You may think that 'acid rain' is a relatively modern concept, but it was actually first used over 100 years ago to describe worrying conditions in Manchester, England.
However, acid rain is certainly not a new phenomenon brought on by modern industrialization as all rainfall has a certain amount of natural acidity. It is just that pollutants released from industrialization increases this acidity a thousand fold!
And don't think it's just rain you need to worry about as acidity can also be present - and be just as damaging - in snow hail, cloud, fog, mist and even air borne dust!
What causes acid rain?
Approximately 300 million years ago, huge areas of the Earth were forested. Over time, tress came to the end of their natural life and died. Where they fell, they were gradually transformed into seams of fossil fuels such as coal and oil.
Today we mine and burn fossil fuels in enormous quantities to generate electricity, heat our homes and power our factories. Unfortunately, burning fossil fuels releases releases huge amounts of pollutants - notably sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons - into the atmosphere.
Once they are in the atmosphere, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and the hydrocarbons react with sunlight to produce a selection of secondary pollutants such as ozone.
These secondary pollutants react with the sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide to form sulphuric-acid and nitric acid in the tiny droplets of water that go to make up our clouds. In this form the acids are carried on the wind to fall as 'acid rain' , often great distances away.
Today, in spite of growing environmental awareness all around the world - and so is the damage caused by acid rain., large scale industrialization is still increasing.
The damage caused by acid rain
Over 1,000,000 square kilometres of Europe's forests have suffered the effects of acid rain, with conifers being damaged the most. The sulphur dioxide from burning fossil fuels may damage and kill many trees, but this is compounded as acid rain reacts with vital plant nutrients, preventing their uptake through root systems.
Even slight damage to a mature tree caused by pollution can be enough to kill it because it reduces the trees frost hardiness and its resistance to fungal and pest attack.
American studies have indicated that even where forests are showing none of the easily visible external signs of acid rain damage, pollution is nevertheless limiting their growth.
The European hedgehog if found in a wide range of habitats. However, it is most often seen at the fringes of woodland, on urban wasteland and more familiarly parks, playing fields, sports grounds and the humble garden. Strangely, the hedgehog prefers not to live in thick forest or high altitude.
Food and hunting
The hedgehog hunts after dark, searching through the night for invertebrates such a s earthworms, millipedes and earwigs.
Beetles are a favourite food choice along with caterpillars and slugs.
The hedgehog is known as the gardeners friend because it includes so many plant pests in its diet. It often raids mouse nests in order to feed on newborn young, and 'tidies up' any animal carcases left lying around. In the autumn will eat soft fruit straight off the bush and any fallen fruit straight off the tree.
Frequently, hedgehogs are happy to take food put down for domestic cats and dogs outside in both town and city gardens.
The hedgehog also likes to have a go at tackling hens' eggs. However it has to master smashing them first before it can eat them, but the hedgehog is able to swallow small eggs whole!
Known as the Australian teddy bear, the furry grey koala lives high in the tops of eucalyptus trees. Now a protected species, it is still threatened by loss of habitat and disease.
The koala is a marsupial with hands and feet specially adapted for climbing trees. When it descends to the ground it shuffles along awkwardly on its short, stocky legs.
So, just what do Koalas eat?
During the course of its evolution, the koala has developed functional cheek pouches for storing food and a digestive system able to cope with a diet based entirely on eucalyptus leaves.
Out of over 100 or more species of eucalyptus tree which grow in Australia, the koala feeds on only 12, and then only on leaves that are at a particular stage in their development! Koalas eat so much food, on average between 500g and 1kg of leaves daily, that they can easily exhaust their food supply.
The trouble with koalas is that they are very picky eaters. If they are unable to find suitable eucalyptus leaves then generally they will not eat. However, they have been known on rare occasions to eat others foods such as wattle, tea tree, paperbark, and pine species but it is not part of their normal diet.
Sometimes special measures have to be taken to move koalas into areas where food is more plentiful. The main difficulty with keeping koalas in sanctuaries or in zoos outside Australia is to obtain enough leaves of exactly the right species to keep then fed. Unfortunately they cannot survive without eucalyptus because of their specially adapted digestion.
Guy Fawkes, fireworks night and the Gunpowder plot were all once deeply entrenched in English history and culture. However, since the historic attempt to destroy the House of Lords and murder King James I, the 5th of November has become watered down to become more of a celebration of the death of the conspirator Guy Fawkes.
For many of us the core reasons behind this bold assassination attempt have either been forgotten or sadly never known.
Today, fireworks night appears to be just an excuse for letting off a few anti-climatic fireworks and inviting a friends round for a disappointing bar-b-que.
The failed Gunpowder plot may have happened over 400 years ago, but story behind it is just as powerful today as it was then.
What led to the Gunpowder Plot?
The year 1603 marked the end of an era. After 45 years on the English throne, Elizabeth I was dying, and because she didn’t bare any children she hadn’t provided an heir to the throne. All the signs suggested that her successor would be James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots. Incidentally, Mary Queen of Scots was executed in 1587 on Elizabeth I's orders.
However, the English Catholics were becoming very excited as they had suffered severe persecution since 1570, when the Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth I, releasing her subjects from their allegiance to her. The Spanish Armada of 1588 had made matters worse. To the Tudor State, all Catholics were potential traitors. They were forbidden to hear Mass, and forced instead to attend Anglican services, with steep fines for those Catholics who persistently refused.
Rumours suggested that James was more warmly disposed to Catholics than the dying Queen Elizabeth. His wife, Queen Anne of Denmark, was a Catholic, and James himself was making sympathetic noises. The crypto-Catholic Earl of Northumberland sent Thomas Percy, to act as his agent in Scotland. Percy's reports back optimistically suggested that Catholics might enjoy protection in James' England.
The early signs were encouraging. Upon his accession as James I of England (VI of Scotland), the new king ended recusancy fines and awarded important posts to the Earl of Northumberland and Henry Howard, another Catholic sympathiser. This relaxation led to considerable growth in the number of visible Catholics.
Trying to juggle different religious demands, James was displeased at their increasing strength. The discovery in July 1603 of two small Catholic plots did not help. Although most Catholics were horrified, all were tainted by the threat of treason.
The situation deteriorated further at the Hampton Court Conference of January 1604. Trying to accommodate as many views as possible, James I expressed hostility against the Catholics in order to satisfy the Puritans. In February he publicly announced his 'utter detestation' of Catholicism and within days all priests and Jesuits had been expelled and recusancy fines reintroduced.
Although bitterly disappointed, most English Catholics prepared to swallow the imposition of the fines, and live their double lives as best they could. But this passive approach did not suit all.
Robert Catesby was a devout Catholic and familiar with the price of faith. His father had been imprisoned for harbouring a priest, and he himself had had to leave university without a degree, to avoid taking the Protestant Oath of Supremacy. Yet he possessed immense personal magnetism, crucial in recruiting and leading his small band of conspirators.
The Gunpowder Plot plotters
Their first meeting was on 20 May 1604. Catesby was joined by his friends Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy at the Duck and Drake, in the Strand. The fifth person was Guy Fawkes. Originally from York, he had been recruited in Flanders, where he had been serving in the Spanish Army. They discussed their plan to blow up Parliament House, and shortly afterwards leased a small house in the heart of Westminster, installing Fawkes as caretaker, under the alias of John Johnson.
With Parliament successively postponed to 5 November 1605, over the following year the number of plotters gradually increased to ten. Robert Keyes, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Kit Wright were all relatives, by blood or marriage, to one or more of the original five conspirators. As one of Catesby's servants, Thomas Bates' loyalty was equally firm.
In March 1605 the group took out a lease on a ground-floor cellar close by the house they had rented from John Whynniard. The cellar lay directly underneath the House of Lords, and over the following months 36 barrels of gunpowder were moved in, enough to blow everything and everyone in the vicinity sky high, if ignited.
Still hoping for foreign support, Fawkes travelled back to Flanders. Unsuccessful, he was also spotted by English spies. They reported back to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, James' first minister, and made the link between Fawkes and Catesby.
Over the next two months Catesby recruited Ambrose Rookwood, as well as Francis Tresham and Sir Everard Digby. Both Rookwood and Digby were wealthy and owned large numbers of horses, essential for the planned uprising. Tresham was Catesby's cousin through marriage, and was brother-in-law to two Catholic peers, Lords Stourton and Monteagle.
Back in London in October, with only weeks to go, the final details were planned. Fawkes was to light the fuse and escape to continental Europe. To coincide with the explosion, Digby would lead a rising in the Midlands and kidnap King James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, ready to install her as a puppet queen. In Europe, Fawkes would be arguing the plotters' case to continental governments, to secure their passive acceptance, even support.
Everything seemed ready. But on the night of 26 October, an anonymous letter was delivered to Lord Monteagle, warning him to avoid the opening of Parliament. It read as follows:
"My Lord out of the loue i beare; to some of youere frends i haue a caer of youer preseruacion therfor i would aduyse yowe as yowe tender youer lyf to deuyse some excuse to shift of youer attendance at this parleament for god and man hathe concurred to punishe the wickednes of this tyme and thinke not slightlye of this aduertisement but retyre youre self into youre contri wheare yowe maye expect the euent in safti for thowghe theare be no apparance of anni stir yet i saye they shall receyue a terrible blowe this parleament and yet they shall not sei who hurts them this cowncel is not to be contemned because it maye do yowe good and can do yowe no harme for the dangere is passed as soon as yowe have burnt the letter and i hope god will give yowe the grace to make good use of it to whose holy proteccion I commend yowe." (Addressed)"To the ryght honorable the lord Monteagle."
He took the letter - generally thought to have come from Tresham - to Salisbury, who decided the best results would be achieved by striking at the last minute.
Thomas Ward, one of Monteagle's servants, had warned the plotters of the letter. Undaunted, they returned to London, and on 4 November Percy visited his patron, Northumberland, to sniff out any potential danger. Smelling nothing, they pressed on with the plan, and Catesby, Wright and Bates set off for the Midlands. All seemed well.
It wasn't. The waiting over, Salisbury ordered Westminster to be searched. The first search spotted a suspiciously large amount of firewood in a certain cellar. The second, at around midnight, found Fawkes. Immediately arrested, he gave only his alias, but Percy's name had already been linked with the cellar and house, and a warrant for his arrest was immediately issued.
The plotters escaped from London for the Midlands. Rookwood was the fastest, covering 30 miles in two hours on a single horse, a considerable achievement that enabled him to catch up with, and warn, his co-conspirators.
These six plotters - Catesby, Rookwood, the Wright brothers, Percy and Bates - rode on towards Warwickshire. As the first bonfires of thanksgiving for the discovery of the plot were being lit in London, 'John Johnson' was being interrogated.
By 6 November his silence had prompted James I to give permission to use torture, gradually 'proceeding to the worst'. Even this, however, failed to extract any useful information for two more days.
In the Midlands, the plotters raided Warwick Castle. By now they were wanted men and, with their stolen horses, they rode to Holbeche House in Staffordshire, which they thought would be more easily defended. On arrival, they discovered that their gunpowder was soaked, and laid it in front of the fire to dry. They should have known better: the ensuing explosion blinded John Grant, rendering him useless for the inevitable confrontation.
This came quickly, in the form of 200 men led by Sir Richard Walsh, the High Sheriff of Worcestershire. They arrived at Holbeche House in the morning of 8 November. The battle was short. Catesby, the Wrights and Percy died from their wounds; Thomas Wintour, Rookwood and Grant were captured. Five others remained at large.
Tried for high treason
Not for long, however. By December, only Robert Wintour was still free. Furthermore, under interrogation Bates had admitted confessing the details of the plot to the Jesuit priest Father Tesimond. With the Jesuits now implicated in the 'Powder Treason', the government set about finding them, ransacking scores of Catholic homes in the process.
To further capitalise on the widespread sense of shock, the 'King's Book' - containing James's own account of what had happened, as well as the confessions of Fawkes and Thomas Wintour - was rushed through, appearing in late November.
Francis Tresham died of illness in the Tower in December, and Robert Wintour was captured in the New Year. On 27 January 1606 the trials began. Westminster Hall was crowded as spectators listened to Sir Edward Coke's speech. Under instructions from Salisbury, the Attorney General lay principal responsibility on the Jesuits, before describing the traditional punishment for traitors: hanging, drawing and quartering. They would be hanged until half-dead, upon which their genitals would be cut off and burned in front of them. Still alive, their bowels and heart would be removed. Finally they would be decapitated and dismembered; their body parts would be publicly displayed, eaten by the birds as they decomposed.
Only Digby pleaded guilty, and his trial followed that of the other seven. All were found guilty of high treason. Digby, Robert Wintour, Bates and Grant were executed on 30 January, with Thomas Wintour, Rookwood, Keyes and Fawkes dying the next day.
Yet the repercussions rumbled on. Some small fry were tortured in the Tower and, tainted by Percy, the Earl of Northumberland was imprisoned there until 1621. However, Monteagle's letter - now kept in the Public Records Office - rewarded him with an annuity of around £700 per year.
It was ordinary Catholics, however, who suffered the longest as a result of the Gunpowder Plot. New laws were passed preventing them from practising law, serving as officers in the Army or Navy, or voting in local or Parliamentary elections. Furthermore, as a community they would be blackened for the rest of the century, blamed for the Great Fire of London and unfairly fingered in the Popish Plot of 1678. Thirteen plotters certainly proved an unlucky number for British Catholics: stigmatised for centuries, it was not until 1829 that they were again allowed to vote.
For two thousand years, Bath in England has been a spa town built around Britain's only hot mineral springs. For centuries this natural phenomenon has attracted visitors to Bath, and has led to a unique and historic urban environment around the springs.
In the 1st Century AD , the Romans built a
stone-walled reservoir to contain the spring and supply water to the adjacent
baths. No-one swam in the spring itself as it was regarded as a sacred site,
but worshippers threw into the water offerings to the patron deity Sulis Minerva.
The sacred spring was covered by a rectangular vaulted building between the
temple and baths.
The Geological Source
Bath spa water fell as rain up to 10,000 years ago on the nearby Mendip hills. Driven down through carboniferous limestone cave systems by pressure from the high water table on the Mendips, the water has reached depths of 2 - 3 kilometres.
The water penetrates overlying strata of impermeable Lias clay through fissures and a fault to rise at three points in the City of Bath. The greatest source is the Kings Spring where the flow is 13 litres per second or 1,106,400 (c.250,000 gallons) per day. The water temperature is a constant 46 degrees Celsius.
The Mineral Content
There are 43 minerals in the hot spa water. calcium and sulphate are the main dissolved ions followed by sodium and chloride.
The water is low in dissolved metals except for iron which gives the characteristic iron staining around the baths and contributes to the waters distinctive flavour. The mineral content of this water is 2.18 grammes per litre.
Curative Properties
In medieval times, a cure for conditions such as paralysis, colic, palsy and gout was sought from bathing in hot spa waters. Lead poisoning was a cause of many of these afflictions, as in these days many occupations involved working with or exposure to lead.
Alcohol, especially port, was adulterated with lead to act as a sweetener and as a fungicide. 18th century records from Bath Mineral Water Hospital show that patients benefited from the treatment. Today, it is fashionable to be sceptical about the curative properties of hot spa water although hot spas in Europe remain popular.
Taking the Waters
The fashion for drinking spar water arose from new medicinal ideas in the later 17th century. the pump room was opened in 1706 to provide a place to drink the waters.
the water was taken in the morning. For most visitors a pint or two was sufficient, but as much as a gallon a day could be prescribed!
It is hardly surprising that the new Pump Room, opened in 1795, was criticised as lacking facilities for '...when the waters begin to operate...!'
The Pumper
There has been a charge for taking the waters since the opening of the first Pump Room in 1706.
The position of Pumper was released by the Corporation and followed the opening of the present Pump Room the lease cost £800 per annum.
Visitors could take out a subscription to the Pump Room which entitled them to take the waters. In subsequent years the value of the lease fell and for a period the spa water was distributed free of charge.
The Kings Bath is the name given to a private bathing area
situated within the Roman baths complex in the city of Bath, Great Britain.
From the Roman period to the present day, this ancient building has been the
very heart and soul of Bath as within it rises the hot mineral spa water that
has given the city its name.
In the 1st Century AD , the Romans built a
stone-walled reservoir to contain the spring and supply water to the adjacent
baths. No-one swam in the spring itself as it was regarded as a sacred site,
but worshippers threw into the water offerings to the patron deity Sulis Minerva.
The sacred spring was covered by a rectangular vaulted building between the
temple and baths.
By the 6th Century, the temple and baths had
fallen into disuse and the reservoir ceiling had into the spring. However, the
spring waters continued to flow inside the ruined building and it is believed
that the nearby Saxon monastery still used the site for bathing.
In the 12th century, the Kings bath - named after
Henry I, was built within the remains of the Roman building. It was used as a
curative bath and was fed directly from the hot spring below. In its day, the
kings bath was actually within the precinct of the medieval monastery.
After the dissolution of the monastery in 1539, the Kings
bath eventually came into the hands of the City Corporation. In the 16th
Century the Queens Bath was constructed on the south side.
Throughout the 17th Century, Baths popularity as
a spa town increased. The brass rings visible in the walls are engraved with testimonials
from grateful bathers who were cured by these ancient waters.
The far reaching history of these baths can still be seen to
this day. The rectangular form of the existing building reflects the original
Roman footprint. In fact, parts of the supporting walls below the balustrade
are the roman walls built for the original bathing complex. Furthermore some of
the medieval bathing niches are still visible on the far side of the bath.
In 1704-6 the first Pump Room was built on the north side of
the Kings Bath. Spar water for drinking was pumped up to it from the spring
below. The present, larger building was erected in 1790-95, partly covering the
north side of the Kings bath. The statue of Prince Bladud, legendry founder of
bath, is still seen today.
The bath was used regularly for bathing until 1939. In 1979,
its floor was removed for structural reasons and the water level naturally
dropped and held at its present level. The orange stain seen around the bath
indicates the baths former water level.
Gaius Julius Caesar July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He also greatly extended the Roman empire before seizing power and making himself dictator of Rome, paving the way for the imperial system.
Julius Caesar was born in Rome on 12 or 13 July 100 BC into the prestigious Julian clan. His family were closely connected with the Marian faction in Roman politics. Caesar himself progressed within the Roman political system, becoming in succession quaestor (69 BC), aedile (65 BC) and praetor (62 BC). In 61-60 BC he served as governor of the Roman province of Spain.
Back in Rome in 60 BC, Caesar made a pact with Pompey and Crassus, who helped him to get elected as consul for 59 BC. The following year he was appointed governor of Roman Gaul where he stayed for eight years, adding the whole of modern France and Belgium to the Roman empire, and making Rome safe from the possibility of Gallic invasions. He made two expeditions to Britain, in 55 BC and 54 BC.
Julius Caesar, in his famous account of the Gallic Wars of the 50s BC, provided readers at home with a blood-curdling description of the Germanic tribes he encountered in battle:
'...The various tribes regard it as their greatest glory to lay waste as much as possible of the land around them and to keep it uninhabited. They hold it a proof of a people's valour to drive their neighbours from their homes, so that no-one dare settle near them. No discredit attaches to plundering raids outside tribal frontiers. The Germans say that they serve to keep young men in training and prevent them from getting lazy...'
Caesar then returned to Italy, disregarding the authority of the senate and famously crossing the Rubicon river without disbanding his army. In the ensuing civil war Caesar defeated the republican forces. Pompey fled to the Egyptian capital Alexandria, where he was murdered on the orders of Ptolemy. Caesar followed and he and Cleopatra became lovers. Cleopatra, who had been exiled by her brother, was reinstalled as queen with Roman military support. Ptolemy was killed in the fighting and another brother was created Ptolemy XIII. In 47 BC, Cleopatra bore Caesar a child - Caesarion - though Caesar never publicly acknowledged him as his son. Cleopatra followed Caesar back to Rome where he made himself consul and dictator and therefore master of Rome.
He used his power to carry out much-needed reform, relieving debt, enlarging the senate, building the Forum Iulium and revising the calendar. Dictatorship was always regarded a temporary position but in 44 BC, Caesar took it for life. His success and ambition alienated strongly republican senators. A group of these, led by Cassius and Brutus, assassinated Caesar on the Ides of March 44 BC. This sparked the final round of civil wars that ended the Republic and brought about the elevation of Caesar's great nephew and designated heir, Octavian, as Augustus, the first emperor.
