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) an environment campaign organisation in the UK claim that this confirms their fears that our bathing waters and beautiful surfing spots are being contaminated by raw sewage discharging from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).
Despite many warnings that this is happening and video evidence from the SAS the UK’s water companies don’t believe they have done anything wrong. Although they are appealing against the Environment Agencies attempts to regulate the 4000 unlicensed CSOs around the UK’s coastline.
The SAS have set up a new campaign to warn beach users of the impact of CSOs and the danger they are unwittingly exposing themselves to.
Evidence of the overuse of CSOs was exposed by the SAS on BBC 1 programme Panorama, entitled ‘Britain’s Dirty Beaches’ which aired this summer. Comments of disbelief and disgust flooded in from the general public according to SAS. They also reveal on their website that a number of water companies have launched an action to ensure that thousands of their CSOs escape environmental regulations. The companies in question are named and shamed on the SAS website.
Campaign Manager Andy Cummings is quoted on the SAS website as saying, “Once again the UK had failed to meet minimum standards set over 30 years ago for bathing water quality. SAS has been warning of poor results due to the UK’s over use of CSOs. The problem has gone on too long and SAS are calling on supporters to take action and adopt a CSO. If water companies are going to put water quality and public health at risk SAS will ensure the public are warned!”
Did you go to a UK beach this summer? Have you had any health problems from bathing in UK waters? We’d love to hear your stories good or bad.
Tags: Bathing, Beaches, Combined Sewer Overflows, CSOs, Environment, Environment Agency, Rubbish, SAS, Sewage, Surfers Against Sewage, Surfing, water, Water Companies
Posted in Charity, Environment, Television | No Comments »
November 24th, 2009
Life, the latest wildlife programme from the BBC is capturing the imagination of viewers. The programme is being shown on both BBC1 and BBC HD. The clarity of the images on BBC HD makes this wondrous television series fantastic.
Episodes
- Challenges of Life
- Reptiles and Amphibians
- Mammals
- Fish
- Birds
- Insects
- Hunters and Hunted
- Creatures of the Deep
- Plants
- Primates
The BBC is renowned for their nature documentaries and this one doesn’t disappoint. After each episode there is a short film on how they filmed the scenes. These shorts give the viewer a great insight into the difficulties of filming with these magnificent animals.
Once again the BBC has teamed up with the Open University who is providing support material to go with the series. All of the online material and information on how to order your free tree of life poster can be found here.
Tags: animals, BBC, Life, Nature, Television, TV, wildlife
Posted in Environment, Television, wildlife | No Comments »
October 26th, 2009
A painted grasshopper from India arrived at Stanstead Airport last week
The painted grasshopper or Poeklocerus Pictus is known in India as a crop munching pest.
It is 6cm long with bright blue and yellow stripes on its body which are designed to scare potential predators.
The insect was identified at the quarantine area at Stanstead Airport by the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera).
The BBC quotes Chris Malumphy, a Fera entomologist as saying ‘The visitor has a voracious appetite and rapidly ate its way through a whole cabbage plant whilst in the quarantine lab.
The insect is an economic pest in India but the expert’s state that it was found alone and so couldn’t breed, plus it wouldn’t get on very well with the British winter weather. So the grasshopper is not a threat to nature in the UK at this time. Beautiful insect though.
Tags: Airport, India, Painted Grasshopper, Stanstead
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September 24th, 2009
Australia has begun the huge clean up operation needed after its worst dust storm in seven decades.
Sydney’s residents are spending time today cleaning their streets, homes and cars.
Yesterday a dust storm dumped millions of tonnes of dust over New South Wales before heading north to Queensland. Today the skies are clean but the cost of the storm is still being calculated. Wasted working hours, loss of agricultural soil and flight delays are just some of the costly things the storm has affected.
The storm began in the drought stricken centre of the country where tonnes of top soil was sucked up by powerful winds and then blown eastwards.
The haze could actually be seen from space appearing as a huge brown smudge in satellite photographs of Australia.
People there described waking up to a red glow in their houses, looking out of their windows they described the scene as being like the end of the world. Small children and the elderly were advised to stay at home. Some residents made it to work despite the traffic mayhem and difficulties with public transport.
The BBC quoted Andrew Hawkins, who lives in Northmead, about 20km from the centre of Sydney, as saying, “To see a city of such beauty shrouded in red, was a sight which cannot be described - even pictures fail to capture the eerie nature of the scene which surrounded us this morning,”
By Wednesday evening the dust had settled and the skies had returned to a beautiful blue, but everything was covered in dust. The clean up operation began today and all effected areas are being painstakingly cleaned of the red dust which cloaked the area.
Tags: Australia, Dust, Dust Storm, Red, Storm, Sydney
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September 22nd, 2009
The Environment Agency has reported that three quarters of the rivers in England and Wales fall below a new European environment standard.
On a positive note water standards have improved across the UK for the 19th year in a row and wildlife is returning to a vast majority of the rivers.
6,000 rivers were surveyed and only 5 were classified as ‘pristine’. Environment groups are asking for tougher action to be taken to improve Britain’s water ways.
Improvements have been made over the last 20 years but the Environment Agency knows that things could be better.
The improvements in water quality have led to the return of some species which were at one point thought to be in terminal decline along some stretches of Britain’s rivers.
Otters, eels and Salmon have all returned to the Thames, Mersey and Tyne.
Despite these improvements the new European Water Framework Directive which became law in the UK in 2003 sets a much higher quality standard. It uses a much wider and more sophisticated range of tests to determine the water quality.
Under the new directive only 5 rivers satisfy the highest standards and they are situated in remote areas of Northumberland and Wales. 117 rivers have been newly classified as ‘bad’ these include stretches of the rivers Trent and Stour.
The Environment Agency has accepted that they need to act now to protect our waterways for future generations. They have announced the introduction of new measures which aim to improve more rivers by 2015.
The River Basin Management Plans include tackling discharge from sewage works, limiting the removal of water from rivers and preventing pollution from farmland and built up areas leaking into our watercourses.
It is important that we do something about the state of the UK’s rivers now rather than just hoping it will sort itself out. It is time we thought about future generations and made more of an effort to protect our planet.
Tags: Environment, Environment Agency, EU, EU standards, pollution, rivers, water, waterways
Posted in Environment | 2 Comments »
September 8th, 2009
Deep in the jungle of Papua New Guinea a BBC expedition team have discovered a new species of giant rat.
The rat which has no fear of humans measures a massive 82cm long and weighs in at around 1.5kg. There are bigger rats in the world but few can match the new species. This is a true rat, a genus Rattus so comes from the same family as the urban brown and black rats.
It was discovered by an expedition team who are in the jungle filming the BBC programme ‘Lost Land of the Volcano’. The rat is just one of the exotic animals found by the expedition team. As with the other exotic species it is believed that the rat lives within the Mount Bosavi crater and nowhere else.
The expedition team first captured the creature foraging around on the jungle floor when they were filming with an infrared camera which had been set up to watch for wildlife by BBC wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan. The expedition team who are from the BBC Natural History Unit were awed by the creature’s size. They later went on to catch a live specimen which had no fear of the humans around and in fact behaved and is about the same size as your average to small common cat.
The rat has a silver-brown coat of thick long fur, which the scientists who examined it believe may help it survive the wet and cold conditions that can occur within the high volcano crater.
It has provisionally been called the Bosavi woolly rat, while its scientific name has yet to be agreed.
Mount Bosavi, where the new rat was found, is an extinct volcano that lies deep in the remote Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
The island which includes Papua New Guinea and New Guinea is famous for the number and diversity of the rats and mice that live there.
Over 57 species of true “Murid” rats and mice can be found on the island. The larger rats are often caught by hunters and eaten.
According to the BBC website The Lost Land of the Volcano series will begin on BBC One on Tuesday 8 September at 2100 BST. The discovery of the Bosavi woolly rat is broadcast as part of the series on BBC One on Tuesday 22 September.
Tags: BBC, Giant Rat, New Species, Papua New Guinea, Rat
Posted in Environment | No Comments »
July 16th, 2009
We have just launched a great jigsaw puzzle game on our website. To have a go click here
Tags: game, Jigsaw, Jigsaw puzzle. puzzle, K International
Posted in K International, Updates | 1 Comment »
May 7th, 2009
Milton Keynes is known as the city of trees, despite being one of the UK’s most successful purpose built towns it has retained as much of the local greenery as possible.
In Newlands, opposite Willen Lake stands Milton Keynes cathedral it’s a little unconventional; it’s made out of trees.
The outline of the cathedral is based on Norwich Cathedral and was designed in 1986 by landscape architect Neil Higson.
Different species of trees were used to represent the character of each of the cathedrals sections: Hornbeam and tall-growing lime for the nave, evergreens to represent the central tower and spires, flowering cherry and apple as a focus in the chapels.
In the spring a wide range of colourful bulbs appear, these were put in to represent the sun shining through stained glass windows on the ground.
A poem by Steve Clark celebrates this unusual city feature.
Cathedral of trees
Among the arches of oak and yew,
Grown great on rain and dew,
I sense a lesson to be learned.
The northern wind in branch and bow,
Gives ministry to fawn and sow,
A quantum peace that I’ve not heard.
No font to wash away my sins,
But a rambling brook, who’s tumbling din,
Tells tales in tones of clarity and purity.
No stained glass here, depicts a life,
Of servitude and mortal strife,
First taken then risen to infinity.
Each branch it seems, a crafted beam,
Where prayers, the carriers of dreams,
Pass between, with no account of whispered secrets, not for all.
The leaves that gently kiss my feet,
Demand no thought for their upkeep,
But lie again anew each autumn fall.
The catacombs, silent below,
Are tended to by shrew and vole,
Who’s work I’ll never know, dutiful and patient.
Something else I never knew,
The tree that fell and is my pew,
Gave up itself, so I could sit in quiet contemplation.
Would man make such sacrifice,
That I find peace, give up a life,
When suddenly I laugh, I see it all.
My being here is meant to be,
This great design, is mine to see,
It brings me gently to my knees.
For here is God,
In his Cathedral of trees.
Steve Clark.
Tags: Cathedral, Milton Keynes, trees
Posted in trees | 1 Comment »