Photo: Gwen Jones

Green Scene 98

Newsletter of the Ecology & Conservation Special Interest Group of British Mensa
SIG Sec: Gwen Jones, 324 Rundells, Harlow CM18 7HN

gwendolyn.jones54@btinternet.com
Disclaimer:
This is the newsletter of the Ecology& Conservation Special Interest Group (SIG) of British
Mensa, for controlled circulation within this SIG. Additional circulation is not authorised
unless sanctioned by the SigSec.
Copyright of each contribution to this newsletter remains with the acknowledged owner.
Permission to reproduce content in part or as a whole must be obtained from the acknowledged
owner. Contact the SigSec in the first instance.

Published, printed and distributed by British Mensa Ltd, St John's House, St John's Square,
Wolverhampton WV2 4AH. Mensa as a whole has no opinions. Views expressed in this
newsletter are not necessarily those of the editor, SigSec, the officers or the directors of Mensa.

  
The next issue of Green Scene will appear in February.
Deadline: end of December

  
Forum topics which might be of interest to E&C SIG members:
energy costs!
population
sharing our planet
veganism
Why is my flat so hot?
 December 2018
Kate Eldridge has been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Board of British Mensa.
Many thanks for your support for Green Scene, Kate.

Without the efforts of the SIG's members, there would be no Green Scene. In this issue we have
contributions from

Jack Christian, Kate Eldridge, Jim Emerton, Bob Thurman and Terry Wall.

Enjoy!

Gwen

  
CALLING WILD BIRDS AND ANIMALS IN FROM THE WILDERNESS

Jim Emerton

In the 60s I spent wonderful times in the company of Kenzie The Wild Goose Man . We spent
happy hours in The Wash Wilderness amongst seals, ducks, geese waders and as part of the vast
ecosystem. The old rogue was a gifted individual and we would call in the cow seals, the eerie and
haunting curlew, shrill golden plover, hysterical redshank and a host of musical notes in the
orchestra of nature. It was bliss, intoxicating and made the wilderness boy lofty and transcendent. I
had escaped the academic cloisters and found a profound sense of freedom. Later I would call
crows as they roosted in the bewitching twilight of the evening sky, listen to bats as they plucked
out moths, and close in on hares and rabbits in the Lincolnshire fields. I had the fortune of mixing
with one of the most iconic poacher/wildfowlers of all time. Images flood my mind in sweet
nostalgia, for those naive and formative years of a lonely little country boy.


page 1
 REFLECTING ON MY FIRST SEASON ON MY
ALLOTMENT

Jack Christian

This week I planted a crop of onions for next year. This made me think it was a good time to reflect
on my experiences as an allotment holder.

It has certainly been uplifting. To see things you have planted grow, particularly in the face of
difficulties and setbacks, is reward in itself. To then be able to harvest these things and take
nourishment from them is to come to a closer understanding of Nature and our relationship with
her. This is truly life enhancing. I have never felt closer to the “circle of life” and, for want of a
better expression, Gaia.

I applied for an allotment last January fully expecting to have to wait for a year or more. I was
offered one within a month and told I could take ownership within two months. You see it was
brand new. There was space for two new allotments alongside those already in existence, the only
problem was that they were currently just a field. A real field with grass nearly three feet high!
I was eager to try this new venture though and I took one on. On the 1st of April I set to to cut the
grass. My allotment was approximately 350 square yards so there was a lot of grass! I cut half of it
to a few inches high and my neighbour then kindly set about mowing this to ground level with his
petrol mower.

I figured this half would be enough ground to work with in my first year – I would still be in
employment through the summer - and made a little plan of what to grow where. Then the ‘Beast
from the East” arrived! The cold winds brought incessant rain which left most of my land under 4
inches of water. This lasted two weeks but I was determined to do something so in pouring rain I
dug out two plots fifteen feet by four feet in the driest part of the allotment. I also invested in some
raised beds thinking I could plant something clear of the water. Unfortunately I was off on holiday
for three weeks just as the Beast departed - these had been booked months earlier - and I was unable
to plant anything before I left for distant lands (well Majorca anyway).

During my holiday the weather changed and the longest dry spell for at least half a century had
started. It was hot too and the plots I had turned over had solidified into breeze blocks. My
neighbour, who had kindly kept my grass short, offered the use of his rotavator but the ground
proved too hard. The only answer was hard labour. I bought a mattock and broke the ground by
hand. I then raked and tilled it by hand to a point where I could plant some cabbages and parsnips.
I also put together the raised beds and filled them with manure, compost and soil from various
heaps around the allotments. In these I planted sprouts, beetroot and beans. I had a surfeit of seeds
so I also planted some in pots and grew these in my conservatory ‘just in case’.

 page 2
The sprouts and cabbages failed; this was obvious fairly quickly so I was able to find another
cabbage that I could sow in July and harvest in autumn to replace those that had failed. I was away
for a week in late July and whilst I was away the seeds in my conservatory ‘bolted’ and I lost them
too!

By now I was beginning to realise that growing food was not easy and Nature had a lot to say in the
process. My respect for subsistence farmers and Nature herself grew and grew. And the dry spell
went on and on! I was having to fill water bottles at home on a daily basis and take these to the
allotment. The realization and respect continued to grow.

The third of September was a special day for me. I harvested, boiled and ate two beetroots. These
were the first items of food I had ever eaten that I had grown myself. I was floating on air. The
hard work and the discipline I had had to apply was all worthwhile. That crop of beetroots has
provided and still is providing nourishment two months later. I have eaten them boiled, fried and
pickled and the next lot are going into a soup. None will be wasted. When you have taken so much
time and care growing something, I have found, you cannot conceive of wasting it.

A dozen or so of my cabbages have also done well. So far I have eaten four as leaf cabbage and one
as a heart cabbage. I have high hopes for the remaining plants. They are looking good. My beans
have also provided regular nourishment over the last few weeks. Unfortunately I was on holiday
again when they offered their best showing but I still gathered them in. One thing I have found is
that looks have nothing to do with flavour or nourishment. Straight as a die or bent and twisted by
the wind the beans are still as good. Well nearly; today I ate my last lot, they were a bit stringy so I
had to separate the beans from the pod and throw away some of the latter. I then finely diced the
pods I retained and added these and the beans to some mushroom soup. It all went together very
nicely.

I plan to try my first parsnip in November. They certainly look healthy enough from above the
ground so I am hopeful.

As the plants have yielded their gifts I have also been expanding my growing zone. Nearly all the
grass is cut now and I have dug out three more plots. (I bought a hand mower in the summer which
has served me well but broke last week. Hopefully given its simple design I might be able to fix
it). I have bought all my seeds for next year and planned where and when I will plant them.
And so we return to my onions. Well almost. I actually planted some onion seeds in pots in a
plastic greenhouse in September. I was still working then and I was away from home when Storm
Ali arrived. It blew my greenhouse and pots almost into next door's garden. My partner bravely
ventured forth to save what she could bless her. Nature showing who’s in charge again, I
thought. Anyway I planted those onions before taking another fortnight's holiday in Majorca (I
have come to love Alcudia almost as much as Scotland) and they have survived thus far. The seeds
were given to me by a gardening friend who says they are the best onions he has ever grown and I
look forward to tasting them.

This last lot of onions were planted as bulbs. If they all come through the winter I will have enough
onions for the whole of next year. However I have learned to plan for the future but not for it to be
necessarily as I expect. Gaia will have her say.

 page 3
 
Another view of climate change
Terry Wall

I am going to make a rather contentious statement: It really doesn't matter whether human
activity is causing damaging changes to the world's climate; in fact, it would probably be
better if we assumed that it is not.

On the face of it that is a statement that will have most readers of the newsletter, and most
concerned citizens across the world, outraged. It seems to go against almost all of the
received wisdom that is using the apparent and forecast effects of industrialisation,
consumerism, and massive population growth to try to justify a substantial range of
preventative measures.

The problems with that approach are broadly twofold. First, people enjoying the benefits of
living in developed nations are very reluctant to support any changes that might impact that
enjoyment, and so are motivated to dismiss those changes, particularly when such actions
are unlikely to show major improvements in their lifetimes. Second, when the emphasis is
almost exclusively on that link between human's polluting activities and some future
predicted deterioration in the planet's habitability then it is only necessary to cast doubt on
that link to justify taking no action at all.

If the focus on that link is removed what are we left with? Two separate considerations.

It is clear that many of humanity's activities damage and pollute the Earth: rivers, seas, land
and atmosphere (and now, even space). The individual circumstances creating that pollution
can be shown to have severe negative impacts in the short term, not just in decades to
come. It is far easier to motivate people to take actions that will have a beneficial effect in
months or a few years than in a future generation. Many of those actions can be taken at the
requisite "local" level rather than needing governmental acceptance around the world.

page 4
What it does need is a commitment to pay the full and genuine cost of production of goods
or delivery of services. This has to include all actions necessary to return the environment
as close as possible to the state it was in prior to the production. So, run-off from factories
and farms must all be captured or treated (much could be re-used), emissions from power
stations trapped and de-contaminated before disposal, even the programmed re-entry of all
new satellites to ensure they are burnt up. All this, of course, has to be built into the price
paid for the goods and, if the cost is incurred years later at the product's end-of-life, that
capital has to be ring-fenced to pay for it.

The other consideration is climate change. The Earth's temperature is the principal factor
driving this and it is a obvious that it has been changing significantly over millennia. Only
10,000 years ago the last Ice Age (of many) was coming to an end. A few centuries ago an
era of increasing warmth was interrupted by a period of more intense cold - lengthy by
human lifetime standards. Now we appear to be in a time of gradually increasing
temperatures and it is assumed to be our activities that have caused it. Lifetimes are being
spent trying to prove or disprove this connection - lifetimes that would be better spent
developing measures that would reduce or eliminate the impact of major climate events and
long-term changes regardless of the causes.

Imagine what could be achieved if all that intelligence, currently applied to largely
academic studies of the causes of observed changes in climate, was instead applied to
finding solutions whether temperatures increase, are stable, or even decrease as was the
fashionable "scientific" forecast just thirty years ago. It would only take a moderate
increase in volcanic activity, for example, for us to return to years of colder temperatures
and poor crops. With a population accelerating towards ten billion we can predict what that
could do to humankind and the planet.

Of course, limiting populations is critical. Birth control and the motivation for all societies
to practise it is vital. I remember commenting decades ago that, with automated production
methods, a population in the U.K. around 30 million could generate a G.D.P. close to that
achieved by twice that number, with a commensurate benefit to those people. Where is the
strategic plan for this, and to reduce the world population by a similar factor? Once again,
those people arguing about the reasons for climate change should surely be re-directed to
studies such as this.

So, two separate channels of activity:

dealing with all pollution at the point of production;

designing a climate-proof planet!

page 5

A recycling rant
Bob Thurman

It's a jungle. I mean it is, isn't it, all this recycling stuff. First of all you have to work out what can
be re-cycled and what can't and then you have to know what your local authority is willing or able
to accept. And then, if that wasn't enough, off you go on holiday to another part of the country and
there you find an entirely different set of rules on recycling with different coloured bins. Well, it
makes you spit, dunnit. I mean, you might as well heave it all in the landfill bin, the colour of
which will vary according to area so watch out, and get rid of it that way. If you believe the press,
which hardly anyone does these days, most things end up in landfill anyway. Recycling can be hard
and complicated.

I grew up in the Suffolk countryside. In the 1950s we had a bucket toilet. It was painted cream and
red and kept, inconveniently, in a small shed in the garden along with sheets of newspaper instead
of a toilet roll, and, when sufficiently filled, the bucket was emptied into a hole dug in the veggie
patch by my Dad. That was real recycling; nothing wasted there! Most of the people we knew had
similar sanitary arrangements and no-one thought it strange. It is true that a torch was necessary if
nature called after dark and sometimes other creatures were resting for the night in the small
building and were disturbed by your presence, but people were used to that sort of thing.


My Grandfather carried on the prudent country custom of keeping a family pig. This animal would
recycle various waste items and would provide valuable fertiliser for the garden. In the fullness of
time, the pig provided valuable nutrition for a large and hungry family. My Grandfather's lavatory
was housed in a corrugated iron shed into which the pig, a gregarious animal that sought out
company, sometimes made an entrance to the dismay of the occupant and general hilarity of others.
There were chickens, of course, and bees.

Most drinks bottles had a deposit paid when you returned them but others were collected by pubs
and off-licences for the value of the scrap glass known as cullet. Way into the seventies, when I
worked in an off-licence just outside London, this was still the case.

page 6
We were not middle-class intelligentsia so many of my childhood clothes were second-hand – there
are still excellent jumble sales and some charity shops are quite good – and much furniture and

other household goods came 'previously used' often from an auction. Things were repaired if
necessary. Today, we have repair cafés which can be excellent if you want help with the necessary
repair skills.

Repairs are, however, often unnecessary. Twice a year I help at a large and famous (locally) jumble
sale. It is interesting but sad to see how much new stuff, often in the original packaging, comes

through the door. I am a bric-a-brac person meaning that our stall has whatever doesn't fit in
elsewhere or cannot be readily identified. Opportunities for recycling are legion.

There are still auctions offering real bargains, my top tip is that Georgian furniture is generally
under-priced, and whole homes can be thus furnished. At auctions specialising in house clearance,
pots and pans and crockery are often sold very cheaply although, sometimes, they do not sell at all.
If members of your family are going off to university, this will be cheaper than buying at John
Lewis (I was in there today and saw the prices of their 'off to university' stuff - scary) and a lot
more fun. This is real re-cycling.

I'm a great fan of auctions. When we needed something to stand our TV on, we bought an
Edwardian commode, complete with fittings and in an unused state, for £2 plus buyer's premium. A
bit of polish and we had a useful piece of furniture with, and this is a real bonus, a porcelain
container in which all those awkward electrical cables can be stored. Most things bought at auction,
when they need to be disposed of, can be sent back to be resold. There may even be a small profit
in it.

Recycling has been around since Methuselah was a lad (about 980 years, I think) and so we should
have been able to get it right by now. It's a pity that so few people really care, although demand
would push up secondhand prices if they did, and are willing to make the effort. Easier to potter
down to the bottle bank in the 4x4 and feel virtuous about it I suppose.


&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

page 7
From Kate:

Did anyone watch the documentary, Drowning in Plastic? It was about the impacts of the
huge amount of plastic we use on marine life, and some potential solutions to the crisis. For
example, there's actually an area of 'plastic soup' called the Great Pacific garbage patch and it's
bigger than France!

Find out more

If you missed it you can catch up on iPlayer:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bmbn47

Take action individually

Of course, one solution is for each of us to use less plastic, particularly single-use plastic, and you
can pledge to cut down here:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180914-what-are-you-doing-to-cut-plastics-from-your-life

Take action collectively

While it is a step forward, our individual actions to give up plastic straws will not solve the
systemic problem; even our clothes are a source of plastic pollution.
Every time we wash our clothes, tiny bits of plastic – called microfibres – escape into our
waterways, and eventually our oceans. These microfibres are so tiny that they can be mistaken for
food by ocean wildlife and end up in our food chain.
You can sign a petition calling on clothing retailers to take urgent action to tackle the problem at:
http://foe.uk/micro-fibres-petition
Thanks
Kate

page 8
 And something to do when you've got your feet up this month -

How many words can you make from the

letters of any one [or more, if you get hooked
:-) ] of this issue's article titles?
And a happy Christmas
to you all!