Tag: nature

Lament for the loss of biodiversity

19th October 2024

My eyes grow dim with weeping. Each day I beg your help; O Lord, I reach my pleading hands to you for mercy.  Soon it will be too late! Psalm 89:9, 10a

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation: 

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives: 

May we live together in peace.

A reading from Luke 18: 9-14 (The Message) He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’ “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’” Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

Response:-

Suffering God, 

Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;

Full of mourning, I bewail my loss: 

Bluebells that cannot keep pace with climate change,

Ash, elm and chestnut trees felled by disease,

Frogspawn that succumbs to unseasonal cold,

Butterflies deceived by unseasonal warmth/ rain*

Suffering God, 

Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;

Full of mourning, I bewail my loss: 

Wetlands that are no longer wet,

Curlews that have nowhere to feed,

Streams overwhelmed by fertilisers, 

Rivers polluted by sewage.

Suffering God, 

Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;

Full of mourning, I bewail my loss: 

Glaciers receding  up mountains,

Alpine plants pushed over the edge,

Mountain hares with nowhere to go,

Moorlands and tundra burnt to a cinder.

Suffering God, 

Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;

Full of mourning, I bewail my loss: 

Oceans with no whales,

Savannahs with no elephants

Coral reefs with no coral,

Icecaps with no ice.

Merciful God,

Forgive us our greed and our complacency,

Our folly and selfishness.

Forgive us when we have failed to see our errors, 

have chosen to overlook our faults.

Forgive us when we have not listened to the facts, 

preferring to believe our own stories.

Forgive us when we have ignored the plight of others, 

caring only for number one.

Restore in us a right mind and a right spirit.

Strengthen our hands and our hearts to care for your world.

Embolden our will to love our neighbours as ourselves. 

Free up our grasp on wealth and resources 

that all may benefit from your bounty.

Release us from our pride and self assurance 

that we can truly worship you, 

our creator, redeemer and sustainer.

Amen.

The grace

  • Each year has different extremes of weather

Counting on … day 192

15th October 2024

Rewilding the sea – seawilding – is as important as rewilding the land. Rewilding Britain explains why. “Britain’s seas used to be home to the biggest creatures on the planet: blue, humpback, fin, sperm, bottlenose and sei whales. Our rich, soupy waters helped fuel a thriving, diverse ecosystem, attracting huge numbers of small fish, and in turn massive balls of herring and whiting, which would bring these ocean giants to our shores to feed. Like the decline of large mammals on land, whales were hunted to near local extinction for their meat and oil. Alongside the decline of these very visible giants, all marine ecosystems are suffering. The UK has lost around 92% of its seagrass meadows, 95% of its native oyster reefs and nearly all its kelp in regions like Sussex where it once was abundant” (1)

In February 2023 three areas of water of the coast of England were given the status of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMA) where all activities such as fishing, mining and laying cables that might damage the sea bed, are banned. The aim is to protect marine biodiversity by allowing seaweeds such as kelp and sea creatures to recolonise the sites. That said, these areas cover only 0.5% of English seas. 

There are other projects where a proactive approach has been taken by actively replanting new kelp meadows – such as the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project – or in the Humber Estuary by creating oyster reefs to serve as nurseries for the reintroduction of native oysters (2)

  1. https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/why-rewild/what-is-rewilding/examples/introduction-marine-rewilding

(2) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/02/oyster-restoration-project-rebuild-uk-reefs-overfishing-seabed-trawling?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 177

24th September 2024

Community gardens can not only boost biodiversity but also the supply of locally grown food. 

“Pam Warhurst … the founder of Incredible Edible, a food-focused guerrilla gardening movement, wants the state to get out of people’s way. “The biggest obstacle is the inability of people in elected positions to cede power to the grassroots,” she says… Her big idea is guerrilla gardening – with a twist. Where guerrilla gardeners subvert urban spaces by reintroducing nature, Incredible Edible’s growers go one step further: planting food on public land and then inviting all-comers to take it and eat. “I used food because it seemed to me that we needed to act fast,” Warhurst says. “We needed to get experience as soon as we could, and probably food was the thing that we could demonstrate an alternative way of living around, in a really simple way.”” (1)

Here in London the Edible Bus Stop in Lambeth grows a range of flowering plants, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. https://theediblebusstop.com/the-kerb-garden/

  1. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/13/radical-food-group-incredible-edible-guerrilla-gardening?

Counting on … day 155

23rd August 2024

Ecosystem engineers have an ability to modify resources they have to hand to alter  their environment. This alteration maybe to change or to destroy or to maintain (ie prevent change) a habitat. Coral species that form coral reefs, and trees that form forests, both have the impact of radically changing the environment into which they move. Beavers are well known for creating new habitats by felling trees and damming water ways. Prairie dogs by tunnelling and turning over the soil, provide accessible habitats for other burrowing mammals, birds, snakes and toads. They also keep the grass nibbled short, providing a favoured habitat for various birds,  as well as enabling the prairie dogs to spot would-be predators – and their whistled alarm alerts other creatures in the vicinity too. 

Many living beings, on land and in water, are important because they can engineer environments that support a greater diversity of life forms than might otherwise be the case. Humans fall into this category of ecosystem engineers but the outcome is not always one that promotes greater biodiversity. 

Counting on day … 154

22nd August 2024

Tool makers 

Both humans and creatures have developed and do use tools to help them make better use of their environment. Bottlenose dolphins carry marine sponges in their beaks to stir ocean-bottom sand and so uncover prey; sea otters and chimpanzees uses stones as hammers to break open shells etc; octopuses use coconut shells – carrying them from place to place -to wear as armour; crows use sticks to winkle insects out of logs.

That humans also use tools, does not per se mark them out as different to other beings in the natural environment – it is just the scale with which humans do this. 

https://www.livescience.com/9761-10-animals-tools.html

Counting on day … 153

21st August 2024

Niche construction

Many creatures – and plants – create niche environments that benefit their well being. For example, many birds make nests as a safe place to raise their young; beavers build dams to create deep waters where they can build a lodge (home) where they will be safe from predators such as wolves and bears; termites build mounds to both protect their underground nests from predators and to ensure cool fresh air for their nest. 

Likewise humans have from early days created niche environments that have helped them thrive – building houses on platforms in a lake to protect them from predators; burning wooded areas to create open spaces where they could graze animals and sow crops; obstructing rivers to trap fish. And we continue to do this! One new venture could be in creating 15 minute cities where we can live more independently of cars and improve social communication.

Counting on day … 151

19th August 2024

If we embrace the definition that humans are as much a part of nature as any other living thing, how does that prompt us to understand humans as contributors to the natural environment?

As hunter gatherers, were early humans any different from other creatures in their interaction with the natural environment?
Like other creatures they would have found ways of getting food – hunting and gathering – and water, finding shelter from the elements and protection from dangers, evolving ways of rearing their young, learning and passing on knowledge about what was safe and what was dangerous in their environment, developing forms of communication to share knowledge, to give warning of danger, and to build social cohesion. They would have developed patterns of living that optimised their survival – and on an ongoing basis adapted these as and when the environment changed around them. 

Counting on … day 150

16th August 2024

There is a movement called ‘We are Nature’ (1) which aims to redefine the word ‘nature’. Dictionary definitions of nature  define nature as being other than what is human. This setting apart appears assumes that  that which is human is superior,more important, than nature, and thus to undervalue nature. The definition this group is looking to introduce would be along the lines of “The living world comprised as the total set of organisms and relationships between them. These organisms include bacteria, fungi, plants and animals (including humans). Some definitions may also include non-living entities as part of nature – such as mountains, waterfalls and cloud formations – in recognition of their important role underpinning the web of life.” This one comes from The Conversation – https://theconversation.com/a-new-campaign-wants-to-redefine-the-word-nature-to-include-humans-heres-why-this-linguistic-argument-matters-229338

If we see humans as being integral to, and not separate from, nature then how will that affect our understanding of what is a natural environment? For surely by this new definition a natural,

 environment is not necessarily an environment free from a human presence or influence? Might a natural environment be better defined then as an environment in which there is a harmonious – long lived? – numerically rich biodiversity?

(1) https://wearenature.org/our-story/


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 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/