Finding a balance in natural history programmes

I find TV programmes that are all doom and gloom regarding our natural world so deeply depressing I can't often watch, however shocking. So I find a personal dilemma in George Monbiot's challenge to the BBC. Should I enjoy 'beautiful thrilling programmes about the world's wildlife' or join Monbiot in calling for more acknowledgement and explanation of political and environmental contexts? I do think he has a good point but I also don't agree that people necessarily believe, as a result of seeing these programmes, that all is well with the world's ecosystems. My research has shown that people develop many simultaneous understandings about our enviornment, not just one, and I think there's plenty around that shows all is not well. Though if, as he says, no BBC programme has as yet taken a look at effects of climate change in East Africa then I also think that needs to be addressed.

Mixed messages on state of the future

Interesting article in The Independent on impacts of the recession on taking action concerning climate change.
On the one hand

...researchers warning that global clean energy, food availability, poverty and the growth of democracy around the world are at risk of getting worse due to the recession...too many greedy and deceitful decisions led to a world recession and demonstrated the international interdependence of economics and ethics

and on the other hand

The good news is that the global financial crisis and climate change planning may be helping humanity to move from its often selfish, self-centred adolescence to a more globally responsible adulthood... Many perceive the current economic disaster as an opportunity to invest in the next generation of greener technologies, to rethink economic and development assumptions, and to put the world on course for a better future.

The Great Glen Way

At the end of May we walked 73 miles from Fort William to Inverness along the Great Glen Way. Stayed at the Great Glen hostel in North Laggan and the Loch Ness Youth hostel - both very good. The route is shown here. We got pretty wet in the first couple of days, as the rest of the UK basked in sunshine. But it was good to see the forests, the Caledonian canal, the lochs and the hillsides in all weathers. Fantastic plants! Felt great to be out walking each and every day, catching up with old friends, and away from desk, computer and the general busy-ness of life in southern England. The walk was more varied than I expected. Here's a little of what we saw.

Accept uncertainty, prepare for surprise

Interesting article from Ian Scoones on UK preparations for swine flu. He refers to Emery Roe and Paul Schulman's recent book High Reliability Management. Scoones is critical that 'early warning approaches' that rely on local knowledge have been largely ignored in our top-down culture. He concludes:

Preparing for a pandemic means preparing for surprises – and being ready to respond rapidly and flexibly under conditions of uncertainty. As the experience with avian influenza has shown, this may require more than simply the top-down, "active and aggressive" technocratic responses being urged.

Roe and Schulman also suggest a need to work more with local knowledge and to value the skill and judgment of middle-level professionals often taken for granted. Skills are needed to work with uncertainty and to prepare for surprise, including systemic thinking. Our government seems to have focused on trying to control....including trying to control how we sneeze. Scoones' article points to rather different priorities and lessons to be learnt here.

The year moves on

I love this time of year!

G20 and global justice?

35,000 people marched through London yesterday ahead of this week's London summit of the G20 demanding action on poverty, climate change and jobs and calling for a new kind of global justice. This and other protests in Germany, France and Italy have highlighted many of the interconnections of social, environmental and economic concerns. Though seeing the summit primarily as 'make or break' for the world's economy is evident in other news coverage. The G-20 is

"made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and also the European Union who is represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank."

Early spring flowers

A beautiful morning for snowdrops, hellebores and crocuses at Coton Manor today.