House on fire!

I know that the notion of Nero fiddling while Rome burned is wrong on many levels, not least because the violin had not been invented at the time he ruled the Roman Empire. However, this was the overwhelming image that came to mind as I read a back copy of Transform, the official magazine of IEMA. I was struck by a couple of articles that appeared quite close together in the April edition. One was reporting on Michael Gove’s address to the recent Broadway Initiative conference in London and the other was about revision of the Annex SL requirements of various management system standards, including ISO 14001. These are both important developments but seemed trivial in relation to the scale of the issues we face.

Greta Thunberg has urged us all to react to climate breakdown as though our house is on fire – because it is! The people of all ages who joined the Extinction Rebellion protests in London and other cities across the world over the Easter weekend were giving us a similar message, urging radical and rapid action to avoid the environmental catastrophes that are unfolding.

I am a member of IEMA and I have a great deal of respect for the organisation and the work they do. They have raised awareness of environmental issues with business and provided a forum for environmental professionals to meet and exchange ideas. More recently, they have begun to lobby government on environmental impacts and their management.

But should IEMA, and other organisations for environmental professionals such as CIWEM, CIEEM and CIWM, not be taking up the challenge posed by Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion and taking more radical action? Instead, we continue to act as though business as usual is an option. We listen to government ministers offering platitudes, and we participate in international committees that may deliver an outcome in two years time.

We don’t have another two years to talk about this! We need to be taking action now. As environmental professionals, we should know, better than anyone, that business as usual is not an option. Media reports and television programmes tend to focus on what individuals must do, such as buying fewer products with less packaging; eating less meat; taking fewer holidays; avoiding flying; and insulating our homes. These are all vitally important but we have to look to business to take action too. The environmental impact of a business far outweighs that of an individual or a group of individuals.

The companies we work for must change their business models, change them fundamentally and change them quickly. Government is currently in a state of paralysis but as a nation, we pride ourselves on the role of business in our society and economy and champion business as providing leadership. Now is surely the time for the highly paid Chief Executives and Boards of Directors to show their worth and to lead their businesses into a carbon-free future. These newly invigorated businesses could demonstrate how we can care for and nurture the fragile environment on which we all, individuals and businesses, depend.

Having an effective environmental management system in place within our businesses is important and in “normal” times would be something we should strive for all businesses to embrace. But these are not normal times. Every business decision has to take into account its environmental impact and this should become a more important decision-making criterion than either the social or financial impact because without a functioning environment, the social and financial issues will become irrelevant as our business sector ceases to exist.

We need to consider the basics of the business and its products or services. Does the product or service your business provides enhance or harm the environment? What are the raw materials that are used in the production; how much energy does it take to produce; how is it packaged and what are the life-cycle impacts of that packaging; how is it delivered to the customers; what real benefit does it provide to customers and their lives? Does your business embrace the circular economy or is it still locked into outmoded linear models? If the environmental costs outweigh the benefits provided to customers, should we be producing that item or should we focus our resources on something different?

This can begin with us, the people who have been working in the environmental sector for so long. Our time has come but we have to lead – both in our words and in our actions. This is no longer about tinkering at the edges of existing businesses but changing them fundamentally. Our role, as environmental professionals is to highlight how precarious our position has become, to make sure it is at the top of the agenda for every board meeting and to challenge the directors of our businesses and other organisations to justify their decisions on the basis of environmental impact. We need to be able to look Greta Thunberg and the members of Extinction Rebellion in the eye and assure them we are doing everything we can to avoid climate breakdown. Otherwise, we are just like Nero, fiddling while our world burns!

Swallows

The swallow has always been an important species for me. I grew up in an old farmhouse on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. Outside my bedroom window were a pair of telephone wires and, at some time in mid April, one or two swallows would land on the wires and begin their distinctive, quiet twittering song. I was always pleased to see these summer visitors with their blue-black feathers, chestnut forehead and throat and their distinctive tail streamers. The arrival of the swallows generally meant the weather was changing for the better and we could look forward to the lambs growing and the cows being turned out to grass.

Over the next few weeks, the number of swallows would grow and some would begin nesting under the lintel of the barn door which adjoined the house. There were usually two or three or sometimes more nests and, after a few weeks, the parents would be busy with their aerial acrobatics, picking insects off the wing to feed to their growing brood. A few weeks more and the young birds would be ready to fledge.

If we were lucky and the weather was kind, there would be a second brood and then, during August, the  swallows would mass again on the wires outside my bedroom window ready for the long migration to Africa. There could be dozens of these tiny, iridescent birds, twittering away to each other. Many would be making the return journey but for others, it would be their first time travelling away from Yorkshire and the north of England. I found it difficult to comprehend how they could all navigate those thousands of miles to their winter homes. And then, suddenly, they were gone!

A few years ago, after an absence of more than 30 years, I moved back to the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales. Since my return, I have watched intently for the swallows and invariably, in mid April, they arrive. Unfortunately, the numbers are significantly lower than I remember from my childhood with, perhaps, two or three pairs nesting around the cluster of houses. In the past couple of years, it has been around the 24th or 25th of April when I have first noticed them but this year, it was on the 19th of April that I saw my first one. I suspect this early arrival is not, in itself significant as we experienced some unseasonably warm weather in February and I read reports of the swallows arriving on the south coast at that point.

So far, I have only seen a solitary swallow on two or three occasions. I hope this was a scout and that others will follow soon. However, it is now almost the end of April, there have been no other arrivals and the solitary bird must have just been passing through as I have not seen a swallow for more than a week! I keep scanning the skies for them but have, so far, been disappointed.

Why am I telling you all this?

This year, I hope to use the presence of the swallows to mark the passing of the seasons. Over the coming weeks, I’ll report periodically on the swallows, telling you what they are doing. I am not intending to use them as any sort of scientific indicator but just to try and make a reconnection with a small part of the natural world that many of us have lost. The presence of the swallows, their ability of these tiny birds to make the long journey from Africa, the instinct that drives them to find the place they last nested or, for subsequent generations, the place where they hatched, should provide a sense of awe and inspiration. Instead, these wonders of nature, which we find difficult to explain, often pass by without remark.

I hope you’ll come back over the next few weeks for an update on the swallows and I’ll try to provide some of my own photographs to illustrate the posts – although they are probably too quick for my amateur photography skills!

Update 15 May

Thank goodness, the swallows are back. I was beginning to get anxious as I kept looking skyward and not seeing them for days on end. There was an occasional glimpse of a solitary bird darting over the rooftops but then nothing. Finally, as the weather again began to warm at the start of this week there was a couple of swallows flying around, then three and finally, yesterday evening as we enjoyed the last of the day’s warmth, sitting in the garden, there were six or seven flying around.

I was also advised the other day that the swifts that call the village home for a few brief weeks in the summer had also arrived and in the small town just up the valley I saw a few yesterday afternoon.

Perhaps this means summer’s here?