By the Rural Dilettante
I am very glad that I shall be under the ground or swept away in a river whilst playing a really good fish within the next twenty years or so. This seems like a very gloomy remark to put in writing; but I truly feel it.
Warming to Gaia
I have been a believer in ‘Global Warming’ since the idea was first floated by Svante August Arrhenius, circa 1907 (not that I was around then!). I have also been a very strong supporter of James Lovelock’s theory of Gaia (look it up on the internet if you are not sure of this strange word!).
His recent book, The Revenge of Gaia, has a great deal to say about how we could cope with our apparent problems. He is controversial, advocating nuclear power and why not? In ‘La belle France’ 95% of their electricity comes from nuclear fission. Any carbon dioxide produced in that country by electricity generation? Anyone heard of pollution disasters from nuclear waste in ‘La belle France’? The Liberal Democrats have lost me as a member since their new policy of not introducing nuclear power was announced. Global warming also includes climate change which we have seen in many parts of the globe, not least our own, especially over the past summer.
English countrysideThe Independent Newspaper chose not to focus on the anniversary of the death of Diana, but on the problems that some of our wildlife are facing – water voles, swallow-tailed butterfly, the grey partridge, etc, etc.
Again, a headline in the Observer stated “Why we city types are putting your countryside at risk”. Are they?
Farming has structured the ‘English Countryside’ for tens of hundreds of years. We used to be a majority rural population but we are now a majority urban population. Farming is having a tough time and it will be having an even tougher time. Does anyone care? Not many people, except for the farmers and country people. Does it really matter in the long-term? Should we live off imported food, flown across the world’s oceans; or, even better, genetically produced food? Anyone died from eating tofu recently? Thank God that Chris Ruttle’s beasts go into our food-chain. What do you think about his logistical problems regarding the trimming of his hedges (Newsletter, March 2007)?
Does the amount of waste that we throw away really matter? If you think it ‘don’t’ why do you think it ‘don’t’? If you think ‘yes’ what are you doing about it? Do you think we need to do anything about it? If so, what are you doing?
What are you doing about carbon dioxide emissions from your house and car? Does it matter? If you think that it does matter, what are you doing about it?
As I wander through our beautiful woods and fields, I can feel and see the
changes. I mentioned last year, in this same publication, that I had seen
swallows, fieldfares and wood warblers in the same hour. We always moan about
the destruction that the farmers are doing to our ‘natural countryside’.
Our ‘countryside’ has not been natural for thousands of years. Our farmers
the trustees of our rural landscape are placed under appalling pressures,
some of which are economic, demographic and political. The farmers are always
blamed for the changes that people see to their ‘natural’ landscape. It is
an artificial landscape; however, it is the one that we live in and the one
that we love. Human memory does not extend to Constable et al. I wonder what
Google Earth will show in twenty years time?I have been lucky enough to travel to parts of the world that still have ‘climax’ habitats: Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. These places have a certain awe and inaccessibility about them; but our countryside, here in The Parish of The Lee has been totally fashioned by farming. I love it and I think that most of you do, or else you would not be living here. Where we live is not cheap but that is modern economics for you. The way that our countryside has been fashioned is often totally ignored by its residents. Ignorance is bliss!
In this parish, people try to do their bit whether it is for the Church,
the Scouts, the Flower Show, the W.I. or whatever. Some people have started
a shop. This is well supported and I think that it is another useful contribution
to village life. It attempts to offer locally sourced produce, as well as
providing a social centre for the village. It does both.Shell shocked
We all try to do what we can. Try as we might, it is not enough and sometimes I just feel too media ‘bloncked’ and shell-shocked about the whole prospect for our planet. If we continue in this fashion, there is no doubt in my mind that Global Warming will kill this planet. This may well not be your point of view, but I urge you to think, read and cogitate! (Very pompous!)
I just hope that the fish that I am playing when I am swept away is a really ‘bonzo-doo-da-dog’ of a fish; the fish of a shortly to be terminated lifestyle and habitat by a greedy, inadaptable ‘homo sapiens’, the ‘wise hominid’. However, like so many fish, he may get away to live and fight again!
We would welcome readers’ thoughts on what all this means to their everyday lives in The Lee: Ed.