Tag Archive for: nature

South Downs

The Big Picture

South Downs

South Downs painting by local artist John Thompson

Scotland seems to be ahead of the game in looking at the big picture, using the joined-up thinking that needs to happen now to address the current crises in resources, economy, nature and climate.

Last month’s Film at the Horsham Green Film Festival was made in Scotland: ‘Riverwoods’. This wonderful film opened with shots of Alaska’s bountiful nature, then moved across the same latitude to Scotland with its acres of treeless uplands, a legacy of the clearances of the traditional small mixed farms to make way for large scale sheep grazing.

But why are there no sheep at Knepp’s rewilding project? Read more

Is the climate broken? Opinions from the people of Horsham

Is the climate broken? Should the Government be doing more about it? Can ordinary citizens do anything? How will things look for our children and grandchildren?

To find out what the people of Horsham think, we spent a recent lunchtime patrolling the busy streets around the Swan Walk Shopping Centre.

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Bee

The Humble Bumble (first published in West Sussex County Times)

BeeWhen I was invited to write an article on my experience with bumble bees, this title came to mind.  I like to think it’s part of Christopher Bollas’s  ‘unthought known’ territory – something you’ve carried around in your mind without ever really realising it.  And as it turns out, the phrase is rather apt:  Darwin referred to them as the ‘hum bee’ – because they ‘hummed’.

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Smal tortoiseshell butterflies on Echinachea flower

Sustainable Flowers & Floristry (first published in West Sussex County Times)

Smal tortoiseshell butterflies on Echinachea flower

Flowers are a precious part of our life-events, but are we aware of the significant environmental and human costs of the demand for cheap flowers at all times of the year?

Until the 1970s, bought flowers came from British farms, while today, most are grown commercially in Holland, Columbia, Ecuador and Kenya, routed through Dutch auctions. The flower industry has a massive carbon footprint, from heating greenhouses to refrigerated transport, a vast chemical footprint from pesticides, herbicides and preservatives, some banned in the UK, polluting soil and water, poisoning pollinators, impacting flower workers and their communities, many producers are not Fairtrade.

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