Skip to main content

Dara McAnulty | inspirational young naturalist

Hi,

Today, I'm going to talk about a young naturalist from Northern Ireland. We haven't had one of these for quite a while (the last one was Wangari Matthai in late August 2021), so I'm really excited to write this new one about the inspirational naturalist Dara McAnulty!

General information

Dara McAnulty was born in 2004. He comes from Northern Ireland, where he lives with his parents and siblings. He is a writer, blogger, activist and naturalist. Dara, his mum and his siblings are all autistic and Dara says that this is the reason he sees the natural world as he does.

Books and blogs

Dara wrote his blog 'Naturalist Dara'. His first book 'Dairy of a Young Naturalist' (which we reviewed here) was published in 2020. It documents a year in his life and how he connects with nature. His second book, 'Wild Child': A Journey Through Nature' came out in 2021, it again describes nature, this time 'going on a walk' with Dara. Both are very good reads.

Awards

He has won multiple awards for his books including the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing, he is also the youngest person ever to win the RSPC medal. Dara also won the Non-fiction Books are my bag award. All in all, he has won many awards and truly is an incredible young man.

Your Green World Blog TeamšŸ’š


Images:
Title image: This image is owned by a blog editor.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

November Top Tips | sustainable activities and hobbies

Hello everyone, So this week, we are going to be talking about sustainable free time activities. This area can quite big when it comes to environmental impact, so here are some things that you can do in your free time, that are more sustainable. 1. Reading So reading is one of our favourite things to do. However, books are made of paper and the paper industry isn't great. Some ways you can get around this is by reading online (for example, on a kindle), or through borrowing books from a library or using book boxes. If there aren't any in your area then at least try to support independent bookshops! 2. Running If you love being active then this one is for you. Running is probably one of the most sustainable forms of sport. All you need are some running shoes and somewhere to run. There is obviously more high-tech gear but that isn't really necessary if it's just a hobby. 3. Gardening If you've got a small area of land o...

Ecosia

We all need to do something to save our planet: it is no use just leaving it to Greta Thunberg! She is very inspirational, yes, but she can only do so much. She isn't superhuman! The climate crisis is up to us; up to you. We all have to get stuck in. Research, learn, discover and most importantly: never give up! The world's animals need us. The world's trees need us and a simple way to do this is to switch to Ecosia. Ecosia is a search engine but it plants trees while you search the web. Okay, it doesn't have as many websites as google so you may want to have google as a backup but it plants trees: this is your opportunity to make a simple change. Just google Ecosia and search to plant trees. Make a difference. Image: This image  is owned by  Binyamin Mellish on  pexels.com .

16.08.2020 Animal of the week: Elephant

Hello. On the 12th of August it was International Elephant Day, so we decided that this week's post should be about elephants. Elephants are the largest living land mammals. There are three types of elephant; the African bush elephant; the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephants have larger ears, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears. Elephants use their trunks to breath, bring food and drink to their mouths and to grasp objects. Elephants' legs are like pillars. They carry the Elephant's massive weight. African bush elephants weigh 6000kg, Asian elephants weigh 4000kg and African forest elephants weigh 2700kg. Basically, they are very heavy.Elephants eat grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. Elephants can live up to 70 years old in the wild. They communicate by sight, touch and smell. Sadly, these wonderful mammals are in danger. African elephants are listed as vulne...

January Top Tips // 5 ways you can individually tackle climate change

Hi Everyone! This is the first of our new monthly posts for 2022! We will be sharing top tips every month, near the beginning, for things you can do during that month for the better. It's almost like a whole year of new year's resolutions (though let's hope they are achieved)! In these posts, we aren't just going to talk about climate change , of course, there will also be posts about animals , plants, habitats, plastic pollution and so much more! They will not be huge tips though, they won't demand too much of you (usually!). We need rebellions and people in the public eye spreading the word of course but we also need people like you, who can just do their bit. So, welcome to our top tips posts! We all know that we need to come together to fight the climate crisis, but we don't seem to be doing that right now. So here are our top tips for ways you can individually tackle climate change, even if this means simply spreading ...

Rachel Carson 1907-1964

Hi everybody, Today I am going to tell you about a really inspirational environmentalist. Her name is Rachel Carson. I hope her story inspires you to be more careful about pesticides. As a girl, Rachel adored writing stories about animals. She got a degree in zoology but had to go home to care for her ageing mother. She wrote a series of radio shows about fish for a living. Rachel's program, called 'Romance Under Waters', was a big hit. Her ways of writing were different to anyone else and no one had made that sound so interesting before. It proved that she was talented in not only science but also writing. She wrote two books called 'The Sea Around Us' and 'The Edge Of The Sea'. When Rachel moved to the countryside, she realized the impact of pesticides. At that time farmers sprayed chemicals on their fields a lot to protect them from animals that may want to eat them. Rachel worked out that they were killing pla...

March Top Tips // 10 little things you can avoid in daily life

Welcome to the Top Tips this month! We'll be talking about 10 things you can avoid using in everyday life. We know it's a really simple topic, but it can actually make quite a difference. The avoidable stuff will be things many use because they look nice or taste nice or similar, but aren't actually necessary. We will also write a couple of facts on these things, and give ideas on how you could substitute them if possible. Many might be very obvious, but think about it, do you actually not use them? Have fun! Chewing Gum Most people would not be surprised when told that lots of chewing gum have synthetic colouring and flavouring. However, most people would be surprised when told that chewing gum is largely made of plastic. What the companies call the "gum base" is plastic and partly made of the same stuff plastic bags are made of. The gum contains microplastics that, if you spit your gum on the ground often tend to get into the oce...

Photo Essay || Iceland Series (part 1)

Hi Everyone! I recently went on a school trip to Iceland! It was such an incredible experience (and I'm going to sound cheesy now) but it was also incredible to do it with some of my closest friends! I saw so many incredible things and learnt so much, so I couldn't resist sharing a little Iceland mini series of posts, all about Iceland, both my experiences there and what I saw, but also the way it uses geothermal energy, and the animals, natural landforms and plants that are there. Today I'm sharing some photos of my trip. These are all photos I have taken, and are also the highlights so please bear that in mind as you browse these! I hope it is interesting and inspires you to book a trip to Iceland! The blue lagoon <33 landscapes.... Lost little farmhouses a...

What to do if a House Plant doesn't look Healthy (top tips) || Green Pets

Hi Everyone! Today I wanted to talk about what you should do if your house plants do not look healthy, and how important it is to be flexible around looking after house plants, how changing plans can be very important in keeping your house plants healthy. By not healthy, I mean a plant that has yellowed leaves, dried leaves or is looking droopy. Recently, some of my plants haven't been doing so well either, which has been very frustrating. Here are a few things I am doing to try to change this. **Disclaimer: I am not an expert. I am just a passionate plant mum from Somerset, England and I just want to share some tips. ** 1. Research, research, research I've been collecting information on each of my house plants and trying to match the recommendations for each of the plants. I recently visited Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly, and I bought a book about how to look after house plants, which I have been using, but the ...

How well do you know intelligent animals? - Quiz

Hi everyone It's time for another quiz. Intelligence is necessarily restricted to humans. Many animals display signs of what we deem to be intelligence.  Questions How many words have some crows been taught to say out loud? a) 20 b) 50 c) 100 Which signs of intelligence have been found in orangutans? a) tool use b) logical reasoning c) recognising themselves in a mirror True or False? An African gray parrot called Alex was trained to correctly categorise items into 13 colour categories. What do some particulary clever veined octopuses use coconut shells for? a) to play with b) shelter c) food True or False? Orcas can recognise themselves in a mirror. What have chimpanzees recently been observed treating their wounds with? a) insects b) tree sap c) fresh water How many nouns did an American border collie recognise and remember? a) over 500 b) o...

Carbon credits

Hi everyone, Welcome back to Green World! Today we're talking about an industry that has expanded massively in the past few years. Carbon credits are one of the measures that companies are taking to reduce CO2 emissions . But how does it actually work? The companies that sell carbon credits fund projects to protect an area of forest or rainforest from deforestation . They then calculate how much carbon dioxide emissions they have saves by protecting this area. This means they can now sell 'negative carbon emissions' to companies. In this way, the companies are funding the protection of said area and are causing negative emissions while doing so meaning that the company can still emit greenhouse gases but can claim to be net zero. One carbon credit is basically the permission to emit one ton of CO2. This is good for the company as well as they are able to advertise as sustainable at a relatively low cost to actually reducing the...