A foraging first

The change in climate means the seasons are less predictable. 

This Autumn is a 'mast year' where beech trees produced a super-crop. Other trees have joined them and nuts, seeds acorns and haws crunch beneath our hiking boots when we are out and about.

There are differing explanations for this abundance. Optimistics say the spring weather was ideal for setting fruit and nuts.

Pessimists say rising temperatures are stressing the trees and they feel themselves to be in danger, so attempt to perpetuate their genes by reproducing. 

Whichever it is, Nigel and I have benefited, at least in the short term. 

We noticed that squirrels, instead of burying merely the usual acorns and conkers in our garden were this year bringing us walnuts.

Then our friend Carys showed us a bowl of beautiful walnuts she had foraged near Oxford. 

We were eager to find some.

Finally, when out on a walk with Pascoe, we came upon a walnut tree and added handfuls of the delicious nuts to our pockets, already bulging with sweet chestnuts.

So for the first time we have a bowl of local walnuts. 

I only wish our pockets had been bigger.

And I hope the trees get a chance to rest and recover over winter.

Election Greens

 

For Nigel and I, the looming threat of climate change dominated our voting. 

We loved the Green Party’s policies, aimed at tackling just that, with major social reforms besides, aimed at restoring a fairer society.

We also love our current Lib.Dem. MP, Daisy Cooper, who also has a really strong record on green issues..  And she had a far better chance of getting in than the Green Party candidate.

‘She’ll walk it,’ said Nigel, ‘Let’s vote to show our support of the Greens.’

However, since the horror of the Brexit vote, it’s clear that it’s not safe to put in a protest vote which might actually foil the outcome you want.

In the end, Nigel voted Green and I (being risk averse) voted for Daisy.

And she walked it.

So I coulda shown support for the Greens after all.

Across the country, millions of folks were performing similar calculations.

Or we could just change the system to proportional representation and vote with our heads and hearts, rather than tactically…

Restore Nature Now!

 

The amazing march to Parliament Square on Saturday was spearheaded by Chris Packham and included all the best-known wildlife & environmental organisations including the National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Green Party and Extinction Rebellion, not to mention countless others. The police (who tend to estimate on the low side) estimated 80,000 to 100,000 marchers.  Carrying witty, colourful placards and props and dressed in carnival costumes, they threaded joyously through the streets of the capital.  At this time of Election, it was to remind our politicians that so many of us are hugely concerned about loss of wildlife and the massive global threat of climate change.

To paraphrase Margaret Atwood, it's not just going to be Climate Change - It's going to be Everything Change.

As voters, we might be fretting about the pound in our pocket and the price of food.  If we don't tackle Climate Change/Global Heating, these matters will worsen dramatically, whatever short-term policies the government elected presents.

Nigel was at the march, but I wasn't - my elderly parents needed support that day.  And that's my point - although 100k people turned out, behind each one of them were dozens more who would have liked to be there if they hadn't been working or unwell, or supporting another person.

So what can we still do, if we were unable to get to the march but know how much wildlife and climate matter? 

Go to your local hustings and ask an environment-related question about energy policy, or transport or house-building on the greenbelt.  Buttonhole doorstep canvassers with these questions and ring up radio phone-ins with them.  

Nothing matters more.

The pic below is a comment on the fact that the BBC did not bother to report this massive and spectacular march at which everybody was so well-behaved.

Better Adventures

 

We are currently not flying anywhere since it's a major contributor to climate change.

So when the grey days of late winter are crowding in and those friends who can afford it are taking airborne flights to warm shores, how do I get a break?

Last weekend I got a very different kind of break.

On Saturday I went with Extinction Rebellion friends and made 3D models of deep sea creatures like sea angels, dragon fish and Dumbo octopus. These models will be used in a spectacular parade to protest against the damage done by deep sea mining.

On Sunday I joined Carenza and took a beginner's course on screen printing. I came away with ten moody prints of an image I made of the Primaporta Augustus.

At the end of the weekend I had learned several new skills and worked closely with a new set of people. 

And I came away with a sense of wellbeing that will hopefully last longer than an out-of-season suntan.

No holiday from climate change

Always conscious of climate change, Nigel and I came on this trip by train not plane - we no longer fly. Despite the challenges of Andalusian cuisine, we have been eating as vegetarian as possible. But we had planned to enjoy our holiday and for a few days to forget about our worries, including climate change.

Nigel's Spanish colleagues had recommended we visit Doñana National Park on the Atlantic Coast west of Cadiz. Here, acres of marshland play host to thousands of water birds migrating north from Africa. Many breed here on the edges of the fertile lakes. There would be flamingos!

However, when we reached the Achebue Visitor Centre, all was not well. The map showed a series of blue splodges with bird hides beside them. But where these lakes should have been there was only dry heathland. Tiny pink and yellow flowers had grown on long, wispy stalks and stone chats abounded everywhere. But there should have been water.

The rangers in the visitor centre who seemed friendly, but distracted and a little sad explained to us.  

Apparently, climate change meant the rains had been too brief. Plus agriculture had then extracted too much water from the aquifer. Instead of being a marshy paradise, the area was threatened with desertification. 

We went on to find a river which still had water, and consequently a wildlife spectacle worthy of Attenborough, but we were mindful we might be seeing some of the last of this special area.

It seems none of us can take a holiday from climate change.

Valentine's Day treat.

Private jets are one of the most flagrant emitters of massive amounts of carbon.  The busiest day for taking a private jet is Valentine's Day. This refutes the claim that VIPs are using them only for trips vital for business and politics. 

Frankly, they are happy for the rest of us to drown as sea levels rise or to scorch in heatwaves. They are rich enough to have insulated mansions on high ground with guards to protect their food stores. 

So for our Valentine's Day, Nigel and I and around forty friends carried out an act of love for the planet and demonstrated outside the two most-used private jet terminals in the country, at Luton.

Faced with the problem of cutting free people who had locked themselves to a boat and to oil drums, the police made no arrests. 

We were among friends and when the Samba band arrived and the sun came out, and a member of airport security brought us some chocolate biscuits, it was really rather lovely. 

I certainly enjoyed it more than an overpriced dinner in a crowded restaurant and a dozen wilting roses.

An opportunity to stop suffering

 

If someone offered you the chance to do something now to stop the war in Ukraine, would you say yes? If by your actions you could help stop the suffering of millions, would you?

Unfortunately, the war in Ukraine has already started, so you are not being offered that chance. However it is still possible to curb climate catastrophe.  This month's IPCC report has announced that through drought, rising sea levels, wildfires and massive storms, many millions of people across the world will suffer famine and homelessness. Widespread wars will ensue as countries compete for resources.  You are being offered the chance to do what you can to limit climate catastrophe.

Gutteres, secretary general of the UN has said in the last week, “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”

Have a chat with your conscience and join Extinction Rebellion this week in London as they show the Government how very much this issue matters to us.

XR - rebel now - details

Can it be right to disrupt people going about their everyday work?

The oil companies and the banks who finance them are keen for us to go on burning fossil fuels so they can continue to screw the last few billion dollars out of a dying planet. The last thing they want is for people to look up from their daily routine.

However, the argument of Extinction rebellion is that the small amounts of disruption they are causing now are nothing compared to what is very soon to hit us as a result of climate catastrophe.  Their purpose is to waken people to the threat of much greater disruption in the future.

Photo CFH - shows Claire and Rich with Claire's amazing banner

Power Cut

Due to the climate crisis, we’ve been told to expect the break down of systems so I’ve given a lot of thought to what this might mean and how to prepare.

When the St Albans area suffered a power cut the other evening we looked out our window and wondered what was going on.

But I was ready with camping cookers, candles, hot water bottles and even water purification tablets, in case the pumping stations were affected and we needed to resort to our water butts.

The other essential thing you need in order to survive in a crisis is a sense of community, so I grabbed a torch and knocked on the doors of older neighbours.  Having lived through harder times, they already had emergency stocks of candles.

Before I had even knocked on the last door, the lights stuttered back on, however, and the emergency was over.  I snatched back my camping cooker and went home.

We are still not sure what caused the power outage.  But I think it was just a little reminder that things will not always run smoothly as the world changes around us.  So maybe we should keep our camping supplies at the ready and be prepared to share them.

 photo - nicola-fioravanti-UrAKbpKnak8-unsplash

Pilgrims of Hope

Pilgrims of Hope

Pilgrims needed a place to sleep overnight. We offered our church hall.

It seemed simple, but they brought with them so much to think and feel and pray about. Like Wordsworth's newborn child, they arrived trailing clouds of glory.
These pilgrims were the Camino to COP, a multi-faith pilgrimage concerned with the impending climate catastrophe. They have grown out of the Extinction Rebellion Faith Bridge.  They are walking from London, scene of the recent extinction rebellion peaceful protests, to Glasgow in time for the internationally crucial COP26 talks on stemming the climate emergency.
On their way they are listening to the concerns of those they meet and telling their own stories.
As they go, a gathering groundswell of prayer buoys them up.

Before they arrived, I had felt no envy for them walking many miles each day in all weathers, dependent on the kindness of others for bed, board, showers and laundry.
But when they left their tread was light, considering that they carried our hopes and fears on their backs.

I felt my own heels lifting from the ground. The energy of their journey very nearly carried me with them.
Instead I turned to make sure our church hall was tidy. It was. They had left it spotless. You would never know that so many hopes and dreams had roosted there overnight.

Climate Catastrophe is Happening Now

I didn’t blog recently, not because nothing was happening, but because too much was. 

Extinction Rebellion had a fortnight of protests in London.  XR’s original mission was to draw attention to climate change as a reality, in spite of reassurances from the fossil fuel companies.  Since the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its recent ‘Code Red for humanity’, there are few climate deniers left.

Extinction Rebellion’s updated quest is to get the government to act on climate change.  Despite making reassuring promises, they are supporting the opening of the vast new Cambo oilfield in Shetland and a new coalmine in Cumbria, while spending £27 billion on new roads and devastating an irreplaceable swathe of countryside with their HS2 white elephant project.

During the fortnight’s XR activities, Nigel sat down as an act of peaceful protest and offered himself for arrest twice, once chained to the pink table in the West End and once on a junction just north of Tower Bridge.  It is his way of shouting aloud ‘Stop the harm!’

I found myself surrounded by police cordons on at least three occasions and lost count of the number of times I was threatened with arrest. 

Extinction Rebellion causes disruption and this is controversial.  But the argument is that this is only the slightest fraction of the disruption which will be caused by climate catastrophe if it continues unchecked – ask the inhabitants of Germany or New York who suffered in recent flash floods.

There will be no ‘Business as Usual’ on a dead planet.

However, if the techniques of XR (Extinction Rebellion) seem uncomfortable to you, please still act to protect your planet by joining one of the other green organisations and following their advice to write to politicians and sign petitions.  We must act now.

Home - Extinction Rebellion UK

 Greenpeace UK

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk

 The Green Party | Home

Friends of the Earth | Home

https://friendsoftheearth.uk

 

Inside the women's action at Oxford Circus

Back in the Jug Again

Nigel was on the wrong side of the law again on Thursday, at City of London Magistrates Court.

Back in September 2020 he got arrested as part of the Extinction Rebellion Protest outside the Houses of Parliament.

The occasion had been the first hearing of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, tabled by Caroline Lucas.  It is an attempt to take measures to stem irreversible climate catastrophe but the Government is against it.   By protesting outside parliament, the hope was to appeal to the consciences of MPs so they might support it.

Nigel sat peacefully in the road and refused to move onto the grassy area where the police were containing protesters in circumstances which made Covid social distancing almost impossible.

In court our lawyer tried out some new tactics and arguments.  Nigel, as always, pleaded ‘Necessity’ – he did something a bit wrong in order to prevent a greater harm – i.e. global heating and the deaths of millions.  But, the judge was disposed to find Nigel guilty.  His sentence was a suspended fine.

However, we got hit with high court costs – a new way of deterring Climate Activists from peaceful protest.

The Government plans to make things even harder with the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill, 2021, currently being rushed through Parliament.  It means that next time Nigel (or anybody else) sits down in the road as part of a peaceful protest, he could be given a ten year prison sentence. 

Due to climate factors, we have cut out air travel to foreign countries.  But this monstrous Police Bill will give us the opportunity to experience what it is like to live in Hong Kong or mainland China!

An Arresting Experience 2

I already blogged last week that Nigel was arrested as part of the Extinction Rebellion protests.

A few days later, in complete contrast, we were driving down to Cornwall with Pascoe in the back, aiming to meet Perran and Carenza for a family holiday.

It would be a time of regeneration after the stress of protest.

So what we weren’t expecting was a flashing blue light in the rear-view and police asking us to pull over. We pulled over.

Nigel hadn’t been speeding - he stays below sixty to conserve fuel and limit pollution. 

So what was this about?

To show that we were upstanding citizens with a clear conscience, we sprung out of our car and walked round to greet the police.

But as I looked across at Nigel, I saw that he was still wearing his Extinction Rebellion badge.  Not something which puts the police in a good mood. 

However, they were polite and pleasant.

It turned out that our number plate, caught by police surveillance camera, was showing up as uninsured. 

Very luckily, Nigel had proof on his phone that we ARE insured. 

It turned out that when we removed the twins from our insurance earlier in the summer, the company had inadvertently flicked a switch on the database which made it look as if nobody was insured.

It was weird to feel for a moment as if we might really be on the wrong side of the law.  It contrasted with Nigel’s arrests for Extinction Rebellion where he is doing something very RIGHT.

Please follow the links below (which will take you swiftly and easily through to your MP’s email) and ask your MP to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill which will be debated during this session of Parliament.

Find everything you need to take part here: https://digitalrebellion.uk/cee-bill

Blocking Fossil fuels with Extinction Rebellion

What better way to spend the Friday before bank holiday than outside the gates of a massive oil depot?

 Buncefield can hold up to 65 million litres of fuel, each litre of which produces 2.5 kg of carbon when used. It has pipelines to Gatwick and Heathrow, supplying aviation fuel. 

Nigel and five other members of Extinction rebellion locked on to cars blocking the entrance to prevent tankers entering for 6 hours. 

It is a demonstration designed to draw attention to the climate emergency which is already causing floods and wildfires in many parts of the planet.

'The burning of fossil fuels more than anything else, is driving the climate emergency. Buncefield is the epicentre of fossil fuel distribution in the UK.'

You may not fancy lying in the road like Nigel, but please help by emailing your MP and asking them to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill. 

For all our sakes.

Facing up to the Plague

Mary and I had arranged to meet up in Ashwell, about half way between our two homes.  We ambled around the charming Hertfordshire village with its half-timbering and pargetting.

We discussed our own work-life balance and the news of our two parallel families.

But we could not avoid talking about the flooding and fires caused by climate change and the threat of the corona virus.  

And sadly, we could not laugh either of them off.

We drifted, as we knew we would, into the church where, in the bell tower at the west end is some extraordinary graffiti. 

Each time we visit, we like to check and make sure that after hundreds of years, it is still there.

High on the wall, is the very old, deeply incised writing.

Pestile (n) cia
M.C.T.(er)x penta
miseranda ferox violenta
(discessit pestis) superset plebs pessima testis in fine qevent(us) (erat) valid(us)
(...h)oc anno maurus in orbe tonat MCCCLXI

A board underneath tells us that it says:

There was a plague
1350
a pitiable, fierce violent plague departed;

a wretched populace survives to witness and in the end
a mighty wind, Maurus, thunders in this year in the world, 1361

The inhabitants of Ashwell must have suffered great losses and lived through times that seemed to them hellish.

“Well,” said Mary, “A plague and a great storm!  It just goes to show there’s nothing new under the sun.”

http://www.stmarysashwell.org.uk/church/graffiti/decode.htm

A businesslike approach to the threat of extinction

Greta Thunberg asked why she should go to school if everything she would learn there is irrelevant in the face of catastrophic climate change.

But what if you’ve already spent decades in business earning a living and working towards a great future for your employees and for your own family? How do you react when you are confronted by the looming climate change disaster?

Two St Albans businessmen who did not previously know each other took similar action. 

Alex Paul is owner/director of a sportswear company employing fifty.  He has been with Extinction Rebellion since its inception. 

“I asked myself the question In ten years time when my children ask me what I did to prevent the catastrophe what will I say? I now have an answer for that question.”

Nigel Harvey, CEO of a company which coordinates recycling joined Extinction Rebellion over the summer.  His motivation was strikingly similar to Alex’s.  

“One day I hope to have grandchildren.  When they ask me whether I did anything to prevent this crisis, I’ll have some sort of answer for them.”

Both are busy running their businesses and annual leave is limited so each picked the means to make the maximum contribution to Extinction Rebellion in the shortest time. 

They each attended training sessions on the rights of arrestees, then booked a day off work, travelled into London, and headed for the high-vis jackets of the police cordon.

On Monday 7^th October Nigel sat on the road in Trafalgar Square in defence of a scaffolding tower which Extinction Rebellion members had erected, climbed and then superglued themselves to.  In no time, he was being carried off into a police van.

On Tuesday 8^th October Alex went to Downing St.  Seeing that the police were clearing the protesters’ tents, he went and sat in an empty one and refused to budge.  He was arrested almost immediately.

Both were released after a number of hours and able to resume work the next day.  Both now have a cogent story which makes clear to their colleagues and friends the depth of their concern for the future of the planet and the need to act.

Job done.  For both Alex and Nigel a businesslike approach to climate protest has proved effective.

It should also be said that Alex is not the first arrestee in his family. In the April protests, his wife, Emily Spry, GP, decided to be arrested in order to spread awareness of the climate change emergency.  If Alex’s response is anything to go by, it certainly had an effect.

Extinction Rebellion

When is being arrested a good thing?

When you are doing it deliberately to raise awareness of the looming threat of climate change.

On Monday Nigel  sat on the road in Trafalgar Square in defence of a scaffolding tower which Extinction Rebellion members had erected, climbed and then superglued themselves to.  

The protesters are following the example of Greta Thunberg and the school strikes in asking the government to act urgently to save the planet from irreversible climate change.

Far from being one of the “crusties” dismissed by Boris Johnson, Nigel is CEO of a company which coordinates recycling and he has a science degree from Cambridge University.  Many of the Extinction Rebellion protesters are educated professionals who have seen the data on climate change and are terrified by the implications.

“The great mistake is to imagine that the UK will be okay.  The changes that are affecting the planet will wipe out millions of hectares of agricultural land and dispossess many millions of people across the globe.  You can be certain the repercussions will damage the UK.”

Nigel was keen to allow himself to be arrested to show how important this issue was to him.

“Extinction Rebellion follows the models of the Suffragettes and the American Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King. Allowing myself to be arrested is a great way of showing how important this is to me.  One day I hope to have grandchildren.  When they ask me whether I did anything to prevent this crisis, I’ll have some sort of answer for them.”

XR and the ants

At Greenbelt, Nigel, Pascoe and I took the opportunity to find out more about Extinction Rebellion (XR).  We don’t want our descendants to live in a world of famine, pollution and social breakdown. 

In order to get motivated to do something about Climate Change, we have to look squarely at the consequences.

And, it’s very frightening. 

So I also soothed myself by going on a nature walk run by Bob Gilbert, aimed at noticing the unnoticed (e.g. a beautiful willowherb flower that had taken root in the crook of a beech).  And by going on a foraging event led by Miles Irving where we learnt why we should gather ribwort, nettle seed and purple ground ivy.

But, the best indication of hope occurred just as we were packing up our tent.  I picked up the gas canister which had been on the ground only three days and discovered that in that brief time, yellow meadow ants  had nested inside its concave base and had filled this new chamber with their pupae.  I had to remove the canister, but we saw worker ants start to pick up the pupae and carry them to safety.

Given a chance, nature will triumph.  But we do have to ensure that Climate Change does not take our last chance away.

photo by Pascoe

Back to the Seventies

This week there were news items about mothers marching against climate change with their small children.

But today’s children are not the first generation to have a sharp awakening to our violation of the environment – pollution was a major concern for youngsters of the 1970s. 

As a child my cultural heroes were environmentalists. The Wombles recycled rubbish, singing ‘Pick up the papers and make ‘em into something new. It's what we do.'  Bagpuss was an expert in thrift: ’We wiĺl mend it. We will fix it. We will make it like new, new, new.’

As a teenager, instead of buying new, I embraced the 1970s’ revival of handicrafts and made my own leather bags, floaty skirts and bead jewellery. Cars were a rarity and I travelled by bus, bike or on foot and got to know my neighbours.

Reducing our carbon footprint could take us back to the 1970s.  But would that be completely bad?
Today’s notoriously stressed youngsters might well enjoy the benefits of a less commercial society.  Once we have begun to tackle the emergency of climate change, there may be space for a better way of life.

This blog is taken from a letter I just had published in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/15/if-climate-change-sends-us-back-to-the-70s-would-that-be-so-very-bad