The year that was and the years that will be

Today many people in the rich world will tear single-use wrapping paper and plastic from unwanted gifts. They’ll look at plates of unwanted food. Most of this stuff will go to landfill.

If you enjoy the magic of a perfect Christmas, well that’s up to you. If you want to read some news I recommend what my fellow blogger, Henricus Peters at Learning from Nature, tells us about Environmental Stories of 2012. Henricus shows us a comprehensive review, worth returning to.

I’m thinking ‘Follow that!’ and thinking that this is a hard act to follow. But I’ll mention the terrible floods people are experiencing in parts of Britain. Here’s what Auntie Beeb says today about weather warnings.

It’s been a difficult year on the land. Here in Britain the weather hit farmers’ and growers’ pockets, leading to a flood of insurance claims. Philip Case at Farmers Weekly says that the National Farmers Union (NFU) insurance company, NFU Mutual, faced a £20m flooding bill before the December floods even began.

There’s a lot happening besides the weather, too. The Crop Site says that key global crops are in decline. Paolo De Castro at Global Food Security tells us about the ‘new scarcity’, urging us to consider how food supply interacts with politics. Not very festive, is it? But when you work the land, there’s always hope for next year.