A sense of place

Naomi Klein’s book, “This Changes Everything” was published in 2014 and I read it shortly afterwards. It is quite a dense book, with 466 pages excluding the notes and references but it provides a very good analysis of climate change. The book develops a theme from the author’s previous book, “The Shock Doctrine” hypothesising that the solution to the issue of climate change lies in politics and economics and not in science. This is a conclusion I share and which I try to explain to the environmental policy students with whom I work. I also agree with the author that the necessary changes will be extremely difficult to achieve, given the entrenched values that drive our current neoliberal economic and political system.

I found reading the book quite a frustrating experience. I realise I was probably waiting for the flash of inspiration or the call to action that would provide the clear solution to the problem. I was waiting for the answers to the intractable problems that Naomi Klein describes so eloquently but was disappointed when they were not forthcoming. Of course, I realise from my work on climate change and other environmental issues that there is no silver bullet, no single solution to the mess we have caused for ourselves but despite this, I still found myself asking her for the answer! Instead, she describes a series of relatively small, apparently unconnected events that have built to become a movement; a slow groundswell that is building to challenge the conventional worldview. Whilst changing values and behaviours is a long-term process, my concern (and the author’s) is that the changes will not happen quickly enough to avoid the catastrophic environmental changes associated with climate change.

Given her origins, it is perhaps inevitable that Naomi Klein’s case studies focus on North America. She mentions the Occupy Wall Street movement that had its parallels in the UK and elsewhere. These movements failed to change the banking and finance systems in the wake of the 2007/8 crash but have helped to begin a much more interesting debate about the nature of our financial and political systems. The protests against the Keystone XL pipeline are also highlighted and the importance of Native Americans or First Nation groups in mounting legal challenges to fossil fuel developments and the infrastructure changes needed to support new sources of energy are explored in depth. In the UK, the anti-fracking protests are highlighted and linked to action both in North America and around the world.

This is where the whole thing begins to get interesting. The author makes the case that in an effort to demonstrate to their shareholders that they continue to be a good investment, the fossil fuel companies must continually identify new sources of oil and gas as existing fields mature and decay. Without this continuous pipeline of new discoveries, the companies become worthless. This is prompting the search for unconventional sources of oil and gas because the easy to win, relatively shallow, land-based sources have all been found and are in use.

These unconventional sources include the tar sands in Canada and Venezuela and shale gas in the United States and elsewhere. The same pressures are encouraging Shell and others to explore the potential for tapping into resources within the Arctic circle and the inhospitable reaches of the Southern Ocean. In addition to being more carbon intensive than conventional reserves, these sources of oil and gas are also found in places that are unused to industrial development and the infrastructure necessary to support an oil and gas industry.

While oil and gas exploration was taking place in Saudi Arabia or Iraq, or even in the North Sea, we in the UK, individually, had little connection to it. But the idea of an intensive industrial process such as fracking taking place in some of our most precious landscapes and adjacent to our front and back gardens prompted a new wave of activism by a new group of people. Although initiated by the major environmental NGOs, many of the protests are led by people unused to direct action and the increasingly draconian response of the government suggests that the protests are having an effect. The release of additional tracts of land for shale gas exploration and the government’s attempts to circumvent the planning process means that few of us will be unaffected by this development in the next few years. If this happens, many more people will be prompted to take direct action.

This is where Naomi Klein’s book and another favourite of mine tend to collide. “The Shepherd’s Life – a tale of the Lake District”, by James Rebanks has, on the face of it, little to do with climate change, geopolitics and neoliberalism. But what these two books share is an attempt to help us find our sense of place – geographically, socially and politically. As sheep farmers, looking after a flock of local Herdwick sheep, James Rebanks and his family are deeply rooted in the fells of the Lake District. By continuing a way of life and a family connection they can trace back over 600 years, they work to protect the landscape and the way of life they love (and sometime loathe) and which forms such an important part of what and who they are.

Recent surveys suggest that a significant majority of the population of the UK is against fracking but our democratically elected government thinks it knows better. It has put its weight behind fossil fuels and fracking, while failing to support the renewables industry that is critical to avoiding catastrophic climate change. If the places where we have our roots are threatened, indirectly by climate change but more directly by fracking or other technologies, will we do what is necessary to protect them? This link to a sense of place could be one of the important factors that will help us to stop the oil and gas industry and its political puppets in its tracks.

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?