Enviromental Issues

This Issue links in with my project, the ash Dieback disease is another reason why forests are diminishing in the UK, the disease is spreading rapidly and will more than likely soon hit Dartmoor. The only way to slowdown or destroy this fungi is to cull the ash trees and burn them, this will obviously have an impact on the population of trees not so much in Dartmoor but certainly around Dartmoor as Dartmoor does not have many ash trees but it could be a topic to look at in more detail.

This is the result of Ash Dieback.The fungus was first identified in the UK in February 2012  the fungus was detected in a tree imported from the Netherlands to a nursery in Buckinghamshire. It has now been located at 136 sites linked to imported plants and a further 155 sites in the wider environment. The government scientists think these 155 sites were infected by wind-blown spores from continental Europe. Not many people realize how much humans use ash trees. most streets and urban areas that have trees lining the roads and parks are actually ash trees, they are in great danger of all being either infected or destroyed to prevent the fungal disease from spreading.

This is a map of Ash Dieback disease's process. As you can see the disease is spreading rapidly through out the UK Exeter has been his and Plymouth will not be far behind .

PHOTOGRAPHERS IMPACT ON THE ENVIROMENT

15/05/13 Today we had a lecture on the environmental impacts of photography and what we can do to help. The impacts on which we burden the earth with as photographers are mainly to do with chemicals used to develop film and how we dispose them, I have looked into this following some thing that Chris (tutor) said during the lecture in regards to a natural way to develop film with out the use of chemicals such as ID 11, 

Caffenol is a solution made of these ingredients 
Mix Coffee and Soda seperate, as it makes it easier to see if the Soda is completely dispersed. 1000ml (1l) Water

• 45g Instant coffee
• 24g Washing soda
• 20g Vitamin C

Let solution stand for about 5 minutes to clear microbubbles.
9:00 – 11:00 minutes at 20 degrees, fix and rinse as usual.

This will reduce the use of chemicals and more than likely be cheaper than commercial developing chemicals.

Another way that we are effecting the environment is the way we go about taking photos on location such as watching were we step incase of destroying rare plants or crushing nests of rare birds, this is easily remedied by common sense and watching your footing, another issue in this are is keeping your distance from wildlife due to the fact that if the animals become used to you and stop fearing you as much as it will be good for the photos and you may mean them no harm the next human to come in to contact may not be there for the same purpose and the trust between the animal and humans could lead to its death. Obviously the creation of photographic products are an issue some people to counter this use environmentally friendly paper such as mineral paper which is made out of calcium carbonate and a non toxic resin, also cameras being recycled or sold on will reduce the amount of plastics being disposed of incorrectly. Our carbon foot print effects the environment massively and as photographers getting to location some times cannot be accomplished unless we use transport but if the location is within 10-20 miles it could make a small difference if we walk or cycle. a lot of these issues could be solved by using a home made pin hole camera which could be made from anything recycled such as a beer can, this will save on plastics used to build a camera, lithium used for digital camera batteries and electric used to charge the batteries along side the use of the caffenol solution of developer and the mineral paper you could cut back massively on effecting the environment.