Category: Counting On …

Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on

Counting on … day 168

11th September 2024

Trees are just as important in urban as in rural areas: “They have a huge impact on local wildlife, mental and physical health, and pollution levels, while making the places we live in more beautiful.” The Woodland Trust (1) 

In London there are estimated to be 8,421,000 trees (2), whilst globally urban trees whilst covering only 2% of the land, comprise  about 8% of the world’s tree diversity with 10 billion trees of more than 100 types. (3) 

Looking after – and indeed expanding – these urban forests is clearly important for biodiversity.

  1. https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/habitats/urban-trees-and-woodland/

(2) Rogers, K., Sarcre, K., Goodenough, J. & Doick, K. Valuing London’s Urban Forest: Results of the London i-Tree Eco Project. (Treeconomics, London, 2015)

(3) https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2024-05/Biodiversity_infographic_final.pdf

Counting on … day 167

10th September 2024

Every year trees such as the oak, the horse chestnut and the beech, produce vast numbers of seeds  from which hardly even one will make it to become itself a mature tree. Rather their seeds will be eaten by squirrels, birds, deer  and – if they are there – pigs or wild boar. There is a balance between the food supplied and the number of creatures fed. But then once every few years, the trees produce an excessive number of seeds – a mast year. For this year only the supply of food exceeds consumers and from this crop, the next generation of trees may sprout. This fascinating understanding of supply and demand comes from Tristan Gooley’s book, How to Read a Tree, which I thoroughly recommend.

Counting on … day 166

9th September 2024

A rich biodiverse habitat is a habitat that is regulated by both competition and opportunism. The balance is not always even in the short term but longer term imbalances level out. 

This year’s wet weather has seen an explosion of slugs that has not been fully balanced by an increase in beings that prey on slugs. Although conversely the wet weather may have produced excess amounts of plant growth on which the slugs have been feeding! 

It is not just gardeners but farmers too who find their hard work devastated by hungry slugs – but research is in hand to find ways of creating a better balance between slugs and plant growers – for more  information or to help – https://bofin.org.uk/2024/08/29/slimy-invaders/

Counting on … day 165

6th September 2024

Biodiversity is also an important component of our relationship with God. The following comes from the Centre for Action and Contemplation, and invites us to look again at nature.

“It might’ve been being at the beach and seeing a flock of seagulls in flight that suddenly made you aware of beauty in a way you’d never felt it before, or it may have been the first dog that you really knew, loved, and connected with. It helped you think of intelligence that was different than your own, and beautiful in its own unique way. It might’ve been some other scene where you felt sacredness, and holiness, and depth in the natural world. It’s easy for us … to forget that childlike wonder at this beautiful world. We don’t need to put God and nature in competition. Nature is God’s original self-expression”.

There Is No Competition 

Counting on … day 164

5th September 2024

The campaign group Zero Hour UK is promoting the Climate and Nature Bill (the CAN Bill) as a means of creating legislation that will comprehensively address both the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis. It is a private member’s bill which has cross party backing of some 170 MPs and currently its proposers are hoping that it will win time for debate in the private members bill ballot. 

For more information, including how to support the Bill, visit https://www.zerohour.uk/climate-and-nature-bill/

Counting on … day 163

4th September 2024

A biodiverse rich ecosystem is a more stable ecosystem, and that stability benefits all the component parts. A biodiverse rich environment will thus support a better life for humans as well as other creatures, plants and life forms. Such an environment will be healthier for humans – including cleaner air and water – and will ensure a richer, more reliable food supply. 

Counting on … day 162

3rd September 2024

The State of Nature report 2023 states: “The UK, like most other countries worldwide, has seen significant loss of its plants, animals and fungi. The data from State of Nature cover, at most, 50 years but this follows on from centuries of habitat loss, development and persecution. As a result, the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth.”(1) This includes a 54% loss in the distribution of flowering plants, meaning more than half of the land is less rich in biodiversity.

Yet a rich biodiverse environment is better able to cope with and tackle the causes of climate change. (2)

  1. https://stateofnature.org.uk/

(2) https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/biodiversity

Counting on … day 161

2nd September 2024

There are 50 days remaining until this year’s biodiversity COP. Biodiversity COP16 will take place between 21st October and 1st November in Cali, Colombia

Biodiversity is a measure of the number of different varieties of life forms found in earth. Some ecosystems are richer in biodiversity than others. The richer an ecosystem is in biodiversity, the more stable is that ecosystem. Globally biodiversity has been shrinking at an alarming rate. The Biodiversity COPs are tasked with finding ways of reducing and turning about this loss of diversity.

Counting on day … 160

30th August 2024

Practising the same environmentally friendly habits on holiday as we do at home. This can include using active travel over cars for getting around; carrying a keep cup to avoid single use takeaway cups; using a refillable water bottle; showers rather than baths – and if we are somewhere where there are water shortages such as in Sicily, being very careful not to waste water. 

This approach might also include not buying things we don’t need. A souvenir that simply gathers dust when we come home is not always the best way of remembering a holiday. There is a saying that we should ‘Take nothing but pictures and leaven nothing but footprints’. 

At the same time we may want to support the local economy where we are staying – which could be by using the local cafe or bar.