on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Christine Linders, your host and physical therapy orthopedic clinical specialist. I've been back treating patients since Friday at East Oahu Physical Therapy in Aina Jaina here in Oahu. And it's been great to see familiar faces and that so many people have been doing their home exercise programs while we were away on quarantine. That's so important. Today, I'm thrilled to have a returning guest, Dr. Mary Massery, for part two of our talk on the diaphragm, which is such a critical point of interest doing this COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Massery has been a physical therapist for over 43 years, achieved her doctor in physical therapy as well as her doctor of science and has been invited to give over 900 presentations in the United States as well as 18 countries abroad. Her research pioneered the concept of managing trunk pressures as a new way to visualize core stabilization. And she earned the highest of honors at the American Physical Therapy Association Awards, the Florence Kendall Practice Award for Outstanding and Enduring Contribution to the Practice of Physical Therapy. Let me welcome Dr. Mary Massery to talk about the diaphragm and how to use it, not only to breathe, but to enhance posture, decrease reflux, low back pain and so much more. Welcome, Mary, and thank you so much for joining us on Movement Matters to share your knowledge with us. You're so welcome, Christine. It's fun to be back. It was a lot of fun last time and we barely got a chance to scratch the surface. So I think it's a nice time to come back and see where we can take it from here. That's great though. I think it's so important to see where you came from and to learn what inspired you to get into this. I was fascinated with this. So today we'll go on about how the diaphragm has way more functions than you think. Yeah, yeah. I'm shutting off some more. Can we jump right in? Let's jump right in. So I learned in your class about the diaphragm and I know I was so impressed about its impacts on reflux because I just didn't realize there are functions in a diaphragm. Why don't you share some with us? Yeah. So I think probably the easiest thing to do would be to put up that picture of the gastric junction. All right, so for those of you looking at this picture, if you're not used to looking at anatomy, we're actually looking from the bottom, like the pelvic floor, up and under the diaphragm, right in the front. I don't know if they can see my cursor. Can, nope, they can't see my cursor. But right in the very front where the two blue pieces come together. Well, it's the little blue circle almost, right? No, it's the, we're looking at where the blue is around the rim. And then you have right in the center, which I just can't point to with this. Let's see, can I do animations, Eric? Can you give me that, that skill? Okay, all right, well, you're looking up and under. Look at the very, very top. You see a little bit of yellow. That is the bottom of your sternum. That's called the xyfoid process. Then on either side in that big circle, you're gonna see a blue rim, and that's part of the cartilage that makes up the base of the rib cage, just giving you an orientation. And then you follow those ribs all the way around, they come back to the spine. So now look up and underneath, you see a huge parachute and that is the diaphragm. The red part is actually the diaphragm muscle fibers and the white part is the diaphragm's tendon. Now, what's really important to understand with the diaphragm is that there's only three vessels that come through that diaphragm. On the left side, inside the white part, that's called the central tendon of the diaphragm, you're gonna see a blue circle and that's your inferior vena cava. That's what brings all your blood up from your lower body up to your heart. If you look slightly to the right of that, you're gonna see a circle that looks like it was squashed, kind of like a banana that was sat on. And that is your esophagus.  And then all the way back against the spine, you can see what looks like a blood vessel because it's a really important blood vessel. That's called your aorta and that's coming from your heart. It comes through the diaphragm, goes to the lower body and delivers all your arterial blood, all your arterial blood for your lower body. So these are three really important aspects that we're gonna look at with the diaphragm. So we're looking from the bottom and going up towards the top. And when you come up towards the top, anything above that diaphragm is part of the lungs and the heart and anything down below would be part of all your intestines and your nominal vera. So we know the diaphragm's a respiratory muscle, that's one thing that's easy. Everybody knows that. I don't care what line of work you're in, you know the diaphragm's important for breathing. But the diaphragm's also really important as a barrier for reflux. So if you've gotten heartburn and that is the layman's term for it, if you've gotten heartburn right at that squished banana in the red portion of the diaphragm, right in the center of the diaphragm, that's your esophagus and that's called your gastric junction. At that level, the diaphragm and the esophagus actually work together like a force couple and maybe if we can go back to my picture, if you would, thank you. Okay, so we're gonna look at this here. I'm gonna turn my hands, make it a little bit easier to see and just make sure I'm back in here. So this is the diaphragm.  This, my right hand, is going to represent the diaphragm. The diaphragm squeezes the esophagus right where the food comes through the diaphragm and into your stomach. So the diaphragm and the little sphincter in the esophagus work together like a force couplet to prevent the food from coming back up and causing reflux. So if you have a weak diaphragm, you may actually have reflux that is caused not by eating spicy food or some kind of gastric disease, but actually poor biomechanics to help to keep your diaphragm as an active component as a reflux barrier. It actually provides 50% of the reason you don't reflux, which is huge. That's unbelievable. I wonder, I know people can have diaphragm weakness from different reasons, but can being very slouched over or hunched over as you would be when you get older or after you've been in a hospital stay and your posture almost is a week and you find that you've been in bed for weeks, like maybe these people coming out of the COVID crisis are weak in their posture. Can that, no, I know that would be weakness in the diaphragm, absolutely. But can sitting slouched for 30 years make your diaphragm weak and make you more prone for that inability to use it as a 50% anti-reflex mechanism? Yeah, it can be. When you bend in half, so you're up nice and tall and you're sitting here and here is your trunk, okay? So if you slouch down like this, you're actually compromising the diaphragm in the middle. So your posture as you're sitting, if my upper body is just collapsing upon itself, I can take away the mechanical advantage of the diaphragm. So it's not technically weak, it's just not in a good position to actually operate effectively. So if I can sit up straighter, I actually help that diaphragm function at a better level. And if I can't do that, one of the, or maybe I'm having difficulty maintaining that, part of your postural retraining should include diaphragm strengthening, like with an inspiratory muscle training. I believe we talked about that last week, didn't we? Or two weeks ago? We talked a little bit about the cystic process and how you can get incontinence from the chronic coughing from the pelvic floor not being a stable base. But I would love to talk about the inspiratory muscle training or training with the posture. Because I know I've used it on family, friends, patients with the trying to sit up better when they're eating and being mindful of that or standing up after and doing this breathing to give the diaphragm the proper excursion to desend and squeeze, like you were showing our viewers around that to prevent the reflex from kind of making inefficient from being in your normal slumped over posture that you may not be aware that you're in. I think the thing that's exciting about an inspiratory muscle trainer is those of your viewers who have zero medical background, they know nothing. All they know is they don't breathe that well. I don't have lung disease, but maybe I have poor posture. Maybe I'm just out of shape. Okay. And one of the things they're noticing, maybe they're 50 years old and they say, oh, I used to exercise a lot. I don't anymore. I've gained a little bit of weight and they just feel uncomfortable and they're winding up getting more reflux and the doctor is saying you need to take medications. Well, considering that your reflux can be both physiologic, there's a problem with how the food goes down and interacts with your chemistry. There's also that biomechanical barrier with the diaphragm. So if you use an inspiratory muscle trainer, which if you want to think of it in its simplest form, it would be a tiny straw from Starbucks.  You're now doing it for your respiratory muscles. So an inspiratory muscle trainer just simply gives you resistance to inspiratory effort. And because the diaphragm is a huge part of the biomechanical support to prevent reflux for you, as you strengthen the diaphragm, it may, with fingers crossed, decrease your reflux symptoms. There's actually some beautiful research that supports this and in some cases, that's all the patients do is some breathing retraining, some breathing exercises, like with the inspiratory muscle trainer and maybe some postural retraining. But none of that, that is that hard. If you can get away with doing that and not taking medication and you wind up not having symptoms of reflux, why wouldn't you do it? Now, if that doesn't work, you might need medications, you might need surgery. So there's certainly many different levels of medical support.  What's the down size side of that? It's like, oh, it's really a bummer, I got stronger. I would tell my patients, yeah, no, that's the worst thing that you could do is get stronger.   So they suggested I do, then do it that way to increase the resistance through like the Joker grimace. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. That's hysterical. I would rather people just get a straw. That is so funny. The best thing would be, there's a lot of different inspiratory muscle trainers and I don't have any financial arrangements with any company, but my favorite is the one that is currently available without a prescription, it's very simple. Athletes can get it every day, people as well as any kind of medical patient. And that is called the breather. It says basic a name as possible and you can get it through Amazon. It's really breathing somewhere. Yes, the breather. And it has different levels of resistance on it. And the typical program is that you wanna build up to 15 minutes of resistance at the lowest level. So you have a very little resistance and then once you can do it for 15 minutes, then you're gonna add some resistance in the middle. So kind of a warm-up, a peak performance and then a cool down at the end until you can do that level at 15 minutes and then you add another level of resistance in the middle. So most of the resistive trainers have at least three, maybe six different levels of resistance and you don't have to get to the hardest level. Get to the one that challenges you, makes you a little shorter breath, but not uncomfortable. All right, that's great, Mary. So what about the cystic fibrosis case and people such as myself, who since I moved to Hawaii have become a chronic coffer with the allergies and helping to stabilize that soda pop canister from the bottom side using pelvic floor muscles when you have to cough say all night long because you have the post nasal drip or you do have disease such as cystic fibrosis or other diseases that require you to cough or even now people that are just coughing from different chronic coughs that they would have bronchitis and things like that. Okay, and I'm just gonna tell you I've been looking away a lot because my two-year-old grandson is trying to get in my office simply because I'm not letting him in, right? So in case you're hearing some cuteness in the background of a door being moved, that's the two-year-old, my daughter and her family are living with this during quarantine. Yeah, it's fun, it's fun. And everybody understands it because everyone's under quarantine. So if a two-year-old runs in, it's like, oh, well, that's just the way it goes. All right, so when you're looking at chronic cough, chronic cough can be caused by many different problems. It can certainly be caused because you actually have a lung disease like cystic fibrosis or bronchiectasis or many other things, even COPD, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. So there's many different ways you can wind up with a chronic cough. For the patients with COVID, it would not surprise me at all if chronic cough becomes one of the developments that they have long-term. Because they have pretty extensive lung damage for the severe cases and it's very diffuse damage, so it's throughout the entire lungs, that's gonna cause a trigger that means a stimulus to your airway and to your lungs that when the airflow comes through a little bit faster, that is very often a trigger for cough. So you feel it come in faster in the Midwest, it'd be called cold weather. For you guys in Hawaii, it would be maybe tropical or humid weather for you. For us, it would be very typically cold weather. So it stimulates that cough and then one cough stimulates the next. So we can have a physiologic basis but then become a biomechanical problem. Okay. Okay, so what do we do with that? I know the Kegel exercises or pelvic floor muscle strengthening exercises is something that has been around since I think 1948 when Arnold, I think Henry Kegel came up with this idea to strengthen pelvic floor muscles. But what is a great tip that you use or that you like? I know cystic fibrosis you're working with younger girls, but chronic coughers can be from young to elderly. Is there a favorite one that you like to use that's simple? So there's several different things we're going back to that idea of chronic cough. They don't have to have lung disease, but it can happen and the pelvic floor can be a consequence. You'd have to go back to C part one and see the soda pop can that we talked about at that time. But the pelvic floor is definitely linked all the way up from the bottom, providing pressure on the bottom. You've got your diaphragm in the center and then you've got your vocal folds which are right here at the top. So that whole thing creates a pressurized can. So with chronic cough, you had COVID, let's say and you had pneumonia and you developed a cough secondary to that pneumonia. And that cough, cough, cough winds up creating too much pressure on the bottom of the can and you wind up with stress incontinence. So that's how you can see that sequelae of starting with lung disease and winding up with what the heck I have stress incontinence. So learning how to do a kegel to be able to lift your pelvic floor and prepare for the cough can be incredibly helpful beyond just a kegel. There's so many exercises and Christine, that's where I'd be telling them go back and see you or your other physical therapists as we're out of our COVID crises or through telehealth in order to learn how to initiate the pelvic floor muscles. But on top of that, that simple inspiratory muscle trainer again, may be part of your entire incontinence training program because remember again, you're gonna have pelvic floor, diaphragm and then your vocal folds at the top. So if you strengthen the middle at the diaphragm while you're also learning how to control the muscles at the bottom, you may be able to stop that incontinence simply through biomechanical training and strengthening of the diaphragm. Might not, in which case again, if the simple things don't work, then do something more complex. Let's start with, as they say, start with the kiss principle.  Do the easy things first. I think that's great. I mean, you said it right there, that's why I wanted to, that's what inspired me to host the show is to provide the simple things to people that they could do right away.  There's all different ways that if pelvic floor training, diaphragmatic training, all of that abdominal canister muscular training can do that, can be very simple and you can walk away with great results and the kiss principle is wonderful because it's something, oh, hello. There we go, we had a two-year-old and now we have a kitty cat. I've been hanging out with in the quarantine during the three tomorrow. That's to help people not get too bored with just seeing people's faces. That's spooky, I have a Garfield as well. That's great, that's great. But so one of my favorite things to talk about because I did write that book about it, it will be out soon, I've been saying that for two years, but the diaphragm, when I came to your course, I came because I wanted to get some validation for the concepts that I wrote in my book and since then I have added so much more after I took your class in 2017 about diaphragm and I wanna help people with low back pain. I wanna help people because the epidemic is wild and it's way too much and I wanna give them everything that they can have because it hasn't been in articles even as of late. I saw one, they said there's pretty much no go-to treatment for low back pain and the diaphragm basket, right? Tell me what you think about that. So there's a, we talked about just two of the functions of the diaphragm, that it's a respiratory muscle, it's also a reflux, anti-reflux muscle and a third function would be looking at it from a postural control perspective. So if we can go back, let's see, the basket weave if we would, Eric. So looking at this picture and to orient our viewers out in Hawaii, we're looking at from the back of the body through the body to the rib cage, but we're on the inside. So if you look on the inside, you see where you have half of a dome, that's half of the diaphragm that would be on the left side of your screen. And then there would be another half of the dome on the right side, but it's taken out for this picture. What I want you to see is that those vertical fibers are the muscle fibers of the diaphragm going up to that dome. Then look at the ones that are going horizontally. Those are the muscle fibers of the transverse abdominist which is the deepest layer of your abdominal muscles. And what I want you to really notice is that junction between the two. So the diaphragm and the transversus abdominus actually intersect at the xyfoid process, which is the base of your sternum and your lowest ribs, which are ribs eight, nine and 10. And they form kind of a basket weave, as you can see there, meaning that when one muscle contracts, it stretches or stimulates the other muscle to move. So in other words, you can't use your diaphragm for breathing without having it automatically activate the deepest layer of your abdominal muscles. So the diaphragm works with the abdominal muscles for breathing, as well as to support the pressure in your abdominal cavity, which stabilizes your spine and your pelvic floor. What a concept. So I mean, the diaphragm is a pretty cool muscle. That's all I've gotta say is that it's pretty cool and most people just don't know enough about it. And so I want it to be more popular. That's what I'm looking at. It's making that diaphragm more popular. So we have a couple of other things. I'm looking at which ones we covered with that. Another one that's really important for the role of the diaphragm. And this would be very important in this day and age where as we're talking about COVID, is we know that those patients who get sick get very, very sick and some of them are on ventilators. And what happens with that is that the diaphragm also works to enhance venous return. In other words, to bring that blood up from the feet all the way back up to the heart. So let's say that you survived COVID. Let's say that you survived just a pneumonia that had nothing to do with COVID, but some kind of really bad sickness that means your diaphragm weaker. And afterwards you notice your legs are swollen. Like why? Why? Well, because if your diaphragm's not working with that inferior vena cava, that's the venous flow that's coming up from the abdomen, bringing that blood up above the diaphragm and bringing it to the heart. If that diaphragm isn't working with the inferior vena cava to change the appropriate pressures within the trunk, then you may wind up with too much blood staying down low in your body. And that's where the doctors might be prescribing something like Ted Hose or some other kind of compression socks or even full leggings to help you get that venous return. So if you wanna be able to get rid of some of those stockinettes to help your blood flow back to your heart, what you might be doing is actually strengthening your diaphragm, which can be done several ways. We've talked about a simple way, which would be the inspiratory muscle trainer. Simply actually getting a cardio workout will help to strengthen your diaphragm and also doing some weight training. It doesn't have to be heavy weight training, but you want it out far on your arm. So if you've got your arm out far, I'm gonna turn, let's see if I can get, I can't quite get in this picture. Here we go. So if my arm is out far and I'm gonna grab my cup of tea and maybe that's enough weight for me because I've been very sick and just raising my cup is enough exercise. As I have that weight out far on my arm, it means I actually have to have more control from my muscles here to be able to support that weight way out there. So in the beginning, maybe I have to lean back against my chair and then eventually I can do my lifts while I have that glass or cup in front of me and I'm not using the back of the chair. Then maybe kneeling, maybe standing, eventually I'm gonna do it while I stair climb, but I'd recommend not having half coffee in the cup while you're doing stair climbing or you might wind up spilling it. But something like that would be a simple way to have the diaphragm take on its role as a postural stabilizer to have to simultaneously work on your breathing for the cardio while also stabilizing your back, helping to stabilize your shoulder and your pelvic floor. So that's the third functions, postural control. I mean, it doesn't have to be in that order. Fourth function would be looking at it as aiding venous return. And then I would like to mention the one last one and that is that the diaphragm actually helps to squish down your abdomen and release, squish all that viscera and release, which means that it actually works like a lower gastrointestinal system motility stimulus.  And then if the patient stays in there for 20 minutes, you as a therapist should be thinking, oh my gosh, I just helped him with lower GI motility. Basically, you could just reward yourself for getting those intestines to get re-engaged because that's part of the role of the diaphragm as well. So we have it as a respiratory muscle, we have it. The second thing would be that postural control. We've got it as a reflux barrier, a lower GI motility stimulant, and very importantly as a venous return muscle. That's a lot of major functions for one muscle that we can't even see because it's on the inside. That's right, that's invisible. Yeah, and at this point, I would like all of your viewers to apologize to their diaphragms because they have no idea how important it was. And they're like, oh, I had no idea you did so much. That is great, and oh, we're out of time, but you just spoke so brilliantly. I need to close. That just means that we need to have you on again. So this is it, we're out of time. Mary, thank you so much again. You're so welcome.  And thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you, thank Tech Hawaii for allowing us to be here today. And please stay safe everyone during this quarantine and use your diaphragm. You'll apologize to it, now use it. I look forward to seeing you in two weeks. Life is better when you listen to your physical therapist. Aloha and mahalo.


anticipated Biden would fall and he's falling however what I'm concerned about is the pace that he's falling he's not falling fast enough and I'm getting worried now I think he's gonna make it to Iowa he's gonna stick around can he still win in your opinion because at first I pretty much I said the odds of him winning you know it were irrespective I was gonna say irregardless that's not a word irrespective of polling data you know it was relatively low now even though he's going down and he's making like 152 gaps per week another number I just cited but I like that number let's we'll stick with that do you think he can win because I I don't know I feel like he's probably not gonna win but at the same time you know at the back of my mind it's a possibility that I don't necessarily think we should rule out I'm with you I I would not be shocked I'll put it that way I do can it terrifies me frankly there are three people who just well there's a bunch that terrify me but Joe Biden just I don't want to go to war with seven more countries and he's like I don't feel like you should be able to have access to like the war button you know if you can't even remember where you were or remember the name Barack Obama that kind of wrap rock Obama my my boss like that and I don't want to be ableist you know and in a way you kind of do sound that way when you talk about him you know but it's it's about whether or not he's competent and he's not it turned from you keep your hands off with people you're a warmonger to oh my god he literally thinks things happen that never did and he's for getting people's names that he's dropped 20 million times like it's scary and anyone who like a poly you know is apologetic for that is kind of I don't know maybe shouldn't be able to vote it's okay it's horrifying and I'll say this this is the point that I made like it's to the point now we're just on a human level like I feel bad for Biden like you know forget the fact that he's a former vice president he's powerful he has money whatever from a human standpoint it is difficult to see someone mentally deteriorate like it's sad to watch you know because I mean I don't necessarily hate Joe Biden I think he has absolutely egregious policy positions but just you know from the standpoint of him being a human it's it's tough to watch I don't I don't like to see that like my dad has dementia he has early onset dementia so to see that you know politically it's like you know I know firsthand that this is someone who and I'm not diagnosing Biden before people call me a conspiracy theorist I'm just saying mental deterioration you know it's we all see it we all see it you know what I mean so I won't speculate and say that he has x y and z conditions I'm just saying it's tough to see him lose his ability to articulate himself this isn't me saying Biden is stupid it's me saying that you know this is a medical issue you know and I think that you brought up a good point about not being able is because I think that you know progressives have actually done a really commendable job at handling this in a way that isn't you know we're not just trying to shit on Biden for purposes of political expediency we can we don't have to criticize him for that his policy positions are easy you know they're a big enough target but to see this first of all it's sad second of all can you imagine the field day that Republicans will have with this and I'm not one to say oh well imagine what the Republicans will do because technically they can make that same argument about Bernie they can say oh well they're gonna call him a socialist and a communist but I mean Trump is already like saying is this man fit to be president and if Donald Trump can persuasively make that argument when we can see you know his brain melting out of his ears then there's there's gonna be an issue in the general and it's just I see and I've said this would lose absolutely would lose to Trump I agree literally bet like every penny I own which granted is not much of anything but if I had like a million dollars I would bet it that bought in would lose so when you hear people like oh you know we got to get rid of Trump we got to get rid of Trump then why are you propping up Biden because you can pretty much guarantee Trump even Biden's own wife made a video oh yeah Joe might not be the best on health care but he can beat Trump first of all didn't you say Hillary could beat Trump don't just don't you don't know what you're talking about you don't know we the people know we see who is gonna get out there and vote and he doesn't excite people he is not bringing people to the polls he is a male Hillary he does not excite people he may be worse than her actually like I think he's probably politically to the left of Hillary slightly but like he's there's no like there's no reason to be excited even with Hillary there was that you know aspect of well this could be the first woman president that in and of itself alone you know in a vacuum is good that's that's exciting I guess you know it's it's nice to see history there's nothing there for Joe Biden and I love that you brought up his wife if my wife said something like that about me I would drop out that is such a horrible endorsement where you essentially admit I'm a doctor you may not like his health care policy it's kind of shitty but you know if you want to be Trump then you have to vote for him of course the that's what that's just what you do you vote for the person who's polling high enough but I'm with you there in terms of him losing I would say that he probably has the worst shot at Donald Trump although it I think that it's really too early to predict this is my read on it and correct me if you think I'm wrong here I think his chances are 5050 and the reason why I say that is because Joe Biden and I was thinking about this because currently his strategy as we all know is to hide right don't get in front of the cameras too much because that drives down your favorability in the general election the way that he could pull this off is he can hide and Barack Obama can come out and this will be Obama you know 3.0 for example so that's the only way I can see it but even in that scenario if Barack Obama is like on the campaign trail 100% of the time it's still not going to be a foregone conclusion this will be a difficult race and even if Bernie is the nominee I'm not going to say he's guaranteed to win you know it's still going to be our best chance but what we need is you know for these people who are basing their entire vote on that electability argument to wake up and realize that we are on the Joe Biden Titanic that is sailing straight into an iceberg and we're going to get former years of Donald Trump and worse 30 years of you know a strong solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court which absolutely you know gives me nightmares that we're looking at a reversal of LGBTQ rights deregulation to you know a hyper late-stage capitalist level the repeal of Roe v. Wade it's it's terrifying this isn't a time to roll the dice like we are on the cusp of extinction quite literally you know we're we're facing an apocalypse Joe needs to drop out and he's already lost several times I mean like why are you letting him run again for crying out loud at what point is his family not say listen we gave this a good run right because it's like you are I don't know how old he is he's like 70 or 80 and whatnot and like Bernie's different than Bernie yeah I'm like at least he still has his faculty and Bernie has more energy than me so it's like if Bernie were in that position it would be more difficult to make the case for for him but with Joe Biden it's like I just feel like it's it's almost it's cruel to like make him do this and I'm sure that this is his doing it's not like his family is like pushing them in front of a camera and saying run Joe but you know at some point you have to intervene and say look it's not it's not gonna happen let's just enjoy life we're rich let's buy another mansion let's sail on our yacht you know let's enjoy our life and spend time with our grandchildren I mean I just I don't I don't get it and I really you know I don't understand the people who are Democratic Party loyalists who are pushing him because if you truly hate Donald Trump this is just idiotic to push Joe Biden at this point


Well, there's a lot of reasons.  So San Francisco has always been one of these kind of origin nodes for kind of groovy counterculture stuff, you know, they say when the continent was founded they picked it up and shook it and everything loose and flaky slid to the West Coast, and, you know, it launched here in the Bay, you know, for, and here we are, I mean, this amazing city, but also because a funny thing happened after 9-11, which is that people who had never had much time for New York and who thought of it as a kind of embodied Sodom and Gomorrah and who, you know, thought of it as like a pit of fuzzy-headed liberalism and, you know, kind of cosmopolitan sin, all of a sudden, after New York was attacked, became in their hearts and souls New Yorkers and beat their breast and demanded that in return for this horrible attack on this city that they suddenly realized they had all this emotional attachment to, provided that emotional attachment gave them the basis for demanding wars in foreign countries that they would, that they would declare themselves to be honorary New Yorkers and moreover, as honorary New Yorkers feel that they had a legitimate say in demanding that New York be turned into a police state because it's for everybody's benefit. And I thought, you know, there are a lot of those people for whom, you know, New York is kind of San Francisco light in the Sodom and Gomorrah department, but who would be perfectly happy to declare themselves to be honorary San Franciscans after a terrorist attack on San Francisco, especially if it meant that they could endorse a kind of instant overnight police notification of San Francisco for its own good.


Hello there. My name is Sandy Allnok. Welcome to my YouTube channel where today I'm going to talk about art journaling versus Bible journaling, some of the similarities I find between the two in my practice and some of the differences. And if you haven't done either one, this might serve as a general primer for what you might get out of them. I also have a giveaway to announce at the end of this video, so stick around for that. In the meantime, let's get busy. So let me start by discussing why I don't share much of my art and Bible journaling here on YouTube, and it's all about protecting my privacy and my creativity. When I am creating just out of my gut, if I have the camera on, I start to freeze up and I just, I don't know, something in the art is missing because I get in teaching mode and I get thinking about how I'm going to explain things way too much. When I'm journaling, it's much better to just let all that go. I also do a lot of written journaling in conjunction with my pages that I create, and I found that a lot of people get a little bit snoopy and start trying to read everything that I write. So often, I will just add the text afterward and just not even show it when it's completed, or like on this page, I added it all first and then just painted over it, so I still got to do the journaling, and on this page, I'm just covering part of it, so you can't read it, but it's going to create an interesting texture by just painting more of the same color on top. Let's get going on the similarities, and the first one I want to talk about is the mediums. You can use pretty much any medium in any journal, whether it's a Bible journal or an art journal. You just have to be sensitive to the paper. Generally, art journals are on paper that can handle a little bit more craziness, and Bible paper is thinner. It's like a regular Bible. It just has more space on the side for drawing and painting, and you can use it in a light fashion. You can use it more concerted. You can see my Bible journaling channel for tons of ideas of ways you can use watercolor in your Bible journaling. Here's one where I was using acrylics and making the background painting. I wrote over top of it to do all my journaling, and then painted over top of that. When I'm using acrylics on Bible paper, I'm a little more gentle with it, and I'm just going to dab it on in a really thin fashion, so water down the paint, and then use either a baby wipe or cotton ball or something to put the paint on so I can still read the words. Colored pencil works great for any kind of journaling. This is one of my favorite colored pencil pages that I did, that I went over with pen when I got all the colored pencil work finished, and put a lot of detail in it. You can also use alcohol markers in both, and this one was done in a journal that can handle alcohol marker, and you can use stamping with it. You can draw things, tons of stuff you can do with alcohol markers as well, including creating a page, trimming it down to size on your favorite paper for a medium like alcohol markers, put some adhesive down the gutter of the book, and you can add a page that suits whatever the medium is in whatever book you're working in. So let's talk about journaling goals as another similarity, because they're really both about making art, right? And your goals might change from day to day in both of them. Sometimes you just want to put some color on a page, and that's really it. You're trying to get unstuck from whatever it is that you're trying to think about working on, and sometimes just putting something on a page works great. Sometimes you'll be practicing with a new medium to see how it works or how one thing will layer over top of another medium, and how do they partner together. But for me, I don't do that very often. I consider that to be sketchbook time, and I'll work in a sketchbook rather than an art journal when I'm doing that, because it's all about the art in that case, and I'm trying to learn something about it. So for me, the similarity ends there because the other similarity that I find between the two types of journaling that I find most important is personal growth. Because if I am coming at it with a desire to grow as an artist, to grow in my faith, to grow as a person, then I'm going to approach my page differently in both different types of journaling. I'll either do long-form journaling like this page that I showed you, painting over it, because this is not about having a journal that I'm going to go back and read later. It's about putting something together in the moment so that as I'm working, I'm processing through it, and then when I sit down to do the journaling, either early or later in the project, I'm getting answers to questions that I might have had the whole time. Because when I start writing things out, I write out questions, I write out things I'm confused about, I write out things I'm trying to decide among, and I somehow end up answering my own queries when I'm writing, and that really makes a big difference to me. In Bible journaling, I'm documenting what God has told me, what I've read in the scriptures, what I've understood from them, what I want to change in my life from them, and that's really important to me. Instead of just illustrating the page, which is how a lot of people approach it. They see the word tree in the book, and they want to draw a tree beside it. I want to draw what the meaning is of whatever the verse is. What did it mean to me personally instead of just illustrating a picture? The differences between the two types of journaling are pretty obvious when it comes to number one, which is one is faith-related in its focus, and the other is anything related. You can do Bible journaling in a non-Bible book, in an art journal, but for me it helps to have it in my Bible since I'm in it reading it all the time. When I flip past a page that I have created, I can go back in my memory and remember the lessons that I had learned that caused me to create that page. But my art journal tends to be on art topics because I obsess about art all the time. I'm always thinking about things, and it helps me to put them down on paper, and in a beautiful way it helps me to want to do it. I don't like just writing in a plain book with lines in it. This particular day when I was working on this recently, I was feeling really low. I was feeling like a miserable failure as an artist. Social media has just killed my business in so many ways, and it's looking bleak, and I was feeling like a failure. I was not just looking at it as stuff happens in life, but like I am causing this because I am a terrible person. So I made a page where I had lots of room, empty space for journaling, and what I did was go to my reviews, and I started writing out all the reviews that people have written of my classes and some comments from social media, and I felt better just going through that exercise. So it really helps me in that kind of a way. Another difference is the type of paper that's in the books. Art journals tend to have thicker paper in them, and any kind of sketchbook with thick paper works, anything mixed media, especially if you're going to be using things and gluing stuff down and using thick paints and all that. I even found this board book that I thought was adorable, very small that comes in different sizes, but I filled it with sandiasms because I thought it would be interesting to maybe use some of the jelly prints that I had made one day and put together a book that has the things that I keep saying over and over and over again, because maybe someday I'll look back at that and go, yeah, I remember when I used to yammer on about that. So even if this is not one of those with lots of deep personal journaling in it, it has a lot of those little bits and pieces that are very much me, like me always yelling, hey, tag me if you do something. I'd like to know if I'm making a difference around here. Journaling Bibles come with a couple of different features to them. They're the same Bible paper, but they'll have columns on the left or right where you actually can do the artwork. I tend to spill over into the text, but I just leave everything really thin in terms of paint coverage, so I can still read the words. Some people just want to keep everything to the columns, totally fine, whatever you're comfortable with. Just don't judge anybody else for what they do because we all make our own choices. But there's also a different kind of Bible called an interleaved Bible, and it comes with a blank page in between each printed page. So you can make lots of notes, or you can just make art on those. It is a bigger book because it's got double the pages in it because of those extra pages, but you can either get the interleaved Bible and have the paper there or add some tip ins and just use some paper that's Bible-like. And I'll link some of that down below. Some of my favorite Bible journaling supplies if you'd like to try that yourself. My process for the two types of journaling tends to be different. The art journaling is something that I turn to when I'm just in a state. I don't know where to begin. I don't know what I want to work on, but I need to get something moving because I have deadlines that I set for myself, and I need to get working on something, but I don't know what to do, so sometimes just putting something on paper just gets me started, and it often will get me thinking about what it is that's got me stuck. And then I can start journaling about that and tie it into the art that I'm creating and see what comes of it. Does it make a coherent page or not? Not always, and that's okay. When I'm starting my Bible journaling, when I sit down to do that, I don't just say, hey, I feel like drawing a goat today. Let me see if there's a passage that has a goat in it. I consider that more of illustrating my Bible, and that's not what I do Bible journaling for. I do it to process what I'm hearing from God, and unless I've heard something from God about a goat or learned a lesson from a goat, it doesn't really make a lot of sense for me to put that in my Bible journaling. I do have a whole pile of sketchbooks. You see all those back there? My art journals are among them, but I grab a sketchbook when I just feel like drawing a thing, and I just need to get it out. I'll throw it in a sketchbook because I do some work in my sketchbooks every day. Thus end with my similarities and differences between art journaling and Bible journaling, which means we now get to go to the giveaway, because as an instructor in gratitude junk journaling, I get to give away a class by September 30th, which means you need to get on this right away to a lucky winner. How do you qualify to win? I would like to ask you to replenish my reviews on my website, because I loved reading how much impact the classes that people have taken meant to them. The things they were able to accomplish and the confidence they gained just made me feel like I'm making a difference, and I would love to know what difference I made for you. So go over to art-classes.com and leave a review on a class, on a downloadable, whatever it is that you might have purchased recently, because that makes a big difference to people looking to decide whether or not they want to take a class. If you haven't taken a class lately and you would like a suggestion, I have two that I just put on sale for this week only. One is seeing the scriptures, and that's for Biblejournals who want to know what my crazy process is for looking at the words in a scripture passage and deciding what I'm going to illustrate them with. And there's a whole bunch of exercises in there where you can practice my method and see if it works for you. The second class is Copic art journaling, and that one is from my Copic peeps. I made a whole art journaling class just for you a while back. I think it was in 2020, and it's a lot of fun. It's filled with great techniques that you can use in your regular alcohol marker work. It's not just for the journal, but the journal is going to be really encouraging to your heart as well. Now go forth and leave reviews, because I have to pick a winner on September 30th and submit it, so you need to get on it right quick. All right, I will see you guys later on.  I'll see you later.


Rhywun taeth, mae'r maen nhw'n cyfrifyn i fy Nghymru yn ymddïdau'r cyfle yw ddweud bwysig. Rwy'n digwydd, mae gennych i gyd yn rhoi yn ymddi, erbyr iawn i ysgrifun a gwylosieddiaeth i ddefnyddiadau, rwy'n neud â'r yarnhau, rwy'n creu'n dgynnidol. Rhyw unrhyw gwr, Richard Leonard,�u weld eich gunaidd gael. Rwy'n credu'n cael ei ddych yn gyffoesio, ddim yn unrhyw'n dechrau'r union ddyn nhw. In addition to regular engagement with the STUC, further meetings have been held to discuss specific issues with individual unions. Most recently, I met Emmanuel Cortez, the general secretary of the TSA, on 25 October. As part of my regular engagement with the STUC, I will be meeting ASLEFR and TNT SSA tomorrow, where I imagine a number of issues will be discussed. The three major railway trade unions all oppose the Scottish Government's proposal to wind up British transport police's operations in Scotland and absorb the service into police Scotland. They cite the need for a distinctive police service for the railway. The Deputy Chief Constable of the British Transport Police told this Parliament's own Justice Committee just last week that the dual control of the transport police's function would lead to even more train delays and railway crimes being downgraded. My constituent Lucy Milton, an employee of the British Transport Police who lives in Airdrie, wrote to me and said and I quote, "...there isn't a thought for those of us lying awake at night wondering how we will support families or indeed how the service we have worked so very hard to provide will be delivered once this is over.  How do you answer Lucy Milton, the Deputy Chief Constable, ASLEFR, the RMT and the TSA and the other transport experts why don't you drop the bill?" I hope that you won't repeat that, minister. I'll keep my answer brief. I'm going to be engaging with unions tomorrow, as I said, and I'll be keen to hear some of their concerns and see if I can give them the necessary reassurance. What I would say to your constituents and those who oppose it, a couple of things. First of all, we're giving a lot of assurances, protecting numbers of staff, protecting terms of conditions for BTP officers, but most importantly, ensuring railway expertise is maintained on the railways. I recognise that British Transport Police officers join British Transport to be on our railways, not to be out in the beat, out in the streets, so we'll protect that railway expertise. The last thing I would say is why we're doing what we're doing. We were elected on that manifesto of BTP integration. I remind the member, of course, that we've got more votes combined than that party and, of course, the main opposition, so that's the rationale of why we're doing what we're doing. I'll consult with the unions, I'll consult with the British Transport Police and, of course, I will consult with anybody else who has any concerns over the British Transport Police integration, but police numbers and terms of conditions will be protected. I thought that that was something that he would welcome. Oh dear, all hope has gone. I call John Scott, please. To ask the cabinet secretary if, when he last met the rail unions, if he discussed with them the need for repair and to better maintain the fabric of the rail station at Prestwick Airport. It wasn't raised in the last discussion that I had with rail unions. I'm more than happy to discuss it with the member to take it away and see if I can bring them some of those assurances and take the issue up with Network Rail. Second question, Mark Ruskell, please. To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to third sector organisations that seek to build a case for the reopening of rail lines and stations. Government provides advice to Transport Scotland if requested, third sector organisations and others on the application of its transport appraisal and business case guidance. That guidance is published on Transport Scotland's website. Mr Ruskell? I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. He may not be aware that the Nubra station group recently unsuccessfully attempted to apply for funds in the national lottery to develop a STAG report after five council had exhausted funds supporting the STAG process for the critically important leaving mouth rail route. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that the planning of our 21st century rail network should not be dependent on a lottery game? Will he commit to providing enough funds to examine the cases of all emerging rail projects while also reviewing the STAG process to make it more streamlined, transparent and cost-effective? I'm more than happy to discuss this in more detail with the member. I met the leaving mouth rail campaign and had a very good discussion with it. I think that the proposal has some merits and some questions that need to be answered. Five council are working on that. They did not raise the issue of funding for the STAG appraisal being an issue, but I agree with them that there is merit in looking at STAG appraisal to see whether it can be made at less cumbersome. I'm more than happy to do that and take that feedback. I'm waiting for the council feedback on the leaving mouth rail option. If there is a fully-costed and robust business case, all rail projects will be considered with angrifoedd. Rachael Hamilton The success has been demonstrated by the number of passengers travelling on the Waverly line from the Scottish borders and illustrates the positive impact that opening lines and stations have on rural communities. The minister is aware of the on-going campaign to reopen East Linton and Reston stations. Can the Scottish Government give an indication of when these much-needed stations will be reinstated? Rachael Hamilton When I last met all those stakeholders involved in the conversation, I mentioned the fact that the Scottish Government had increased its contribution to 50 per cent of the construction of those stations. I received a letter from the council saying that they wished to enter into further discussions. I will be writing back to them in the next few days, and I will make sure that the member is copied into that. I think that there is a way forward. We are committed—I'm sure that the councils are committed, as are the elected members—to see the reopening of East Linton and Reston stations. Willie Coffey To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a detailed timetable for the installation of superfast broadband that will indicate when the service will be available in each area of Scotland. The planned deployment information, including anticipated timescales for the digital Scotland superfast broadband programme, is made available on the digital Scotland postcode checker. The DSSB programme will extend fibre broadband access to at least 95 per cent of premises by the end of 2017, and we are committed to extending superfast coverage to 100 per cent of premises across Scotland by 2021. The timetable for delivery will be dependent on the outcome of new procurements, which will begin next year. Willie Coffey For that answer, as much information and as soon as possible is the best option for communities and families so that they can get the best value for money about the data services that they plan to buy themselves. Can I also ask, in terms of the broadband contracts that the Scottish Government is delivering, how are we ensuring that we are also getting value for money? The member makes a valid point. Obviously, communities throughout Scotland are all keen to know when they may get access to superfast broadband. It is absolutely understandable, and we are absolutely not complacent about it. There are five stages in development in upgrading a green roadside cabinet, namely design, survey, build phase, connection and activation. Obviously, all members will understand that at any of those stages, at any one, there can be issues identified that will change the anticipated delivery date. That should be borne in mind in relation to timescales. The member also asks about value for money. I can assure him that that is a key consideration. Each quarter, the digital superfast broadband programme assures milestones delivered by BT against contractual targets. The assurance feeds into the level of payment that BT receives quarterly. If BT does not deliver, it does not get paid. There is a difference between making the service available in each area and connecting every household in that area as the Government is committed to doing. Does he understand the frustration that many people feel when superfast broadband lines go past their homes 18-months ago or two years ago? Announcements have made that it is in their area now, and they still have no idea when they might get connected. If Mr Rumbles had listened to my first answer, I did indicate that information is available on the digital Scotland postcode checker. Sorry, Mr Rumbles is interrupting from a sedentary position, but I absolutely agree that, as I said already, I am not complacent about this. I fully understand that those are perfectly legitimate concerns expressed by great many people, but I am pleased that bodies such as OFCOM have recognised and praised the progress that we are making in Scotland, and indeed OFCOM, who are the regulator, said that the progress in broadband is actually better than south of the border. I appreciate that recognition from the regulator themselves, but we are not complacent and we are aware of those concerns. Can the cabinet secretary please advise the chamber as to what is being done to encourage greater take-up of superfast broadband in areas where it has been delivered in order to allow more resources to be channeled into communities that currently cannot access superfast broadband? I think that a great many people are pretty keen themselves to access broadband where they can. I think that it is a reasonable point that the member makes. I will reflect on that to see if there is more that we can do. I am very pleased that he shares our absolute concern and our commitment to ensure that universal coverage is by 2021. Therefore, I will write back to the member to see if there are any ways that we can encourage take-up. I think that that is primarily a matter for each individual person, whether or not to take up services if he, she or they so wish. To ask the Scottish Government what actions it is taking to extend access to high-speed fibre broadband across the country. The digital Scotland superfast broadband programme will extend fibre broadband access to at least 95 per cent of premises in Scotland by the end of 2017. As outlined in the programme for government, the Government has put digital connectivity at the heart of its agenda and is committed to delivering 100 per cent superfast broadband access by the end of this Parliament. Thank you for that response. Clearly, you can measure the importance of broadband by the number of questions tabled about it. Given the enduring complexities of deploying fibre broadband cabinets and that it currently does not allow digital Scotland to give any specific detail regarding roll-out times and that many of my own constituents here in the very heart of Edinburgh still do not have access to fibre broadband, what is being done to ensure that the March 2018 deadline for roll-out will be met? There are really two answers to the question. First of all, we are delivering in two contracts throughout Scotland an investment by the Scottish Government with support from the UK Government and others of £400 million. That is the first thing, and that programme has been praised. As I mentioned by OFCOM, it has been acknowledged as being effective by Audit Scotland and it has actually been acknowledged as effective by the UK Government. That is the first thing. As I have already said in the answer to the first question, we shall be rolling out access by procurement process that shall be entered into next year. It is important that we do not rush that process, because progress was sought to be rushed by the UK Government in respect of their so-called mobile infrastructure plan. The result was that, instead of 78 masks being erected, only three were. The reason for that was that the preparatory work ascertaining the existing level of cover was not done. In other words, you cannot proceed with the roll-out of the contract for the remainder until you are absolutely sure what the specification is about those who already have it. That preparatory work is essential, but we are adhering to our timetables. I am very pleased that our progress has been recognised by the regulator, Audit Scotland and the UK Government. Let's hope that answers get shorter on questions. Edwin Mountain, please. A short question. Although fibre optic broadband is important in rolling out high-speed broadband across Scotland, there are some areas where it will not be appropriate or able to reach. I therefore would like to ask the Scottish Government what methods aside from fibre optic broadband will be cost-neutral to the end-user it is considering in those hard-to-reach areas many of which are in his constituency and my region. I think that, as I have indicated to the chamber before, the process of tendering next year acknowledges that one size does not necessarily fit all and will therefore need to be flexible enough to enable a variety of techniques to be adopted. It is a perfectly reasonable point that the member makes, but it is one that we are already pursuing. 5. Peter Chapman Let me declare an interest as a farmer. To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to address the reported concerns of farmers and industry representatives regarding new rules on linked holdings. Cap. 5. Peter Chapman An effective disease control, disease eradication and the protection of public health. The system has been developed collaboratively by a joint Scottish Government and industry working group to ensure that, whilst animal and public health are protected, the requirements are feasible for businesses, meet EU legislative requirements and do not impede trade. Peter Chapman I am grateful to the minister for that answer. He will be aware from his meetings with stakeholders and industry leaders that this change has caused a great deal of concern amongst the farming community. Can the minister explain why he is changing a perfectly good system when the new system is creating further anxiety and another hope to jump through at an already difficult time for farmers? Cabinet Secretary? The original question refers to reported concerns, but we are unspecified and they remain unspecified. I can tell the member that the working group included the National Farmers Union of Scotland. It developed those proposals along with us, so I do not think that it can be said that they come as a surprise. The direct answer to his question is twofold. First of all, the current system risks non-compliance with the EU rules and a fine of up to £3 million. That seems like a sensible matter to avoid if we can, and any prudent Government must do that. Second and most important is disease control. It is absolutely essential that we have a system of recording cattle movements and keeping records that protects against disease. Some of us here can recall what happened when Scotland was beset by disease and Mr Chapman himself as a farmer will be well aware of it. I will write to Mr Chapman with the details, but it is very important in principle for all members to know that the proposals are driven by the need to protect Scotland against disease of serious outbreaks such as foot and mouth. It is absolutely necessary for that. Everybody in the working group acknowledged that, including the NFUS, and that is why it is going ahead. Can the cabinet secretary tell us what progress is being made in implementing the 2016 cap basic payments loan scheme? I am very pleased to tell John McAlpine that the first payments under the national basic payment support scheme were paid to almost 12,000 farmers on Friday, last Friday, totaling just over £246 million. The funding will give our rural communities the security and certainty that they need to plan for the year ahead while driving forward the rural economy. I am very grateful to all the officials who successfully administered that payment to just under 12,000 farmers and £246 million. Finally, we would encourage the 5,000 farmers who receive a loan offer but have not yet replied to decide whether they wish to apply and, if so, to return the application slip as soon as possible. To ask the Scottish Government how many homes have exchange-only lines and no access to superfast broadband. The digital Scotland superfast broadband programme has connected more than 200,000 homes and businesses on exchange-only lines to the fibre network. By the end of the DSSB contracts, we expect that around 320,000 exchange-only lines will be connected. We will undertake an open market review later this year to determine how many premises will not have superfast broadband access delivered commercially or through the DSSB programme. That will allow us to determine an intervention area for our new investment programme, which will help to deliver our 100 per cent superfast broadband commitment. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Constituents from Fair Milehead to Balerno and Rathaw, who have exchange-only lines, are concerned that they only have access to basic broadband with very low download speeds. In some cases, as low as 0.8 bits per second. What steps are being taken to address this issue in semi-rural areas? When will they get access to superfast broadband? I can advise the member that his independence in the Fair Milehead exchanges that cover Balerno and Fair Milehead have been enabled for fibre, but not all homes of businesses have been connected yet. Constituents can check their details on the digital Scotland website or contact the DSSB team with any specific concerns that they have. I am aware of Mr McDonald's strong interest in this matter and I will write to him with further details about it. Can I apologise to the four members that I was unable to call? I am trying along with other Presiding Officers to get short questions and short answers to allow the people at the tail end to get in and will get there one day with your help. I have to move on to the next set of portfolio questions. Question 1, Iain Gray, please. To ask the Scottish Government what support it will offer the new National Marine Centre being developed at North Berwick. The Scottish Government's urgent support for the National Marine Centre in North Berwick is part of its successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Marine Scotland officials sit on the project's marine advisory group, providing advice and support as it develops its subsequent application to the Heritage Lottery Fund, as well as other funding opportunities. Mr Gray. The National Marine Centre is a development of the Scottish Seabird Centre, which has a substantial track record of success, some 270,000 visitors per year, bringing people from all over Scotland and indeed the world to North Berwick. The marine centre project has the potential to expand that educational and tourism success into all aspects of the marine and coastal environment. As the cabinet secretary indicated, a major fundraising programme is under way, but further government support will be crucial to secure match funding to the lottery funds in order to allow the project to proceed.  I have indicated some of the support so far. I understand that a £3.5 million bid is being made to the Heritage Lottery Fund. I agree with the member that that is an extraordinary potential development and offers a very great deal. There is a funding gap of £2 million, and there will be potential funding applications required. One of those is to the Coastal Communities Fund. Round 4 awards will be announced in March 2017. Although the Scottish Government commits funding to the Coastal Communities Fund, ministers are not actively involved in the decision making for that, as the member no doubt understands. Although the Coastal Communities Fund funding officer is meeting with the project team to discuss details of the application on 18 November. To ask the Scottish Government how much carbon dioxide was released as a result of INEOS-importing shale gas from the United States. While the Scottish Government and SIPA hold a range of site-specific emissions data, the data on feedstock delivery and specific processes that take place within an individual site is not available. The Scottish Government does not therefore hold information on the CO2 emissions from imported ethane gas for particular sites. Emissions from the production of shale gas will be captured in the inventory of the country of origin. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. As she will be aware, climate change has no borders, is she therefore happy to not only be costing our economy jobs but also managing to cause a greater environmental impact at the same time? The Scottish Government continues to value the contribution that Grange Bifemates to the Scottish economy. We are supportive of the investment in efforts to ensure a sustainable future for the petrochemical and refinery business. Obviously, decisions about sourcing supply for that are a matter for the company, but we need to be extraordinarily careful, as we have seen in discussions over the past few weeks, about adopting any kind of gung-ho or rushed approach to this industry. It is the job of government to base decisions on evidence. The minister's statement made it very clear how we are going to proceed on the basis of the research that is available to us, and we will come to a considered judgment on unconventional oil and gas by the end of 2017. The report on unconventional gas decommissioning launched yesterday found big gaps in the regulations with the full costs of restoration unlikely to be known until the end of any project. Given the failure of the coal industry to successfully clean up the toxic legacy that is left behind in areas such as West Fife, will the cabinet secretary commit to including full liability for environmental clean-up costs in the Government's consideration of the economics of unconventional gas? Those are issues that clearly we will be looking at. I understand why there is a huge amount of particular concern around that. I can assure the chamber that the Scottish Government is treating the issue with the seriousness that it deserves. There were some indications from the experts' conclusions that there was a low risk of post-decommissioning well failure, but we are looking very carefully at all that, and we will be taking that into consideration as we move forward. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle the threat to Woodland from invasive rhododendron. Responsibility for the removal of invasive non-native species such as rhododendron lies with landowners rather than Government. The Scottish Government makes funding available to private woodland owners for rhododendron control projects under the Scottish Rural Development programme forestry grants scheme. To date, over £340,000 of FGS funding has been committed. Action on the national forest estate has already cleared an area of 5,131 hectares since 2011 on designated sites. Rachael Hamilton. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. The Woodland Trust and National Trust for Scotland say that our trees and woods are under real pressure from rhododendron. Both are calling on the Scottish Government to focus the right resources and to give the correct priority to the eradication of this invasive species. Scotland has by far the largest population of rhododendron at 53,000 hectares, with the largest concentration in the west. Will the Scottish Government address the ecological issue before the situation gets beyond control? I have already indicated in my initial answer that landowners have also got to be involved in this. We are taking the threat to woodland from invasive rhododendron very seriously. We are currently in the process of finalising a national approach. The final draft of that is likely to be published in March 2017. No doubt, the member will be watching out for that with great interest. As I indicated, there is funding for private woodland owners. If there are individual woodland owners that the member is in touch with who have not actually applied for that funding, I would urge her to suggest that they do so. Claudia Beamish I ask the cabinet secretary further to that question what support is given for partnership working with NGOs, volunteers and public bodies in relation to the types of challenging invasive species. There is such a scourge on our countryside. I visited Scottish Wildlife Trust's Nethan Gorge reserve recently, and the start of Japanese knotweed is there. It is a very serious problem. The member is absolutely correct. Although rhododendron is probably the most invasive species that we have to deal with, it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only one with Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed or Himalayan balsam also being a particular problem. The same issue arises in respect of those that are landowners themselves who have the primary responsibility. One of the reasons that I indicated on the national forest estate, the work that has been done, is because, of course, Scottish Government is also a landowner. As our NGOs and other community landowners, land ownership brings with it huge responsibilities, that is one of them. The funding that is available does not mandate any particular working. We encourage landscape scale partnership work, specifically in designated sites, because, in reality, that kind of partnership working is what will help us to eradicate the pest. To ask the Scottish Government what lessons can we learn from the Central Scotland Green Network in relation to biodiversity. I'm delighted that the Scottish Government is supporting Europe's largest green space project, the Central Scotland Green Network. Its work is demonstrating that nature can thrive in built-up areas and bring a range of benefits for communities across the central belt. Its work includes everything from landscape scale initiatives such as Sevenloch's Wetland Park, large-scale green space improvements and small-scale initiatives such as window boxes. Its activity is also showing how biodiversity can revitalise neighbourhoods. For example, vacant and derelict land provides opportunities to green our urban landscapes, both temporarily and permanently. Mark Griffin I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. The Scottish Government launched Scotland's biodiversity a route map to 2020 last summer. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what progress has been made towards achieving the six big steps for nature? We continue to make progress in respect of biodiversity, but, as I have indicated in the meetings that I had just over this week, including with CSGN yesterday, we know that there is still a very great deal more to be done. That is where the linkage is right across all parts of this portfolio. One of the things that help in terms of biodiversity is to look at the kind of landscape partnership that we were talking about in the previous question. That means that even dealing with things such as rhododendron have a beneficial impact on biodiversity. The actions that we take across Government are important. We continue to make the progress that we are making while accepting that there is still a great deal more to do. Maurice Golden, please. The central Scotland green network can be seen as a building block towards a national ecological network. The Scottish Government's biodiversity 2020 strategy states that developing a national ecological network has proved challenging because there is not a consensus on what that is. In fact, the chief executive of SNH said earlier this week, what is it? No one knows. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that there is a need to define what the national ecological network is to better target resources as well as embed across different areas, including land use strategy, marine policy, the biodiversity strategy and the national planning framework? I have to say that I try not to get drawn into extended arguments about specific definitions, having been involved in previous years when I was in some of this portfolio previously where people were even questioning the use of the word biodiversity itself. The member has probably been in that kind of conversation. We can spend a lot of time talking about definitions. However, what I would like to do is to be able to commend the examples such as the CSGN, who are in fact doing it anyway right across what might be seen as the most difficult part of Scotland in order to make those arguments. They are making them, they are winning, and some of the things that the CSGN is involved in are quite extraordinary. In a sense, it does not matter how you make the definition sound as long as you are doing it on the ground. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that Scottish water maintains the highest standards of water quality. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of achieving high standards of drinking water quality. In the period from 2015 to 2021, Scottish water has been directed to make improvements to Scotland's drinking water at a cost of in excess of £500 million. Compliance with drinking water standards is assessed by the drinking water quality regulator for Scotland. In her 2015 annual report, she reported that at 99.92 per cent Scottish water had delivered record levels of compliance with legislative standards. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I wonder if she is aware that statistics recently published on Scottish environment show that the number of rivers and locks that are categorised as having poor water quality has increased by 17 per cent since 2011. Will the Scottish Government take more affirmative action to mitigate this problem and help to prevent the providential knock-on impact in riparian wildlife? The Scottish water is constantly keeping a watching eye on water quality. It is extremely important whether we are talking about locks, bathing waters or drinking water or whatever. There are a number of treatments under way that will help in that regard. If the member has any specific concerns that he wishes to raise, I would invite him to do so either through me or directly to Scottish water itself. The cabinet secretary will be well aware that SEPA and SNH work closely with the whisky industry to ensure the highest possible quality of water for both climate change and Scottish export market purposes. Will the cabinet secretary join with me in praising the collaborative work that has been carried out with Diageo and the environmental agencies, which created the new state-of-the-art closed loop distillery condenser at the new resile facility in Spacite? It certainly sounds like something that I would very much want to commend, but I thank the member for raising the issue. I am also aware from having fairly recently been at the launch of it that the Scottish whisky industry is now moving quite strongly in terms of environmental concerns and has, in fact, launched an environmental strategy of its own. I think that that is to be very welcome, because, after all, Scottish whisky is sold on to the international market on an image of clean water, of a beautiful environment, and it is very, very important when industries, when products are sold in that way from Scotland, that the industries involved in the production of those products realise that they too have a responsibility for that environment. To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in implementing its circular economy strategy. Since making things last, our circular economy strategy was launched in February. I have opened the circular economy investment fund for bids from collaborative reuse and repair projects by SMEs and social enterprises. I have awarded over £2 million to East Ayrshire Council to implement the household recycling charter, with further support available to councils to deliver a consistent approach to recycling in Scotland, and I welcome that 20 local authorities have now signed up to the charter. Additional activity is under way by public bodies, partner organisations and, indeed, by other cabinet secretaries and ministers, as is a cross-cutting Government approach, which can only succeed if everyone plays their part. I thank the cabinet secretary for her response, and she answered the first part of my supplementary there, which was going to be about the household recycling charter. I would like to ask the Scottish Government what further work the Government will be undertaking with local authorities, given that they will be responsible for implementing many of the actions that are in the strategy. I apologise to the member for gizumping her in terms of her question. As I indicated, 20 of Scotland's 32 councils have signed up to the household recycling charter. It has been so successful thus far that, due to the close collaboration between the Scottish Government and COSLA that brought it about in the first place, that co-operation will continue as we start to implement the charter on the ground and as we take forward other elements of making things last, including the commitment to review the rural exemption for food waste collections. I think that it is fair to say that a number of the councils that have signed up are in the early stages of their transition planning for this, but the idea is to ensure that, as much as possible, we have a consistency across council boundaries of the way that recycling is done. We think that that will offer much more opportunity than is currently done so by the potential that is open with waste and recycling. Question 7. John Finnie, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Ministry of Defence in the last year regarding the environment. Cabinet Secretary. Scottish Government and Ministry of Defence officials have had a number of meetings in the last year to discuss a range of environmental issues, including protected areas, radioactive substances and MOD plans for the marine environment. Mr Finnie. Thank you. I thank the cabinet secretary for that and indeed for a reply last week to the question asked to requesting the Scottish Government look at an assessment of the impact of the unmanned warrior MOD exercise. In reply to that, cabinet secretary, you said that the competent authority MOD has responsibility for undertaking any appropriate environmental assessments under relevant EU directives or EU legislation. Can you advise whether those assessments have been shared with the Scottish Government and, if not, will you request and publish them please? Cabinet Secretary. The member is correct. The Ministry of Defence is the competent authority responsible for all environmental matters related to defence under the relevant EU and UK legislation. We discuss a number of things with them. There has been a fairly recent meeting with MOD officials to discuss the proposed Inner Hebrides and Minches special area of conservation for harbour porpoys. Marine Scotland also maintains a regular relationship with the MOD. We obviously want to assist them where possible to deliver on their environmental obligations. I will need to double check for the member whether or not, since we don't in a sense own them, whether or not we are able to publish the environmental assessments. I will get back to the member when I have established that. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce carbon emissions. Scotland is a world leader in tackling climate change with ambitious statutory targets and strong progress to date. Our policies and measures include expanding renewable energy production, improvements in energy and resource efficiency, transition of transport to a lower carbon basis, expansion of renewable heat and sustainable land use. Scottish emissions in 2014 were down by 45.8 per cent from baseline levels, meaning that we have exceeded the level of our world leading statutory 2020 target to reduce emissions by 42 per cent from baseline levels six years early. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer in the spirit of tears questions. Can I ask what further measures and action can be taken by the Government to reduce carbon emissions from transport? Well, as the member might expect, I might suggest to him that one of the things he could do is ask the minister for transport directly. I can advise the member that with the drawing up of the climate change plan that will be presented, the draft climate change plan that will be presented to Parliament in January, there will be a number of transport-related measures in that plan and I no doubt he will be looking forward to that with some interest. Thank you for moving on to the next item of business. I apologise to the two members who were not taken but we are improving. We will now move on to the next item of business. I will give members a moment to exchange front benches.