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ENVIRONMENT ACTIVISM SOCIAL JUSTICE ARTS ETHICAL LIVING

July/August 2013 No. 279


4.95 US$8.00

THE ECOZOIC ERA


SATISH KUMAR ROBERT COSTANZA RUTH PADEL ROS COWARD
ANDREW MITCHELL HUGO DIXON CHARLES EISENSTEIN
KEYNOTES by KESTER REID
We in Westminster live in an instant world.
Dramatic events surround us, often one piece of
breaking news succeeds another like the waves of
the sea. Digital clocks urge us to hurry. Yet time,
like music, should unroll slowly. We age gradually,
wrinkle by wrinkle. Our seasons are subtle, spring
edges in as flowers bud and leaves uncurl. Autumn
comes slowly, celebrating and mourning the
advance of each year.

It provides a lesson for politics. Human problems


take time to resolve. Human hearts (and minds)
build trust slowly. There are few instant fixes.
Patience is the mark of statesmanship.

Shirley Williams
Former Liberal Democrat Leader in the House of Lords
From 99 words collected by Liz Gray, published by
Darton, Longman & Todd www.99words.co.uk
99 pence from the sale of each book will go to Peace Direct
WELCOME

THE ECOZOIC ERA


We are not in the Anthropocene Epoch, but entering into the Ecozoic Era

T
he first principle of ethical and ecological living is ourselves that we are shaping Earth The very notion that
to live in harmony with oneself, with the fellow humans have become the shapers of Earth makes Earth
members of the human family, and with all the guffaw in swirls of violence.
species of the Earth community. Unfortunately, In the same issue of the Journal, author Ginger Strand
rather than living in harmony, the industrial societies writes: The idea of the anthropocene plays too slickly into
have been busy controlling, dominating and reshaping the the hands of the techno-utopians who will argue that since
natural world to suit the industrial design and financial we are at the helm, we might as well put our hands on the
greed of modern civilisation. Now it is being proposed rudder and steer. The very word anthropocene makes too
that we should name our age the Anthropocene epoch, little accommodation for anything else besides us; its not
meaning the age of Man. going to help us live with more grace in a world full of things
The Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, who proposed this we cant control, things we dont know, things we might
new name, has very good intentions. He believes that by never know What we dont need is another word that feeds
highlighting human centrality and our idea of the all-powerful controllers
the impact of human activities upon we dream or fear we are.
the natural world we might wake up The name The late eco-theologian Thomas
and do something to save the planet; Berry proposed another name, which
we might develop a new sensibility
anthropocene is much more humble and hopeful. He
for sustainability. However, many completely muddles suggested that we name the coming
ecologists and environmentalists are the message epoch the Ecozoic. He urged humanity
worried about this proposal and to repair the damage it has inflicted on
are asking a fundamental question: the Earth and to bring about an era
by naming a geological epoch after ourselves are we not that is respectful of Nature, self-renewing and ecologically
committing the ultimate act of human arrogance? sustainable. He envisioned a new age in which humans and
There is a reason for such questioning. Human hubris has all other species live in harmony with each other. (Somehow
been in evidence before even when intentions may have Thomas Berrys suggestion has not caught the attention of
been good. For example, the Whole Earth Catalog once scientists and academics in the same way as Paul Crutzens.)
proclaimed that we are as gods and might as well get good Once upon a time people believed in God; they believed
at it. And more recently, Mark Lynas named the human that God would solve all their problems. Today we have a
species the god species. new god: the God of Technology. The industrial mindset
One way or another the industrial societies possessing has come to believe that we will find solutions to all
powerful technologies have come to believe that they our problems in technology, and somehow the name
can and have conquered Nature. Now Nature must be anthropocene leads us towards that conviction, but in this
managed, manipulated and even looked after but only issue of Resurgence & Ecologist Charles Eisenstein takes
so that it can better serve the ever-increasing demands of the view that technological fixes have severe limitations
industrial societies. and that the problems created by technology cannot be
In this context even the well-intentioned idea of solved by technology. He says we have to find other ways.
anthropocene could prove to be dangerous. Writing in the Similarly other authors also highlight the need to reconnect
Spring 2013 issue of Earth Island Journal, Kathleen Dean with Nature and thus pave the way to the Ecozoic Era.
Moore of Oregon State University says: We should use The choice is ours. Either we can embrace the suggested
words cautiously. Words are powerful, magical, impossible Anthropocene epoch, or create a new Ecozoic Era.
to control. With a single misguided phrase they can move
a concept from one world into another, altering forever the
landscape for our thinking.
So no, not the anthropocene. That name completely
muddles the message.
Proud, solipsistic creatures that we are, we can convince Satish Kumar

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 1


CONTENTS
No. 279 July/August 2013

1 Welcome
Satish Kumar introduces the new Ecozoic Era,
which shifts our collective concerns to a deeper
respect for Nature and ecology

FRONTLINE
4 ACTION FROM THE GRASS ROOTS
Lorna Howarth reports

ECOLOGIST The way to survive, Vietnam Hoang Hai Thinh www.500px.com/haikeu


Finalist of the Nurture Forests for the Future REDD+ for Food Photo Competition

9 SOWING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE


Environmental journalist Gavin Haines travels to Senegal
22 MY GREEN LIFE
to explore new initiatives tackling desertification
Poet and conservationist Ruth Padel is one of
12 WHY ARE WE EATING THE AMAZON? Darwins 72 great-great-grandchildren. She talks to
Global Canopy Programme founder Andrew Mitchell Sharon Garfinkel
continues his series on how consumption is destroying
the worlds rainforests
ETHICAL LIVING
14 MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE
As environmentalists work together to present a shared 24 A HEALTHY ECONOMY
vision for change, Debika Ray asks Green at what cost? Hugo Dixon argues for a financial system that mirrors a
healthy body by allowing for renewal and decay
16 THE MAGIC OF MOTHS
Naturalist Mark Cocker is alarmed at the rate at which 26 SPIRITUALITY IN HEALTH CARE
British moths are disappearing John Naish learns that offering patients and medical
staff spiritual support results in better outcomes for all
18 THE LANGUAGE OF WOLVES
Theres more at stake in wolf conservation than the 28 SUMMER DREAMS
survival of this species, writes Ros Coward Susan Clark introduces the art of botanical cooking and
revisits the joy of an English afternoon tea
21 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH:
WORKING FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET 30 A SPIRITED DEBATE
Michael Warhurst explains the thinking behind the Robin Lee wants to know whether whisky, like wine, has
charitys new resource use programme a unique terroir

NEW ONLINE
www.resurgence.org www.theecologist.org Social Media
Virginia Kennedy explains how a All the stories environmentalists across Twitter: @resurgence_mag
traditional mechanism of conflict the globe are talking about; plus lots @the_ecologist
resolution may help us today; of ideas for Green Living including Facebook: Resurgencetrust
Barbara Gardner on compassion and Associate Editor, Susan Clarks new TheEcologist
learning from our spiritual heritage; foraged foods column
Lindsay Clarke praises the remarkable Check for new daily content, including Resurgence & Ecologist App
work of an under-rated novelist; and regular analysis of key conservation
Free access for print members:
Helen Moore asks what influences the issues plus brand new films from the
www.resurgence.org/app
eco-poets imagination? Ecologist Film Unit

2 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Editor-in-Chief
RESURGENCE KEYNOTES 54 I WILL REMEMBER 3rd PRIZE Satish Kumar
Sarah Walsh turned to the sounds of
PA to Satish Kumar
32 FROM FRAGMENTATION words to bring alive a time when the
Elaine Green
TO WHOLENESS moorland quarries rang with the sound
Kester Reid champions the Indigenous of splitting stone Associate Editor
way of intuitive knowledge Susan Clark
57 MY ALLOTMENT RUNNER UP
Peter Jewel shares his passion for a plot Designer
UNDERCURRENTS of land that has become integral to his life Rachel Marsh
Website Editor
36 LATENT HEALING Angie Burke
Charles Eisenstein suggests technology
REVIEWS Assistant Editor
could be better used to support the Emma Cocker
60 THE SOVEREIGNTY Ecologist Assistant Editor
intelligence of Nature
OF SILENCE Andrea Gear
39 SUSTAINABLE WELLBEING Anthony Seldon reviews Graham Turners
Stephen Lewis launches a new series The Power of Silence Investigations Editor
and introduces the economist, Andrew Wasley
61 A SENSE OF VOCATION Contributing Editor
Robert Costanza
Russell Warfield reviews Matthew Lorna Howarth
42 EARTH PARADISE Crawfords The Case for Working with
Sub-editor
Novelist Jeremy James takes a flight of Your Hands Helen Banks
fictional fancy to the moon in order
62 RADIANT SILENCE Art Adviser
to discover the true majesty of the Earth Sandy Brown
Peter Reason reviews Sightlines by
44 AGENTS OF CHANGE Kathleen Jamie Poetry Editor
Bill Plotkin reveals what it really means Peter Abbs
63 ALLEGORICAL STORYTELLING
to be a part of the Earth
Peter Ainsworth reviews Rowan PR and Marketing
46 PERENNIAL WISDOM Williams The Lions World Sharon Garfinkel
Jeremy Naydler suggests we make time +44 (0)7435 781842
64 ANOTHER EDUCATION sharon@resurgence.org
to reconnect with our spiritual roots
Mary Tasker reviews Richard Prings The
Membership
Life and Death of Secondary Education for All Jeanette Gill, Mandy Kessell
NATURE WRITING COMPETITION +44 (0)1208 841824
65 THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED
Jenny Hare reviews Adam Fords members@resurgence.org
48 WILD WALES 1st PRIZE Events Manager
The Art of Mindful Walking
Julie Bromilow paints a lively picture Peter Lang
of contemporary Welsh society, but +44 (0)20 8809 2391
still captures the whispers of old peterlang@resurgence.org
drovers on bare hills Office Manager
66 LETTERS Lynn Batten
51 IN SEARCH OF RAMONDA info@resurgence.org
67 CROSSWORD
2nd PRIZE Advertising Manager
New to the magazine, a brain teaser full
Sue Kindon skilfully weaves beauty, Gwydion Batten
of ecological clues!
quest and historical reference in a Advertising Sales
botanical adventure 68 ADVERTS Representative
Andrea Thomas
+44 (0)20 8886 3102
andrea@resurgence.org

Editorial Office
Ford House, Hartland,
Bideford, Devon
EX39 6EE, UK
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www.resurgence.org
Resurgence & Ecologist
is published by The
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32 registered educational
charity (no. 1120414)

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 3


FRONTLINE
Action from the Grass Roots
Lorna Howarth reports

USA
ROOFTOP READY
A man in New York is taking advantage of the
urban heat islands that a concrete jungle
creates in order to grow exotic hot-house veggies in
which he makes available to other budding urban
gardeners. As the seeds are acclimatised to the harsh
city environment, even the notoriously petulant
his rooftop garden. It can be a hostile environment okra will grow, as well as chillies, aubergines and
up there in the NY skyline, so the appropriately tomatoes. Pickens collaborative ethos, where he
named Zach Pickens has been selectively saving seeds shares his knowledge and seeds, is the antithesis of
from his most resilient plants for several seasons Monsantos profit-before-planet strategy. What a
now and has produced a range of Rooftop Ready great example of grass-roots activism!
Seeds (a pun on Monsantos Roundup Ready seeds), www.rooftopready.com

USA
GREENSBURGS GONE GREEN!
S ix years after the Kansas town of Greensburg was hit by a
devastating tornado, it has risen from the ashes and rebuilt itself
along sustainable principles. With LEED-certified (energy-efficient)
municipal buildings saving US$200,000 annually in energy running
costs on 13 of its largest buildings; a net metering policy (similar to
the European feed-in tariff) that makes solar and wind power more
affordable for residents; and a new town master plan that includes
green corridors and a walkable downtown area, Greensburg now
truly deserves its name. The community-led redevelopment attracted
state and federal funding, to help establish renewable energy
initiatives such as BTI Wind Energy, a local wind-turbine company
that sells small-scale turbines for residential and commercial use
that now generate almost 10% of the towns electricity alone. It is
hoped Greensburg will now be more resilient in the face of any future
extreme weather events.
www.greenpeace.org

HUNGARY
GMO CORNFIELDS DESTROYED
R ecent news reports from Argentina detail
how the country has covered millions of
hectares with GMOs; but not all countries are
ploughed up to stop pollen spreading and the
corn getting into the food chain in Hungary.
Unlike in several other EU member countries,
quite so gung-ho about the biotech industrys GM seeds are banned in Hungary. Worryingly,
claims to be able to feed the world through the free movement of goods within the EU means
genetic engineering. Hungarys deputy state that authorities will not investigate how the seeds
secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, arrived in Hungary, leaving a high risk of GMOs
Lajos Bognar, has stated that almost 1,000 continuing to leak into Europes ecosystems.
acres of maize found to have been planted See Frontline Online (www.theecologist.org) for
with Monsantos Pioneer GM seeds have been information about Argentinas GM soya boom.

4 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


UK
YOULL NEVER BAKE ALONE
T he Housing Market Renewal Scheme has subjected
the community of Anfield to a housing demolition
and rebuild programme that has ripped the heart out
of this inspiring regeneration process is the rebirth
of Mitchells Bakery, a long-standing local landmark
that once fed ravenous football fans, but sadly closed
of this once-thriving community, home to the famous in 2010. Thanks to a successful fundraising campaign,
Liverpool Football Club. However, the remaining the community-run bakery Homebaked will offer
residents are fighting back, and with the assistance of pies, bread, pizzas and cakes for match-day crowds,
artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, Liverpool Biennial arts and even host its own breadmaking courses. Find out
festival and architects URBED, have taken control more about this remarkable community regeneration
of the future of their neighbourhood. A cornerstone work: www.2up2down.org.uk
Leaf map of the world
Imagemore Co., Ltd./Corbis

BHUTAN
THE WORLDS FIRST
ORGANIC COUNTRY
B hutan plans to become the worlds first
country to turn its agriculture completely
organic. It will ban the sale of pesticides
and fertilisers, relying instead on the healthy
ecosystems of its farms and on farm waste.
Contrary to World Bank estimations, Bhutan
aims to increase its agricultural output, exporting
high-quality niche foods to India and China. In
one of the most refreshing statements from a
minister of agriculture, Pema Gyamtsho said:
We are Buddhists and we believe in living in
harmony with Nature. Animals have the right to
live, and we like to see plants happy and insects
happy. Bhutan is already the worlds best
example of sustainable development: 95% of the
population has clean water and electricity, 80%
of the country is forested, and it is both carbon
neutral and food secure.

MALAWI
PEDAL POWER CINEMA

U K charities Purple Field Productions (PFP)


and Temwa, together with alternative energy
pioneers Electric Pedals, have devised a portable
Pedals Rucksack Cinema uses human pedal-power
to generate the electricity needed to project a film.
The entire kit, including the projector, fits into a
cinema to take educational films to remote areas of rucksack and can be easily set up in minutes. The
Malawi this summer. PFP make educational films team will be distributing to Malawian farmers the
for and with people across the world in their local film Ulimi Mchuma Chathu (Farming Our Wealth),
languages, and with support from Temwa, who which demonstrates new techniques for combating
work in Malawi on community development, this the effects of increasing droughts brought about by
project gives access to life-saving information in climate change.
one of the poorest countries in the world. Electric www.purplefieldproductions.org

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 5


GLOBAL
THE BIRDS AND THE BEES
Honey bee (Apis mellifera) feeding on a borage flower, UK Stephen Dalton/naturepl.com

New research shows bees poison affects birds too

I n late March 2013 the European Union (EU) failed to


uphold the European Commission (EC) call for a two-
year ban on neonicotinoid pesticides. However, the good
has identified neonicotinoids as potentially fatal for many
bird species too. For those of us who know that all life is
interconnected, this will come as no surprise.
news is that thanks to concerted EU-wide In the US, where neonicotinoids have
citizens actions and petitions in favour not been banned, things are not looking
of the EC proposal, enough support was so bright for the birds and bees. This
secured amongst member states for the Neonicotinoids spring alone, over 140 million acres
ban to be enforced. Worryingly, the UKs
environment minister, Owen Paterson,
may be fatal of cropland will have been sprayed
with a chemical soup of herbicides,
fought tooth and nail against the ban for birds too pesticides and fungicides containing
and, according to Greenpeace, actually neonicotinoids. That is to say nothing
lobbied on behalf of chemical giants of gardeners, green-keepers and local
Syngenta and Bayer. authorities who also regularly spray
Whilst citizens action groups are celebrating a great these deadly chemicals. Mineaus research, which has
victory, it is important to remember that if the agrochemical been published by the American Bird Conservancy
giants have their way, the ban will be temporary. Across the (ABC), details how neonicotinoids bioaccumulate with
world theres a stand-off arising between such companies fatal consequences for birds, bees and key insect species,
who insist there is no link between neonicotinoid pesticide including water-borne insects.
use and escalating bee deaths and governments, civil The research concludes that neonicotinoids are highly
society and many scientists, who believe there is a clear link. mobile and persistent within ecosystems which means
Now, new research co-authored by scientist Pierre Mineau that no species, including human beings, will be immune

6 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


from their toxicity. By leaching into UK
water and accumulating in streams
and ponds, neonicotinoids pose a OUT OF THE FRYING PAN
severe risk to the aquatic food chain
as well as to seed- and insect-eating
Burning wood is not the solution to climate change
birds. So, together with the Xerces
Society for Invertebrate Conservation,
ABC is calling for a ban on the use of
neonicotinoids in the US. However,
U nder the guise of green energy,
burning wood in power stations
has become a massive growth
land-grabbing from some of the
worlds poorest people, and rising
food prices as land is diverted away
it seems that the corporate lobby industry in the UK, with by far the from growing food.
continues to sway political opinion, in biggest demand coming from coal- Although burning biomass releases
the US if not the EU. fired power station operators. So far, less of the chemical sulphur dioxide
Dave Goulson of the University five of them have announced plans to than burning coal does, it releases
of Stirling, who led one of the key convert, either partly or completely, more fine particulates and volatile
studies showing that neonicotinoids to biomass. These are Tilbury in organic compounds. These pose
harm bumblebees, refutes any notion Essex, Ironbridge in Shropshire, a particularly serious risk of lung
from the agrochemical companies Eggborough and Drax in Yorkshire, and heart disease to communities
that neonicotinoids are safe: The and Lynemouth in Northumberland. living in close proximity to power
independent experts at the European Between them these power stations stations. More worrying, however, is
Food Safety Agency (EFSA) spent will require almost six times as much the fact that power stations burning
six months studying all the evidence wood as the UK produces in total every wood emit up to 50% more carbon
before concluding there was an year. That statistic alone shows just dioxide than those burning coal.
unacceptable risk to bees. The EFSA how unsustainable wood-fired power Companies and policymakers ignore
and almost everybody else apart stations are and it spells disaster for this carbon, claiming that biomass is
from the manufacturers agree this the worlds natural habitats, human green because new trees grow back
class of pesticides was not adequately rights, and our hopes of combating in the place of those that have been
evaluated in the first place. Yet [some] climate change. cut down, thereby sequestering the
politicians choose to ignore all of this. A demand for biomass on the scale carbon that was emitted in their
Thankfully the EU eventually saw planned has dire implications. So far, combustion, making the process
fit to impose the two-year ban on most wood pellets imported to the UK carbon neutral. Yet it takes decades
neonicotinoids, which comes into come from Canada and the Southern before a tree matures sufficiently for
force in December 2013. The hope is US, while some are sourced from the that to happen. And when forests
that this will give enough time for our Baltic States, Russia and Portugal. are destroyed and turned into
bee and bird populations to recover, In Canada and the Southern US, monoculture plantations, much of
and give scientists an opportunity to highly biodiverse forests are already the carbon will simply stay in the
prove definitively that neonicotinoids being clear-cut to produce pellets. atmosphere. Such a carbon spike is
do affect these creatures adversely. And across Russia, the Baltic States, a disaster at a time when scientists
Whilst the continuing machinations the Mediterranean and Scandinavia, have shown that human-created
of the EPA in the US and the EC in biodiverse forests are being destroyed emissions and levels of atmospheric
Europe decide whether these chemicals and then turned into monoculture CO2 must be reduced rapidly if we
pose a threat to our wildlife, the slow tree plantations for biomass. This are to have any hope of avoiding the
pace of deliberations means that birds trend is likely to worsen as demand worst impacts of climate change.
and bees (and humans) will continue for biomass grows in the UK. In the So how do we keep warm in the
to be exposed to neonicotinoids for at longer term, energy companies are future? First, we need to address
least another half-decade, according looking at imports from Brazil, West energy conservation and a reduction
to Mineau, so what can concerned and Central Africa and other regions in energy consumption. These issues
citizens do? Well, for a start, eschew of the Global South, where trees can be resolved in myriad ways and
all brands of pesticide, herbicide and grow faster and land is cheaper. be net job creators, but we need to
fungicide; join the Boycott Bayer At the moment there are few invest in genuine renewable energy
campaign on Facebook (and dont buy legal restrictions on where biomass systems, which should be small-scale
the other products they make, such as can come from, and as the rush and community-owned.
the Advantage pet health care range); for biofuels has already shown,
and most importantly, plant bird- and companies usually go for the With thanks to Sophie Bastable from
bee-friendly flowering plants such as cheapest growing land they can Biofuelwatch for this article.
native wild flowers in your garden find. This means a high risk of www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
not begonias or bizzy lizzies!

Lorna Howarth is the founder of The Write Factor. www.thewritefactor.co.uk

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 7


Setting the environmental agenda since 1970

Thousands of acacia trees are being planted as part of Africas Great Green Wall project
Photo David Rose/Panos

8 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


AFRICA

Sowing the seeds of change


Could an ambitious land restoration project halt desertification,
alleviate poverty and help fight terrorism in Africa?
Gavin Haines heads to Senegal to find out

A
gas-guzzling motor race might prove an unlikely land, the less productive it becomes.
comparison for an environmental field trip, In a bid to fight desertification and the associated poverty,
but as our convoy of 4x4s cuts through the an epic land-restoration project has begun across the Sahel.
Senegalese bush, I feel like were competing in Dubbed the Great Green Wall of Africa, the initiative aims
the Dakar Rally. Bounding over dunes and brushing past to re-establish a more sustainable environment by planting
acacia trees, our driver picks a path across this harsh, an ambitious 4,831-mile-long corridor of trees between
unforgiving terrain using the brake lights of the car in front Senegal and Djibouti.
to navigate through the dust. Keen to learn more, I packed my bags for West Africa and
Excited by the spectacle, children run from their villages joined a UN-backed field trip to visit a number of Green
to wave at us, while bemused shepherds and their cattle look Wall pilot sites in northern Senegal. Accompanied by NGO
up from shady spots beneath the trees. researchers and representatives from
Occasionally, we pass a horse and cart various African governments (plus
transporting giant inner tubes full of
The Great Green Wall delegates from the Turkish government),
water from wells to nearby villages. project is as much about our expedition started out bright and
Welcome to the Sahel.
This semi-arid wilderness stretches
enfranchising these small early with a briefing in the Senegalese
capital, Dakar.
across the African continent from villages as it is about Leaving Africas most westerly city
Senegal to Djibouti and borders one of planting trees behind us, our convoy bumped its
the most inhospitable places on Earth way through the dusty, traffic-clogged
the Sahara Desert. It is a place of feast streets and into the bush, where we
and famine, but mainly famine; for three months of the peeled off the tarmac and onto a dirt track road.
year the heavens open and for the other nine this parched It was an uncomfortable, bone-shaking journey, which
earth doesnt receive a single drop of rain. But despite these Michele and I shared with Nora Berrahmouni, a forestry
lengthy droughts, this delicate ecosystem supports a rich officer for the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture
variety of wildlife and millions of inhabitants who eke out Organization) and smail Belen, Deputy General Director at
fragile existences farming the land. Turkeys Ministry of Forestry.
However, this already precarious knife-edge existence is Turkey is also suffering from desertification, so smail is
under increasing threat from a phenomenon known globally keen to learn more about the Great Green Wall, which he
as desertification. romantically describes as a modern-day Silk Road, only
Despite what some people think, desertification is not green. Hes one of many representatives from Turkey
the advancing of the desert; we are not talking about sand and is joined by colleagues from the Turkish International
encroachment here, explains Michele Bozzano, a research Cooperation and Development Agency (TKA), an
support officer for Bioversity International. Desertification organisation that has provided funding. Other Green Wall
describes the breaking of an equilibrium, which turns the benefactors include the African Union, the European Union,
land into desert. the United Nations and various partner organisations.
Typically, the main causes of desertification are intensive One of the first lessons we learn is that the Great Green
cattle grazing and deforestation, which are often the Wall is not simply about planting a corridor of trees. Its
desperate acts of impoverished pastoralists living along more of a mosaic; you need to plant the right species in the
the Sahel. The farmers around here have an awareness right place, says Nora. And species doesnt mean only
of sustainability they know when they are overdoing it, trees it could be a shrub or a herbaceous plant. Its about
says Michele. But when they have to buy medicine for mimicking Nature and in Nature, of course, you dont
their children they will keep exploiting the land. just see trees.
Its a vicious cycle: the more desperate farmers become, For the Great Green Wall to succeed, Nora says, it is
the more they work the land, and the more they work the essential the trees that are planted benefit the people living

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 9


along the Sahel. To illustrate her point we get out of the car
at Tessekele, a 600-hectare Green Wall pilot site near the
village of Widou. Its a fairly underwhelming spectacle; this
dusty scrubland doesnt look particularly green, nor does it
resemble a wall.
However, its spindly-looking acacia trees are rich in gum
arabic, an additive used in many products, ranging from soft
drinks to pharmaceuticals. Demand for this gum which
is extracted from the acacia by cutting into the bark is
currently outstripping supply, thanks to an increase in its use
in Asia. Consequently, prices are going up and these trees are
becoming more valuable standing than they are felled.
They also play an important role in agriculture and so the
Great Green Wall project is helping educate farmers about
the symbiotic relationship between a healthy environment
and healthy crops.
The difference between having a stable environment or
not is the difference between being able to grow crops and
crops failing, explains Michele. You need trees because
they provide shade, which means the ground loses less
water to evaporation.
Acacia trees are becoming more valuable standing than felled
But its not just crops and local economies that benefit from
Photo by Gavin Haines
a healthy environment. Wildlife has returned to the site,
says Elimane Diop, the Chief Lieutenant of Widou. We have incapable of turning off the taps in the bathroom. Its so
seen antelope, hyena, porcupine and guineafowl here. basic and doesnt inspire confidence.
The Great Green Wall is not without its problems. Theres Thankfully, Mustafa Ba does. Resplendent in his scarlet
the instability in neighbouring Mali for a start, which is kufi hat, this red-eyed gentleman is Vice President of the
threatening to derail the project in parts of the country. Regional Council for a tiny village called Mboula, which
The Green Wall will eventually pass through six regions is about an hours drive from Widou. His community have
in Mali, but at the moment we can only work in three, long been aware of desertification, and before they had even
admits Kouloutan Coulibaly, Director of Forestry for Mali. heard of the Great Green Wall, villagers had established a
The other areas are red zones. system of sustainable land management.
Ultimately, though, Kouloutan believes a project like Logging and overgrazing became crimes punishable with
the Great Green Wall could be an effective weapon against fines, and judging by the natural regeneration that has
terrorism in Africa. When people have no money and no followed, Mboulas system has worked. But managing the
job and terrorists come and pay, people say yes, he says. land and fighting desertification have become much easier
But the Great Green Wall will help develop these regions since the Great Green Wall project was launched in 2010,
and combat poverty, and might even be a solution. admits Mustafa, whose community has since benefited from
Climate change is another issue facing the project. Can technical assistance and education. Instead of feeling alone
the Great Green Wall survive in an area that is set to become while facing this huge challenge of desertification, we feel
even warmer? Well, with assistance from Kew Gardens in connected to the rest of Africa and the outside world, he
London, seed banks in Burkina Faso and Niger are giving says. Whats important for us is that we keep communicating
it the best possible chance by cultivating seeds from the with other communities involved in the wall.
most resilient trees in Africa, which will then grow into the And thats the point of this project: its as much about
hardiest of saplings. Its about bringing back ecosystems enfranchising villages like Mboula as it is about planting
that are able to adapt to a changing climate, says Nora. trees perhaps more so. After all, it is these local
Politically speaking, Green Wall nations appear to be communities that have the most to gain from the Great
working cohesively (although representatives from Djibouti, Green Wall, and by supplying them with resilient seeds,
Ethiopia and Chad are conspicuous by their absence on the technical assistance and a forum to share information, the
trip). However, groups such as the International Institute project should grow organically.
for Environment and Development (IIED) are concerned Ecosystems dont know boundaries, so for this to
about the management of the project. succeed we need trans-boundary solidarity, says Nora,
When you plant a tree, who does it belong to, who is as we leave Mboula under a setting sun. It really needs
going to look after it, who is going to harvest the crop? to happen at a local level; if everyone does their bit, then
asks Ced Hesse, a drylands researcher for the IIED. everyone is a winner.
Meanwhile, Im troubled by the fact that some Green
Wall delegates on this trip representatives from some of Gavin Haines is a freelance journalist specialising in
Africas most prominent environmental ministries seem environmental issues. Follow him on twitter @gavin_haines

10 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


After
Nothing was left but mushrooms.
They fed on the dead.

And subsequently fed


on their own dead.

After a decade or two


new strains emerged:

tall and iridescent,


immensely graceful,

they swayed like noble dancers


in the toxic winds.

God looked down from on high


(where nothing had changed)

and saw it was good. And pretty.


But regretted slightly

that mushrooms can neither see


nor celebrate

their strangeness. Their Beauty.

Julian Broughton,
composer and poet

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 11


DEFORESTATION

Why are we eating


the Amazon?

Palm oil, a rainforest risk commodity, has invisibly infiltrated our cakes, biscuits and crisps REX Features

A sea change in attitudes to consumption and deforestation is happening


worldwide, but will it be enough to save rainforests, asks Andrew Mitchell

I
asked a journalist to come and have a rainforest oil is grown in plantations on land cleared of rainforests.
picnic one day. Intrigued, she joined me on a rug in an Liquid at room temperature, it has invisibly infiltrated
English woodland. I laid out a selection from a local our cakes, cookies, crisps and curries as a replacement
supermarket. A Scotch egg, cake, apple juice, crisps, for harmful artificial trans fats. The corned beef also lay
delicious biscuits, some Dutch cheese and a tin of corned unopened because beef exports to Russia, Egypt and Europe
beef. You can eat anything you like, I said, as long as from Brazil have, over decades, helped to drive the massive
you can be sure theres no rainforest in it. expansion of cattle ranching there, the principal cause of
She reached for the crisps. Checking the packet, she saw Amazon rainforest destruction.
that it said they were cooked in vegetable oil. That could In the last two decades the expansion of agribusiness has
mean palm oil, I said. Its out. Next came the Scotch become the greatest cause of deforestation in the tropics.
egg. Its tricky, I said. Soya from the Amazon used to be Forest risk commodities such as beef and leather, soya,
imported through Holland as cheap feedstock for Europes palm oil, paper and pulp, and biofuels now drive some 80%
cows, pigs and chickens, but today most is going to China. of deforestation not poor families cutting wood for fuel!
Since 2005, the soya moratorium in Brazil has virtually In Africa, massive Chinese investment in land is under
ended the expansion of soya ranches into the Amazon, but way to secure food provision, and palm oil is expanding
if it is rescinded, the encroachment could begin again. there rapidly too, just as it is in the Peruvian Amazon, as
In the end, the only item we could be absolutely sure did Brazil successfully squeezes illegal deforestation out of its
not contain a rainforest footprint was the apple juice. Palm own frontier states.

12 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


With 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050, water and land operations and supply chains. Using the data, we scored
have become the new constraints on global food production, performance and shared the results with investors. Most
so land prices will rise, the upshot of which will be that land companies would bin it were it not for the investors backing
occupied by rainforests will look cheap. our request, whose number has now grown to 184, and who
So how can our food become deforestation-free? The manage assets in excess of US$13 trillion. Its their authority,
recent horsemeat scandal in Europe has demonstrated that as part-owners of these companies, that encourages their
we do not sufficiently know what we are supplied to eat hard-pressed compliance departments to respond.
through often corrupt and convoluted global supply chains. The benefits to companies in engaging with our project, and
Traceability means knowing exactly where your food is managing down the risks they are running by being directly
coming from, right back to the farm. From supermarket or indirectly engaged in deforestation, can be huge. A fashion
to soya ranch or oil palm plantation, that can be hard, house espousing quality may not know that the leather in its
often involving numerous steps in the chain, from buyers to
processors to importers and global traders, to big ranches
that import their surplus demand from small ones. And its
these smaller farms that are often at the rainforest frontier
Traceability means knowing exactly
poor, desperate, easily manipulated and eager to clear where your food comes from
rainforests for cash and a better life. The law may say they
shouldnt, but who is checking?
So whose responsibility is it to check? The horsemeat handbags causes deforestation; a company does not want
scandal pointed the finger at those who sell it to the end Greenpeace highlighting that the palm oil in its chocolate
users, the retailers. So European supermarkets cleared their bars may have made orphans of orang-utans whose rainforest
shelves, wrung their hands in the media, and jumped on homes have been destroyed to make it; a toy company might
their compliance departments. But the biggest markets for have foreseen that Ken might divorce Barbie because her
palm oil are in India and China, and for Brazilian beef paper packaging contained rainforest fibres.
its the Brazilians themselves. In these markets rainforest So is it all just about reputation? No company wants
concern does not exist or is in relative infancy. Without Greenpeace hanging off the building, but the impacts of such
consumer pressure to change, how else can change be actions are transitory and rarely affect the share price for
triggered? The answer is through investors that have a stake long. There is, however, a deeper and far more widespread
in the companies that use forest risk commodities. change occurring. Every child in the UK is taught to love
In 2009, I started the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project rainforests at school, so fewer parents want to work for
(which has now merged with the Carbon Disclosure Project a company accused of destroying them. The brightest
as CDPs Forests Program) to alert FTSE 100 companies in graduates do not want to work for a dirty company either.
the global forest supply chain to the need to clean up their The UN has made Reducing Emissions from
act and move towards becoming deforestation-free. We Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries
started sending an annual questionnaire to CEOs inviting (REDD+) a central pillar of its bid to slow climate change.
them to disclose their use of forest risk commodities in their The Princes Rainforests Project mandated Prince Charles
to badger CEOs and heads of state alike on the issue.
Eighteen heads of state signed up to his Emergency Plan
that eventually led to US$4.5 billion in governmental Fast-
start funding being earmarked for rainforests at the UN
climate meeting in Copenhagen in 2009. In 2010, the board
of the Consumer Goods Forum, representing 400 retailers,
manufacturers, service providers and other stakeholders
in 70 countries, agreed to a no net deforestation goal by
2020. Last year, they and the US government announced
that they would work together to reduce deforestation by
promoting sustainable supply chains.
A sea change in attitudes to consumption and deforestation
is happening worldwide, but will it be enough to save
rainforests? In my final article, in the next issue, I will
explore a largely invisible link in the rainforest supply chain:
the role of the financial sector. Ultimately, it is here that the
key lies to halting the money supply that has facilitated the
20th-century destruction of rainforests, and to redirecting it
towards beneficial forest finance, at scale.

Andrew Mitchell is the Executive Director of the Global


Canopy Programme. www.globalcanopy.org
Aerial view of a deforested Amazonian jungle
Paulo Whitaker/Reuters Pictures

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 13


GREEN AGENDA

Movement for Change


Many environmentalists believe the time has come
to start making stronger connections with other social
movements who share the vision of a sustainable and
just society. But green at what cost, asks Debika Ray

I
n 2008, global sales of organic food hit US$52 billion Clearly, it cannot be assumed that all programmes
more than double the US$23 billion spent six years designed to protect the environment are good for people.
earlier. Last year, the 5.8-millionth hybrid car was sold. Tribal peoples are often at the losing end of conservation
One thing is clear: a concern for the environment is and renewable energy projects, explains Alice Bayer of
embedded in the public consciousness like never before. Survival International, a group that campaigns for tribal
This pattern is evident at other levels. Until the mid- communities. About 80% of the worlds most biologically
1990s, environmental campaigners were at loggerheads rich regions are inhabited by Indigenous communities,
with politicians and businesses, but today green issues she says, but the establishment of conservation areas on
dominate global events and business statements. about 12% of the Earths surface has created 130 million
This high profile could be seen as a victory for conservation refugees.
environmental activists. But there are signs that, as the In 2011, a tribe in Kenya were subjected to a brutal
green movement has become eviction after two conservation
mainstream, it has also become charities agreed to pay US$2
a tool for the powerful rather Many companies that discuss million for their land. A few
than for those most vulnerable years earlier, a plan to create a
to the ill effects of the changing
their green practices in public are national park in Guinea-Bissau
environment. Such concerns simultaneously lobbying against met intense resistance from
have been around for several legislation behind closed doors locals. In 2009, 245 families
decades the term greenwash were asked to leave an area in
was coined in 1986. But the India to make more room for
growing public awareness of green issues has strengthened tigers. Across the world people are being displaced to make
the PR clout of eco-friendly practices, and businesses are room for renewables projects, while biofuel plantations
clamouring to cash in. have led to deforestation and food scarcity.
Multinational retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Often, ulterior motives are revealed. In 2011, it was
for example, have risen to success on the back of organic reported that the Tanzanian government was trying to
food labels, the UK Conservative Party adopted a tree as its evict residents of a village on the grounds that they were
logo in 2006, and the very word sustainability has been degrading the areas biodiversity but analysts suggested
overused by corporations to the point of redundancy. But that interest from foreign investors in the land was the real
such displays do not always mean action. Oil companies, reason. The urban poor are not safe either. In India middle-
for instance, have been accused of touting environmental class residential committees have adopted the language of
programmes while continuing to pollute. Moreover, eco- environmentalism to evict encroachers, who they claim
friendly boasts do not necessarily take other ethical factors are causing the deterioration of their surroundings.
into account. Eco-labels give the impression products are It seems that, while the green agenda has become a
sustainable, says Tim Forsyth, Reader in the Environment priority, it can also easily be hijacked.
at LSE, citing recent attempts by the palm oil industry as Campaigners believe one of the main problems is that the
an example. But [such schemes] are often criticised for response to environmental problems is being dictated by a
not going far enough, or ignoring social development and few interested parties. Policy is being shaped by powerful
technical things like fertiliser use. The Forest Stewardship businesses and financial interests, whom regulatory changes
Council gives an eco-label for legal logging, for example, would affect, says Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Friends of the Earth
but the World Rainforest Movement criticises this because Internationals programme coordinator for climate justice and
it legitimises industrial tree plantations. The Rainforest energy. Many companies that discuss their green practices in
Alliance certifies coffee, but only a small proportion of public lobby against legislation behind closed doors.
coffee certified this way is from those kinds of protected The influence on policy of those most affected by it is
coffee plantations. why many environmental standards are voluntary. The

14 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Survival International, the worldwide movement for tribal peoples, supports the Tanzanian Hadza tribe, in their fight for their land rights
Joanna Eede/Survival International

lack of binding international regulations means national co-optation, suggest its time for activists to adjust their
governments are afraid of introducing strict rules, in case strategies. Primarily, this means broadening the focus.
businesses go elsewhere. In 2011, for example, the UK After all, environmental problems can no longer be
government embarked on a drive to slash environmental separated from those of globalisation and governance.
red tape to put fewer burdens on business. The recession is highlighting the urgent need to connect
Clifton says this is also why mainstream solutions tend environmental questions with broader ones of financial
to reinforce the status quo. She cites carbon trading (a systems and the global economy. We have to start making
system that lets the biggest polluters pay poorer countries or connections with other social movements with similar
companies to stop polluting on their behalf), claiming this visions of society.
delays action on cutting emissions in industrialised countries We are still a long way off removing antagonism towards
and locks economies into continuing fossil fuel use. the environment agenda. Some are and will continue
The trading of water rights has been mooted as a solution to be disproportionately affected by environmental
to water scarcity, but investors and commodities traders have degradation, while others will find ways to avoid its effects
jumped upon it as a profit-making opportunity. and side-step regulations. Moreover, few are willing to be
Such measures, Clifton warns, detract attention from the first to change their ways. But environment problems
problems such as over-consumption, unequal economic continue, unavoidably, to be universal.
relations, the unsustainable globalised production network, When it comes to lifestyle change, environmentalists
and price manipulation. These strategies are crowding out acknowledge that mainstream society will not accept change
effective ones, she continues. For example, agriculture unless the green movement offers more than despair. We
led by small farmers is low-carbon activity that promotes need to encourage a love of Nature, liveable communities,
food security, but it is often undermined by the practices respect and critical thinking to help attract people away from
put forward as solutions. a consumer mentality, says environmental campaigner
So, where does the green movement go from here? Shepherd Bliss.
Far from being pessimistic, Clifton believes that this is
an inevitable stage in the process of campaigning and Debika Ray is a journalist specialising in global development
that the popularity of green issues, and their frequent and social justice.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 15


NATURE

The Magic of Moths


Mark Cocker examines the phenomenon of disappearing moths

I
remember the exact moment I developed a passion a handful of moth types that in the larval stage regularly eat
for moths. I was walking to the village post office textiles or other valuable human products. These aside, the
and there on the ground in front of me was a 2,500 British species of moths are completely harmless and
completely unfamiliar insect. The dead creature had play an invaluable role in pollinating trees or flowers and in
crinkle-edged forewings shaped like scimitar blades that acting as an engine house for wider biodiversity.
spanned the width of my palm. On the head were bizarre Yet the real tragedy of these insects is not just that the
horn-like antennae like something you might see on an wider public knows little about them. It is that the creatures
extraterrestrial in a childs comic. have massively declined in the last few decades. The
The creature was grey apart from two astonishing eyes of Dorset-based organisation Butterfly Conservation has just
glorious terracotta on its hind wings. published a report entitled The State
Weirdest of all was the body. From a of Britains Larger Moths 2013. The
disconcertingly furry head the moths insect group is divided into what are
whole abdomen tapered and curved British moths play known as micro-moths (1,620 species)
strongly upwards, so it looked as if and macro-moths (880 species). The
a six-legged mouse had been crossed
an invaluable role report covers just the latter, which
with a tiny banana. in acting as an include the more conspicuous and
It was, in fact, a species called the engine house for better-known species.
Poplar Hawk-moth, but at the time The document is based on Butterfly
it was so deeply unfamiliar to me wider biodiversity Conservations own studies, and
that you could have told me it had also on the 40 years of census work
just landed from outer space and I conducted by Rothamsted Research
would have been equally convinced. What I have since agricultural science station, whose mapping of moth
learnt is that Poplar Hawk-moths are actually a common population trends since 1968 represents the longest
garden species. And during my subsequent years of regular continuous detailed study of insects known to have been
trapping I would catch and release them weekly during carried out anywhere in the world.
spring and summer. The report highlights the fact that the overall national
This is part of the compelling magic of moths. Creatures abundance of larger moths has declined by 28% since 1968,
you can hardly even imagine exist are actually all around and that in the southern half of Britain that figure rises to
your house throughout the night. You realise that the 40%. In the north the rate of loss is considerably smaller
domestic environment is a parallel universe full of other- and is offset by range expansions as climate change enables a
worldly inhabitants. It is true for almost every one of us. number of moths to move northwards. Twenty-seven species
People with the most urban of handkerchief-sized plots have colonised Britain since the beginning of the century;
have recorded hundreds of moth species in their back yards. about 110 larger moths have increased in abundance and
Many of us may have little idea that moths are all around, more than 50 have doubled their populations.
but that is only one part of our ignorance. Worse, in some One of the reports other revelations concerns three
ways, is the way that their nocturnal lifestyles still make moths that have recently become extinct. Indicative of the
moths unpleasantly eerie for some, while others view all gloriously poetic names that moths received from early
species as pests that ruin our woollens. In truth there are just entomologists, they are the Orange Upperwing, Bordered

16 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Gothic and Brighton Wainscot. This trio joins 62
other species that have disappeared from Britain
since the 20th century. Richard Fox of Butterfly
Conservation, the reports main author, argues:
Imagine if three birds had gone extinct. It would
trigger a wave of public attention. But these lost
moths hardly raise a flicker of concern.
In a perverse way the most heartening aspect of
the report also entails its most troubling message.
While moths may be victims of widespread
misconception, they are actually well studied
by those people who have stumbled upon their
strange magic. Perhaps as many as 10,000
enthusiasts regularly trap and record them in
British gardens and supply the data that enables
moth population trends to be tracked. Butterfly
Conservation runs its own citizen science project,
the National Moth Recording Scheme, with a
website that covers every aspect of the process
and allows even the rawest of recruits to take
part (www.mothscount.org).
Other charismatic parts of the nations
wildlife, such as birds and butterflies, are also
well studied. Yet these faunal groups are tiny
by comparison with moths. There are 10 times
as many moths as British birds, and 40 times
more moths than butterflies. This single fact
highlights the importance of the group as a
measure of environmental health. To have
information on such a wide spectrum of species
means that The State of Britains Larger Moths
2013 offers a clearer and finer-grained picture of
environmental conditions in Britain than almost
ever before. And what it tells us is that all is not
well: that moths and all the complex habitats
and landscape forms on which they depend are
deteriorating before our eyes.
What needs to change to halt these losses is
the entire government attitude towards natural
landscape and wildlife, which is presently rooted
in ideas of their disposability and marginal
significance. Yet there is also much that can
be done in every garden. Even small changes
permitting a few weeds, or some tall grasses
and marginal scruffiness can be beneficial.
There are a number of flowers and trees that are
truly superfoods for moth caterpillars, including
oak (food for 130 species), hawthorn (115),
hazel (72), roses (40) and even nettles (30) and
dandelions (67). Better still is to get a moth trap
and to tap into their bizarre and glorious magic
yourself. They confirm to perfection the adage
of French poet Paul luard: There is another
world, but it is in this one.

Large Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor), Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi), Mark Cocker is a naturalist and a regular contributor
Deaths Head Hawk-moth (Acherontia atropos), Lime Hawk-moth (Mimas tiliae) to the Guardian Country Diary.
Chris Shields www.illustratedwildlife.com www.birdsandpeople.org

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 17


CONSERVATION

The Language
of Wolves

Romanias robust environment is home to over 3,000 wolves, the largest population in Europe
European Grey Wolf, Romania Staffan Widstrand/CORBIS

B
Whats at stake in wolf conservation? eware the wolves of Chiantishire, warned
a recent Daily Mail headline. Tuscanys
It isnt just the survival of the species idyllic landscape of rolling fields and
but the survival of wilderness, writes poplar-lined hills, the article continued,
which in the past proved irresistible to the great, the good
Ros Coward and the very rich, have in recent months become home
to a savage predator packs of marauding wolves which
are growing increasingly brazen. Politicians in Chianti-
country, we are told, have called on the government to
take action. There are growing fears that the wolves could
attack humans.

18 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Even by the Daily Mails usual standards of scaremongering, symbolism of fairy tales, which emerged in earlier times
this scenario is pushing it. In spite of their mythically savage and in wilder places where the harshness and savagery of
status, proven attacks on humans by wolves are very small Nature is as apparent as its blessings and where people
in number: globally since 2000 there have only been around exposed to this harshness (in which the wolves arbitrary
20 confirmed attacks. By comparison, in an average year depredations of their stock would figure large) would have
there are 26 deaths caused by domestic dogs in the United good reason to imagine the cruelty of Nature embodied in
States alone. The risk to humans of an unprovoked attack certain creatures.
by a wolf is minuscule in comparison, even taking into Even though societies (even remote ones) are much better
account the vastly greater number of dogs. protected, connected and resourced, this ancient symbolism
Exaggerated though this report is, theres a grain of truth: is easily reactivated. Indeed it plays a huge part in the
wolves are on the increase, a conservation success story of ongoing persecution of wolves. When George Monbiot
sorts in some parts of Europe at least. Reintroduced colonies recently wrote about the treatment of wolves in Norway
have been fanning out, faster than anticipated. In Italy there a country that, although blessed with many wild and
have even been occasional wolf sightings within 50km of remote areas, has nevertheless hunted wolves to the point
Rome. In France a growing wolf population (which spread of extinction he met with a barrage of accusations. At the
naturally across the Italian border) is forefront was the charge that Monbiot
now established in 14 departments. was a sentimental urbanite who simply
The wolves in these countries owe their didnt understand the true malevolence
survival to the strong conservationist of the wolf.
lobby establishing protection in the face Wolves symbolise a And wolves are not only laden with
of cultures deeply committed to hunting. symbolism by their opponents: they are
Even in more populated areas, wolves
notion of Nature as also heavily endowed with symbolic
have made occasional appearances, untamed wilderness attributes by their supporters. This is
with packs establishing in Eastern not so obvious, but it is an important
Germany and occasional sightings in factor in why the stakes are so high
the Netherlands and Belgium. on both sides. Of all species, wolves
The Daily Mail article also contains can, and do, scavenge, but they are
another grain of truth. While this expansion holds very little primarily a hunting species needing to range far and wide
threat to humans, the threat to livestock is obviously very in pursuit of both prey and mates. Wolves need space
real. In Italy it is estimated that 1,000 livestock were killed vast, non-urbanised areas and a healthy environment with
last year; in France in 2011 alone, wolves are thought to have ample big prey, as all top predators do. Whats at stake for
killed 5,000 sheep; and in Spains Asturias region wolves conservationists isnt just the survival of the species but the
killed 1% of the stock reared between 2000 and 2004. survival of wilderness, of unmanaged spaces big enough to
In some front-line wolf territories there are considerable sustain the wolf; in short, as close to an imagined natural
tensions in spite of huge efforts by conservationists to make state as it is possible to be. Recent research on their social
protection work. In France a Wolf Plan, created in 2004, structure, loyalty and sophisticated hunting communication
pays generous compensation for livestock killed by wolves has added hugely to the wolfs charms, but fundamentally
and subsidises farmers to buy and train dogs (the Patou or their charisma lies in their embodiment of Nature without
Pyrenean mountain dog) that traditionally protected herds human interference.
against wolves. But shepherds in the Alps are complaining I understand the pull of this symbolism. I often choose
that these dogs can attack tourists, causing more problems my holiday destinations because of the presence of wolves
than they solve, and that wolves, losing their fear of humans, in an area. Last summer I went to Transylvania, attracted
are becoming more menacing. by an environment that still supports top predators such
Environmentalists believe that wolves will not approach as wolves and bears. Their existence signals that this
humans, and that livestock tended with properly trained environment is relatively pristine or at least tended in
dogs will not be attacked. They are sceptical too about how traditional low-impact ways. I didnt see any wolves
many livestock are actually killed by wolves and about the indeed I didnt even come across recent scats like I had
compensation claims. But views have become so polarised in Polands Biaowiea Forest (another destination I chose
that in the French Alps the stand-off has been described as for the presence of wolves). But in the remote Carpathians
ferocious pastoral warfare. they never felt far away, their presence signalled by sheep
We only have to look at the Daily Mail piece to see tended in the tightest of tight groups by the traditional
why these conflicts escalate so fast and why dialogue sheepdogs and always with a shepherd present who would
around wolves is so charged. The language is loaded with warn off any tourist intent on approaching the dogs. These
emotive terms describing wolves as savage, marauding animals are not in the business of making friends. This
and brazen, and the expansion of their population as a is an environment where the wolf is present, a robust
campaign to expand their territory. These terms imply not environment therefore, an environment where Nature is
just that wolves are natural predators but that they have a not dominated or controlled entirely by humans.
conscious, malign intent on humanity. This is the archaic But if the wolf is valued because its presence implies

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 19


A wolfs charisma lies in its embodiment of Nature without human interference
Wild Grey Wolf, Finland Lassi Rautiainen/naturepl.com

Nature unsubdued, then suggestions of managing wolf needs to be a way of talking about wolves without
populations are inherently problematic. Management succumbing either to scaremongering and ethnocentric
implies Nature on human terms. Of course, resistance to notions of human management on one hand, or impossible
wolf management has some strong rational grounds because ideals of prehuman wilderness on the other.
management covers a multitude of sins. At its softest end, There are signs this is happening. Jean-Marc Moriceau, a
it can mean supporting traditional pastoral techniques wolf expert and the author of Man Versus Wolf: A 2,000-
like working with the dogs, and allowing farmers to fire year War, has advanced the idea of a wolf parliament,
warning shots, or even kill wolves that threaten their flocks. bringing together shepherds, ecologists and government.
But at the other end, management can sometimes be used to That would require a new unfamiliar language around
justify wolf persecution. Monbiot has pointed out that this beasts, a language of needs, rights and interests, mitigation
is not only the case in Norway but in Canada too, where the of harm, and negotiated settlements.
killing of wolves is explained as part of a management plan Management by another name need not be disastrous.
for caribou. In fact it appears the level of threat to caribou Take Romania, which, with 3,000 wolves, has the largest
has been entirely exaggerated and is being used to support numbers in Europe. It is one of the few European countries
another agenda, namely the exploitation and destruction that dont pay compensation for wolf kills. Nevertheless
of the wolfs environment. the wolf isnt particularly persecuted there and its easy to
Its also hard not to feel repulsed by some of the language see why. Flocks are never left untended. They move with
employed around managing wolves. Some of the American shepherds and dogs in close and continuous attendance.
states even very enlightened ones like Minnesota use the Insofar as money comes in from wolves, its not from
term harvest for the sporadic culling of wolves. Sweden, compensation or bounties. Its from tourism drawn to the
which has just controversially given the go-ahead to the idea of remoteness.
culling, repeatedly uses the expression managing at sustainable Language describing whats happening there, namely
levels, even though the Swedish wolf population is already low-impact human activity in areas where wolves still
considerably reduced. In both cases these feel like euphemisms have stronghold, may not have the emotional resonance
for certainly in Swedens case unjustified killing. of the old polarisations, but it might just have a much
Yet if the wolf population grows, management will have happier outcome.
to be addressed; the fears are too deep, and the losses too
painful for some rural communities. But to be acceptable, Ros Coward is Professor of Journalism at the University of
a new, less loaded language may have to be found. There Roehampton and is a long-time contributor to The Ecologist.

20 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


F R I E N D S O F T H E E A RT H

Working for People and Planet


Michael Warhurst outlines the resource use programme of Friends of the Earth

W
e are using more of the planets minerals, backing this approach in principle and the Commission is
metals, forests, fuels, water and land than proposing adoption of the indicators, so whilst there is still
ever before. The environmental damage is a long way to go were quietly confident that were a step
increasingly linked with social injustices closer to getting Europe to measure and then reduce its
from land grabbing and toxic pollution to water shortages environmental impact.
and the destruction of fertile land and the seas. But however much we try to reduce our resource use, the
These are big challenges and Friends of the Earth is fundamental issue is that we have an economic system that
looking to identify key interventions that can start to put drives us towards ever-increasing levels of consumption and
us on a different pathway away from resource conflicts dogmatically pursues economic growth no matter what.
and the headlong pursuit of economic growth at all costs, There is fantastic work being done in this area by the likes
towards a greater global quality of life for all. of Tim Jackson, and we are now focusing on three key
Over the next 10 years we aim to reshape the UK and EU interventions that will start to put us on the right path:
into economies that rely far less on oil, coal and gas, protect
Transforming finance
Nature and get consumption under control. Key to this is to
The rapaciousness and short-termism of our finance system
understand that the economy should work for people and
have led to ever-widening gaps between rich and poor,
planet, rather than pitting one against the other.
and created the enduring economic crisis. But it could be
Given the scale of the challenge, were focusing on two
radically transformed and put to work for people and the
key areas:
planet. Were working in partnership with a wide range of
How can rich countries reduce their overconsumption of other organisations to find a way through this financial maze
the worlds scarce resources? and recently staged a major conference called Transforming
How can we ensure we shift the economy to make the Finance, which we will now be following up.
transition to a sustainable use of the worlds resources?
Transition to a green industrial policy
On the first question a key issue has been establishing We need to develop the industries of the future, not those of
what the European resource use footprint is in practical the past. The whole economy needs to be green not just the
terms. We have been working with the Sustainable Europe bits of it that are making clean energy and green technologies.
Research Institute in Vienna to work out an effective way Government needs to have a supportive environment policy,
of measuring how much of the worlds resources Europe a long-term commitment to decarbonisation, and a green
actually uses. We looked at four different areas to measure: industrial policy. We are working to form a broad coalition
our land footprint, carbon footprint (this considers all to develop and promote this green industrial policy,
global-warming gases), water footprint, and the overall initially focusing on UK political parties as they develop
amount of materials we use. All these indicators are their manifestos for the 2015 elections. Civil society and
consumption-based, i.e. they consider the global amount progressive businesses have already been lambasting the
of resource that we use; for example, land in Paraguay that government for not living up to its promises we need to
is used to grow the soya that is fed to European livestock help them keep up that pressure.
is included.
A focus on quality of life, not quantity of growth
The European Union as a whole uses around 1.5 times
Is it possible to redirect the economy so that it focuses
its own land area every year, with 60% of this coming
on wellbeing, or quality of life, rather than GDP growth?
from outside the EU. The UK alone imports more than
And not just wellbeing in the UK or Europe, but around
three times its surface area. This land demand, combined
the world with an equitable distribution of the worlds
with misguided policies on biofuels and biomass for power
resources? We are only just starting our work in this area
stations, means that Europe is helping to drive land grabbing
and are keen to hear the views of Resurgence & Ecologist
around the world.
readers. Join our Economics and Resource Use programme
But should we be using so much of the worlds land? If
hub at forum.foe.co.uk/campaignhubs
not, how can we reduce our land consumption? Options
include dietary changes (reducing animal protein,
increasing vegetable protein), reducing wastage of textiles Michael Warhurst heads the Economics and Resource Use
(through reuse and recycling), and stopping the dash programme for Friends of the Earth.
towards biofuels and biomass. The European Parliament is Follow him on twitter @mwarhurst

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 21


INTERVIEW

My Green Life
The quality of all our lives will depend on
how we protect our forests and rivers, says
Ruth Padel. Interview by Sharon Garfinkel
Ruth Padel photo by Mary Tziraki

What is your relationship to Darwin? does not go to just one bush. It takes here in the UK dont see that the quality
My mothers mother was one of his a few berries from one tree and a few of our lives will depend, in the end, on
granddaughters, which makes me one from another. That is what we need protecting the forests and the rivers.
of his 72 great-great-grandchildren. to do. Whenever I am put up in a
What can we learn from Greece?
hotel, Im always so shocked that the
What do you think he would have You have to pay your taxes, because if
lights are always on. Now in England
made of climate change? you dont you dont get the services. The
we have air conditioning. Surely we
He would have been very interested. He further you are away from the cities,
dont live in a climate where we need
was always trying to think of imagined the more chance you have of a decent
it. There ought to be legislation that
causes at the deepest possible level. For life. If you live near land, you can grow
controls everybodys use of electricity.
example, when hes on a coral reef in food, and I think people in Greece are
Everybody should be entitled to the
the Indian Ocean he looks at the spray realising the importance of land.
same amount, rich or poor.
beating on the rocks and he thinks
Who are your environmental heroes?
nothing can withstand the power of Which political party do you think
It would have to be a wildlife
this ocean, but then there are other does the most for the environment?
conservationist. For instance Jonathan
organic forces at work to counter that The Green Party, obviously. Ive
Baillie, Director of Conservation
power. He was amazing at gathering always voted Labour, but the last
Programmes at the Zoological Society
data, and bringing everything he knew Labour government did nothing to
of London, wrote a wonderful book
to bear on one particular thing. help the environment.
called Stories for Our Children: The
What one piece of legislation would Which politician does the most to World in 2050; he is a hero. George
you introduce to positively impact on put climate change at the top of the Schaller is a great, great conservationist
climate change? political agenda? who has written a fantastic book
Can I have three? One would be to There was an environment minister about pandas, gorillas and tigers. He
control the human population. Second in India for a while who was trying said that all over the world there is a
would be to control how we use energy. to save the swamps but didnt get great dying and all you can do is go
The third would be to make sure that anywhere against the vested interest and to the places that need you most and
the use of energy does not benefit only corruption. I think Obama is probably help to conserve the wildlife there. My
those who already have money. trying. Credit to him for trying, because brother Felix is on the human-rights
thats where it needs to come from side of India and has written a book.
Nuclear power or renewable energy?
the very top. Al Gore, who made An The environment is for people as well
Renewable energy. I know that there
Inconvenient Truth, is a brave and as animals, and thats what Felix is
are arguments for nuclear power, but I
honest man to put out that film. trying to put forward.
cannot see that its not all going to go
horribly wrong. Which country do you think is leading How does Nature influence your own
the way? work?
What can we do in our own lives to
Bhutan is pretty good. I went to Bhutan Its the touchstone. Managing Nature
really make a difference?
for my tiger book theyre small because theres so little left of it is what
Firstly, stop our total waste of energy.
enough, remote enough and theyve weve got to do. Weve got to understand
We just take electricity for granted
got enough forests. Sadly theyre not it. Nature is an inspiration.
(just as we take water for granted)
very nice to some of their migrant
and we forget that it is made by things
workers. But the politicians there Ruth Padels new book is The Mara
that deplete the worlds resources.
know the value of their environment Crossing. Sharon Garfinkel works for
A fennec fox eats a lot of berries but
and are going to try to save it. People The Resurgence Trust.

22 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Lodestone
I am Magnes the shepherd who found a pebble
stuck to a nail in his boot and discovered the mineral
Attract. I am Heinz Lowenstam, geologist from Silesia
who identified magnetite in tooth caps
of a homing mollusc. I am magnetotactic bacteria
knitted with crystals which orient to Earths
magnetic field. I am also your garden robin
who reads geomagnetic lines the way you scan
a newspaper, navigating folded thunderclouds at night
by neural pathways of Cluster N, wired to my left eye
from light-processing regions of the brain.

I am the photoreceptor protein which draws young


Monarch butterflies hatched on a month-long
journey to the same old Mexican forest their ancestors knew.
I am salamander, spiny lobster, bee, crocodile, whale
and also that flock of cranes passing silently over the moon.
I am fish, mammal, fungi and bird. I am two billion years
of life-forms steering by the minerals of which I am made
and molecular feel for the pull of the earth.
What about us, poor wanderers with no inner compass?
You inscribe the globe.You map, you have words,
you foresee your death. Isnt that enough?

from The Mara Crossing by Ruth Padel (Chatto & Windus)

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 23


E T H IC AL LIVING ECONOMICS

A Healthy Economy
A healthy body sees old cells dying and new ones being born. A healthy
financial system also has to allow for decay and renewal, writes Hugo Dixon

H
ealth is an interesting to be aimed at either. Hell, for example, of the current financial crisis have been
ethical concept because might be sustainable provided the caused by a distortion of free enterprise
of the way it links to our devil found a renewable source of rather than too much freedom.
human nature. We are energy for his furnaces but that Sickness number one was Alan
animals, albeit rather special ones. wouldnt make it any more desirable. Greenspans habit of lowering interest
It is almost self-evident that we need That said, the concept of health rates at the first sign of trouble during
healthy bodies and healthy minds. shouldnt be fetishised either. But the the pre-crunch era when he ran the
Otherwise, how else are we to realise concept of health can shed light on US Federal Reserve. This numbed
our potential as organisms? By why both growth and sustainability the fear of investors and left greed
extension, it becomes important that have their limitations. Health does untrammelled. The natural emotional
we live healthy lifestyles and inhabit not imply that things stay as they are. balance of a healthy organism
healthy buildings and environments. Health implies positive wellbeing, and which is useful in guiding it to good
And, with another stretch, that all actually, truly healthy bodies are in a outcomes and away from bad ones
our socio-economic institutions state of continual regeneration. was distorted.
marriage, government, companies or, Central bankers do have a role
indeed, society and capitalism should in mitigating the extremes of the
also be healthy. economic cycle. But it is vital that,
So could the very term healthy in doing so, they dont just stoke up
become more widely deployed as an A healthy system more trouble. They need to have the
ethical concept? And in particular, can expertise to recognise bubbles, and the
it help shed light on the current debate
is built not just for courage to prick them.
over how to reform capitalism in the the good times The second malady was caused by
wake of the financial crisis? an excessive willingness to bail out
To answer this we will first need to bankrupt banks. In a well-functioning
ask what, though, health is. The best- free market, investors would bear
known definition is the World Health Health also brings other ideas to the consequences of poor decisions.
Organizations: Health is a state of the table that are useful in examining Shareholders would be wiped out and
complete physical, mental and social any complex system. One is the bondholders would suffer. But, with
well-being and not merely the absence notion of disease and linked to that, the exception of Lehman Brothers and
of disease or infirmity. Thats fine, diagnosis and cure. If the economy is a few much smaller cases, bondholders
as far as it goes. But it may also be sick, you first need to understand why were bailed out instead of being bailed
useful to flesh out the concept with (diagnosis) and then go about making in during the crunch.
other qualities such as vigour, balance, it better (cure). This was understandable, given the
shock-resistance and resilience. There are many ways in which fear of knock-on effects. But a healthy
One way of seeing whether the term capitalism could be considered body sees old cells dying and new
healthy sheds useful insights on the unhealthy for example, its impact ones being born. A healthy financial
goodness of complex systems such as on the environment. Capitalism itself system also has to allow for decay and
economies is to compare it with other with its basis in free enterprise and renewal. Propping up zombie banks
more conventional yardsticks such as private property can certainly be debilitates the whole economy. This is
growth and sustainability. While vigorous, but the bigger question is why reforms in the pipeline to allow
both have utility, it would be a mistake whether it can also be balanced, shock- banks to be wound down without
to fetishise either. resistant and resilient. causing the entire system to collapse
On the one hand, growth can After the tribulations of recent years, are so important.
easily be unsustainable say, because the conventional wisdom is that the The third illness was caused by the
of a bubble, or because society is problem has been that capitalism has heads-I-win-tails-you-lose bets that
consuming capital or natural resources had too much freedom. That, though, financiers and traders were able to
as if they were income. On the other is a misdiagnosis. Most of the diseases enjoy during the upswing. If things
hand, sustainability isnt always a state that have become apparent as a result went well, they made a fortune; if

24 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


are now forcing banks to hold bigger
buffers in the hope that, when the next
shock comes, they will be better placed
to survive it and bounce back.
Most definitions of health talk about
mental as well as physical wellbeing.
One can make an analogous point for
capitalism: values matter as well as
structure. The past 30 years have seen
the rise of the greed is good culture, as
epitomised by the obnoxious Gordon
Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street.
Greed is a natural emotion that can
play an important role in keeping
an organism healthy by driving it
forward to consume and accumulate.
It cannot and should not be removed
from the economic body. But greed
does need to be balanced by other
motivations. The most important is
a desire to serve. Businesses need to
be asking themselves the whole time
how they are adding value to their
customers and society at large.
Most successful companies do
this. But many financial institutions
failed to think through whether
their products were socially valuable
during the long credit boom. Merely
relying on the theory that the markets
invisible hand will reconcile private
greed with the greater good as many
did isnt enough, when we know how
often capitalism is rigged.
Business people and financiers
Illustration by Sara Tyson www.saratyson.com should never forget that capitalism
rests on the consent of the people. As
years of economic gloom gnaw away at
everything collapsed, taxpayers picked balance sheets to over 30 times their that support, the challenge is to show
up the pieces. Not surprisingly, they equity. This meant that a decline of that capitalism can be healthy. That
spun the roulette wheel. only 3.3% in the average value of requires changes in both structures
Such privatisation of gains and their assets was enough to wipe out and mindset.
socialisation of losses is not healthy. It their entire capital.
is a caricature of the free market. A healthy system is built not just for Hugo Dixon is Editor-at-Large, Reuters
The fourth disease was the the good times. It should be resilient News. An earlier version of this column
inadequate shock-resistance and enough to cope with the bad times. was published in Reuters Breakingviews.
resilience of the system. Institutions The financial system in 2007 decidedly Thanks to Viktoria Dendrinou for help
such as Lehman had leveraged their wasnt. Policymakers around the world with research.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 25


E T H IC AL LIVING HEALTH

Spirituality in Health Care


John Naish discovers that spiritual support equals better
outcomes and better recovery in health care services

Embroidery by Linda Miller, for details about summer workshops by Linda visit www.lindamillerembroideries.co.uk
Linda will also be exhibiting at MADE, London 25 to 27 October www.madelondon.org

C
are homes normally only get headlines when too often the spiritual side of care has become the lost
there is a scandal involving the inhuman dimension of modern service delivery. When this happens,
treatment of patients by care staff working in the humanity implicit in care can disappear entirely.
conditions so degrading that they could bring Not at the Holy Cross Priory in Heathfield; this newly built
out the dark side in anybody. complex in the East Sussex countryside is run by a religious
So it is unusual to find a national newspaper medical community called the Grace and Compassion Benedictines.
correspondent treading the warm, welcoming corridors of Holy Cross offers an alternative way ahead. But it also
a care unit where support is patently delivered with calm harks back to the roots of our hospital system, much of which
compassion. But this is a detective mission: I am on the trail was founded by religious institutions. The accommodation
of spirituality in health care. ranges from sheltered homes to a high-dependency nursing
Hundreds of scientific studies show how spiritual support unit, but you dont have to be religious to live here.
can boost patients recovery and increase wellbeing. But Pam is a typical resident. We meet in one of Holy Crosss

26 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


day rooms, which has views of woodland. She is warm and The community relies on donations to break even. The
chatty, but clearly retains a flinty independence. Now aged economy means that these are drying up, says Jaya.
92, she lives with her Scottie dog in the care-home part of Fiona Wookey, Holy Crosss director of care, explains
the complex. Her memory and hearing are not what they how the finances run: Some of the residents are self-
used to be, but she remains in robust and cheery health. funding; others rely on local authority funding. But that can
Pam enjoys life. She takes her dog for a walk three times a be only 389.24 a week, which is not enough to cover the
day and can socialise whenever she likes. No one tells you costs of caring properly for a clinically dependent person.
what to do here. The staff are kind and caring, she says. Charity makes up the shortfall. The nuns work for free.
You are your own person. That autonomy is what keeps Clearly, the NHS cannot and should not rely on religious
you going. care staff working gratis. But equally, it is clear that good
None of that should be too much to expect. But the care is hard to provide at current government funding levels.
reality of modern care is that it can be extremely uncaring We live in a nation where millions prefer to buy baubles and
particularly when management views patients as economic other extravagances, rather than paying more tax to support
units rather than human souls. our older people.
This has led commentators such as the Prince of Wales to Thus the scandal of abusive care homes is not simply
urge that compassion be returned to the heart of care. Last about spiritual deficits in health care: it is part of a wider
year, in the Journal of the Royal Society malaise that of our cultures prizing
of Medicine, the Prince wrote: This will of the material over the compassionate.
always be a struggle if we continue with And whilst the Heathfield care
an over-emphasis on mechanistic and
Spirituality is a home has received glowing reports
technological approaches. big black hole in the from official inspections, many people
The foundation that runs Holy Cross
was set up in 1954 by an educational
education of health may not wish to entrust their care to
a religious organisation. (It must be
psychologist called Mary Garson and care professionals acknowledged, after all, that churches
was based near Brighton. In the course have had their share of abuse scandals.)
of her work, Garson found herself The only sustainable solution lies in
increasingly encountering destitute older people. Moved reviving the ethos of spiritual care within our NHS. Recent
by their plight, she asked her spiritual director, a Catholic scandals mean the service has a reputation for being
Father, for the 800 she needed to buy a property to shelter spiritually care-less. But there are areas of good practice,
them. Within a day and quite unconnected to this specific and these must be expanded, says Stephen Wright, the
request a benefactor donated 800 to the religious order. spiritual director for the Sacred Space Foundation in
Garson bought a house in Brighton and initially relied on Cumbria. The foundation was founded in the 1990s to
volunteer help. Then she began employing qualified nurses. support health care workers suffering spiritual crises such
As the service grew, so did the demand. In the early 1960s, as burnout. Now it helps people from all walks of life.
the former priory of Heathfield was donated to her. The The NHS only acknowledges spirituality in varying
community now runs four other English homes as well. degrees, says Wright. Several NHS trusts have devised
Sister Jaya is one of the Holy Cross nuns. In 1986, aged strategies for developing staff to support people spiritually
just 17, she joined the Grace and Compassion Benedictines in hospital.
at their convent in Southern India. She is now a qualified The problem is that spirituality is a big black hole in
accountant, but volunteers as a care assistant and says she health professionals education, Wright maintains. While
believes spiritual compassion is at the core of the work. staff are well trained in intellectual problem-solving, we do
You need to be able to put yourself in the place of the not pay much attention to the inner life, and that is from
person you are caring for, in order to understand their where compassion emanates, he explains. If you have
needs. If you are angry or upset, it will reflect onto those health care staff who have cultivated their own sense of
people. Likewise, if management dont care, then naturally inner harmony, they will be better able to ride the storm
not caring is what will transmit to and through the staff. of working in health care. They may even find their way
Caring for sick people continually can drain anyones to a greater source of compassion, rather than having to
resources of compassion. But spirituality can help staff counter produce it themselves.
this, says Jaya. It gives us food and motivation for daily life.
We feel cared for as carers. We need to feel happiness to bring John Naish is a health journalist, an active member of the
happiness to the people we are caring for. Unitarian church, and author of the book Enough: Breaking
Some very worldly problems are looming, though. Free from the World of More.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 27


E T H IC AL LIVING FOODILICIOUS

Summer Dreams
Susan Clark introduces the art of botanical cooking

O
ne of the unexpected hazards of about natural health under the umbrella title
living with a botanist is that you What Really Works. Today, Id change all their
are never quite sure what you titles to What Really Matters.)
will find when you open your I like to cook in old-fashioned, time-consuming
fridge especially in those scrunched-up, mud- and slow ways: ways that get the beta waves of
splattered bags hidden on the bottom shelf at my brain settled into a quieter and more gentle
the back where your everyday vegetables are rhythm. I wont say meditation, but I will say
supposed to be. mindful. I like to cook to music, not noise. And I
I have learnt mainly the hard way that am never happier than when a recipe says pick
the best approach to this is to always expect a pound of these and then spend an hour stirring
the unexpected and then make the best of these them slowly around a battered old pot that has
free ingredients by finding delicious ways to seen you through so many different stages of
cook, bottle and preserve them. I say the hard your life. I like to cook with ritual and that
way, because what I have actually learnt is that usually starts with putting my apron on and
foraging and wild food cooking both of which giving thanks for the time to cook, the food to
have become ber-cool is cook and the knowledge
all very well, but unless you gleaned over years, some
step in, you are in danger from experimentation and
of being offered something The cooks job is to much from others, on how
that whilst green, often to cook and what to do with
looks fairly bedraggled and,
embody generosity these amazing ingredients.
if I am completely honest, Edward Esp Brown I think of this as a kind of
doesnt taste much better gentle and genteel botanical
than it looks. cooking, and for me, often
So I have spent the last few years on a mission the way it starts is like this:
to find and create recipes that benefit from the A specific plant its leaves, its flowers, its
vitality of wild and foraged foods but actually fruits or its seeds will catch my eye and then
TASTE NICE too and the result is this new start to demand my attention. I may see it in
column, which combines the joys of cooking up the hedgerow or it might be in a book or even
a storm using ingredients from the hedgerow part of a company logo. Before I know it, I am
(or the botanists fridge) alongside other things seeing this same plant everywhere I call this the
that taste good, in order to make dishes that are eyeing-up stage and this goes on until I begin
100% Foodilicious! researching and daydreaming about how I can
Well make tinctures and tisanes, stews and use it in the kitchen.
scones, jams and jellies, puddings and pies This is the start of getting-to-know-you, a
anything that I think is worth taking the time bit like dating. I like to read about the plant,
and trouble to plan for, to prepare, to cook and its folklore, its medicinal properties and its
to share and all of which I have made myself. It traditional culinary uses. I like to see how
wont be a bish-bash-bosh, that will do and lets botanical artists have painted it, and I may even
slop this in the pan as quick as we can style of have a go at drawing it myself. I like to learn
cooking, because thats not why or how I cook. what the Maori think about it and how European
I cook to connect with Nature, with the people herbalists use it, and to discover its role, if any, in
I love and with strangers who may be just one Ayurveda or other disciplines. I have an eclectic
delicious meal or gift pot of jam away from library made up of herbals and pamphlets and
becoming friends and loved ones. I cook because magazine cuttings and I use all of this and more
it is one of the things I love most of all to do, and to make a lasting relationship with the plant I
doing what you love is the fastest track I know am going to work with.
to reconnect to a deeper sense of what really And only then am I ready to take what I have
matters. (Ten years ago I wrote a series of books learnt into the kitchen.

28 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Watercolour painting of Summer Wine by Rosie Sanders.
Rosie gives courses on botanical painting and botanical
printmaking www.rosiesanders.com

Into the Kitchen


Summer Scented Rose Petal & Black Pepper Biscuits

T hese are biscuits unashamedly for grown-ups:


biscuits with not one, but two botanical twists. A
rich, buttery shortbread dough flecked with a delicate
intensity of a barely remembered English summer and all
its clichs: Wimbledon 1976 played out on a teenagers
tinny transistor radio, the hard thwack of the cricket ball
smattering of highly scented rose petal flakes, and then, on the bat just before they call tea, and then the sound
on the tip of the tongue, the unexpected hard kick of of scalding, over-steeped tea poured high from a delicate
a crushed smidgeon of black pepper. They capture a spout. Serve them with Devon clotted cream on the side
summer mood, retrospective, even a little sad; the fleeting for an afternoon tea performance to feel proud of.
To make about 20 biscuits
200g unsalted butter, softened Cream the butter and sugar. Sieve the flour into the mix, add the flaked
rose petals and black pepper and work all the ingredients into a dough
100g caster sugar
with your hands. Do this slowly and enjoy the process! Wrap the ball
320g plain flour of dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
A handful of scented Rosa rugosa petals, Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. Split the biscuit
baked for a few minutes on a low heat to dough in two and roll each half on a lightly floured surface until it
a papery crispness and flaked is about 5mm thick. Cut the biscuits out and bake at 180C/350F/
Gas Mark 4 until golden. This will take 1520 minutes.
2 tsp crushed, coarse black pepper
Allow to cool on the trays before transferring to a wire rack.
Store in an airtight tin.

Vitality notes
Rose petals are uplifting and soothing, especially for tired or irritated skin
A homemade rose water is soothing for the skin, especially after
exposure to too much sun. It is also good for dry and more mature
skins, which is why you often find rose as the key ingredient in
expensive body lotions and moisturisers. To make your own rose
water, simply infuse 100g of rose petals with 300ml of boiling water.
Leave to cool for 15 minutes. Drain. Use the rose water as a skin tonic.

Susan Clark is Associate Editor at Resurgence & Ecologist. She writes a regular food column
for The Ecologist website and is co-author, with Erick Muzard, of The Sunday Times Vitality
Cookbook. She is also the author of the What Really Works Insiders Guides to Natural Health.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 29


E T H IC AL LIVING WHISKY

A Spirited Debate
Does whisky, like wine, have a terroir? Robin Lee goes looking for the answer
and finds the history of whisky bogged down in myth and romanticism

D
istillation is one of the most evocative metaphors the immaterial, so as to make the body more spiritual, the
in the English language. Whisky is anglicised unlovely lovely, to make the spiritual lighter by its subtlety,
Gaelic for water of life eau de vie in France to penetrate with its concealed virtues and force into the
and aquavit in Scandinavia the all-important human body to do its healing duty.
fifth element (quintessence), which, alchemists believed, was The flavour of whisky is completely immaterial: its
necessary for life. This concept has outlived alchemy itself, all about the smell. Flavour is made in the brain, and it
and the analogy has become an accepted part of everyday bypasses the realm of language. Flavour is therefore difficult
speech, used unconsciously in phrases such as distillation of to describe in words. It is a mysterious mosaic of memory
the truth, and the word spirit as a synonym for the soul. and imagination, which is difficult to objectify.
In Liber de arte distillandi simplicia et composita (1500), At a recent London Gastronomy Seminar hosted by the
the first printed book about distillation, Hieronymus Institute of Philosophy at the University of London, Jim
Brunschwygk describes the separation of the gross from McEwan of the Bruichladdich distillery on the Hebridean
the subtle and the subtle from the gross. The breakable island of Islay made an impassioned case that terroir exists
and destructible from the indestructible, the material from for malt whisky in a debate moderated by the wine writer

30 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


and Islay expert Andrew Jefford. McEwan, probably money on something they believe is authentic and
the most gifted and revered distiller in Scotland, said special. Internet and easy travel have made nerdiness
that he believes the flavour of the whiskies he makes mainstream: it is easy to research production methods,
is influenced by the soil where the barley is grown, or turn up at the distillery gates for a look around
the salty sea breezes of the Atlantic, and Islays natural in person. The growing trend to do this is breaking
spring water. down barriers of secrecy and introversion, which have
Nick Morgan, Diageos head of whisky outreach, historically prevented questions from being asked,
and Georgie Crawford, head of operations at the much less answered.
Lagavulin distillery on Islay, were against the motion Whisky producers are beginning to realise that
and won the vote. Their argument was that the there is a lucrative market in being authentic, which
individualities of malt whisky have nothing to do with most consumers mistakenly believe is historic and
what it is made of, such as the variety of barley used, traditional. Just because something is industrialised
whether it is organic or locally grown, or the taste of does not mean its modern. Bruichladdich was first to
the water that is used, where that water comes from, seize this opportunity, which is not surprising since it
or whether the spirit is aged in Islay or in an industrial was run, for the last decade, by a former wine merchant
warehouse on the mainland. from London, until being taken over last year by the
Crawford, who, like McEwan, is a native of Islay, French producer Rmy Cointreau. Bruichladdich uses
described the conundrum of where a whisky gets only Scottish barley, and the whisky is all aged on
its identity from as being Islay and bottled on-site.
down to 1,000 small quirks The water used bubbles out
and the weird alchemy of
The word whisky of the ground on nearby
the place. According to means water of life Octomore farm.
Morgan, the history of The Dunlossit estate,
whisky is bogged down in myth and romanticism. If owned by the financier Bruno Schroder, is one of the
the water is clean and free of nitrates it is just as good largest on Islay, and has experimented with growing
as water from wild springs, burns and lochs. We take rare strains of barley for Bruichladdich to make into
our water sources seriously, he explained. Diageo designated whiskies, which, like a French Premier Cru
has a team of lawyers in Edinburgh who do nothing or Grand Cru wine, originate from a specific piece
other than look after our water. of land and aim to express its terroir. An ancient
Colour and flavour come from wood. Yet all whisky, barley variety called bere, thought to be the oldest
from the mass-produced bottles of the multinationals cultivated cereal grain in Britain, was resuscitated
to the rarest, most expensive single malts, is aged in from near-extinction and planted on two fields called
second-hand barrels that are of inconsistent quality. Achaba and Achfad, lands referred to in a grant from
Even at Bruichladdich which has experimented with Queen Mary in 1562 as Ochton-Affraiche, meaning
every possible kind of barrel they think the best The Eighth of Bleakness.
come from American Bourbon distilleries. These are It was a tricky task to turn the bere barley into
also the least expensive because in the US there is a whisky, because its husks were heavier than ordinary
legal requirement to use all new barrels. The Scottish barley and the ferment became as thick as cement,
whisky industry has always been pragmatic. instead of its usual consistency of porridge, and nearly
Irish monks brought barley beer to Scotland clogged the washbacks. Someone had to climb down
originally, but when the Scots adopted the Coffey into the mash tun and manually push the stirring
still, whisky became an industrial product that was mechanism, which got stuck. The low sugar levels
able to fill the gap in the market caused by the late- meant that 25% less alcohol was produced than
19th-century collapse of the brandy industry, victim of would have been expected from the same quantity of
the phylloxera louse, which destroyed three-quarters normal barley.
of French vineyards. For the next hundred years or Bere barley is also very hard to grow, and after a
so, until the 1980s, malt whisky was a commercially few years the experiment was ended because the yields
insignificant, specialised niche and most single malts were impossibly low. Chloe Randall, Donlossits
were never even bottled at all; they were produced to former estate manager, thinks some of the crop might
be ingredients in blends. Since whisky was never an have been taken by the gamekeeper to feed the deer
artisanal product (unless one goes back to the days and grouse that are raised on the estate for sporting
before any of these modern distilleries even existed), purposes, but she was never able to find out for sure.
the primary objective has always been to cut costs and And, yes, whisky made from bere barley does have a
increase profit margins. very special flavour. It is lemony, fragrant, floral. It smells
Today, however, the older generation of Scotch like summer. Or maybe thats just my imagination.
drinkers is dying off and younger consumers who
are new to whisky are curious to know about the Robin Lee is a writer based in London.
details of production and willing to spend much more Bere Barley 2006 is available from www.bruichladdich.com

Jim McEwan www.bruichladdich.com

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 31


R E S URGENCE KEYNOTES INDIGENOUS I N T E L L I G E N C E

FROM FRAGMENTATION
TO WHOLENESS

Chashnamamcho Umanki As es mi cabeza by Pablo Amaringo


Courtesy of Peter Cloudsley & Howard G Charing, co-authors of The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo www.ayahuascavisions.com

32 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Kester Reid questions our Western is challenged by the mystifying complexity of Indigenous
medicinal knowledge. To look beyond our presumptions
obsession with science and champions for a moment, what the people themselves say is that the
the Indigenous way of an intuitive knowledge is imparted to them directly via powerful teacher
plants, with whom shamans are able to communicate on
knowledge based on wholism the spiritual level.
Shamanic cultures believe a continuum exists between the
natural and the supernatural, each element of the physical

E
volution is a process of adapting to an environment. world having a spiritual existence in the other realm. The
It is environmentally driven: a reaction to and shaman, assisted by teacher plants such as ayahuasca,
reflection of the living environment. Culture evolves can inhabit both realms to maintain balance between the
as an interpretive map of human experience, and is two. He, or often she, consults the spirit world to learn
inescapably tangled with this thing we call knowledge. the supernatural origin of diseases, and the spirits tell, or
In Britain, our co-evolution with the natural environment he/she simply sees, which plants or other treatments to
stopped when our forests were cut, and the pagans and prescribe. This is the way they profess to learn of medicine,
herbalist witches enflamed. Economic, religious and other but we disregard the explanation because it contradicts the
forces destroyed not only our traditional knowledge very axioms of our particular cultural routine for attaining
systems, but also the very means of their evolution the knowledge. That routine constitutes external observation,
wild environments. In other areas of the Western world, measurement, causal isolation, theory, and prediction;
even where wild areas remain, traditional communities, and ultimately the existence of these spirits cannot be proved,
traditional knowledge, have been irreparably altered by the and so the idea is ridiculed by our rationalist culture.
cultural dominance of our industrial ideals. To discredit their knowledge through reasoning that their
In the tropical forests of the world, however, Indigenous spirits are simply not real is insufficient, however, for
peoples continue to co-evolve with a complex natural belief in them clearly delivers a very real knowledge. Real
environment, retaining traditional knowledge systems in its application to not just physical but also psychological
from which we might learn new, or perhaps old, ways to and spiritual illness for millennia shamanic cultures have
humanly experience. The medicinal practices of Indigenous practised relaxation and massage, aromatherapy, hypnosis,
forest peoples, for example, offer a helpful illustration. visualisation and dietary prescription, yet to us these curative
Some 40% of drugs on the commercial market are therapies have only recently started becoming acceptable.
extracted directly from plants, and 80% are derived Such practices indicate a long-held understanding of the
originally from plants. Nature really has the answers. great power of the mind over the body, which we are
Native groups of these forests know too, indeed knew first, only now beginning to accept in the West (and this despite
that plants have the power to heal. They know which plants consistently documented hints such as the placebo effect).
have the power to heal, and they know how to combine The reality of Indigenous medicinal knowledge is further
plants in what were subsequently found to be very specific supported by the fact that, contrary to popular belief, these
chemical relationships, such as the ayahuasca mixture societies are actually some of the healthiest anywhere in the
that ingeniously marries an understorey shrub containing world. If sufficiently isolated from outside contact, cause of
the active compounds with a climbing vine containing the immature death among forest peoples is rarely illness, but
necessary enzyme-inhibitors to allow absorption of the traditionally animal attack or warfare. Life expectancy can
remedy through the gut. be low due to these factors, but mature death commonly
The Indigenous people also know that preparation is occurs in the nineties or upwards, the elder generations
critical, simmering some remedies for hours, whereas boiling remaining strong and healthy until an astounding age.
would denature the active components. And treatment is The real consequences of their supernatural beliefs
highly particular: in many cases plants are not ingested, but warrant a reassessment of our customary dismissal of such
rather applied as a poultice, or infused and inhaled or bathed notions. I would not claim that trial and error was not a
in. From an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 plant species in a factor in the development of this knowledge, but I would
forest such as the Amazon, each producing a complex mixture claim that it is not its basis. It is, literally, not that simple.
of metabolically affecting compounds, native societies extract Shamans continue to discover medicinal uses for plants
a multitude of remedies for almost every conceivable ailment. previously unknown to their cultures, and undescribed by
Their evolved knowledge is of a depth and complexity no ours, and their ongoing discovery is still explained in terms
chemist could ever hope to obtain. In practical terms they of spiritual conference. Regardless of millennia past, what
understand the chemistry, and yet without knowledge of we observe today is that trial and error is not the tradition,
chemistry. The question remains, how? but that a real practical intelligence is apparently derived
The routine answer cites a millennial process of trial and from non-rational levels of experience.
error. Indeed, such explanation seems axiomatic, but it We are faced with a problem of cultural incompatibility:

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 33


two perspectives, each self-supporting within its respective only by experience of it, and it is in this experience that true
structure of logic, and yet together, seemingly contradictory. understanding lies.
Perhaps we might propose that each is a valid interpretation We think, rationally, that we cannot take something in
of things, but neither complete; would we only view the all at once like this, being so conditioned to conceive of
contrast this way we might learn a great deal. understanding as strictly linear through interminable lines
of print, algebra, code and time. But when we interact with

T he Indigenous perspective represents a completely


different experience of the tropical forest environment
from that which a Westerner would undergo. It also
our environment we really do experience it all at once. And
a familiar experience, such as a view out of a bedroom
window, or a favourite painting, we can truly know in this
represents an alternative and deeper understanding of way if something is out of place, we sense it at a glance,
the forest. Indigenous peoples understanding includes without even knowing what it is that is different. Such is the
supernatural elements their spirits which represent, as nature of experiential knowledge. It is intuition, it is feeling,
a facet of culture, an evolved system of interpretation, but not the technical theory into which science abstracts reality,
what this indicates is some felt expression of the animate but the very substance of reality: experience itself. Such
Earth, an affecting energy ceremoniously apparent amongst understanding is not by facts, but by affinity the difference
the abundance of life in a tropical forest. between knowing about something, and knowing it.
Such beliefs might be termed esoteric, but so were This is the knowledge by which the Indigenous person
meditation, acupuncture and even Freuds idea of the knows the forest. She or he knows by being, by simply
unconscious before the very real benefits of each became existing in the environment, and not by the removed study
accepted in academic terms. There are indeed areas of science of any particular aspect of it. The knowledge of Indigenous
that may one day overlap with esoteric notions of energies: people is deep, exemplified by their medicine, and it does
vibrational resonance, for instance, or electromagnetism. well to note that their knowledge includes many of the
The point is merely to demonstrate that there is more to parts over which we so obsess, only each part is regarded
this physical reality than what we can see, measure or as yet in the context of the whole.
prove. The Indigenous people in the forest, those who are
most in touch with the living environment, feel something
more, and they interpret it as spirits.
A cultural predisposition to denying such abstract felt
T o ask natives of the Amazon the name of a fruit lying
below a tree would typically precipitate the volunteering
of not only its name, but which tree it falls from, which
experience prevents us from taking seriously this something animals come to eat it, which time of year it falls, what its
more, whether we feel it or not. The rationalist foundation flowers look like, the medicinal properties of the tree, and
of our intellectual culture invalidates the experience of so so on. Culturally, everything makes sense to them by nature
much we cannot explain, and yet we agree there remains of the unity of the whole. And critically, this whole includes
much to be explained! It is peculiar that we would admit our themselves as one part.
model of reality to be incomplete, whilst maintaining that Even isolated communities have been shown to share
our method for its interpretation is not. But the method is our understanding of complex biological processes
fragmentary splitting phenomena into supposedly isolate such as pollination, not through putting flowers under a
parts in a bid to eventually piece together the whole. And microscope, but by intuiting that we are life, we reproduce,
what we find is that it is impossible to know the whole of and of course every expression of life does the same thing
any phenomenon this way. by some means. Intuition is too often mistaken for the
In physics we discover the very nature of matter to be empty frivolous presumption so misguided by our unconscious,
space, in chemistry that compounds have properties completely but it is rather a deep wisdom that stems from living laws
unrelated to those of their constituent elements, and in biology of existence to which we are privy by the very act of being.
we find a level of complexity that simply grows and grows as It is a real intelligence indeed, but in misinterpreting Nature
we delve into the bacterial, fungal and microbial relationships as a mechanical set of deterministic processes, we deny her
interconnecting every natural system. Either we hit brick inherent creativity, denying ourselves her intelligence.
walls with our method, or we discover there is exponentially Forest people recognise that they are just one part of
more that we cannot explain. The analogue of this tragedy is their system, subject to it, and in so doing they understand
the academic community itself, in which a scientist must be themselves in reflection of the whole. They are subject
so specialised as to render him or her an expert in the very physically to the viper and the jaguar, but more critically,
narrowest of fields, often absurdly so. in their spiritual beliefs, they place themselves existentially
Our scientific method isolates and decontextualises a subject to their environment. They recognise themselves,
billion parts of a given phenomenon, which add up to far therefore, as a fundamental part of everything, intrinsically
less than the whole. And this is the critical point to focus connected to the natural and supernatural. This is what
so specifically on any one aspect of anything denies the allows not only the basic survival of these peoples, but real
observer experience of the whole. But how can we know flourishment in their particular environment as healthy,
a whole? the indignant mind screams. And truly, it does happy societies.
not seem to make sense we cannot measure, or explain It is the converse to this holistic view, our distinctly
simply the whole. We can know the whole of something Western anthropocentrism, that has allowed our society to

34 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Indigenous forest
peoples feel a
connection with the
world around them.
In the West we have
conceptually and
physically separated
ourselves from the
wild Earth
Alto Cielos by Pablo Amaringo

overplay humanitys part in the global system, attempting to considerate behaviour simply makes sense.
dominate it, and so cutting a swift path to self-destruction. Beyond the political implications, we must assess whether
This perspective is both symptom and cause of the gross our science, so institutionalised and universal, really is a
disconnection with Nature that has occurred in our sound method for finally understanding this world. Perhaps
societies, to the point now that we most value the Earth in it is only separating us from the world, distancing us from
monetary terms. true understanding. It challenges the revelatory nature of
We forget even that we are natural beings, and thus sex pure experience, by fragmenting it and transmuting it into
becomes twisted pornographic fantasy, almost every natural abstract theory, damaging our capacity to experience the
process becomes taboo, and it is even strange to see women whole of anything. And this is surely what life ought to be
breastfeeding publicly. We do not feel this connection to about, the full experience of experience.
the sensuous world around us, we do not feel a part of The goal of science is understanding; the goal is not flawed:
any natural system, and so we blindly destroy. This is not only the method is. We are caught up in explanation, which
success and we are not flourishing, which is very clear if is merely the communication of understanding. But true
one looks at even the most immediate consequences of our understanding is intuitive, and true experience subjective
unsustainable way of life. it ultimately cannot be shared. Its conclusions can, however,
Indigenous forest peoples feel a connection with the such as environmental consideration, starting with basic
world around them, an energetic affinity that is expressed protection. We must divest ourselves of the fear that there
and maintained in the supernatural aspects of their cultures. be unknowable things, for there are not: only inexplicable
It is this recognition that is pertinent to their unprecedented things, and those we must leave as they are; such is their
understanding of and flourishing in their environment. In nature, and our own.
the West we have conceptually and physically separated To engage these ideas, only go out and find beautiful
ourselves from the wild Earth, just as we separate all things things. Encounter a natural beauty and explore the feeling
to understand what is irreducibly unified. In this way we this entails. Beauty is, after all, only a word, a symbol
limit our experience of existence to what is rational, and that becomes limiting as soon as it is uttered, but what
verifiable, and we destroy the very means of our survival. it represents is a feeling, a raw sensing perhaps, of the
Rational enquiry is undoubtedly a useful tool, but its connection we have with the world around us, particularly
doctrinaire claim to an unsettlingly religious monopoly the natural world. It is the feeling of communion with the
on truth renders it flawed. It condemns my own field of sacred. Therein lies the full experience of humanity, therein
conservation to the desperate realm of mitigation, lagging the understanding, therein the guidance. The idea of human
forever behind the fundamentally damaging attitude we beings as an embedded part of Nature is self-evident; we
have towards the biosphere. The damage will only continue must only, if we have forgotten, start remembering how
until we deprioritise rationalist methods of knowing, and that feels.
acknowledge our sacred affiliation with the natural world.
This way a deeper experience presents itself, and a truer Kester Reid is a tropical conservationist and writer.
understanding in which we feel that environmentally kspreid.wordpress.com

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 35


U N DERCURRENTS TECHNOLOGY

Latent Healing
Charles Eisenstein explores how technology could better
be used to support the unfolding intelligence of Nature

T
he purpose of this essay is not to instruct the of Nature? Surely not. After all, all beings use their physical
reader on the fallacy of the technological fix. capacities to influence and cocreate their environment. What
We can assume that by now the environmentally is different about what we humans have been doing? How
conscious person has seen through the delusion of can we embrace technology, and not reject this uniquely
applying technology to remedy the problems that have been human gift?
caused by previous technology. We environmentalists decry human exceptionalism
It is obvious that a new pesticide wont finally eliminate when we criticise the ideology of endless growth, linear
the superweeds that evolved to resist the previous pesticide; extraction and toxic waste, but to say that our capacity for
that new and more powerful antibiotics wont bring a final technology has no useful purpose on this planet is another
victory over the superbugs that evolved to resist previous kind of exceptionalism.
antibiotics; and that massive geo-engineering projects Ecology says that each species has a gift that enhances
such as seeding the stratosphere with sulphuric acid or the the wellbeing of the whole. The extinction of one species
oceans with iron to combat climate impoverishes the whole. Humanity
change will likely cause horrific is no different. The problem isnt that
unanticipated consequences. we have the power of technology. The
What is less obvious is how Thus begins the healing problem is that we have not used that
pervasive the mentality behind the power in the spirit of a gift. We have
technological fix is. In the United
journey, out of the not used it in the spirit of ecology. We
States, we respond to the failure of old story, through the have not asked: How might we best
metal detectors, lockdowns and other space between serve the totality of all life on Earth? In
forms of control in our schools by contemplating a nuclear power plant,
calling for even more control. stories, and ultimately an incinerator, a subdivision, a mine,
European countries unable to pay into a new story even a new patio behind our house, we
their debts are lent even more money, are not in the habit of asking: Does this
with the proviso that they try even best serve the wellbeing of all interested
harder to pay their debts. Imperialist parties? Our costbenefit analyses do
powers apply military violence to fight the terrorism that is not include the trees, the water, the fish or the birds.
a response to previous imperialism and violence. Doctors Why not? Is it because we are Natures big mistake? Is
prescribe drugs to address the side effects caused by other there something wrong with us? To think so would be to
drugs. Urban planners address traffic congestion by building invoke human exceptionalism once again. It would imply as
more roads (which leads to more development and more well that the way to live in harmony with the planet would
traffic). And millions of people manage the emptiness of a life be to conquer or suppress this badness. How different is that
of material acquisition by buying more material possessions. from the mentality of spraying pesticides and exterminating
As the word fix implies, the logic of technology has wolves, damming rivers and levelling mountains? The war
very often been the logic of addiction. Feel bad? Have a on Nature, whether internal or external, is part of the
drink. Feel even worse the next morning? Get drunk again. problem; it is not the solution.
Depressed because youve now lost your job, your marriage One simple explanation for why we fail to use technology
and your health due to drinking? Well, why not do what in the spirit of service to all life is that we have lost touch
made you feel better last night? Have another drink. As with our unity, or as Thich Nhat Hanh terms it, our
with agricultural chemicals, ever-increasing doses become interbeingness, with the rest of life. Seeing Nature as separate
necessary to maintain what was once your natural, normal from ourselves, of course we see it as inconsequential to
state, and all at the cost of everything precious. our wellbeing. We might acknowledge our conditional
Where does the mentality of control come from, and what dependency on Nature, but not our existential dependency.
is the alternative? Is technology fundamentally a violation We might therefore imagine that someday we may become

36 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


its own genetic self-interest.
Underneath the technological fix is
a way of perceiving ourselves and the
world. More than a mere mentality of
separation and control, it comes from
a disconnected state of being that is
blind to the indwelling purpose and
intelligence of Nature.
For example, the skilled organic
farmers might see unwanted weeds
or bugs not as interlopers but as a
symptom of imbalance in soil ecology.
To address them holistically, they
must believe there even is such a thing
as soil ecology. In other words, they
must believe in the wholeness and
interconnectedness of all beings that
make up soil. They must see soil as a
collective, emergent entity in its own
right, and not as an inert, generic
substrate that plants grow in.
Ecohouse by Dennis Wunsch www.denniswunsch.com Conventional agriculture, on the
other hand, sees weeds as an outbreak
of badness, similar to the way we have
seen terrorism, or violence in schools,
independent of Nature, if only we to humanity generally (at least to or disease. To see them otherwise as
perfect technological substitutes for modernised humanity): their reason a symptom of a deeper disharmony
Natures gifts. operates within a narrative shall presupposes there is such a harmony,
This indeed was the explicit vision of we call it a mythology? in which an integrity, a beingness, and not just a
scientific futurists of the 20th century: their aspirations make perfect sense. senseless jumble. The technological fix
some day, they dreamed, we will It is a story that casts us into an alien addresses the symptom while ignoring
synthesise food, create artificial air, universe of impersonal forces, in which the illness, because it cannot see an
live in bubble cities, abandon the Earth matter is a purposeless, insensate integral entity that can become ill.
for space colonies, even conquer death substrate upon which (why not?) we I dont want to gloss over the
with bionic parts or by uploading our can impose our designs with impunity, profundity of the paradigm shift we
consciousness into computers. To some and in which the tendency of all things are accepting if we are to see Nature as
extent, such ambitions are still with us is towards entropy, disorder, chaos. intelligent and purposive, to do which
today in the ravings of nanotechnology In this story, Nature is devoid of is to abdicate the exclusive domain to
and genetic-engineering evangelists. purpose or intelligence. Any semblance which we have appointed ourselves:
Well, let us not call these visions of purpose is just the accidental the sole intelligence of the world. It is to
ravings, as if they had lost touch with result of the senseless cacophony of humble ourselves to something greater,
reason. These people are as rational as interacting forces and masses, the and seek our place not as Cartesian
anyone. What has happened to them blind melee of genetically programmed lords and possessors of Nature, but as
is the same thing that has happened flesh robots, each seeking to maximise contributors to an unfolding process

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 37


beyond our selves. This inescapable conclusion is, perhaps, cold fusion and other unorthodox energy technologies;
the reason why teleology is anathema to orthodox science. unorthodox ways to neutralise radioactive waste;
Purpose was supposed to be our domain! And the king of Schauberger-inspired water technologies; technologies
that domain was the scientist, wielding technology to enact of the mind called psi phenomena; and shamanic
its dominion. technologies based on direct communication with the
The idea of an inherently purposeful universe is far more hidden beings and forces of Nature.
radical than religious notions of intelligent design, which agree
Every one of the above technologies clashes in some way
with mechanistic science about matter and cede intelligence
with our civilisations current operating systems. In some
to an external, supernatural being. Such a narrative offers no
cases the clash is paradigmatic: the technologies contradict
compunctions to limit the despoliation of Nature. It asks us
conventional scientific beliefs. In other cases the clash
to humble ourselves to nothing of this world.
is economic: there just isnt much money to be made in
To be so humbled, we must see that the soul of Nature
establishing public space or generating positive externalities
its purpose, intelligence and beingness comes not from
such as aquifer restoration or carbon sequestration.
without but from within. It is an emergent property born of
Sometimes laws, building codes and conventional practices
non-linear complexity. In non-linear systems, small actions
impose obstacles as well.
can have enormous consequences. The technological fix
All of these scientific orthodoxy, the economic
is based on linear thinking. The alternative is to develop
system, and law and habit are expressions of the same
sensitivity to the emergent order and intelligence that wants
mythology of separation. Our money system, for example,
to unfold, so that we might bow into its service.
rests on the conversion of Nature into products, and
What would the expression of our uniquely human gifts
relationships into services, reifying the binary subject
of hand and mind look like exercised in the spirit of service
object distinction that is at the heart
to all life? In the short and medium
of separation. If you examine closely
term, this is not a difficult question to
the phenomena that science refuses to
answer. The most urgent need before The most urgent need acknowledge, you will find that most
us is to heal the damage that has been
done in the millennia-long course of
before us is to heal of them imply intelligence, purpose
separation. Vast realms of technology, the damage that and interconnectedness.
What about the long term? What
much neglected today, have been has been done is the purpose of technology on a
developing in the margins, awaiting
healed planet? What is the purpose of
their moment for full expression.
this unique species to which Gaia has
Here are just a few:
given birth? To that, no one can offer
Regenerative agriculture and permaculture to heal the anything but speculation. I think it is something that we can
soil, replenish the aquifers and sequester carbon all while only discover on the other side of the healing journey.
producing far more food than chemical monocropping That journey has begun.
and GMOs can. (Industrial agriculture maximises yield Today, painfully, we are becoming aware of the folly of
per unit of labour, but not per unit of land, energy or the delusion that we can, with clever enough technological
water.) solutions, avoid the consequences of what we do to the
The use of fungi to detoxify PCBs and petrochemical world. The pretence of separation is increasingly difficult
waste. to maintain. We are learning that we are not separate from
Restoration of deserts. This is not done by pumping in Nature, and that it bears a wholeness that we ignore at
water (which leads to salinisation and the necessity for our peril.
some new fix), but by identifying and encouraging latent Our techno-utopian dreams and scientific paradigms are
healing processes. unravelling in tandem with many of our social institutions,
Conservation technologies that could reduce energy because the underlying narrative of separation is unravelling
consumption to a fraction of what it is today without any as well. These converging crises social, ecological and
big sacrifice. intellectual are expelling us from our old story. As that
Waste-water treatment with reed beds, aquaculture, and happens, none of our fixes, technological or otherwise, are
so on (and composting toilets). working any more to control the pain: the grief, the rage,
Healing modalities that take seriously the intelligence the loneliness we feel as we gaze out upon what we have
of Nature and the body, including herbalism, mind- wrought.
body modalities, touch-based therapies, bioenergetic Thus begins the healing journey, out of the old story,
modalities, and pretty much anything that goes by the through the space between stories, and ultimately into
name holistic or alternative today. a new story of cocreative participation in the unfolding
And, since I am veering off the territory of scientific destiny of our planet.
respectability, I may as well mention a few more
controversial technologies (along with some so Charles Eisenstein is the author of Sacred Economics.
unorthodox they arent even subject to controversy) www.charleseisenstein.net

38 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS UNDERCURRENTS

Sustainable Wellbeing
Stephen Lewis introduces a new Robert Costanza outlines
series to show that economics the parameters of a new
need not be a dismal science economic paradigm

W
T
e all know that many of the ecological and he world has changed dramatically. We no longer
social problems confronting the world today live in a world relatively empty of humans and
are in large part a consequence of the way our their artefacts. We now live in a new geologic era
economic system operates. Thus economics is of known by some as the Anthropocene, a full world
central importance. Yet the unfortunate fact is that where humans are dramatically altering our ecological life-
the type of economics that has become dominant support systems.
seems unable to contribute anything to finding Our traditional economic concepts and models were
solutions to the great questions facing humankind developed when the human population was relatively small
and the planet. Indeed, worse than this, economics and natural resources deemed abundant. So if we are to
is itself a significant part of the problem. This is both create sustainable prosperity, we need a new vision of the
because it doesnt have much to do with how real economy and its relationship to the rest of Nature that is far
economies and markets actually work, and also better adapted to the conditions we now face.
because it provides an ideological screen for rampant We are going to need an economics that respects planetary
self-interested capitalism. boundaries, that recognises the dependence of human
But there are many other types of economics. wellbeing on good social relations and fairness, and that
Some are relatively new, but others go back at recognises that the ultimate goal is real, sustainable human
least 200 years. Although they are very different, wellbeing not merely the endless growth of material
what they have in common is that they all try to consumption concentrated in the hands of a few. This
understand the world as it really is and not how new economics also recognises that the material economy
it theoretically should be, and unlike the current cannot grow forever on this finite planet.
system of economics they do not ignore moral The time has come when we must make a transition. We
questions and issues of social, economic and have no choice. Our present path is clearly unsustainable.
ecological justice. Paul Raskin, founding director of the Tellus Institute and
In this new series I have decided to ask some the Global Scenario Group, has said: Contrary to the
more holistic economists to contribute their views conventional wisdom, business as usual is the utopian
to show that economics neednt be a dismal science fantasy; forging a new vision is the pragmatic necessity.
and could be part of the solution. What we do have is a very real choice about how to make
The first contributor is ecological economist this transition and about what the new state of the world
Robert Costanza. Robert is co-founder and past will be. We can engage in a global dialogue to envision the
president of the International Society for Ecological future we want (the theme of the UNs Rio+20 conference),
Economics, and was chief editor of the societys and then devise an adaptive strategy to get us there, or we can
journal, Ecological Economics, from its inception allow the current system to collapse and rebuild from a much
in 1989 until 2002. He is also founding editor-in- worse starting point. Obviously, the former strategy is better.
chief of Solutions, a unique hybrid academic but To do this, we need to focus more directly on the goal of
popular journal (www.thesolutionsjournal.org). sustainable human wellbeing rather than merely GDP growth.
His transdisciplinary work integrates the study of This includes protecting and restoring Nature, achieving social
humans and the rest of Nature to address research, and intergenerational fairness (including poverty alleviation),
policy and management issues over multiple time stabilising population, and recognising the significant non-
and space scales from small watersheds to the market contributions to human wellbeing from natural and
global system. social capital. And to do this, we need to develop better
Ecological economics has a long pedigree and is measures of progress that go well beyond GDP and begin to
one proof of the fact that economics can be part measure human wellbeing and its sustainability more directly.
of the solution rather than a significant hindrance. We need a new model of the economy based on the
worldview and principles of ecological economics. Ecological
Stephen Lewis is acting Commissioning Editor for this economics starts by recognising that our material economy
Economics series of articles which will appear periodically in is embedded in society, which is embedded in our ecological
future issues. life-support system, and that we cannot understand or

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 39


manage our economy without understanding the whole, capacity of our finite planet to provide the resources needed
interconnected system. It also recognises that growth for this and future generations. Social fairness means that
(increase in size or scale) and development (improvement these resources are distributed fairly within this generation,
in quality) are not always linked and that true development between generations, and between humans and other species.
must be defined in terms of the improvement of sustainable Efficient allocation means that we use these finite resources
wellbeing, not merely growth in material consumption. as efficiently as possible to produce sustainable human
Finally, it recognises that sustainable wellbeing requires a wellbeing, recognising its dependence on the wellbeing of the
healthy balance among thriving natural, human, social and rest of Nature.
cultural assets, and adequate and well-functioning produced We have never had greater global capacity, understanding,
or built assets. These assets are referred to as capital in the material abundance and opportunities to achieve these
sense of a stock or accumulation or heritage a patrimony objectives. This includes scientific knowledge, communications,
received from the past and contributing to the welfare of the technology, resources, productive potential, and the ability
present and future. Clearly our use of the term capital is to feed everyone on Earth. However, we are not achieving
much broader than that associated with capitalism. sustainable wellbeing and indeed we are moving in the
These assets, which overlap and interact in complex ways wrong direction at an increasing rate. For example, global
to produce all human benefits, are greenhouse-gas emissions continue
defined as to rise, humanity is using resources
We are probably much faster than they can regenerate,
Natural capital: the natural
environment and its biodiversity,
already in the biodiversity is diminishing rapidly, most
which, in combination with the middle of a critical global ecosystem services are in decline,
and inequality is growing. The United
other three types of capital, provide turning point Nations has acknowledged that progress
ecosystem goods and services
towards the Millennium Development
the benefits humans derive from
Goals has stalled.
ecosystems. These goods and services are essential to basic
We will never achieve the world we want unless we change
needs such as survival, climate regulation, habitat for
the current economic paradigm, which is a fundamental
other species, water supply, food, fibre, fuel, recreation,
cause of the current crises. This paradigm, institutionalised
cultural amenities, and the raw materials required for all
at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, was devised prior
economic production.
to an understanding of finite global resource limits and the
Social and cultural capital: the web of interpersonal
emerging science of wellbeing. Without a new economic
connections, social networks, cultural heritage, traditional
paradigm, we will continue down an unsustainable and
knowledge, trust, and the institutional arrangements,
undesirable path. The Bretton Woods system rightly
rules, norms and values that facilitate human interactions
considered a growth economy better than another world
and cooperation between people. These contribute to
war, especially when the world population was relatively
social cohesion, strong, vibrant and secure communities,
small. However, times have changed and it is now time for
and good governance, and help fulfil basic human needs
a new paradigm.
such as participation, affection and a sense of belonging.
To make the transition to a just and sustainable economy
Human capital: human beings and their attributes, including
will require a fundamental change of worldview or vision of
physical and mental health, knowledge, and other capacities
what the economy is and what it is for. The new worldview
that enable people to be productive members of society. This
is one that recognises that we live on a finite planet and
involves the balanced use of time to fulfil basic human needs
that sustainable wellbeing requires far more than material
such as fulfilling employment, spirituality, understanding,
consumption. This implies replacing the present goal of
skills development, creativity and freedom.
limitless growth with goals of material sufficiency, equitable
Built capital: buildings, machinery, transportation
distribution and sustainable ecosystems. It also implies
infrastructure, and all other human artefacts and the
a complete redesign of the world economy that preserves
services they provide that fulfil basic human needs such
natural systems essential to life and wellbeing and balances
as shelter, subsistence, mobility and communications.
natural, social, human and built assets.
Ecological economics also recognises that human, social The dimensions of this new economy include, but are not
and produced assets depend entirely on the natural world, limited to, the following policies and changes:
and that continued taking from natural capital is therefore
A Sustainable scale respecting ecological limits
ultimately non-substitutable. Sustainability therefore requires
Establishment of systems for effective and equitable
that we live off the interest (sustainable yields) generated by
governance and management of the natural commons,
natural capital without depleting the capital itself.
including the atmosphere, oceans and biodiversity.
Balancing and investing in all our assets to achieve
Creation of cap-and-auction systems for basic
sustainable wellbeing requires that we pursue three dimensions
resources, including quotas on depletion, pollution and
in an integrated way: ecological sustainability, social fairness,
greenhouse-gas emissions, based on basic planetary
and efficient allocation of resources. Ecological sustainability
boundaries and resource limits.
means that we live within planetary boundaries within the

40 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Consumption of essential non-
renewables, such as fossil fuels, no
faster than we develop renewable
substitutes.
Investment in sustainable infra
structure, such as renewable energy,
energy efficiency, public transport,
watershed protection measures, green
public spaces and clean technology.
Dismantling of incentives towards
materialistic consumption, including
banning advertising to children and
regulating the commercial media.
Linked policies to address population
and consumption.
B Fair distribution protecting
capabilities for flourishing
Sharing of work to create more
fulfilling employment and more
balanced leisureincome trade-offs.
Reduction of systemic inequalities,
both internationally and within
nations, by improving the living
standards of poor people, limiting
excess and unearned income and
consumption, and preventing
private capture of common wealth.
Establishment of a system for
effective and equitable governance
and management of the social
commons, including cultural
inheritance, financial systems, and
information systems like the internet
and the airwaves.
C Efficient allocation building a What is our economy doing to Nature? Illustration by Yuko Shimizu www.yukoart.com
sustainable macro-economy
Use of full-cost accounting measures
its benefits, and other financial is an environmentally sensitive version
to internalise externalities, value
instruments and practices that of this model with an attempt to achieve
non-market assets and services,
contribute to the public good. green growth that is not so damaging
reform national accounting systems,
Ensuring availability of all to the environment. A third scenario
and ensure that prices reflect actual
information required to move to a the one sketched here is a more radical
social and environmental costs of
sustainable economy that enhances departure from the mainstream. It does
production.
wellbeing through public investment not consider growth to be the real goal
Fiscal reforms that reward
in research and development and at all, but rather sustainable human
sustainable and wellbeing-enhancing
reform of the ownership structure of wellbeing, acknowledging uncertainty
actions and penalise unsustainable
copyrights and patents. and the complexity of understanding,
behaviours that diminish collective
creating and sustaining wellbeing. This
wellbeing, including ecological The world is at a critical turning point.
scenario is the only option that is both
tax reforms with compensating This turning will not come overnight,
sustainable and desirable on our finite
mechanisms that prevent additional however. In fact, we are probably
planet. The substantial challenge now
burdens on low-income groups. already in the middle of it. It will take
is making that transition to this better
Systems of cooperative investment in decades. But it is a time of real choices.
world in a peaceful and positive way.
stewardship (CIS) and payment for One scenario is to continue business
ecosystem services (PES). as usual, pursuing the conventional
Robert Costanza is Chair in Public Policy
Increased financial and fiscal economic growth paradigm that has
at Crawford School of Public Policy,
prudence, including greater public dominated economic policy since the
Australian National University, Canberra.
control of the money supply and end of World War II. A second scenario

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 41


U N DERCURRENTS A SENSE OF PLACE

Earth Paradise
Jeremy James takes a fictional flight to the moon
and discovers the true majesty of the Earth

D
r Obruchev (call me Vladi), the mission not been a hard so much as a steady climb, and my oxygen
leader, pointed to the plateau. Go straight up. intake was low.
Dont turn around, he said, or youll break Vladi had been right about the other thing: once you
the spell. To look back before you reached the turned round, the experience was vertiginous. The first time
plateau would spoil it: you wouldnt get the full impact. it happened to him he very nearly fell off the plateau. I was
Whats more, Nature had conveniently placed a flat-topped careful to sit down, to follow his advice.
rock at the back of the plateau, like a municipal bench, As soon as I opened my eyes, I slewed from the stone,
he said, put there by some obliging council officer with an dropped forward and landed with a crump on my hands
elegant sense of duty. A perfect viewing platform. Besides, and knees, walloping my head against my visor. It was
there was another thing. the most peculiar sensation, as if I had been pulled, and it
The plateau was about 400 feet up. You could see it clearly left me reeling for a good five minutes, lying on my side.
from the bottom as you approached. Quite why it did that, I do not know.
It looked as if it had been deliberately I crawled back onto the rock and this
cut from the rock, as did the track up time I looked up slowly, carefully,
to it. Vladi shook his head: That too clinging on.
was a freak of Nature. Who could The Sahara shone like a Views have different effects on us,
have made it? depending on the place, your mood,
I could hear my feet crunching on
vast freckled ingot your age, the time of day or night, who
the brittle stone as I climbed. My youre with. I like being alone. Some
breath seemed loud. Sweat ran down views evoke memory, others arouse
my spine. There wasnt a single sign of images from half-remembered dreams.
life anywhere, though it didnt stop me Some make you relax. Others alarm.
looking. I kept thinking I might see a mountain goat, or a Some take your breath away. This one nearly took my life.
hare or a lizard, but I knew there couldnt be any. The rock My heart stopped. I know. I felt it skip a beat and stop.
was a mix of basalt and some other igneous composite that It gave a great thwack and got going again, but not before
had been subjected to enormous temperatures, split and making me completely light-headed. I thought Id had a
crumbled into these ragged shapes amongst the slabs. stroke, a blood clot Id given my head a hard thump
The temptation to turn round all the way up had been when I fell.
strong; I could feel the image rising behind me, could I could see all of Africa. All of it. From the Straits of
sense its presence composing itself as I ascended, step by Gibraltar to the Cape. I could see the Nile. It sparkled
gritty step. suddenly in the sun, just as I was watching, in a flash that
The plateau was exactly as Vladi had described: perfectly ran all the way along its length right to its delta. The Sahara
level, and at the back of it was this convenient municipal rock. shone like a vast freckled ingot, while beneath, equatorial
My feet crunched loudly as I crossed the gravelly floor. Africa was ribboned in a living, green mantle. I couldnt stop
I stopped at the rock bench, breathed in, closed my eyes, looking, couldnt tear my eyes away. But the seas! The seas,
turned around and sat down. I kept my eyes closed and with the oceans; the reefs and shallows, atolls, islands and depths
my hands on my knees allowed myself to calm down. It had described in such a bewildering palette of blue and turquoise

42 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


of animals, watch children play, put
my hand in a stream. Hear birdsong.
Listen to rain. The contrast from where
I was sitting and what I had left behind
on the Earth made being where I was
feel all the more terrible even though I,
myself, had chosen it.
Slowly she revolved on her invisible
axis. Europe came into sight, and the
great white polar cap. I had looked at
thousands of photographs but not one
of them ever came close to describing
the sheer, outright majesty of the
world, her aura, her divine beauty,
staggering to behold. What a treasure
she was, how glorious, unique. How
fantastically privileged we were to
know, to experience it. How valuable
every single thing, how much every
fragment of life matters, down to the
tiniest mite. Theres nothing else like it.
Nothing. No place we can identify with
and say, ah yes, that reminds me of...
Take-off and touchdown had been
as smooth as any commercial airliner.
We got back six weeks ago. The first
tourist flight: they took three of us.
Sold my house, sold my business, all
my shares, cashed every penny of my
savings. Just enough to scrape in. The
other two paid a lot more, but it got us
all up there and helped to fund the new
oxygenating plant.
Vladi and his team are growing deep-
Wavy Trees by Jonathan Ashworth www.jonathanashworth.com rooting, drought-resistant legumes
Jonathans work is on show at The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle until the 30 August www.thebiscuitfactory.com under sheets of reinforced plastic,
lit and warmed by the sun. Water is
precious and nothing is wasted but all
the same we learned that the plants
that I found myself gasping for breath, dignity and purpose, her trailing skirts are growing well and their exhaled
again and again. streaming around her. She was the moisture is condensing on the plastic,
White-headed mountain ranges most exquisite being I could ever have which is the point. The plan is to bleed
pricked the brown like a procession imagined and her whole, magnificent oxygen into the atmosphere, enough
of ancient gods, their feet sequined form tumbled slowly, silently across to colonise lichens and... Its all beyond
about with patchworks of greens and eternity. My eyes filled, throat knotted. me. I hope they succeed. Projects as
yellows, crimsons and purples, all I had to look away. I was overcome. far-sighted as that might one day take
swathed in a toga of nitrogen blue. It Utterly. Overwhelmed. us to the other side of the sun. Maybe
was obvious, abundantly obvious, that How anyone could ever wish to there is a paradise there too.
the whole planet, the world, the Earth do her harm, to do any injustice to But Im not leaving the Earth, not
itself was alive. It was one vast, living her body, to mutilate her face, was again. I looked up into the stars when I
ball suspended magically in an ocean an unforgivable crime. She was not stood on the moon. They seemed very
of ether that was also life but of such to be torn or hacked at, but revered. close. Very bright. Maybe somewhere
a different kind that I couldnt possibly In that moment I felt, small, absurd, out there are other paradises maybe.
comprehend it. insignificant. I longed to be back there. But youll have to go a very, very
The blue globe moved, a great living I did not want to be on the moon. I long way to match this one, if there is
goddess striding resolutely and alone, wanted to be in her arms. I ached for another at all.
bearing all her children defiantly the company of her trees, her rivers and
through the blackness of space with mountains, to gaze upon her family Jeremy James is a novelist.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 43


U N DERCURRENTS PSYCHOLOGY

Agents of Change
Bill Plotkin reveals what it means to be a part of the Earth and
shows how we can tap those inner resources

I
ts time to take another look at ourselves to re- up, rise up and become genuine agents of cultural
enliven our sense of what it is to be human, to transformation and, in doing so, experience the most
breathe new life into ancient intuitions of who we profound fulfilment of a lifetime.
are, and to learn again to celebrate, as we once
did, our instinctive affinity with the Earth community The Four Facets of the Self
in which were rooted. Theres a facet of the Self associated with each of the
We are all called now to rediscover what it means to four cardinal directions: north, south, east and west.
be human beings in a wildly diverse world of feathered, Describing the Self in this way is in keeping with
furred and scaled fellow creatures; flowers and forests; traditions around the world that have mapped human
mountains, rivers and oceans; wind, rain and snow; nature onto the template of the four directions (and the
sun and moon. closely related templates of the four seasons and the
In Western culture, weve enclosed ourselves within four times of day: sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight).
continuously mended fences of excessive safety, false As a brief introduction, the North facet of the Self
security, and shallow notions of happiness, when is what I call the Nurturing Generative Adult, the
all the while the world has been inviting us to stride compassionate and competent aspect of our psyche
through the unlocked gate and break free into realms of that is fully capable of providing for the wellbeing of
greater promise and possibilities. Our human psyches others and ourselves and of caring for the habitats that
possess, as capacities, a variety of astonishing resources sustain us and for all species that collectively make up
about which mainstream Western psychology has had Earths web of life. This North facet of the Self is what
very little to say. By uncovering and reclaiming these enables us to empathically and courageously serve
innate resources, we can more easily understand and our human and more-than-human communities as
resolve our intrapsychic and interpersonal difficulties leaders, teachers, parents, healers, builders, farmers,
as they arise. designers, scientists and artisans. The Nurturing
The alleviation of personal troubles is, of course, Generative Adult is at the core of archetypes such as
important to all of us, but our innate psychological the benevolent King or Queen, mature or spiritual
resources are of even greater significance and relevance. Warrior, Mother and Father.
Our untapped inner resources are also essential to the The South facet is the Wild Indigenous One, the
flowering of our greatest potential, to the actualisation sensuous, emotive, erotic, playful and instinctual
of our true selves, and to the embodiment of the life of dimension of ourselves that loves being embodied
our very souls. These natural faculties are what we must as a human animal, celebrates the experience of
cultivate in order to actively protect and restore our all emotions, is fully at home in the more-than-
planets ecosystems and to spark the urgently needed human world, and enjoys a visceral and deep-rooted
renaissance of our Western and Westernised cultures. kinship with all other creatures and with the diverse
And these innate human resources are precisely those ecosystems we inhabit the rivers, mountains, deserts,
that enable each of us to identify the unique genius plains and forests of our local bioregions. The Wild
and hidden treasure we carry for the world and, in Indigenous One is resonant with archetypes such as
this way, to participate fully and consciously in the Pan, Artemis/Diana (Lady of the Beasts) and Green
evolution of life on Earth. Man (Wild Man).
These resources which I call the four facets of the The East facet of the Self is the Innocent/Sage an
Self, or the four dimensions of our human wholeness amalgam of the Innocent, who perceives the world
wait within us, but we might not even know they purely, simply and clearly, and the Sage, who possesses
exist until we discover how to access them, cultivate a lighthearted and big-picture wisdom about the world.
their powers, and integrate them into our everyday The Innocent and Sage actually have much in common
lives. Reclaiming these essential human capacities of they both, for example, love paradox. Consequently my
the Self ought to be the highest priority in psychology, name for this East facet is the paradoxical fusion Innocent/
education, religion, medicine and leadership Sage. Our Innocent/Sage sometimes takes the form of a
development. Doing so empowers people to wake Sacred Fool (who lives beyond the rules and norms of

44 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


is also resonant with archetypes such as
Anima/Animus, Magician, Wanderer, Hermit,
Psychopomp and Guide to Soul.
Were born with the capacity to embody each of
these four sets of psychological resources, but we
must consciously cultivate them in order to have
ready access. Mainstream Western culture ignores
or suppresses all four facets because the embodied
Self is incompatible with egocentric ways of life.
Mature humans those who have cultivated
their fourfold Self are developing the
infrastructure of future mature societies. As agents
of cultural transformation and renaissance, theyre
succeeding in extraordinary ways in realms such
as education, economics, religion and governance.
In their everyday lives, these women and men
are fashioning and fostering contemporary ways
of being human that are sustainable and life-
enhancing. Doing this requires the foundational
cultivation of the fourfold Self.
Tending the Wellbeing of Our Psyches
When an ecosystem has been damaged say, from
logging, overgrazing, or chemical-dependent
mono-crop agriculture and then you leave it
alone, invasive species typically show up and
take over. If you then attempt to simply suppress
or eliminate the invasives whether through
pesticide application or heroic weeding youre
not strengthening the ecosystem but rather
merely suppressing a symptom called weeds.
In contrast, if you tend the health of the
ecosystem for example, by improving soil
quality or planting native species the invasives
find a less suitable landing site and the ecosystem
is more quickly restored to its natural and mature
wholeness. Likewise, when we tend the wellbeing
of our human psyches by improving our social
The Myth of Sisyphus by Darrel Perkins www.drlperkins.com
and ecological soil and cultivating the native
species of the Self there is less opportunity
These women and men are fashioning for the fragmented or wounded elements of our
psyches to take over; the psychological space
contemporary ways of being human that is already occupied by the facets of a more fully
are sustainable and life-enhancing flourishing being.
Weve placed the emphasis on promoting health
the everyday social world) or as a Trickster (who uses humour and wholeness rather than on (merely) suppressing
and chicanery to help us lighten up and appreciate the greater pathology and fragmentedness. We can douse
realities of our lives and the world). our psyches with pharmaceutical pesticides and
The West facet is the Muse or Inner Beloved. This is therapeutically weed them, but a much better
the adventurous and visionary dimension of ourselves approach would be to enhance our psychological,
that loves to explore the unknown: the fruitful darkness; cultural and ecological soil and to cultivate the
the processes of decay and death the natural recycling capacities of our native human wholeness.
of things; the world of dreams and imagination; and the
realms of metaphor, symbol, poetry and myth. The Muse- This is an edited extract from the book Wild
Beloved is our inner romantic, who is attracted by liaisons Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche by Bill
and experiences that are both dangerous and alluring, Plotkin. Published with permission of New World
including the descent into the underworld mysteries of soul. Library. Bill will be teaching a course on Soulcraft at
In addition to the Muse and the Beloved, this facet Schumacher College from 5 to 9 August 2013.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 45


U N DERCURRENTS PHILOSOPHY

Perennial Wisdom

It is timely to revisit the visionary thinking of Plato


Plato and Aristotle by Raphael Vatican Museums and Galleries/The Bridgeman Art Library

46 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


We have been able to wreak ecological devastation on the
Jeremy Naydler suggests we planet not just because we have adopted a highly partial, one-
make time to reconnect with sided view of the world but also because we have succumbed
to a drastically diminished view of what it means to be human.
our spiritual roots Since many of us have been persuaded to reconceive
ourselves as no more than biological computers, those aspects
of human nature that were once regarded as essential such as

M
any years ago, at the time when the Green our ability to think morally, creatively and imaginatively are
movement first emerged as an organised now seen as increasingly marginal to finding solutions to the
political force, calling itself the Ecology Party, problems that we face. With the soul so besieged, the spirit
a book was published by the distinguished denied and the ground of human decision-making thoroughly
Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr entitled Man permeated by computer-compatible rationality, we are in
and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man. In it, danger of becoming strangers to truly human values, insight
Nasr warned his readers: The ecological crisis is only an and wisdom. More computing power and more technological
externalization of an inner malaise and cannot be solved interventions seem to be the answer rather than the one thing
without a spiritual rebirth of Western man. that is actually needed, which is a change of heart.
At the time, this was not a perspective that many activists It may therefore be timely for us to revisit the
were prepared to take on board, and this philosophical, religious and visionary
remains the case today. Nasr, though, tradition that was swept aside by
understood that if the ecological crisis those thinkers who ushered in the
is of our own making, then clearly
We have succumbed to scientific revolution. There is a stream
we need to see what it is in ourselves a drastically diminished of wisdom that goes back at least as
that has brought it about. This is not
instead of taking much-needed actions,
view of what it means far as Plato and Plotinus, and that was
also expressed in the visionary poetry
but rather as a precondition to ensure to be human of Dante and in the mystical writings
the actions that we take are wise ones. of Meister Eckhart, to name but a few,
One reason why it can seem to be a and which is often referred to as the
luxury to address the question of our own collective inner perennial philosophy, or philosophia perennis. In it we find
malaise is that we are still under the thrall of the Cartesian a view of Nature as a manifestation of spirit, and a view of
worldview, in which what is out there in the world is seen human interiority as opening towards the divine.
as having no connection with what occurs in our inner life. In this wisdom tradition, the interiority of Nature and
Nature has been relegated to the background of our all too the interiority of the human being ultimately coincide,
absorbing human dramas, and many struggle to feel a genuine for the originating source of both is the one universal
link between what takes place within the human sphere and spirit manifest throughout creation. Within this tradition
what is occurring in the natural world. This feeling of human reverent contemplation of Nature makes complete sense,
separation from Nature belies the fact that the condition of while to persist in treating Nature merely as a resource
the natural environment indubitably reflects our collective to be exploited, controlled and manipulated is actually to
values, and indeed our underlying worldview. undermine what is most precious within the human being.
The prevailing worldview of the West was defined in the To reacquaint ourselves with this tradition does not mean
16th and 17th centuries by such thinkers as Galileo, Bacon that we should attempt to put the clock back, but rather that
and Descartes, who inaugurated the scientific revolution. we should reconnect with our cultural and spiritual roots.
Displacing the older, traditional reverence for Nature as Instead of prioritising financial gain and technological might,
a manifestation of the divine, the new scientific method the perennial philosophy emphasises ideals such as beauty,
prioritised mathematically precise quantitative thinking truth and goodness as the basis for wise decision-making.
over the older qualitative approach to understanding and There is a dangerous hubris in continuing to think we
relating to the natural world. can eventually solve our ecological problems by simply
Spiritual intuition and a feeling of empathy for Nature increasing the computational and technological power
which had underpinned the older sensibility had no place we throw at them, while at the same time dismissing
in the conduct of the new science. From its inception, the with condescension our own spiritual heritage. Of course
new science allied itself to a technological view of Nature as the perennial wisdom is not a panacea for the enormous
a resource to control and exploit as efficiently as possible, challenges we face, but it does offer guidance as to how we
cutting itself loose from the older, reverential view of Nature as might find a different orientation to these challenges, and
a living organism imbued with spirit. This meant that a large a grounding in values and ideals that promote rather than
part of what lived in the human being was denied legitimacy subvert what is truest and best in the human being.
as providing a valid way of knowing and relating to Nature.
It is for this reason that the current plight of ecosystems Jeremy Naydler is a tutor on the Temenos Academy Foundation
needs to be seen as reflecting back to us a fatally reduced Course in the Perennial Philosophy, which begins in London in
conception not only of the world but also of the human being. October 2013. www.temenosacademy.org

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 47


N AT URE WRITING COMPETITION 1st P R I Z E W I N N E R

Wild Wales
So many talk of change as if it is something to be feared, but in
her account of walking the mostly deserted new Wales Coast Path,
Julie Bromilow embraces the challenge of what lies just ahead

Sometimes I hear the whisper of old drovers on bare and empty hills

48 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


I
have so far walked 500 miles around when near to car parks. Some days are
the edge of Wales and have yet to meet even busy a Flintshire County Council
anybody knitting by the side of the road. litter truck joined the crowds at Jubilee
I roll up my tent when there is enough Tower on a blue day in the Clwydian hills.
light to see my rucksack. Ducks rise and Occasionally I try out my uncertain Welsh
circle the water field, leaving as they arrived and no one is astonished. When we have
the night before when the sky was pink. money to spend, we meet caf people,
A startled hare pauses its journey across campsite folk, and shopkeepers. But if there
the field, shrinking low and lower until it is none and we pass through no towns, we
cannot be seen among the divots. There are sometimes meet no one at all.
wet leaves in the grass, yellow mushrooms Just north of Bangor, rain was
clustering at the kissing gate, and in the approaching. A few stubbly fields away
sycamore lane scuttering pheasants crash from the path, the train frequently passed,
through the trees. passengers blurred and unseen. The water
A pink television light wobbles through was high up the salt mud flats. I boiled
a dark window at a huddle of bungalows. noodles among the bladderwrack; the paper
On the path, I meet a stoat with a wren mushroom bag caught alight and burned to
in its mouth. We regard each other long flimsy fragments dark and whimsical as the
seconds before it turns to loop back into clouds over Puffin Island. I looked across
the hedge. It is two hours before I see a the estuary green grass at the magnesium
person far below me on a beach, jogging light and washed my cooking pot in the silt-
with abandon, snatched song tossed up the lapping Menai Straits. Squadrons of piping
cliff by the wind. It will be two hours more oystercatchers ranked up with black-backed
before I see three builders on a roof, and gulls, herring gulls, crows solitary among
two more again before I speak to anyone, them, and overhead a murmuration flashed
when I order coffee in a beach caf. silver against the ink sky. I camped in an
Things were different when George Borrow oak copse and saw no one.
walked around Wales in 1854. He was an I have grown to love and anticipate
enthusiastic English gentleman who talked countryside walking as an act of solitude and
to people he met along the way, astonishing contemplation, though I sometimes hear the
them with his accomplished use of Welsh. whisper of old drovers on bare and empty
He wrote a cheerful account of his journey hills. When dusk falls and I pitch my tent,
in his book Wild Wales and what impresses I imagine crossing meadows in the summer
me most is the sheer number of people he dark with George Borrow, returning the
met in the countryside. Stone breakers, Irish nos da greetings of homebound folk.
fiddlers, millers, masons, tree fellers, gypsies, Sheepdogs swirl in a field. There are berry
drovers and knitting women all populate his ropes in the hedge and lingering harebells
pages, which are merry with dialogue. on muddy paths. Smashed orange beech
My journey is quieter. I am walking leaves smudge the lanes, cashmere clouds
1,027 miles around the edge of Wales, my soften the hills and crab-apples lie crushed
adopted country, via the new Wales Coast on the tarmac in autumn the hillsides
Path and the longer-established Offas Dyke appear knitted. Sometimes theres a tractor,
Way. I walk alone on weekdays and Rob and once a rosy farm lad raced his quad
joins me at weekends bringing chocolate bike over the field to correct my route.
and love. We have a small budget, camp at George Borrow would stop and talk to
night and cook breakfast on beaches and gangs of reapers about poetry and religion,
in fields. Winter has determined a pause but farmland here is barely populated now,
well resume in the spring with the light. I and rarely arable. Musing among the scarlet
have walked on duney soft paths, smelled pimpernels at the edge of a wheat field on
blackberry scent grasses, lain on rabbit the Lln peninsula, I was boom-shocked by
thump headlands to watch Atlantic grey an automated crow scarer.
seals, crossed gorsey fields and lorry spray Of course I have met people just far
Strumble Head from Garn Fawr, roads bordered with ragwort, campion and fewer than George Borrow did. He met
Pembrokeshire by Luke Piper scabious that tremble in rain, and talked to more in a day than I would in a week, but
www.lukepiper.com the salt marsh sheep. There are moments they colour my diary too. Away from the
of beauty and reflection. Sometimes I meet billowy Shell Island campsite tents and car
hikers, often I meet dog walkers, especially radios, kids and dads scragged for causeway

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 49


crabs. Wildlife Trust bracken clearers raked paths next I sometimes hear the whisper of old country folk but Im
to their Land Rover, big coffee mugs on the dashboard. not yearning for a gone era times are always changing.
Anglers were out on the south coast of the Dee kids threw Life was hard for the Irish refugees, the urchins and the
stones in the sea, men sat on tackle boxes and one watched quarrymen, the lime kilns burned acrid and stifling, the
his rod from inside his car. valleys round Swansea were full of blast and smoke and
A winkle digger at Criccieth dug hasty buckets with a in truth Im not much good at knitting. Sheep subsidies and
fork on the tide line, and three contractors repaired a Nefyn grain imports did away with the oat fields, and supermarkets
fence. Sherry-faced hunters tumbled from a barn at Carmel killed off the Pembrokeshire cauliflowers, but long before
Head with their guns straw caught in their jumpers. The George Borrow went a-roaming, forests covered the hills.
organ repairers at Bodfari church told me I was lucky to Times have changed, and theyll change again.
find it open then tripped the electricity there was a flash Researchers show how we could respond to the challenges
and a mournful curse from behind the chapel screen as I of climate change by altering the way we use land. Reduced
tiptoed out. On Porth y Nant a check-shirt beachcomber grazing and an increase in carefully managed food and
shared a rovers grin, and an old man dug muck into his energy crops would mean that the land could capture more
allotment at the edge of Holyhead. None of these rare and greenhouse gases than it releases. We would have a more
cheery encounters led to conversations, and no one asked diverse countryside than today, with agriculture pushing
if I was there to buy hogs, into towns and cities, and an increase
though a salesman in in wildlife as well as rural livelihoods.
Penegroes watching me sit Agriculture would be less intensive,
on my rucksack to wait for and people would once again work in
Robs bus did come and ask
Fresh, original and beautifully the fields and woods.
if I had any need for Sky TV. written. Julie paints a Montgomery canal is frozen.
The sun rose raw and
fiery over the frosty hills.
lively picture of This section is no longer used as a
waterway, and ducks nibble at the
Puddles had skin ice that contemporary Welsh society edges of ice. Moorhens walk across
cracked on the cinnamon it and floating swans keep their heads
moors. The clear sky bowl
Ruth Borthwick, judge buried under their wings. Crimson
was blue and cold and still. berries are frosted, birds chatter in the
Two mountain bikers called ivy. I cross lump hard fields in which
a greeting as they scrambled Offas Dyke is a gentle swell and sheep
the paths, black grouse crouched in the leking places and look brown against the stricken white. Behind the hedge the
far away an owl surveyed the heather husks from a rock. hill line has vanished in a glacial mist, and below it yellow
Hours further along, under the limestone cliffs at the Edge headlamps speed unsteadily along the A458, a lorry pulled
of the World, fieldfares hustled in a hawthorn tree newly up in a lay-by. Further along and into the hills, I watch a
arrived from Scandinavia, come for the berries, and old hare race across the high white field at Beacon Ring and a
moss furnished a wall. distant farmer tossing hay from his tractor. Cobwebs are
People standing in their yards would invite George frozen white and trembling on hedges and trees. It is not till
Borrow in for some tea or ale but I walk through streets late afternoon that I meet anyone a sprightly old couple
and whole estates that seem to be unoccupied. In the neat bent over their sticks and eager to greet. Its such a lovely
empty Llandudno suburbs next to the bird berry crag of day, we couldnt stay inside, they say. Weve come out
Little Orme just one man is out in the sun, power-washing to look at the frosty trees. I leave them with a smile and a
his drive. He doesnt invite us in to see his bible, he doesnt spring in my step.
even say hello. I love countryside solitude but also to meet people busy
But when I arrive at a farm campsite past Aberdaron after about the land blackberry pickers, fishermen on rocky
hiking up weary from the fishing creek, the farmers wife headlands, conservationists baling heather. I loved to
invites me into her kitchen for tea. She talks to me of errant glimpse an old man climb secretly over a gate in a shady
boys and motorbikes while detergent dish steam billows green wood with his fishing rod. I hear the whispers of
round three large bags of Yorkshire puddings defrosting on George Borrows old country voices along empty roads and
the draining board. Her husband John laments the lapse like to think they might also anticipate the future, when
of rural life. There are no jobs for young people any fields and lanes are once more lively with folk. I dont expect
more, he says. Just sheep farming and the council, and peat carts and roadside knitting to replace four by fours and
the council look after themselves. Retired people move in; television but I can believe we might once again have the
we dont meet them till theyre in the doctors waiting room, time and inclination to pause, and pass the time of day.
and when they die they go back home. Not many English
in the graveyards, he says. But it doesnt matter to him Julie Bromilow has enjoyed a colourful and diverse work
what language is spoken, only that the shops and schools history ranging from farms and bars to factories and charities
and pubs are busy. Anyhow my Welsh is the wrong kind of in Britain and overseas, though her core work was in
Welsh, he says kindly, not much use this far North. sustainability education.

50 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


2 n d P R I Z E W I N N E R N AT U R E W R I T I N G C O M P E T I T I O N

In Search of Ramonda
Sue Kindon describes a plant-hunting excursion that turns
her expectations on their head and leads her to the holy
grail of field botany the rare and elusive ghost orchid

A refuge to weary walkers The Chapelle de LIsard, Antras, France


Photo by Jon Atkins

H
ard to imagine, listening to the Cumbrian hail fickle from one valley to the next, but observing for ourselves
beating against my window as I write, the July the wind direction and lack of clouds.
warmth of southern France and the excitement As it is early July, we presuppose heat in the upper twenties,
of last summers botanical quest. take plenty of bottled water in our rucksacks, and make an
In my Grande Flore Illustre des Pyrnes, its portrait early start. From the parking place we set off through shady
hides discreetly, bottom right of the broomrapes. A bit woods, skirting a stream bright with melt-water, where the
of a misfit, being part of the African violet family, or vegetation is decidedly like that of our own West Country red
Gesneriaceae, which is represented in Europe only in two campion, valerian, buckler fern, even the odd Welsh poppy.
areas: the Balkan peninsula, and the Pyrenees, the mountain After crossing the stream by means of a substantial
range where France merges into Spain. wooden bridge, the path takes a steep uphill turn through
Its Ramonda pyrenaica Im after. Ive studied the black the beech woods, alongside a wall of exposed rock to our
and white drawing in the Flora, all crinkly leaves and proud left. Were getting warmer
flowers, and have long harboured a desire to see it coloured I cant help thinking of how it must have been for the
in. Now Im on the trail hardly a pioneer: the mountain early botanist about to make a discovery for the first time.
valley Im about to explore is well known as a habitat for this The identification of this plant is credited to Jean Michel
emblematic endemic, and word has come that its in flower. Claude Richard (17871868), and here I have more
In the mountains the weather can change with great speed, detective work to do. All I have found so far is that he was
and thats particularly true here in the Arige, where wisps gardener-in-chief in Senegal, so what he was doing in the
of cloud encroaching on a gentian-blue sky from the Spanish Pyrenees remains unclear. In naming the Ramonda, he pays
side can soon become disorientating mist. In this knowledge tribute to Louis Ramond de Carbonnires (17551827),
my companion and I have chosen our day with care, not only a colourful figure and Renaissance man who trained as
paying attention to the weather forecast, renowned for being a lawyer, wrote historical fiction and went in for politics

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 51


before discovering a passion for these
mountains in general and their geology
and botany in particular. Such was his
new-found interest, that he studied
botany under the great Jussieu at the
Jardin des Plantes in Paris.
His political involvement meant
that he was forced to flee Paris during

We are in the
presence of a thing
of rarity and great
beauty. I mark the
spot with three
large stones

the Revolution, and he took refuge


in his beloved mountains until he
was arrested in 1794 and, lucky to
escape the guillotine, was imprisoned
briefly in Tarbes. On his release, he
taught natural history at the newly
established Central School of Tarbes,
and undertook several expeditions to
Monte Perdido. He returned to politics
and became prefect, then deputy for
Puy-de-Dme in the Auvergne, but his
name is inextricably linked with the
early exploration of the Pyrenees.
But we are in for a disappointment:
the rocks are generously dotted with
rosettes of dark, embossed leaves it
must have been a picture but now
there are only a few straggling blooms
as an aide-memoire, and the slight
ditch between the stony, beech-leaved
path and the rock face is strewn with
faded amethyst stars, petals still joined
around a central circle. Theyve piled
up like confetti after a wedding, and I
select a single flower from the litter, the
wedding guest come too late. It feels
smooth and surprisingly resilient, so I
pocket it as a five-petalled consolation.
Feeling somewhat despondent, we
decide to press on upwards, as there
might still be plants in full flower at a
higher level. Altitude can make quite a
difference, and you can travel through
several seasons as you progress from
the high summer of the lower slopes,
through a spring of hellebores and
hepaticas, to the alpine buttercups and
Ghost orchid (Epipogium aphyllum) Paul Harcourt Davies/naturepl.com snowbells of the snowline.

52 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


My companion has stopped to photograph a goblins from the odd juniper. Once a year, in August, a service is
stovepipe of a fungus growing on a rocky outcrop. Out of held here to bless the sheep. The place has an ancient feel
idleness, I scoop a handful of fallen washed-purple petals, to it, the shiver of a sacred site, and the view to the snowy
and try to imagine them carpeting the bank. My attention skyline is spectacular.
is suddenly drawn to an unusual flower spike emerging By now Im keen to return to base and consult the
from the gingery covering of beech leaves. Small in stature, reference books. The way down from the chapel is narrow
no more than 20 centimetres, it has an other-worldly, and stony, inaccessible in the extreme, and there is no
luminescent quality, and I cant immediately put a name evidence of a mining community that might have explained
to it, although I recognise it from the flower shape as an why it was built. The stream tumbles back down, cascading
orchid. It is delicately pigmented in shell pink and cream, under the wooden bridge, and here, at the pathside, watered
and we wonder about coral root; obviously something by the constant spray, is the best yet display of Ramonda.
unusual, growing in this place of deep shade. We photo It looks almost planted, too stunning to be arrived at by
it with reverence. For the moment its name doesnt really Nature unaided. More photos.
matter we are in the presence of a thing of rarity and great We retrace our footsteps, down through the beech wood.
beauty. I mark the spot with three large stones. My companion walks straight past the stone markers that
We continue in silence for a while, and then at the upper indicate our orchid find, but I have no trouble locating it,
limits of the forest the desire for Ramonda is duly satisfied. having made a mental note of a dead tree trunk resembling
Past their prime, perhaps the seed-pods poke through the a bear on the bank above. Further inspection reveals that
milky inner circle of the petals like inquisitive beaks but the orchid has no leaves. The stem is reddish pink at the
here at last is the hoped-for mass of mauve with its wow
factor. The flowers look strangely delicate, incompatible
with their rugged basal clumps: velvet-green and wavy-
margined leaves, textured, almost smocked, like my relief
This piece skilfully weaves
model of the Arige itself, with its veins of mountain streams together the beauty of place,
descending to the river valleys, irresistible to the touch.
Once above the tree line, the midday heat is such that we
quest, historical reference,
decide to turn back, but first we picnic on baguette and local the roles of chance and
sheeps cheese in the shade of a large boulder that has at some the passing of time
time been dislodged by an avalanche and has come to rest
conveniently beside a stream. Sometimes such boulders bring Harry Barton, judge
with them alpine plants from the cliffs above, but not today,
although there are fragrant pinks, yellow rock roses and large-
flowered eyebrights all around. There is the rustle of a lizard
doing its disappearing act. We dine in the company of a large, top, fading to light beige towards the base, encircled by the
shiny black beetle, and notice small blue butterflies from time occasional diminutive sheath. The flowers hang like a pair
to time other worlds waiting to be explored. Overhead, we of angels, creamy white, tinged with coral and pale green,
watch a pair of vultures circling long and wide, no doubt suspended from tiny cream-and-pink striped lampshades.
assessing us as lunch possibilities of their own. There is an unspoken possibility here, so unlikely that
I can make out a building with a tin roof gleaming in the sun neither of us dares mention it. As soon as we are back in
on the opposite bank, and consult the map. Its marked as a the cool sanctuary of the shuttered house, we view our
chapel, but in the middle of nowhere. Our descent takes us past photos on the laptop, and reach for the Grande Flore (too
its buttressed walls. The Chapelle de LIsard, as it is known, is heavy to take in the rucksack). No shadow of a doubt, even
dedicated to Our Lady of the Isard (the local variety of chamois, to my inexpert eye we have stumbled upon the ghost
prized by huntsmen). One end is now a refuge, with very basic orchid, Epipogium aphyllum, the field botanists holy grail.
overnight facilities, to welcome weary travellers; the other is Rarissime, says the book; and it can spend many years
still a place of worship we are lucky enough to find the door lying dormant, making it very elusive indeed.
unlocked, and to marvel at the elaborate wrought-iron altar My hunch about the Chapelle de LIsard is also borne out:
rail with its golden sheep decoration, and the framed paintings the current building was erected on the site of a probable
adorning the simple walls, one showing bears separated from place of worship dedicated to Pan and Sylvanus.
other animals by some sort of miracle. When I return to the valley the following week with my
We havent yet seen a bear, but it can only be a question of son, who is eager to see all these wonderful sights, the
time: they are about, and in increasing numbers. The local ghost orchid, true to its name, has vanished, the door of the
stock had dwindled to single figures, brought back from the Chapelle de lIsard is locked, and the Ramonda is well and
brink by the introduction of Eastern European bears in a truly over until next summer, that is.
project that is not without controversy. Ask any mountain
sheep-farmer, and you will be told about the decimation of Sue Kindon is a poet. Her poems have appeared in magazines
his flock in gory detail, but thats another story. including The Rialto, The North, and The Interpreters House,
In front of the chapel is a flat area cleared of trees, apart and she won the Maryport poetry competition in 2012.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 53


N AT URE WRITING COMPETITION 3rd P R I Z E W I N N E R

I Will Remember
Piqued by her memories of a time when the
moorland quarries rang out with the sounds of
stone-splitting, Sarah Walsh catches the echoes
of a long-abandoned way of life

T
he sky is a clear luminous deep water. I hope Im like you when
blue; cumulus clouds gather Im fifty, I say.
and stack in huge silent piles As it turns out its not until winter
on the horizon. I can hear that I make it up to the quarry again.
the wind gently rustling the leaves of And this time its too cold to swim.
sycamore, oak and ash in the shaggy During a break in rain-sodden days
hedgerow as I make my way up the I seize the opportunity, as I dont
southerly slope of our hay field, long want to miss this rare crispness, this
fine grasses brushing my shins. Behind wringing-out of damp and mist.
that is the steady drone of farm The rumble of iron shakes and
machinery as haymaking gets under vibrates the car as my wheels go over
way all around us. The breeze makes the cattle grid onto the moor, like
the tips of the inflorescences ripple and crossing a threshold, separating the
shimmer in the sun, their final tremble ordinary world from this ancient place.
before the cut. Before this happens Im Tranquillity descends to my shoulders
looking out for spear thistle, which I like a breath from a benevolent giant
want to pull before a fountain of tiny and Im smiling at the undulating land
seeds make a thousand more, though stretching before me into the blue,
some are left to go over at the edges of the close-cropped grassy hillocks and
the field so that birds can feed. shimmer of bleached flaxen grasses
Im hot from the climb and I stop giving way to the scoured hills of Rough
and look back across the valley. The Tor, Brown Willy and Scribble Downs.
bare granite hills of Bodmin Moor are Its not long before I can see the rocky
in the distance, scattered with slabs outline of Carbilly Tor on the horizon, open the gate by lifting the big thick
of stone. I imagine swimming in the and when I reach the track that leads heavy chain draped over the granite
quarry up there, the water heavy and to it I park in the rough layby. Getting gatepost, a regular ritual of weight
cold, our voices echoing back to us out into the cold air, Im entranced by and sound that marks the entry to yet
from the steep vertical sides of granite. the quietness, an unusually windless another world.
Then I remember, further back, my day on the moor. The sky is high and Splitting, sawing, scappling, axing,
father swimming in the River Wey in a pale blue, with a narrow tail of cirrus dunting...
wide pool tucked away at the bottom clouds far away; the sun floods brightly ...the sounds of metal on stone,
of a steep woody bank. Made by a and obliquely, bouncing and sparkling which rang out over this hillside in the
natural weir, the suddenly fast-flowing wherever it lands. past. Pausing, all I hear now is the call
water makes a powerful current on In the stone-built hedge bank next of a crow, the ping and chatter of small
which to ride. to the road, a lonely hawthorn reaches birds and the faint murmur of farm
At the edge of the pool a sandy bank out, winter branches metallic bronze, machinery, though I can almost sense
makes a beach under the dappled a plethora of whippy young shoots the ghostly shouts of the quarrymen
shade of crack willows and Im sprouting from its most recent flail carrying through the air. And there
sitting on that beach with my friends, and just a few dark red berries left, on the slope is the ruin of the smithy
watching my dad make a dive into the crumpled and brown at the edges. I where the tools were sharpened, its

54 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


Disused quarry, Bodmin Moor Rosie Spooner www.rosiephotos.co.uk

chimney still intact.


To my left a sturdy three-stemmed oak rises out of a pile
The winter water looks oily, black in
of stones or wasters, its knobbly branches hung with fairy- the shade, mysterious
like shawls of pale green filigree lichen. They now seem to
be part of each other, the rocky skirt discarded by industry, just as it would have done under the heavy-soled boots of
acute angles too imperfect for practical use, but softened the men as they made their way to work. To my right is a
now with a furry carpet of moss. stand of rounded gorse bushes topped with a smattering of
For centuries these tors were visited by stone splitters, bright yellow flowers. Below the smithy I can see a naturally
laboriously chiselling series of grooves and using metal formed cheesewring, a pile of huge flat rocks, one on top of
wedges to cleave the granite, making anything from cider the other, the height and width of a small house.
presses, millstones, pig troughs and gateposts to lintels, The moorland around the tor is made of spongy short grass
jambs, mullions and thresholds. Mostly they used surface which has been nibbled by cattle and sheep, punctuated by
stone, grass-rock, and until the advent of metalled roads stubby oaks, gorse and grey, lichen-splodged rocks, between
and a more efficient method of splitting, their remoteness which I find the deep imprints of cloven hooves. Off the track
made them uneconomical for commercial interest. my footsteps sound squishy; the land is saturated to spilling
The track curves away to the left, pocked with big blobby point. The moss creeps over the granite boulders, and its
puddles, the granite chippings crunching beneath my feet, difficult to tell whether its from the quarries, or natural. But

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 55


thats what I love about this place: the way the wild has made field the rocks very close up and then, just over the brow
its own unique habitat from the industrial past. of the hill, the wide and empty moor. Everything is very still,
Stalks of dull brown bracken are still standing, just. A a vapour trail high in the sky.
rabbit jumps out of my path, white tail a flash as it bounds A moment later I hear a buzzard call, an eerie high-pitched
up the hill and out of sight. Looking out to the west I can cry into the silence as it wheels around above. A flock of birds
see a farm far down a stony track and beyond that the bare rise in a distant valley, the light catching their wings. Behind
brown hills, hazy, topped with flat boulders balanced in me I see a white van travelling along a road, silently busy. Then
graphic piles, left there after the glaciers melted. Small fields I hear an engine, and a farmer is coming up the south slope on
with outgrown hedgerows creep up the hillside, while in the a quad bike, a collie perched up on the back. The herd of cattle
dip stands a straggly copse of scrubby windblown oaks, their that were steadily grazing on lower ground suddenly crank
leafless limbs making a soft tangle of greys and browns. The themselves into gear and begin to follow, surprisingly dainty as
low winter sun shines like gold they pick their way through
on beautiful brindled cattle the muddy mires.
of cream, tan and black who I jump down and rejoin
look up in alarm as they hear In the end it was the freshness of the track, which has now
me approach. I can feel the melted into the general
warmth of the sun through
expression, the surprises and the green as I make my way to
the cold air. The sky is turning sheer narrative energy of the winners the largest of the quarries,
deeper blue at the horizon; a that I admired the most my goal, our swimming
dark grey smoky cloud hangs spot. Underfoot, the path
low and elongated, suspended. Miriam Darlington, judge turns to a mat of soft thick
From this aspect its not moss and blades of grass, a
possible to see the flooded dazzling emerald walkway,
pits; all that is visible of startling against the blue of
the quarries are the waste creations, long giant fingers of the sky. After climbing a couple of dilapidated gates I turn
angular rocks balanced one on top of the other, reaching a corner and the flooded pit comes into view.
out into the surrounding terrain. There are four separate Perfectly still, the high rock face of the far north side
pits on the tor and at one time they were all being worked. mirrored in its dark depths, a magical pond echoes and
From around 1800 the plug-and-feather method for whispers here. Gorse-topped sheer sides of hewn granite
splitting stone was used, which meant hand drilling series step down in a tumble of tiers, their faces mottled by time.
of holes, then placing short iron chisels, the plugs, between Fine feathery grasses cling to the cut ledges, softening, while
pairs of thin iron feathers that reached the bottom of the muted colours and sky are reflected in the pools glassy
holes. Striking the plugs cleanly in turn brought percussive surface. On one side, moss-covered steps climb like a royal
pressure to the sides of the holes and thence to the heart of stairway disappearing to an unseen Elfin Queens palace,
the stone, making splitting more efficient. enticing and ethereal. The winter water looks oily, black
Better road access subsequently allowed these more remote in the shade, mysterious. Large rocks can just be glimpsed
tors to be quarried with some commercial success and this hovering underneath the surface near a marooned outcrop,
one was opened in 1918 by the Bodmin Granite Co. Ltd., the smooth tension occasionally broken by a small ripple.
responding partly to the need after the war for memorials to I can hear water dripping out of sight and a little grey bird
commemorate the dead. It supplied monument and building hops from ledge to ledge.
stone to London and Birmingham and extracted large The tiers eventually descend to meet an area of grass, a
blocks of flawless granite, reducing them on-site to precise close-cropped flattish knoll, springy underfoot. This is where
shapes and sizes. It wasnt to last. In the end, competition we sit in the summer, spread out on blankets and towels, hair
from abroad forced many moor quarries to close, though drip-drying in the sun, munching on sandwiches. A wide
this one was still in operation until the early 1960s. strip of delicate airy reeds, their sharp tips catching the light,
Now it is all abandoned. The remains of a hand crane separates the deep part of the quarry from a smaller pool that
stand lonely on an island platform in a flooded pit, its has flat boulders in the shallows, a perfect place to launch. I
iron column rusting away, a fading witness to the last stand and watch, drinking it all in, awed once more.
quarrymen. The siphons and pumps are long gone, though I think of my father again. He has gone but what he has
its possible to glimpse the farmers black plastic pipe, a given me is valuable. Not only a love and care for the natural
stealthy conduit snaking through mats of vegetation, used world, but also an understanding that it is the small things in
for watering stock in summer. What will remain forever are life, the reliable rituals of everyday walks and the excitement
the plug-and-feather and charge holes, the traces of cleaving of braving cold water in unusual places, that are the rhythm
etched indelibly into the vertical faces. and balm for the soul. Next time I dive I will remember.
Hunger nags, and I clamber on top of a boulder the size of
a car to eat a banana. There is a small pool on the top of the Sarah Walsh is a landscape designer turned writer, now
rock, worn down into a shallow circle by centuries of rain managing 10 acres of land for increased biodiversity in North
and erosion. I play with the pleasing variety in the depth of Cornwall. www.thinkingcowgirl.wordpress.com

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My Allotment
Peter Jewel shares an engaging sense of wonder over the
plants that will emerge from tiny seeds or pips on the
allotment that has become such a part of him

A
bitter wintry morning, the
ground soggy from several
days heavy rain, yet covered
with a crisp frost, like icing.
The white on the branches of the little
apple tree stands out against the dull
grey sky, and my breath condenses in
the still air. A shiver runs up my spine
part cold, part anticipation as I
walk to my plot. In their neat rows,
the cabbages, kale and chard look limp
in the dampness. By the overflowing
water butt the foxs sodden droppings,
and on a bare branch a solitary
magpie, squawking. Its 8.30 am on
my allotment, and Im the only one
here working, all the other plots a
silent empty patchwork. My winter
landscape.
I left my warm bed with the cat
snuggled into the hollow left by my
head. But Id rather be here than almost
anywhere, a place that I have created
and nurtured, one of a small group of Paintings by Chris Cyprus www.chriscyprus.com

allotments bordered by the road on


one side and the railway on the other,
a little bit of flat suburban England a calm joy, fully connected, absolutely his own vegetable patch. We each had
on the edge of town. Three years ago part of the world, the earth, the grass, a little fence and a gate, and I loved
I was offered an all-expenses-paid trip and all the vegetables. The laden creating borders, sowing a few seeds,
to Japan to give a talk at a friends tree exemplified the sense of swelling and watching some of them actually
important anniversary. My immediate come up and produce real carrots or
thought was: Oh no, I wont be able peas. Now as I stand in my prepared
to go to the allotment! and I had to
One of the joys of allotment all the delight and thrill
think very hard before accepting. having an allotment of that small boy returns, and I find
For the allotment has become part
of me. I remember standing on it
is the sense of myself in touch with that wonderful
sense of the possibility of growth.
one morning at the beginning of last camaraderie with When I took the allotment over it
autumn, by the beetroot and parsnips. other plot holders was not like that it was in a state
My whole body and being felt rich of great neglect. Waist-high thistles
and utterly at peace, and there was a and nettles covered much of the large
growing sense of warmth that seemed fruitfulness and glowing fulfilment of plot, and as I gradually and painfully
to rise from the ground and permeate the whole allotment. It was Samuel dug them out by hand I discovered
every sinew and nerve. I really belonged Palmers Magic Apple Tree. the couch grass roots, feet deep in the
to the earth, was completely rooted. When I was a small boy living in a ground. Years later, I still havent got
The warmth percolated up from the small house in a London suburb, my rid of them all. The digging was very
rich loam and went right through me father created three tiny gardens, for hard work, but I resisted the temptation
like an energy-giving sap. I was full of me and my two brothers, at the end of to hire a rotavator or use any chemical

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 57


To see more of Chris work visit Best of British Paintings by Chris Cyprus & Mark Sofilas
from 5 October, Creation Fine Arts, Beverly, East Yorkshire www.creationfinearts.co.uk

weedkillers, and very gradually what looked like rich, pristine even part of the excitement. I had no desire to grow show
soil was exposed, full of large plump worms. The excitement vegetables or compete with the other allotment holders.
of seeing beautiful beds of clear fertile earth! I had at last got I would gratefully accept any tips they might offer, and
the ground ready for planting, hoeing and raking to achieve a perhaps in time I would become a good enough grower of
fine tilth, and this felt like a great achievement in itself. I had vegetables myself.
carefully prepared the canvas and was now rather nervously One of the joys of having an allotment is the sense of
ready for the first brushstroke. camaraderie with other plot holders. I can think of no
It was very daunting too. I had no particular gardening other human activity where one meets and works alongside
skills or horticultural knowledge. Over the years, I had people from completely different backgrounds, and all are
tended various gardens attached to houses I had lived in, accepted and valued for themselves. People often offer each
and I had enjoyed doing that. I had sometimes bought and other some of their vegetables, or share seeds. Around my
planted flowers, shrubs and even occasional vegetables plot there are a Spanish husband and wife, whose plot is
chosen from garden stores. But this was very different. impeccable and who each year present me with some of
It would all be trial and error. And that felt fine it was their pepper plants; a company director who plants by the

58 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


moon; a drama teacher from a local secondary school; an long process that began with the planting of the seed, there
ex-policeman who grows wonderful leeks; and an Indian is a sense of joy in the completion. Then, a couple of hours
gardener who has a huge coriander patch and cultivates later it is cooked and eaten, and the delight in its startling
many other herbs. Two young women share a plot, and freshness and rich full flavour is something no supermarket
near them is a family with young children who dig away commodity can ever match.
enthusiastically with their plastic spades. The IT specialist This delight continues through most of the year. Those
three plots away told me he used to belong to a health club long pods of broad beans, with seven or eight beans swelling
that cost him nearly a thousand pounds a year. Now on his inside, give way to the carrots with their filigree leaves and
allotment he gets all the aerobic exercise he needs, plus the a hint of dark orange stump, and the red-veined leaves of
fresh air and a years supply of fresh organic vegetables the beetroot. Later comes the wonderful Cosse Violette
and all for an annual rent of about 30. French climbing bean, purple flowers and stems and long
Most people have a sense of the beauty of the natural purple pods, soaring upwards, while on the ground the
environment, but it is often a selective one. They will straggly courgettes, some buttercup yellow, others light
walk in the Cotswolds or the Lake District, and take and dark green stripes, sprawl and swell. Throughout
their holidays on the Cornish autumn the glossy dark leaves
coast. They will fly to exotic and bright yellow stems of the
locations around the world, Swiss chard intermingle with
and take photos of spectacular Nature writing at its best the densely curled violet-green
scenery. Travel documentaries leaves of the curly kale, and
and glossy brochures reinforce
brings together description, my favourite vegetable of all
this sense that beauty is always narrative and metaphor. the profusion of dark florets of
somewhere else, somewhere It takes us into a sense of place the purple sprouting broccoli.
not really connected to ones Allotments are bright havens
real life. We go there, see the and offers new meanings in a world where the destructive
sights, and then return. Next plundering of Nature by
year, having done that, we
Peter Reason, judge industrial companies and the
find another beauty spot. despoiling of the environment
On my allotment I have a by agribusiness are all around
very different sense that it is where I am right now, working us. My heart screams out when I see cut hedges where the
on the soil of my small patch of ground, that is so beautiful mangled, ripped and torn branches are the gashed wounds
and so fulfilling. Banal and very ordinary-seeming to most of a callous and brutal machine. Contrast that with the
people who drive past without really looking, allotments work of the traditional hedger whose sympathetically half-
are places where you have to slow down and open up to a cut and carefully bent saplings are woven into a living fence
different rhythm the rhythm of the Earth, from which we that will grow organically a source of pride and delight.
have cut ourselves off, and to which we need to return to It is exactly that sense of pride and delight that I feel in
fulfil our human potential. my allotment. Things of course go wrong some seeds
Many years ago I used to make a lot of homemade wine. dont come up, blackfly and blight sometimes destroy my
A friend and his wife came to offer their help collecting broad beans and tomatoes, slugs and snails are a perennial
dandelions, which make a delicious white. What next? problem, whitefly can get everywhere, the weather
he asked, once we had picked a large pile of the flower- sometimes makes things very difficult, and there are always
heads. Well sit down in the sun and pull off the individual the weeds, which survive and flourish when my vegetables
petals and put them in this bucket, I said. But thatll take dont. But that is all part of the way things are in the natural
hours! he was horrified. Yes, I smiled, and I think his world, like the sweat and aches of my body. I accept it all
wife understood: she smiled back and settled down. On an as it is, just as I accept the fox who tramples and digs up
allotment many things take time; one needs to settle back some of my plants. Once as I was sitting by my shed, he
into a different sense of time, to get back into balance with walked up to me, stopped a few feet away, and looked long
the pulse of Nature. and hard at me, almost nonchalant. He was scraggy and
Each year I witness the amazing miracle of growth, and thin, but still very beautiful. I smiled at him, a momentary
still get as excited as I did as a little boy when I see the first recognition, a connection. Then he was off, and I got up and
shoots emerge. How incredible it is that from the small bean carried on digging.
I planted several weeks ago a plant will emerge that grows I think of him now, in the winter cold. I hope hes survived.
to waist height and produces so many long pods of broad As I dig through the crisp frosty covering to the rich earth
beans! That a straggly large-leaved plant producing masses of beneath, the damp greyness all around me, I notice that the
green or yellow courgettes that seem to get bigger and bigger first tiny tips of the winter onions are emerging from their
in front of my very eyes should come from a little pip! Or globe-shaped bulbs, and there is a hint of green.
that amazing cabbages or leeks will emerge from tiny seeds!
One cannot fail to experience a sense of wonder and awe, Peter Jewel is a person-centred counsellor and supervisor, with
and when the fruit or vegetable is picked at the end of the a special interest in the potential for growth.

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The Sovereignty of Silence


Anthony Seldon discovers a quest for the meaning of silence

The Power of Silence: use. They soothe and persuade us into taking silence more
The Riches That Lie Within seriously. The power comes from the book being written
Graham Turner by a coolly detached intellectual rather than a fully paid-up
Bloomsbury, 2012 member of one or another sect. In a territory that is full
ISBN: 9781441182234 of dodgy characters and cults, Turner provides a piercing
and no-nonsense intellect. His book is a quest for the inner
meaning of silence, prompted initially by an experience he
had when on national service in Singapore.
Turner wanted to find whether others too had experiences
of interior locutions, or direct instructions from God.
He sets out on a journey that takes him across the world,
encountering some of the wisest and most thoughtful
people alive today. He travels to India, where he meets the
story-telling holy man Morari Bapu, and an 80-year-old
nun called Usha who tells him: Not speaking conquers
the senses, but not thinking conquers the mind. When
the mind is empty and we have no desires, something fresh
arises in the air and we merge with God.
Turner explores the world of music, where Stephen
Varcoe of the Royal College of Music tells him that silence
is extremely important to music. It is not only a lack of
sound. It is the canvas on which the whole thing is painted.
He learns how Mozart used silence to heighten drama and
create expectations, and Beethoven used it to hold tension,
whilst Chinese and Japanese music has even longer and
more meaningful silences.
In his chapter on drama, Turner notes how modern British
playwrights, including Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and
David Storey (most noticeably in his play Home), use
Flotilla (oil on board) by Stuart Buchanan
silence to great effect. Shakespeare too was a master of
Paintings by this artist available from Lena Boyle Fine Art www.lenaboyle.com silence, as in the pauses in Hamlets soliloquy To be or not
to be, or the ominous silence that follows Lears retort to
Cordelia: Nothing can come of nothing. Turner probes

A
book about silence? You must be joking. Why a the utilisation of silence by analysts and therapists to heal
book? Surely it would have been better to have had troubled minds, the unity with Nature that can be found
a tome of 254 pages, all entirely empty, the literary in silence in the mountains, and the use made of collective
equivalent of composer John Cages silent composition silence by Quakers.
4'33'' or dramatist Samuel Becketts play Breath, consisting The author is gently teasing of those he considers lacking
entirely of silence. Because words can drown out silence. in gravitas, but is laudably free of malice. He is unstinting,
I love the old Jewish joke about a group of rabbis who however, in his praise for those he considers his heroes,
heard that other religious groups were going away on none more so than Father Damien, who until recently was
retreats, which were all the rage. The rabbis met together abbot of Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery in Kentucky,
one Sunday morning and decided they too had to have a USA, where the mystic Thomas Merton spent so much of
retreat. But what should our focus be? asked one rabbi. his time. Father Damien told Turner about his own spiritual
Silence, said another. Great, said the first rabbi. Lets evolution: It was as if God had been waiting for all the
spend the time talking about silence. For those like me busyness to be over, so that he could really talk to me.
who have spent eight and more hours on Yom Kippur (the In the same chapter on Gethsemani, the author quotes
Jewish Day of Atonement) drowning in a barrage of words, psychiatrist Carl Jung arguing that humans need noise
silence is indeed a welcome idea. As the outgoing Chief because it stops the inner voice of the conscience from being
Rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks, acknowledges in these heard. People, Jung wrote, become habituated to noise as
pages, Were not very much into silence in Judaism. they do to excessive alcohol: Just as you pay for this with
The words in this book, nevertheless, are put to very good cirrhosis of the liver, so in the end you pay for nervous

60 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


REVIEWS

stress with a premature depletion of your vital substance. It is easy and perhaps trite to pick out omissions in the
The most moving chapter in the book describes the impact text. But, that said, I would have liked more on mindfulness
of silence in war-torn Lebanon, where it has encouraged and the work of medical advocates of meditation such as Jon
Islamic and Christian fighters to want to build bridges and Kabat-Zinn in the USA. Nothing, however, can detract from
peace together. the fundamental value of this book. Nowhere in it is the case
Silence, a Zen master explains, exists on five levels. The first for silence made more clearly than by another of the authors
is the absence of words and talk. Then comes inner silence and heroes, Trappist monk Thomas Keating, who is mystified by
the stilling of the endless internal monologue inside our heads, the widespread hankering after noise across modern society.
then a total absence of self, then a discovery of the state Our nature is absolute silence, he says. Everything comes
of pure energy, and finally the realisation of oneness with from silence, including God. Silence was not something you
the entire universe. This book is light on such analysis, and had to go and get. It was something you were.
it might have been helpful to have broken up the essentially
descriptive text with more such analytical passages. Anthony Seldon is Master of Wellington College.

A Sense of Vocation
Russell Warfield urges us to bring dignity to handiwork
The Case for Working with Your Hands: gushing tap is a hell of a lot smarter than their respective
Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and standings in society would credit. From here, he meditates
Fixing Things Feels Good on how the works of thinkers like Aristotle, Marx,
Matthew Crawford Heidegger and Arendt come to bear on a toilet that
Penguin, 2010 wont flush resulting in far-reaching conclusions on
ISBN: 9780141047294 morality, economics and culture. His points are frequently
convincing, with the books best chapters shot through with
insight on each page. When he paints todays job market as

I
m young enough to testify that our education system still a vacuous, dystopian extension of the Taylorist logic that
looks down on qualifications leading to a living earned led to the assembly line a century ago, it feels as if he is
by trade. But Im also old enough to be among those pointing towards a blueprint for a far better way of living
visited by anxieties about ones sense of self as an employee where the apparently competing demands of capitalism and
in the knowledge economy, where one of the most fearsome community are reconciled, while restoring a sense of agency
questions to be asked at a party is So, what is it that you to the individual.
do? The point at which these two fault lines meet gives Crawford is specifically rallying at the dehumanised
rise to Matthew Crawfords highly stimulating book The homogenisation effect of globalisation and new capitalism,
Case for Working with Your Hands, which stands up for but his repeated calls for personal responsibility betray a
the intellectual demands of handiwork, as part of broader libertarian streak, placing him in a margin of the political
anti-zeitgeist philosophising on education and employment. spectrum. But any reader with an eye on environmental
Surnames like Baker and Miller suggest that ones vocation issues cannot fail to build the bridge from Crawfords
was once something that one was, rather than something that arguments to something resembling the fabric of a
one simply did. They suggest a recognised purpose within a more sustainable culture one built around humanised
community, and a strong sense of identity. Today, by contrast, community, localisation and reconnection with the things
it is becoming increasingly in vogue to talk about ones work/ that we rely upon.
life balance, as if one were not plainly a subset of the other. So whether or not youre convinced by the nuances of
(And consider the likelihood of one of my descendants ending Crawfords philosophising, The Case for Working with
up with the name of Russell Communications-Assistant.) Your Hands remains an engaging and radical book simply
Examining how this shift occurred, Crawford argues that by virtue of calling into question the legitimacy of holding
most jobs have been drained of the need for intellectual certain means of employment in higher esteem than others.
engagement, to the point that workers valued for their As a catalyst for rethinking our attitudes towards work,
ostensibly superior education are becoming actively stupider. how work shapes individuals, and how individuals engage
And with individual jobs being subsumed into globalised with society, Crawfords book is a lonely, yet powerful
processes, he concludes that we are divorcing ourselves from voice within the narrowing parameters of the knowledge
the things that we rely upon, to the detriment of our moral economy but a voice as welcome as it is vital.
and intellectual character.
Crawford begins from the obvious (if rarely articulated) Russell Warfield is the sustainability communications assistant
point that the plumber who can fix the BA graduates for NUS (National Union of Students).

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Radiant Silence
Peter Reason reflects on the evocative
quality of Kathleen Jamies Nature writing

Sightlines
Kathleen Jamie
Sort of Books, 2012
ISBN: 9780956308665

T
hose who have read Kathleen Jamies first collection
of essays, Findings, will remember the close-up
quality of her writing: always quietly observant
and thoughtful, sometimes domestic, often linked with her
experiences as a mother of young children. She watches
peregrines nesting from her kitchen window, writes about
spiders and fever, and visits Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh
to examine pathology specimens, as well as following trails Gannet, Shetland Islands Jouan & Rius/naturepl.com
and visiting islands and clifftops. This is Nature writing as
intimate encounter rather than as heroic adventure.
In the London Review of Books she rather caustically, silence that radiates from the mountains, and the ice and
and some would say unfairly, criticised Robert Macfarlanes the sky, a mineral silence which presses powerfully on our
book The Wild Places as the writing of a lone enraptured bodies deep and quite frightening. The silence becomes
male, too conservative, too romantic, and indeed too self- not just what is heard and not heard, but a synaesthesia: the
centred for her taste. Not wild-minded enough. She is aural is interpenetrated by the visual and the kinaesthetic.
interested in the wild not as something we stride over but as We are taken directly into her experience of silence that is
a force that requires constant negotiation. The wild will so close to, and that illuminates, our own.
come to us, she argues, in childbirth, in fever, in the smaller So what is it about this writing that is so compelling? It is
and sometimes darker moments of life. partly Jamies presence. In all the stories, she is completely
Jamies second volume, Sightlines, like Findings, consists of there, with her observations and reflections, yet never
a dozen or so essays describing and reflecting on the world obtrusive. She never insists, never forces us to see through
about her. This takes her further afield, to the Norwegian her eyes, and yet she leads us to do so. She draws what
Arctic, a gannetry on Shetland, cleits in St Kilda, and wildlife is familiar towards us, so we see it afresh, and she makes
and ancient remains on Rona but also to a pathology lab the unfamiliar feel as though it could become known. The
in Dundee and to watch an eclipse of the moon from the writing is close at hand, with detailed reflections that are
window of her house. Whether it is icebergs, whale skeletons, not unnecessarily decorative or over-elaborated; yet on
the corpse of a dead petrel, or Helicobacter pylori studied close study they are full of evocative metaphor: radiant
on a microscope slide, the reader is taken to an intimate silence, gannets interrogating the sea, the Earths
view. We are brought not just to see through Jamies eyes but shadow eclipsing the surface of the moon translucent, like
to feel through her perspective as well, which often means black silk. Hers is a poets eye, in this prose just as in her
connecting the wild that we reach out for with a wild that is poetry: the award-winning collection The Tree House and,
always with us. just published, The Overhaul.
I am an unashamed Kathleen Jamie fan, and have been Reading Kathleen Jamie shows us that we are participants
returning often to her essays with the question, What is in our world. Her writing teaches us that we make false
it that makes this writing so beautiful and so evocative? distinctions when we separate the wild and the not-wild,
Just to open the book and read the first lines Theres no the extraordinary and the everyday. She brings together the
swell to speak of, just little lapping waves All along the world of rocks and icebergs and aurora with the world of
shoreline lie trinkets of white ice, nudged up by the tide emotions, memory, hopes and fears. She does not preach,
we are led into the gentle adventure. The party from the for there is here no heavy or explicit environmental message
ship cruising the Norwegian Arctic are taken inland across indeed, she seems rather wary of environmentalism. The
the hummocky goose-plain to a higher spot, where their wonder, the strangeness and the beauty stand for themselves
guide invites them to sit for a while, keep quiet and listen. and remind us how precious they are.
Jamie tells us how she found herself listening not just to
the silence, but through the silence, which she describes Peter Reason is completing his book The Call of the Running
first simply as extraordinary, but then more startlingly as a Tide. He blogs at peterreason.posterous.com

62 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


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Allegorical Storytelling
Peter Ainsworth is not convinced Narnia needs defending

The Lions World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia


Rowan Williams
SPCK Publishing, 2012
ISBN: 9780281068951

W
e tend not to burn or behead archbishops these
days, but the Anglican Church is still capable
of making a nuisance of itself, as Rowan
Williams knows only too well. There have been rows over
the prospect of legalising gay marriage; rows over the
appointment (or not) of women bishops; difficulties with
handling the vibrant though culturally disparate branches
of the Christian faith in Africa and North America.
Narnia is a far cry from all of this. Or so one might think.
The magical world created by C.S. Lewis in a series of seven
Narnia novels for children has never been out of print, but
neither has it avoided controversy. Williams strides into the
row, robes flowing, with academic relish.
I am not sure that he does Lewis any favours by doing
so. As one might expect from such a distinguished pen,
this is a thoughtful and serious book. On one level, it is a
contemplation of Christian faith as seen through the prism
of Lewiss undoubted genius at story telling. On another, Rowan Williams Tony Kyriacou/Rex Features

though, it is a deliberate attempt to argue with people whose


views Williams should be happy to ignore, or just live with.
Phillip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials Williams grapples in his learned and rather tortuous way.
trilogy, and other novels clearly influenced or affected He is also exercised by the criticism Lewis has attracted from
by Lewis, took time out to excoriate the Narnia novels fundamentalist Christians who dont like the pagan presence
several times, notably at the Hay Festival in 2002. He was in Narnia of mythical creatures like centaurs, let alone
reported in The Guardian as saying that Lewiss work was witches. Who would want to be Archbishop of Canterbury?
monumentally disparaging of girls and women. Just Its not a row worth having. Lewis does not need to be
for good measure, he added: It is blatantly racist. Even defended from his critics, and his critics should have better
J.K. Rowling (also clearly influenced by the Narnia series) things to do with their time. The enduring appeal of the
has implied that Lewis was sexist. Narnia books lies in their ability to create an exciting, vivid,
Williams deals with these accusations very well. He new place in the imagination of all readers of all ages and
makes the boringly obvious point that Lewis was a male faiths. Of course the Narnia books are allegorical; but their
writer in the 1950s. That is an important point to make. appeal derives not from any religious purpose, but from
Recent scandals involving the behaviour of dead celebrities great storytelling and a massive sense of adventure. Lewis
in the subsequent decade should cause us to reflect on the said: At first I had very little idea how the story would go.
profound way that public attitudes to gender, race and class But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I
have changed. Lewis was undoubtedly a hugely successful had been having a good many dreams about lions about
writer and an influential Christian thinker, but he was of his that time. Apart from that, I dont know where the lion
time. And, Mr Pullman, who is not? came from or why he came. They are childrens stories.
In the end, though, this book gives too much of an Perhaps we should look no further.
impression of being written in reaction to criticism of the In any case, which of us will ever forget that moment
world of Narnia. It is undoubtedly a work of scholarship when, either prompted by the book or by the numerous
and affection, but it is defensive and it doesnt need to be. film and television adaptations, we first went through that
Does it matter that the lion Aslan (Lewiss fictional way of wardrobe and entered the magic of Narnia?
depicting divine intervention) is an animal rather than a
human? Does it matter whether some animals speak and Peter Ainsworth chairs the UK Big Lottery Fund, Plantlife, and
others dont? These are just some of the issues with which the Elgar Foundation. He writes poems and short stories.

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Another Education
Mary Tasker finds hope for education in humanity, not the market

The Life and Death of Secondary Education for All in the provision of secondary education we have failed to
Richard Pring articulate these aims, let alone achieve them.
Routledge, 2012 Before the 1944 Education Act, secondary education in
ISBN: 9780415536363 Britain was the privilege of the few, and the majority of
working-class children attended the non-fee-paying elementary
school or central school up to the age of 14, to receive a basic

R
ichard Pring was formerly Professor of Education and training in skills. After 1944, all children were entitled to a
Director of Educational Studies at Oxford University. free secondary education up to the age of 16. But the division
He is a distinguished philosopher of education, an of schools into a tripartite structure grammar, secondary
advocate of the practice and philosophy of the American modern and technical led to the separation of children into
educator John Dewey. He is also a those who went to grammar school and
patron of Human Scale Education and those who did not, with the result that
a believer in the importance of human 20 years later a government report stated
scale in the education of children and
Other countries have that half our future had not achieved
young people. The Resurgence Trust pinned their faith in the aspirations of 1944. The new
chair, James Sainsbury, in his New children and teachers comprehensive schools of the 1960s and
Year message last January, urged that 1970s were intended to bring together
human activities must be on a human children of all abilities under one roof,
scale, not an industrial scale, if we but the industrial scale of these schools,
are to lead good and purposeful lives in harmony with and their reluctance with some notable exceptions to
Nature. Pring argues that education has a crucial role to develop new approaches to learning and school organisation
play in developing in young people the values and attitudes again led to frustration and failure for large numbers of young
that will enable them to lead such good and purposeful people. The dream of universal secondary education that
lives. He restates the true aims of education and shows how would develop the talents of all children and prepare them for
the democratic life and community living remained unrealised.
Today it would seem that the dream is even more remote.
Comprehensive schools remain, but the cohesiveness of
the school system has been shattered by the introduction
of state-funded independent schools. These are academies,
which have increased from 200 in 2010 to 2,400 today and
are either converter academies or sponsored academies
free schools of every description, including faith schools
and technical schools. It is a chaotic mix. Local Education
Authorities are in a state of free fall, and the control of the
whole system of 20,000 schools is vested in one person: the
Secretary of State. In 1944 the Minister of Education had
but three powers. In 2013 the Secretary of State has over
2,000. The fragmentation of the system has brought with
it the entry of business interests, and the future may well
lie with chains of for-profit schools being run by business.
The language of business now shapes policymaking, and
Pring is coruscating in his criticism of the language of
deliverology and management speak.
Into the moral vacuum of a market-led education system,
Pring injects the values of a person-centred education. He
believes that the fundamental question to ask is: What does
it mean to be human? In Prings view the essence of being
human is understanding, capability, community mindedness,
moral seriousness and sense of dignity, and the purpose of
education is to develop these human attributes. Against this
backcloth education takes on a different light. The experience
of the learner becomes central and informs a wider vision
Illustration by Robert Hunter www.robertfrankhunter.com

64 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


REVIEWS

of learning that combines the academic, the artistic and the created. It is not yet too late. The effect of government policy
practical to forge a common culture accessible to all children. in this country over the last three decades has been to create
Other countries have pinned their faith in children and a fearful and demoralised teaching profession and a growing
teachers and turned their backs on the quasi-market in divide between those students who can achieve in the
education with its tests, targets and league tables. Finland, system and those who cannot. This is morally unacceptable
for example, has achieved the highest levels of educational in a democratic country. In this carefully argued and uplifting
attainment in the world without constant testing and book Richard Pring tells us that there is another way.
inspection. Pring sets out the steps whereby a locally managed
and democratically accountable system of education could be Mary Tasker is former chair of Human Scale Education.

The Path Less Travelled


Jenny Hare accompanies a mindful walker and shares his insights

The Art of Mindful Walking: Meditations on the Path


Adam Ford
Leaping Hare Press, 2011
ISBN: 9781907332586

W
alking keeps me fit, makes my dog bouncily
happy and unfailingly lifts my spirits too. Its
also wonderful for thinking things through, and
sometimes understanding, ideas and inspirations come to
me. Blissfully, there is the feeling of being in touch with
Nature and often with something mystical or spiritual.
How welcoming to read in the introduction: Dont
set out to do some thoughtful walking. Just walk. So I
started reading The Art of Mindful Walking with no fear of Cover illustration by Clifford Harper courtesy Ivy Press Limited
prescriptive demands, stern teaching or pressure: I would
simply read, just as I simply walk, step by step. But the book is more than a philosophical and spiritual
And a beguilingly enjoyable journey it proved. Just like journey. It reminds us of practical considerations. What to
a walk, as the pages progress the views change; there is wear? What to take? And in both his company and others
always something remarkable to catch attention where you we are vividly shown places where we may never have the
are now, and a pleasant anticipation of new interests and chance to walk. We meet Kierkegaard, who wrote that daily
insights to come along the way and over the horizon. he walked himself into wellbeing and away from illness,
Throughout the book there is the comforting, humbling into his best thoughts and away from burdensome ones.
and yet at the same time awe-inspiring sense of being part Sections on great travellers such as Robyn Davidson and
of a timeless tradition. Our oldest human ancestors would Bruce Chatwin made me want to read more of their work.
have been mindful as they walked when searching for food, As we walk with Adam Ford in the countryside, through
while the first written records we have of mindful walking cities, along the waterside, memories of walks taken in the
are by the peripatetic philosophers of ancient Greece. past flood back. The feel of the track, beach or road beneath
It also made me tingle with recognition to read that the our feet, the things we saw, conversations, thoughts. So
concept of a sacred path is at the heart of many religions: many feelings. Such richness, echoed here as the pages turn
for example, early Christians were followers of the Way, and the path unfolds.
Taoism is named after the Tao the Way and the mystery There is a delightful section on walking in moonlight. Oh,
behind the world while for Buddhists mindfulness is how good it is to walk in the light of a moon lets do it
the seventh element of the Eightfold Path in our journey more. Lets walk more day and night.
towards understanding and peace. To read this book is to enjoy the company of Adam Ford
There are some profound thoughts on life and its as he walks, generously and charismatically sharing his
dichotomies. Adam Ford writes: I was very aware of the thoughts and anecdotes. I loved the journey and learned
transitory and vulnerable nature of my own existence and much along the way.
later mentions the immortal dignity of the human being.
He is also illuminating on the questions of loneliness and Jenny Hare is a poet, counsellor, artist and author.
solitude, and on walking alone or in company. Her latest book is Unlock Your Creativity.

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 65


L E T TERS

Letters to the Editors


CANADAs CATAsTROPHES evolution as a species to come to terms with these.
Baroness Neuberger (My Green Life, Issue 277) is However, I feel the need to sound a note of caution about
woefully misinformed about Canada: I know, I live there. the changes at the cultural and social levels rather than just
The right-wing Harper Conservative government has the individual.
dismantled almost everything that we have accomplished All cultural, social, economic, corporate, political, etc.
environmentally in this country for the past two decades. institutions are managed by individuals not by some
It has also blocked international treaties on climate change, disembodied mysterious forces and can in essence only
and has just withdrawn from the UN Conference on be changed by changing the attitudes of those individuals.
Desertification. Albert Schweitzer said that when the meadows green
Through the Bill C38, scientists have been laid off and in spring as they are at last doing here it is because
research stations closed, environmental safeguards have been each individual blade of grass turns green from inside out,
removed from most of our lakes and rivers and protection and he maintained that tinkering with the structures of
for endangered species watered down all in the name of institutions will achieve very little if not accompanied by a
streamlining the environmental process. What this bill change in attitude.
effectively did was to give our oil and mining companies a That is not to say that we dont need society and the help
free rein to do pretty much whatever they please. This bill has and support we can give each other, but the change has
been an environmental disaster for Canada and Canadians. to happen in peoples hearts and they beat in individuals.
Then there is the Alberta Tar Sands, probably the Percy Mark, by email
biggest environmental catastrophe in the world. Even if
Baroness Neuberger didnt know about our Bill C38, and
our governments collusion in the blocking of international
PROUD TO BE AN ANARCHIST
I greatly enjoyed the wide range, lively writing and splendid
treaties on the environment, how could she possibly not
photography in the May/June issue, including Peter
have known about the Alberta Tar Sands?
Ainsworths positive review of the late Colin Wards essays
Colin Creasey, by email
in Talking Green. But I was surprised to see Ward described
as a self-confessed anarchist, as if the name was something
FOSSILISED ECONOMY of which he might have been ashamed, rather than proud.
I like Vandana Shivas description of the economy as It would also have been useful if Ainsworths reference to
fossilised. Wards fondness for the phrase the seed beneath the snow
One glaring fault in our present economic paradigm is had led to his recommending the 2006 book Anarchist Seeds
that it recognises and measures only financial capital. A new Beneath the Snow by David Goodway, with its thought-
economics that gives equal weight to environmental, human, provoking account of Left-Libertarian Thought and British
social and financial capital would do much towards setting Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward.
the economy in a new and more sustainable direction. Peter Faulkner, by email
Patricia Knox
Anglesey
COVER TO COVER
For me, Resurgence has vastly improved in the last couple
CHANGE FROM WITHIN of issues. I used to find many of the articles a bit waffly and
I read Andy Fishers article on ecopsychology (Issue 277) repetitive, and shamefully, I must admit I skimmed them,
with very great interest. concentrating on the reviews and arty stuff at the back. But
It seems very timely to me that someone from the world now the articles are sharper and newsier, the arguments are
of psychologists should enter the fray and the discussion more rigorous and Im reading the whole magazine.
of what I would call the real world namely that world Double the value! Thanks, Resurgence & Ecologist!
that is trying realistically and earnestly to confront the Sean Sinclair, by email
real issues of our time and how to move forward in our PS Dont cut the arty stuff at the back, though!

We welcome letters and emails commenting on Resurgence & Ecologist articles. These should
include your postal address. Send your letters to The Editors, Resurgence & Ecologist, Ford House,
Hartland, Bideford, Devon EX39 6EE or email editorial@resurgence.org
Letters may be edited for reasons of space or clarity.

66 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


C RO S S WO R D

Readers Crossword
A brain teaser full of ecological clues
Across 1 2 3 4 5 6

7 Moonlight, for example, composed by Beethoven.(6)


7 8
8 Country known by its natives as Land of the
Thunder Dragon. (6)
9 It could follow service, family or shoe. (4)
9 10
10 Encourage to arrange Tim a veto? (8)
11 How Mark Beaumont covered the globe in
2007-8. (7)
11 12 13
13 Persian for voice, this website mobilises
campaigns for environmental and political 14
causes. (5)
15 A woodland creature from Greek mythology. (5) 15 16 17 18

17 They should pay who do this. (7) 19


20 According to many bible translations, man has
this relationship with animals. (8) 20 21

21 Fiery destination of those who commit suttee. (4)


22 At least one fifth of the Earths surface is covered
by this. (6) 22 23

23 Often used as an aid to meditation. (6)

Down
1 The ------ Canyon spilt its oil off Lands End 12 The UK is crisscrossed by these ancient paths. (3,5)
in 1967. (6) 14 Do only this, a byword for a holistic approach. (7)
2 This is moral in the title of a Radio 4 16 This bird is the symbol of the RSPB. (6)
programme. (4)
18 The lowest class of worker in Norse society. (6)
3 The F in CIWF. (7)
19 Intuition represents this sense. (5)
4 Milton, first President of independent Uganda. (5)
21 Long for a larch? (4)
5 Teddy Goldsmith published a blueprint for this
The answers will be published in the next issue and available online
in 1972. (8)
www.resurgence.org If you have any comments about this new feature
6 Om mani padme hum is an example. (6) please email Tim: ecores_crossword@hotmail.co.uk

Help more people discover Resurgence & Ecologist

I would like to make a donation. I enclose a cheque Name


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Or, call the membership team +44 (0)1208 841824 (Mon-Thurs 9-5)

Please send to The Resurgence Trust, Rocksea Farmhouse, St Mabyn, Bodmin, Cornwall PL30 3BR, UK

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 67


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ACCOMMODATION 25 Sept. 110 per person. Residential option FOR ALL READERS
recommended. For further details please contact who are considering a trip overseas, we would
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Walking distance main tourist attractions, Tel. 015394 41396. www.brantwood.org.uk journey by train.
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nearby. Tea & coffee provided. 27 pppn. Tel. Moira
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0131 668 3718
Yoga and Massage, Mosaics, Textile Crafts, located. Direct transport to attractions, airports
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CORNWALL: SELF-CATERING
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welcome, organic gardens and friendly farm YURTS AND HUT BY THE POND
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COMMUNITIES Tel. 01285 640441
PREHISTORIC LIVING www.theorganicfarmshop.co.uk
SEEKING COMMUNITY
Two-day experience living the Prehistoric way
Wed like to hear from others interested HOLIDAY COTTAGE ON COTSWOLD
using ancient wisdom making stone tools, natural
in community, with the opportunity of ORGANIC FARM
cordage, fire, lamps and pots.
smallholding/growing food, with separate Lovely south-facing holiday cottage at the end of
www.ancient-arts.org/training.html
residences and shared undertakings. One the track. Woodburner, old Indian furniture, farm
of us is Anglican and a member of the Iona shop and caf to visit, the whole farm to roam.
TASTE THE PAST
Community, the other a Quaker. Wed hope See www.theorganicfarmshop.co.uk for details.
Two days of brewing ancient ale using hot stones
to find ways of sharing worship (possibly
and a pit and gathering and cooking food with a
of different kinds), and serving the local RUGGED, BEAUTIFUL PEMBROKESHIRE
prehistoric flavour.
community as well as finding a way of life Two eco-friendly converted barns on smallholding.
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consistent with global justice and a flourishing Each sleeps 4. Coastal path 2 miles. Tel.
earth. For more information or to chat 01348 891286 holidays@stonescottages.co.uk
please contact Tim or Gill: 01647 24789 or EVENTS www.stonescottages.co.uk
gillwestcott@gmail.com
ECOHESION MID WALES
offers freelance lectures in 2013. The Ecology Earth, Air, Water, Fire... Walk wild hilltops, breathe
COURSES of Economics the assumed separability of the fresh air, explore streams and waterfalls, snuggle
ecologically cohesive (ecohesive) world, of which we down by the woodburner. Cosy, bright, peaceful
COURSES AND EVENTS AT BRAZIERS PARK
are part. Details: Stuart McBurney 0114 288 8037 s/c hideaway for 2+2. Also quiet streamside
Sustainability courses. Yoga & Tai Chi retreats in
camping and campfires.
beautiful Rural Oxfordshire. 01491 680221
GREENSPIRIT ANNUAL GATHERING Rob and Pip: 01686 420423
www.braziers.org.uk
11-13 October 2013 at Trigonos, North Wales. Jay www.the-gorfanc-hideaway.co.uk
Griffiths speaker.
CLEAN LANGUAGE COURSES
www.greenspirit.org.uk/ag2013 SW FRANCE
Learn to ask questions without assumptions
or tel. Joan on 023 9259 9299 Small, detached cottage in peaceful, beautiful
and help people explore their inner landscapes
surroundings. Lovely walks, local restaurants
through metaphor. Courses from 1 to 12 days
TAUNTON VEGAN FAIR and markets, river nearby, wine-growing area,
or experience your own personal journey in
Saturday 3 August. 11am-3pm. Free entry. Free lots of books + hammock! Tel. 0033 565 36 22 13
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food tasters, cafe, stalls, local producers, ethical or email webb@wanadoo.fr
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fashion. North Street Church Hall, Taunton, TA1 1LW.
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SPIRITUAL LANDSCAPES
Wembury, nr Plymouth, Devon. For peace and
23-25 September 2013. Tutor Howard Hull,
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wooded valley close to the sea. Abundance of
retreat. A series of carefully selected meditations
SOUTH WEST WALES birds and wildlife. Gold awards for conservation.
in word and image with walks amid the beauties
Mill Stream Cottage & The Wrens Nest - perfect Pets welcome.
of the Brantwood estate frame this opportunity
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to refresh busy lives with days of personal
www.penpynfarch.co.uk 01559 389 917 www.churchwoodvalley.com
space and reflection. 4.00pm 23 Sept - 1.00pm

68 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


ITALY, TUSCAN-UMBRIAN BORDER COSY ECO-COTTAGE, HARTLAND, DEVON PEACEFUL LOIRE VALLEY
Lovely 17th-century farmhouse, flexible Converted barn in beautiful location (sleeps 2), Picturesque farmhouse with 2 holiday cottages
accommodation for 12-14, in two buildings short walk from Hartland village and stunning generating income, plus productive land. Details
(access for partially disabled), six bedrooms coastline. Perfect for artistic or spiritual retreat. www.civray.co.uk
and four bath/shower rooms. In its own private Phone 01237 441426 or email
curtilage in soft rolling countryside with far- julia@hodgetts.me.uk SPAIN, ANDALUCIA, LAS ALPUJARRAS
reaching views and large swimming pool. Well A protected gem in the mountains. Established
sited for Florence, Arezzo, Cortona, Urbino and MISCELLANEOUS and stunning rural tourism home in the sought-
Perugia. Available year-round. after Taha de Pitres. Genuine 12 bedrooms,
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Tel. 01392 811436 or email slrs@perridge.com I am a Chinese student at Schumacher College. independent dwellings. Superb salt pool and
I plan to make a pilgrimage in September 2013 unspoilt views. Central heating. Set in 2 acres
TOTNES (SOUTH DEVON) walking from the college to my home town of landscaped gardens with abundant water and
Self-catering double-bedroom riverside in Guangzhou, China, visiting ecological and income-producing almonds, olives and many
apartment. Situated on the edge of the spiritual centres on the way. I will walk without fruit trees. Total tranquillity. 1km all amenities
magnificent Dartington estate. Short walk money so as to have more connection with and Sierra Nevada National Park. Granada city or
along the river path to Totnes mainline station people, while receiving food & accommodation. the sea 1 hour. 565,000.
and town centre. Perfect base for exploring by I am looking for people who might host me, www.alpujarraspropertysalebyowner.com
foot, canoe and bike. www.littleriverside.com suggest centres to visit, or walk with me for parts Tel: + 44 (0) 1865 200 023
Tel. 01803 866257 mobile: 07875 727763 or the whole of the pilgrimage.
Email. vivian-ling@hotmail.com HOUSE IN SOUTHERN BRITTANY, FRANCE
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Streamside caravan, sleeps 4+. Conservation Large organic plot 2,510m2. 127,000 ono.
smallholding; abundant wildlife, pond, swimming, FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT Further information maggieww5@hotmail.com
beautiful walks. Near Machynlleth and Centre Proofreading and copy-editing by a member
for Alternative Technology. 160180pw. No of the Resurgence & Ecologist team. Reliable, FRANCE
smoking. Also CAMPING. 01654 702718 friendly service. Helen Banks 01726 823998 Rural Charente, near Charroux, ensemble
greenholidays@yfelin.plus.com helenbanks@phonecoop.coop of traditional stone houses and land
www.yfelin.plus.com for sale or rent together or separately.
COACHING WITH SPIRIT Suit families, community, gtes.
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Superb yoga studio, teacher available, sea and livelihood, from a spiritually intelligent Tel. Peter or Patricia +44 (0) 7941 466 503 or
loch, log stoves, self-catering 1-4 persons. perspective. www.sallylever.co.uk +44 (0) 7812 104 933
No single supplement! Tel. 01470 592367
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Horsebox holiday. Somewhere different to stay Full advice and support for all your publishing www.louletownhouseforsale.weebly.com
in Cornwall. Off-the-grid vintage horsebox on needs. Contact Resurgence & Ecologists email flynnjam@sapo.pt
a registered organic smallholding. Only 2 miles Contributing Editor, Lorna Howarth:
from the north coast with wonderful beaches, lorna@thewritefactor.co.uk UMBRIA/TUSCANY BORDER
walks & wildlife. Tel. 01872 552661 Web: www.thewritefactor.co.uk 01237 440268 Rare rural ruin with planning for 225m2 house.
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IRELAND DIY, organic gardening skills or wishing to be
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cottages, smallholdings, etc., in beautiful the beach! Tel: 020 8816 8533
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unspoilt countryside. Some within reach Email: info@kalikalos.com,
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of Steiner school. Greenvalley Properties. Website: www.kalikalos.com
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Tel. (+353) (0)61 921498 www.gvp.ie

NORTH CORNWALL, MAWGAN PORTH VENUES


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BUCKFASTLEIGH ELECTRO-SENSITIVE RETIREE,
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exchange for careful guests. Contact Hilary woman, independent, professional, reliable,
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01291 627125 or befarbetter@btinternet.com non-smoking. Anything, anywhere considered
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Phone 01497 820252
www.planchecottages.com

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 69


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70 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


SUMMER GATHERING
25 28 July 2013

Enjoy four days of talks, music, crafts


& walks hosted by Satish Kumar at
Green and Away, nr Worcester.
Off Grid, sustainable living in action!

BOOK TODAY!
Adults: 195 inc all meals
Reduced rate for children and low income

For more details and bookings:


www.resurgence.org/summergathering
Email: info@resurgence.org Tel: 01237 441293

Speakers Meditation, movement & voice


Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader Harmony Singing Around The Fire:
Miriam Darlington, creative writing: Writing Janne Tooby and Toni Gilligan
the wild: thinking with animals Morning voice and body work:
Mumta Ito, International Centre for Wholistic Janne and Will Tooby
Law: Evolving Earth Law Indian Raga and embodied voicework:
Satish Kumar, Editor-in-Chief at Resurgence & Will Tooby
Ecologist: Soil, Soul, Society Tai Chi Movement for Wellbeing:
Donnachadh McCarthy, 3 Acorns Eco-audits: Teena Gould
How To Save the Planet from The Prostitute State Chi Gong with bamboo sticks:
Shantena Augusto Sabbadini, Associate June Mitchell
Director of the Pari Center for New Learning:
The Valley Spirit, Lao Tzus Tao Te Ching
Performance Poetry
Helen Moore and Niall McDevitt
Workshops
Botany and wild flower walks: Jon Every
Music
Implications of Wild Law for the economic Caitlin and Tablatom: mantra concert
system: Linda Siegele and Christian Heitsch Music from Kora Colours
Green woodworking and crafts Sophie Stammers, singer-songwriter
Open Space workshops: Tricia Lustig Open mic evening hosted by Helen
Weave your own community action: and Niall including poetry, performance
Jan Copley and song.

This event will raise money for The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity (No.1120414)

ENVIRONMENT ACTIVISM SOCIAL JUSTICE ARTS ETHICAL LIVING

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 71


RESURGENCE positive make money
investments do good

CLASSIFIED
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Issue 280 Sep/Oct - 1st Jul How just
Issue 281 Nov/Dec - 2nd Sept
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72 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


A LTERNATIVES
St Jamess Piccadilly / London Life on the Edge
Events inspiring your One persons attempt to emulate Resurgences philosophy of Earth-Art-Spirit
heart, mind and soul online weekly at: www.windgrove.com

GRAHAM HANCOCK
Shamanistic Consciousness
Sunday 16 June
Its your life
but its our childrens future

Once youve remembered your


MARIANNE WILLIAMSON loved ones, please help Resurgence
Work, Money and Miracles to serve the planet for future
Weekend 6/7 July generations by leaving a gift in
your will. Your legacy will ensure
Resurgence lives on, offering positive
perspectives and upholding the
values that were important to you
in your life.
A gift in your will, no matter what
size, will help Resurgence to embrace
and include more like-minded
people and organisations. Together,
we can make the world a better
BYRON KATIE place for our children.
Loving What Is
Saturday 13 July For more information on what your legacy can achieve, please call
Satish Kumar on 01237 441293 or email legacy@resurgence.org
www.resurgence.org/legacy
www.alternatives.org.uk The Resurgence Trust is a Registered Charity (No. 1120414) Image: James Savage from Voice of the Children www.leafandstar.co.uk

EXPERIENCE WEEK
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info@findhorn.org
tel: 01309 690311
Scottish Charity Number SC007233

Spiritual Community Learning Centre Ecovillage

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 73


transformative and
small-group learning

Living Soil
1-5 July - With Patrick Whitefield, Charles Dowding, Stephan
Harding and Bethan Stagg
Understand the alchemy of soil and how to manage it for a productive
and low-carbon future.

Complexity and Collaboration


15 - 19 July - With Prof. Eve Mitleton-Kelly
Transform and empower your workplace with 10 principles of
complexity theory.

Radical Ecopsychology
22 July - 2 August - With Andy Fisher and Joel Kovel
Explore a new psychology for our ecological age.

Exploring the Wild Mind


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74 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013
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Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 75


Resurgence is a much-needed source of hope,
inspiration and practical proposals an essential
survival guide in difficult times
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Resurgence is now available on your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch


Download the app now Free Access For Members (Print Only)
Go to the app store or scan the code below If youre an existing member, receiving the printed
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free access see www.resurgence.org/app

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76 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


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78 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


The shifT from economic growTh To growTh in wellbeing

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enquiries to Peter lang: 020 8809 2391 | peterlang@resurgence.org


This event will raise money for The resurgence Trust, an educational charity (no.1120414)

Issue 279 Resurgence & Ecologist 79


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80 Resurgence & Ecologist July/August 2013


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Contact: Sue Routner 0238 0620486 Contact: Annemarie Borg 1637 Stelton Road B4 Piscataway NJ 08854.
sroutner@yahoo.co.uk amb@annemarieborg.com Periodical Postage Paid at NEW BRUNSWICK,
Bi-monthly at The Swan Centre in Eastleigh Antara Project Group focused on role of artists NJ 08901 POSTMASTER: Send address changes
to Resurgence, The Resurgence Trust C/O 1637
Stelton Road Ste B4, Piscataway NJ 08854
Youre tucked at the top
On a smoothed outcrop
Above the bubble-toothed maw
And its watery roar:
A ten tonne thunder
Down a twenty foot drop
Pummelling twenty thousand years
of solid rock.
But when youre tucked at the top
All this is swapped
For rainbowed spray
And wet kisses on your face.
This is Good Energy.

Switch to us and you could be making


the most of this natural power too.
We source all our electricity from certified
renewables like the running water here at
Aberdulais Falls. And we cost about the
same as the Big Sixs standard tariffs. Aberdulais Falls, 248kW hydro
With thanks to National Trust
Switch quoting Resurgence and Aberdulais Falls, Neath, Wales
well give you a bottle of biodynamic
champagne to celebrate

GEY1.130_ResurgenceAd_05.indd 1 03/05/2013 09:17

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