Counting On … – Page 34

Counting on … day 149

15th August 2024

Rewilding describes the process of recreating or restoring natural environments where nature is given a helping hand – for example by introducing a small number of pigs or cattle to replicate the activities of their wild forebears. In this way the hope is to allow the natural environment to recover the form it would have had before being reshaped by humans. Notable examples include the Knepp Estate but also less well known ones such as Ennerdale in the Lake District and the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project – ocean and sea beds are just as much in need of restoration as natural environments.

Counting on … day 148

14th August 2024

Whilst not pristine, are there other environments where the impact of humans is minimal such that we can consider them to be natural? Perhaps here we mean a landscape or ecosystem shaped by nature not humans? Perhaps we mean a landscape that was once shaped by humans but has now reverted to one free of human contact?

One such example would be Monks Wood Experimental Station – a four hectare arable field next to a research station which was ploughed after the last crop had been harvested and was then abandoned. It was left without any human interference to see what would happened. Kenneth Mellanby, the then director of the Station, wrote “It might be interesting to watch what happens to this area if man does not interfere. Will it become a wood again, how long will it take, which species will be in it?”

Sixty years later and the results can be seen – “a structurally complex woodland with multiple layers of tree and shrub vegetation, and accumulating deadwood as the habitat ages. This complexity offers niches for a wide variety of woodland wildlife, from fungi and invertebrates in the dead logs and branches, to song thrushes, garden warblers and nuthatches which nest in the ground layer, understorey and tree canopy.” https://www.positive.news/environment/rewilding-sixty-years-ago-scientists-let-a-farm-rewild-heres-what-happened/

Counting on … day 147

13th August 2024

How to define a natural environment

Is it an environment untouched by human influence? This is typically referred to as a pristine environment. Are there any such places on earth?

On the one hand, given the way that, for example, the effects of climate change are universally felt across the earth, or the presence of micro plastics which are now to be found in the depths of the ocean, on mountain peaks, in icecaps, and even in the blood of living creatures, the answer would be no. If in the other hand we mean free from the physical presence of humans and their impact, then yes – a few.

And it is that second approach that allows many researchers to agree with “a definition of pristine that includes habitats free from obvious signs of human activity. Those places should also contain plant and animal species that experts would expect to be there in the absence of hunting, logging, habitat loss, invasive species and other human-driven threats.”

And yes in parts of north eastern South America, in parts of Indonesia, in parts of the Congo, in parts of the polar regions, there are still some pristine environments.

(1) https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160208-theres-no-such-thing-as-truly-pristine-nature-anymore

Counting on … day 146

12th August 2024

The so called ‘Glorious Twelfth’ marks the start of the shooting season for grouse. Over the next few months some 700,000 red grouse will be shot on moors across the UK. These birds, whilst they remain wild, are husbanded by the owners of the grouse moors using methods that involve burning heather and shooting predators and competitors such as foxes, crows and magpies, and birds of prey. The burning of the moorland heather is intended to maximise the new shoots which the grouse feed on, but at the same time it damages the underlying peat and reduces biodiversity, killing insects and small mammals, and by inhibiting the growth of a wider range of native plants.

Grouse-moors are an artificial construct and do not equate with maintaining a ‘natural’ environment.

“Grouse are charming, sensitive birds who can survive as far north as the Arctic circle and are devoted parents to their chicks. They deserve better than being killed in cold blood for someone’s twisted idea of entertainment.” https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/grouse-shooting/

Counting on … day 144

8th August 2024

Not a treaty but a pledge. The Flight Free pledge invites us to undertake not to fly for a year – or longer. At its root it was a movement focused on limiting carbon emissions that boost climate change. That is still there but with a more nuanced objective of justice.

“Aviation emissions affect us disproportionately: it’s typically the rich nations who take most of the flights, whereas the poor nations are suffering the effects of climate change and are least equipped to deal with rising temperatures.

“Even here in the UK, only around half of people fly per year, yet the negative effects of aviation are felt by a large number of people, whether by noise and pollution from airports, or taxpayer-funded bailouts for airlines.

“Aviation doesn’t pay its fair share of tax, with no tax on jet fuel (road fuel is taxed at 50%), and no VAT on airline tickets. The benefits of aviation are felt by only a few, yet we all suffer the negative consequences.”

Take a look at their web site – maybe this is the year for you to take the pledge.

https://flightfree.co.uk/

Counting on … day 143

7th August 2024

The climate change also presents the human race with an existential crisis. Do we carry on with our human generation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, causing the earth’s atmosphere to warm up a faster rate than has ever happened before, and which threatens all life species? Or do we curtail and then halt our use of land and resources to prevent further temperature rises?

Amongst the global proposals is the signing of a Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty – and anyone/ everyone can sign it.

https://fossilfueltreaty.org/

Counting on … day 142

6th August 2024

Today is both the feast of the Transfiguration and the anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. The former showed Jesus to the disciples in a new light and gave them a foretaste of a different future. Did the latter show us humanity in a new light?

Did it so shocked us, that it led to eventually to The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons? If I’m being optimistic, then yes and to date it has prevented the use of such weapons in anger. If I’m being pessimistic, then a yes but whilst it may have curbed a nuclear war it has not curbed the continued production and holding of such weapons.

Is there still time to envisage a different and better future?

Counting on … day 141

5th August 2024

We can all make this Amazon-Free August!

For information about why and how visit the Ethical Consumer’s webpage – and take the pledge.

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethical-campaigns-boycotts/amazon-free-pledge?utm_source=ECRA+Monthly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d243fbdbb8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_07_10+subs&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-589049e916-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Counting on … day 140

2nd August 2024

The Earth Overshoot Day website talks about the ‘power of possibility’ and hosts examples of many and various ways in which we could reduce our annual overshoot and so organise our care and use of resources that we could both maintain and enhance the world’s fruitfulness.

One area is food.

If we – prevent food loss and waste

– opt for plant-based foods

– adopt agroecological and regenerative practices

we could, they suggest, shift Earth Overshoot Day by 32 days.

https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/solutions/food/