Eco Comment – Getting A Round Tuit

There’s always been a sort of a joke in our house about procrastination. My grandma would always come out with the old adage about it being ‘the thief of time’. She was right. Eventually you wake up one day and it’s too late. You’ve either done something by the skin of your teeth or you’re too late and you’ve missed it and are full of regret. You might also have wasted a considerable amount of time in the process purely down to lack of organisation. I regularly find myself in this latter category since I retired. I’m very good at doing those things that I must do. The things that are in the diary. Appointments, rehearsals, concerts etc. Those things that offer a certain amount of leeway though are fatal. The other adage that my grandma used was that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ Like numerous other people I fully intend to do these things and set off well but either lack of will power or getting distracted by something stops me from making that precise effort.  

Why is this so important? Well, it’s nearly the end of the month. I started September full of what I was going to achieve. But, have I actually achieved my aims? Well, in a fashion. As ever, I started well. Some things I can say, hand on heart, that I’ve done. Others have fallen by the wayside.  

The world is often in a similar position. Looking after God’s Creation is up there with the ‘must do’ but often falls from that prime place. We (everyone) in our enthusiasm intend to do things but the reports and publications from around the world show that we’re still not doing enough. Like us, politicians and organisations become distracted by other, seemingly more pressing matters and ‘saving the environment’ falls lower down the list. Sadly, so many of the other ‘more pressing matters’ are often due to climate change and altered weather patterns. Endeavours to live in a more eco-friendly way are even met with scorn or even disbelief. There are still people out there who refuse to acknowledge the precarious state that nature is in. Thankfully, I believe they are in the minority, but for those of us who are trying to help the environment, the stakes are high.  

This week’s ‘Down to Earth’ newsletter from the Guardian features a round up of world environmental news. It starts with humour. A picture, that they report was ‘primed to go viral: two men in the Czech Republic … wading knee deep through water clutching a crate of beer. “When evacuating, take only the most precious possessions,”. Ho ho! Later in the article an Austrian mayor is quoted as speaking about neighbours who had “argued for years about a very small piece of land who were now the best of friends, having worked together through the floods.” It makes me happy that there is such cohesion within society, but what troubles me a little is that we need such a catastrophe for it to occur. Preventative action needs to be taken now, not tomorrow. 

Within this newsletter there is a mixture of both disturbing news stories and those offering hope. Some stories don’t make publication but offer hope and/or ways that we can help the world. Tuesday saw World Gorilla Day and I was sent the link to a blog and video about the 50th anniversary of the Karisoke Research Centre founded by Dian Fossey. It features some of the unsung heroes of gorilla conservation: https://ecoflix.com/who-cares-about-gorillas/. What amazes me is that virtually all of us remember that meeting of David Attenborough with the mountain gorillas in the ‘Life On Earth’ programme but have possibly been unaware of how much work and money has subsequently gone into their survival. They are termed as the ‘gardeners of the forest’ and like other species have a place in making the environment work. Recently the results of the Big Butterfly Count were published. Their numbers have diminished drastically. They’re so small but, along with other insects, need to be in order for the ecological world to function. So, maybe we’ve all got to get ‘A Round Tuit’ and start to include conserving the world in our ‘must do’ activities and not leave them to the ‘should do/might do’ tasks.  

Susan Morgan
Eco Group