It is 7.30, Lillie has just arrived after travelling all night on the coach from London, two bus rides one from Manchester to Rochdale and a bus from there to here. She reckons the trains are too expensive.
She has come home to see 'Bugsy Malone' at the Hippodrome, put on by the young drama group. Yesterday evening the young Beaver scouts went by to see it, chattering loudly like a flock of birds in the sky. When they came back it was more noisy but this time - bang, bang, bang.
Yesterday a knock on the door, it was two Jehovah Witnesses standing on the pavement. Come to tell me that the Lord was good and caring for our Earth. I told them I was a pagan and therefore had my own nature gods to choose from (I am not a pagan or religiously inclined) and they went away.
But it did make me wonder what did I believe in and question my thinking many years ago when Gaia came on the scene. James Lovelock, an eminent scientist had been struck by the fact how all the gases on this Earth seemed to produce just the right atmosphere for life on this planet.
How everything worked with each other, it is called homeostasis, when everything works together and keeps a balance that is just right. Now the argument, and a very valid one of course, is that us humans have just mucked it all up. What with the industrial age and now over population. Our plant life, animals, insects all are disappearing with our use of artificial pesticides and herbicides. As we destroy the insects, and that valuable of all pollinators, the bee, whether honeybee or bumblebee, all these species are slowly being killed off. If there are no insects for the birds they die off, if there are no fish in the sea, the great whales and lesser dolphins die off due to hunger.
There is plenty of action to try and save all these creatures, it has been a sad summer without many butterflies in this country. But the truth lies in a very different venue. We have to stop! Driving our cars around for any little item, we have to learn to take less from the world around us. Not demand everything served to us on a plate.
You are better at knowing what to do for nature, Thelma. I'm driving less, I recycle, and shop at resale shops but I'm sure I am still doing lots wrong when it comes to saving nature.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I do know much Ellen, but what has happened for the better is of course the whole system is better understood. And it is the scientists who work it all out.
DeleteJames Lovelock was a fascinating character, he was the inventor of the electron capture detector that made the detection and quantification of minute quantities of pesticide residues possible.
ReplyDeleteHe is also an advocate for nuclear energy Will. It is surprising that at Chernobyl the animal life holds strong in the contaminated areas. But wasn't the captor defector used for when there was an Ozone scare, and the problem successfully overcome?
DeleteWe must have some faith in the next generation to turn the world around. The problems and now well known, as is generally how to fix them.
ReplyDeleteYes of course Andrew the young will set about trying to balance out the world, though all this warmongering is not going to help. It is quite funny to see the kerfuffle at the moment in this town over cycle lanes. Older generations want to draw up outside where they want to go and not lose driving space or parking spaces, whereas the young want the ability to have safe cycling places.
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