Must read of Cal Flynn’s Islands of Abandonment, thanks for that tip.
Remember the seas
I've been reading David Attenborough's A Life on this Planet - a memoir on his life, the nature he's seen and what he thinks could be done next. Really great read. One of the many extremely interesting things is protected marine zones.
So at present big trawlers go out into international waters and scoop up fish, and the catch is getting smaller both in terms of fish size and total number of fish caught.
Some species of fish take years to grow to full size, and the bigger the fish, the more eggs she can lay.
There are a few places where large marine protection areas are in place, no fishing at all, and you have to wait, five to ten years (and support the fisherman in the mean time) but then in the seas outside the marine protection zones, you start getting more and bigger fish. One of his suggestions is that doing that in a lot of places, and catching the increased fish outside the zone, is both more sustainable for the seas, and more sustainable as a food supply for us humans.
Optimism
I'm rather more optimistic than the article, but less about governments and more about all the grass roots movements and campaigning that are possible thanks to the internet, and are gradually knocking governments and corporates into shape. Long way to go, but there is more hope than if you look at just governments. For example Avaaz, which is entirely funded on small donations form ordinary citizens is funding things like sorting out the legal documentation of indigenous people to prove they own the land - in the Amazon rainforest and other like places - to stop it being developed. Or they are providing top up funding to the Narashulai Maasai Conservancy who are mostly living traditional lives and don't receive money from the National Parks funds because they are outside the area despite being a major tourist safari area. Traditional cattle herding lives work a lot better alongside wildlife than fenced off farms and with a top up every few years of donation cash, they keep their medical centres and schools going. Entirely Maasai founded and run.
Small groups
Various thoughts
1. Interesting - the EO Wilson foundation and the Half Earth project is looking at the opposite - all the areas of the world like rural Eastern Europe where people have left the rural life and gone for city jobs - and all the abandoned farmland is seeing a big nature comeback. The theory goes that would be a great way for restoration of nature - people continuing to move out.
1a I would add to that I like Campaign to Protect Rural England's latest suggestions - country parks and enhanced green belts near major cities for recreation for the city dwellers. One thing that will do is give people somewhere nice without having to travel long distances and use lots of fuel
2. My existing rural living - people know people in the countryside and there is a degree of community expectation so that is in favour of small groups, but against that is how a group can be dominated by one individual or interest group. I've seen that a parish council meetings.
3. I hope any future continues to have an internet - yes it is costly in terms of energy (though reducing picture size might help a bit with that
) but it brings individuals together to find friends that don't exist in their local community. I had almost no-one to discuss sf with before the internet.
Finally - many people do eventually change behaviour - Drink Drive campaign in the UK has mostly worked. The concept of the designated driver is now firmly embedded in society and thirty years ago it didn't exist.
nautil.us
